Well a thank you note can go a long way and for one local Bemidji organization a thank you note was enough to have their congressman stop by for a visit. Congressman Colin Peterson stopped by the headwaters school of music and the arts who received a grant earlier this year that was provided by the region two arts council. Congressman Peterson took the time to see the sights and sounds of the organization which he says is one of the benefits of being on the campaign trail. I get to see the best and brightest and most successful of what's going on in this district. You know I mean I have the ability to call people up and they're willing to you know show me what they're up to and so it's really is one of the great things we have so many great people in this district that do just amazing things that people wouldn't even believe and I get to interact with them. Congressman Peterson was also able to meet staff and observe the Young Artist Club. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Favorite episode so far, whether it's out or not? All of them. All of my favorite, cause I'm blessed to do it. Yeah, we on boss talk one on one, one on one. Yeah, we gon' talk. Wow. Yeah, I just, like I said, I enjoy seeing it now, just to see you on that side of the table, asking the questions instead of being asked the questions. Correct. And I've seen guests from, what, Jock, who all been on there? I know you've been checking them out. Mamadou? Mamadou. Mamadou. Mamadou? Who else? I got Michael Black. Michael Black's hasn't dropped yet. I ain't seen that one. DJ Drama ain't dropped yet. Damn, I ain't seen that one. But it was another one, the Jackson guy. Stephen Jackson. Stephen Jackson. I got some Stephen Jackson.  When I be seen, I be like, boy, some girl, it was on there, it said somebody's sex. What was that all about? Sookie. Yeah, I saw that one. What was up with that show, man? Cause a lot of people said that it was a little different for you. Yeah, that was different. They got to see a side of me that they never seen before. But, you know, when I did that joke, the boogie eating joke, well, y'all done been to my show. I tell that same joke on stage. So it was just funny how it just came out just the way it came out. And she was like, oh my God. Man, I'm like, let me get stricter than the time. What's your favorite episode so far? Whether it's out or not? All of them. All of my favorite, cause I'm blessed to do it. You know, I could be in the grave, I could be in jail, I could be a paralegic. You know, I could be a lot of things, but I could, both eyes work. Out of my hands and toes work. I'm blessed to be able to interview these people. And because they got their story of their own. And to come from, I'm come from, from coming in here to our first interview with broke than the motherfucker. Had a vision, had a plan, but didn't know how I was going to execute it. And she, I can't do nothing but be thankful. Is there any story that you heard that you didn't know about? Cause you know when you talk to people, sometimes, you know, you may have a couple questions and you did your research, but things come out in interviews that you can't find nowhere when you do your research.  We all look at her as sex. We looked at her maybe thinking she was a hoe. And you know, I guess how else me and stink, but she's more than that. She's not that. She's totally opposite.   I'm not saying selling nobody, but she's a great person, you know, so. There's so many women out here who are just like her. And you know, I respect her grinding her hustle. So I got to Sukiyono, man. I really respect her from the interview. I learned a lot about her.  She like, she want to be submissive to her, man. Likely they, these women don't want to be submissive. They want to do what they want to do. You know what I'm saying? And, How hard is it for a man to find a submissive woman? It's probably hard. I ain't got that problem, but it's probably hard for them, man. For the ones who ain't got it, I pray for you.  It's a little different, you know what I'm saying? I'm from the South. That's what we looking for. We looking for somebody like our mommas that can cook and clean and then be nice in the streets but are freaking the bed. That's what we want, you know? So, you know. That's a song, man. Don't try to play me. That's a song.  Yeah, yeah. Dingo Howard, Dingo Howard. Who likes to love a dude more than one? I did, too, man. She was the, I think she was the first one to really just let it all hang out about what she felt about how things, that was the t-shirt and the panties and all that stuff, man. Let me get a second. Shout out to Tupac, man. I ain't know he used to date a Dingo Howard. I ain't even know that, but you know that nigga was slick. They said nigga was like Drake. It was, man. They say Drake like that now. Like he was like that. Shit. Shit. But that's good. I mean that he would date people and don't tell nobody. He did it on the slide. But I said, though. I get around. Everybody got a, I'm tired of people always putting their business out in the public, especially with the dating stuff. You know what I mean? Certain things gotta be secret. Well, you know, that younger generation, they do that for clout. They do it to... Bill of marines.  What you think about, and this is off that top, I don't want, let me stay on that for a minute. Let me talk about Tupac one more time. Shout out to Samaria Fates-Smilf, the Tupac fan in my house. Now she ain't but 17 and she gonna come out when we was watching poetic, just a little heat find. Wait a minute. Let me go and put you. She didn't say he found like Damon did on Fragout Energy. No. She just was like... Tupac? That nigga wild, man. I just watched it. That nigga on the couch. That nigga grab that couch. That nigga flexing his muscle. Let me talk ganks.


What is going on guys, welcome back to the channel and I appreciate you being here today. I am back with another live PvP gameplay and today we're going to take into PvP the Dark Missileer. Is this worth the grind? I mean it took me ages to get like 30 packages people and do the maths, 20 tokens per package, do the maths people. I'm hoping this is going to be a good weapon, but guys if you do enjoy the video and want to see more live PvP gameplays do just smash that like button, I do appreciate the support. Straight into it. Why are they all lining? It's so weak people. I'm afraid for this rubbish. 14 to the head. Give me that, give me that.  Ho ho ho ho ho, now it's down. What the bad... What? Bad this weapon is. It's bad. It's bad. Let's go for range. That takes off the range. Ho ho ho ho ho. This doesn't work. It just doesn't work. But it's don't seem to... Ah my second party. I mean it's like the worst of an auto rifle and SMG combined into one. The worst of both. How? How can it make you grind? 30 ranks. But it's just don't hit. But it's just don't hit people. I shouldn't have killed him then. I should have killed him. Not like this piece of... Baited by Bungie. He'd let me kill him then. He's feeling sorry for me. He'd let me kill him. I'm a ninja. Yes, I'm a ninja in my arcs. I can't do it no more. I was baited by Bungie. Can imagine them sitting there in their offices. I know what we do to get people to play Iron Banner. We put what looks to be a good weapon at a rank 30. Anyone play this wave. Anyone fight back. You're dead. No argument, you're dead. Can't argue, you're dead.   Die so quick. Come to the end of this video. Because I'm not playing with this no more. Because I was well and truly baited by...


respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam, As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh A letter from a father to a son from Ali bin Abi Talib, the Wul of Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him to his son, Ma'am Hassan, peace be upon him Bloody be known to you that decaying of health passing away of time and nearness of death had made me realize that I should give more thought to my future, the next world and to my people I advised them and spent more time in equipping them mentally to face this materialistic world I felt that my own sons and my near ones have as much right to utilize from my experiences and knowledge all the ups and downs of my life all the realities and all the truths about life in this world and the hereafter I decided therefore to spend more time over you to prepare you for your own good This was neither selflessness nor self-esteem nor mental luxury of giving away pieces of advice but it was the sincere desire of making you see the world as I found it Look at the realities of life as I looked at them and do the right thing at the right time at the right place as it should be done which made me write down these advices to you You will not find them You will not find in them anything but truth and realities My dear son, you are a part of my body and my soul Whenever I look at you I feel like as if I am looking at myself If any problem befalls you if it is like it has befallen me your death will make me feel as if my own death your affairs to me are like my own affairs Therefore, I committed these pieces of advice to paper I want you to take care of them to pay attention and to guard them very well I may remain longer in your life or I may not but I want these pieces of advice to remain always and all time with you My first and foremost advice to you My son is to free Allah SWT Be his obedient servant Keep his thought always fresh in your mind Be attached and carefully guard the principles of Islam which cannot which connect you to Allah SWT There is no stronger or no more doable connection than with Allah SWT Respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam As-Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh Welcome to another episode of Life from Karbala The will that I just read is the will of Ali ibn Abi Talib as I mentioned to one of his sons and a strongly narrated by historians to his son, Ma'ma al-Hassan al-Mushtaba May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him Tonight is the most significant night compared to the other nights across the year It is the 23rd night of the holy month of Ramadan Tonight is the night when the Holy Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad SAW Tonight is the night when the angel descended on Prophet Muhammad Tonight is the night which is better and holier than 1000 months Tonight is the night of Lait al-Qadr So insha'Allah tonight we will discuss the significance of Lait al-Qadr and the connection between such a night and Ahlul Bayt peace be upon them But first let's welcome our very special guest Sayyid Ja'far al-Qazweeni Assalamu alaikum Sayyidina How are you? Alhamdulillah Wa'a maalakum insha'Allah There is no better place to be on such a night between the two holy shrines of Ma'ma al-Hassan and Abbas peace be upon them May Allah accept our prayers insha'Allah insha'Allah because of where we are insha'Allah insha'Allah from within the Haram of Ma'ma al-Hassan I won't forget to you with some of the dear viewers insha'Allah from behind insha'Allah As narrations by Ahlul Bayt Lait al-Qadr it is very mustahab it is very good a good deed to do is to visit the holy shrines Hussain peace be upon them and to ask forgiveness for all the believers all the lovers of Ahlul Bayt and even just everyone across the world but Lait al-Qadr is the great blessings of Allah SWT which the doors of His mercy are open to all the believers who sincerely and faithfully love and obey His commands however Allah SWT discusses and explain the significance of this night when we read Chapter 97 Surat al-Qadr we see Allah SWT telling and saying about this verse that is better and holier than 1,000 months you know as if someone would worship 1,000 months and misses this night as if he didn't worship those those 1,000 months so why is this night so significant and where does its significance originate from Sayyidina In the name of Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful All praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds and peace be upon Muhammad and his good family Allah SWT may the Lord explain to me my heart and my mind and my words In the name of Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful we have sent him down in a night of Lait al-Qadr my dear brothers dear viewers peace be upon you may Allah SWT may Allah SWT in the first verse of this holy chapter Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem we have revealed it on the night of Qadr there are a couple of beautiful notes to mention because today is indeed Lait al-Qadr the night of power or destiny as they refer to it and as they translated to English there are two a couple of beautiful points in regards with this holy verses in the Holy Quran first of all Allah SWT we notice that he is saying that we have revealed it some may ask that everyone knows and all the historians all the narrators of hadith and the transmitters of hadith all the scholars agree on that it refers to the Holy Quran and that Allah SWT is speaking about the Holy Quran to be revealed on this night Lait al-Qadr so why didn't Allah SWT for example say that we have revealed the Quran in Lait al-Qadr scholars say that it is out of glorification and honor for the Quran let me give you an example for example I go and visit a very well known scholar Marjah for instance and I sat with him and then when I go back home they ask me where have you been I don't bring up his name because that he is very known and he is well known to everyone I say that I was with Samahat al-Sayyid or Samahat al-Sheikh for example and that's out of glorification and honor and that Allah SWT here in this beautiful verse points at the Holy Quran in a very beautiful way and also to give it more to give it more honor and glorification Allah SWT says we have revealed it Inna anzenna in Lait al-Qadr he didn't say that it was revealed he is saying that we revealed it on Lait al-Qadr which gives it more glorification and more honor to the holy book another question might be raised dear brother that some would say that wasn't the Holy Quran didn't it start with Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim iqra Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim iqra wasn't that ten years prior to the to the hijra of the prophet on the day that the prophethood was he became a prophet and wasn't the last verse that was revealed ayat al-indar or ayat al-tabligh Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim iqra the verse that clearly and loudly announces Ali ibn iqra as the successor of the prophet peace be upon him so how come Allah SWT is saying that we have revealed it on the night of Qadr scholars go to two different answers to this question and most of them most of the scholars believe and say that the Quran was revealed on the prophet on his heart to the prophet twice once and overall Quran that was in the beginning some point in the beginning Allah SWT revealed the whole Quran to the prophet so that the prophet peace be upon him and his family during the 23 years of prophethood and of announcing and of i'laa kalimat Allah SWT during his mission accomplishing his mission he would have a general idea of the whole Quran and the i'aqam and what it says and what it contains and then throughout the 23 years the verses and the i'aqam and the and the requests and orders of the whole Quran were given in details to the prophet so that the prophet would give it to the nation after that so they believe that it was revealed into two times once all in one on Lailat Al Qadr and and Shahid Al Sadr Allah SWT he has a he gives a beautiful he gives a beautiful delil evidence ascent from the whole Quran saying that because in other verse Allah SWT states Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem Kitabun Uhkimat aayatuhu Thumma fosalat that the whole Quran states here that the verses were made strong first and then they were sent or revealed in details to the prophet so he refers to this aayat and he takes it as an evidence that the Quran was revealed twice and another reason and another point beautiful point that the scholars mention in regards to this topic they say that the Holy Quran was revealed on the prophet throughout and by the way before I say this the Holy Quran our holy book the Holy Quran our prophet's holy book was the only book was the only book that was revealed throughout stages within a period of time within 23 years and that was the only holy book a holy book that was revealed by Allah this way the Bible the Old Testament Tawarat New Testament the Bible and the other holy books that were revealed from Allah to his messengers were all at once but our Quran and the Holy Quran was revealed throughout stages why some people ask the most beautiful answer that I have heard so far is that and also Allah mentions the answer within the Holy Quran within the Holy Quran within the Holy Quran within the Holy Quran Allah says Allah says why Allah says the translation of this holy verse is and those who disbelieve say that why wasn't this book revealed to him all at once Allah says in the end of this holy verse says that this is for us to that we may strengthen the heart of the Prophet we might strengthen your heart Holy Prophet imagine that the imagine that Jibreel because when the Prophet used to when Jibreel used to be to come down to the Prophet and reveal some verses and speak to the Prophet it was comforting with the Holy Prophet the Prophet would feel comfortable strengthen by seeing Jibreel and speaking to him and giving the delivering the message from and to Allah and I'll give you also an example about that for example I'm a college student so I go overseas to do my education to continue my education and I am a type that I have a very strong relationship with my mother and I use and I am used to speak to her every day and about everything and that so when I am overseas when I am out there they give me two options they say that you either speak to your mom once a week for two hours every week but it's going to be once a week or they tell me that you will speak and speak to your mom every day for 15 to 20 minutes I would definitely prefer to speak with my mom every day for even though it's a short time but because I miss her because I love her because I want her because I want to hear her voice because I want to listen to her I would prefer to speak to her every day for a shorter period of time and this is exactly or this is it is an example of what I mean and how it was for the Prophet to speak with her it was converting for the Prophet to he would feel stronger and more comfortable when it would happen and this is reason number one and reason number two of why the Holy Quran was revealed throughout stages and within stages and within 23 years the other answer the scholars bring up is that this is because the Quran is not a book of entertainment it's not a love story it's not a novel that I might read prior to sleep and because I want to go to sleep I would like to read something and it's a book of revolution and revolutions take time they don't occur and happen and affect within a single night or two they take time and because Allah SWT wanted to make and he did and the Quran was one of the Holy Prophet's miracles miracles how was it a miracle so many answers and one of them is that it's a book of revolution it's got a way of life in it it's not only about Allah SWT giving stories to the Holy Prophet and that would be all and it needed that time and it might have even needed longer because because even after 23 years of revealing holy verses and speak into the nation through the prophet peace be upon him did it affect people? I mean we see that the Holy Quran also answers this question by saying Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem وما محمدون إلا رسولون قد خلت من قبله رسول أفأمات أو قتلا قلبتم على عقابكم a lot of people went back to to what they were doing before the prophet became a prophet Ahsan a lot of people became misguided right after the prophet departed us and right after the prophet passed away so even for some people for a lot of people that were with the prophet and around him 23 years was not even enough not even 23 years was enough for them to change for good and do so and this is why this holy book and Islam and the religion of Allah and the faith needed أحلى البيh صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلي to continue what the prophet started to continue what the prophet peace be upon him had it started to continue his mission and to be with the people guiding them and shielding them from being misguided and here comes the most significant and important role of أحلى البيh صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلي as the viewers may know there is a very very strong connection according to our Sadaq peace be upon him and Bihar Anwar there is a very strong connection between أحلى البيh peace be upon them and رييت القدر especially with فاطمة الزهراء صلى الله عليه وسلم وعلي وعلي ن makeup كل موتر م unpredictable is in his peace be upon him he states the person who has fully grasped the deep understanding of فاطمة الزهراء who may peace and blessings be upon her as she ought to be understood then he has understood and experienced the blessings When Allah SWT says that this night is greater than a thousand months, we see on Sadaq through At-Laha Alayh saying that the believers who worship in this night won't understand or won't benefit from their worship until they understand what Fatima Az-Zahra is and what Prophet Muhammad SAW states, whoever angers her, angers me, and whoever angers me, angers Allah SWT.  But what does Prophet Muhammad, and what has Ahlul Bayt peace be upon them, narrated regarding Dayat Al-Qadir? Hassan, so many dear brothers, so many dear brothers, it is important to know that Ahlul Bayt, peace be upon him, there are certain points in the religion of Islam that were meant to be hidden from us, some certain details. For example, when is Dayat Al-Qadir? The Prophet, in many instances, in many stories, in many times, was asked, SAW, that when is it exactly, he wouldn't answer to that. Imam Amir Mu'mineen, SAW, was asked that when is Dayat Al-Qadir? He would answer that I know, but I'm not going to tell you. You just say there's the last ten nights in the Ramadan, it's one of the nights. We have so many different narrations, it stays, we also have, you know that we have narrations saying that it might be like a single day, Ahsan, the third, the fifth, the seventh, until the end of the month. But the most of narrations, most of narrations in general, they speak about three nights of this holy month, Shahra Ramadan, they speak about the 19th and the night of the 19th and the night of the 21st and the night of the 23rd of this holy month. And also most of the narrations, or the narrations, I believe two or three narrations that the scholars depend on to prove that it might be tonight, the night of the 23rd of Ramadan, or Shahra Ramadan. This is why they call it Al-Qadir Al-Kubra, because most of the people there, and they all go back to one or two narrations, maybe more, I'm not positive, but they mostly go to Hadith Al-Arabi, which states that Al-Arabi, one of the people that used to love the desert with his family and animals and stuff, he came to the Holy Prophet, telling him that dear Prophet, I cannot come every night during the holy month of Ramadan, or in the single night of Fardiyah, I can't come because every time I come I have to take my family with me because I can't leave them out there in the desert, and I have to bring my animals with me, so it's very difficult, and I cannot come except one night. So when would you tell me to order me, when would be the best time for me to come and to be with you during your prayers and do prayers and dua with you? The Prophet whispered something in his ears, he didn't say Allah, so he thanked the Prophet and left, and people saw him later on coming on the Me'ev of 23rd, and every year they would see him come on that night, so the rest of the companions started seeing this Arabic Juhaina, by the name of Juhaina, started seeing him every year on this specific Eve, the evening of the night of the 23rd, the eve of the 23rd of Ramadan, they started seeing him come into the Prophet and doing his prayer, and because he couldn't come every night, the Prophet whispered, according to this hadith, they said that it's pretty obvious that the Prophet told them that the eve of Qadir, the night of Qadir, is on the evening of the 23rd, and as I said also, they asked Imam Ameer al-Momeen, that when is it, is it the 19th, is it the 21st, is it the 23rd, Imam said that I know, but I will not tell you, what harm would it cause you if you worship Allah three nights, this would be usually the overall answer of Ahl al-Bayt, all the infallibles, and also Imam Al-Baqir Salatullah was also asked, that do you know when is the night of Qadir, he said of course I know, when is the night of Qadir, where do you think the angels, who do you think the angels revealed to on that night, they revealed to me, because during the Prophet's time they used to reveal to the Prophet, Allah SWT, they revealed to whom they are revealed, during the Prophet's time it was on the Prophet, during Imam Ali's time it was on Imam Hassan's time, Imam, it was on Imam Hassan, and today of course they come to Hajj of Allah, Imam Sahib al-Asr, they go to their master and our master, they go to our master and their master, and they are revealed on him, giving him all about what was during the last year and what's going to be during the upcoming year. So these are some narrations stating that Ahl al-Bayt, they definitely know when it is, but they just wanted it was meant for this Eve to be hidden from us, why? Because Allah SWT wants us, it's like he is looking for excuses to forgive us, what is tonight, what's so special about this evening, the special about this evening, this evening is the huge sales that's going on, Allah SWT gives reveals and passes on and divides his mercy upon people in this evening, in this specific evening, more than he does throughout the whole year. And our actions, Allah SWT in the second verse of Surah Al-Qadr says, Bismillah ar-Rahman al-Raheem, from the beginning, Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem, and there's also a narration from the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, says that there was a man among many Israel that fought because of the cause of Allah SWT, for the cause of Allah, for the sake of Allah, he fought the disbelievers for 80 to 82 years, he spent 80 to 82 years, he spent all his life fighting for Allah SWT, and then he became a martyr, so some of the companions said, wow, what a great thing he did, what a great reward, he received of doing this, Allah SWT here answers to them that you too can receive the same reward, khayrum min al-fi shahr, the prayers, the dua, the prayers, the mercy that we ask from Allah during this evening is khayrum min al-fi shahr, it's better than 1000 months, which is equal to 80 to 82 years, so it is such a glorious evening, such a significant evening because of these facts, because of Allah SWT's sense upon us his mercy on this evening, and they say also scholars say that any good deed that I do on this evening evening, for example if I do naafil, extra prayers, if I donate money to the orphans and to the poor, it is multiplied by 1000 in this evening, so I remind myself, dear brother, and all the dear viewers as well, to take advantage of this evening, because there is also another story of during the time that the Prophet was before his prophethood, he went to taif, to another city, and he was there for a while, and over there some guy given shelter, and the Prophet back then wasn't a prophet and a well-known prophet that everyone know about, and the final messenger of Allah, he wasn't known by that, and he was weak back then, he wasn't strong, so this guy sheltered the Prophet for many nights, I believe, and then years later this guy heard that the same guy that the Prophet Muhammad, that he sheltered years ago is now has become a prophet, and he is supposed to be the final prophet and messenger of Allah, and he has his nation now and he has a kingdom, so he went to the Prophet, he told him that dear Prophet remember me, remember that I gave you shelter back then, the Prophet said indeed what can I do for you now, he said that I want you to do whatever I request from you, for me, the Prophet told him ask anything you want, and I shall guarantee it for you, for Allah, so the guy asked for 200 sheeps, so the Prophet, peace be upon him, raised his hand and he did the dua and asked Allah, and after maybe a couple of minutes somebody showed up with 250 and some extra sheeps and gave it to him, so after he left it was very happy, he took the sheeps, thank you very much, and he left, after he left the Prophet came to his companions and said that how low his ambitions were, he could have asked, I told him that I will guarantee anything, anything that she would request, I would, he could have requested to be with me, my neighbor in heavens, at my level, and because I told him that I guarantee anything you ask, he could have asked for khayr of dunya and akhara, what is 200 sheeps you're asking from the Prophet, peace be upon him, and the Prophet is giving you guarantee that your du'as and your prayers should be guaranteed, and we dear brother also should now forget that we are asking from Allah, the Creator of the Prophet, peace be upon him, tonight, and every night, and we raise our hands and do du'as for him, and our first dua should always be that Allahumma ajallahu wa yadukum farah, du'a al maami khudja, may Allah SWT hasten the re-appearance of our saviour and our imam, Salawatullah, Salamu alayhi. So you're all human, too. Ahsant, ahsant, so it is important for us to have high ambitions and we take, we raise the level of our requests tonight from Allah SWT. Don't worry, you're asking Allah SWT, the strongest, you're asking the Creator, and you're asking the Al-Ghani, Al-Qadir, that we shall not forget, and also there is a narration, beautiful narration from an imam, Al-Baqas, as well, from Imam Al-Baqas, that he said that do prayers to Allah in this evening, in this evening, using tongues that you didn't sin Allah with, so that people ask them that, okay, we're not infallibles, we all have done sins, so how could we ask Allah something with the tongue that we haven't done a sin with it? He said that you should be clever. In this evening, make agreements with your brothers and neighbors and your friends, so that they do a dua for you and you do dua for them.  So, dear brothers and dear viewers, do prayers for your brothers, for your family members, for your neighbors, don't forget them. Especially for, you know, hastening their appearance on our own. Because we see, I mean, the world right now is full of oppression, and the best thing to do at the moment, and only on this night especially, is to ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and to strongly request from Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala to hasten the appearance of our beloved Imam. Because, I mean, as we see right now, there are millions, if not thousands, thousands, not millions of pilgrims are visiting Oha peace be upon him, and I will follow the Abbas. Inshallah, may Allah accept everyone's prayers. But when speaking about Imam Sahib al-Asri wa al-Zaman, it is very significant to note that Lailat al-Qadr also interconnects with our Sahib, has a strong connection with Sahib al-Zaman. According to strong narrations by Ahlul Bayt, Lailat al-Qadr is meant for people to pray to Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, and as you mentioned, it's unknown. People just say, you know, according to narrations, and people seeing someone coming back on the 23rd night. But it's similar to the grave of Fatima to Zahra, which is also hidden, and Mahdi, M'Allah, has his reappearance, which is also hidden from our eyes, but lives in our hearts, inshallah. It's a very significant connection that Imam al-Qadr peace be upon him does in Bihar al-Nawar. But we see that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala, you know, when we learn that Allah revealed the Quran and Prophet Muhammad on such a night, it's a blessed occasion. People should be, you know, rejoicing this night. But we see people are so sad on such a night, you know, worshiping Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala with a saddened heart. Why is that, Sayyidina? I mean, why we should be happy that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala revealed the Quran, you know, appearing and... We are happy that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala has given us such blessings of introducing such an evening to us. And I mean, an evening that every single penny that I spend for Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala tonight is multiplied by a thousand and even more than that. So we are happy of that side. And also, we should not forget that we should not forget that the Malaika wa Ruh that are mentioned in the Holy Verse that come down on this evening, on this evening, they all come down to our master and to their master Imam Sahib al-Zaman SAW. And he gets to see, he gets to see what we have done in the past year and what's going to happen to us in the upcoming year. He SAW gets to check off our actions and our destinies in this evening. So the sadness is always the, I believe, the main reason. And this is the same reason, reason you see some of the some of the Mu'mineen kind of sad on Friday in the afternoons because they know that it is supposed to be on Friday. We are told that it is going to be on Friday the reappearance of our saviour of our Imam. And so every Friday noon that would pass without the appearance of the Imam, it means that we're going to have to wait for another week and we don't know if we're going to be alive for another week or not. So also on this evening, when we know that the angels and the Ruh, which is mostly Jibra'il SAW, they all come to the Imam SAW and they bring what's destined for everyone throughout this year to him. We wish that we could we could see him. We wish that we could do prayers behind him with him. We could say I'm mean to his prayers. And also and also because we mentioned the Imam SAW, I would like my dear brother to recite Dua'a al-Mam Al-Hujjah on this evening and inshallah all of us inshallah and all the dear viewers. Al Rahman Al Raheem Quda Amaloo Fa Sayyara Allah Amalakum Wa Rasuluhu Wa Al Mu'minoon Work and because Allah SAW and his prophet and the Mu'minoon, which are the Ahlul Bayt, which is today our Imam Sa'hab Al-Asr wa Az-Zama'a SAW, Madin Muntoor today it is him that is referred in this holy verse at Mu'minoon. They see our actions, they see what we have done throughout the year and what's going to happen to us. So inshallah we ask Allah to grant us a good year inshallah in the upcoming year inshallah whether we were alive until the upcoming year of Qadr or not. If we are inshallah we'll have a good life inshallah taking lessons and improving in this in this life of ours and if we were not and if I was not my dear brother inshallah may Allah grant us heavens and paradise inshallah. Inshallah grant us his forgiveness and inshallah if we are alive we can pray behind Sa'hab Al-Asr wa Az-Zama'a you know in this very holy place. Thank you very much Sayyidina and it's also significant that on a night like this as you mentioned there's a we conclude this episode with this narration there was one scholar who used to sit in the mosque I think Kufa or there's the mosque Sardab in Najaf Sardab Al-Ghaybe Sardab Al-Ghaybe in Sa'mur Ra' and he used to sit there and people used to hear him praying praying for the for the disbelievers so they were shocked like Sayyidina or Maulana you're praying for the disbelievers and not for the believers he said because the believers are already blessed with the blessings of Islam they'd have to follow the path the path is drawn for them they just have to walk on it but the disbelievers did not get the message of Allah or were not present. This is a kind of belief and ambitions that we're talking about. Yeah so he sits on it praying for disbelievers so inshallah we can you know pray for this believer as well as pray for our brothers and sisters so thank you very much Sayyidina and thank you very much respected viewers please not forget us in your dua and inshallah we as well not forget you when we visit the holy shrine of Hussain Abbas and Imam Ali and Najaf so thank you very much if you didn't get the chance to view the episode you can check out our youtube channel at Imam Hussain's PTV


In 1980, on September 28, the Washington Post ran a story titled Jimmy's World, written by Janet Cook. The story was about an eight-year-old black child from the District of Columbia who had been addicted to heroin since the age of five. Jimmy's is a world of hard drugs, fast money, and the good life he believes both can bring. Cook writes in this article, Every day, junkies casually buy heroin from Ron, his mother's live-in lover, in the dining room of Jimmy's home. They cook it in the kitchen and fire up in the bedrooms, and every day, Ron or someone else fires up Jimmy, plunging a needle into his bony arm, sending the fourth grader into a hypnotic nod. The article goes on to offer several quotes from eight-year-old Jimmy. I want to have me a bad car and dress good, and also have me a good place to live, so I pretty much pay attention to math in school, because I know I got to keep up when I finally get me something to sell, as I'm talking about his time in school, according to this article. These are all direct quotes. And another quote, Jimmy says, It be real different from herb.  Don't nobody here hardly ever smoke no herb. You can hardly get none right now anyway. Cook also ran a quote from Jimmy's mother, saying, I don't really like to see him fire up, but you know, I think he would have got into it one day anyway. Everybody does. When you live in the ghetto, it's all a matter of survival. If he wants to get away from it when he's older, then that's his thing. But right now, things are better for us than they've ever been. Drugs and black folk been together for a very long time. So this article describes the horror story of this eight-year-old boy doing and selling drugs that he got from his mother's live-in boyfriend. The story was horrifying to everybody who read it. The mayor of Washington, D.C., Mary and Barry ordered a search of the city to find Jimmy. The Washington Post even assigned six other reporters to look for another child in Jimmy's situation, believing that he couldn't be the only one. There's got to be somebody that fits the description of Jimmy out there, because heroin is such a problem. This is the idea in people's heads when the story came out. Janet Cook even won the Pulitzer Prize for this story. The problem was that despite the city-wide search by both the government and the Washington Post, Jimmy was never found. Janet Cook was asked where she found Jimmy and his family, and she somehow couldn't remember. I don't remember where I told this story and spent time with his family, she said. When the search spread to looking for any child heroin addict, the city of Washington, D.C., was unable to find a single one. Cook was forced to return her prize. You can still read Jimmy's world on the website for the Washington Post, but now it begins with a disclaimer admitting that the article was a fabrication, such as the mania that the anti-opium crusade evolved into after prohibition. I'm Chris Cowton, and this is the Mises Institute podcast Historical Controversies. Today I'm going to be talking about opium, which probably is the richest and broadest history out of all the major narcotics involved in the war on drugs. This episode is going to be a bit all over the place because I don't think I would be doing justice if I didn't talk about Britain, China, and the United States. All of these countries have an interesting history with opium, so I think it'll be worth the time. We talked in the very first episode about the introduction of morphine in the 19th century, and how it was an incredible benefit to wounded soldiers during the Civil War in the United States, in other words in Europe. I also touched on the obvious negative consequences of the use of morphine at the time. This episode I'm going to dive deeper into the history of opiates, but I think for this it would be worth reviewing some aspects of the evolution of opium to heroin to better understand the political and economic history of this drug. For most of its history, even going back to ancient times, opium was extracted from opium poppies, and it was either smoked or eaten, and this was often done for medical purposes because of its use as a painkiller. These analgesic properties are still recognized enough to let most opiates enjoy a Schedule II classification in the United States, which essentially means that they're classified as dangerous, but they do have some medical use. Remember that marijuana is only a Schedule I, so it's considered even worse than morphine for instance. But opium is substantially less potent than the refined forms of morphine and heroin, and smoking and eating opiates are both less efficient ways of consuming the drug, so this practice was actually relatively harmless.  I don't even really drink, so when I'm talking about these and their benefits and things like that, this isn't really an advocacy of doing any of these drugs. I'm not really a fan of intoxicants myself, but the narrative against these drugs is just so overwhelmingly exaggerated that it's hard to tell the truth about them without sounding almost like you're advocating them, so I don't want that to be misinterpreted, but smoking opium was relatively harmless compared to what we think about with opiates, and it was at least far less harmful than smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol just to put things into perspective. Now, from this, we saw the development of 19th century Western medicine, such as laudanum, and there were people who became addicted to these opiates, so I don't want to understate the addictive properties of opium. The most famous of these was the writer Thomas de Quincey, who wrote Confessions of an English Opium Eater in 1821 that was widely read, and it served as the inspiration for some of the writings on hashish I mentioned in the first episode. The first attempt at regulating opium was made in Britain as early as 1857, with the cell of Poison's Bill, it's called the Cell of Poison's Bill, but it wasn't heavily enforced because of the widespread use of laudanum, but just as we would see in the Civil War, opium had both positive and negative effects. Thousands of lives, probably tens or hundreds of thousands of lives were saved from dysentery and cholera, which were particularly common in the crowded and unhygienic London, and just as they were common on the battlefield. But on the other hand, there were many lives lost to overdose and even murder. Among the most horrifying uses of opium was the use of opium-based soothing syrups for children, which were common in what I've pretty much started referring to as opium daycares, that's my term, so you won't find that in any other literature.  But these were places in which women would be employed to take care of up to a dozen children at a time while their mothers worked in factories or as domestic services, and they would keep the children quiet by feeding them these opium syrups. And when the mother got home, it was not uncommon for her to just do the same thing so she could get a decent night's sleep. So these infants, especially lower-class children, were just continually fed opium-based syrups. Now of course, much of this was due to the ignorance of the problems of opium at the time, since it wasn't until the end of the 19th century that people really started to become very aware of addictive qualities of opium.  There were women who worked in these infamous baby farms of the Victorian era, in which, and that is a term you can Google, that is not my term, baby farms are what they're referred to as pejoratively. They were used at the time basically to smear, I think rightly, smear these organizations, but these were baby farms in the Victorian era in which women were actually paid a lump sum to sometimes just fully adopt a child. And what they would sometimes do is they'd take the payment and then after the payment was received, they would use opium to essentially commit infanticide. And infanticide was not, it was kind of just what people did back then until abortion became common, even in Ireland, excuse me, poor women would commonly commit infanticide just because another baby was another mouth defeat and they couldn't deal with it. So that's not trying to justify this or condone this. I think this is a horrifying practice, but I do want to put it into context of the time. Now, how common actual murders were is incredibly difficult to determine because of the mixture of accidental infant deaths that were common at this time, but it is relatively undisputed that this form of infanticide did take place and it usually took place with opiates. Now, even as libertarians, we may be able to give plenty of good answers as to why drugs like these opiates should still not be regulated, but it's important to understand that unlike marijuana, opium did actually have truly harmful consequences that can serve as justification for regulation from the point of view of the average person. This never really was the motivation behind regulation, at least not the predominant one in many places, surprisingly enough, which I'll be discussing later in the episode, but we do want to keep these things in mind, especially when we're talking to people about these topics, I think. It's also worth noting that even before the 1857 sale of Poison's bill, people in Britain were becoming sufficiently aware of the dangers of opium. The idea that opiates were harmless started to decline as early as 1828, so I mentioned earlier that it was the late 19th century when this information became widespread and that's true, but we start seeing it as early as 1828 after the death of the Earl of Mar, who had been an opium eater for 30 years, and this caused his heirs to lose the life insurance that they would have otherwise been paid, because the insurance company actually determined that this habit shortened his life expectancy, so they didn't pay his heirs, any of his life insurance. Shortly after this, a Scottish professor named Professor Christison testified that opium did indeed shorten one's lifespan when he was testifying in a Scottish court, and additionally, there were famous penny tracks published by the Ladies Sanitary Association, entitled The Massacre of Innocence, which condemned the use of these soothing syrups on infants, so it's equally important to understand not just the dangers of opium and the fact that people might use these as justifications for prohibition, but from a libertarian perspective, we of course want to understand that the movement against certain forms of opium were taking place long before the government ever got involved, but there were private movements that did lead to the decrease in opium use before prohibition, in fact, decades before prohibition in this case. Morphine was first discovered in 1806 by a German pharmacist's assistant named Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sutcherner, and if I'm pronouncing that right, it's because I asked our German fellow here, Carl Israel, because we have so many Germans inventing new forms of opium that I kept having to ask him how to pronounce all these German names, but I'm still probably getting them wrong, and so Sutcherner named his new product Morphium, named after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams or sleep, because of morphine's sleep-inducing properties. In the 1820s, morphine was widely available in Britain and the United States, and so many people used it as a means to commit suicide, and this was actually so common that in his 1830 novel, The Devil's Comedy, this is a French novel, but that's the translated title, the author named, and this is another one I'm going to have trouble pronouncing, but it's Honoré de Balzac wrote that The Devil himself claimed that morphine was a primary cause for the sudden population increase in hell because of the suicides. When Dr. Alexander Wood perfected the hypodermic syringe in 1853, this was another innovation that increased the strength of opiates, because, and I mentioned this in an earlier episode, he made it possible to inject morphine rather than swallowing it, which remember, essentially increases its potency because injecting a drug is the most potent way to consume it. So by 1856, morphine injections had come to the United States, and this was just in time to be used during the Civil War. Now I don't want to repeat myself too much of what I covered in the first episode regarding the upsurge of morphine addiction from the Civil War, so if you haven't listened to that episode and you want to know how the Civil War boosted opiate use, make sure you go back and give episode one a listen. In 1898, another German chemist named Heinrich Dresser, who was working for Bayer, this is the same pharmaceutical company that developed aspirin, so it is that Bayer, he produced diacetylmorphine, which he named heroin from the German word heroisch meaning heroic, and Bayer mass marketed the drug under this name as being non-addictive cure for morphine addiction among other elements, and although it was administered in small doses through injections as well, it was most popular in the form of tablets, these were cough lozenges, or heroin elixirs. Within two years, the medical community was already publishing denouncements of the use of heroin for morphine addiction, and in 1906, the Council of Pharmacy and Chemistry of the American Medical Association was reporting on the addictive quality of this new drug. So again, we see the private movement against this and information spreading to disincentivize recreational use of this drug, or people to at least be conscientious of the use of it. So now I'm going to talk about the opium wars, which are going to be the bulk of this episode, I think, just because it's just absolutely, absolutely interesting history. So the real governmental conflicts with opium started because of the trade between British merchants and Chinese opium growers, and this was the result not of Britain, but of China's desire to outlaw opium. So again, we know these now as the opium wars. There were two opium wars, and I'm going to talk really just about the first one, just because of time constraints. So as early as 1729, Chinese Emperor Yong Cheng outlawed recreational opium smoking and licensed the medical use of it, and he imposed the penalty of 100 strokes of a bamboo cane in several days or even weeks in what's called a king, which was this heavy wooden collar that criminals had to wear around their necks. This is worth a Google. It's spelled C-A-N-G-U-E. It's this wooden square that people wore around their necks. But this punishment was only imposed on people selling opium without a license, so actual opium smokers were exempted, this is like the last line of the law, exempted opium smokers. But in 1799, Emperor Kai Qing outlawed opium entirely, which meant outlawing cultivation as well as trade with the British, but this was problematic for reasons that you might not expect. So the government chartered Monopoly. The British East India Company had a monopoly on poppy cultivation in India, and they were actually selling opium to China, so it was cultivated in China, but they were also importing opium from the British East India Company. What Britain was getting from China was not opium, since they were also supplied by India, but they were getting tea as Chinese tea had become incredibly popular in Britain. Once Kai Qing outlawed opium, he still wanted to trade with Britain, but now he only legally accepted silver bullion, which obviously was an undesirable exchange from the perspective of the mercantilist British government who saw any export of precious metals as being a loss of wealth for the country. The East India Company started instead illegally smuggling opium into China. Incidentally, starting in 1811, some American merchants also started smuggling Turkish opium into China, but I only mentioned that because I think it's an interesting aside, but it really has little to do with the opium wars. The India Company conducted their smuggling trade through proxy merchants known as country firms who would buy the opium from the company from opium depots stationed in Calcutta and then smuggle it into China, allowing the merchants of the East India Company to claim ignorance, though of course they knew what was going on. In 1820, China started enforcing the 1799 edict with the execution of any Chinese citizen caught in possession of opium. This made some of the British merchants nervous, so they moved their base of operations to a small island called Linton Island. This was just a three-mile island off the coast of China that served exclusively as an opium port. It was ideal because it allowed merchants to position more than a dozen clippers at any given time. Clippers were the very new ships at the time that were the fastest ocean vessel until 1868, and China didn't have anything to compete with these, so they were perfect for smuggling opium and evading the authorities. From Linton Island, we have accounts of Chinese officials battling against Chinese opium smugglers not far off the shores of China. One account from 1836 offered by a British doctor named C. Too Good Downing observed, and I'm quoting here, the Mandarin's rush to attack without hesitation, Mandarin's referring to the Chinese officials, without hesitation and laid about them in right good earnest with their swords and pikes, frequently cutting and wounding in a dreadful manner, but the poor smugglers appeared to act on the defensive. Many of the defeated jumped overboard, and as they struggled in the water to gain the shore, formed excellent marks for the spears and javelins of the conquerors. Of course, it's no surprise that the smugglers risked their life to avoid capture, considering that the minimum sentence for them was a lifetime of hard labor, and many of those caught would simply be executed. Nonetheless, the opium trade in China just continued to grow, and this probably provides our first lessons about the dangers and the futility of a war on drugs. The Chinese government, aware of British involvement, started to become more hostile towards foreign merchants, and the East India Company withdrew in 1834. So the British government appointed three superintendents of trade to oversee British business in China. Now, meanwhile, the British government still pretended like the opium trade was not being conducted illegally in China at all. They knew they were just kind of ignoring the issue. One of these superintendents, a man named Sir George Robinson, after he observed the goings-on at Linton Island, he advocated for the prohibition by Britain of poppy cultivation in India. Now, again, from a libertarian perspective, it seems absurd that he would observe the negative consequences of the Chinese prohibition and think that the solution to this would be a British India prohibition, but this is not uncommon logic in the drug war. So Robinson was actually dismissed from his post for this recommendation, and he was replaced by a man named Captain Charles Elliott. Elliott took the job in the middle of the tensions between Britain and China, and he was faced with the difficult task of protecting British merchants. Now, this job technically only required him to enforce licit trade, which meant that he was not obligated to protect black market opium interests, but the Chinese interpreted his position as doing exactly that, so he was faced with really no small amount of hostility. The merchants who did want to have their opium interests protected, though, were actually flouting the Chinese pretty brazenly, and the majority of them wanted Britain to threaten China with a war, which they believed would be a show of strength that would get the Chinese government to submit to Britain on the matter. So some of these British merchants were cutting out the Linton Island middleman and taking, which were just Chinese smugglers, and they were taking their opium directly into China without the Chinese smugglers, which pretty much gave the middle finger to the Chinese government and put them in a position to have to enforce their laws against British citizens. The viceroy of Canton in China, where the opium merchants were doing all this, he ordered the nine largest British dealers to leave Canton. So the viceroy was in a difficult position where he had to flex his own muscles, but he still didn't want to rile up the British government, so he arrested all of the Chinese contract laborers employed by the British merchants, which were known as Koolies. These were very similar to the Indian Sepoys I mentioned in the last episode on marijuana, and the viceroy had all of the Koolies publicly executed via strangulation. Another public execution took place in the American and British gardens, which was on Chinese soil, so both the British and Chinese considered themselves to have sovereignty over the area. An official marched a chained prisoner into the garden and started executing him in the merchant's park. Now, the method of this execution here was just gruesome. China actually occasionally crucified criminals by putting an X-shaped cross into the ground, and the cross would have another piece of wood across the top to support the victim's head. And then they would nail the palms of the victim to the board and leave them to die, not entirely unlike the biblical description of Jesus' crucifixion in ancient Rome. There's actually an article from the Sacramento Daily Union in 1860 that describes a similar crucifixion that took place in South China. This crucifixion was for just a couple dozen kidnappers, but it gives a good description of what these British opium merchants were actually witnessing in their American and British gardens. So the person who observed this 1860 execution, he wrote, and again I'm quoting, To my horror, I saw at the entrance gate side crosses with the still living bodies of the culprits writhing in torture. The site was altogether indescribable. Sickening as such a scene would be at any time, the bright moonlight made the expression of the countenances even more awful and startling. And this person goes on to say that by the next morning, only three of the 24 criminals executed this way had died. So the remaining 21 were ordered to be strangled after basically spending their last night being tortured. So even though this report is of a different execution, it gives us just a useful description of what these merchants were having flaunted in front of them right in their place of businesses. So you can imagine that it was met with a lot of anger. After the execution was already well underway, some drunk British sailors started just wrecking the place. They destroyed the cross and the other equipment that the Chinese officials brought with them to transport the prisoners. And they tried to free the prisoners, but the officials simply retreated with the prisoner and completed the execution elsewhere. So they didn't save the guy. The behavior of the British sailors actually upset the Chinese people, not just the government, but the citizens themselves. So much that a mob of 10,000 people ended up amassing and started rioting and destroying factories and other buildings used by these British merchants. And the Chinese government actually had to come in and suppress this as well. And even after this, the Chinese government continued to host public executions in front of the British. So by this point, tensions were peaking between the British merchants and the Chinese government. And this is exactly what Captain Elliot was thrust into the middle of when he was assigned to his new position. The Chinese government also appointed a new person named Lin Se-su, and he was given the orders to eradicate opium in China completely. So now we have three parties, British merchants who were openly flaunting the Chinese because they believed they were backed by the British military might. We had Captain Elliot, who was not obligated to protect British opium interests, but the Chinese believed that this was his mission. And we have Lin Se-su, who had been ordered to put a stop to all of this. So in 1839, Lin started arresting not just Chinese opium dealers, but also British dealers. He had the product confiscated and he ordered the dealers to sign a bond promising that they would cease opium dealings. And Lin also made it clear to them that the British presence in China was just a courtesy. The British really did not take him seriously at first until the merchants were held, effectively as prisoners in Macau. And by prisoners, I really just mean that they weren't allowed to leave the city and Chinese troops were on constant patrol, so they weren't actually locked up. Lin also threatened the merchants at Hong Kong, what we know is before it was modern Hong Kong because the opium wars are going to lead to that. But he threatened the British merchants at Hong Kong, who ceded to him more than a thousand chests of opium, hoping that it would pacify him, but it really didn't. So Captain Elliot arrived in Macau and he heard about Lin's goings-on and he immediately took action. Lin allowed Elliot to enter the factories in Hong Kong where the British merchants extracted the opium and then Lin ramped up the Chinese blockade which cut off the food supplies, but this really didn't matter much in the short term since merchants were just smuggling food in and there was still a pretty decent stock of food in the city, so the blockade wasn't like a heavy constraint at the time. But Elliot surprised a lot of the British by ordering that the merchants comply with Lin's demands and they handed over their entire stock of more than 20,000 chests of opium. Elliot really didn't expect the merchants to be as compliant as they were. They were actually pretty comfortable with the deal because they had been importing so much opium that prices dropped to ridiculously low levels and they were having trouble moving it. And Elliot wasn't aware of this, so he promised that the British Crown would reimburse the merchants for their loss to the tune of two million British pounds. So the opium was destroyed and Lin ended the blockade and allowed legitimate trade to recommence between Britain and China, but this proved to be a mistake because he never got the British government to agree to end the opium trade in China while he had the upper hand. The events and the destruction of the opium caused opium prices to skyrocket in China because all the government power in the world can't stop basic market processes and this quickly meant the return of the opium trade in China. So trying to recover from his mistake, Lin had a British sailor arrested after he and a group of other drunk sailors had destroyed a temple in the Kowloon Peninsula which was just across from Hong Kong and in their destruction they accidentally killed a Chinese peasant. So Lin ordered that one of the sailors involved named Thomas Titter be charged according to Chinese law with murder and he should be tried in a Chinese court. Elliot already financially compensated the dead man's family which was part of the common law tradition at the time and he privately punished each of the sailors involved in the affair and furthermore while it seems clear that all of the sailors were guilty Titter was being charged by Lin to be made an example of as there was really no evidence that he was the person individually responsible for the death of the citizen. Nonetheless, Lin demanded that he be executed according to the Manchu Penal Code. Now I don't want to like defend these sailors, they destroyed private property or they destroyed a temple, I don't know if it was private, they're government but they did kill a guy, obviously they were in the wrong. So I'm not trying to pass judgment on what was right or what was not right to do as punishment for them but it is important to know that Lin was not really interested in justice he was interested in making an example of the British so that's the important point I want to drive home. This time, Elliott would not comply and so Lin saw this as an affront against the Chinese Emperor and he ordered them to cement and basically threatened war if they did not. He halted trade with the British and actually marched Chinese troops into Macau and laid siege against the Canton factories. Lin blocked the English merchants with Chinese war junks which were their primary naval vessels and Elliott after issuing an ultimatum to Lin that was ignored had his men open fire on one of these Chinese junks. This led to the battle of Caloon and on April 25th, 1840 the New York Times referred to this as the Opium War which would be the name for this and the subsequent war that would come a little bit later. One of the important and often overlooked elements of this opium war was the fact that after British victory in a battle that took place in January of 1841 Elliott devised a treaty called the Convention of Chun Pai which put Hong Kong in the possession of Britain effectively founding Hong Kong as we know it today which is a semi-independent city state and it's ranked as the freest economy in the world according to both of the free market indices. Sovereignty over Hong Kong wasn't transferred back to China until 1997 and when it was done an agreement was signed that would not give full governing control over Hong Kong to China for another 50 years which is why it's still the freest economy in the world but Elliott has almost completely overlooked regarding his pivotal role in the establishment of Hong Kong in the history books so he's a much more important figure than people give him credit for. The opium war was ended in August of 1942 after Britain took control of Shanghai with their technologically superior navy floating up the Yangtze river followed directly by merchant ships who had opium on board when they reached Nanking the Treaty of Nanking was signed which the Chinese still referred to as the unequal treaty because it ended the war with British hegemony over China and pretty much just forced them to pay an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars as compensation for the lost product including opium though this was pretty much just implied it also ceded Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity of course this would again end in 1997 but that was not put in the treaty so it was considered to be perpetual at the time and it required the reopening of trade including the opium trade in fact the only vague reference to opium in the treaty was a clause that read it is to be hoped that the system of smuggling which has heretofore been carried on between English and Chinese merchants will entirely cease but by leaving out explicit reference to opium Britain avoided having to establish an official policy so this basically amounted to the tacit approval of British opium merchants operating illegally in China I'm not going to go into detail about the second opium war which is also known as the Arrow War because we are running short on time in this episode but it took place between 1856 and 1860 over the official legalization of opium and of course the British won again which more completely opened the trade with Britain so it's an interesting episode there's a lot of interesting history in the world of opium that I am leaving out of this episode just for length reasons but if you're interested there are just again some wonderful history books on the history of opium that are just absolutely fascinating so I do encourage people that are interested to check those out so now I'm going to look at how this kind of all culminated in western criminalization by the 1870s British opinion was turning against opium groups like the society for the suppression of the opium trade were fighting against the Indian opium agency which had a government charter so little came of this until the early 20th century China once again outlawed poppy cultivation in 1908 and this was finally accompanied with an agreement from Britain to decrease Indian exports to China by 10% per year and shortly before this in 1898 the United States annexed the Philippines after the Spanish-American War and they found through the Philippines opium commission formed in 1903 that Filipinos had an opium problem and this led to a 1908 law regulating opium imports there to only medicinal uses so this is only two years after the United States passed the pure food and drug act which mildly regulated cocaine and opium domestically as I mentioned in previous episodes Spain was also dealing with a similar opium problem in addition to the French and Germans and various other countries and the international opium commission was formed in 1909 but this commission had essentially no enforcement powers but any restrictions it might agree on in many countries particularly those like Turkey who produced a lot of opium and Germany who had pharmaceutical interests in opiates they were reluctant to impose restrictions on such an important element of their economy Turkey in fact refused to even send a delegate so they pretty much just agreed to investigate the source of opium addiction which was probably little more than these governments trying not to look useless in 1912 the International Opium Convention which was basically formed out of the commission from three years earlier so one was the commission the second was the convention is the distinction in the name they did agree to try to restrict opium to its medical use only but this was little more than an on paper decrease since each country would have to enforce the rule individually so this agreement pitted along for another two years with only 11 countries ratifying the agreement and the last meeting of the convention took place in 1914 only three days before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand which plunged Europe into World War I as we all know and the war meant that the demand for opiates skyrocketed morphine addiction which remember was called soldiers disease at least in the United States it consequently ballooned and opium smoking in the east pretty much continued unaffected the agreement of the convention of 1912 was implemented only by five countries the US, the Netherlands, China, Norway and Honduras but the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 would impose this agreement globally in the United States the Harrison Narcotics Act was passed which did restrict opiates to exclusively medical use in 1914 if you remember from previous episodes but it wasn't until the 1920s that you started seeing heroin users who got started from explicitly recreational experimentation prior to this it was addiction driven by medical treatment but one of the biggest driving forces in US criminalization was very similar to what we saw in the last episode regarding marijuana which was racism and anti-immigration sentiments in this case it was racism against the Chinese specifically who were known for their opium dens in the United States anti-immigration sentiments were most heavily levity against the Chinese especially in the far western states where they were most common and this led to the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which wasn't even repealed until 1942 so it was in place for 60 years and this was the only anti-immigration act that specifically prohibited immigration against an entire race of people so there were other immigration acts that limited immigration from different nationalities or just a blanket limitation but this is the one that just completely prohibited immigration from the Chinese the Chinese just faced a great deal of hostility from Americans it was said that at the time in the Gilded Age that all Chinese men were slaves and all Chinese women were prostitutes this is a common narrative and the opium dens were depicted in very similar terms as the marijuana dens described in the marijuana episode just like with marijuana one of the horror stories about the opium dens was the fact that they had whites intermingling with the Chinese engaging in sexual intercourse between the races and Chinese men were using opiums to seduce well-to-do white women now in reality it's unlikely that there were any white women in opium dens who weren't actually working prostitutes which were very common in California following the gold rush and you had the gold miners go out there looking for gold and they really never got rich but the people who actually did very well over there were the prostitutes who sold their services to the gold miners so prostitutes were very common in California at the time and many of them did work in opium dens but the narrative about the corruption of respectable white women appealed to the racial biases common in the country at the time so just like with marijuana, California led the way in opium prohibition specifically with San Francisco this time most of these laws prior to the Harrison Narcotic Act were city laws so San Francisco criminalized opium in 1875 or they restricted it just a medical treatment to be more specific and other cities with large Chinese populations followed suit with local regulations being passed in a majority of states I think it was 27 states prior to the Harrison Narcotic Act the popularity of opium smoking began to drop by the end of the 19th century but this actually was mostly due to the anti-immigration laws that targeted the Chinese more than it was because of the anti-opium laws so by restricting Chinese immigration they effectively reduced opium smoking but really you can't credit this to the opium laws or even the movement against opium it was just the movement against the Chinese that saw this phenomenon so I want to wrap up here but there's one more important bit about the enforcement of the Harrison Narcotics Act that cannot go unmentioned when the law was passed opium was still legal in all its forms for medical purposes but the interpretation of the law was still in question doctors and the government officials were not really sure if the prescribing of morphine to an addict constituted treatment or not and even though we had heroin at the time this was still predominantly morphine we weren't dealing much with heroin at this time so it was still morphine addictions and doctors would prescribe morphine to addicts as a form of treatment and the idea of treating addiction in this way sounds like an athema to most people today but this method has been adopted in countries like Switzerland and Portugal in recent years and they've seen remarkable success Switzerland for example has literally not had a single heroin overdose since they adopted this practice and the addicts are actually able to function quite well as productive citizens and we have also found that the average cycle of heroin addiction this was the most impressive finding to me the average cycle of heroin addiction only lasts about 10 years in a legal environment with addicts actually voluntarily weaning themselves off the drug despite having no legal incentive to do so and the theory is mostly just that when you look at more modern addiction theories that aren't touted very much in this country still because of the drug war but you have addiction theories coming out of Canada and Britain that are really just overturning the old narrative is a lot of people are really addictive as a to cope with social isolation and emotional trauma and things like that and so as they start to get jobs and families and establish substitutes for the heroin that are much healthier substitutes like families and they get older people actually just start voluntarily reducing their need for heroin now of course this is not true for every heroin addict but it's a really interesting cycle that just flies in the face of the addiction theory that were taught in this country in elementary school so it's worth mentioning so this paints a very stark comparison between the legal and illegal environments for these products but in 1919 the Supreme Court actually took up the question of how to interpret this law and they ruled that prescribing opiates to an addict was not a valid treatment these were justices, these were not doctors so we almost wonder why they're ruling on how doctors are supposed to be conducting their practice in the first place even though this might just be appalling practice to most of us here it should still bother you that judges are telling doctors how to practice medicine this is one of the arguments against socialized medicine we see these problems in 1919 with the war on drugs and many doctors actually disagreed on ethical grounds and they continued prescribing opiates to addicts simply because they thought this was the most prudent way to help their patients and they believed that it was their moral obligation to do so so over the next 25 years more than 25,000 doctors were arrested and prosecuted for treating their patients in the way whether correct or not it was the way that they believed to be best aside from this injustice committed against medical doctors the biggest effect that this had was that it pushed morphine addicts out into the black market and this essentially is what led to the replacement of morphine by heroin because heroin was stronger and therefore a more efficient and inexpensive way to feed their addiction in a criminal environment which demonstrates what is termed the iron law of prohibition and anybody who's read Mark Thornton's Mises Institute's scholar Mark Thornton's book The Economics of Prohibition should be familiar with this in the 80s when he wrote this he first identified what we now call the iron law of prohibition as an economic phenomenon and he explained it basically demonstrating that when you make a substance illegal it will become more potent, so very interesting economic phenomenon that he wrote about so I'm going to end this episode here because we've ran a little longer than I'd like to but make sure you subscribe to this podcast in the next episode I'm going to be talking about the history of cocaine which has just some absolutely interesting episodes in it and especially have some economic overtones because the history of cocaine actually deals with a lot of cronyism the marriage of these big companies with the government so definitely appeals to the economic interests that Mises Institute fans will likely find interesting so don't miss it subscribe to the podcast and thanks for listening


Hello everybody, welcome back to another Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2021 tutorial. In this one, I'm going to show you a workaround to use FLV files in Adobe Premiere Pro. This is not a perfect solution, but it works and it's free. So it could be worth your time to roll with me here. Okay, let's start this off.  Right now they're currently set to open with VLC. That's why you'll see them with the traffic cone look. But you can see here when you hover over them, they are FLV files. You drag and drop an FLV file into Premiere Pro. This is what you get, file format not supported. I'm going to fix that for you. The first step is you need to get a program. And I know you don't want to hear that, but this is the program you need. It's called OBS Open Broadcaster Software. It is a free program and I've had it for years and it's still free and it's great. It's not super user-friendly, but it's great. You can go Windows or Mac. I'm on a Windows so I'm using Windows for this video. All right, once you have it installed and up and running, it looks like this.  But what you need to do is you need to go up to the top here and under top, at the top you're going to see File and then you're going to see something that says Remux, R-E-M-U-X Recordings. When you click on Remux Recordings, you can change FLVs into MP4s. Let me show you what's happened. This here is an MP4. It has the same name and the same content as this FLV, but I just threw it into the Remux. So I'm going to throw this, I'm going to open it and I'm going to run the Remux and it's going to disconnect this video, but that's okay.  I guarantee you that it works. Once you've got the MPV4 as I have here, you can just take the MP4, it just renames it as a .mp4 and of course just drag and drop it into the Project panel and it works and you can see here that it's pretty much the same stuff that I'm talking about now. All right guys, I know it was a mouthful. Let's do the last bit here. I'm going to open File, Remux Recordings, left click on it and press still. This is how you do it.  Exactly, here it is. You'll see here that we've got on the left side, OBS Recording and then on the right side, Target File and then when we go back, we can see here that now that this 20, 21, 06, 15, 18, 41 FLV has been converted into an MP4 which is exactly what we wanted. That's it guys. Thanks for watching. We'll have ton more stuff coming up. Stay tuned.


Making a house a home is returning with special episodes to prepare your mind, body and soul for the coming holy month of Ramadhan. Ramadhan may be a time to empty your stomach, but it is an opportunity to fill your soul like the rain that nourishes the seeds of good deeds. I aim to assist you create ways to maximise your potential, gaining awareness that will allow you to benefit fully in worship and practice while creating habits to continue afterwards. Make sure to tune in to listen to me, Faheema Muhammad, only on Imam Hussein TV.


The energy management system is designed to monitor, optimize, and control the smart grid energy market. It uses demand side management to make better decisions for energy trading between consumers and the operator. Computationally intelligent, CI, methods are used to forecast energy loads, which can be optimized using heuristics or metaheuristics. These methods are expected to expand in the future and be used in real-time smart energy management grids to address future challenges in energy demand management. This article was authored by Saida Narius Fala, Ravanish Chandayo, Mohamed Shojafar, and others.