title: Impact play

text: There are anecdotal reports of people willingly being bound or whipped, as a prelude to or substitute for sex, during the 14th century. Flagellation practiced within an erotic setting has been recorded from at least the 1590s, as evidenced by a John Davies epigram, and references to "flogging schools" in Thomas Shadwell's "The Virtuoso" (1676) and Tim Tell-Troth's "Knavery of Astrology" (1680). Visual evidence such as mezzotints and print media is also identified revealing scenes of flagellation in the 1600s, such as in the late seventeenth-century English mezzotint "The Cully Flaug'd" from the British Museum collection.


title: Impact play

text: In the 1639 book, "De Usu Flagrorum" (which David Savran declared was the authoritative text on the subject for two hundred years), the author Ioannes Henricus Meibomius “rejoice[s]” to know that when someone doing flogging for sexual gratification was found in Germany, they would be burned alive.


title: Impact play

text: John Cleland's novel "Fanny Hill", published in 1749, incorporates a flagellation scene between the character's protagonist Fanny Hill and Mr Barville. This book is considered "the first original English prose pornography, and the first pornography to use the form of the novel". It is one of the most prosecuted and banned books in history. A large number of flagellation publications followed it, including "" (c1761), promoting the names of ladies offering the service in a lecture room with rods and cat o' nine tails.


title: Impact play

text: Representations of erotic spanking and flagellation make up a large portion of Victorian pornography, for instance "1000 Nudes" by Koetzle. Hundreds of thousands of engravings, photographs, and literary depictions of spanking and flagellation fantasies circulated during the Victorian era, including erotic novellas like "The Whippingham Papers", "The Birchen Bouquet", "Exhibition of Female Flagellants" or the pornographic comic opera "Lady Bumtickler's Revels".


title: Impact play

text: Theresa Berkley (died 1836) ran a high-class flagellation brothel at 28 Charlotte Street (which is today's 84–94 Hallam Street). She was a "governess", i.e. she specialised in chastisement, whipping, flagellation, and the like. In 1828 she invented the "Berkley Horse", an apparatus that reportedly earned her a fortune in flogging wealthy men and women of the time. Her fame was such that the 1830 pornographic novel "Exhibition of Female Flagellants" was attributed to her, probably falsely.


title: Impact play

text: Interest in sexual gratification received from giving, receiving and witnessing spanking began to increase during the 1800s (particularly within France and the United Kingdom). Interest was not only confined to spanking literature, but the development of photography during 19th century resulted in the beginning of the creation of spanking photography. In the context of literature, this growing demand caused the publication of numerous limited edition spanking novels (although, while the term novel is/was used many of these works from this time and subsequently can be instead classified as novellas).


title: Impact play

text: This interest for spanking (both in regards to literature and photography) followed into the next century, with the early 20th century being considered the "Golden Age" of spanking literature. This period of spanking literature is marked by three notable characteristics. First, greater audiences were reached with the availability of less expensive editions and greater print runs. Second, many of the spanking novels contained numerous illustrations (many of which have fallen under public domain and are easily available online). Third, this period saw a gradual increase in the output and publication of spanking literature, growing particularly within the 1920s and peaking within the 1930s. Much of the output of spanking literature during this period was by French publishers, writers and illustrators. Similarly, within the context of spanking photography, France was also the home to the creation of much content, with the most notable studios being the Biederer Studio and the Ostra Studio. This "Golden Age" of spanking literature (and French spanking photography) came to an end as a result of the Second World War, more specifically due to the German occupation of France between 1940 and 1944 and later the enforcement of censorship laws. A somewhat notable exception to the decline of spanking literature during this period was John Willie’s bondage "Bizarre" magazine (published between 1946 and 1959). Of the many French works from the "Golden Age" few at the time were translated into other languages within which spanking literature was popular, namely English and German, but beginning during the mid-1960s a number of these French works were translated into English and published, along with these works being republished in French and older British works also being republished. The occurrence of this was facilitated by the availability of mass-produced paperbacks and changes in censorship laws.


title: Impact play

text: Today, a subculture known as Christian domestic discipline (CDD) promotes spanking of wives by their husbands as a form of punishment; some describe CDD as a form of abuse and controlling behavior, but others consider it a simple sexual fetish and an outlet for sadomasochistic desires. Christian conservative radio host Bryan Fischer said to the "Huffington Post" that it was a "horrifying trendbizarre, twisted, unbiblical and un-Christian".


title: Maanvi Gagroo

text: Maanvi Gagroo is an Indian actress who appears in Hindi films and television, She has worked in various web series like TVF Pitchers, TVF Tripling and Four More Shots Please!.


title: Maanvi Gagroo

text: Gagroo began her career with the Disney Channel's television show "Dhoom Machaao Dhoom" in 2007. She is known for her work in web series like "TVF Pitchers", "TVF Tripling", "Made in Heaven" and "Four More Shots Please!". In 2019, she portrayed the character of 'Apsara', a plus size woman in a comedy movie "Ujda Chaman" opposite Sunny Singh, for which she wore a fat suit. She has worked with Ayushmann Khurrana in "Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan". The film deals with the subject of same-sex love and Maanvi played the role of a 'quirky bride'.


title: Susan Berman

text: Susan Jane Berman (May 18, 1945 – December 23, 2000) was an American journalist and author. The daughter of mobster David Berman, she wrote about her late-in-life realization of her father's role in organized crime.


title: Susan Berman

text: In 2000, Berman was found murdered in her home. The case went unsolved for over a decade until real-estate heir Robert Durst, Berman's longtime friend and confidant, was charged with her murder in 2015 and convicted in 2021.


title: Susan Berman

text: Susan Berman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1945, the only child of the former Betty Ewald, a traveling dancer who had adopted the stage name Gladys Evans, and David "Davie" Berman. Berman always maintained that her father — a major Jewish-American organized crime figure who took over Las Vegas' Flamingo Hotel after Bugsy Siegel's 1947 gangland murder — died under mysterious circumstances on an operating table when she was twelve, but all indications were that he died of a heart attack during surgery. She also believed uncertainty surrounded her mother's presumed suicide by overdose a year later.


title: Susan Berman

text: Berman grew up in Las Vegas and, later, in Hollywood, California, where high school classmates and friends at the Chadwick School included Jann Wenner and Liza Minnelli. Berman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1967 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she met American real estate heir Robert Durst. In 1969, she graduated with a Master of Arts in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Berman was gradually paid a total of $4.3 million by the Mafia for her father's interests in casinos and other properties.


title: Susan Berman

text: Berman was a novelist and author of two memoirs, along with a 1971 college guidebook, "The Underground Guide to the College of Your Choice." Her first memoir, "Easy Street", detailed her life as a mobster's daughter. While representing her in the 1970s, the William Morris Agency talked with several Hollywood producers interested in adapting the book into a screenplay. The movie rights were ultimately sold for $350,000, but no film project ever materialized. For a time, Berman attempted to finance a musical based on the Dreyfus affair, in which Durst declined to invest.


title: Susan Berman

text: In San Francisco, Berman wrote for media outlets including the "San Francisco Examiner", Francis Ford Coppola's "City Magazine", the "Westinghouse Evening Show" on KPIX-TV, and the "People" show on CBS. She was a contributing writer for magazines such as "New York", "Cosmopolitan" and "Family Circle". She also wrote "Driver, Give a Soldier a Lift!" and "Lady Las Vegas", accompanying the 1996 release of an A&E documentary, for which she was a co-writer and nominated for a Writers Guild of America award.


title: Susan Berman

text: At the time of her death, Berman was working on a project for Showtime with attorney Kevin Norte. Entitled "Sin City," it was being planned as Showtime's answer to the HBO hit "The Sopranos".


title: Susan Berman

text: Berman lived just off the Sunset Strip on Alta Loma Road in West Hollywood for several years prior to her final residence in Benedict Canyon, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her manager, Nyle Brenner, later told the "Los Angeles Times" that "many details of Ms. Berman's personal life are unclear" and added "she had been married once in the 1980s, and later helped rear the two children of a boyfriend." Berman was married to Christopher "Mister" Margulies, in June 1984 at the Hotel Bel-Air; Durst walked Berman down the aisle. Margulies died of a heroin overdose in 1986. Berman kept close ties to friends on Alta Loma Road, at the Las Vegas Strip and in New York City, including Durst.


title: Susan Berman

text: Berman was found murdered execution style with a 9mm handgun on Christmas Eve 2000 in her rented Benedict Canyon home, and was presumed to have been dead at least a day.


title: Susan Berman

text: On March 14, 2015, Durst was arrested in New Orleans on a first-degree murder warrant issued out of Los Angeles. Although Durst's presumed victim was not immediately named by authorities, the "Los Angeles Times" first reported that he had been detained in connection to Berman's slaying. Three days after his arrest, Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey said that if convicted, Durst could face the death penalty in California for "special circumstances of murder of a witness and lying in wait." Durst was transferred to and arraigned in California in early November 2016.


title: Susan Berman

text: Multiple accounts, including "Murder of a Mafia Daughter" by author Cathy Scott, have reported possible connections between Berman's murder and the 1982 disappearance of Durst's first wife, Kathleen McCormack Durst. Berman became a confidante of Durst at UCLA in the late 1960s, and came to know McCormack after later moving to New York. In a review of Scott's book, "True Crime Zine" wrote that "detectives came to suspect one of [Berman's] long-time friends but have never been able to charge him with murder." Durst was also considered a prime suspect in his wife's disappearance and was eventually charged in the case.


title: Susan Berman

text: Berman initially acted as a media spokesperson for Durst, and is believed to have facilitated his public alibi. She supplied a deposition in the case in 1982, which Durst faxed to investigators after her murder. Berman had remained Durst's friend and received two large cash gifts totaling $50,000 from him in the months before her death; she had last written to Durst on November 5, 2000, expressing hope that her financial entreaties would not ruin their friendship. Earlier in 2000, the New York State Police, at the request of then-Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, had re-opened an investigation into Kathleen's disappearance, and was urged by her friends to contact Berman for an interview. Berman was killed weeks after the re-opened investigation was publicized.


title: Susan Berman

text: Durst's 2015 arrest warrant mentioned a previously undisclosed typewritten letter, mailed from New York on January 9, 2001 to a West Los Angeles police station, titled, "Possible motive for Susan Berman murder." The letter said Berman suspected Durst was involved in his wife's disappearance, and specified that Durst was planning to visit her in late December. Berman biographer Scott told the "New York Post" in February 2017, before witnesses were to testify against Durst in a pre-trial hearing, that the evidence pointed to his guilt in Berman's murder. Durst was ultimately convicted of Berman's murder on September 17, 2021, and sentenced to life in prison. Two months later, Durst died in prison.


title: Susan Berman

text: Berman is interred next to her father at Home of Peace Memorial Park in East Los Angeles, California near The Three Stooges including former Stooges Shemp Howard and Curly Howard.


title: Susan Berman

text: In the 2010 film "All Good Things", the character Deborah Lehrman, portrayed by Lily Rabe, is inspired by Susan Berman. The film depicts Lehrman being murdered by the character Malvern Bump, who is inspired by Morris Black. It is implied that Bump murders Lehrman on the orders of David Marks, inspired by Durst, in order to prevent her from revealing incriminating information about Marks.


title: Susan Berman

text: The story of Susan Berman's suspicious death and suspected murder was covered by a CBS News Productions documentary series "48 Hours", Season 29, Episode 19, "Murder 90210", release date 30 January 2016 (USA).


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: Bad Company is a 2002 action comedy film directed by Joel Schumacher, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins. The film became somewhat famous for its connections to the September 11th terrorist attacks; amongst other things, it was the last major production to film inside the former World Trade Center. The film plot, written years before the attacks, involved a variety of Serbo-Balkan extremists (including a man from Afghanistan) planning a huge attack in New York City. The film's release date was moved out of its late 2001 spot and into a summer 2002 release, similar to several other films with terrorism or violent crime-related stories, including "Collateral Damage".


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: When a mission to retrieve a stolen suitcase bomb goes awry, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Kevin Pope is killed. Pope was working undercover as an antiquities dealer under the name Michael Turner. The CIA, which is desperate to complete the mission, discovers that Agent Pope had a twin brother, Jake Hayes, from whom he was separated at birth; their mother died giving birth and Hayes suffered from a severe lung infection that prompted the doctors to separate them because they felt that Hayes was unlikely to live for very long. Hayes hustles chess games, scalps tickets and works at small clubs in Jersey City, New Jersey to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Hayes's girlfriend, Julie grows tired of waiting for him to grow up and decides to move to Seattle, Washington.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: After the CIA successfully persuades Hayes to participate and begins to train Hayes for a mission that is to take place in Prague, Czech Republic, they are initially dismayed by his lack of refinement. Agent Oakes confronts Hayes, telling him he doesn't trust him. When Hayes begins paying attention, the CIA sets him up in his brother's old apartment in Manhattan to test him and try to bait the men who killed his brother. Hayes is attacked, but escapes unharmed. Looking for a way out, Hayes goes to his foster mother only to be found by Oakes, who persuades him to finish the mission.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: After arriving in Prague, Hayes - posing as his dead brother - meets with the men selling the suitcase bomb. The seller, Adrik Vas is an ex-Russian Army Colonel with ties to the Russian Mafia. When they return to their hotel, Hayes is greeted by his brother's ex-girlfriend Nicole. Believing Hayes is his brother, she dines with him and returns to his hotel, where the couple is ambushed by rival buyers. Nicole figures out that Hayes isn't his brother and returns to her assignment covering the Balkans for CNN.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: Hayes and Oakes meet with Vas and are able to steal the arming codes. Just as they close the deal, Vas' men double cross them with the rival buyer. When the rival dealers, who are part of a multi-national terrorist organization, learn they can't detonate the bomb because of the missing codes, they kidnap Julie. Hayes gives himself up trying to save his girlfriend, and the terrorists get the codes back and arm the bomb.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: After interrogating one of the captured terrorists, they track the bomb to Grand Central Station. With the clock ticking, they locate the bomb and the terrorist leader Dragan Ađanić, who has started the countdown. Oakes rescues Hayes by killing two terrorists. As Hayes starts to enter the codes to disarm the bomb, Ađanić holds Julie hostage. In order to distract Ađanić, Hayes pretends to shoot Oakes, and they kill Ađanić by shooting him repeatedly. Hayes is able to disarm the bomb just prior to detonation.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: Hayes visits his brother's grave. Later, Oakes approaches Hayes at his wedding to Julie and warns him that a dangerous criminal has escaped from prison and is seeking revenge on Kevin Pope, but since Kevin is dead and Hayes was impersonating him, the criminal thinks Hayes is Kevin. Hayes begins to panic and demands that Oakes protect him, but Oakes laughs as he reveals that it was only a joke and he really just came for the wedding.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: "Bad Company" failed to recoup its budget at the box office, earning only $30,160,161 in the United States and $35,817,134 outside the US for a worldwide total of $65,977,295. The film was originally slated to be released on December 25, 2001 but because of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the film's release was postponed given the fact the film was about a terrorist attack on New York City.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: The film was panned by critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 10% approval rating based on 135 reviews, with an average score of 3.87/10. The site's critical consensus states [that both] "Chris Rock and Anthony Hopkins fail to generate the sparks necessary to save the movie from a generic and utterly predictable script." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B" on scale of A+ to F.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" reviewer William Arnold calls the film "wildly overproduced, inadequately motivated every step of the way and demographically targeted to please every one (and no one)." Roger Ebert remarks in the "Chicago Sun-Times" that the film "jams too many prefabricated story elements into the running time." On their review show, Ebert and Richard Roeper gave it two thumbs down, arguing that it:


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: David Hunter of "The Hollywood Reporter" noted the film as having "all the familiar Bruckheimer elements, and Schumacher does probably as good a job as anyone at bringing off the Hopkins/Rock collision of acting styles and onscreen personas."


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: A soundtrack containing hip hop, alternative and R&B music was released on June 4, 2002 by Hollywood Records. It peaked at number 98 on the "Billboard" 200 and number 11 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.


title: Bad Company (2002 film)

text: "Bad Company" was partially filmed in Prague, Czech Republic. The scene where the suitcase bomb was handed over was filmed at Chotěšov Abbey.


title: The Winchesters

text: The Winchesters is an American dark fantasy drama television series developed by Robbie Thompson and is a spin-off from and prequel to "Supernatural". The series premiered on October 11, 2022, on The CW.


title: The Winchesters

text: Set in the 1970s, Dean Winchester narrates the story of how his parents, John Winchester and Mary Campbell, met, fell in love, and fought monsters together while in search for their missing fathers.


title: The Winchesters

text: On June 24, 2021, it was reported that a prequel series of "Supernatural", titled "The Winchesters" that focuses on Sam and Dean's parents, John and Mary, was in development at The CW. The series is executive produced by Jensen Ackles, his wife Danneel Ackles (who portrayed Anael on the series), and "Supernatural" writer Robbie Thompson. Ackles also reprise his role as Dean Winchester as the narrator. A pilot order for the series was confirmed by The CW on February 3, 2022; the pilot was directed by Glen Winter.


title: The Winchesters

text: On March 21, 2022, it was announced that Meg Donnelly and Drake Rodger were cast as Mary and John. On May 12, 2022, it was announced that The CW ordered it to series and premiered on October 11, 2022. In August 2022, it was confirmed that Ackles would reprise his role as Dean in a physical appearance in the first episode.


title: The Winchesters

text: Filming for the pilot episode began in April 2022 throughout New Orleans. Principal photography for the rest of the series began in New Orleans on July 25, 2022, and is scheduled to conclude on December 15, 2022.


title: The Winchesters

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 8 critic reviews for "The Winchesters" are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10. On Metacritic, it has a score of 49 out of 100 based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: The Winchesters

text: "The Winchesters" had the most-watched series debut during the 2022–23 season for The CW. It was also the most-viewed premiere for the season.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Historical records of criticism of religion go back to at least 5th century BCE in ancient Greece, in Athens specifically, with Diagoras "the Atheist" of Melos. In ancient Rome, an early known example is Lucretius' "De rerum natura" from the 1st century BCE.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Every exclusive religion on Earth (as well as every exclusive world view) that promotes exclusive truth-claims necessarily denigrates the truth-claims of other religions. Thus, some criticisms of religion become criticisms of one or more aspects of a specific religious tradition.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Critics of religion in general may view religion as one or more of: outdated, harmful to the individual, harmful to society, an impediment to the progress of science or humanity, a source of immoral acts or customs, a political tool for social control.


title: Criticism of religion

text: For example, in Asia, no one before the 19th century self-identified as a "Hindu" or other similar identities. The ancient and medieval cultures that produced religious texts, like the Hebrew Bible, New Testament or the Quran, did not have such a conception or idea in their languages, cultures, or histories and neither did the peoples in the Americas before Columbus.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Today, even though modern researchers conceive religion broadly as an abstraction which entails beliefs, doctrines and sacred places, there is still no scholarly consensus over what a religion is.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In his work "De rerum natura", the 1st-century BCE Roman poet Titus Lucretius Carus wrote: "But 'tis that same religion oftener far / Hath bred the foul impieties of men". A philosopher of the Epicurean school, Lucretius believed the world was composed solely of matter and void and that all phenomena could be understood as resulting from purely natural causes. Despite believing in gods, Lucretius, like Epicurus, felt that religion was born of fear and ignorance, and that understanding the natural world would free people of its shackles. He was not against religion in and of itself, but against traditional religion which he saw as superstition for teaching that gods interfered with the world.


title: Criticism of religion

text: During the Islamic Golden Age, philosopher Al-Ma'arri criticized all prophets' statements as fabrications, and branded God in Islam a hypocrite for forbidding murder but sending angels to take each man's life.


title: Criticism of religion

text: At the beginning of the 16th century, Niccolò Machiavelli said: "We Italians are irreligious and corrupt above others... because the church and her representatives have set us the worst example". To Machiavelli, religion was merely a tool, useful for a ruler wishing to manipulate public opinion.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In the 18th century, the French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire was a Deist and strongly critical of religious intolerance. Voltaire complained about Jews killed by other Jews for worshiping a golden calf and similar actions; he also condemned how Christians killed other Christians over religious differences and how Christians killed Native Americans for not being baptised. Voltaire claimed the real reason for these killings was that Christians wanted to plunder the wealth of those killed. Voltaire was also critical of Muslim intolerance towards other religions. Also in the 18th century, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume criticised the teleological arguments for religion. Hume claimed that natural explanations for the order in the universe were reasonable. An important aim of Hume's writings was demonstrating the unsoundness of the philosophical basis for religion.


title: Criticism of religion

text: The 18th-century American Enlightenment political philosopher and religious skeptic Thomas Paine is especially noteworthy both for his contributions to the cause of the American Revolution and his writings in defense of Deism alongside the criticism of Abrahamic religions. In "The Age of Reason" (1793–1794) and other writings he advocated Deism, promoted reason and freethought, and argued against institutionalized religions in general and the Christian doctrine in particular.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In the early 21st century, the New Atheists became focal polemicists in modern criticism of religion. The four authors come from widely different backgrounds and have published books which have been the focus of criticism of religion narratives, with over 100 books and hundreds of scholarly articles commenting on and critiquing the "Four Horsemen's" works. Their books and articles have spawned debate in multiple fields of inquiry and are heavily quoted in popular media (online forums, YouTube, television and popular philosophy). In "The End of Faith", philosopher Sam Harris focuses on violence among other toxic qualities of religion. In "", philosopher Daniel Dennett focuses on the question of "why we believe strange things". In "The God Delusion", biologist Richard Dawkins covers almost every facet of religion, injecting both snarky irony and humor. In "God Is Not Great", journalist and polemicist Christopher Hitchens focused on how religious forces attack human dignity and on the corruption of religious organizations. In the "Oxford Handbook of Atheism", according to Thomas Zenc the four books were published during a time of intense debate on political, religious and sociological questions. The works share many common themes yet notably differ in scope, style and content. According to Zenc, while the beginnings of a broader narrative (New Atheism) seems to have emerged, it does not stand up to the full definition of a movement.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Dennett and Harris have asserted that theist religions and their scriptures are not divinely inspired, but man made to fulfill social, biological and political needs. Dawkins balances the benefits of religious beliefs (mental solace, community building and promotion of virtuous behavior) against the drawbacks. Such criticisms treat religion as a social construct and thus just another human ideology.


title: Criticism of religion

text: David Hume argued that religion developed as a source of comfort in the face of adversity, not as an honest grappling with verifiable truth. Religion is therefore an unsophisticated form of reasoning.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Daniel Dennett has argued that, with the exception of more modern religions such as Raëlism, Mormonism, Scientology and the Baháʼí Faith, most religions were formulated at a time when the origin of life, the workings of the body, and the nature of the stars and planets were poorly understood. These narratives were intended to give solace and a sense of relationship with larger forces. As such, they may have served several important functions in ancient societies. Examples include the views many religions traditionally had towards solar and lunar eclipses and the appearance of comets (forms of astrology). Given current understanding of the physical world, where human knowledge has increased dramatically, Dawkins and French atheist philosopher Michel Onfray contend that continuing to hold on to these belief systems is irrational and no longer useful.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to Karl Marx, the father of "scientific socialism", religion is a tool used by the ruling classes whereby the masses can shortly relieve their suffering via the act of experiencing religious emotions. It is in the interest of the ruling classes to instill in the masses the religious conviction that their current suffering will lead to eventual happiness. Therefore, as long as the public believes in religion, they will not attempt to make any genuine effort to understand and overcome the real source of their suffering, which in Marx's opinion was their capitalist economic system. In this perspective, Marx saw religion as escapism.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Marx also viewed the Christian doctrine of original sin as being deeply anti-social in character. Original sin, he argued, convinces people that the source of their misery lies in the inherent and unchangeable "sinfulness" of humanity rather than in the forms of social organization and institutions, which Marx argued can be changed through the application of collective social planning.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene", Richard Dawkins coined the term memes to describe informational units that can be transmitted culturally, analogous to genes. He later used this concept in the essay "Viruses of the Mind" to explain the persistence of religious ideas in human culture.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Religious and non-religious people are both critical of Dawkins' meme theory. Some have criticized the idea that "God" and "Faith" are viruses of the mind, suggesting that it is far removed from evidence and data" that it is unreasonable to extract certain behaviours solely through religious memes. Alister McGrath has responded by arguing that "memes have no place in serious scientific reflection", or that religious ideas function the way Dawkins claims.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Sam Harris compares religion to a mental illness, saying that it "allows otherwise normal human beings to reap the fruits of madness and consider them "holy"". According to a retrospective study of Abraham, Moses, Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul, they may have had psychotic disorders that contributed inspirations for their revelations. They conclude that people with such disorders have had a monumental influence on civilization.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Psychological studies into the phenomenon of mysticism link disturbing aspects of certain mystics' experiences to childhood abuse. Clifford A. Pickover found evidence which suggests that temporal lobe epilepsy may be linked to a variety of so-called spiritual or "other worldly" experiences, such as spiritual possessions, which occur as the result of altered electrical activity in the brain. Carl Sagan, in his last book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", presented his belief that the miraculous sightings of religious figures and modern sightings of UFOs were all caused by the same mental disorder. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran suggests "It's possible that many great religious leaders had temporal lobe seizures and this predisposes them to having visions, having mystical experiences". Michael Persinger artificially stimulated the temporal lobes of the brain with a magnetic field by using a device which he nicknamed the "God helmet" and he was able to artificially induce religious experiences along with near-death experiences and ghost sightings. According to John Bradshaw "Some forms of temporal lobe tumours or epilepsy are associated with extreme religiosity." In his research recent brain imaging of religious subjects praying or meditating show identical activity in the respective human section of the brain which Ramachandran calls God-spots.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Psilocybin from mushrooms affect regions of the brain including the serotonergic system, which generating a sense of strong religious meaning, unity and ecstasy. Certain physical rituals may generate similar feelings.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In his book "Why People Believe Weird Things", Michael Shermer theorizes that emerging mankind imposed made-up explanations and bizarre rituals for natural phenomena which they did not and could not understand. This theory is similar to the arguments which Daniel Dennett wrote in "" however, Shermer's argument goes further by stating that the peculiar and at times the frightening rituals of religion are but one of many forms of strange customs that survive to this day.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Philosopher Auguste Comte posited that many societal constructs pass through three stages and that religion corresponds to the two earlier, or more primitive stages by stating: "From the study of the development of human intelligence, in all directions, and through all times, the discovery arises of a great fundamental law, to which it is necessarily subjective, and which has a solid foundation of proof, both in the facts of our organization and in our historical experience. The law is this: that each of our leading conceptions – each branch of our knowledge – passes successively through three different theoretical conditions: the theological, or fictitious; the metaphysical, or abstract; and the scientific, or positive".


title: Criticism of religion

text: In his book "Is Religion Dangerous?", Keith Ward notes that not all false opinions are delusions and that belief in God is different as many great minds and people who live ordinary lives and believe in God are not irrational people. Hyperreligiosity or even "intensely professed atheism" can emerge from emotional disturbances involving temporal lobe epilepsy.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Some have criticized the effects of the adherence to dangerous practices such as self-denial and altruistic suicide.


title: Criticism of religion

text: A detailed study in 1998 found 140 instances of deaths of children due to religion-based medical neglect. Most of these cases involved Christian parents who withheld medical care and relied on prayer to cure the child's disease.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Jerusalem has loaned its name to a unique psychological phenomenon where Jewish or Christian individuals who develop obsessive religious themed ideas or delusions (sometimes believing themselves to be Jesus Christ or another prophet) will feel compelled to travel to Jerusalem.


title: Criticism of religion

text: During a period of 13 years (1980–1993) for which admissions to the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Centre in Jerusalem were analyzed, it was reported that 1,200 tourists with severe, Jerusalem-themed mental problems, were referred to this clinic. Of these, 470 were admitted to hospital. On average, 100 such tourists have been seen annually, 40 of them requiring admission to hospital. About 2 million tourists visit Jerusalem each year. Kalian and Witztum note that as a proportion of the total numbers of tourists visiting the city, this is not significantly different from any other city. The statements of these claims has however been disputed, with the arguments that experiencers of the Jerusalem syndrome already were mentally ill.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Once well known in Western countries, honor killings are now an extremely rare occurrence; however, they still occur in other parts of the world. An honor killing occurs when a person is killed by their family for bringing dishonor or shame upon it.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Stoning is a form of capital punishment in which a group batters a person with thrown stones until the person dies. As of September 2010, stoning is a punishment that is included in the laws of some countries, including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, and some states in Nigeria as punishment for zina al-mohsena ("adultery of married persons"). While stoning may not be codified in the laws of Afghanistan and Somalia, both countries have seen several incidents of stoning to death.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Until the early 2000s, stoning was a legal form of capital punishment in Iran. In 2002, the Iranian judiciary officially placed a moratorium on stoning. In 2005, judiciary spokesman Jamal Karimirad stated that "in the Islamic republic, we do not see such punishments being carried out", further adding that if stoning sentences were passed by lower courts, they were overruled by higher courts and "no such verdicts have been carried out". In 2008, the judiciary decided to fully scrap the punishment from the books in legislation submitted to parliament for approval. In early 2013, Iranian parliament published official report about excluding stoning from penal code and it accused Western media for spreading "noisy propaganda" about the case.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to the World Health Organization, female genital mutilation has no health benefits and is a violation of basic human rights. Though no first tier religious texts prescribe the practice, some practitioners do believe there is religious support for it. While it is mostly found in Muslim countries, it is also practiced by some Christian and Animist countries mostly in Africa. GFA is not widely practiced in some Muslim countries making it difficult to separate religion from culture. Some religious leaders promote it, some consider it irrelevant to religion, and others contribute to its elimination". The practice is illegal in all Western countries and it is also illegal to transport a girl to another country to carry out FGM. Multiple parents have been charged for committing this crime in the United Kingdom, with those charged being exclusively from Muslim countries. The Jewish Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran themselves do not contain textual support for the practice of female genital mutilation even though the practice predates both Islam and Christianity.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Male circumcision is required in Judaism, optional in Islam, and not required in Christianity. Globally, male circumcision is done for religious, social, and health promotion reasons. Male circumcision is a painful process and can lead to bleeding and in some cases severe side effects including penile dysfunction and even death.


title: Criticism of religion

text: A metareview of 850 research papers on Religion in the United States concluded that "the majority of well-conducted studies found that higher levels of religious involvement are positively associated with indicators of psychological well-being (life satisfaction, happiness, positive affect, and higher morale) and with less depression, suicidal thoughts and behavior, drug/alcohol use/abuse". A metareview of 147 studies states that religiousness is mildly associated with fewer depression symptoms and that life events can still increase depressive symptoms. In a metareview of 498 studies states that religious involvement in general is associated with:less depression, lower drug and alcohol abuse, less promiscuous sexual behaviors, reduced likelihood of suicide, lower rates of delinquency and crime, educational attainment and purpose or meaning in life. A meta analysis of 34 studies states that a positive relationship still emerges between religion and mental health even when using different conceptualizations of religiosity and mental health used in different studies. According to Robert Putnam, membership of religious groups in the United States was positively correlated with membership of voluntary organizations, higher level of commitment, better self-esteem, lower risk of suicide, higher life satisfaction. According to Pew Research Center's 2019 global study, when comparing religious people to those who have less or no religion, actively religious people are more likely to describe themselves as "very happy", join other mundane organizations like charities or clubs, vote, and at the same time were less likely to smoke and drink. However, there was no correlation between religiosity and self perception of better health.


title: Criticism of religion

text: An investigation on subjective well-being representing 90% of the world population has noted that, globally, religious people are usually happier than nonreligious people, though nonreligious people also reach high levels of happiness.


title: Criticism of religion

text: As of 2001, much of research on religion and health has been conducted within the United States. According to one study, there was no significant correlation between religiosity and individual happiness in Denmark and the Netherlands, countries that have lower rates of religion, lower discrimination against atheists and where both the religious and non-religious are normative.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Despite honor killings occurring in multiple cultures and religions, Islam is frequently blamed for their institution and persistence. Professor Tahira Shaid Khan notes that there is nothing in the Qur'an that permits or sanctions honor killings, and attributes it to broader attitudes that view women as property with no rights as the explanation for honor killings. Khan also argues that this view results in violence against women and their being turned "into a commodity which can be exchanged, bought and sold".


title: Criticism of religion

text: Some aspects of religion are criticized on the basis that they damage society as a whole. For example, Steven Weinberg states that it takes religion to make good people do evil. Bertrand Russell and Richard Dawkins cite religiously inspired or justified violence, resistance to social change, attacks on science, repression of women and homophobia.


title: Criticism of religion

text: John Hartung has claimed that major religious moral codes can lead to "us vs. them" group solidarity and a mentality which can lead people to dehumanise or demonise individuals who are outside their group by portraying them as individuals who are either less worthy or "not fully human". The results of this attitude can vary from mild discrimination to outright genocide. A poll by "The Guardian" noted that 82% of the British people believe that religion is socially divisive and that this effect is harmful despite the observation that non-believers outnumber believers two to one.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to one study, membership in a religious group can accentuate biases in behavior towards in group versus out group members, which may explain the lower number of interracial friends and the greater approval of torture among church members.


title: Criticism of religion

text: While terrorism is a complex subject, it is argued that terrorists are partially reassured by their religious views that God supports and rewards their actions.


title: Criticism of religion

text: These conflicts are among the most difficult to resolve, particularly when both sides believe that God is on their side and has endorsed the moral righteousness of their claims. One of the most infamous quote which is associated with religious fanaticism was made during the siege of Béziers in 1209, a Crusader asked the Papal Legate Arnaud Amalric how to differentiate Catholics from Cathars when the city was taken, to which Amalric replied:""Tuez-les tous; Dieu reconnaitra les siens"", or "Kill them all; God will recognize his own".


title: Criticism of religion

text: Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku considers religious terrorism one of the main threats to humanity's evolution from a Type 0 to a Type 1 civilization.


title: Criticism of religion

text: John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White, authors of the conflict thesis, have argued that when a religion offers a complete set of answers to the problems of purpose, morality, origins, or science, it often discourages exploration of those areas by suppressing curiosity, denies its followers a broader perspective and can prevent social, moral and scientific progress. Examples cited in their writings include the trial of Galileo and Giordano Bruno's execution.


title: Criticism of religion

text: During the 19th century, the conflict thesis developed. According to this model, any interaction between religion and science must inevitably lead to open hostility, with religion usually taking the part of the aggressor against new scientific ideas. The historical conflict thesis was a popular historiographical approach in the history of science during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but its original form had been discredited by the 1980s and is not held by historians of science today. Despite that, conflict theory remains a popular view among the general public and is limited to a few sets of controversies such as creation–evolution, stem cells, and birth control. Books such as "The God Delusion" still argue for the conflict thesis.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Studies on the actual beliefs held by scientists show that most scientists globally do not subscribe to conflict thesis and instead the majority believe that the relation between science and religion is independence or collaboration. Historians of science including John Hedley Brooke and Ronald Numbers consider the "religion vs. science" concept an oversimplification, and prefer to take a more nuanced view of the subject. These historians cite, for example, the Galileo affair and the Scopes trial; and assert that these were not purely instances of conflict between science and religion as personal and political factors also weighed heavily in the development of each. In addition, some historians contend that religious organizations figure prominently in the broader histories of many sciences, with many of the scientific minds until the professionalization of scientific enterprise (in the 19th century) being clergy and other religious thinkers. Some historians contend that many scientific developments such as Kepler's laws and the 19th-century reformulation of physics in terms of energy were explicitly driven by religious ideas.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Recent examples of tensions have been the creation–evolution controversy, controversies over the use of birth control, opposition to research into embryonic stem cells, or theological objections to vaccination, anesthesia and blood transfusion.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Some studies show that some positive links exist in the relationship between religiosity, moral behavior and altruism. Some studies have shown similar correlations between religiosity and giving.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Some argue that religious violence confuses religious moral rules and behaviour with non-religious factors. This includes the claim that events like terrorist bombings are more politically motivated than religious. Mark Juergensmeyer argues that religion "does not ordinarily lead to violence. That happens only with the coalescence of a peculiar set of circumstances—political, social, and ideological—when religion becomes fused with violent expressions of social aspirations, personal pride, and movements for political change". and that it is unreasonable to attempt to differentiate "religious violence" and "secular violence" as separate categories. While others assert religion is not inherently violent and while the two are compatible they are not essential and that religious violence can be compared with non-religious violence.


title: Criticism of religion

text: C. S. Lewis suggests that all religions by definition involve faith, or a belief in concepts that cannot be proven or disproven by the sciences. Not all religious people subscribe to the idea that religion and science are mutually exclusive (non-overlapping magisteria) as do some atheists including Stephen Jay Gould. Biologist Richard Dawkins has said that religious practitioners often do not believe in the view of non-overlapping magisteria.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to a survey most religious groups in the United States have no general epistemological conflict with science or with the seeking out of scientific knowledge even if there are epistemic or moral conflicts with their faith. Strict creationists tend to have very favorable views on many of the different sciences. A study on a national sample of United States college students found that the majority of undergraduates in both the natural and social sciences do not see conflict between science and religion. Cross-national studies polled from 1981 to 2001 on views of science and religion have noted that countries with higher religiosity have stronger trust in science.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Richard Dawkins contends that theistic religions devalue human compassion and morality. In his view, the Bible contains many injunctions against following one's conscience over scripture and positive actions are supposed to originate not from compassion, but from the fear of punishment. Albert Einstein stated that no religious basis is needed in order to display ethical behavior.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In the 19th century, philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer argued that teaching some ideas to children at a young age could foster resistance to doubting those ideas later on.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Some clerics of Islam have permitted the child marriage of older men to girls as young as 9 years of age. Baptist pastor Jerry Vines denounced Mohammed as a pedophile for marrying and having had sex with a nine-year-old. For example, one organisation cites the case of a 10-year-old girl who was forced to marry and was raped in Yemen (Nujood Ali), a 13-year-old Yemeni girl dying of internal bleeding three days after marriage and a 12-year-old girl dying in childbirth after marriage. Yemen currently does not have a minimum age for marriage.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Latter Day Saint church founder Joseph Smith married girls as young as 13 and 14 and other Latter Day Saints married girls as young as 10. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints eliminated underaged marriages in the 19th century, but several branches of Mormonism continue the practice.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Homosexuality is unambiguously condemned in Abrahamic religions where prohibition and execution of those who engage in male homosexual activity are found in the Old Testament of the Bible and in the Quran. Homosexuals are also condemned in the New Testament several times but without obligatory punishment. In the United States, conservative Christian right groups such as the Christian Legal Society and the Alliance Defense Fund have filed numerous lawsuits against public universities, aimed at overturning policies that protect homosexuals from discrimination and hate speech. These groups argue that such policies infringe their right to freely exercise religion as guaranteed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Most secularised Christian countries have legalised homosexual activity and several have legalised same-sex marriage. However, not all historically Christian countries have done so such as Russia and Uganda which have introduced discriminatory laws ranging from anti-propaganda laws to corporal punishment. Homosexuality is still illegal in most Muslim countries and several of these countries impose the death penalty for homosexual behavior. In July 2005, two Iranian men aged sixteen and eighteen were, supposedly, hanged for homosexuality, causing an international outcry.


title: Criticism of religion

text: They were executed after being convicted by the court of having raped a 13-year-old boy. The case attracted international media attention. The British lesbian, gay and bisexual group OutRage! alleged that the teenagers were executed for consensual homosexual acts and not rape.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In line with other findings which suggest that religious humanitarianism is largely directed at in-group members, greater religious identification, greater extrinsic religiosity and greater religious fundamentalism were associated with racial prejudices. This fact is congruent with the fact that 50% of religious congregations in the US are racially segregated, and only 12% of them have a degree of diversity.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Some people have used religion as a justification for advocating racism. The Christian Identity movement has been associated with racism. However, it has been argued that these positions may be reflections of contemporary social views as well as reflections of what has been called scientific racism.


title: Criticism of religion

text: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had excluded African Americans from the priesthood from 1849 to 1978. Most fundamentalist Mormon sects within the Latter Day Saint movement rejected the Church's 1978 decision to allow black men to hold the priesthood, and in accordance with this view they continue to deny black people's right to play an active role in the church because of their race. Due to these beliefs, in its Spring 2005 "Intelligence Report" the Southern Poverty Law Center added the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to its "hate group" listing because of the church's teachings on race, which include strong condemnation of interracial relationships.


title: Criticism of religion

text: The content of the holy books of Abrahamic religions contain severe restrictions on the rights of women ranging from prohibiting women from certain behaviour and activities to requiring women to submit to the will of their father and or husband.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to Polly Toynbee, religion interferes with bodily autonomy regardless of gender but fosters particularly negative attitudes towards women's bodies. Toynbee writes: "Women's bodies are always the issue - too unclean to be bishops, and dangerous enough to be covered up by Islam and mikvahed by Judaism".


title: Criticism of religion

text: It is argued that religious sexual discrimination leads to unequal relations in marriage, creating norms which subordinate the wife to the husband. The word בעל ("ba`al"), Hebrew for "husband", used throughout the Bible, is synonymous with "owner" and "master". This mirrors the abrahamic view of God as an omnipotent, perfect power, where this power is one of domination, which is persistently associated with the characteristics of ideal masculinity. Sheila Jeffreys argues: Religion gives authority to traditional, patriarchal beliefs about the essentially subordinate nature of women and their naturally separate roles, such as the need for women to be confined to the private world of the home and family, that women should be obedient to their husbands, that women's sexuality should be modest and under the control of their menfolk, and that women should not use contraception or abortion to limit their childbearing. The practice of such ancient beliefs interferes profoundly with women's abilities to exercise their human rights.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Feminist Julie Bindel argues that religions encourage the domination of men over women and she also argues that Islam promotes the submission of women to their husbands by encouraging practices such as child marriage. She wrote that religion "promotes inequality between men and women", that Islam's message for a woman includes that "she will be subservient to her husband and devote her life to pleasing him" and that "Islam's obsession with virginity and childbirth has led to gender segregation and early marriage.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Islamic laws have been criticized by human rights organizations for exposing women to mistreatment and violence, preventing women from reporting rape and contributing to the discrimination of women. The United Nations say that Islam is used to justify unnecessary and harmful female genital mutilation, when the purposes range from deprivation of sexual satisfaction to discourage adultery, insuring virginity to their husbands, or generating appearance of virginity. Maryam Namazie argues that in both civil and criminal matters (such as punishments which are imposed on them for improper veiling), women are victimized by Sharia law; and she also argues that women have judicial hurdles that are either lenient or advantageous for men.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to Phyllis Chesler, Islam is connected to violence against women, especially in the form of honor killings. She rejects the argument which states that honor killings are not related to Islam and claims that while fundamentalists of all religions impose restrictions upon women, in Islam, not only are these restrictions harsher, Islam also reacts more violently when these rules are broken.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Christianity has been criticized for portraying women as sinful, untrustworthy, deceitful and desiring to seduce and incite men into sexual sin. Katharine M. Rogers argues that Christianity is misogynistic and that the "dread of female seduction" can be found in St. Paul's epistles. K. K. Ruthven argues that the "legacy of Christian misogyny was consolidated by the so-called 'Fathers' of the Church, like Tertullian, who thought a woman was not only 'the gateway of the devil' but also 'a temple built over a sewer'". Jack Holland argues the concept of fall of man is misogynistic as "a myth that blames woman for the ills and sufferings of mankind".


title: Criticism of religion

text: In the Middle Ages and the early modern period, Christian religious figures were involved in witch trials, which were generally held in order to punish assertive or independent women such as midwives since witchcraft was often not in evidence, or activists.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Historically, Kosher slaughter has been criticized by non-Jews who have alleged that it is inhumane and unsanitary, in part as an antisemitic canard which states that eating ritually slaughtered meat caused degeneration and in part out of an economic desire to remove Jews from the meat industry. Sometimes, these criticisms were directed at Judaism as a religion. In 1893, animal rights advocates who were campaigning against the practice of kosher slaughter in Aberdeen attempted to link cruelty to animals to Jewish religious practices. In the 1920s, Polish critics of kosher slaughter claimed that the practice actually had no basis in Scripture. To refute this argument, Jewish authorities stated that the slaughter methods are directly based upon Genesis IX:3 and they also stated that "these laws are binding on Jews today".


title: Criticism of religion

text: While supporters of kosher slaughter state that Judaism requires the practice precisely because it is considered humane, research which was conducted by Temple Grandin and Joe M. Regenstein in 1994 concluded that—practiced correctly with proper restraint systems—kosher slaughter "probably results in minimal discomfort" because the cattle stand still and do not resist a comfortable head restraint device. They also note that behavioral reactions to the incision which is made during kosher slaughter are weaker than behavioral reactions to noises such as clanging or hissing, inversion or pressure, which are made during restraint. Those who practice and subscribe to Jewish vegetarianism, both religiously and philosophically, disagree with this argument, they state that such a form of animal slaughter is not required while a number of them, including medieval scholars of Judaism such as Joseph Albo and Isaac Arama, regard vegetarianism as a moral ideal, not just out of a concern for animal welfare, but also out of concern for the slaughterer.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Other forms of ritual slaughter, such as Islamic ritual slaughter, have also come under controversy. Writing for PETA, Logan Scherer said that animals which are sacrificed according to Islamic law can not be stunned before they are killed. Muslims are only allowed to eat meat that has been prepared according to Sharia law and they say that the Islamic form of ritual slaughter is designed to reduce the amount of pain and distress that the animal suffers.


title: Criticism of religion

text: According to the Farm Animal Welfare Committee, halal and kosher practices should be banned because when animals are not stunned before they are slaughtered, they suffer a needless amount of pain for up to two minutes despite the fact that some Muslims and Jews argue that the loss of blood from the slash to the throat renders the animals unconscious relatively quickly. In 2018, Temple Grandin stated that kosher slaughter, no matter how well it is done, is not instantaneous, whereas stunning properly with a captive bolt is instantaneous.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Not all religions are hostile to homosexuality. Both Reform Judaism and the Unitarian Universalist Association have advocated for equal rights for gay and lesbian people since the 1970s. Hinduism does not view homosexuality as an issue.


title: Criticism of religion

text: Many Christians have made efforts toward establishing racial equality, contributing to the civil rights movement. "The African American Review" sees as important the role Christian revivalism in the black church played in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr., an ordained Baptist minister, was a leader of the American civil rights movement and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a Christian civil rights organization.


title: Criticism of religion

text: The term "dominionism" is often used to describe a political movement among fundamentalist Christians. Critics view dominionism as an attempt to improperly impose Christianity as the national faith of the United States. It emerged in the late 1980s inspired by the book, film and lecture series "Whatever Happened to the Human Race?" by Francis A. Schaeffer and C. Everett Koop. Schaeffer's views influenced conservatives like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye, John W. Whitehead and although they represent different theological and political ideas, dominionists believe they have a Christian duty to take "control of a sinful secular society", either by putting fundamentalist Christians in office, or by introducing biblical law into the secular sphere. Social scientists have used the word "dominionism" to refer to adherence to dominion theology as well as to the influence in the broader Christian right of ideas inspired by dominion theology.


title: Criticism of religion

text: In the early 1990s, sociologist Sara Diamond and journalist Frederick Clarkson defined "dominionism" as a movement that while including dominion theology and Christian reconstructionism as subsets, it is much broader in scope, extending to much of the Christian right. Beginning in 2004 with essayist Katherine Yurica, a group of authors including journalist Chris Hedges Marion Maddox, James Rudin, Sam Harris and the group TheocracyWatch, began applying the term to a broader spectrum of people than have sociologists such as Diamond.


title: Criticism of religion

text: The few full adherents to reconstructionism are limited to conservative Christians. The terms "dominionist" and "dominionism" are rarely used for self-description and their usage has been attacked from several quarters noting that the term is vague, unfairly links evangelicals to extremism, is highly exaggerated and are more akin to conservative smeer in the likes of a conspiracy theory. Kurtz also complained about a perceived link between average Christian evangelicals and extremism such as Christian reconstructionism.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: Recess: School's Out (also known as Recess: The Movie – School's Out) is a 2001 American animated comedy adventure film based on the Disney television series "Recess", and features the voices of Andrew Lawrence, Rickey D'Shon Collins, Jason Davis, Ashley Johnson, Courtland Mead, Pamela Adlon, Dabney Coleman, Melissa Joan Hart, April Winchell, and James Woods.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: The film centers around T.J. Detweiler and his friends uncovering a plot to get rid of summer vacation taking place at their school. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Television Animation and Walt Disney Television Animation Digital Production with animation done by Sunwoo Animation and Sunwoo Digital International. The film began production in 1998 (during the show's second season) and was finished in 2000.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: The film was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, premiered on February 10, 2001, and was released theatrically in the United States on February 16, 2001. The film received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics and performed well at the box office, grossing $44.5 million on a $23 million budget.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: A group of men break into a military base and steal a top-secret project, intending to use Third Street School as their headquarters. After pranking on Principal Prickly on the last day of school before summer vacation, T.J. Detweiler is excited to spend the time off with his friends, only to be disappointed to learn they will all be attending different summer camps. Resigned to spending the summer alone, T.J. notices strange activity at Third Street School. Investigating further, he sees scientists performing strange experiments with a tractor beam. After neither his parents nor the police believe him, he goes to Prickly, who prepares to show T.J. the school is empty, but is dematerialized when trying to enter the building.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: Desperate, T.J. blackmails his older sister Becky to drive him to all the camps to retrieve his friends. They all return with him to Third Street School, but accuse him of deceit after recovering a box of inconsequential documents from the school. T.J.'s suspicions are verified when they all see a giant laser emerging from the school roof and formulate a plan of camp during the day and meeting up at night. After T.J. finds Prickly's discarded pants with a note reading "Help Me!" in the pocket, the gang infiltrate the school to rescue him. School snitch Randall Weems, who has been eavesdropping on them, goes to inform deputy principal Muriel Finster.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: The kids find the auditorium has been turned into a laboratory. T.J. is captured by guards while his friends escape and is imprisoned with Prickly. They both discover that Prickly's old friend Dr. Phillium Benedict is overseeing the operation inside the school. Prickly exposits Benedict's background to T.J.: in 1968, while he, Benedict and Finster were all in teacher training, Benedict was appointed Principal of Third Street School and proposed abolishing recess to improve test grades. Prickly asked the superintendent to encourage Benedict to rescind, but when he declined, he was replaced as principal with Prickly, and Finster dumped him. Swearing revenge on Prickly, Benedict became secretary of education but was fired by the President for reattempting to abolish recess nationwide.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: While T.J.’s friends review the recovered papers, Spinelli finds a date book that mentions lunar perigee (taking place at 12:22 pm the next day). Gretchen realizes the machine they saw is a tractor beam and concludes that Benedict intends to use it to move the moon when it nears Earth. T.J. and Prickly get to Prickly’s office, where they discover Benedict’s plan to eradicate summer vacation by creating a new permanent Ice Age that will force kids indoors year-round. Meanwhile, T.J.’s friends persuade Becky to drive them to the camps and pick up all the other students, while Finster rallies the teachers, and Gus takes charge, concocting a plan to infiltrate the school.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: As Benedict prepares to enact his plan in the auditorium, the students and teachers of Third Street School all attempt to stop him and his henchmen. During the ensuing battle, Benedict attempts to activate the beam himself but is stopped by Prickly, only for Benedict to break the controls and make the process irreversible. T.J. instructs Vince to throw a baseball at the beam, which destroys it. Finally aware of Benedict's plot, the police arrive at the school to arrest him and his henchmen. T.J.'s friends decide to spend the rest of their summer together. T.J. thanks Prickly in his office, who in turn thanks T.J. for reminding him why he started teaching: to help kids. T.J. then joins his friends as Prickly jokingly reminds T.J. he will still be reprimanded for his earlier prank when September comes.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: "Recess: School's Out" was released on VHS and DVD by Walt Disney Home Video on August 7, 2001. As of November 12, 2019, the film, along with the series, is available to stream on Disney+.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: The film earned $36.7 million in North America and another $7.8 million from other countries. The worldwide gross was $44.5 million, against a $23 million budget. The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2001, and opened on #7.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on 70 reviews, with an average rating is 5.8/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though basically a television cartoon stretched out to movie length, "Recess" has enough successful jokes and smart writing to make it a worthwhile view." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Recess: School's Out

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times", gave the film a two and a half stars out of four, saying, "Parents may find it amusing, but it doesn't have the two track versatility of "", which worked for kids on one level, and adults on another." Bob McCabe of "Empire Magazine", gave the film a one out of five stars and said, "Even if it did keep the ankle biters quiet for an hour or so, this still wouldn't be worth your money."


title: Recess: School's Out

text: Common Sense Media gave the film a two out of four stars and said: "Simply a TV episode blown up for the big screen."


title: Bridesmaid

text: Bridesmaids are members of the bride's party in a Western traditional wedding ceremony. A bridesmaid is typically a young woman and often a close friend or relative. She attends to the bride on the day of a wedding or marriage ceremony. Traditionally, bridesmaids were chosen from unwed young women of marriageable age. Bridesmaids are often required to get


title: Bridesmaid

text: The principal bridesmaid, if one is designated, may be called the chief bridesmaid. She may also be called the maid of honor if she is unmarried, or the matron of honor if she is married. A junior bridesmaid is a girl who is clearly too young to be married but who is included as an honorary bridesmaid. In the United States, typically only the maid or matron of honor and the best man are the official witnesses for the wedding license.


title: Bridesmaid

text: Often there is more than one bridesmaid: in modern times the bride chooses how many to ask. Historically, no person of status went out unattended, and the size of the retinue was closely calculated to be appropriate to the family's social status. A large group of bridesmaids provided an opportunity for showing off the family's social status and wealth. Today, the number of bridesmaids in a wedding party is dependent on many variables, including a bride's preferences, the size of her family, and the number of attendants her partner would like to have as well.


title: Bridesmaid

text: The male equivalent is the groomsman, also known in British English as an usher; in the United States, the role of attending to the groom has diverged from that of escorting guests to their seats, and the two positions are no longer synonymous and are often if not usually filled by different persons.


title: Bridesmaid

text: In some cultures, such as in Norway, the Netherlands and Victorian Britain, it has been customary for bridesmaids to be small girls rather than grown women. They may carry flowers during the wedding procession and pose with the married couple in bridal photos. In modern English-speaking countries, this role is separate from that of the bridesmaid, and the small child performing it is known as a flower girl.


title: Bridesmaid

text: Although many exceed the minimum, the bridesmaids' required duties are very limited. They are required to attend the wedding ceremony and to assist the bride on the day of the wedding. Bridesmaids in Europe and North America are often asked to assist the bride with planning the wedding and a wedding reception. In modern times, a bridesmaid often participates in planning wedding-related events, such as a bridal shower or bachelorette party, if there are any. These, however, are optional activities; according to etiquette expert Judith Martin, "Contrary to rumor, bridesmaids are not obliged to entertain in honor of the bride, nor to wear dresses they cannot afford." If it is customary in the bride's area to have a bridesmaids luncheon, then it is hosted, and therefore organized and paid for, by the bride. A junior bridesmaid has no responsibilities beyond attending the wedding.


title: Bridesmaid

text: The duties and costs of being a bridesmaid are parsed out between a bride and her attendants in a variety of ways. Since modern bridesmaids, unlike their historical counterparts, can no longer rely on having their clothes and travel expenses paid for by the bride's family, and are sometimes even told they must pay for parties that the bride wants to have before the wedding, it has become customary for the bride to present the bridesmaids with gifts as a sign of gratitude for the support and financial commitment that comes with their roles. It has become equally customary for women who are invited to serve as bridesmaids to first ask about the amount of time, energy, and money that the bride expects from them before accepting this position, and to decline or resign if this is more than they will be able to give. In some American weddings, each bridesmaid may be asked to spend US$1,700 or more, with travel to destination weddings and pre-wedding parties usually being the biggest expense.


title: Bridesmaid

text: In the United Kingdom, the term "maid of honour" originally referred to the female attendant of a queen. The term 'bridesmaid' is normally used for all bridal attendants in the UK. However, when the attendant is married, or is a mature woman, the term 'matron of honour' is often used. The influence of American English has led to the chief bridesmaid sometimes being called the maid of honour.


title: Bridesmaid

text: In North America, a wedding party might include several bridesmaids, but the 'maid of honor' is the title and position held by the bride's chief attendant, typically her closest friend or sister. In modern-day weddings, some brides opt to choose a long-time male friend or brother as their head attendant, using the title 'best man' or 'man of honor'.


title: Bridesmaid

text: The activities of the principal bridesmaid may be as many or as varied as she allows the bride to impose upon her. Her only required duty is to participate in the wedding ceremony. Typically, however, she is asked for help with the logistics of the wedding as an event, such as addressing invitations, and for her help as a friend, such as attending the bride as she shops for her wedding dress.


title: Bridesmaid

text: Aside from being the bride's right hand, the maid of honor is responsible for leading the rest of the bridal party through the planning of any pre-wedding events. For example, the principal bridesmaid will be the one to make the arrangements for the bridal shower, including invitations, decorations, food, and any games or activities that will be played. He or she will also be in charge of planning the bachelorette party, including any travel or lodging accommodations that must be arranged.


title: Bridesmaid

text: On the day of the wedding, her principal duty is to provide practical and emotional support. She might assist the bride with dressing and, if needed, help the bride manage her veil, a bouquet, a prayer book, or the train of her wedding dress during the day. In a double-ring wedding, the chief bridesmaid is often entrusted with the groom's wedding ring until it is needed during the ceremony. Many brides ask bridesmaids if they are adults, to be legal witnesses who sign the marriage license after the ceremony. If there is a reception after the wedding, the maid of honor may be asked to offer a toast to the newlywed.


title: Bridesmaid

text: The origin of the Western bridesmaid tradition likely arose from a combination of many factors. The most-likely factors include, but are not limited to, socioeconomic class and status, family size, socialization standards of the day, and religion.


title: Bridesmaid

text: Others cite the Biblical story of Jacob, and his two wives Leah and Rachel, who both literally came with their own maids as detailed in the Book of Genesis (29:24, 46:18) as the origin of bridesmaids. These women were handmaidens (servants or slaves) instead of social peers.


title: Bridesmaid

text: Some sources state that, in ancient times, originally the bride and all the bridesmaids wore exactly the same dress and veiled their faces heavily, for the purpose of confusing jealous suitors and evil spirits.


title: Bridesmaid

text: In China during the feudal era, brides were susceptible to kidnapping at weddings by rival clans and hooligans. Shouldering the responsibility to protect the bride, bridesmaids were dressed up like the bride to lower the risk that she might be identified and taken. As legal protections for marriage were established, this was no longer necessary, and the role of bridesmaid took a more symbolic turn.


title: Bridesmaid

text: In the Victorian era, white was the official color for both male groomsmen and female bridesmaids. This trend originated with Queen Victoria when she married Prince Albert wearing a long white wedding dress, and her bridesmaids matched the color of her gown.


title: Heracles Almelo

text: Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to the Eredivisie for the first time in 28 years. The club remained in the top division for 17 seasons before suffering relegation at the end of the 2021–22 season. In 2012, they reached the KNVB Cup final for the first time in the club's history, losing to PSV in the final. The club's main rival is FC Twente.


title: Heracles Almelo

text: The club was founded on 3 May 1903 as Heracles, after the demigod son of Zeus. They changed their name on 1 July 1974 to SC Heracles '74 and finally settled on the current name in 1998.


title: Heracles Almelo

text: Heracles finished sixth in the Eredivisie during the 2015–16 season, qualifying for the end of season European play-offs. The club first defeated FC Groningen and then FC Utrecht and thus qualified for the first time in club history for European football, starting in the third qualifying round of the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League.


title: Heracles Almelo

text: A run of three consecutive losses saw Heracles end the 2021–22 season in sixteenth place, condemning them to the promotion/relegation play-offs. The club were relegated to the Eerste Divisie after losing 6-1 to Excelsior Rotterdam on aggregate in the semifinals.


title: Heracles Almelo

text: Heracles Almelo currently play at the Erve Asito in Almelo. The Erve Asito was built in 1999 with a capacity 6,900, this was expanded in 2005 to hold 8,500. The pitch at the Erve Asito is artificial turf. After renovation of the stadium at the beginning of 2015–16 season, it currently holds 13,500 spectators.


title: Heracles Almelo

text: Below is a table with Heracles Almelo's domestic results since the introduction of the Eredivisie in 1956.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is owned and operated by Landry's, Inc. It has 2,419 hotel rooms.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: The Golden Nugget was originally built in 1946, making it one of the oldest casinos in the city. Jackie Gaughan at one time owned a stake in the hotel as part of his many downtown properties. Steve Wynn bought a stake in the Nugget, which he increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, and the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. In 1977 he opened the first hotel tower and the resort earned its first four-diamond rating from Mobil Travel Guide. It was the foundation for Wynn's rise to prominence in the casino industry. The second hotel tower opened in 1984 along with the showroom, and the third tower was opened in 1989. In 2000, the Golden Nugget (and all of Mirage Resorts' other properties) was sold to MGM Grand, Inc. (later named MGM Mirage).


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: Although the Golden Nugget was profitable, it was not part of the master expansion plan of the corporation which was focused on consolidating a long stretch of the Strip by acquiring Mandalay Resort Group, building City Center, and beginning construction in Macau. Gaming revenue on Fremont Street had peaked in fiscal year 1993. The Golden Nugget was sold in 2003, for $215 million to Poster Financial Group, owned by Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling. When Poster Financial assumed control of the Golden Nugget, they began to upgrade the gambling operation by installing new cashless slot machines and by increasing the maximum bet available at table games to $15,000. Their story became the basis for "The Casino", a television series on Fox that premiered on June 14, 2004.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: On February 4, 2005, Houston, Texas-based Landry's, Inc announced its intent to purchase the property and the Golden Nugget Laughlin. The sale closed on September 27, 2005. After the purchase, the Golden Nugget embarked on a 14-month, $100 million renovation project, which was completed in November 2006. In December 2007, the Golden Nugget completed its $70 million Phase II project, which expanded the resort west onto First Street and introduced additional entertainment, event and dining venues. Phase III was the opening of the 500-room, $150 million Rush hotel Tower on November 20, 2009, along with the Chart House restaurant.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: The world's largest gold nugget on display, the Hand of Faith is still shown today in the Golden Nugget lobby. Weighing and in length, the Hand of Faith was found near Kingower, Victoria, Australia, and put on display at the casino in 1981 amid a number of other gold nuggets.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: The casino's large hotel sign at its entrance off Fremont and Casino Center was removed in 1984 when the casino underwent renovations. The old sign presently sits at the YESCO signage yard.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: The expanded resort is built around two aquariums. The larger faces the swimming pool and incorporates a slide through the tank containing full-grown sharks. The smaller aquarium is in the lobby of the Rush Tower.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: A total of five specialty restaurants were added: Vic & Anthony's Steakhouse, Grotto Ristorante, Lillie's Asian Cuisine, Red Sushi and Chart House. The Chart House has a view of one of the aquariums. The pool is a $30 million unique three-level adventure with an enclosed slide through a shark tank, hidden grottos, swim-up bars, jacuzzis and multi-depth areas.


title: Golden Nugget Las Vegas

text: Tom Breitling and Tim Poster were the highest profile successful entrepreneurs who profited in the downtown market during the last crisis. As recounted in Tom Breitling's book, "Double or Nothing", the partners agreed to buy the Golden Nugget and had an agreement to sell the property after operating it for only one year. The partners made $113 million in profit, called the highest rate of return in such a short time in the gaming industry. Amazingly enough the partners had a negative income for the year and the fortune was made while "total revenue" for downtown was still basically flat.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou, Duke of Cádiz, Grandee of Spain ("Alfonso Jaime Marcelino Manuel Víctor María de Borbón y Dampierre", French citizen as "Alphonse de Bourbon"; 20 April 1936 – 30 January 1989) was a grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, a potential heir to the throne in the event of restoration of the Spanish monarchy, and a Legitimist claimant to the defunct throne of France as Alphonse II.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: Alfonso was born at Sant'Anna Clinic in Rome, the elder son of Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, King Alfonso's second of four sons. His mother was "Donna" Emanuela de Dampierre, daughter of Roger, Duke of San Lorenzo and "Donna" Vittoria Ruspoli dei principi di Poggio Suasa. The Segovias lived in Rome where Jaime's father had maintained a royal court-in-exile since the royal family fled Spain following the 1931 election of republicans and socialists in Spain's major cities. Alfonso was baptised by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) at the Palazzo Ruspoli on the Via del Corso in Rome, home of his maternal grandmother, "Donna" Vittoria Ruspoli dei principi di Poggio Suasa.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: In 1941, Alfonso and his parents followed his English-born grandmother, Queen Victoria Eugenie to Lausanne in Switzerland. They lived first at the Hotel Royal, before Alfonso and his younger brother Gonzalo were sent to the Collège Saint-Jean (later Villa St. Jean International School) in Fribourg. On 8 December 1946 Alfonso made his first communion with his brother, Gonzalo; on the same day he was confirmed by Cardinal Pedro Segura y Sáenz, Archbishop of Seville.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: The king's eldest son, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, had inherited hemophilia from his maternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria, yet had been considered Spain's heir apparent until the republic was established in 1931. In 1933 he renounced any claim to inherit the Spanish throne (in the event of a restoration) to marry a Cuban commoner, Edelmira Sampedro-Ocejo, and later died of internal bleeding following a minor auto accident by September 1938. Next in the line of succession, Infante Don Jaime, deaf and largely mute, was that same day persuaded to renounce his claim (and that of future descendants) alongside his elder brother, thereby assuming the Duke of Segovia title and clearing the way for King Alfonso's third son, Don Juan, Count of Barcelona to take up the monarchist cause on behalf of the banished dynasty. There being no need for Segovia to contract a dynastic alliance, Emanuela de Dampierre's noble rather than royal background was looked upon approvingly by the former king and former queen when the couple wed in Rome in 1935, and neither style nor title is attributed to Alfonso de Borbón-Segovia y Dampierre in the 1944 edition of the "Almanach de Gotha".


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: During the Spanish civil war which began in July 1936 Franco emerged as the "Caudillo" of the "Falangist movement", overturning the republic and promising restoration, yet consolidating his grip on power in Madrid. Following Alfonso XIII's death in Rome in February 1941, Franco wrote Don Juan, acknowledging him as rightful heir to the throne (though without inviting him to occupy it), implicitly confirming that he considered Segovia and his sons excluded from the royal succession. Although in 1947, following the overturn of monarchies in Eastern Europe and Italy, Franco promulgated, and voters approved, a succession law which defined Spain as a kingdom, it also empowered Franco to decide whom to enthrone and when. Don Juan responded by issuing the Estoril Manifesto which affirmed the traditional order of succession, and followed up with comments embracing a democratic monarchy. The new law allowed Franco or his successor to choose any man "of royal lineage" as king, and Alfonso was mentioned that year as a possible alternative to Don Juan and his son, Juan Carlos, should Franco consider the former too liberal to reign over a Falangist Spain.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: In December 1949, Segovia retracted his renunciation as coerced and claimed that he was the rightful claimant to Spain's crown. Relations between Don Juan and Franco continued to deteriorate and in 1952 the latter prevailed upon Segovia to send his elder son to Spain to be educated under his guidance. Reluctantly, Alfonso moved from Switzerland to Spain, initially to study law at Deusto University and, in 1955 to attend the elite "Centro de Estudios Universitarios" (CEU). By 1956 Franco was diverting sponsors of some civic events from Juan Carlos, who was also being educated in Spain under the "Caudillo's" supervision, to Alfonso. By 1964, Franco considered Juan Carlos his preferred candidate for the throne over his father, but also considered that if the latter deviated from obedience to Franco or loyalty to his "Movimiento Nacional", Alfonso was a suitable alternative. Alfonso's strongest supporter in Franco's government was Jose Solis, minister and secretary-general of the "Movimiento". Anticipating that Franco would soon offer to declare him Spain's next king rather than Don Juan, in June 1969, Juan Carlos warned his father that if he declined Franco's offer, Alfonso would be invited to accept the crown, nevertheless Don Juan refused to consent to being bypassed. Nonetheless on 12 July 1969 Franco offered to designate Juan Carlos king whenever he stepped down from power, and Juan Carlos accepted.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: Asked by Juan Carlos to be chief witness at the ceremony declaring him successor and "Prince of Spain", Alfonso immediately agreed to do so and sent some of his supporters to visit his father in Paris to persuade him to express no opposition publicly. In return for his full support, Franco later appointed Alfonso Spain's ambassador to Sweden. But in June 1972, after he had taken up that post, Alfonso advised Franco's foreign minister Laureano López Rodó that he deemed his support conditional upon his cousin's continued loyalty to Francoist Spain. He further hinted that Spain's law of succession should be amended to facilitate Alfonso's replacing or succeeding Juan Carlos as Franco's heir or on the throne, if circumstances called for such a change.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: On 8 March 1972, in the Palace of "El Pardo" in Madrid, Alfonso married Doña María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco, daughter of Don Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, 10th Marquis de Villaverde, and of his wife, Doña Carmen Franco y Polo (Franco's only daughter. Doña Carmen was granted a title in 1975 becoming the 1st Duchess de Franco after Franco's death). The witnesses of the marriage were Franco and Alfonso's mother. Alfonso and Carmen separated in 1979, received a civil divorce in 1982 and an ecclesiastical annulment in 1986.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: On 22 November 1972, General Franco awarded Alfonso the Spanish title "Duque de Cádiz" with the dignity Grandee of Spain, and he received the style of "Royal Highness". The Cádiz title had been held by Alfonso's great-great-grandfather, the Infante Francisco de Asís.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: Since Alfonso's mother was not born a princess of royal descent, his grandfather Alfonso XIII did not consider young Alfonso in line to the Spanish throne in accordance with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830. Alfonso's father Jaime, however, came to assert that his sons were French dynasts entitled to the style of "Royal Highness".


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: In Spain up until 1972, Alfonso was generally addressed as "Don Alfonso de Borbón y Dampierre". Elsewhere he was often addressed as a prince.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: From his birth, Alfonso was considered a "Petit-fils de France" by those legitimists who believed that Alfonso XIII was also the head of the House of France. When his grandfather died on 28 February 1941, Alfonso's father Jaime succeeded him in this French claim; Alfonso was thereupon recognized by the legitimists as Dauphin of France.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: On 25 November 1950, Alfonso received the title "Duc de Bourbon" (Duke of Bourbon) from his father. In 1963, Alfonso engaged the French historian and ardent royalist Hervé Pinoteau as his private secretary. Pinoteau remained with him until the duke's death.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: On 20 March 1975, Alfonso's father Jaime died; he was immediately recognised by his supporters as King Alphonse II of France. On 3 August 1975, he took the courtesy title "Duc d'Anjou" (Duke of Anjou).


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: On 21 January 1985 (the 192nd anniversary of the death of King Louis XVI) Alfonso was present for the requiem mass at the Chapelle expiatoire in Paris.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: In 1987, Prince Henri of Orléans, Count of Clermont, eldest son of Henri, Count of Paris, the then Orléanist claimant to the defunct throne of France, initiated a court action against Alfonso for his use of the title Duke of Anjou and the coat-of-arms France Moderne (three "fleur-de-lis or"); Henri asked the court to fine Alfonso 50,000 French francs for each future violation. In 1988, Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro and Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma joined Henri's lawsuit in reference to the use of the title Duke of Anjou, but not in respect to the coat-of-arms. On 21 December 1988, the Tribunal de grande instance of Paris ruled that the lawsuit was inadmissible because the title's legal existence could not be proven; that neither the plaintiff (Henri) nor the intervenors (Fernando and Sixtus) had established their claims to the title; and that Henri was not injured from the use of the plain arms of France by the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: In 1989, Prince Henri d'Orléans and Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma appealed the judgment in the lawsuit about the use of a title and arms by Alfonso; the original judgment in favour of Alfonso was upheld.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: From 1977 to 1984, Alfonso was President of the Spanish Skiing Federation, and from 1984 to 1987 President of the Spanish Olympic Committee.


title: Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

text: Alfonso died in a skiing accident in Beaver Creek Resort, Eagle County, Colorado, on 30 January 1989, beheaded by a cable which he collided with as it was being raised to support a banner at the finish line of a course at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.


title: Uniforms of the United States Air Force

text: The uniforms of the United States Air Force are the standardized military uniforms worn by airmen of the United States Air Force to distinguish themselves from the other services.


title: Uniforms of the United States Air Force

text: When the U.S. Air Force first became an independent service in 1947 airmen initially continued to wear green U.S. Army uniforms with distinct badges and insignia. The Air Force adopted redesigned enlisted rank insignia in 1948 to further distinguish themselves. These uniforms were worn with polished black leather accessories instead of the russet brown leather previously used. These continued to be issued until the extensive stocks were either transferred to the Army or depleted, leading to the green uniforms being seen into the early 1950s.


title: Uniforms of the United States Air Force

text: The first Air Force-specific blue dress uniform, introduced in 1949, was in Shade 1683, also dubbed "Uxbridge Blue" after the former Bachman-Uxbridge Worsted Company. It was cut similarly to Army service dress uniforms, with a four button front and four coat pockets. An Eisenhower jacket, also inherited from the Army Air Forces but in Shade 1683, was an optional uniform item; it was phased out by 1965. In the early 1960s, the blue uniform transitioned to a slightly updated version in Shade 1084. The shades were updated again in the 1970s, with the coat and trousers becoming Shade 1549, while the light blue shirt became Shade 1550.


title: Uniforms of the United States Air Force

text: In 1966, a long sleeve winter blue shirt with epaulets was introduced. Epaulets were unadorned, with officers wearing small rank insignia on the collar and enlisted personnel sewn-on cloth insignia on the sleeves. These would be phased out in the early 1980s.