Free Republic

Editor’s Note: Stephen Bloom is a Christian attorney with more than 20 years experience in private practice. He is a frequent media guest, speaker, and writer on Christianity and the law, a Lecturer in Management and Business at Messiah College, and a Consultant to the United Methodist Stewardship Foundation of Central Pennsylvania. He is a legal columnist for Good News Daily, former host of the "Practical Counsel - Christian Perspective" radio program, and founder of the Estate Planning Council of Cumberland County. Bloom has been actively involved in the leadership of numerous community and ministry organizations, including his church, where...

Chaim Shmuel Golubchuk, a"h, has gone to his Eternal reward. But the issues that pitted his children Percy Golubchuk and Miriam Geller against Grace General Hospital in Winnipeg over the last seven months will long be with us. After being informed by their father's doctors that they intended to end his life by removing his ventilation and feeding tube, the Golubchuk children sought an injunction against the hospital. They argued that their father would adamantly oppose any attempt to shorten his life, which is forbidden by Jewish law. After the entry of a temporary injunction, the hospital pursued an aggressive...

Even the most despicable ideas can be made palatable when euphemisms are used to spin them. That's why abortion advocates call themselves "pro-choice" rather than "pro abortion." It's also why they talk about "terminating a pregnancy" rather than "killing a baby." Controlling the language not only controls the argument, it often determines the outcome of the argument. Proponents of euthanasia understand the power of language in shaping debate. Therefore, instead of using the term "physician-assisted suicide" to describe the practice they advocate, they use euphemisms like "death with dignity" and "end of life choices" to sugar coat the reality of...

Saturday 29th September 2007 Dear Family and Friends, Standing outside over yet another smoky fire late one afternoon this week, a Go-Away bird chastised me from a nearby tree. I'm sure this Grey Lourie is as fed up of me intruding into its territory as I am of being there - trying to get a hot meal for supper. For five of the last six days the electricity has gone off before 5 in the morning and only come back 16 or 17 hours later a little before midnight. "Go Away! Go Away!" the Grey Lourie called out repeatedly as...

Starving in Zimbabwe 'amounts to genocide' By Sebastien Berger in Bulawayo Last Updated: 3:58am BST 21/08/2007 Democracy takes a beating as police assault demonstrators seeking a new constitution Zimbabweans are starving to death on a scale equivalent to genocide, a top opposition MP claimed yesterday. Four million people will need food aid by the end of the year, the World Food Programme said earlier this month, as President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF government oversees the fastest-shrinking economy in the world. David Coltart, a senior member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said there was "no doubt" Zimbabweans were already starving...

Death by Environmentalism http://www.objectivistcenter.org/navigator/articles/nav+rbidinotto_death-by-environmentalism.asp

What does it mean in practice to hold a philosophy that declares that pristine nature has intrinsic value in itself, and that regards Man and his activities as intrusive threats to the so-called ecological balance? I have discussed the history, meaning, and basic premises of environmentalism previously, in my monograph The Green Machine and in my recorded talk "Green Cathedrals," both available from The Objectivist Center. I also explore these issues on my ecoNOT.com Web site. But here I want to focus on the consequences of accepting core environmentalist premises—specifically, their deadly impact on human life. In the same way...

Even right-wingers who know that "global warming" is a crock do not seem to grasp what the tree-huggers are demanding. Liberals want mass starvation and human devastation. Forget the lunacy of people claiming to tell us the precise temperature of planet Earth in 1918 based on tree rings. Or the fact that in the '70s liberals were issuing similarly dire warnings about "global cooling." Simply consider what noted climatologists Al Gore and Melissa Etheridge are demanding that we do to combat their nutty conjectures about "global warming." They want us to starve the productive sector of fossil fuel and allow...

A ruling by Switzerland's highest court released Friday has opened up the possibility that people with serious mental illnesses could be helped by doctors to take their own lives. Switzerland already allows physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients under certain circumstances. The Federal Tribunal's decision puts mental illnesses on the same level as physical ones. "It must be recognized that an incurable, permanent, serious mental disorder can cause similar suffering as a physical (disorder), making life appear unbearable to the patient in the long term," the ruling said. "If the death wish is based on an autonomous decision which takes...

The hastily arranged car boot sale outside the French Embassy in downtown Kigali last Monday did good business. On offer were laptop computers, televisions, three-piece suites and, well, even the cars themselves. Given the decision taken by the Rwandan Government ten days ago to expel the French Ambassador, his staff and to close all official French buildings in the tiny Central African country, there was clearly little expectation of a return. Behind these scenes of gloomy embassy employees packing and selling their diplomatic and domestic baggage is a recent history between France and Rwanda steeped in a mire of blood...

Boy who was 'crucified' by Muslim A Sudanese slave who was assigned to watch his Muslim master's camels was "crucified" when he was caught sneaking out to attend a Christian church, according to reports from Voice of the Martyrs. The aid organization that helps persecuted Christians worldwide said the reports come from witnesses in the Sudan who were in contact with the youth, now about 15. Damare Garang was seven when the attack happened, officials said. He had been captured by Islamic soldiers when his Sudanese village was attacked, and then sold as a slave to a Muslim family...

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, Sept. 27, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pro-life woman was arrested Tuesday for holding an image of an aborted child outside an abortion facility in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Suzie Ryan, mother of seven, was silently holding the image outside the Morgentaler centre as abortions were being performed inside. Mrs. Ryan was charged with violating s.163 of the Criminal Code. S.163 is about the display of obscene material. She was released after being held in a jail cell for several hours. She must face the charges in court in November. Prior to her arrest Mrs. Ryan was not warned...

1 hour ago EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - A woman was charged Saturday in the deaths of a pregnant friend and the fetus authorities believe she cut out from the slain woman's womb after knocking the victim unconscious. Tiffany Hall, 24, was charged as authorities implored the public for help in their search for the victim's two sons, ages 7 and 2, and 1-year-old daughter. Authorities say they were last seen with Hall on Monday, three days before she was taken into custody. Hall, who was jailed on $5 million bond, faces charges of first-degree murder and intentional homicide of...

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed via euthanasia when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma. Now Poutre, once termed "brain dead" by doctors, continues to improve and is speaking a few words, her grandmother says. Sandra Sudyka, the girl's biological grandmother, is no longer allowed to visit her granddaughter and now says she is ready to speak to the media about Poutre's condition. She told The Republican newspaper that she last saw Poutre on July 18 but indicated she was "doing well." "She was bright-eyed...

In a case of "Whose life is it anyway?" a state appeals court ruled yesterday that a mentally handicapped woman has no say over whether she should be kept alive on life support. In the unanimous decision, a five-judge panel ruled that the 26-year-old - who says she wants to be kept on life support in the event she's felled by illness or an accident - isn't competent to make that decision. Instead, her mother, who is her legal guardian, gets to make the call - and she doesn't want her daughter on life support. A lawyer for the woman,...

TORONTO, September 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The recent efforts of Australia and other nations to ban the promotion of suicide through the internet has euthanasia advocates complaining that the loss of the internet may prove lethal to the “right-to-die” movement itself. In late 2005, Australia passed the Suicide Related Material Offences Act, which effectively outlawed suicide counseling by fax, telephone, and internet, the tools of choice employed by suicide advocates to educate and encourage people to commit suicide. This year Germany also has begun to follow suit by proposing similar legislation that would also outlaw internet suicide counseling. However, some...

CAIRO, Egypt - An American thought to be an al-Qaida activist appeared in a videotape with the terror group's deputy leader Saturday and called on his countrymen to convert to Islam and for U.S. soldiers to switch sides in the Iraq and Afghan wars. The 48-minute video, posted on an Islamic militant Web site, had footage of al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, and of Adam Yehiye Gadahn, a 28-year-old American who the FBI believes attended al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan and served as an al-Qaida translator. It was the second time Gadahn appeared in the same video with al-Zawahri....

Page 5 Living Will Declaration made this _____ day of ________________, 2____, I, ____________________________, willfully and voluntarily make known my desire that my dying not be artificially prolonged under the circumstances set forth below, and I do hereby declare that, if at any time I am mentally or physically incapacitated and _____(initial) I have a terminal condition, or _____(initial) I have an end-stage condition, or _____(initial) I am in a persistent vegetative state, and if my attending or treating physician and another consulting physician have determined that there is no reasonable medical probability of my recovery from such condition,...

TV reporters 'helped protester burn himself to death' By Rahul Bedi in New Delhi (Filed: 18/08/2006) Indian police are investigating a group of television journalists for allegedly helping a man to burn himself to death and filming his agony for broadcast. Pictures of Manoj Mishra writhing in pain with his back on fire were shown in Bihar state on Tuesday. Mr Mishra later died in hospital from severe burns in the town of Gaya. "We have seized footage clearly showing a group of journalists handing over matches and some inflammable substance, which we later verified to be diesel, to the...

LOS ANGELES - Investigators said Tuesday they are trying to find at least 50 women they have linked to a photographer on death row for murdering two aspiring models in the early 1980s. Authorities are looking into whether the women were raped or killed between 1975 and 1984 by William Richard Bradford, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Web site. In the 1970s and '80s, Bradford posed as a freelance photographer in the West Los Angeles area, taking sexually explicit photos of women he met at bars and auto races, according to the site. The site showed women...

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The wife of a Pennsylvania doctor surrendered Monday to face charges in the shooting death of her millionaire husband last year along the Ohio Turnpike. Hours earlier, a man linked romantically to her pleaded guilty in the case. Donna Moonda, 47, was charged in federal court with interstate stalking that resulted in death and with using a firearm in a violent crime. Earlier in the day, Damian Bradford, 25, of Monaca, Pa., near Pittsburgh, admitted in an Akron court to his involvement in the shooting and agreed to cooperate with authorities. Prosecutors said Bradford was the triggerman....

SEYMOUR, Ind. - Sniper shootings of two vehicles along Interstate 65 in southern Indiana early Sunday left one person dead and another injured, state police said. ADVERTISEMENT A sniper shot at a southbound vehicle with three occupants about 12:20 a.m., killing one of them, police said. About the same time, occupants of a second southbound vehicle called police to report a person in that vehicle also had been shot.

The Nagpada Police yesterday arrested Mohammed Munna Khan (38) and his wife Shenaz (35) for brutally murdering their daughter Mehnaz (18). Gulnaz, the younger daughter, was also arrested for abetting the crime. The police had found Mehnaz’s dismembered body stuffed into a plastic sack on a road near the Byculla flyover on July 2. Love affair In their confession, the parents told the police that they murdered Menaz as she fell in love with a Hindu boy from the same locality. An official from Nagpada police station said, “Fearing social stigma over their daughter’s affair, the duo decided to kill...

Every few weeks in Batman and the surrounding area in southeast Anatolia, which is poor, rural and deeply influenced by conservative Islam, a young woman tries to take her life. Others have been stoned to death, strangled, shot or buried alive. Their offenses ranged from stealing a glance at a boy to wearing a short skirt, wanting to go to the movies, being raped by a stranger or relative or having consensual sex. Hoping to join the European Union, Turkey has tightened the punishment for attacks on women and girls who have had such experiences. But the violence has continued,...

2 hours ago GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli aircraft sent missiles tearing through the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday in an unmistakable message to his ruling Hamas group to free an Israeli soldier. Defense Minister Amir Peretz told a Cabinet meeting that Israel would go after "higher-caliber targets" in the future _ a reference to senior Hamas officials inside and outside the Palestinian territories, a high-ranking political official said. Israeli aircraft, tanks and naval gunboats have been pounding Gaza for the past week in an effort to win the freedom of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who...

HOUSTON - Andrea Yates believed that cartoon characters told her she was a bad mother who fed her children too much candy, a jail psychiatrist testified Thursday. Dr. Melissa R. Ferguson, who talked to Yates the day after her arrest in the bathtub drownings of her five children, said the defendant suffered from a major depressive disorder and was psychotic, picking at her lip until it bled. Ferguson was the first defense witness in the second murder trial for Yates, who has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. She is being retried because her 2002 conviction was overturned last year...

BALTIMORE - A long-standing feud over house rules at a seniors' high rise led one octogenarian resident to shoot and kill another, police said. The shooting on Monday apparently occurred after an 86-year-old desk clerk at the building refused to allow an 80-year-old resident's granddaughter to board an elevator without a visitor's pass, police said. Thomas Batty, 86, was shot once in the head as he sat behind the front desk, and Clyde Lewis, 80, was charged with murder. Both lived on the building's 12th floor. A bail hearing for Lewis was set for Tuesday afternoon. Police Officer Troy Harris...

LAHORE, Pakistan - A Pakistan man killed his three young daughters Tuesday before confessing to police, prompting one officer to shoot him dead, an investigator said. Mohammed Ashraf, 38, used a knife to cut the throats of his daughters aged 3, 5 and 9 before dawn in the eastern city of Lahore, said senior police investigator Amir Zulifquar. Ashraf then went to a police station to report his crime, and was charged with murdering his daughters and placed in a cell. "As I left the police station after questioning Mohammed Ashraf, one of my guards opened fire and killed him,"...

A receptionist at an upmarket hair salon deliberately infected her boyfriend with HIV in a revenge attack on black men who she blamed for giving her the disease. Sarah Jane Porter, 43, who works at the Knightsbridge branch of Vidal Sassoon, set out to infect a string of men after contracting the Aids virus from a black lover. Over a five-year period, she is thought to have had unprotected sex with with dozens of people who were unaware she was HIV positive. A nationwide appeal to trace Porter's former lovers was issued last night as she was jailed for 32...

CALUMET PARK, Ill. - A boy who won a $2 million settlement with the city of Chicago after being wrongly accused of murdering an 11-year-old girl in 1998 has been arrested in a double shooting in a south suburb, according to a news report. The boy, now 15, was caught committing the crime on video surveillance with his older brother, Calumet Park Cmdr. Mel Davis told the Chicago Sun-Times for its Saturday editions. "He turned around and looked at the camera with a gun in his hand," Davis said. "It doesn't get any clearer than that." One of the shooting...

WASHINGTON - Convicted sniper Lee Boyd Malvo told authorities that he and conspirator John Allen Muhammad were responsible for four shootings, two of them fatal, that had not been publicly linked to them, according to a published report. The Washington Post, citing a source familiar with the case, said in a story in Friday's editions the shootings occurred before the three-week spree in October 2002 in which 13 people were shot, 10 fatally, in the Washington area. The Post said a second source confirmed that investigators have received information implicating Malvo and Muhammad in the four other shootings. The sources...

MACON, Ga. - A 27-year-old woman was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for leaving her newborn daughter in a Wal-Mart restroom last year. Amy Shorter covered her face after the verdict was read Wednesday, and several relatives cried as they left the courtroom. They declined to comment. The jury found Shorter guilty of felony murder for causing the baby's death while committing first-degree cruelty to children. Defense attorney Elizabeth Lane had argued that Shorter did not intend to kill her child. Lane said Shorter didn't know she was pregnant and panicked after giving birth in the...

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - One of two young boys allegedly abducted by their father was found dead in a lake Wednesday, and the other boy and their father were found nearby with knife wounds, authorities said. Katron Walker, 32, had cut his own throat and stabbed himself in the chest, Terre Haute Police Sgt. David Smith said. His 2-year-old son, Monte, was also hospitalized with injuries. Police were called to the lake early Wednesday after a resident recognized Walker's van from an Amber Alert and spotted him with the boys. "He was running from a trailer and had both boys...

ATLANTA - Lawyers for convicted killer Wayne Williams, blamed for the murders of two dozen boys and young men in the Atlanta area during the 1970s and '80s, are casting suspicion on a child molester they say lived or worked near where many of the bodies were found. In court papers made public Friday, the defense asked a federal judge for access to police files on the molester. The papers do not identify the man by name but say he is a multiple child molester serving time in a Georgia prison. They also allege that investigators knew the man was...

LEVITTOWN, Pennsylvania (June 6) - A deal is being negotiated that would allow a high school's class president to participate in Friday's graduation ceremony despite concern that he could be targeted by a gang. Tyrone Lewis, 18, had been scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Truman High School commencement ceremony, but police were worried that he could be targeted by a gang from Trenton, New Jersey, because his sister had testified in a murder trial. Lewis had been barred from the ceremony. Dave Truelove, the Bristol Township School District's solicitor, confirmed Tuesday that talks are in progress...

FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany - A woman was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for killing eight of her newborn babies in the 1990s and burying their bodies around her parents' home in a case that shocked Germany. Sabine Hilschenz, 40, was given the maximum sentence after the court found her guilty of eight counts of manslaughter. She also was suspected in the death of a ninth child in 1988, but the statute of limitations does not allow for that case to be tried. Hilschenz was arrested after the remains of the infants were...

Coach killed 'for wearing shorts'From: Reuters From correspondents in Baghdad May 26, 2006 THE coach of the Iraq tennis team and two players have been shot dead by armed gunmen in Baghdad, the Iraqi Olympic Committee chief said today. According to eye witnesses, the three men were killed because they were wearing shorts. "Armed men assassinated the trainer, Ahmed Rachid, and two players, Nasser Ali Hatem and Wissam Adel Odah on Thursday afternoon in the Saidiya district (of Baghdad)," committee secretary-general Amer Jabbar said. Witnesses said that a Sunni militant group issued a warning a few days before the attack,...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.--A man killed his two young children by throwing them off the 15th floor of a landmark South Beach hotel and then jumped to his own death Saturday, police said. The children were 4- and 8-years-old and the family was vacationing from Alton, Ill., said Bobby Hernandez, Miami Beach police spokesman. The children's mother was not physically injured, Hernandez said. The identities of the family members were not immediately released by police. The family was staying at the Loews Hotel in South Beach on Saturday morning, when the mother heard one of her children screaming from an adjacent...

NEW YORK - A bouncer was arrested Thursday on charges he shot four people _ killing one _ in an angry frenzy outside a Manhattan nightspot. Stephen Sakai, 30, of Brooklyn, was awaiting arraignment on murder, assault and weapons charges. Police also were investigating whether Sakai was involved in three other fatal shootings, law enforcement officials said Thursday. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed, said the suspect made statements implicating himself in those slayings. One of the victims had worked as a bouncer at a topless bar in Brooklyn called Sweet...

(AP) CONWAY, S.C. An 18-year-old woman was stabbed to death in a middle school parking lot as students were arriving for class Thursday, and a man was arrested, police said. Students and school employees saw the attack shortly before 8 a.m. in a lot shared by Carolina Forest Middle School and Carolina Forest High School, Horry County police said in a news release. The victim's name was not released, and authorities would not say whether she was a student at the high school. Edwin Lee Cornelius, 24, of Aynor, was arrested shortly after the stabbing. Police said charges were pending....

LES CROSETS, Switzerland - Former Swiss skiing star Corinne Rey-Bellet and her brother, Alain, were shot and killed in their parents' home, and police were trying to find Rey-Bellet's husband. The attack late Sunday night, which also left Rey-Bellet's mother hospitalized with serious injuries, occurred in the Swiss mountain resort of Les Crosets, according to the Valais state police. Rey-Bellet's mother was able to call police despite her injuries. Police said the attacker, who fired five shots, fled and eluded a search. Police spokesman Renato Kalbermatten said authorities were trying to find Rey-Bellet's husband, who lived with her and their...

CORINTH, Maine - The Maine Department of Public Safety has no plans to change the state's Web-based sex offender registry despite the killings of two sex offenders whose addresses were apparently obtained online. A Canadian man used the registry to obtain personal information about the victims, authorities said, renewing fears that such lists expose ex-convicts to vigilante violence. "The events of the weekend will obviously be reviewed, but there are no plans to change the Web site at this point," Stephen McCausland, Maine Public Safety spokesman, said Monday. The gunman, Stephen A. Marshall, a 20-year-old from Nova Scotia's Cape Breton,...

DETROIT - Proof, a member of rap group D12 and a close friend of Eminem, was shot to death early Tuesday at a nightclub along Eight Mile, the road made famous by the 2002 film that starred Eminem and in which Proof had a bit part. The death of Proof _ real name Deshaun Holton _ was confirmed by Dennis Dennehy, the publicist for D12's label, Interscope Records, as well as by Detroit police spokesman James Tate. "Memorial service arrangements are still being made, and his friends and family would appreciate privacy during this difficult time," Dennehy said in a...

Frenchman faces 25 years for burning girl alive CRETEIL, France, April 7, 2006 (AFP) - French prosecutors called Friday for a 25-year prison sentence for a young man accused of burning a 17-year-old woman to death in a Paris suburb. Sohane Benziane, a Frenchwoman of Algerian origin, was doused with lighter fuel, set on fire and left to die in the basement of a run-down housing estate in Vitry-sur-Seine near Paris, in October 2002. Jamal Derrar, 22, is accused of acts of torture and barbarity leading to death and faces 25 years' imprisonment, while his co-defendant Tony Rocca, 23, faces...

AUSTIN - A University of Texas biology professor has been targeted by talk radio, bloggers and vitriolic e-mails - including a death threat - after a published report that he advocated death for most of the population as a means of saving the Earth. But Eric Pianka said Monday his remarks about what he believes is an impending pandemic were taken out of context. "What we really need to do is start thinking about controlling our population before it's too late," he said. "It's already too late, but we're not even thinking about it. We're just mindlessly rushing ahead breeding...

AUSTIN — A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be better off with 90 percent of the human population dead. “Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine,” Though his statements are admittedly bold, he’s not without abundant advocates. But what may set this revered biologist apart from other doomsday soothsayers is this: Humanity’s collapse is a notion he embraces. Indeed, his words deal, very literally, on a life-and-death scale, yet he smiles and jokes candidly throughout the lecture. Disseminating a message many would call morbid, Pianka’s warnings are centered upon awareness rather than...

AP) WEST HAVEN, Conn. A motorist opened fire on a group of Hell's Angels motorcyclists along Interstate 95 on Sunday, killing one and injuring another, police said. The bikers were traveling near West Haven around 3:30 p.m. when they were shot, said State Police spokesman Sgt. J. Paul Vance. Police were considering a number of possible motives including road rage, and were searching for a sport utility vehicle with Florida license plates, Vance said. Roger Mariani, 61, of Stratford, pulled over before realizing he had been shot in the upper torso, Vance said. He later died at the Yale-New Haven...

PHILADELPHIA - Two teenagers taunted a man rummaging through a trash bin and then killed him after he bared his buttocks at them, police said Tuesday. "He didn't want to be harassed by these kids or whatever and he mooned them," Upper Darby Township Police Sgt. David Madonna said. Christopher McEneaney, 16, and Andre Mark, 18, were charged Monday in the slaying Friday night of Martin Malone, 47. He was stabbed with a multi-tool and bludgeoned with a shovel. Police said the teens were walking through an apartment complex just outside Philadelphia when they saw Malone picking through the trash...

Slain Minister's Wife to Be Charged With Murder Friday, March 24, 2006 MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The wife of a Tennessee pastor found shot dead in his house Wednesday will face first-degree murder charges, authorities announced Friday. Mary Winklerwas found Thursday night with the couple's three daughters in Orange Beach, Ala., about 400 miles south of their home in Selmer. Investigators with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said she was interviewed during the night and the charges were being prepared. "We've interviewed her and she was cooperative," said Jennifer Johnson of the TBI, adding that once a warrant with the charges...

Police: Man Killed Teen for Walking on Lawn By LISA CORNWELL ASSOCIATED PRESS BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) - 0321dv-lawn-shooting A man who neighbors say was devoted to his meticulously kept lawn was charged with murder in the shooting of a 15-year-old boy who apparently walked across his yard. Charles Martin called 911 on Sunday afternoon, saying calmly: "I just killed a kid." Police, who released the call's contents, said Martin also told the dispatcher: "I've been harassed by him and his parents for five years. Today just blew it up." Larry Mugrage, whose family lived next door, was shot in the...