It's no secret that devices are designed to be addictive. If your kids spend more time looking at screens than making eye contact, they're not alone; they're in the majority. Screens have taken the place of connecting person-to-person, in real time. Countless children are experiencing depression, anxiety, listlessness, suicidal thoughts, aggression, hyperactivity -- things that threaten to steal the memories and experiences of a happy, joy-filled childhood. In 30 Day Blackout, Stacy Jagger, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and Registered Play Therapist (RPT), shares how she has helped hundreds of families turn off technology and turn on relationship.30 Day Blackout is your guide to helping your kids unplug from virtual reality and plug in to actual reality.
In this unflinchingly honest and hilarious memoir, a woman discovers that her best life is a sober one. For Sarah Hepola, drinking felt like freedom; part of her birthright as a twenty-first-century woman. But there was a price–she often blacked out, having no memory of the lost hours. On the outside, her career was flourishing, but inside, her spirit was diminishing. She could no longer avoid the truth–she needed help. Blackout is the story of a woman stumbling into a new kind of adventure–sobriety. Sarah Hepola's tale will resonate with anyone who has had to face the reality of addiction and the struggle to put down the bottle. At first it seemed like a sacrifice–but in the end, it was all worth it to get her life back.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It’s time for a black exit. Political activist and social media star Candace Owens addresses the many ways that Democrat Party policies hurt, rather than help, the African American community, and why she and many others are turning right. Black Americans have long been shackled to the Democrats. Seeing no viable alternative, they have watched liberal politicians take the black vote for granted without pledging anything in return. In Blackout, Owens argues that this automatic allegiance is both illogical and unearned. She contends that the Democrat Party has a long history of racism and exposes the ideals that hinder the black community’s ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American Dream. Instead, Owens offers up a different ideology by issuing a challenge: It’s time for a major black exodus. From dependency, from victimhood, from miseducation—and the Democrat Party, which perpetuates all three. Owens explains that government assistance is a double-edged sword, that the Left dismisses the faith so important to the black community, that Democrat permissiveness toward abortion disproportionately affects black babies, that the #MeToo movement hurts black men, and much more. Weaving in her personal story, which ushered her from a roach-infested low-income apartment to1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she demonstrates how she overcame her setbacks and challenges despite the cultural expectation that she should embrace a victim mentality. Well-researched and intelligently argued, Blackout lays bare the myth that all black people should vote Democrat—and shows why turning to the right will leave them happier, more successful, and more self-sufficient.
When FINAL BLACKOUT was written there was still a Maginot Line, Dunkirk was just another French coastal town and the Battle of Britain, the Bulge, Saipan, Iwo, V2s and Nagasaki were things unknown and far ahead in history. While it concerns these things, its action will not take place for many years yet to come and it is, therefore, still a story of the future though some of the "future" it embraced (about one fifth) has already transpired. When published in magazine form before the war it created a little skirmish of its own and, I am told, as time has gone by and some of it has unreeled, interest in it has if anything increased. So far its career has been most adventurous as a story. The "battle of FINAL BLACKOUT" has included loud wails from the Communists—who said it was pro-fascist (while at least one fascist has held it to be pro-Communist). Its premises have been called wild and unfounded on the one hand while poems (some of them very good) have been written about or dedicated to the Lieutenant. Meetings have been held to nominate it to greatness while others have been called to hang the author in effigy (and it is a matter of record that the last at least was successfully accomplished). The British would not hear of its being published there at the time it appeared in America, though Boston, I am told, remained neutral—for there is nothing but innocent slaughter in it and no sign of rape. There are those who insist that it is all very bad and those who claim for it the status of immortality. And while it probably is not the worst tale ever written, I cannot bring myself to believe that FINAL BLACKOUT, as so many polls and such insist, is one of the ten greatest stories ever published. Back in those mild days when Pearl Harbor was a place you toured while vacationing at Waikiki and when every drawing room had its business man who wondered disinterestedly whether or not it was not possible to do business with Hitler, the anti-FINAL BLACKOUTISTS (many of whom, I fear, were Communists) were particularly irked by some of the premises of the tale. Russia was, obviously, a peace-loving nation with no more thought than America of entering the war. England was a fine going concern without a thought, beyond a contemptuous aside, for the Socialist who, of course, could never come to power. One must understand this to see why FINAL BLACKOUT slashed about and wounded people. True enough, some of its premises were far off the mark. It supposed, for instance, that the politicians of the great countries, particularly the United States, would push rather than hinder the entrance of the whole world into the war. In fact, it supposed, for its author was very young, that politicians were entirely incompetent and would not prevent for one instant the bloodiest conflict the country had ever known. Further, for the author was no critic, it supposed that the general staffs of most great nations were composed of stupid bunglers who would be looking up their friends on the selection board when they should be looking to their posts and that the general world wide strategy of war would go off in a manner utterly unadroit to the sacrifice of efficiency. It surmised that if general staffs went right on bungling along, military organization would cease to exist, and it further—and more to the point—advanced the thought that the junior combat officer, the noncom and, primarily the enlisted men would have to prosecute the war. These, it believed, would finally be boiled down, by staff "stupidity," to a handful of unkillables who would thereafter shift for themselves. FINAL BLACKOUT declared rather summarily—and very harshly, for the author was inexperienced in international affairs—that the anarchy of nations was an unhealthy arrangement maintained by the greed of a few for the privileges of a few and that the "common people" (which is to say those uncommon people who wish only to be let go about their affairs of getting enough to eat and begetting their next generation) would be knocked flat, silly and completely out of existence by these brand new "defensive" weapons which would, of course, be turned only against soldiers. Bombs, atomics, germs and, in short, science, it maintained, were being used unhealthily and that, soon enough, a person here and there who was no party to the front line sortie was liable to get injured or dusty; it also spoke of populations being affected boomerang fashion by weapons devised for own governments to use. Certainly all this was heresy enough in that quiet world of 1939, and since that time, it is only fair to state, the author has served here and there and has gained enough experience to see the error of his judgment. There have been two or three stories modeled on FINAL BLACKOUT. I am flattered. It is just a story. And as the past few years have fortunately proven, it cannot possibly happen.
"In a spectacular storm, homicide cop Gregory Samsa's car skids across a flooded field and overturns. Gregory Samsa survives. His passenger doesn't. But instead of reporting the accident, in a frenzied panic Samsa drags his passenger to a lonely place and buries her. He has his reputation to think about, his career, his daughter. So when he does report the incident he leaves out one important detail - the death of the thirteen-year-old hooker, Almond, who had been riding in his car. This one moment of weakness, a moral blackout, draws Samsa into a downward spiral of deception, fear and violence. For when Almond's body is discovered by chance, the shadowy figure of Lee Boyle emerges from the underworld. Cunning, vicious and predatory, Boyle is on the trail of Almond's killer - it's payback time - and that trail is leading him to the very cop investigating her death."
In this brutally honest and compelling memoir, Jennifer Storm revisits the trauma of her childhood rape and ensuing addiction and how she channeled her pain into a healing life of advocacy. Sexual assault, addiction, and other traumatic experiences can leave both physical and emotional scars. For Jennifer Storm, these scars serve as a reminder--both of the darkness and suffering she once experienced, and of how far she has come. When she was first assaulted at age twelve, Jennifer turned to alcohol to dull the emotional pain. After a string of childhood traumas, she fell into crack use and self-harm. Once Jennifer finally found treatment after surviving the last of multiple suicide attempts, she discovered that it was possible to heal her shame. She could start to recover by uncovering the secrets she had kept hidden for years. Blackout Girl is the heartbreaking, enlightening, and inspiring story of Jennifer’s narrow escape from her own self-destructive instincts when all of the odds, and systems, were stacked against her. Since Blackout Girl was first published in 2008, Jennifer has seen the #MeToo and Times Up movements empower countless brave survivors to reveal the truth of their experiences. Yet, our society is only just beginning to truly understand and support victims and recognize the importance of trauma-informed care. Now more relevant than ever, Jennifer’s story and professional insights expose the societal failures these victims have endured, and how we can all help each other heal. If you are still experiencing or recovering from victimization, Jennifer’s story shows you are not alone. For those struggling to understand a loved one’s experience of addiction and trauma, Jennifer’s recovery provides hope. This new edition of Blackout Girl includes additional chapters with more details of Jennifer’s story, new insights on the societal changes of the past decade, and a powerful foreword by survivor advocate and founder of the End Rape Statute of Limitations movement, Caroline Heldman, PhD. Blackout Girl is a must-read both for those looking to learn about the personal effects of widespread sexual assault and addiction and for those who already hold these issues dear.
History is marked by catastrophic events that defy meaning and understanding. The 20th century was a century of prosperity and progress; it was also history's bloodiest. The death toll from war and genocide reached 140 million people. Trauma of this magnitude poses grave challenges to memory and thought. This work explores failures of memory and cognition - the blackout - as a condition that plagues history, and is particularly problematic in an era of media, in which memory is increasingly disembodied and virtualized, undermined by a Generalized Media Disorder. Technologies of media and war are creating a condition in which the virtual world is displacing the ethical world. BLACKOUT traces this phenomenon through a century of upheaval - from World War I, which exceeded all previous notions of destruction, to the War on Terror, a perpetual war in a realm of perpetual media. World War II is particularly significant in its deployment of previously unfathomable technologies of disappearance - extermination, nuclear weapons, and the massive incineration of cities in Germany and Japan. The blackout is a space of memory and thinking that collapses with catastrophe and falls into a stupor. Our humanity has been nearly extinguished by the tremendous violence it has enacted, pushing philosophy, language and ethics to their limits. Joan Grossman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and video artist, based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been shown in more than 20 countries. She also teaches media theory and production, and received her doctorate in Media Philosophy from the European Graduate School in Switzerland.
On July 13, 1977, there was a blackout in New York City. With the dark came excitement, adventure, and fright in subway tunnels, office towers, busy intersections, high-rise stairwells, hotel lobbies, elevators, and hospitals. There was revelry in bars and restaurants, music and dancing in the streets. On block after block, men and women proved themselves heroes by helping neighbors and strangers make it through the night. Unfortunately, there was also widespread looting, vandalism, and arson. Even before police restored order, people began to ask and argue about why. Why did people do what they did when the lights went out? The argument raged for weeks but it was just like the night: lots of heat, little light--a shouting match between those who held fast to one explanation and those who held fast to another. James Goodman cuts between accidents, encounters, conversations, exchanges, and arguments to re-create that night and its aftermath in a dizzying accumulation of detail. Rejecting simple dichotomies and one-dimensional explanations for why people act as they do in moments of conflict and crisis, Goodman illuminates attitudes, ideas, and experiences that have been lost in facile generalizations and analyses. Journalistic re-creation at its most exciting, Blackout provides a whirlwind tour of 1970s New York and a challenge to conventional thinking.
Vampires visit Barrow to feed once again, but this time the citizens have banded together and a rich hunter comes to town to see real vampires and obtain proof of their existence.
Employee Benefits Law: ERISA and Beyond takes you step by step through these and other statutes and regulations to help ensure that your plans are properly structured, qualified and implemented.
