Britain's Got Talent judge Ashley Banjo has spoken passionately about Diversity's BLM dance and vowed to do it "100 times over" as he reflected upon the impact and conversations that the performance triggered.

In an inspiring video, the 32-year-old Diversity dancer told fans that he had no regrets about the performance as he thanked followers for their continued support.

Ashley's message comes after the group was slapped with 25,000 Ofcom complaints from angry BGT viewers who slammed the Black Lives Matter-inspired performance.

Taking to social media on Tuesday evening, the dad of two shared a video in which he spoke about how Diversity had triggered one of the most 'impactful conversations ever seen'.

Alongside footage of the original dance, Ashley and his brother Jordan talked about the aftermath of the stunning performance.

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"If the fact Black Lives Matter makes you feel uncomfortable, you have to ask yourself why," Ashley said in the interview.

Amid an overwhelming outreach of support for the dancers, Ofcom confirmed that they were not going to investigate the furious complaints.

Despite widespread support, some angry viewers even threatened to boycott Britain's Got Talent following the dance.

Ashley added: "The moment it all started to come to the surface, I thought this was so so necessary. I feel more life affirmed. I feel more sure of myself as a person.

"I also feel, you know, proud and I feel like we have sort of become a bit of a symbol for something that I wanna live up to. I wanna be able to speak up.

As he reflected upon the support and conversations that had happened as a result, Ashley continued: "That four minutes, it caused hours, weeks worth of conversation."

Alongside the clip, Ashley penned an empowering message where he thanked fans for their support and revealed he would have done the dance 100 times over.

"Be who you are and say what you feel. Because those that mind dont matter and those that matter dont mind," Ashley wrote.

"This is a moment in my life I will never forget. The incredible love and support from the majority of the British public I will never forget. The hate and abuse I will never forget."

He continued: "One of the most complained about moments of the decade? Yes... But also one of the most impactful conversation starters the country has ever seen. Ill take that... And Id do it 100 times over.

"Thank you all once again for your continued support. Im so proud of my team @diversity_official. The future is bright #WeAreDiversity. Thank you to my good friend @edjonesss for this incredible summary," Ashley concluded.

Since the performance, the group has seen an outpouring of support from ITV, the celebrity judges and the majority of BGT fans.

The aftermath of the inspiring show has shed light on the need for more conversation and eduction about Black Lives Matter and racism within the UK.

Do you have a story to sell? Get in touch with us at webcelebs@trinitymirror.com or call us direct 0207 29 33033.

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Ashley Banjo motivated by BLM hate and would do BGT dance '100 times over' - Mirror Online

Id like to try and add another forward, a right shot, but not necessarily, Yzerman said. Even potentially two forwards, depending on whos available and what the cost of these players are.

The cap is expected to stay flat next year as well and any deal has to fit for beyond this season.

Its got to make sense, Yzerman said. The contract has to make sense. Were not opposed to anything. I think its a fair assumption that well be relatively conservative.

Ultimately, were all trying to improve our teams and were all at different stages, so everybodys generally motivated to do things. Im hopeful that theres an opportunity for us that we can add players that fit what were trying to do.

Contract extensions

The Red Wings signed forwards Adam Erne and Taro Hirose to one-year contract extensions on Thursday. Terms were not released.

The 25-year-old Earn, who was acquired from Tampa Bay, appeared in 56 games for the Red Wings in 2019-20 and had two goals and five points before an injury ended his season.

The 24-year-old Hirose was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2019. He got into 26 games with the club last season and had two goals and seven points.

Seider moving

Defenceman Moritz Seider, who was the clubs first-round pick in 2019, has been assigned to Rogle BK in the Swedish Elite League after originally being assigned to play in Germany with Mannheim.

With uncertainty over an AHL season in 2020-21, the Red Wings want the 19-year-old Seider to play and develop.

Germany has delayed the start of its hockey season due to the COVID-19 pandemic while the hockey season in Sweden is already underway.

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Red Wings' GM Yzerman has cash and motivation heading into free agency - Windsor Star

Masters of their craft Michael Salami, Tom Chambers and Christopher Harper as the beleaguered crew

What makes this play by Torben Betts gripping is the thrill of a life-and-death tale told at the pace of a documentary. As the heroic orchestral swells of Sophie Cottons score give way to unsettling electronic pulses, the playwright thrusts us into the cabin of Apollo 13, where three astronauts must abandon their hopes of a moon landing in order to survive.

With the loss of an oxygen tank jeopardising the power, they must use the moons gravitational pull to swing them back to Earth. Even if you know what happens, it makes for a tense ride.

The mood is amplified by directors Alastair Whatley and Charlotte Peters of Original theatre who, with film director Tristan Shepherd, focus tightly on the faces of the desperate crew. The technique saves the actors from having to share the same space, solving the problem of social distancing, but the effect is to draw us intimately towards the action.

You get the impression, though, that Betts is less interested in what is known than what is unknown. The statistics, the ground-control updates and the famous Houston, weve had a problem line are all present, but as the lighting changes from a high-definition lunar glow to brooding shadows on the moons dark side, Betts uses the cover of radio silence to speculate.

He imagines a tussle about the history of US racism between Michael Salamis Fred Haise, cast as an African American, and Tom Chambers as the rightwing Jack Swigert. The argument is not subtle but the playwrights plea that we find our common humanity is timely as we seek perspective on the schisms and isolation of our own world.

Available online.

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Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon review survival and enlightenment - The Guardian

The sun is setting on the Wests time as the self-appointed democracy police of the world.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US President Donald Trump are seen together during the G7 summit in Biarritz, France on August 25, 2019 [Stefan Rousseau/Pool via Reuters]

For several centuries, the countries of Western Europe and North America, led primarily by the UK and its colonial spawn, the US, have dominated the globe in economic, military and cultural terms. The West has made and remade the world as it saw fit and projected itself as the pinnacle of human achievement. The developed world it has vaingloriously referred to itself as, a model of enlightenment for the rest of underdeveloped humanity to follow. And the world it built was meant to reinforce this hierarchy.

Of course, much of the narrative of enlightenment was little more than myth a convenient fable to cover up the brutal profiteering off the oppression and exploitation of other human beings and destruction of their societies. Still, sitting on the porch of its mansion watching over its global plantation, having grown fat off the wealth it had taken from others, the West came to believe its own rhetoric of racial and moral superiority.

However, the last four years have done much to draw back the curtain on the hypocrisy that has always lain under the pontification. Countries that just a few years ago were proclaiming the end of history and their triumph as beacons of democracy, liberalism and capitalism nations that traversed the globe preaching the gospel of good governance, accountability and transparent government to the less fortunate denizens of corrupt, third-world banana republics have themselves succumbed to the lure of authoritarian, right-wing populism. Gone are the heady days when they sought to enforce democracy through manufactured wars and devastating economic sanctions. Today, democracy seems just as endangered in the US (and in the UK) as it ever was in Kenya and elsewhere.

This has of course elicited great whoops of schadenfreude around the world. Throughout the current US presidential election campaign, and especially in the recent weeks following the tragicomic debate between President Donald Trump and his challenger, Joe Biden, the world has been given a front-row view of the unravelling of a narcissistic, if somewhat psychotic superpower. And it has not been a pretty sight, with violence in the streets, nearly a quarter of a million people dead from the coronavirus, its economy in the toilet, the credibility of its elections and institutions in doubt, and a personality cult around its leader that every passing day feels increasingly familiar to those who have lived under totalitarian dictatorships.

Were not a democracy tweeted Republican Senator Mike Lee from Utah following the vice-presidential debate. And the spectre of violent coups, which was once thought to be restricted to s***hole countries, has reared its head in the US with the disruption of a right-wing plot to kidnap the Democratic governor of the state of Michigan and overthrow her government.

To a varying extent, similar problems with poor governance, authoritarianism, corruption and institutional decay are present in the UK and in other European countries. It is, however, unlikely that the West will face the same opprobrium and consequences that it has imposed on others whom it has deemed to have fallen by the democratic wayside. No sanctions, asset freezes or travel bans on its rulers, no resolutions condemning them at the UN, no threats of prosecution at international courts. It is unlikely that respected world leaders will be heading to the US to mediate its anticipated election dispute.

Still, the evaporation of Western prestige and hubris will have consequences for democracy in other parts of the world. For all their faults and hypocrisies, in much of the developing world, Western embassies and NGOs have been allies in the push to democratise governance. So much so that in much of Africa, authoritarian governments still deceptively refer to human rights and democracy as Western, rather than universal, concepts. There is a real danger that with their democratic credentials rubbished by events at home, it will be more difficult for the West to credibly support pro-democracy movements and efforts abroad.

That, along with the example set by the likes of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, may also encourage rulers with an authoritarian bent to take more liberties, calculating that their oppression is unlikely to attract opprobrium or consequences from the West.

Nestled in among the dangers are also opportunities for the world to wean itself off the patronising grip of the West. In Africa, for example, the African Union has of late been doing much to try to shed its image as a club for dictators, taking forceful stands against military coups and incumbents who refuse to accede to election outcomes. It still has a long way to go before it can be described as a bastion of democracy but the withdrawal of the West has gifted it an opportunity to demonstrate that it can stand with the people rather than with the rulers.

Civil society groups too will now have to look for other benefactors. Already the role for Western embassies in supporting reform movements was much diminished in countries like Kenya compared with what it was 30 years ago. But the reliance on Western governments and organisations for financing continues to be the Achilles heel of local groups an easy target for governments when they seek to delegitimise them as agents of foreign interests or to starve them by introducing legal ceilings on how much they can raise.

In Kenya, social media, coupled with money transfer apps, have emerged as an effective avenue for local fundraising, one which even the government has not been ashamed to tap into. For NGOs working in the governance space, local donations would not only reduce their vulnerability to nefarious governments but, as a measure of popular endorsement, would arguably increase their clout. Needless to say, it would also be a great way to encourage a sense of local ownership of the reform agenda. And as the sun sets on the Wests time as self-appointed democracy police, that can only be a good thing.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

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Does the world still need the West? - Al Jazeera English

Jess Keiser (A06), assistant professor of English at Tufts, in his new book, Nervous Fictions: Literary Form and the Enlightenment Origins of Neuroscience (2020), investigates the relationship between literary forms and scientific advancement in 17th and 18th century English literature. Terming a hybrid body of work, which includes scientific writing using literary metaphors and literature incorporating science to explore the psyche, as nervous fiction, the book asks important questions about the relationship between the body and the mind, between rational scientific inquiry and literary expression.

Speaking at a virtual book talk sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Tufts on Oct. 2, Keiser began by introducing the scientific underpinnings of the 17th and 18th centuries. This period saw advances in what is now known as neuroscience, of which the strikingly detailed studies of human cerebral anatomy by British physician and natural philosopher Thomas Willis in 1664 were a pinnacle, and it included Ren Descartes questioning of how nerves convey sensory information across the body.

Crucial to understanding the nervous fictions is the mainstream view of the nervous system at the time. Keiser explained that, according to this view, as the brain sends and receives commands to and from the body, the pineal gland acts as what Tufts Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies and Professor of Philosophy Dan Dennett dubs Cartesian theater. For example, in visual experiences, the eyes perceive sense stimuli and the nerves connected to the eyes then place the patterns perceived on the pineal gland; in this sense, the pineal gland is where thoughts and stimuli are unified.

The understanding of the nature of nerves also underwent a transformation during this period. Instead of the earlier categorization of nerves as animal spirits, later 18th century natural philosophers described nerves as solid tubes that vibrate like musical strings; one can strike an emotional note with another, causing their bodies to quiver in response.

Ideas like Cartesian theater and synchronized vibrations are attempts by then-scientists to explain neuroscientific concepts using metaphoric devices precisely what Keiser categorizes as nervous fiction. In addition, literary writers at the time also employ scientific figures to experiment with the idea of interiority. Keiser explained that, despite nervous fictions being fusions of science and literature, the two tenets are often in conflict in those works.

The most popular metaphors of the brain and the nervous system at the time include a castle, a kingdom or a state. The body is often depicted in hierarchical terms: the pineal gland as a throne, animal spirits being servants and so forth, according to Keiser.

Keiser also introduced the idea of virtual witnessing, a notion found in the 17th and 18th centuries, in which scientific documents were written as if the readers were present at the experiment. Because the nervous system is incredibly hard to be delineated this way, Keiser argues that science writers thus adopted figurative devices to reproduce the illusion of entering into the nervous system. He cited philosopher Gilbert Ryle, who proposed the idea of a double-life legend, that all outward and public actions are matched by internal and private ones. According to this theory, , when one smiles on the outside, something within their interiority is smiling as well, Keiser explained. Thus, nervous fictions take a microscopic view into the inner workings of our brain and attempt to explain how they translate to outward actions.

Nervous fictions have also made contributions to the mind-body problem how do the physical and biological aspects of the brain translate to our mental and psychological inner world? In his book, Keiser argues that nervous fictions directly respond to this philosophical dispute.

My argument is that the nervous fictions are a response to that gap, that sense of how do we get from matter to mind, Keiser said. [The] nervous in this concept is really nervous in two senses: about the [biological] nerves, but also nervous as an adjective about anxiety and uncertainty.

Keiser went on to discuss what he deems are the top five nervous fictions. Among those are a passage on the brain when in love from Thomas Willis book, Two Discourses Concerning the Soul of Brutes (1683). It proposes that when one is in love, all the animal spirits in other parts of their body would rise to the brain to watch the image of the lover, as if in a theater. Keiser argued that the personification of animal spirits is necessary for Willis to connect them to the feeling of love.

Other nervous fictions discussed by Keiser were Margaret Cavendishs The Worlds Olio (1655), which introduces panpsychism, the idea that everything thinks, including everything in the nervous system; for example, a hand has intelligence. In Laurence Sternes The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen (1759), the narrator describes perceiving a vibration in his heart when speaking, yet the brain made no acknowledgement. Theres often no good understanding betwixt them. In The Hypochondriack (17771783), James Boswell criticizes the practice of anatomy, comparing the soul to a watch in a case that should not be opened, or else it will be ruined.

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Jess Keiser explores the Enlightened psyche, "nervous fictions" in new book - Tufts Daily

The Hollywood Reporter spoke to the 91-year-old artist about his collaboration with Moebius, the themes to be found in the book and elsewhere in his work and the relationship between his comics work and his movies.

Its the 40th anniversary of The Incal. Do you remember starting to work on the project?

When I made The Incal, here in France, bande dessine the comic was regarded little more artistically than in United States. They were in bigger editions or printed on nice paper, but they were always a continued storyline: you have a hero like Superman, [or] Spider-Man, and at that time, you were always continuing to make this stories. It is without end.

Then I decided I want to make a complete novel: I will make a start, an end, and all this only six books. Only that, one book every year. Then I can tell any story, not a continuation all the time.

I thought, "One day I will have The Incal in only one volume, like a real novel." The years pass, and now people start to understand The Incal is one complete story. That made me happy. My son is growing! He's an adult now.

The Incal, as I understand it, came about in part from your Dune project which is where you first worked with Moebius.

In the beginning, The Incal came out of a dream. I dreamt something like two pyramids, white and black together inside.

Later, when I did make Dune Dune, for me, was the adaptation of a book which is not so visual. The first 100 pages, you don't understand it very well it's complicated, very complicated. For my adaptation, I had invent a lot of visualizations this is the jewel of Jodorowsky. I didnt make the picture, but much of that work, [the material] not in the book, that led to The Incal.

One of the things that is interesting about where The Incal falls in your career though is that it picks up themes from El Topo, from The Holy Mountain. It is again, a story about enlightenment. It's a story about someone realizing their place in a grander scheme.

Yes. I always have this secret. In many of the theater plays and the novels, the character doesn't change a great deal. Hamlet, all the time is doubting! (Laughs.)He says, "I am good, I am bad," and he dies like that. So I said, "I will take a character who is down, down he's a miserable guy, all [of] the defects of the ego, all this kind of thing and, step by step, he grows and he grows. He doesn't want that, but it happens like that. In the end, it's speaking with God! In the end, he's the biggest character possible.

You were talking about how people approach enlightenment as you say, starting as one thing and becoming, maybe not intentionally, something greater. Is this a theme that speaks to you, that you find yourself returning to?

What is enlightenment? I searched for enlightenment in all kind of disciplines, spiritual disciplines. You don't see it, but I live in the library. I am full, full, full of books! I was searching because my father was an atheist, a Communist I was five years old and he said to me, "God doesn't exist. You die, you will perish and they are nothing. Nothing." He took from me, as a child, the metaphysical experience.

I have nothing to love, no faith, no nothing. I needed to construct my spiritual myself in order to survive. I was searching and, for me, enlightenment is how to find yourself. It's the discovery of your innocence. That is enlightenment. There is not one enlightenment. Instead, there is one [unique] enlightenment for every person who lives on the planet: to be what you are and not what the system and the other person want you to be.

John goes through that in The Incal. He, early on, is split into four versions of himself and it feels that your stories and The Incal especially I think, is an exploration into people being themselves and discovering themselves.

Yes. At this time, I was very even now, I am very inspired by the tarot cards. The four characters he becomes are the Minor Arcana: the sword, the wand, the cups, and the money. The four symbols. This money is a symbol of the body. Wand is the symbol of desire or sex. The cup is a symbol of emotionality, and the sword is a symbol of the searching, the mental searching. Intellect, emotion, creative sex, and the body who tries to find his freedom. Constantly, I put in The Incal, certain initiatic things, to initiate the reader and ask, what is the possibility that you could find yourself like that?

One of the things that The Incal, I think, perhaps started or perhaps gave you free reign to do was, to use science fiction as a way of exploring these ideas in a metaphorical way. Is science fiction an interesting genre for you to work in because it allows you to do things that may be outside of the norm in other genres?

I love science fiction. I read a lot of science fiction. You have tragedy, you have science fiction, you have cowboys, you have gangsters I chose science fiction because, in science fiction, I need to imagine all the universe. Cowboys, you need to have a pistol, you need to speak American!

Here was the complete freedom to create a universe. That was fantastic for me. That was fantastic, and I created a mystical universe, in a period ruled by a person who was like my father. John Difool in the beginning doesn't believe in nothing, only in the money. And he's trying to survive in the lower class. He is a little detective. This is constructed in the beginning like a pulp novel: he will be in a trap. He doesn't want to have this adventure. Until the end he doubts, he doubts, he doubts.

You said that The Incal was constructed as a novel. You went into it knowing the end, and it loops it ends where it begins. Was that something that you were very conscious of? You were writing a circle essentially. You're writing a story that echoes itself until it ends where it begins. Did you go into it knowing that?

I will tell you an anecdote. Moebius was, in that time, the genius of the comic book in France the highest artist. His working with me was like a gift! But no one in the comic book industry, French or American, was really attempting this kind of metaphysical story and then, I proposed a setting that was very specific, like a bottle. It's very important but to show at the start of the story, John completely falling through this enormous, enormous town.

For me, it was important because it's the end of the story he falls like this in the beginning, and he finishes like this. Moebius draws the first episode, and he includes everything but forgets to draw that. It's only one page. And then [the editors] say, "You cannot say to Moebius to change something. He's a master." (Laughs)I said, "Listen! You made a little mistake because this is the most important image. You need to do it." I enumerate the page 1, 2, 3, and this is the page number 2. He said, the page number 2? I draw it already! So he made page 1, 2, page 2B. (Laughs.)

I noticed that in the book.

I will not say that I knew its importance in my consciousness. In some way, I was feeling that in my unconscious, because I am an artist. I don't work with consciousness. I work with my dreams. When I wrote that book, every chapter I put the character in a difficulty. I don't know what's the solution, but whatever the situation, he cannot do it. I have a month to discover how hed do it, always, always. I knew in the end I could do it. I could do it.

How did you work with Moebius or any of the other artists in your comic work? What was your process?

Every artist is different. They will humor me with their own character, their own interdiction, their own pleasures. I need to be in the mind of the artist and to make a story they can follow. With Moebius, he had a facility for incredible drawing. You say, "Make a horse." He will start with the leg of the horse. He has the horse. He illustrated it in four days, every episode. Every episode in four days! He makes [exaggerated working noises] 12 hours a day, but we did it! I dictated the story, but I was a mime, I was an actor.

Is that the same that you have done for every artists or have other artists ... I remember reading an interview with you for Jose Ladronn for Final Incal you worked differently with him.

Different. Every one is different. Final Incal is Jose Ladronn. Jose Ladronn doesn't drawing with his hand. He will do it with a machine.

Oh, with a computer?

A computer. Everything is computer. He needs to make a sketch very quickly with pencil, and then with the machine, he makes the fantastic [artwork] he made. That takes more time. What Moebius takes four days for me, with Ladronn it's six months of work. Moebius makes one page a day.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah.

It was a monster. He did it in 54 pages, 54 days. Less than two months.

I wanted to ask, what was it like moving from cinema to comics? Did you find your ambition changing? Were other things available to you?

Listen, I am not a normal person. Really, I am not a normal person. I have a big imagination. I write as quickly as it took Moebius to make drawings. I have an idea, I do the idea. I am not a movie maker, and I am not a screenwriter, a comic writer. I am everything. I don't prefer [one thing]. I love what I am doing.

I have [lived] now 91 and a half years. I am from the 20th century. Our century is the 21st.

Yes, but you're still creating. You're still making art. You're still alive.

What a difference in the two centuries! In the old century, a telephone was a telephone. But now you take a mobile and a mobile is still a phone but it's a camera, photography, movies, music. It can be everything. A man of this century is not only one thing because that is true of life now. Today, every person is Leonardo Da Vinci. He can make all the art. He can be a multifaceted artist.

You have always been that when I look at your movies, when I look at your comics, when I look at everything you make, it's clearly your voice. Even when you're working with comic artists, when you're working with the people making the movies, you are telling your story and it's recognizable as a story for you. That is why I was curious if you saw a difference in writing or creating for the different mediums. Because it feels like you're just constantly telling your stories.

The only thing is, theyre a different pleasure. Movies always are a collective work. You work with two people, three people, 20 people, 500 people. Growing, growing, growing. It's a big work and a lot of people, a lot of problems. When you make a comic, you are you and the painter, the artist. You are the only two.

In a movie, you are picking the people who are sitting and you create the movement. Everything is "you sit there and watch this," its passive. In comics, no. In comics, you make a person who will receive a punch here. The public needs to create in their mind the movement. Movement is inside the [audience]. It's another way to feel the story. In the movies, I need to see a movement and in comics, I need to see how to create the movement in the head of the reader. It's another world. It's another art.

But you have not only one movie, one type of cinema. You have industrial movies Hollywood. You also have movies made for a creator, artistic movies. In the artistic movies, all that matters is to create the work and the money comes later. For industrial movies, all the focus goes to money, to make a lot of money.

You also have commercial comics, which is a very good industry: Superman, Marvel. That was the industrial comic, where the principle to create a big, big audience, the biggest possible audience. When I made The Incal, I was searching in that time for the special audience who can understand that. I wanted to make an end for this story. In the commercial comic, there is no end.

You brought The Incal to an end. Looking back, what does it mean to leave the story and to finish it for everyone. Are you happy that audiences continue to keep this alive and revisit it and continue it?

I always thought it was a fantastic story. I love the story. Everything I do is like a child. Ask a mother the mother makes a monster and she will love the monster. When you are an artist, you love what you are doing. If not, you will not do it.

I am so happy The Incal has lasted 40 years because the audience understands it now. The good stories are always in advance of the audience: 40, 30, 50 years in advance. But if it is real art, it will travel through the time and come to an audience who understands it.

***

The 40th anniversary edition of The Incal is available now. Humanoids The Seven Lives of Alejandro Jodorowsky, edited by Vincent Bernire, will be released Oct. 13. A preview of both books can be seen below.

See more here:
Alejandro Jodorowsky Reflects on 'The Incal,' 40 Years Later - Hollywood Reporter

Tom Horne, opinion contributor Published 6:00 a.m. MT Oct. 13, 2020 | Updated 6:45 a.m. MT Oct. 13, 2020

In Jan. 2011, outgoing Arizona schools chief Tom Horne announced in Phoenix that a major school district in Tucson was violating a new state law by continuing an ethnic studies program designed primarily for Hispanics.(Photo: Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)

In an August column, Elvia Diaz criticized me personally for destroying bilingual education in the state, and Mexican American Studies in Tucson, when I was the state superintendent of schools, and later as Arizona attorney general. She called for making ethnic studies a graduation requirement.

Ethnic Studies in Tucson divided students by race. African American students to Classroom 1, Mexican American students to Classroom 2, etc., just like in the old South.

The students were taught critical race theory. This is their quote: Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundation of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.

Thats just what we need: teaching our students to be opposed to Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law.

They referred to the states taken from Mexico in 1848 as Aztlan. Their materials stated,we are slowly taking back Aztlan as our numbers multiply.

They had a table that promulgates racial stereotypes by detailing the differences between white individualism (e.g. white people interrupt a lot) and colored collectivism.

The founders of the program describedthemselves as neo Marxists.Marxism taught that all history is about class struggle, to the exclusion of everything else. Neo Marxists substitute race struggle for class struggle as the only thing worth studying.

One of the textbooks wasOccupied America. It sings the praises of a leader named Jose Angel Gutirrez, one of whose speeches is described in the textbook as follows: Gutirrez called upon Chicanos to kill the gringo, which meant to end white control over Mexicans.

The textbooks translation of what Gutirrez meant contradictshis clear language.

Another textbook gloatedabout the trouble the U.S. is having controlling the border: Apparently the U.S. is having as little success in keeping the Mexicans out of Aztlan [US states taken from Mexico in 1848] as Mexico had when they tried to keep the North Americans out of Texas in 1830. the Latinos are now realizing that the power to control Aztlan may once again be in their hands (page107).

My main source was other teachers in the schools, a number of them Latinos, who were profoundly shocked at what they saw.

Hector Ayala,whowas born in Mexico and an excellent English teacher at Cholla High School in Tucson,told me thatthe director of Raza Studies accused him of being the white mans agent and that when this director was a teacher, he taught a separatist political agenda. His students told Ayalathat they were taught in Raza Studies to not fall for the white mans traps.

One teacher wrote me that he heard students being told they need to go to college so they can gain power to take back the stolen land and return it to Mexico. Another reported to me that Latino students told him that the land is not part of the U.S. but "occupied Mexico."

This teaching wasa betrayal of the students parents. They came to this country as the land of opportunity. They expected their children to be taught that this is the land of opportunity, not that they are oppressed so it is all hopeless, or to hate the country their parents chose to come to.

After I was no longer attorney general, a judge declared our statute unconstitutional. I hope the state Legislature and a new AG will try again.

Ms. Diaz accuses me of destroying bilingual education. I plead guilty:A periodical published by HarvardKennedy School found that students in English Immersion outperformed those in bilingual in every category studied.

Tom Horne served as Arizona's superintendent of public instruction and attorney general. Reach him at tomhorne2824@gmail.com.

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Ethnic studies teach Latino kids to hate the US. It is dangerous for Arizona - The Arizona Republic

Watching the recent US presidential debate led me to the saddening yet bitterly true conclusion that we live in an age of decay. Two adult men, with past records filled with corruption, take the stage trying to convince you that one of them deserves to decide for you instead of you. The show was nothing more than a laughingstock, and people seem to be aware of that which is the most frightening part. Donald Trump had a temper of an 8-year-old maybe less, while Joe Biden was hardly able to phrase a complete sentence without a cognitive black out.

Many Democrats have come to suggest that this election is the most important one in American History because supposedly democracy is at stake with Donald Trump refusing to give a clear answer as to whether he will leave the Oval Office if he is defeated in November. Well I am sorry to break it to them, but if a choice between a corrupt politician and a multi-billionaire is what democracy looks like I do not think there is much point in saving it, it is already dead.

Most younger people, like myself, realize this. Politics to us seem like a bad anecdote, we laugh at it because we do not know how else to respond. We, being nave to the power of the status quo, believed in the vision of the progressive movements that former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, in Britain, and Senator Bernie Sanders, in the US, represented. We hoped that perhaps we would not have to pay enormous tuition fees in order to get basic education. That maybe we would live in a world where decent healthcare would be provided freely, or that when we grew up we would be able to have a well-paying job and then earn a satisfying pension. Instead of this the great leaders of the world have set out to reverse the clock of history and undo all the great accomplishment that, through the bloody protests and revolutions of the past century, humanity had come to enjoy.

In this war against the many, nobody seems to be doing anything. This is why I call this age the age of decay we sit un-bothered as the decomposers of the world cause us to rot. The Millennials will be the first generation in the history of humankind to be worse off than the generation that preceded it. Here I urge the reader to re-read the previous sentence and let it sink in. This halt of progress is nothing more but the result of a society that can no longer question and oppose its leaders. The revolutionary specters that haunted the ruling classes of the 19th and 20th centuries, forcing them to behave, have been shot down through the well-planned propaganda of the educational system and mass media, or died by suicide due to their own contradictions. Parliamentary Democracy, this child of Aristocratic French Parlements, seems to be the only legitimate and acceptable system of governance. People have stopped seriously doubting it or bothering to find alternatives. Change, now, only comes through elections and in a packet of two.

A great Prussian philosopher, Immanuel Kant, when set out to write an essay answering the question What is Enlightenment? that puzzled 18th century philosophes, claimed that they did not live in an enlightened age, but they did live in an age of enlightenment. According to him, being in age of enlightenment meant that people had finally begun to doubt the age-old hierarchical structures and authorities that stood above them. Be it religion, monarchy, feudalism (or Parliamentary Democracy, or Presidency) people who wished to be enlightened needed to never accept someones rule without first questioning its purposes. Sounds simple, but apparently it is not. Of course, that was the age when humanity made its leap to the modern world, leaving back the tyrannies of the Middle Ages. Sadly for Kant, and perhaps even sadder for us who are still alive, three centuries later the enlightened age has not arrived, but worse: the age of enlightenment seems to have receded. Humanitys blindfolds are being worn again.

So, in the question Biden or Trump, I answer cake.

Image credit: cbcindustries

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'Biden or Trump?' is a question that signifies the age of decay - GlobalComment.com

Written by Devyani Onial | Updated: October 11, 2020 9:39:48 am Manbeena Sandhu and Ma Anand Sheela.

She was 16 when she accompanied her father to meet godman Rajneesh in Baroda, the beginning of a complex relationship that endured until she fled his ashram in the US in 1985. From setting up a commune in a wild outpost of Oregon and unsettling a conservative local community along the way, the flamboyant Ma Anand Sheela (born Sheela Ambalal Patel) was personal secretary to Osho, as Rajneesh later came to be called, and the face of the movement till her falling out with him, which ended in a 39-month prison spell for a series of charges, including immigration fraud, wiretapping and poisoning. In this interview, Manbeena Sandhu speaks on what led her to document the story of an unconventional life and the inner world of a controversial cult. Excerpts:

Your biography of Ma Anand Sheela comes after having followed the Osho movement for two decades. When did you know that you wanted to write on her?

As soon as I was introduced to Oshos work, I got introduced to Sheela as well. Not through the Gurus books or talks, but through his sannyasins. In my opinion, Ma Sheela and Rajneesh are inseparable. I havent heard one story of Rajneesh without the mention of Sheela. As I got seeped into the movement, information about Sheela started pouring from all directions. A few of Gurus disciples loved her, a few despised her but none could ignore her. She seemed intriguing. Right off the bat, I knew that I wanted to meet her, know her and write about her. Even though the information of her whereabouts was not easy to access, the desire to capture her life story kept getting stronger over the years.

It was Chapman and Maclain Ways Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country (2018) that drew everyones attention to Ma Sheela. She was, in many ways, the anti-hero of the series. When you met her last year, how much of that tough-talking, controversy-courting woman did you see?

Other than catching a glimpse or two of that old time Sheela in her sharp eyes, brisk gait and quick wit, I couldnt see much of that controversy-courting woman that the world knows her as. Time doesnt stand still, it moves on and with time we evolve and change; so has Ma Sheela.

What was your first meeting like?

I first met Ma Sheela in May 2019 in Switzerland. Prior to meeting her, I had, over the phone, expressed my desire to write her story. But she was not convinced just by a voice at the other end of the line and wanted to see me in person. I first saw her at the airport. I stayed in Switzerland for about 10 days, and, during those days, I spent six to eight hours each day in her company. Before meeting Ma Sheela, I was a little intimidated by the personality that I had seen and heard of. She was very different from what I, and the world, perceives her to be she was soft and full of emotion.

How open was she with sharing the unsavoury episodes of her life with you?

The unsavoury episodes were rather interesting to talk about. She could sense my hesitation and would rather come to my rescue by answering most openly and candidly. She is very bold that way.

Did she ever express remorse about some of the things that she was accused of?

Ma Sheela maintains that she has dedicated her life to Bhagwan (Osho) and she served him the best way she possibly could. Yes, there was insurmountable pressure that she was reeling under and she made her judgements according to the demands of place and time. Ma was (or, rather, still is) head over heels in love with Bhagwan. So much so, that at times her emotion in the past may have coloured the reality to appear different than what it actually was. It happens to all of us. But in her case, she may have gone a step further, or maybe 100 steps further, than an ordinary human being in pursuing her love and her goal of upholding the entity of the ashram.

Besides Wild Wild Country, there is also Ma Sheelas memoir, Dont Kill Him! The Story of My Life With Bhagwan Rajneesh (2012). What made you feel the need for a biography on her?

Even after reading her memoir and watching the series, I was not satisfied. Just like me, I felt there would be many who had questions. In Nothing to Lose, I have answered those questions, filled in the vibrant colours, the intricate details, followed the timelines and have covered the gaps, as much as possible. Through this book, the reader will walk through the Orange world, along with Ma Sheela. He will be able to peep into her heart and her mind; and hear the conversations and witness the actions that took place behind closed doors.

How do you assess her feelings for Osho now?

She still has photographs of him at her home. She explains her 39-month prison term as simply her guru dakshina. She is still dearly in love with her Bhagwan. His pictures hang in the living room of her care home and her bedroom is full of images of Bhagwan and Sheela in love. One gets thrown back in time as one steps in her bedroom. Suddenly, Bhagwan, Sheela and the Orange world come alive. From running a sprawling commune to running care homes in Switzerland at age 70, its been a long journey. Her life is very different now, it is purely a life of service dedicated to those in need. But she still is the queen of her kingdom. She has a staff of over 30 people who are constantly at her beck and call and a number of chauffeurs to drive her and her patients around.

In interviews from those heady Oregon days, she is supremely dismissive and deliberately provocative. What was the most provocative thing she said to you?

Honestly, nothing! I had once jokingly asked her to say tough titties for me and she laughed and said, Oh Manbeena, those kinds of words are only for those shrewd journalists who deserve every bit of it and who need to be set straight, not for a person like you.

Nothing to Lose: The Authorised Biography of Ma Anand Sheela By Manbeena Sandhu HarperCollins India 332 pages Rs 599

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Manbeena Sandhu: Ma Anand Sheela is still the queen of her kingdom - The Indian Express

It has been a busy summer transfer window for Reading.

FC Porto full-back Tomas Esteves was the final arrival on deadline day on Monday evening.

Striker Marc McNulty was the final departure, joining Dundee United on loan in the Scottish Premiership for the rest of the season.

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There is still just over a week before the domestic window shuts, so Royals still have some time to do deals with Premier League sides or fellow EFL clubs.

Several players could still head out while Veljko Paunovic will be trying to strengthen further with a few more additions no doubt.

Here is a full list of the senior players who have left and joined Reading over the past couple of months.

Josh Laurent - Shrewsbury Town, free

Ovie Ejaria - Liverpool, 3m

Lewis Gibson - Everton, loan

Alfa Semedo - Benfica, loan

Tomas Esteves - FC Porto, loan

Chris Gunter - end of contract, free agent

Garath McCleary - end of contract, free agent

Vito Mannone - end of contract, Monaco

Adrian Popa - end of contract, free agent

Tyler Blackett - end of contract, Nottingham Forest

Jordan Obita - end of contract, free agent

Gabriel Osho - end of contract, free agent

Danny Loader - end of contract, FC Porto

Charlie Adam - end of contract, Dundee

Mo Barrow - undisclosed, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors

Lucas Boye - end of loan

Matt Miazga - end of loan

Pele - end of loan

Ayub Masika - end of loan

You can get the latest news on our dedicated Reading FC page

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Reading are back in Championship following the two week international break.

They travel to Teesside to take on Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.

Kick-off is 3pm on Saturday, October 17.

Join us for live coverage of the game throughout the day with all of the build-up starting in our live blog from 12pm.

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5 arrivals, 14 exits - every Reading FC transfer in and out this summer - Berkshire Live