Man removes Nazi swastika tattoos after unlikely friendship.

Colorado resident Michael Kent recently sat down at a tattoo parlor in Colorado Springs to have his swastikas covered up.

Kent, a former neo-Nazi, credits an African-American parole officer named Tiffany Whittier with helping him to see beyond skin color and changing his views about white supremacy.

“If it wasn’t for her I would have seeped back into it,” said Kent. “I look at her as family.”

Whittier, 45, even inspired Kent, 38, to take down the Nazi flags he had hanging in his living room and replace them with smiley faces.

“I’m not here to judge him. That’s not my job to judge. My job is to be that positive person in someone’s life,” Whittier said.

Added Kent, “When you wake up and see a smiley face, you’re going to go to work and you’re going to smile.”

ABC News

Former skinhead Michael Kent gives his former parole officer Tiffany Whittier a hug after she surprises him at his home.

Kent now works full-time on a chicken farm in Colorado, where all his co-workers are Hispanic.

“Before all this, I wouldn’t work for anybody or with anybody that wasn’t white,” said Kent. “[Now] we have company parties, or they have quinceañeras, I’m the only white guy there!”

Redemption Ink, a national non-profit that offers free removals of hate-related tattoos, helped connect Kent with Fallen Heroes Tattoo in Colorado to begin the 15-hour process of covering his swastikas. The sterile environment is new to Kent who had his previous ink work done in prison.

“I’ve never, never, never been inside of a tattoo shop getting a professional tattoo,” he said.

Kent believes the painful process will help him move forward after spending years as a member of a violent skinhead group based in Arizona. As a father of two young children, Kent also hopes his children will see the world differently.

“I don’t want my kids to live the life I lived and live with hate,” said Kent. “I want my kids to know me for who I am now—a good father, a hard worker, and a good provider.”… By Michael Koenigs.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/man-removes-nazi-swastika-tattoos-friendship/story?id=49496501 

Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret (Feast of Booths & Eighth Day of Assembly).

On Chag Ha-Sukkot, Feast of Booths (Tabernacles) we are commanded to build a Sukkah (Booth) using as building materials the "4 species" listed in Lev 23:40. Rabbinical tradition teaches that a bundle of these building materials must be ritually waved in the air during the festival.

The Torah commands us to celebrate the Feast of Booths (Chag Ha-Sukkot) for seven days, from the 15th to the 21st of the Seventh Hebrew month. This holiday is also known as the "Feast of Tabernacles". Work is forbidden on the first day of the seven days. Sukkot is one of three "Pilgrimage Festivals", which means every Jewish male is required to come to Jerusalem during this seven day period. Most laws in the Torah apply to both males and females, however, the pilgrimage law refers specifically to males. Both males and females are required to dwell in a Sukkah (Booth) for all seven days of the Festival, whether at home or in Jerusalem.

The Torah requires that we build a Sukkah on Chag Ha-Sukkot, but does not say how many walls it must have or describe it beyond saying what materials it must be made out of. This means that a Sukkah does not have to comply to any of the fictitious Rabbinical specifications laid out in the Talmud.

In Levitcus 23:40 the Torah commands that we "take" on the first day of Sukkot "fruit of a splendorous tree [or, a splendorous fruit tree], date branches, the branch of a thick tree and willows of the creek". To the modern reader, it is not immediately clear what to do with these branches and reeds. The Rabbis claim that one is supposed to make these plants into a bundle which is waved during the prayer service. However, this is not said anywhere in the Tanakh. On the contrary, in the Biblical book of Nehemiah chapter 8 we are told of a national gathering in which the Torah is read to the people and they rediscover what is commanded in it. We are told in verses 14-16:

"And they found written in the Torah that Yehovah commanded through Moses that the Children of Israel dwell in Booths (Sukkot) in the Seventh month. And concerning that which they heard [in the public reading] they passed a voice through all their cities and Jerusalem saying 'Go out to the mountain and bring olive branches and oil tree branches and myrtle branches and date branches and branches of thick trees to make booths, as it is written.' And the people went out and they brought and they made for themselves booths, each man on his roof and in their courtyards and in the courtyard of the House of God and in the broad areas of the Water Gate and the broad areas of Ephraim Gate."

Clearly, according to the book of Nehemiah, the "four species" are to be used as materials for building a Sukkah. Note that according to Neh 8:15 using the "four species" to build a Sukkah is what is required because "it is written". In other words, when they read Lev 23:40 they understood it to be commanding the taking of the "four species" for the purpose of building Succot. The Karaites have always accepted the interpretation of Nehemiah 8:14-16 over the dubious interpretation of the Rabbis. Notice also that the Etrog (citron) is not mentioned anywhere. Instead, the "splendorous fruit tree" of Lev 23 is represented in Nehemiah 8 by "olive branches and oil tree branches". "Splendorous fruit tree" is a very appropriate description of the olive tree considering the place of olive oil and the olive tree in ancient Israelite society.

After comparing the two passages in Lev 23 and Neh 8 it becomes clear that there are 4 categories of vegetation which can be used to build a Sukkah:

 Any leafy tree that can give shade (compare Ezekiel 20:28).

1. A date palm and presumably any palm tree.

1. Any fruit tree (compare Leviticus 23 and Nehemiah 8).

1. Arvei Nahal - usually translated as "willows of the creek". Based on Nehemiah 8 which replaces "Willows of the Creek" with "myrtle branches" it would seem that this refers to various types of trees that grow along the banks of the Wadis (see Isaiah 44:4) of Israel and Babylon (see Psalms 137:2).

The word Sukkah comes from the root S.Kh.Kh. meaning "to cover", and the main part of the Sukkah is the roof or covering which must be made from one or all of the above materials. The walls can be made of any material available.

Shemini Atzeret.

The "8th day" of this seven day Festival is a day of rest called in the Torah "Shemini Atzeret". This holiday is widely known today by the Rabbinic misnomer "Simhat Torah" ("Celebration of the Torah"). The Rabbanites made up this name that refers to their annual reading of the Torah in weekly portions, which ends on Shemini Atzeret. Neither the annual reading of the Torah nor the name Simhat Torah appear in the Bible and these are later Rabbinic corruptions of God's law. Shemini Atzeret is not part of Sukkot and the laws of Sukkot do not extend to this day (i.e. Pilgrimage, dwelling in a booth). As a day of rest all work is forbidden on Shemini Atzeret. (By Nehemia Gordon).

https://www.nehemiaswall.com/sukkot-feast-booths

Monsanto banned from European parliament.

MEPs withdraw parliamentary access after the firm shunned a hearing into allegations that it unduly influenced studies into the safety of glyphosate used in its RoundUp weedkiller.

People protest against a planned $66bn takeover of Monsanto by Bayer and Monsanto’s glyphosate herbicides, in Brussels, July 2017. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters.

Monsanto lobbyists have been banned from entering the European parliament after the multinational refused to attend a parliamentary hearing into allegations of regulatory interference.

It is the first time MEPs have used new rules to withdraw parliamentary access for firms that ignore a summons to attend parliamentary inquiries or hearings.

Monsanto officials will now be unable to meet MEPs, attend committee meetings or use digital resources on parliament premises in Brussels or Strasbourg.

While a formal process still needs to be worked through, a spokesman for the parliament’s president Antonio Tajani said that the leaders of all major parliamentary blocks had backed the ban in a vote this morning.

“One has to assume it is effective immediately,” he said.

MEPs had been incensed at a Monsanto decision to shun a hearing organised by the environment and agriculture committees, with academics, regulators and campaigners, on 11 October.

The meeting is expected to hear allegations that Monsanto unduly influenced regulatory studies into the safety of glyphosate, a key ingredient in its best-selling RoundUp weedkiller.

EU report on weedkiller safety copied text from Monsanto study.

“Those who ignore the rules of democracy also lose their rights as a lobbyist in the European parliament,” said the Green party president Philippe Lamberts. “US corporations must also accept the democratic control function of the parliament. Monsanto cannot escape this.”

The lobby ban will be a bitter blow to Monsanto’s advocacy campaign ahead of a decision later this year about the relicensing of glyphosate, which has been linked to cancer by one expert WHO panel.

Another deemed it safe for public use, but Monsanto’s outreach to regulatory agencies in the US and Europe sparked controversy and prompted the parliamentary hearing.

A Monsanto letter to MEPs seen by the Guardian said that the European parliament was not “an appropriate forum” for discussion on the issues involved.

“The joint hearing could be viewed as the latest attempt by those opposed to modern agricultural practices to influence and frustrate the EU scientific and regulatory process to suit their own agenda,” it says.

“We have observed with increasing alarm the politicisation of the EU procedure on the renewal of glyphosate,” wrote Monsanto’s vice president Philip Miller, “a procedure which should be scientific but which in many respects has been hijacked by populism.”

Martin Pigeon, a spokesman for the NGO Corporate Europe Observatory, said it was “extremely important that parliament has been prepared to meet Monsanto’s unbelievable arrogance with real retaliation and consequences.”

Monsanto spends between €300,000-€400,000 (£260,000 - £350,000) annually on lobbying in Brussels, according to its self-declaration form in the EU transparency register.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/sep/28/monsanto-banned-from-european-parliament