large, mostly herbivorous, semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa
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ICYMI: Hour Two of ‘Later, with Mo'Kelly' Presents – Wellness Wednesday with wife, mother, fitness expert, masterful storyteller & regular guest contributor Claudine Cooper AKA ‘The Nice Exercise Lady' delving into the concept of wellness-centric travel and the benefits of spending more time in nature…PLUS – Its ‘Dying Time/When Animals Attack' with the death of a man, killed by his pet Hippo - on KFI AM 640…Live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app & YouTube @MrMoKelly
Today it was Maddie Vs Jade in Radio 1's Big Weekend The Showdown. BBC Radio Merseyside's Kevin Duala dropped by with his shiny gold award! Louise gave us the latest Animal News! And of course we had to ThursWHEEEEEEEEEEEEY!
Welcome back Pauper fam! After an off-the-cuff opinion piece about Universes Beyond and the state of MtG, the bois discuss the 5 colors in Pauper and how they stack up against each other now that we've settled into this new version of the format. Thought to be fair, new decks are popping up almost every day! Cameron, Thomas, and Hippo also dive into the results of the latest MTGO Pauper Qualifier featuring an undefeated victor! Thank you as always for listening!Pauper To The People - Lega Pauper Lipsia - Top 8 Coverage from Leipzig, Germany (Germany's largest Pauper event ever!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Z8FLiis0oJoin our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGUpcoming Pauper Events:6/14 Pauper-oncini Tournament, Clinton, WI: https://spicerack.gg/events/18791006/21 Paup-ing off for Charity w/ Upstate NY Pauper: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/19811856/29 Commons at the Capitol @ NRG Indianapolis! Up to $2k in prizes! https://spicerack.gg/events/19736458/2 The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) @ Game Knight, Columbia TN! Signup link coming soon!8/9 Upstate NY Pauper Open II in Rochester, NY: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/1947943Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
5/19/25 - Turning Points examines how thirteen extraordinary men and women from apostolic times to the present—most of them canonized saints—came to see how God wanted them to organize their lives and, seeing that, set out to shape their lives accordingly. The book probes the stories of highly motivated individuals who in a variety of ways committed their lives to wholeheartedly following Christ, and it discusses a number of issues as timely for the Church now as they were then. It is engagingly written for all who are interested in serious religious ideas, as well as in the inspiring stories of thirteen outstanding people whose lives shed fresh light on living the faith in their times—and our own. Among those whose stories are told are Saint Paul the Apostle, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Ignatius Loyola, Saint Thomas More, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint John Henry Newman, Saint Josemaría Escrivá, Caryll Houselander, and Dorothy Day. Get the book at https://ignatius.com/turning-points-tpsp/?searchid=1998543
176 Happy Hippo Podcast - De Comité by Happy Hippo
Welcome back Pauper fam! After a quick Game Cave monthly recap from Cameron and Hippo, we sit down with our local combo expert Hunter Bisch to chat about the Spy Combo decks, their history, play patterns, and how to beat them. With the emergence of the new 5 and 6 land versions of the deck, it felt like a great time to learn what these crazy lists are all about. This was a great chat and we hope y'all enjoy the episode!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGUpcoming Pauper Events:6/14 Pauper-oncini Tournament, Clinton, WI: https://spicerack.gg/events/18791006/21 Paup-ing off for Charity w/ Upstate NY Pauper: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/19811856/29 Commons at the Capitol @ NRG Indianapolis! Up to $2k in prizes! https://spicerack.gg/events/19736458/2 The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) @ Game Knight, Columbia TN! Signup link coming soon!8/9 Upstate NY Pauper Open II in Rochester, NY: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/1947943Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
In deze afleveringen lezen we u voor uit de encycliek ‘Ad Salutem Humani’ die door paus Pius XI werd geschreven op 20 april 1930 en dit ter gelegenheid van de 1500e verjaardag van het overlijden van de heilige Augustinus van Hippo, de stichter van de orde waar onze nieuwe paus Leo XIV toe behoort.
Headlines & The Shot of the Day
Onlookers at a zoo were stunned when a hippo let loose a monster blast!
pWotD Episode 2929: Pope Leo XIII Welcome to Popular Wiki of the Day, spotlighting Wikipedia's most visited pages, giving you a peek into what the world is curious about today.With 363,646 views on Friday, 9 May 2025 our article of the day is Pope Leo XIII.Pope Leo XIII (Italian: Leone XIII; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Apostle, Pius IX (his immediate predecessor), and John Paul II.He is well known for his intellectualism and his attempts to define the position of the Catholic Church with regard to modern thinking. In his 1891 encyclical Rerum novarum, Pope Leo outlined the rights of workers to a fair wage, safe working conditions, and the formation of trade unions, while affirming the rights to property and free enterprise, opposing both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. With that encyclical, he became popularly called the "Social Pope" and the "Pope of the Workers", also having created the foundations for modern thinking in the social doctrines of the Catholic Church, influencing his successors. He influenced the Mariology of the Catholic Church and promoted both the rosary and the scapular. Upon his election, he immediately sought to revive Thomism, the theological system of Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, wishing to make it the official political, theological, and philosophical foundation of the Catholic Church. As a result, he sponsored the Editio Leonina in 1879.Leo XIII is remembered for his belief that pastoral activity in political sociology is also a vital mission of the church as a vehicle of social justice and maintaining the rights and dignities of the human person. He issued a record eleven papal encyclicals on the rosary, earning him the title "Rosary Pope". He also approved two new Marian scapulars. He was the first pope to have never held any control over the Papal States, which had been dissolved by 1870, since Stephen II in the 8th century. Similarly, many of his policies were oriented toward mitigating the loss of the Papal States in an attempt to overcome the loss of temporal power, but nonetheless continuing the Roman Question. After his death in 1903, he was buried in the Vatican Grottoes. In 1924, his remains were transferred to the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 09:06 UTC on Sunday, 11 May 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Pope Leo XIII on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm neural Kendra.
Title: Chains and Afflictions Text: Acts 21:27-36 FCF: We often struggle responding well to slander and persecution for Christ's sake. Prop: Because of the offense of the gospel we will be slandered and reviled, so we must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Acts chapter 21. In a moment we will read beginning in verse 27 from the Legacy Standard Bible. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. Last week we saw the powder keg situation that Paul and his 8 gentile companions walked into as they brought a gift for the Jerusalem church from several churches in gentile lands. Tension between Jews and the Romans continues to mount and along with that the pernicious rumor that Paul is anti-Mosaic law and advising new Jewish believers to forsake circumcising their children and the laws and customs of Moses. The Elders wisely advised Paul to demonstrate that he is not against the law of Moses by submitting to purity rituals with 4 other men who are doing so. Paul humbly discarded any liberty he may have assumed and willingly submitted to help ease tensions between Jewish Christians and the non-believing Jews. But we know the future. It has been confirmed by many witnesses. Paul will suffer with chains and afflictions in Jerusalem. Although it was wise advice and although Paul humbly submitted, we know that things will implode quickly. But even in this difficult situation, we will find vital lessons for we who claim Christ and face uncertain days. Please stand with me to give honor to and to focus on the reading of the Word of God. Invocation: Mighty God and Lord of Hosts. You are holy, holy, holy. You have sent the Son to claim Your people for Your Kingdom and You have sent Your Spirit to dwell in us and seal us and preserve us until the Day of Judgment. As You are Alpha and Omega, You have written and decreed the end from the beginning. No one can tell You “no” and no one can slap away Your mighty hand from doing as You please. In these truths Lord, we must rest, especially when we are slandered, maligned, ridiculed, reviled, and persecuted for Your name. Without the truth that all this is according to Your Immutable Will, we would surely flounder and fall. Impress upon us, Your Children, the greater truth that when these days of trouble come upon us, we must rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for when we suffer for Your name, we have a great reward in the Kingdom which we will share with a great cloud of witnesses. Help us to see this and be encouraged in this text this morning. And use this encouragement to turn us away from despairing in trouble. Turn us instead to being ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. We pray this in Jesus' name… Amen. Transition: Let us once again dive right into the text this morning. I.) Because of the offense of the gospel, men will falsely accuse us of evil things, so we must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. (27-30) a. [Slide 2] 27 - Now when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon noticing him in the temple, began to throw all the crowd into confusion and laid hands on him, i. Ok, so right off the bat there are some contextual clues we need to unravel to understand what is happening here. ii. First, the seven days here is referring to the general process of purification that would need to be endured for these men and for Paul. 1. We aren't exactly sure why these men performing the Nazarite vow were going through purification, because that isn't normally part of it, but the process itself took a week. 2. In that week's time, any seeking purification would have to be ritually washed on the third and the seventh day. No doubt Paul is in the temple on the seventh and final day of his purification. 3. This means that generally speaking, people who had ill intentions toward Paul would know on which day he would be in the temple next. iii. Second, we see that there are Jews from Asia present here in Jerusalem. Well, who are these folks and what are they doing here? 1. We might be tempted to think that these Jews have followed Paul to Jerusalem to harm him. This is possible, but there is a far simpler explanation for why these folks are here. Do you remember? 2. Yep! It is Pentecost, the Jewish feast commemorating the harvest. Shavuot (Sha-voo-ot) is one of the three pilgrimage feasts that are required for Jewish males to attend. 3. Anyone who was a Jew that took seriously the law of Moses would have made every effort to be in Jerusalem for this festival. 4. So, it shouldn't be a big surprise for us to find Jews from Asia in Jerusalem at this time. iv. Third, how would they recognize Paul and what had Paul done that infuriated them so much? 1. Although Luke only mentions the province in which they are from, the capital city of the province of Asia was the great city of Ephesus. A city in which Paul spent three years ministering. 2. Later, we find out that these people recognized one of Paul's companions who was from the city of Ephesus. This almost certainly confirms that these Jews were from or at least very familiar with the city of Ephesus and Paul's 3 year ministry there. 3. So why are they so opposed to Paul? 4. Well Paul preached in Ephesus and many Jews became disciples of Christ. He actually lead them out of the synagogue and took them to the hall of Tyrannus where he continued to teach and preach the gospel. 5. Needless to say, the Jews from Asia were not big fans of Paul. v. In Ephesus and in other cities around the empire, it has been clear thus far that the Jews were not always trusted, liked, or respected by the gentile communities in which they lived. vi. Although their faith was granted a special status as being allowed to be practiced within the empire, it still did not mean that the pagans around them respected them. vii. But here, the non-believing Jews clearly had numerical and ideological superiority over the Jewish Christians. viii. If there was ever a chance to stamp out Paul and his teachings – this is it. ix. So, these Asian Jews take this chance, grab hold of Paul and stir up the crowd against him. x. How? b. [Slide 3] 28 - crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches to everyone everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides, he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 - For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. i. These Asian Jews bring two charges against Paul. ii. The second charge is far more inflammatory to the crowd than the first. iii. The first charge is the accusation that Paul teaches against the Jewish people, against the law of Moses and against the temple of Yahweh, and he does so throughout the Roman Empire. iv. Ironically, this was the same charge levied against Stephen which led to his execution by stoning. Paul once saw things the same way these folks did. But for the grace of God yes? v. Such an accusation could be easily explained away. In fact, Paul's very presence in the temple that day going about his sacrifices and the end of his purity rituals would actually serve to counter their claim. vi. But the second charge is what gets the crowd stirred. vii. They claim that Paul has brought Trophimus, a man they would know to be a gentile, into the temple with him. viii. [Slide 4] As we know the temple mount could be entered by Gentiles. They could actually get fairly close to the temple itself. But Gentiles could not pass into the court of women or the court of the Israelites. ix. [Slide 5] Many scholars make much of the archeological evidence, like the sign on the screen, that warned gentiles with death if they entered into the temple grounds. And we even have speeches from Roman officials which seem to have allowed for the Jews to execute people who did violate such laws. x. But as I studied this, my mind wondered what Old Testament teaching or law is in view with the prohibition of gentiles entering the temple grounds. xi. Especially since they are under the impression that doing so would defile it. xii. What Old Testament law do they base this on? 1. [Slide 6] The closest thing I could find is Ezekiel 44:6-9 a. In reading this text, we can see very clearly that God judges Israel for allowing worshippers to come into the temple and even serve as priests who were neither circumcised in heart nor circumcised in flesh. b. God issues a command that no one shall enter His temple who is uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. 2. [Slide 7] But what do we do with the 5th gospel of Isaiah, who says in Isaiah 56:6-8… a. Here we see… explicitly… that Gentiles should not be strictly forbidden to come into the temple to make sacrifices. b. Why? c. Because God will be the one bringing them to do that one day! 3. So how do we harmonize these two texts? a. How can God bring foreigners into the temple if those uncircumcised in heart and flesh cannot enter? b. How did the Jews of this time harmonize this? i. The Jews of this time, completely ignore the Isaiah passage. ii. Even if a Gentile converted and became a Jew, even becoming circumcised… they would still not be permitted, even into the court of women. c. So how do we harmonize it? i. While we could be accused of exploiting a loophole, the fact of the matter is that there are many prophetic riddles throughout the scriptures. God expects us to think as we read His Word. ii. [Slide 8] What two conditions must be met in order to reject a foreigner from the temple according to Ezekiel 44? They must be both uncircumcised in heart and in flesh. iii. Trophimus was a gentile, uncircumcised in flesh, but circumcised in his heart. Therefore, he does not meet the conditions of Ezekiel 44 but DOES meet the conditions of Isaiah 56. xiii. [Slide 9] Added to this – These Jews raise issue with Paul and grab hold of him and will drag him out and attempt to kill him even though… 1. He is a Jew 2. He is enduring purification rights under the Mosaic Law 3. Even if he brought a gentile into the temple… the Gentile is the one that should be killed according to their law, not him. He would certainly be punished perhaps even severely. 4. But Paul should not be killed for this infraction even if it were exactly as they said it was. xiv. The fact of the matter is, the Jews, because of their national pride and racial prejudice, have so perverted the Word of God that they have determined that the exact opposite of what He has revealed is true. xv. And now they are going to kill Paul, an apostle of their Messiah and Everlasting King, because of their rebellion and their racism. c. [Slide 10] 30 - Then all the city was stirred, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. i. As we pointed out last week, this time period was right in the middle of the escalation of hostility between Jews and the Roman Empire. ii. Although we are still 13 years away from the fall of Jerusalem, the conflict begins in AD 66 which is only 9 years away. iii. Not only that but Festus, a character we will meet in a few chapters, will actually spend two years making peace with the Jews and effectively kick the can of the revolt down the road… iv. Adding all this together we can see that even though the fall of Jerusalem is 13 years away, it is not a stretch for us to consider that at the moment Paul walks in the temple of Jerusalem, the divide between Jews and the Romans was nearing its peak. v. Knowing this, we can see quite easily why the crowd would respond to Paul the way they did. vi. Loyalty to the temple was closely tied to patriotism and Jewish Nationalism. An attack on the temple was an attack on Judaism. vii. And Paul is the lightening rod for all of this. viii. They took him out of the temple, because they could not commit violence and shed blood within the temple courts ix. To avoid this the guards close the doors. x. The temple guards could have stopped the violence. Instead, they closed the doors. d. [Slide 11] Summary of the Point: Throughout the book of Acts Luke has portrayed the Jesus movement as the next step in Judaism. To confess Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah of God and eternal heir to the throne of David is to take the next and final step in the redemptive history of Israel. In Acts we've seen many Jews embrace this New Covenant, which was ratified in the death and resurrection of Jesus proving Him to be the Messiah. He is the Son of Man prophesied in Daniel. He is the suffering Servant prophesied in Isaiah. And yet, as clear as this was to many, it remained repulsive and offensive to many more. The offense of the gospel drives natural man to terrible things. Jesus predicted that the disciple is no greater than the master. Meaning that what they did to Him, we can expect the same to be done to us. Paul is actually living out that experience in the pages of the passage we just saw. They accused Jesus of blaspheming the temple. And here Paul is accused of defiling it. We can expect the same to come to us. If we are to preach the gospel, we should both expect it to be offensive to the world and that we will be falsely accused of doing evil things because of it. So, what is our response? Our text this morning does not include Paul's response to all of this. Mainly because his response is quite lengthy. But generally speaking, we can see as Paul raises his defense of the gospel and his ministry, that we too must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. Transition: [Slide 12 (blank)] But surely someone in the crowd will have the sense to question Paul as to whether these things are true? Surely someone will have the courage to say – yes but Paul is still a Jew and can go into the temple himself. So surely he doesn't deserve to die? Let us see if anyone among them will do this. Perhaps the Romans will if the Jews won't? II.) Because of the offense of the gospel men will revile and persecute us, so we must be ready to give a defense for the hope we have in us. (31-36) a. [Slide 13] 31 - While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 - At once he took along soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. i. Luke doesn't tell us who took the report to the commander. Perhaps one of Paul's companions or the church reported this to the Roman officer? ii. A Roman cohort consists of 1000 men. It is roughly 1/6 of a Roman Legion. iii. Within each cohort there were there were Centuries which would be 100 men, and each of them would be lead by a Centurion. iv. As a Roman officer in Judea, your one job is to make sure that these generally rebellious Jews paid their taxes and didn't revolt. v. During festivals, when Jerusalem was full of Jews on pilgrimage, it would be all hands on deck. vi. We see that this commander wastes no time, at once taking soldiers and their centurions down to where the beating was happening. vii. The Anatolia fortress was located on the Western side of the northern wall of the temple mount. Two stair cases down led to the outer courts. viii. So they were probably there quickly. ix. It is hard to know how many men he took with him, but we can assume at least a couple hundred since he took centurions (plural) with him. x. Assuming that is the case, 200 fully armed Roman soldiers running down the steps to the temple would be quite an intimidating sight. xi. No wonder the Jews stopped beating Paul when they came marching down. xii. But if the relations of the Romans and the Jews are so strained, how would the Roman Commander make sure that this doesn't look like the Romans are once again coming in to tell them how they should practice their religion? b. [Slide 14] 33 - Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done. i. The Roman Commander has Paul bound in chains, probably to two separate guards. He then asks who the man was and what he has done. ii. The concept of innocent until proven guilty is not a universal ideal. iii. The Romans certainly did not consider prisoners innocent until proven guilty. iv. In fact, as we've seen in the study of the book ok Acts, their subjects especially those who were not Roman citizens, could be beaten and imprisoned, and in some cases even killed without charge. v. This Roman commander shrewdly assumes that the man being beaten is guilty and asks the crowd for the information regarding his guilt. vi. If the answer he got was that clear – that Paul had defiled the temple – the Roman officer probably would have let them kill Paul. c. [Slide 15] 34 - But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. i. This is the very definition of mob mentality. ii. Most of these people had no idea why they were hitting this man, they just knew that he had done something worth hitting him for. iii. When emotionalism and extreme rhetoric wins, the most natural thing we humans do, is follow the crowd of people who scream the loudest. iv. We'll always find something to be outraged about, and if it isn't what the crowd is outraged about – that's ok – we'll just vent our frustration in the convenient opportunity the mob has provided. v. Like when we burn a city when a football team wins… or also if they lose the big game???? vi. Such in the case here. vii. Seeing that the crowd has no idea who this person is or what he did, the commander chooses to escort the man to safety so that they could interrogate the prisoner himself. Which we will see him attempt to do in a few weeks. d. [Slide 16] 35 - And when he got to the stairs, he actually was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd; 36 - for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!” i. Even today, tactically speaking, stairs are what are called fatal funnels. ii. They are essentially hallways forcing you to change altitude and keeping you from flanking to safety. iii. These stairs are probably the first flight of stairs up to the Anatolian fortress. They would have been quite wide, but would have been difficult to navigate especially with a large crowd of people following them trying to get at their prisoner. iv. The Roman soldiers are forced to pick up and carry Paul up the stairs because the crowd continued to try to assault Paul on the way up. v. They call out “away with him” which is a great literal translation of the words, but idiomatically this certainly was their cry for Paul to be put to death. vi. We are reminded of the crowds call to “crucify” someone after He too entered the temple offering something that no one wanted. vii. Scholars sometimes press the similarities too far, but I think it is obvious that Luke sees the similarity of Christ's experience in Jerusalem during his passion week and Paul's experience here. Although they do not end the same of course. e. [Slide 17] Summary of the Point: Although Luke makes it clear in the book of Acts that the Romans saw no threat posed to the empire by the Christians, we should note that that doesn't mean that the Romans would always ride in and save Christians from persecution. In fact, this particular Roman commander not only arrested Paul without any idea what Paul did, he also, as we will see in the following weeks, intends to beat Paul some more in order to find out what happened in the temple. And these Jews, while not being in agreement as to why Paul was being beaten, all agreed on one thing… he needed to die. Again, we compare Paul's experience to our Lord Jesus'. He too was not rescued by the Romans. And the people cried out for Him to be killed too. Paul is suffering the same way Jesus suffered. If it can happen to Paul, and all the apostles, and countless others throughout the church's history, then it most certainly can… and will happen to us. If we faithfully preach the gospel men will revile us and persecute us. Why? Because the gospel is offensive. But again, what do we do when this happens? We must be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in us. Conclusion: So CBC, what have we learned today and how shall we live? Basic Concepts for Faith and Practice: [Slide 18] The gospel is by nature offensive to natural man. The religiously zealous Jews and the Roman pagans alike, both despise what Paul teaches and seek to silence it. And the world goes about silencing those who speak the gospel in two ways presented in this passage. They falsely accuse those who preach the gospel of evil things. They accused Paul of defiling the temple and teaching against the law of Moses. They will also revile and persecute those who preach the gospel. We see them beat, arrest, and call for the execution of Paul, to silence his teaching of the gospel. What does that mean for us? They will hate us too. Even if we are nice. Even if we are kind. Even if we are loving. They will still hate us. They will falsely accuse us of some of the most terrible things. And they will revile us and persecute us. What then should we do? We must be ready to give an answer for the hope we have in us. Even as they usher us through the door to that hope. These are the basic concepts of faith and practice in this text – but let's us dive a little deeper into them today. 1.) [Slide 19] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must affirm that the gospel is offensive to natural man. a. Why is it offensive? b. It teaches that every single person, whether they are moral, immoral, religious, irreligious, wealthy, poor, powerful, powerless, strong, weak, regardless of nationality, tribe, language, political party, every person is spiritually dead in their sin. c. They are… as the bible calls them… children of wrath. d. Slaves to sin. e. Every single person lacks all agency to do anything to save themselves or even to seek God to save them. f. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter 3 and this is what Augustine of Hippo defended in his treatise On Grace and Free Will against the Pelagian heresy. g. Mankind is not naturally equipped in their will to choose God or pursue Him in any way. They are given commands by God but are unable to accomplish them without God giving them grace to do so. h. There are two things I have found in my life that seem to be universally true of we humans. i. We hate being told we are wrong ii. And we hate being told we can't do anything about it. iii. Not only do we hate being told these things… we reject these things entirely. i. But the gospel tells us both and to the most extreme degree. i. It isn't just that we are wrong… we are dead wrong. So wrong that we have committed treason against the highest court of the highest kingdom on whose throne sits the highest God, Yahweh. ii. And we not only can't do anything about it… we don't even want to. Men love darkness and hate the light because their deeds are evil and they want to keep doing them. iii. There are none righteous and there are none who seek God. You are children of wrath of your father the devil and slaves to sin. iv. Just to quote a few j. All of this is the preamble of the gospel. k. It's funny – to the world that doesn't sound like good news at all. l. But to we who have been made alive in Christ… To know we are sinners and deserve nothing but judgment and wrath… That truly is good news. m. Why? n. Because Christ died for sinners! Just like you. Just like me. o. But until God gives a new heart and enables a person to see their own wickedness, they will continue to hate the gospel and fundamentally disagree with its accusations against them. p. As Matthew Henry once said, “Men hate Christ because they love their sin.” q. From our discussion last week – fear that the gospel may be right leads them to hate it. And what do we humans do with things we fear? We either flee them or we fight them. r. And that leads us to something we must deny. A lie we must dismiss especially now in the culture we are in… 2.) [Slide 20] Refutation: “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” We must deny that religious toleration for the true gospel is normative. a. Although it is a much easier sell today than it would have been a few decades ago, because we still have relative freedom to continue to worship God in the way that He has commanded us to, we tend to find it difficult to connect with warnings about coming persecution. b. One other general human trait that I have observed is that we as humans tend to believe that all of life will continue as it has. We assume that because we live in a country where we are free from constant persecution against our beliefs that this will always be true. c. However, we know from the words of Christ that if we are His disciple then we should not expect anything less than the same rejection He experienced. d. If Men hate Christ because they love their sin – it stands to reason that they will hate any who follow Christ and are calling them to repent of their sin. e. This is why the “God loves you and is just wanting you to love Him back” gospel message is so popular today. Because it doesn't actually call anyone to abandon their sin. Instead, the message conveys the idea that God would be really lucky to have you if you would just say yes. f. And because of this message being out there, the real gospel message of God calling all men to repent and believe on Christ as Savior and Lord – is reviled and despised. g. And just like Paul was accused of blasphemy against the temple and even betrayal toward his own kinsmen, we too will be slandered. i. We spoke last week how the church is seen as homophobic or transphobic because we agree with God about sexuality and gender. ii. We are accused of hating democracy and freedom because we advocate for our laws to be based on God's moral will. iii. We are accused of intolerance because we believe Jesus when He says He is the only way to the Father. iv. We are accused of hating women because we believe God's word when it tells us of gender roles and authority structures within the home. v. In short, the world will rebrand us as arch villains because we have the audacity to see, through the lens of ancient Scripture, that their cherished practices are sin. vi. And we may, in the most loving and compassionate way we can, call them to repent and trust on Christ for the forgiveness of sin and new life… vii. But remember men love darkness rather than light for their deeds are evil. viii. God must give them a new heart in order for them to receive the gifts of repentance and faith. h. And unfortunately, men's hatred of the gospel and those who preach it will not just stop at slander. As it did with Paul, slander was the vehicle used to harm, revile, and persecute Paul. We too should expect the same. i. It is only a small step from where we are to where many other countries are in relation to persecution. ii. We may be tempted to think that such things could never happen in our country or that if they do, we are decades away. iii. But my friends, it would not surprise me to wake up tomorrow and learn that it is no longer legal to preach certain scripture passages or certain interpretations of scriptures passages. iv. It seemed like overnight governors of states were commanding churches not to sing to God in their services. v. And there isn't a party that exists today that has a biblical worldview. So just like Paul could not look to the Romans to save him, so too we cannot look to the Republicans to save us. vi. We will be persecuted on all sides. Not just from liberals. We will be persecuted by people who call themselves Christians. Perhaps even some in this very room will be the ones turning us in to the authorities. i. I don't know when the hammer will fall. I don't know how long God will allow for us to worship Him in peace with the culture around us. But I do know that from where the country started to where we are – our trajectory is on a nose dive headed straight for persecution. j. It does us no good to put our heads in the sand and continue to deny that such things would or could happen. k. We must even now ready ourselves by counting the cost and whether we are willing to pay it. l. But what is our response to persecution? Should we resist? Should we fight back? 3.) [Slide 21] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must take every opportunity to give a defense of the hope that is in us. a. Interestingly, in this text, there is not a single example positively of what we are to do, nor is there a direct command in this passage associated to what is happening in the text. b. Before the end of this chapter Paul will respond. c. And originally in my sermon planning I did include verses 37-40. d. But in order to understand Paul's response we would need to look into what he says which would mean looking at MANY more verses. e. Paul actually begins his first of 6 defenses of his faith and ministry that are recorded in the last 7 chapters of the book of Acts starting in chapter 22. f. Now without looking at the first defense in its entirety let alone looking at all 6 defenses, we can still draw a very general application from what we know of the remainder of the book of Acts. g. And quite simply that is that we should take every opportunity we are given, in the midst of persecution, in the midst of slander, in the midst of opposition and hardship from all sides, we should take the opportunity we are given to give a defense for the hope that is in us. h. We cannot afford to fight back, resist, or get even when persecution comes. Why? Because we always have a responsibility to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. i. Paul was gravely assaulted by these people, but he will stand before them and 5 more hostile audiences in the next 7 chapters, and will boldly decare the gospel of Jesus Christ. j. We must do the same. k. And maybe you are thinking… wow. I don't think I can do that. l. That is just not my default setting. Someone takes a swipe at me, my natural impulse is going to be to swipe back. m. So, the real discussion is, how do you fight that natural impulse and do what Jesus commands you to do? n. I think it starts with what Jesus says should be our perspective on persecution in general. 4.) [Slide 22] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must rejoice and be exceedingly glad when we are persecuted for Christ's sake. a. Although you'll have to forgive me for going outside of our text this morning to snag this application, because the scriptures are one, I don't think I am doing any disservice to Luke's account by tossing this little aside in. b. [Slide 23] Matthew 5:11-12 c. After reading this text, tell me you don't see Paul's experience all over Christ's teaching here in the sermon on the mount! d. Paul was slandered. Paul was reviled. Paul was persecuted for Christ's sake. So, what should Paul's response be? What should our response be? e. We must rejoice and be exceedingly glad. f. What? Why? g. Because we are blessed. We are favored of God when this happens. h. How does that compute? How does this comfort us? 5.) [Slide 24] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” Our reward in heaven is great and we are in good company. a. God's kingdom and His righteousness is constantly opposed by a kingdom that is perishing. b. In the Old Testament, God's prophets were treated this way. And time proved that they were right. c. In the New Testament, His apostles were treated this way and time has proved out that they were right. d. My friends, if you are truly slandered, reviled, and abused for the sake of Christ and His gospel… You are blessed. e. You are blessed because your reward will be great in the Kingdom and in that kingdom there will be many, just like you, who were hated for the gospel. f. So, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. g. You are in good company. [Slide 25 (end)] Let me close with a word of prayer from the English Reformer Thomas Cranmer Merciful God, you grant all peace. You are the giver of all good gifts, the defender of all nations. And you desire us to count all people as neighbors, to love them as ourselves, and not to hate our enemies. Rather, you want us to wish them well, and also to do them good if we can. Look down upon us and see this small portion of earth where the name of Jesus Christ is proclaimed. Give to all of us the desire for peace, unity, and calm. Make us weary of all war and hostility, weary of bitterness toward those we call enemies. May we and they praise your holy name with one heart. May we all remake our lives according to your way. Grant, O Lord, that our children's children may know the benefit of your great gift of unity. May you discredit all those who work against it. Diminish their strength and punish those who interrupt godly peace-or rather, convert their hearts to the better way, and make them embrace unity and peace, which will be for your glory. Put away from us all war and hostility. But if we are driven to it, be our shield and protection as we seek peace. Do not look on our sins, Lord, or the sins of our enemies. Do not give us what we deserve, but remember your abundant, infinite mercy. Do this, O Lord, for your Son's sake, Jesus Christ. Amen. Benediction: May the God Who changes not, Who has no shadow of turning, And Whose compassions fail not, Preserve you by His loving kindness, So that you might know, Great are His faithful acts, they are new every morning. Until we meet again, go in peace.
This next guest is known for “National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), The Tasmanian Devil (2021) and Hippo (2023). She has also been doing many other things as well such as being a Casting Director, a manager of 1 & has learned many aspects of the entertainment biz. Let's welcome Eliza Roberts!Eliza RobertsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/momelizaroberts/Crazy Train RadioFacebook: facebook.com/realctradioInstagram: @crazytrainradioX/Twitter: @realctradioBlueSky: @crazytrainradio.bsky.socialWebsite: crazytrainradio.usYouTube: youtube.com/crazytrainradio
I've been in London this week talking to America watchers about the current situation in the United States. First up is Edmund Fawcett, the longtime Economist correspondent in DC and historian of both liberalism and conservatism. Fawcett argues that Trump's MAGA movement represents a kind of third way between liberalism and conservatism - a version of American populism resurrected for our anti-globalist early 21st century. He talks about how economic inequality fuels Trumpism, with middle-class income shares dropping while the wealthy prosper. He critiques both what he calls right-wing intellectual "kitsch" and the left's lack of strategic vision beyond its dogma of identity politics. Lacking an effective counter-narrative to combat Trumpism, Fawcett argues, liberals require not only sharper messaging but also a reinvention of what it means to be modern in our globalized age of resurrected nationalism. 5 Key Takeaways* European reactions to Trump mix shock with recognition that his politics have deep American roots.* Economic inequality (declining middle-class wealth) provides the foundation for Trump's political appeal.* The American left lacks an effective counter-narrative and strategic vision to combat Trumpism.* Both right-wing intellectualism and left-wing identity politics suffer from forms of "kitsch" and American neurosis.* The perception of America losing its position as the embodiment of modernity creates underlying anxiety. Full TranscriptAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, we are in London this week, looking westward, looking at the United States, spending some time with some distinguished Englishmen, or half-Englishmen, who have spent a lot of their lives in the United States, and Edmund Fawcett, former Economist correspondent in America, the author of a number of important books, particularly, Histories of Liberalism and Conservatism, is remembering America, Edmund. What's your first memory of America?Edmund Fawcett: My first memory of America is a traffic accident on Park Avenue, looking down as a four-year-old from our apartment. I was there from the age of two to four, then again as a school child in Washington for a few years when my father was working. He was an international lawyer. But then, after that, back in San Francisco, where I was a... I kind of hacked as an editor for Straight Arrow Press, which was the publishing arm of Rolling Stone. This was in the early 70s. These were the, it was the end of the glory days of Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco, the anti-war movement in Vietnam. It was exciting. A lot was going on, a lot was changing. And then not long after that, I came back to the U.S. for The Economist as their correspondent in Washington. That was in 1976, and I stayed there until 1983. We've always visited. Our son and grandson are American. My wife is or was American. She gave up her citizenship last year, chiefly for practical reasons. She said I would always feel American. But our regular visits have ended, of course. Being with my background, my mother was American, my grandfather was American. It is deeply part of my outlook, it's part of my world and so I am always very interested. I read quite a bit of the American press, not just the elite liberal press, every day. I keep an eye on through Real Clear Politics, which has got a very good sort of gazetteer. It's part of my weather.Andrew Keen: Edmund, I know you can't speak on behalf of Europe, but I'm going to ask a dumb question. Maybe you'll give me a smarter answer than the question. What's the European, the British take on what's happening in America? What's happened in this first quarter of 2025?Edmund Fawcett: I think a large degree of shock and horror, that's just the first reaction. If you'll allow me a little space, I think then there's a second reaction. The first reaction is shock and terror, with good reason, and nobody likes being talked to in the way that Vance talked to them, ignorantly and provocatively about free speech, which he feels he hasn't really thought hard enough about, and besides, it was I mean... Purely commercial, in largely commercial interest. The Europeans are shocked by the American slide from five, six, seven decades of internationalism. Okay, American-led, but still internationalist, cooperative, they're deeply shocked by that. And anybody who cares, as many Europeans do, about the texture, the caliber of American democracy and liberalism, are truly shocked by Trump's attacks on the courts, his attacks on the universities, his attack on the press.Andrew Keen: You remember, of course, Edmund, that famous moment in Casablanca where the policeman said he was shocked, truly shocked when of course he wasn't. Is your shock for real? Your... A good enough scholar of the United States to understand that a lot of the stuff that Trump is bringing to the table isn't new. We've had an ongoing debate in the show about how authentically American Trump is, whether he is the F word fascist or whether he represents some other indigenous strain in US political culture. What's your take?Edmund Fawcett: No, and that's the response to the shock. It's when you look back and see this Trump is actually deeply American. There's very little new here. There's one thing that is new, which I'll come to in a moment, and that returns the shock, but the shock is, is to some extent absorbed when Europeans who know about this do reflect that Trump is deeply American. I mean, there is a, he likes to cite McKinley, good, okay, the Republicans were the tariff party. He likes to say a lot of stuff that, for example, the populist Tom Watson from the South, deeply racist, but very much speaking for the working man, so long as he was a white working man. Trump goes back to that as well. He goes back in the presidential roster. Look at Robert Taft, competitor for the presidency against Eisenhower. He lost, but he was a very big voice in the Republican Party in the 1940s and 50s. Robert Taft, Jr. didn't want to join NATO. He pushed through over Truman's veto, the Taft-Hartley bill that as good as locked the unions out, the trade unions out of much of the part of America that became the burgeoning economic America, the South and the West. Trump is, sorry, forgive me, Taft, was in many ways as a hard-right Republican. Nixon told Kissinger, professors are the enemy. Reagan gave the what was it called? I forget the name of the speech that he gave in endorsing Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican Convention. This in a way launched the new Republican assault on liberal republicanism. Rockefeller was the loser. Reagan, as it were, handed the palm to Rocket Goldwater. He lost to Johnson, but the sermon they were using, the anti-liberal went into vernacular and Trump is merely in a way echoing that. If you were to do a movie called Trump, he would star, of course, but somebody who was Nixon and Reagan's scriptwright, forgive me, somebody who is Nixon and Reagan's Pressman, Pat Buchanan, he would write the script of the Trump movie. Go back and read, look at some of Pat Buchanan's books, some of his articles. He was... He said virtually everything that Trump says. America used to be great, it is no longer great. America has enemies outside that don't like it, that we have nothing to do with, we don't need allies, what we want is friends, and we have very few friends in the world. We're largely on our, by our own. We're basically a huge success, but we're being betrayed. We're being ignored by our allies, we're being betrayed by friends inside, and they are the liberal elite. It's all there in Pat Buchanan. So Trump in that way is indeed very American. He's very part of the history. Now, two things. One is... That Trump, like many people on the hard right in Europe, is to some extent, a neurotic response to very real complaints. If you would offer a one chart explanation of Trumpism, I don't know whether I can hold it up for the camera. It's here. It is actually two charts, but it is the one at the top where you see two lines cross over. You see at the bottom a more or less straight line. What this does is compare the share of income in 1970 with the share of the income more or less now. And what has happened, as we are not at all surprised to learn, is that the poor, who are not quite a majority but close to the actual people in the United States, things haven't changed for them much at all. Their life is static. However, what has changed is the life for what, at least in British terms, is called the middle classes, the middle group. Their share of income and wealth has dropped hugely, whereas the share of the income and wealth of the top has hugely risen. And in economic terms, that is what Trumpism is feeding off. He's feeding off a bewildered sense of rage, disappointment, possibly envy of people who looked forward, whose parents looked forward to a great better life, who they themselves got a better life. They were looking forward to one for their children and grandchildren. And now they're very worried that they're not those children and grandchildren aren't going to get it. So socially speaking, there is genuine concern, indeed anger that Trump is speaking to. Alas, Trump's answers are, I would say, and I think many Europeans would agree, fantasies.Andrew Keen: Your background is also on the left, your first job was at the New Left Reviews, you're all too familiar with Marxist language, Marxist literature, ways of thinking about what we used to call late-stage capitalism, maybe we should rename it post-late-stage-capitalism. Is it any surprise, given your presentation of the current situation in America, which is essentially class envy or class warfare, but the right. The Bannonites and many of the others on the right fringes of the MAGA movement have picked up on Lenin and Gramsci and the old icons of class warfare.Edmund Fawcett: No, I don't think it is. I think that they are these are I mean, we live in a world in which the people in politics and in the press in business, they've been to universities, they've read an awful lot of books, they spend an awful lot of time studying dusty old books like the ones you mentioned, Gramsci and so. So they're, to some extent, forgive me, they are, they're intellectuals or at least they become, they be intellectualized. Lenin called one of his books, What is to be Done. Patrick Deneen, a Catholic right-wing Catholic philosopher. He's one of the leading right-wing Catholic intellectuals of the day, hard right. He named it What is To Be Done. But this is almost kitsch, as it were, for a conservative Catholic intellectual to name a book after Vladimir Lenin, the first Bolshevik leader of the Russian Revolution. Forgive me, I lost the turn.Andrew Keen: You talk about kitsch, Edmund, is this kitsch leftism or is it real leftism? I mean if Trump was Bernie Sanders and a lot of what Trump says is not that different from Sanders with the intellectuals or the few intellectuals left in. New York and San Francisco and Los Angeles, would they be embracing what's happening? Thanks, I've got the third again.Edmund Fawcett: No, you said Kitsch. The publicists and intellectuals who support Trump, there is a Kitsch element to it. They use a lot of long words, they appeal to a lot of authorities. Augustine of Hippo comes into it. This is really kind of intellectual grandstanding. No, what matters? And this comes to the second thing about shock at Trump. The second thing is that there is real social and economic dysfunction here that the United States isn't really coping with. I don't think the Trumpites, I don't think the rather kitschy intellectuals who are his mature leaders. I don't think they so much matter. What I think matters here is, put it this way, is the silence of the left. And this is one of the deep problems. I mean, always with my friends, progressive friends, liberal friends, it's terribly easy to throw rocks at Trump and scorn his cheerleaders but we always have to ask ourselves why are they there and we're here and the left at the moment doesn't really have an answer to that. The Democrats in the United States they're strangely silent. And it's not just, as many people say, because they haven't dared to speak up. It's not that, it's a question of courage. It's an intellectual question of lacking some strategic sense of where the country is and what kinds of policy would help get it to a better place. This is very bleak, and that's part of, underlies the sense of shock, which we come back to with Trump after we tell ourselves, oh, well, it isn't new, and so on. The sense of shock is, well what is the practical available alternative for the moment? Electorally, Trump is quite weak, he wasn't a landslide, he got fewer percentage than Jimmy Carter did. The balance in the in the congress is quite is quite slight but again you could take false comfort there. The problem with liberals and progressives is they don't really have a counter narrative and one of the reasons they don't have a counter-narrative is I don't sense they have any longer a kind of vision of their own. This is a very bleak state of affairs.Andrew Keen: It's a bleak state of affairs in a very kind of surreal way. They're lacking the language. They don't have the words. Do they need to reread the old New Left classics?Edmund Fawcett: I think you've said a good thing. I mean, words matter tremendously. And this is one of Trump's gifts, is that he's able to spin old tropes of the right, the old theme music of the hard right that goes back to late 19th century America, late 19th century Europe. He's brilliant at it. It's often garbled. It's also incoherent. But the intellectuals, particularly liberals and progressives can mishear this. They can miss the point. They say, ah, it doesn't, it's not grammatical. It's incoherent. It is word salad. That's not the point. A paragraph of Trump doesn't make sense. If you were an editor, you'd want to rewrite it, but editors aren't listening. It's people in the crowd who get his main point, and his main point is always expressed verbally. It's very clever. It's hard to reproduce because he's actually a very good actor. However, the left at the moment has nothing. It has neither a vocabulary nor a set of speech makers. And the reason it doesn't have that, it doesn't have the vocabularies, because it doesn't have the strategic vision.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and coming back to the K-word you brought up, kitsch. If anything, the kitsch is on the left with Kamala Harris and her presentation of herself in this kitschification of American immigration. So the left in America, if that's the right word to describe them, are as vulnerable to kitsch as the right.Edmund Fawcett: Yes, and whether it's kitsch or not, I think this is very difficult to talk to on the progressive left. Identity politics does have a lot to answer for. Okay, I'll go for it. I mean, it's an old saying in politics that things begin as a movement, become a campaign, become a lobby, and then end up as a racket. That's putting it much too strongly, but there is an element in identity politics of which that is true. And I think identity politics is a deep problem for liberals, it's a deep problem for progressives because in the end, what identity politics offers is a fragmentation, which is indeed happened on the left, which then the right can just pick off as it chooses. This is, I think, to get back some kind of strategic vision, the left needs to come out of identity politics, it needs to go back to the vision of commonality, the vision of non-discrimination, the mission of true civic equality, which underlay civil rights, great movement, and try to avoid. The way that identity politics is encouraged, a kind of segmentation. There's an interesting parallel between identity politics and Trumpism. I'm thinking of the national element in Trumpism, Make America Great Again. It's rather a shock to see the Secretary of State sitting beside Trump in the room in the White House with a make America it's not a make America great cap but it says Gulf of America this kind of This nationalism is itself neurotic in a way that identity politics has become neurotic.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's a Linguistic.Edmund Fawcett: Neurosis. Both are neurotic responses to genuine problems.Andrew Keen: Edmund, long-time viewers and listeners to the show know that I often quote you in your wonderful two histories of conservatism and liberalism when you, I'm not sure which of the books, I think it may have been in conservatism. I can't remember myself. You noted that this struggle between the left and the right, between liberalism and conservatives have always be smarter they've always made the first move and it's always been up to the liberals and of course liberalism and the left aren't always the same thing but the left or progressives have always been catching up with conservatives so just to ask this question in terms of this metaphorical chess match has anything changed. It's always been the right that makes the first move, that sets the game up. It has recently.Edmund Fawcett: Let's not fuss too much with the metaphor. I think it was, as it were, the Liberals made the first move for decades, and then, more or less in our lifetimes, it has been the right that has made the weather, and the left has been catching up. Let's look at what happened in the 1970s. In effect. 30-40 years of welfare capitalism in which the state played ever more of a role in providing safety nets for people who were cut short by a capitalistic economy. Politics turned its didn't entirely reject that far from it but it is it was said enough already we've reached an end point we're now going to turn away from that and try to limit the welfare state and that has been happening since the 1970s and the left has never really come up with an alternative if you look at Mitterrand in France you look at Tony Blair new Labor in you look at Clinton in the United States, all of them in effect found an acceptably liberal progressive way of repackaging. What the right was doing and the left has got as yet no alternative. They can throw rocks at Trump, they can resist the hard right in Germany, they can go into coalition with the Christian Democrats in order to resist the hard right much as in France but they don't really have a governing strategy of their own. And until they do, it seems to me, and this is the bleak vision, the hard right will make the running. Either they will be in government as they are in the United States, or they'll be kept just out of government by unstable coalitions of liberal conservatives and the liberal left.Andrew Keen: So to quote Patrick Deneen, what is to be done is the alternative, a technocracy, the best-selling book now on the New York Times bestseller list is Ezra Klein, Derek Thompson's Abundance, which is a progressive. Technocratic manifesto for changing America. It's not very ideological. Is that really the only alternative for the left unless it falls into a Bernie Sanders-style anti-capitalism which often is rather vague and problematic?Edmund Fawcett: Well, technocracy is great, but technocrats never really get to do what they say ought to be done, particularly not in large, messy democracies like Europe and the United States. Look, it's a big question. If I had a Leninist answer to Patrick Deneen's question, what is to be done, I'd be very happy to give it. I feel as somebody on the liberal left that the first thing the liberal left needs to do is to is two things. One is to focus in exposing the intellectual kitschiness, the intellectual incoherence on the one hand of the hard right, and two, hitting back in a popular way, in a vulgar way, if you will, at the lies, misrepresentations, and false appeals that the hard-right coasts on. So that's really a kind of public relations. It's not deep strategy or technocracy. It is not a policy list. It's sharpening up the game. Of basically of democratic politics and they need to liberals on the left need to be much tougher much sharper much more vulgar much more ready to use the kinds of weapons the kinds of mockery and imaginative invention that the Trumpites use that's the first thing the second thing is to take a breath and go back and look at the great achievements of democratic liberalism of the 1950s, 60s, 70s if you will. I mean these were these produced in Europe and the United States societies that by any historical standard are not bad. They have terrible problems, terrible inequities, but by any historical standard and indeed by any comparative standard, they're not bad if you ask yourself why immigration has become such a problem in Western Europe and the United States, it's because these are hugely desirable places to live in, not just because they're rich and make a comfortable living, which is the sort of the rights attitude, because basically they're fairly safe places to live. They're fairly good places for your kids to grow up in. All of these are huge achievements, and it seems to me that the progressives, the liberals, should look back and see how much work was needed to create... The kinds of politics that underpinned that society, and see what was good, boast of what was and focus on how much work was needed.Andrew Keen: Maybe rather than talking about making America great again, it should be making America not bad. I think that's too English for the United States. I don't think that should be for a winner outside Massachusetts and Maine. That's back to front hypocritical Englishism. Let's end where we began on a personal note. Do you think one of the reasons why Trump makes so much news, there's so much bemusement about him around the world, is because most people associate America with modernity, they just take it for granted that America is the most advanced, the most modern, is the quintessential modern project. So when you have a character like Trump, who's anti-modernist, who is a reactionary, It's bewildering.Edmund Fawcett: I think it is bewildering, and I think there's a kind of bewilderment underneath, which we haven't really spoken to as it is an entirely other subject, but is lurking there. Yes, you put your absolutely right, you put your finger on it, a lot of us look to America as modernity, maybe not the society of the future, but certainly the the culture of the future, the innovations of the future. And I think one of the worrying things, which maybe feeds the neurosis of Make America Great Again, feeds the neurosis, of current American unilateralism, is a fear But modernity, talk like Hegel, has now shifted and is now to be seen in China, India and other countries of the world. And I think underlying everything, even below the stuff that we showed in the chart about changing shares of wealth. I think under that... That is much more worrisome in the United States than almost anything else. It's the sense that the United States isn't any longer the great modern world historical country. It's very troubling, but let's face it, you get have to get used to it.Andrew Keen: The other thing that's bewildering and chilling is this seeming coexistence of technological innovation, the Mark Andreessen's, the the Musk's, Elon Musk's of the world, the AI revolution, Silicon Valley, who seem mostly in alliance with Trump and Musk of course are headed out. The Doge campaign to destroy government or undermine government. Is it conceivable that modernity is by definition, you mentioned Hegel and of course lots of people imagine that history had ended in 1989 but the reverse was true. Is it possible that modernity is by-definition reactionary politically?Edmund Fawcett: A tough one. I mean on the technocracy, the technocrats of Silicon Valley, I think one of their problems is that they're brilliant, quite brilliant at making machines. I'm the machinery we're using right here. They're fantastic. They're not terribly good at. Messy human beings and messy politics. So I'm not terribly troubled by that, nor your other question about it is whether looming challenges of technology. I mean, maybe I could just end with the violinist, Fritz Kreisler, who said, I was against the telegraph, I was against the telephone, I was against television. I'm a progressive when it comes to technology. I'm always against the latest thing. I mean, I don't, there've always been new machines. I'm not terribly troubled by that. It seems to me, you know, I want you to worry about more immediate problems. If indeed AI is going to take over the world, my sense is, tell us when we get there.Andrew Keen: And finally, you were half-born in the United States or certainly from an American and British parent. You spent a lot of your life there and you still go, you follow it carefully. Is it like losing a lover or a loved one? Is it a kind of divorce in your mind with what's happening in America in terms of your own relations with America? You noted that your wife gave up her citizenship this year.Edmund Fawcett: Well, it is. And if I could talk about Natalia, my wife, she was much more American than me. Her mother was American from Philadelphia. She lived and worked in America more than I did. She did give up her American citizenship last year, partly for a feeling of, we use a long word, alienation, partly for practical reasons, not because we're anything like rich enough to pay American tax, but simply the business of keeping up with the changing tax code is very wary and troublesome. But she said, as she did it, she will always feel deeply American, and I think it's possible to say that. I mean, it's part of both of us, and I don't think...Andrew Keen: It's loseable. Well, I have to ask this question finally, finally. Maybe I always use that word and it's never final. What does it mean to feel American?Edmund Fawcett: Well, everybody's gonna have their own answer to that. I was just... What does it mean for you? I'm just reading. What it is to feel American. Can I dodge the question by saying, what is it to feel Californian? Or even what is to be Los Angelino? Where my sister-in-law and brother-in-law live. A great friend said, what it is feel Los Angeles you go over those mountains and you put down your rucksack. And I think what that means is for Europeans, America has always meant leaving the past behind.Edmund Fawcett was the Economist‘s Washington, Paris and Berlin correspondent and is a regular reviewer. His Liberalism: The Life of an Idea was published by Princeton in 2014. The second in his planned political trilogy – Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition – was published in 2020, also by Princeton University Press. The Economist called it ‘an epic history of conservatism and the Financial Times praised Fawcett for creating a ‘rich and wide-ranging account' that demonstrates how conservatism has repeated managed to renew itself.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week Cameron, Thomas, and Hippo share their picks for the top 3 decks in the current format, discussing which strategies are seeing success and what you need to be prepared for in your next Pauper tournament. As always, thank you so much for listening!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGUpcoming Pauper Events:6/14 Pauper-oncini Tournament, Clinton, WI: https://spicerack.gg/events/18791006/29 Pauper $1k+ at NRG Indianapolis! Signup link coming soon!8/2 The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) @ Game Knight, Columbia TN! Signup link coming soon!8/9 Upstate NY Pauper Open II in Rochester, NY: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/1947943Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
175 Happy Hippo Podcast - Samy ouni Benny by Happy Hippo
In a new episode of The Big Fib we find out if our child contestant can spot which adult is lying about HIPPOS. How fast can Hippos swim? How many toes does a Hippo have? Fact or Fib: Hippos are related to pigs. Play along and see if you can guess who is telling the truth on The Big Fib gameshow. For more great shows for kids and families visit GZMshows.com. To hear all episodes of The Big Fib ad-free subscribe now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week Cameron, Thomas, and Hippo chat some podcast housekeeping (thank you all for listening!!), give a rundown of some upcoming US Pauper tournaments, and close out with reviews of the London Pauper League's event results and a wonderfully diverse set of MTGO Challenge Top 8s. Get out there and play some Pauper!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGMagicCon Las Vegas Information: https://mcvegas.mtgfestivals.com/en-us.html6/14 Pauper-oncini Tournament, Clinton, WI: https://spicerack.gg/events/18791006/29 Pauper $1k at NRG Indianapolis! Signup link coming soon!8/2 The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) @ Game Knight, Columbia TN! Signup link coming soon!8/9 Upstate NY Pauper Open II in Rochester, NY: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/19479434/19 Decklists from London Pauper League's Deadliest Dispute and the West Coast Pauper Open:https://mtgdecks.net/Pauper/london-pauper-showdown-2-the-deadliest-dispute-tournament-184282https://www.spicerack.gg/events/decklists?event_id=1683085 Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
The fictional hippo is once again the centre of a campaign to increase the media literacy and digital resiliency of Canadians. Alex Guye dropped in to tell Jeff Douglas about the new ad created by Media Smarts, Canada's Centre for Digital Media Literacy.
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we have recaps galore for you all! Hippo shares his Denver adventures, Thomas complains about poor sportsmanship, and Cameron breaks down his first time playing Flicker Tron at our local monthly tournament this past weekend. As always, thank you so much for listening!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTG4/19 West Coast Pauper Open, Santa Clara, CA: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/16830856/14 Pauper-oncini Tournament, Clinton, WI: https://spicerack.gg/events/1879100The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) will be Saturday August 2nd @ Game Knight, Columbia TN!Info on NRG Indy's Pauper $1k on June 29th coming soon!Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
Throughout Lent, we've been releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices.In the final episode of the series, this Holy Week we're considering the discipline of waiting: how we can prepare ourselves to receive good news. Our guide today is N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop and New Testament scholar. He describes how Jesus invited his hearers into a new way of understanding Israel's ancient story of waiting, the cosmic significance of its sudden fulfillment, and its meaning for us in this in-between time of preparation to receive good news: "The ultimate life after death is not a platonic disembodied immortality, but resurrection life in God‘s new creation. And that new world began when Jesus came out of the tomb on Easter morning. That's the good news. Something happened then as a result of which the world is a different place. And we are summoned, not just to enjoy its benefits, but to take up our own vocations as new creation people, as spirit-filled and spirit-led Jesus followers, bringing his kingdom into reality in our world."We hope that this conversation will help you as you wait and prepare to receive this good news.The podcast is drawn from an evening conversation we hosted back in 2016. You can find our shownotes and much more at ttf.org. Thank you for journeying with us through Lent. Learn more about N.T. Wright. Watch The Good News and the Good Life, with N.T. Wright and Richard Hayes. Authors and books mentioned in the conversation:Who is this Man? by John Ortberg Related Trinity Forum Readings:Devotions by John Donne and paraphrased by Philip YanceyThe Confessions of St. Augustine by Augustine of Hippo, Introduced by James K.A. SmithPilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie DillardPilgrim's Progress by John BunyanGod's Grandeur: The Poems of Gerard Manley HopkinsA Spiritual Pilgrimage by Malcolm Muggeridge Related Conversations:Liturgy of the Ordinary in Extraordinary Times with Tish Harrison WarrenCaring for Words in a Culture of Lies with Marilyn McEntyreInvitation to Solitude and Silence with Ruth Haley BartonOn the Road with Saint Augustine with James K.A. Smith and Elizabeth BruenigThe Habit Podcast, Episode 26: Tish Harrison Warren with Doug McKelveyThe Spiritual Practice of Remembering with Margaret Bendroth To listen to this or any of our episodes in full, visit ttf.org, and to join the Trinity Forum Society and help make content like this possible, visit ttf.org/join.
As one of the first Insurtech operators turned investor, Dave leads OMERS Ventures Insurtech portfolio which includes investments in well-known players such as Clearcover, Foresight, WeFox and Joyn. Most recently at Hippo as VP of Growth, Dave oversaw the company's execution and strategy around Smart Home and emerging products. Dave's journey in Insurtech started in 2017 while at Comcast Xfinity where he designed a distribution partnership with Hippo to sell homeowners insurance to Comcast's 30M+ customers. In that role Dave secured his P&C license and set up a national agency. Dave was also part of the team at Comcast that led Hippo's $25M Series B in 2018. Additionally, Dave has founded and led several technology startups giving him a deep understanding of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. Dave is passionate about the intersection of technology and insurance and is a firm believer that we are in the early stages of what will be a watershed moment for the sector. He is an active writer and speaker on the industry. Dave also is a Board Director of Joyn Insurance and a Board Observer for Clearcover, Foresight and WeFox as we well multiple Fintech investments. Dave has a BA in Policy Studies from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. He is also a licensed P&C insurance agent. Episode Summary In this episode, we dive into the evolving landscape of InsurTech with insights from Dave Wechsler, a seasoned entrepreneur and venture capitalist. The discussion covers the challenges and opportunities within the insurance industry, particularly in the context of technological advancements and market dynamics. Guest Background: Dave's journey through various startups and their transition into the venture capital world. Insights into the role of technology in transforming traditional insurance practices. Dave started the InsurTech Rap weekly podcast because of his feeling of the importance of networking and collaboration among industry professionals. Current Trends in InsurTech: The impact of AI and machine learning on underwriting and claims processing. Discussion on the shift from legacy systems to modern, tech-driven solutions. Embracing Experimentation: The willingness to experiment and learn from failures is crucial for success in the InsurTech space. As [Guest Name] noted, traditional companies often lack the flexibility to innovate, making it essential for startups to leverage their agility. The Role of AI: Artificial intelligence is reshaping the landscape, offering new tools and capabilities that can enhance underwriting processes and customer engagement. However, it also presents challenges as new entrants can disrupt established players with more advanced solutions. Challenges for Entrepreneurs: Navigating the complexities of entering new markets and the importance of adaptability. The significance of building a strong brand and community in the InsurTech sector. Future Outlook: Predictions for the InsurTech landscape in the coming years, including the role of blockchain and smart contracts. The necessity for established companies to innovate and embrace new technologies to stay competitive. Resources Mentioned: insurtechrap.com Join the show live every Thursday at 2 PM EST for more discussions on InsurTech trends and insights. This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance thought leadership series, available globally from Amazon in print, Kindle and Audible audiobook. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.
Welcome back Pauper fam! As promised, it's time to dig into what our new Pauper format looks like post-bans & unbans. Using this past weekend's MTGO challenge results we can start to paint a picture of what decks are thriving in this new meta, how folks are building their High Tide and Prophetic Prism decks, and how to adapt when things change so drastically. We also take a quick skim through Tarkir spoilers just in time for release weekend. If you're in Denver this weekend for the Spotlight Series, say hi to Hippo!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTG4/19 West Coast Pauper Open, Santa Clara, CA: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/16830856/14 Pauper-oncini Tournament, Clinton, WI: https://spicerack.gg/events/1879100The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) will be Saturday August 2nd @ Game Knight, Columbia TN!Info on NRG Indy's Pauper $1k in June coming soon!Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
Natty and Melissa have a cozy slumber party under their blankets where they explore odd deaths, urban legends, and funeral customs, all sourced from the book 'Hippo Eats Dwarf'. They discuss everything from a man's deadly curiosity with a lava lamp to a myth about frozen urine falling from a plane. Amid spooky stories and personal hauntings involving tricky doorknobs, the duo throws in a bit of dark humor and fascinating trivia. It's a blend of conspiracies, creepiness, and cryptids with some unexpected laughs!My Links:Click here for merch sites, patreon site, website, to donate, and join me on social media!Guest Links:Click here for OUCH! Was that a ghost? LinksBook Link:https://www.amazon.com/Hippo-Eats-Dwarf-Alex-Boese/dp/0156030837Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cryptids-creeps-and-conspiracy-podcast--6041412/support.
Send us a textI LOVE this story so much. This little dog went VIRLAL- Like GLOBAL! Scrim, a terrier mix rescue dog from New Orleans, gained fame for his daring escapes, becoming a local "folk hero" after repeatedly evading capture and becoming a symbol of the city's spirit. Michelle Cheramie, owner of Zeus' Rescues and a team of devoted volunteers worked night and day to find Scrim. Through a tropical storm, blizzard, and miles and miles of roads- they finally found him!Listen to this amazing story of resilience that happened in a city that knows resiliency.Learn more about Zeus' Rescues by going to www.zeusrescues.orgThen later, we welcomed a legend among dentistry. Bippo's Place For Smiles isn't only a dentist. It is an immersive and captivating world of Bippo the Hippo. In 1971, Dr. Edward L. Donaldson created the idea of Bippo the Hippo while he was stationed in Cuba with the United States Navy. At that time, Dr. Donaldson was the Navy's only pediatric dentist. He created the Bippo character to help calm children's dental fears by telling a story of the baby hippo's first visit to the dentist. While he was stationed in Cuba, Dr. Donaldson met an artist named Harriet Hastings, the wife of a Navy officer. Mrs. Hastings beautifully illustrated Dr. Donaldson's story using the Cuban terrain as inspiration and the world of Bippo the Hippo began.From entering Bippo's Place to PLAYING in Bippo's Place, and of course, the gentle care that your kiddos get from Bippo's place is unlike any dentist you have ever seen. Trust your Papa. I sought this place out personally andI am so glad to share it with you! He has since passed the torch to numerous doctors, including his daughter, Dr. Jill Donaldson. The practice now has four pediatric dentists and 8 general dentists to assist them. You will find that our friendly staff of doctors, assistants and front desk helpers are always looking for new ways to make your visits pleasant and fun.Today on the show we welcome Dr. Jill Donaldson and hear the real story of Bippo the Hippo! Listen to how she and her dad revolutionized the way kiddos get their teeth cared for!And to find more about Bippo or to find a location that is close to you go to:www.bipposplace.comThank you to our family of amazing sponsors! Ochsner Hospital for ChildrenWww.ochsner.orgRouses MarkersWww.rousesmarkets.comSandpiper VacationsWww..sandpipervacations.comCafe Du Monde www.shop.cafedumonde.com The Law Firm of Forrest Cressy & James Www.forrestcressyjames.comComfort Cases Www.comfortcases.orgNew Orleans Ice Cream CompanyWww.neworleansicecream.comERA TOP REALTY: Pamela BreauxAudubon Institute www.auduboninstitute.orgUrban South Brewery www.urbansouthbrewery.com
Welcome back Pauper fam! Some nice news this past Monday from the Pauper Format Panel making some big swings at the Pauper ban list, so naturally we recorded an episode of Magic stories with CG alum Matthew Sentilles aka Silly Sentilly! We spend the first part of this week's show discussing the big shake-ups in the format before swapping battle stories and reminiscing about the Gathering. We'll chat about the bans and unbans in much more depth next week! Until then, buckle up fam, and enjoy this more laidback, once-in-a-while, shootin' the s*** style episode!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGB&R Announcement: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/banned-and-restricted-announcement-march-31-2025PFP B&R Write-Up from Gavin Verhey: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/explanation-of-pauper-bans-for-march-31-20254/19 West Coast Pauper Open, Santa Clara, CA: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/1683085The 2nd Common Ground Cup (Pauper $1k+) will be Saturday August 2nd @ Game Knight, Columbia TN!Info on NRG Indy's Pauper $1k in June coming soon!Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social Hippo's BlueSky: @hippo2112.bsky.social
In this fourth installment on the Problem of Evil, Dr. Jacobs explores the complex relationship between divine providence and human freedom. What does it mean that God delegates subsovereignce to creation? And how does divine foreknowledge interact with human self-determination? Tune in as we examine biblical figures like Abraham, Job, and Saul alongside the desecration of goodness and the atheist's problem with evil. This episode lays crucial groundwork for understanding the synergistic nature of providence before our final exploration of theodicy.All the links: X: https://x.com/NathanJacobsPodSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0hSskUtCwDT40uFbqTk3QSApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nathan-jacobs-podcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenathanjacobspodcastSubstack: https://nathanajacobs.substack.com/Website: https://www.nathanajacobs.com/Academia: https://vanderbilt.academia.edu/NathanAJacobs 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:13 The rational ordering principle00:13:17 What is the individual? 00:32:05 Divine foreknowledge 00:40:08 Abraham, Job, & Saul 00:52:06 Providence: blueprint or synergy? 01:01:29 The desecration of goodness01:08:28 The atheist's evil problem 01:18:51 So why doesn't God intervene? 01:34:30 God delegates subsovereignce 01:46:06 A critical feature of providence 01:49:51 What DOES God do? 01:56:49 The divine energies 02:16:40 The synergistic nature of providence 02:27:17 Engaging in self-determinationOther words for the algorithm… Leibniz, A defense of God, Epicurus, David Hume, Heraclitus, The Problem of Pain, The Problem of Divine Hiddenness, Christianity, Eastern Christianity, Orthodox Christian, Christianity, Evangelical, Protestant, Catholicism, Catholics, pantheism, Empedocles, body-soul dualism, metaphysical dualism, Manichaeism, Augustine of Hippo, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Nicene Creed, The Arian Dispute, Christology, Seven Ecumenical Councils, Jonathan Pageau, Fr. Josiah Trenham, Jordan Peterson, Pints With Aquinas, Christian apologetics, theology, Alex O'Connor, John of Damascus, Alvin Plantinga, modal logic, Scholastics, the consequent will of God, Origen, complex goods, Theism, philosophy of religion, natural theology, moral philosophy, ontological argument, teleological argument, cosmological argument, ancient philosophy, patristics, church fathers, suffering, existentialism, free will, determinism, sovereignty, divine attributes, omnipotence, omniscience, benevolence, theological ethics, moral evil, natural evil, comparative religion, religious epistemology, divine justice, meaning of suffering, spiritual formation, rationalism, empiricism, atheism, agnosticism, William Lane Craig, Ravi Zacharias, Bishop Barron, apologetics debate, philosophical theology, Thomas Aquinas, divine providence, spiritual warfare, eschatology, redemptive suffering, qualified omnipotence
Fantastic League of Wrestling is getting ready to start another season of great family friendly wrestling action with talent from around the globe. In this episode I sit down with John Bullard the owner/promoter as we go over the origin story of how the promotion came about and what everybody can look forward to in this new season.Fantastic League of Wrestling PRESENTS QUEST FOR THE DRAGON BELTS Saturday, APRIL 5th.Pine Lake Resort and Banquets in La Porte, IN 444 Pine Lake Ave La Porte, IN 46350 *Doors open at 6pm, Belltime at 7pm *Tickets Front row $20 General Admission $10 Family Five pack GA $40 Kids 12 and under free with paid adult.
Drawing upon the teachings of Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Father Mike and Father Jacob discuss the role of memory in the spiritual life, and also discuss some of the possible pitfalls of nostalgic escape.
Augustine powerfully defended Christian doctrines against the heresies of his day, including Pelagianism. He also expressed his love for God in his Confessions. The post Augustine of Hippo: The Bishop and Poet – Part 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.
Augustine powerfully defended Christian doctrines against the heresies of his day, including Pelagianism. He also expressed his love for God in his Confessions. The post Augustine of Hippo: The Bishop and Poet – Part 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.
Augustine powerfully defended Christian doctrines against the heresies of his day, including Pelagianism. He also expressed his love for God in his Confessions. The post Augustine of Hippo: The Bishop and Poet – Part 2 appeared first on Two Journeys.
What were some of the other consequences of the plagues of Egypt? Why, after witnessing these miracles, does Pharaoh continue to harden his heart? And what is God showing Israel through these plagues? In this episode of Bible Backdrop, we start to look at the first 3 of the 10 plagues of Egypt. We discover how they match to a different Egyptian god and talk about their far reaching consequences. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please leave a 5-star rating and review. You can get in touch with the show by the e-mail mentioned in this episode. Bible Backdrop is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever podcasts can be found.
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week, Cameron and Hippo recap their rounds at the Game Cave monthly playing Bogles and BG Fog featuring plenty of fun stories along the way. Thomas returns from SCGCon Charlotte and the Modern RC that was host to a number of community dramas which gives way to a longer discussion on competitive magic and how we want to interface with it moving forward. Yet another reason to play more Pauper!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGThe sick af Mardu Tortured Existence Deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/qUUnjbK5-02GShPKHBJj4w4/19 West Coast Pauper Open, Santa Clara, CA: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/16830853/15 Team Trios @ Game Knight, Columbia, TN: https://topdeck.gg/event/team-trios-3-pauper-modern-legacyInfo on NRG Indy's Pauper $1k and the 2nd Common Ground Cup at Game Knight coming soon!Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social
Andy introduces Augustine, a passionate preacher and teacher in the early church. He wrote Confessions and The City of God and led the church in Hippo for forty years. The post Augustine of Hippo: The Bishop and Poet – Part 1 appeared first on Two Journeys.
Andy introduces Augustine, a passionate preacher and teacher in the early church. He wrote Confessions and The City of God and led the church in Hippo for forty years. The post Augustine of Hippo: The Bishop and Poet – Part 1 appeared first on Two Journeys.
Andy introduces Augustine, a passionate preacher and teacher in the early church. He wrote Confessions and The City of God and led the church in Hippo for forty years. The post Augustine of Hippo: The Bishop and Poet – Part 1 appeared first on Two Journeys.
This week we are joined by the lovely Kenna Harris! They bring to us a very important question: which internet famous hippo would not be corrupted by the influence of the One Ring? You can find Kenna and their amazing art on instagram: HERE!Causes we care about.Fight Court!
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we're joined by the manager of the London Pauper League (LPL), Morgan Fussell, for a conversation about building communities for Pauper and a peak behind the curtain of what it's like to work with Lega Pauper Italia, the organization behind Paupergeddon! Whether your LGS is in a small town or a big city, we hope that this episode can help folks get started if they too wish to have their very own local Pauper scene and community. Plus lots of Pauper was played around the world this past weekend, including the MTGO Pauper Qualifier!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTGLPL Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/london_pauper_league?igsh=MXBiZmNvdHI1ZWdieA==LPL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/14rXMVGx2gF/"Teachings For Teachings" Zine Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachingsforteachings?igsh=cGR3ZmtjZWhhMXQ1Lega Pauper Italia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1LXHTVRiPV/London IPT Tickets Link: https://www.badgerbadger.org/event/london-pauper-showdown-2-the-deadliest-dispute/LPL Artist (Cody) Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/MisoToken 3/15 Team Trios @ Game Knight, Columbia, TN: https://topdeck.gg/event/team-trios-3-pauper-modern-legacyInfo on NRG Indy's Pauper $1k and the 2nd Common Ground Cup at Game Knight coming soon!Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124 Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social
Teddy Himler brings over 15 years of global experience at leading institutions, including Goldman Sachs, SoftBank, Comcast Ventures, and Antler, to his role at Optimist Ventures.Throughout his career, Teddy has cultivated deep expertise in global technology trends, innovative business models, and firm-building, with a focus on sectors such as artificial intelligence, insurance, healthcare, and industrial automation.At Antler, Teddy served as a partner, where he played a key role in the firm's growth, helping it become the world's most active early-stage venture capital firm by deal count.Prior to Antler, Teddy was instrumental in scaling SoftBank's operations in both the U.S. and Southeast Asia. In 2018, he launched SoftBank Group International's first New York City office, where he managed assets outside of SoftBank's Vision Fund, including Arm, Sprint, Boston Dynamics, and Brightstar. Earlier, as SoftBank Capital's first West Coast hire, Teddy served as Vice President, spearheading its Southeast Asia strategy from Jakarta while collaborating with partners like Alibaba.From 2018 to 2021, Teddy was a Principal at Comcast Ventures in New York, where he focused on investments in consumer internet, robotics, fintech (including insurtech and crypto), and other emerging technologies as part of Comcast's corporate venture capital platform.Teddy began his career at Goldman Sachs as an investment banking analyst in the Technology, Media & Telecom group in San Francisco. He holds a B.A. in Government and Economics from Harvard University.Over the years, Teddy has backed five unicorns at the seed or Series A stages and has been a deal team leader or member in numerous landmark investments, including Kabbage, Fitbit, Dialpad, BigCommerce, Grab, Tokopedia, Cheddar, Acorns, Hippo, Blockdaemon, Madison Reed, Blockchange, ABL Space, KeyMe, Arm, Boston Dynamics, SoftBank Robotics, Sprint, Cybereason, Zola, SoFi, Airspan, OneWeb, Kindbody, Berkshire Grey, Lemonade, Brightstar, Airalo, Earlytrade, Folio, Ora Health, Endless Health, and Inshur.Teddy's career reflects a track record of identifying transformative technologies and building global ventures, making him a key figure in the venture capital ecosystem.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teddy-himler-84674719/
Matt and Kevin dance around Disney theme parks to bring you Hippo-ology! So many hippos, so little time. SUPPORT THE SHOW! After 8 years of bringing you fantastic theme park history and pop culture listory, we would love for you to support us on PATREON! Our subscribers get access to secret shows, polls, a private discord, show pictures, and more! If Patreon is not your thing, you can donate to the show via PAYPAL or VENMO at any time. And if you're in need of graphic design help, check out Kevin's portfolio.
In this episode of Molecule to Market, you'll go inside the outsourcing space of the global drug development sector with Luke Bilton, Co-Founder at Life Science Networks, PharmaSource and CDMO Live. Your host, Raman Sehgal, discusses the pharmaceutical and biotechnology supply chain with Luke, covering: How Covid exposed the complacency of event organizers in pharma services Behind the scenes of organizing CPHI Worldwide - what's it really like - chaos or calm? How companies should be thinking about event budgeting, planning and ROI in 2025 Beware 'the HIPPO' when planning which events to attend Luke Bilton is Co-Founder of Life Science Networks, a next-generation community and events organization specializing in biopharma manufacturing. The company's growing portfolio includes the PharmaSource outsourcing podcast and online community, alongside its flagship event, CDMO Live. With over 20 years experience launching and growing digital media and events businesses at companies including Informa, Future and Innovation Enterprise, Luke partnered with Chris Kilbee, former head of CPHI global events, to establish Life Science Networks. CDMO Live (World Trade Center, Rotterdam, 7-8 May 2025) brings together biopharma's manufacturing leaders to optimize their outsourcing strategy. The event's unique PartnerMatch program facilitates curated one-to-one meetings between sponsors and over 50 leading CDMOs. To find out more, visit CDMO Live Please subscribe, tell your industry colleagues and join us in celebrating and promoting the value and importance of the global life science outsourcing space. We'd also appreciate a positive rating! Molecule to Market is also sponsored and funded by ramarketing, an international marketing, design, digital and content agency helping companies differentiate, get noticed and grow in life sciences.
Welcome back Pauper fam! This week we decided to update our lists from Episode 10 when we ranked our top cards in Pauper. We each share our new Top 5 lists and chat about how MH3 has really shaken up our rankings! Plus a quick dive into last weekend's MTGO challenges and some upcoming tournament announcements!Join our Discord! https://discord.gg/kdvSavFkpzCheck out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CommonGroundMTG3/1 Upstate NY Pauper Open Information: https://www.spicerack.gg/events/15802243/15 Team Trios @ Game Knight: https://topdeck.gg/event/team-trios-3-pauper-modern-legacyInfo on NRG Indy's Pauper $1k and the 2nd Common Ground Cup at Game Knight coming soon!Any questions or feedback for us? Email us at: commongroundmtgpod@gmail.comhttps://twitter.com/CamPlaysMagichttps://twitter.com/ThomasDoesALothttps://twitter.com/Hippo_1124 Thomas' BlueSky: @thomasdoesalot.bsky.social
A man is suing a safari company after a dream trip turns into a nightmare; a raging hippo mauled his wife to death while on the African adventure. A Florida father is behind bars accused of paying more attention to his gaming than his daughter, now she's dead & he's charged with negligence. Plus, Memphis food truck customers step over a corpse to get their grub on! Jennifer Gould reports.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hippo was at his breaking point—angry, broken, and ready to make a choice he could never take back. But in that moment, God showed up. What followed was a journey of redemption that took him from a past filled with trauma, toxic influences, and pain to discovering true brotherhood and faith. A chance encounter at a Christian festival led him to Men's Alliance, a group of men who held him accountable and pushed him toward something greater. Through deep loss and hardship, his faith was tested, but instead of breaking, he leaned in—learning what it truly means to trust God. This is a raw, real story of transformation, purpose, and unshakable faith.
We suck at fulfilling the implied or explicit promises we make through our coffee shop marketing. Smiling faces with beautiful drinks and a clean environment with plenty of verbiage about values and mission. Lots of good vibes. That all tends to fall away once the customer gets in the space and experiences the reality of our operations. This disconnect and over promise/underdeliver cycle is why customer lose trust in brands. The good news though is that we don't have to continue playing this well branded, poorly executed game. Today we are re-airing an episode from way back that is just as relevant as ever. We talking about how we ruin the specialty experience and what can be done to fix this so you can build trust back with customers and have more confidence in your self and your cafes ability to deliver what our marketing says we are about. Related episodes: 321 : Marketing and Moral Injury w/ Josh Tarlo of Kiss the Hippo 432 : How to Win in Specialty Retail Coffee 406 : Five Ways to Immediately Improve Your Coffee Quality Curbing their Enthusiasm : How we put a damper on the customer's experience and what to do instead ATTENTION CAFE OWNERS w/ 2+ Years of running your brick and mortar.... - LOOKING FOR A COMMUNITY OF SUPPORT, ACCOUNTABILITY, INSIGHT, AND ENCOURAGEMENT? - The Key Holder Coaching Group master-mind are now taking new applicants for our 4th cohort launching in march! Click below to fill out your application now! KEY HOLDER COACHING APPLICATION INTERESTED IN 1:1 CONSULTING AND COACHING? If you are a cafe owner and want to work one on one with me to bring your shop to its next level and help bring you joy and freedom in the process then email chris@keystothshop.com of book a free call now: https://calendly.com/chrisdeferio/30min Want a beautiful coffee shop? All your hard surface, stone, Tile and brick needs! www.arto.com Visit @artobrick The world loves plant based beverages and baristas love the Barista Series! www.pacificfoodservice.com
Did you know America once eyed hippos as a solution to its problems? This week on Hysteria 51 we dive into the bizarre yet true tale of how early 20th-century Louisiana faced a water hyacinth invasion and a looming food shortage—and how importing hippos, lovingly dubbed “lake cows,” was proposed as the answer. Join us as we explore the strange saga of "Lake Cow Bacon," the politicians and eccentric dreamers behind the plan, and why this idea almost became reality. Grab a plate of hypothetical hippo bacon, and let's get weird with history!Special thanks to this week's research sources: VideosExploring 'Lake Cow Bacon': A Unique American Tale | weird history - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_d2LkczvLY America's Secret Plan to Replace BEEF with HIPPOS - https://youtu.be/ChqkNAeJygM?si=lu4ZzqkrrltaMETh WebsitesSecond Boer War: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War The Daily Beast - https://www.thedailybeast.com/lake-bacon-the-story-of-the-man-who-wanted-us-to-eat-mississippi-hippos/ Smithsonian Magazine - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/ On Pasture - https://onpasture.com/2016/04/18/u-s-hippo-ranches-and-lake-cow-bacon/ Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories:weird@hysteria51.comSupport the ShowGet exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1ShopBe the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting!https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Did you know America once eyed hippos as a solution to its problems? This week on Hysteria 51 we dive into the bizarre yet true tale of how early 20th-century Louisiana faced a water hyacinth invasion and a looming food shortage—and how importing hippos, lovingly dubbed “lake cows,” was proposed as the answer. Join us as we explore the strange saga of "Lake Cow Bacon," the politicians and eccentric dreamers behind the plan, and why this idea almost became reality. Grab a plate of hypothetical hippo bacon, and let's get weird with history! Special thanks to this week's research sources: Videos Exploring 'Lake Cow Bacon': A Unique American Tale | weird history - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_d2LkczvLY America's Secret Plan to Replace BEEF with HIPPOS - https://youtu.be/ChqkNAeJygM?si=lu4ZzqkrrltaMETh Websites Second Boer War: Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War The Daily Beast - https://www.thedailybeast.com/lake-bacon-the-story-of-the-man-who-wanted-us-to-eat-mississippi-hippos/ Smithsonian Magazine - https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-us-almost-became-a-nation-of-hippo-ranchers-180982244/ On Pasture - https://onpasture.com/2016/04/18/u-s-hippo-ranches-and-lake-cow-bacon/ Email us your favorite WEIRD news stories: weird@hysteria51.com Support the Show Get exclusive content & perks as well as an ad and sponsor free experience at https://www.patreon.com/Hysteria51 from just $1 Shop Be the Best Dressed at your Cult Meeting! https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hysteria51?ref_id=9022 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Only one video to cover this pod as OSP takes January off, so we're answering even more of your questions! We chat Sonic, fictional architecture, and much much more in the first OSPod of 2025!Our podcast, like our videos, sometimes touches on the violence, assaults, and murders your English required reading list loves (also we curse sometimes). Treat us like a TV-14 show.OSP has new videos every Friday:https://www.youtube.com/c/OverlySarcasticProductionsChannelQuestion for the Podcast? Head to the #ask-ospod discord channel:https://discord.gg/OSPMerch:https://overlysarcastic.shopFollow Us:Patreon.com/OSPTwitter.com/OSPyoutubeTwitter.com/sophie_kay_Music By OSP Magenta ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★