I don't really buy these statistics...but according to this website:
| HowManyOfMe.com | ||
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Friday, August 29, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Look For The Revolutionary Label - Rerun
******This is a previously posted piece that I felt like re-running as I keep writing stories about "unity" intermixed with nasty politics as usual *********
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln
"Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. - Jesus Christ
The time has come...for revolution.
That's right...damn the threat of Gitmo. To hell with The Patriot Act. I will not back down, I will not be silenced. I am sounding the clarion call for rebellion and I do so fearlessly.
We must overthrow the enemy and my friends, the enemy has a huge head start.
The enemy has an organized army. A fortress built on a fabric of fear and reinforced with walls that can not be breached by bombs, or guns, fire, or half-hearted faith.
The enemy is well funded, well fortified and operates like a well oiled machine, sparing nothing in its' path. Its plan of attack is well honed, well operated and well proven. The enemy's assault is being waged every second of every day and has been for decades, perhaps centuries.
And we haven't noticed...or haven't cared.
Worse yet...we pay the enemy's soldiers...in fact some members of the enemy's army are actually waging war against themselves. We fund their weaponry. Hell, we cheer them on, feed on their plunder and the spoils of their war are often surrendered gladly...by us.
I want it back.
I want every damn bit of it back.
I am calling for a revolution. You can call me Che...but only if I get to wear the beret.
"Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream" - Nathaniel Hawthorne
I'm not kidding...and I'm not backing down. I detest playing defense.
Don't tune me out...you haven't even begun to hear and so help me God if we fail to learn to listen we all will suffer consequences so severe they will threaten every possession you have and every person you love...our planet...our existence.
Overly dramatic? I'm not kidding, I mean every word.
Some of you have already made up your minds, you've labeled me.
Label me paranoid...call me names,
"Face it, he's another conspiracy nut on the web."
"So far I think he's just long winded." - Made up people.
You would be wrong to label me...at least at this point. Okay, with the possible exception of the long-winded label.
But it's labels that are the very weapons that the enemy is using...every day, everywhere you look. You can't close your eyes to them, we can't tune it out, we can't even stop ourselves from using them! The weapons of the enemy!
Maybe I am a nut, but I'm a nut who believes there is only one thing to do...fight back.
TV does it, radio, the Internet and newspapers do it. Politicians, preachers, and Pulitzer prize winners do it. Ad men and mad men, altruists and Ayatollahs...they're all using the same weapons of war...labels.
On the face of it, it seems harmless. Labels are simple ways to categorize ...every belief you have, every dream, every value, every person...heck even every state.
Are you Blue or Red?
Not Communist red...Republican red.
If you're Republican Red than you favor big business, you vote "conservative," you are "pro-life," you are religious...not spiritual...most likely a Christian...a fundamentalist. You are pro-Israel and anti-Muslim, you don't watch Public television or listen to National Public Radio, you favor school choice, and believe all unions are corrupt. You are pro-gun, pro-military, pro-death penalty, anti-immigration, you like NASCAR, think soccer is for kids and foreigners and you don't understand hockey. You are pro-family, but think children are best seen and not heard...crying babies should be removed from the church service.
You object to paying five bucks for coffee, but you do. You are Red, and a real American. You think the poor are slackers, welfare is out of whack, and you'd home school your kids if you weren't working so hard to afford your SUV. You believe flag-burning is a real issue of monumental importance, you want prayer back in public schools and you claim to read your Bible every day, but you can't quote scripture too well. You listen to talk radio and only watch FOX news and you don't give a flying fart about trans-fats. And of course, above almost all else these days, you are certainly NOT green.
No, you can't be green if you're red. The labels clash...at least that's what the people labeled "fashionistas" and political experts tell us. Only people who are Blue can be green.
Blue people are pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-war, and want to legalize gay marriage. They believe surrender is not the same as withdrawal, red meat will rot your gut, red wine is good for you and in a pinch so is beer. You may have grown up in a trailer park, you who are Blue , though Blue people are proud to boast fluent Starbuckese while trying hard to deny that was them at the Star Trek Convention 10 years ago. Blue people vote for Democrats, and if they're not the poor, they help the poor, get down and dirty with 'em because they know it's the Red people holding them down. Unions are always good, corporations are always bad, America is usually wrong, and Hollywood is something to be admired. Blue people think they have a better chance of winning the lottery or American Idol than they do of ever being wealthy. Blue people still smoke...but only in certain Blue people places, where the family farm is being trampled by the Red people's greed.
Is that crazy?
OF COURSE THAT'S CRAZY! You think I'm really that much of a nut?
Turn in your blue badges, turn in the red badges too. Wave the white flag because you've already surrendered to people who are not dividing a house against itself....they've diced it.
I've been a reporter for more than 30 years. I have covered horrible murders. I once followed police around Denton County, Texas as they retrieved garbage bags off the sides of roadways...inside the bags were the dismembered body parts of a woman, killed by her deranged husband. I've listened to a man scream...wail at God, moments after learning his four children had been carved up by a cocaine crazed kid.
But I've never seen anything as gory as what I see on T.V. shows every week. Law & Order SVU, CSI Wherever...these shows, which are "Emmy" winners...have invaded our homes with story after story after story of depravity and deviance...each story seemingly worse than the last.
But someone is making those up. Most of our society isn't that way...those stories of horrifyingly grotesque acts of violence just don't happen. Yes, John Wayne Gacy did exist...so did Jeffrey Dahmer...but they didn't exist in our homes three nights a week...every week.
We've come to believe that those types of shows depict "reality" while programs labeled "Reality shows" are not reality...the only reality is that they are cheap to produce...and they use the enemy's favorite weapon too. They divide us...label us.
The "haves" versus the "have-nots"....grab the greed, one case away from happiness, one race or sex against another...people of faith against people of perversion...or so we're led to believe. The shows are edited. Those people are one dimensional on TV no matter what size TV you've been convinced you "have" to own by the ads that run every few minutes making you feel inferior for not "keeping up" with standards that are made up by someone in an advertising agency. In real life those people are three dimensional, unedited...and I don't believe nearly as shallow.
We're told the world "hates" America...some say it's because of George Bush (that's usually what we hear the "Blue" people are saying by the way).
We're told immigrants are a threat to our security, welfare pigs, and lazy. That's what we're told the "Red" people say...and we hear it so much we believe it.
But the people telling us those things...are they the "Red" people you know? Or the "Blue" people living next door?
Probably not...they're either politicians, or race activists, or more likely the "Perfect People" in the picture tube with the fresh breath, and sparkling white teeth, who never get bed head. No matter, all of them have their own reasons for labeling other people as "for this" or "against that" or mean or pitiful...they need to keep your attention...on them. Either to win your vote, or to get you to give them money, or to convince you to buy something that truthfully you probably don't really need.
Labels...even on a can of beans labels are not plain black letters on a white background...why?
Think!
Almost everything created by man is designed to distract you from something else...and that's the enemy's weapon.
I don't know if the world hates America because of George Bush or if they hate America because of what they see blaring into their homes...our fixation with fame, and wealth, and celebrity and labels. I don't know if the world hates America at all.
"The world" doesn't speak...people...red people, blue people, green people, media people, lots of people who are quick to lob labels speak...and while we may be bombing the wrong people in the Middle East, I can tell you with certainty we are attacking the heart of the values of people all over the world with a skewed view of our country and I can't blame them for feeling under siege, because I feel that way too.
We fought wars in places most of us have never and will never be, yet we have been and are still under unrelenting attack right here, right now. In every state, every county, ever city, and every home in America.
We are losing...badly.
So I am calling for a revolution.
A stewardship revolution.
Sign up today.
Be a good steward of your values, be they red or be they blue. Be a good steward of your money. Be a good steward of our planet. Be a good steward of your children. Be a good steward of your faith. Foremost be a good steward of your mind...be careful what you let in there, what you take as truth, and who you allow such liberties.
And be a good steward of your tongue...label less, listen more.
If we were really to do that, with all our hearts and our souls and our minds....by God Almighty, THAT would be a real revolution.
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson
"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." - Jesus Christ
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln
"Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. - Jesus Christ
The time has come...for revolution.
That's right...damn the threat of Gitmo. To hell with The Patriot Act. I will not back down, I will not be silenced. I am sounding the clarion call for rebellion and I do so fearlessly.
We must overthrow the enemy and my friends, the enemy has a huge head start.
The enemy has an organized army. A fortress built on a fabric of fear and reinforced with walls that can not be breached by bombs, or guns, fire, or half-hearted faith.
The enemy is well funded, well fortified and operates like a well oiled machine, sparing nothing in its' path. Its plan of attack is well honed, well operated and well proven. The enemy's assault is being waged every second of every day and has been for decades, perhaps centuries.
And we haven't noticed...or haven't cared.
Worse yet...we pay the enemy's soldiers...in fact some members of the enemy's army are actually waging war against themselves. We fund their weaponry. Hell, we cheer them on, feed on their plunder and the spoils of their war are often surrendered gladly...by us.
I want it back.
I want every damn bit of it back.
I am calling for a revolution. You can call me Che...but only if I get to wear the beret.
"Eager souls, mystics and revolutionaries, may propose to refashion the world in accordance with their dreams; but evil remains, and so long as it lurks in the secret places of the heart, utopia is only the shadow of a dream" - Nathaniel Hawthorne
I'm not kidding...and I'm not backing down. I detest playing defense.
Don't tune me out...you haven't even begun to hear and so help me God if we fail to learn to listen we all will suffer consequences so severe they will threaten every possession you have and every person you love...our planet...our existence.
Overly dramatic? I'm not kidding, I mean every word.
Some of you have already made up your minds, you've labeled me.
Label me paranoid...call me names,
"Face it, he's another conspiracy nut on the web."
"So far I think he's just long winded." - Made up people.
You would be wrong to label me...at least at this point. Okay, with the possible exception of the long-winded label.
But it's labels that are the very weapons that the enemy is using...every day, everywhere you look. You can't close your eyes to them, we can't tune it out, we can't even stop ourselves from using them! The weapons of the enemy!
Maybe I am a nut, but I'm a nut who believes there is only one thing to do...fight back.
TV does it, radio, the Internet and newspapers do it. Politicians, preachers, and Pulitzer prize winners do it. Ad men and mad men, altruists and Ayatollahs...they're all using the same weapons of war...labels.
On the face of it, it seems harmless. Labels are simple ways to categorize ...every belief you have, every dream, every value, every person...heck even every state.
Are you Blue or Red?
Not Communist red...Republican red.
If you're Republican Red than you favor big business, you vote "conservative," you are "pro-life," you are religious...not spiritual...most likely a Christian...a fundamentalist. You are pro-Israel and anti-Muslim, you don't watch Public television or listen to National Public Radio, you favor school choice, and believe all unions are corrupt. You are pro-gun, pro-military, pro-death penalty, anti-immigration, you like NASCAR, think soccer is for kids and foreigners and you don't understand hockey. You are pro-family, but think children are best seen and not heard...crying babies should be removed from the church service.
You object to paying five bucks for coffee, but you do. You are Red, and a real American. You think the poor are slackers, welfare is out of whack, and you'd home school your kids if you weren't working so hard to afford your SUV. You believe flag-burning is a real issue of monumental importance, you want prayer back in public schools and you claim to read your Bible every day, but you can't quote scripture too well. You listen to talk radio and only watch FOX news and you don't give a flying fart about trans-fats. And of course, above almost all else these days, you are certainly NOT green.
No, you can't be green if you're red. The labels clash...at least that's what the people labeled "fashionistas" and political experts tell us. Only people who are Blue can be green.
Blue people are pro-environment, pro-choice, anti-war, and want to legalize gay marriage. They believe surrender is not the same as withdrawal, red meat will rot your gut, red wine is good for you and in a pinch so is beer. You may have grown up in a trailer park, you who are Blue , though Blue people are proud to boast fluent Starbuckese while trying hard to deny that was them at the Star Trek Convention 10 years ago. Blue people vote for Democrats, and if they're not the poor, they help the poor, get down and dirty with 'em because they know it's the Red people holding them down. Unions are always good, corporations are always bad, America is usually wrong, and Hollywood is something to be admired. Blue people think they have a better chance of winning the lottery or American Idol than they do of ever being wealthy. Blue people still smoke...but only in certain Blue people places, where the family farm is being trampled by the Red people's greed.
Is that crazy?
OF COURSE THAT'S CRAZY! You think I'm really that much of a nut?
Turn in your blue badges, turn in the red badges too. Wave the white flag because you've already surrendered to people who are not dividing a house against itself....they've diced it.
I've been a reporter for more than 30 years. I have covered horrible murders. I once followed police around Denton County, Texas as they retrieved garbage bags off the sides of roadways...inside the bags were the dismembered body parts of a woman, killed by her deranged husband. I've listened to a man scream...wail at God, moments after learning his four children had been carved up by a cocaine crazed kid.
But I've never seen anything as gory as what I see on T.V. shows every week. Law & Order SVU, CSI Wherever...these shows, which are "Emmy" winners...have invaded our homes with story after story after story of depravity and deviance...each story seemingly worse than the last.
But someone is making those up. Most of our society isn't that way...those stories of horrifyingly grotesque acts of violence just don't happen. Yes, John Wayne Gacy did exist...so did Jeffrey Dahmer...but they didn't exist in our homes three nights a week...every week.
We've come to believe that those types of shows depict "reality" while programs labeled "Reality shows" are not reality...the only reality is that they are cheap to produce...and they use the enemy's favorite weapon too. They divide us...label us.
The "haves" versus the "have-nots"....grab the greed, one case away from happiness, one race or sex against another...people of faith against people of perversion...or so we're led to believe. The shows are edited. Those people are one dimensional on TV no matter what size TV you've been convinced you "have" to own by the ads that run every few minutes making you feel inferior for not "keeping up" with standards that are made up by someone in an advertising agency. In real life those people are three dimensional, unedited...and I don't believe nearly as shallow.
We're told the world "hates" America...some say it's because of George Bush (that's usually what we hear the "Blue" people are saying by the way).
We're told immigrants are a threat to our security, welfare pigs, and lazy. That's what we're told the "Red" people say...and we hear it so much we believe it.
But the people telling us those things...are they the "Red" people you know? Or the "Blue" people living next door?
Probably not...they're either politicians, or race activists, or more likely the "Perfect People" in the picture tube with the fresh breath, and sparkling white teeth, who never get bed head. No matter, all of them have their own reasons for labeling other people as "for this" or "against that" or mean or pitiful...they need to keep your attention...on them. Either to win your vote, or to get you to give them money, or to convince you to buy something that truthfully you probably don't really need.
Labels...even on a can of beans labels are not plain black letters on a white background...why?
Think!
Almost everything created by man is designed to distract you from something else...and that's the enemy's weapon.
I don't know if the world hates America because of George Bush or if they hate America because of what they see blaring into their homes...our fixation with fame, and wealth, and celebrity and labels. I don't know if the world hates America at all.
"The world" doesn't speak...people...red people, blue people, green people, media people, lots of people who are quick to lob labels speak...and while we may be bombing the wrong people in the Middle East, I can tell you with certainty we are attacking the heart of the values of people all over the world with a skewed view of our country and I can't blame them for feeling under siege, because I feel that way too.
We fought wars in places most of us have never and will never be, yet we have been and are still under unrelenting attack right here, right now. In every state, every county, ever city, and every home in America.
We are losing...badly.
So I am calling for a revolution.
A stewardship revolution.
Sign up today.
Be a good steward of your values, be they red or be they blue. Be a good steward of your money. Be a good steward of our planet. Be a good steward of your children. Be a good steward of your faith. Foremost be a good steward of your mind...be careful what you let in there, what you take as truth, and who you allow such liberties.
And be a good steward of your tongue...label less, listen more.
If we were really to do that, with all our hearts and our souls and our minds....by God Almighty, THAT would be a real revolution.
"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend." - Thomas Jefferson
"I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." - Jesus Christ
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
I'll believe it when I see hear it
I used to lose a lot of sleep worrying about work. Specifically, I'd toss and turn fearing that when I arrived at the office before dawn I'd be greeted by the journalistic equivalent of Mother Hubbard's cupboard....no news.
I feared our team of reporters would collectively fail in their efforts to generate news stories and since I was (and still am) the last line of defense, I'd have to scramble to "find" news to keep the audio meters twitching.
I'm not sure when it was exactly, but at some point I realized that despite all my sleepless nights, and even some pretty bleak news days, my worst fears never materialized. So I stopped losing sleep over it.
Still, I'm often asked, "What do you do if there's no news?"
My standard, and now rather stale response is always, "I just make stuff up."
Today, I thought someone really was making stuff up. I read a story about a lawmaker in California - you know that state known for its intense commitment to the environment - who is seriously worried about the proliferation of hybrid cars.
Really.
At first I giggled and presumed it was some goofy satirical piece from "The Onion" or a similar website which had been mistakenly been construed as real.
Then I did a Google news search...which turned up some 300+ articles dealing with this weighty issue.
In a nutshell (nut being highly appropriate in this instance) this state lawmaker in California is worried about blind people...or "visually impaired"....sight deprived...whatever the politically correct term in California is for people who can't see.
His concern?
He's worried blind people are going to get run over by hybrid cars...because the cars are too quiet.
I am not kidding.
He's so worried in fact that members of the California legislature, representatives of organizations involved with the visually impaired, and others are going to form a committee to study this issue.
(Insert clueless leading the sightless gag here)
They are seriously talking about somehow requiring hybrid vehicles to be "noisier."
I couldn't make this up if I tried.
I really am serious.
Do a "Google News Search" for "blind hybrids" yourself if you don't believe me.
Exactly how many blind people are run over in California? Is this something that happens a lot? Are blind Californians regularly flattened by bicyclists, electric wheelchairs, and or joggers?
This has to go down as one of the silliest things I've ever heard any state lawmaker discuss, and believe me I've been around a lot of state lawmakers, but most of their livers failed before they lost this many brain cells.
Yet since I'm such a magnanimous guy who wants to save California taxpayers the expense of "studying" this crucial matter...and because I also am not in favor of any blind person being inadvertently smushed by a hybrid car, a deer, or a well muffled Zamboni...I've come up with a solution.
I couldn't bear the thought of people losing sleep worrying about how to solve this "crisis" so I put on my thinking cap and vowed not to take if off until I arrived at the answer.
Admittedly I was able to remove the cap in about 4 seconds, but maybe I'm a genius.
Here's what I came up with...(drum roll please - that's for the benefit of any blind person walking past your computer who obviously can't read over your shoulder and realize the monumental importance of my solution).
How about requiring the manufacturers of hybrid cars to put something in them to warn the apparent throngs of blind people aimlessly wandering the streets of California that vehicles are rapidly approaching which are apparently destined to mow them down?
I don't know...maybe something like....um...well, like this?
No need to thank me California. I don't want the credit. Feel free to utilize my profound wisdom gratis.
After all, I never was one to toot my own horn.
I feared our team of reporters would collectively fail in their efforts to generate news stories and since I was (and still am) the last line of defense, I'd have to scramble to "find" news to keep the audio meters twitching.
I'm not sure when it was exactly, but at some point I realized that despite all my sleepless nights, and even some pretty bleak news days, my worst fears never materialized. So I stopped losing sleep over it.
Still, I'm often asked, "What do you do if there's no news?"
My standard, and now rather stale response is always, "I just make stuff up."
Today, I thought someone really was making stuff up. I read a story about a lawmaker in California - you know that state known for its intense commitment to the environment - who is seriously worried about the proliferation of hybrid cars.
Really.
At first I giggled and presumed it was some goofy satirical piece from "The Onion" or a similar website which had been mistakenly been construed as real.
Then I did a Google news search...which turned up some 300+ articles dealing with this weighty issue.
In a nutshell (nut being highly appropriate in this instance) this state lawmaker in California is worried about blind people...or "visually impaired"....sight deprived...whatever the politically correct term in California is for people who can't see.
His concern?
He's worried blind people are going to get run over by hybrid cars...because the cars are too quiet.
I am not kidding.
He's so worried in fact that members of the California legislature, representatives of organizations involved with the visually impaired, and others are going to form a committee to study this issue.
(Insert clueless leading the sightless gag here)
They are seriously talking about somehow requiring hybrid vehicles to be "noisier."
I couldn't make this up if I tried.
I really am serious.
Do a "Google News Search" for "blind hybrids" yourself if you don't believe me.
Exactly how many blind people are run over in California? Is this something that happens a lot? Are blind Californians regularly flattened by bicyclists, electric wheelchairs, and or joggers?
This has to go down as one of the silliest things I've ever heard any state lawmaker discuss, and believe me I've been around a lot of state lawmakers, but most of their livers failed before they lost this many brain cells.
Yet since I'm such a magnanimous guy who wants to save California taxpayers the expense of "studying" this crucial matter...and because I also am not in favor of any blind person being inadvertently smushed by a hybrid car, a deer, or a well muffled Zamboni...I've come up with a solution.
I couldn't bear the thought of people losing sleep worrying about how to solve this "crisis" so I put on my thinking cap and vowed not to take if off until I arrived at the answer.
Admittedly I was able to remove the cap in about 4 seconds, but maybe I'm a genius.
Here's what I came up with...(drum roll please - that's for the benefit of any blind person walking past your computer who obviously can't read over your shoulder and realize the monumental importance of my solution).
How about requiring the manufacturers of hybrid cars to put something in them to warn the apparent throngs of blind people aimlessly wandering the streets of California that vehicles are rapidly approaching which are apparently destined to mow them down?
I don't know...maybe something like....um...well, like this?
No need to thank me California. I don't want the credit. Feel free to utilize my profound wisdom gratis.
After all, I never was one to toot my own horn.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Maybe It Was Something They Eight
By now you have no doubt realized, read, heard that this is 8/8/8, as in August 8th, 2008. It's supposed to be a lucky day...a happy day. What? That doesn't do it?
Well, perhaps this will lift your spirits. This is also "Galactic Freedom Day!"
Yes, today the people of the world join together (at 8 p.m. "Universal" time) in a mass experiment aimed at retrieving the truth from various governments about the vast numbers of space aliens who visited/invaded/now control our planet.
As for me...I'm just happy it's Friday.
Well, perhaps this will lift your spirits. This is also "Galactic Freedom Day!"
Yes, today the people of the world join together (at 8 p.m. "Universal" time) in a mass experiment aimed at retrieving the truth from various governments about the vast numbers of space aliens who visited/invaded/now control our planet.
As for me...I'm just happy it's Friday.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
I'm Not Taking A Position Here....Butt.
I noticed that testimony is due to start today in the lawsuit filed against Victoria Osteen, wife of Lakewood Church Pastor Joel Osteen.
You may remember the case, in 2005 a flight attendant accused Mrs. Osteen of physically assaulting her over some minor dispute in the first class cabin.
Lakewood Church, for those who might not know, is the GIANT church in Houston housed in what used to be the Houston Rockets arena.
The Houston Chronicle story is here, but what caught my eye was the flight attendant's claim of how this alleged confrontation damaged her. I mean I've had run ins with folks in my day that left me angry, maybe even emotionally scarred...butt..er but, her claim that since this incident she has "lost her religious faith and suffers from hemorrhoids because of the anxiety and trauma..."
Well, I must say I'm glad I'm not going to be on the jury to see the 'evidence.'
You may remember the case, in 2005 a flight attendant accused Mrs. Osteen of physically assaulting her over some minor dispute in the first class cabin.
Lakewood Church, for those who might not know, is the GIANT church in Houston housed in what used to be the Houston Rockets arena.
The Houston Chronicle story is here, but what caught my eye was the flight attendant's claim of how this alleged confrontation damaged her. I mean I've had run ins with folks in my day that left me angry, maybe even emotionally scarred...butt..er but, her claim that since this incident she has "lost her religious faith and suffers from hemorrhoids because of the anxiety and trauma..."
Well, I must say I'm glad I'm not going to be on the jury to see the 'evidence.'
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