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Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG

Think-tank calls for tax increases in next Irish budget

   

The Government has been urged to increase taxes in the next budget instead of pressing on with much vaunted cuts.

The Social Justice Ireland think-tank called on Finance Minister Michael Noonan to plough money from taxpayers into reversing cuts to caring, housing, and anti-poverty services that have been implemented over the last six years of austerity.
In two of the more controversial proposals, the group said businesses should pay a minimum effective corporate tax rate of 6% to generate at least €1bn for the state.
The better-off in society & those earning salaries of in excess of €100,000 a year — should be hit with a 3% income levy through the Universal Social Charge, which, the group said, would raise €210m.
Fr Sean Healy, director of the organisation, said the next budget would be about recovery and determining what kind of a country our children will inherit.
“This is not the time for tax cuts,” he said.
“All available resources should be used to invest in addressing Ireland’s major deficits — in areas such as caring, housing, and poverty that affect the young, the old and most in between.”
The think-tank, which each year costs its own version of the budget, said spending should increase by €1.5bn as set out in Government plans.
Some of the main spending ideas include an additional €680m to support the social housing strategy, with new options on low-cost finance; €350m spent on health to support primary care teams; and new measures to support older people and those with disability, and to tackle obesity.
Social Justice Ireland said a new universal pension should be introduced and welfare payments be increased by €6.50 a week.
It also called for a €350m investment in education to help adult literacy, afterschool care, and early childhood education; and €710m to be spent on broadband, rural transport, and a rural enterprise scheme.
Social Justice Ireland said the country should have EU average levels of tax in order to pay for an EU average level of services and infrastructure, but it does not.
Michelle Murphy, research and policy analyst, said: “After many years of coping with the financial downturn, we, as a nation, now need to consider what sort of a future we want for our children and our grandchildren.
“Some of the decisions we take now, on issues like social housing, childcare, and broadband, may not bear fruit for some years — yet it is vital that these good decisions are taken now, because these decisions will shape the way Ireland looks and functions in the future.”
Fr Healy added: “Whilst Minister Noonan is required to frame Budget 2016 within the parameters of the EU Stability and Growth Pact, this should not stop him from framing worthwhile, and overdue, investments in society, as well as the economy.”

Shane Ross & Independent Alliance to field up to 20 candidates in general election

  

Journalist Carol Hunt and Lord Mayor of Drogheda unveiled as new members

The Independent Alliance, headed by Independent TD Shane Ross and Michael Fitzmaurice is to field up to 20 candidates in the upcoming general election.
The Independent Alliance is to field up to 20 candidates in the upcoming general election.
The group – headed by Independent TD Shane Ross and Michael Fitzmaurice – introduced a number of its newest members at a press conference today.
Journalist Carol Hunt and former Lord Mayor of Drogheda Kevin Callan will stand for the alliance.
Senator Feargal Quinn will be chairman of the grouping and Senator Gerard Craughwell is also supporting the movement.
Deputy Ross said this was not a political party and will not impose any whip except on confidence motions.
He said: “We are radical but we are responsible.”
The press conference was cut short when DÁil ushers said non-members cannot be interviewed on the grounds of Leinster House.
John Halligan TD accused one of the ushers of being biased against Independents.

AbbVie (Abbotts) announces €40 million investment in Sligo

The biopharmaceutical company is to create 50 new jobs over next four years in Ballytivnan, Sligo.

  

AbbVie chief executive Rick Gonzalez and the Minister for jobs Richard Bruton at the official opening of the newly expanded AbbVie facility in Sligo.
AbbVie is to expand its medical device manufacturing facility in Sligo, creating 50 highly-skilled jobs over the next four years.
The biopharmaceutical company, which was formed in 2013 following separation from Abbott Laboratories, is investing €40 million in its manufacturing facility at Ballytivnan in Sligo.
The company’s manufacturing site in Ballytivnan currently produces drug delivery devices, including a pen-style injector that is used by patients around the world who use AbbVie’s treatment indicated for a range of auto-immune conditions.
Including today’s announcement, AbbVie’s investment in Ballytivnan and broader manufacturing operations in the country has reached more than €134 million since 2013.
AbbVie employs more than 500 people at five different sites around the country, including three manufacturing plants – two in Sligo and one in Cork. The research-based biopharmaceutical company was formed in 2013 following separation from Abbott Laboratories.

A sex survey shows one in four men masturbate every day

  

Almost half of sexually active men do it more than once a week, compared with a quarter of women.

Almost half of the sexually active men who responded to The Irish Times sex survey masturbate more than once a week.
Men masturbate more than women, with one in four male respondents to the sex survey saying they do it every day, compared with 5% of females.
Almost half of sexually active men who responded masturbate more than once a week, compared with a quarter of women.
“My understanding is that it is more acceptable for men to do so,” says sexologist Emily Power Smith. “Women are still very embarrassed to admit that they do and are less likely even to know it’s an option when growing up.”
Psychotherapist Trish Murphy suggests that “masturbation for women could possibly be included in sex education to promote a sense of right to pleasure.”
Both men and women consider masturbation to be the solution to not having enough sex, yet ironically women who masturbate tend to have higher sex drives than women who don’t. So there is a pay-off in a committed relationship of engaging in “regular self-love”, Murphy says.
In addition, nine out of 10 people who responded to the survey say they masturbate alone.
According to Brendan Madden, a psychotherapist, “Sexual stimulation and release are clearly more important for men than women.
This ties in with other results of the survey that indicate men rate sexual encounters as highly enjoyable and important. And it ties in with a wide range of sex surveys around the world.”
The Irish Times sex survey was conducted on irishtimes.com over the course of a week in June 2015. A total of 12,639 participants completed the survey (a 71% completion rate), with 12,134 responses used in the follow-up analysis. Over 500 responses were excluded, the vast majority because the participant was under the age of 17 (below the required age to take part) or where it was obvious that false information had been provided. Click here to view the full results, with interactive graphics.
The survey was carried out among self-selecting individuals. It is not a weighted survey and does not purport to be accurately representative of the wider population, biased as it is towards certain age groups (over two-thirds of those who took the survey were between the age of 24 and 50) and towards those who are more sexually active. Therefore all results should be seen as indicative rather than definitive.

Women should be taught about female orgasm in school

   

The sex survey returned a fairly consistent result concerning an inability to orgasm.

Women should be taught about masturbation and female orgasm in sex education classes, two prominent Irish sex therapists have said.  The Irish Times sex survey of more than 12,000 people has found that up to half of women of all sexual orientations have experienced inability to orgasm during sex and this may be due to a lack of knowledge, said Trish Murphy, psychotherapist and Irish Times columnist.
Teresa Bergin, a psychosexual therapist, said that difficulties were also psychological in many cases and were “a very painful topic for women who were afraid to talk to anyone about it, even their female friends.”
An inability to orgasm was relatively consistent among participants across all female age categories at between 43 per cent among 35- to 49-year-olds to 51 per cent in the 17- to 24-year-old age category.
“Difficulty reaching orgasm is a very common issue,” said Bergin. “ Some women experience this difficulty from time to time and it is related to tiredness, distraction, not being sufficiently aroused, or not giving themselves enough time. It can also be a result of difficulties within the relationship and can indicate communication problems. On the other hand, there are many women who have never experienced orgasm and it is a very distressing and frustrating problem for them, particularly when they don’t feel able to talk to their partner about it.
“This issue can affect men too: for them it is an even more difficult topic to talk about and very stressful given the possible implications for fertility,” she added.
It may come as no surprise that men masturbate more than women, the survey found. Almost half of sexually active men said they masturbated more than once a week, while almost one in four did so at least once a day. This compares to almost one in three sexually active women who said they masturbated more than once week, and just 5 per cent who said they did so at least once daily.
Bergin commented: “The statistics here for men are certainly higher than for women and this figure is probably true of the general population. There has been a myth in the past that women simply don’t masturbate and that it is solely a male pursuit. This is certainly untrue, however; women don’t appear to talk about masturbation, even among themselves. It seems to be quite a private, unspoken activity.”
Younger women are keen users of sex toys, with seven out of ten 25- to 34-year-olds using them. The majority (58 %) of sexually active people have used sex toys. Women were slightly more likely than men to use them, at 61% compared to 55%.
Sex toys were most popular with bisexual women, with 80 per cent saying they had used them, followed by 79% of lesbians.
“From my clinical experience, this seems to be an accurate result. In comparison with 10 years ago, I notice that people are more likely now to be open to experimenting with sex toys. They are more likely to introduce these into sexual activity and to talk with a partner about it. Women in particular are now more likely to buy, and use, a vibrator for their own personal pleasure but do not tend to discuss this with other women,” said Bergin.

Look out Tuesday is here an Asteroid could be coming our way

Scientists and celebrities urge governments to defend the planet from space rocks

   

The passage of asteroid 2012 DA14 through the Earth-moon system,

Tuesday is the first annual Asteroid Day, an attempt by a coalition of scientists and celebrities to raise public awareness of the risks posed by space rocks striking the earth.
People are being encouraged to sign an international petition to governments encouraging them to spend more in defence of the planet.
The goal is to step up efforts to identify impactors such ascomets and asteroids before they reach us and to devise ways to steer these objects away from our orbit.
It all sounds very science fiction but the earth has always been at risk of being struck by such objects and the danger continues today.

RECENT STRIKE

The Chelyabinsk meteor exploded in the upper atmosphere over Russia in February 2013, showering the ground below with large fragments. It injured 1,500 people and damaged more than 7,000 buildings but luckily there were no recorded deaths.
The largest impactor in modern history also occurred over Russia, the Tunguska Event of June 30th, 1908. The asteroid flattened about 2,000sq km, an area the size of that within London’s M25 ring road, said Prof Mark Bailey, director of Armagh Observatory.
It landed in Siberia so it was forests that were destroyed, but had it struck a city like London the deaths and losses would have been staggering.
Chelyabinsk was 20m across while Tunguska measured more than 60m. Imagine, then, what the damage would be like with an impacting object 10km across. This is the estimated diameter of the impactor that wiped out thedinosaurs 66 million years ago.
It struck the earth at the northern tip of the YucatánPeninsula in Mexico, leaving an impact crater 180km across and 20km deep. It sent billions of tonnes of material into the atmosphere, blotting out the sun and wiping out life on land and sea.

GLOBAL IMPACT

Impactors have therefore had a powerful effect in shaping the biological history of the planet, forcing evolution to come up with organisms capable of living in a new environment post-collision.
Nor has the threat eased with time. Worldwide efforts to track these objects have identified more than 10,000 that cross our orbit. Of these, 867 have diameters of at least 1km, a size capable of having a global impact.
Armagh Observatory doesn’t look for them. It is trying to understand where they come from and why they have strange orbits. “The interesting question we are looking at is: are we currently in a high or low occurrence rate,” said Prof Bailey. “It looks like a lower rate, but this could be followed by a period of heightened activity.”  

Monday, June 29, 2015

Donie's Ireland daily news BLOG update

Minister Charles Flanagan confirms three Irish deaths in Tunisia attacks

  

Relatives of Co Westmeath couple Laurence and Martina Hayes contacted by officials.

A German tourist recounts the moment a gunman began firing on beachgoers in an attack that killed at least 38 people.
Irish tourists intending to travel to Tunisia over the coming weeks should “exercise extreme caution”, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.
Charlie Flanagan issued the warning has he confirmed that three Irish citizens died in Friday’s terror attack. Mr Flanagan said he had been in contact with their families over recent days.
Laurence and Martina Hayes, a couple in their 50s from Athlone, Co Westmeath and Lorna Carty from Robinstown, Co Meath, were killed in the attack on Sousse.
The Minister said he did not believe any further Irish people were injured in the incident and he urged those planning to travel to the region to be “extremely vigilant and extreme caution”.
He told RTE’s This Week programme: “I would urge those there to continue to liaise with tour operators on the ground and with the consular assistance from Foreign Affairs.
“My travel advice for Tunisia is to exercise extreme caution. Anyone wishing to visit the region, anyone with holiday plans over the next few days or weeks I wish to acknowledge the Tunisian authorities have declared the incident to be over but nevertheless I would urge Irish citizens heading there and those in Tunisia to remain extremely vigilant, to follow instructions given to them by the police, the tour operators, the hotels.”
Mr Flanagan said he was not in the “business of imposing travel bans” but his advice for anyone travelling there was to exercise “extreme caution”.
Relatives of Laurence and Martina Hayes have been contacted by Irish officials, a Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said. The department has set up an information line for those affected by the attack: 00353 1 408 2000.
Westmeath Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) has tweeted a message of condolence to the family. “Sincere sympathy to the Hayes family Athlone who suffered their tragic losses in the terror shooting in Tunisia,” it said.
The Irish ambassador accredited to Tunisia, David Cooney, is working with Irish citizens still in the country.
Ms Carty, a nurse and mother of two adult children, had travelled to Tunisia with her husband Declan, a well-known dairy farmer.
The couple received the Tunisian holiday as a gift from a relative as Mr Carty was recovering from heart surgery.
Their daughter Hazel (18) had just completed her Leaving Cert and is believed to have been notified of her mother’s death while on holiday in Turkey.
Their son Simon (21), a science student at UCD, was at home in Robinstown. The authorities are gradually identifying those killed in the attack.
One of the British victims has been named as Adrian Evans, who worked for Sandwell Council in the WestMidlands. Joel Richards, reported to be Mr Evans’s nephew, was also named as a victim.
It is understood Mr Richard’s was a student at the University of Worcester.
Birmingham-based Gaelic football club James Connolly’s GFC also paid tribute to Mr Richards, tweeting that the club was “devastated” to learn of his death.
They said he was an “exceptionally-talented footballer” who represented both club and county “with conviction” on numerous occasions. Mr Richards’s 16-year-old brother Owen is reported to have survived the attack.
The attack has seen thousands of tourists rush to leave Tunisia. An Aer Lingus flight from Monastir arrived in Dublin last night and other Irish holidaymakers in the country are expected to cut short their holiday and return home. It is unclear how many Irish nationals were in Tunisia at the time of the attack.
Sunway managing director Tanya Airey has offered her “sincere condolences” to all Irish nationals affected by the attack. The Irish tour operator provides holidays to Tunisia.
The company flies weekly on Friday’s to Tunisia. She said a number of Irish Sunway holidaymakers had decided over the weekend to remain in Tunisia.
The tour operator is expected to make a call this week on whether to allow those booked to depart on Friday to travel to Tunisia.
In a tweet she noted that the department advises extreme caution but has not issued a “do not travel” notice.
Irish citizens returning on Friday night told RTÉ of the chaos during the attack, describing a large explosion and gunfire. Many praised the staff for the assistance they gave guests.
Six nationalities are among the 39 dead.
They are thought to have been killed by a 23-year-old Tunisian aviation student Seifeddine Rezgui who disguised himself as a tourist and began firing at holidaymakers on a beach using a Kalashnikov hidden in a beach umbrella. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Fifteen of the dead are from Britain.
Confirming the figure, British foreign minister Tobias Ellwood said the Sousse atrocity was “the most significant terrorist attack on British people” since July 7th, 2005, when 52 people were killed.
Speaking at the Foreign Office, Mr Ellwood said: “Sadly, I can confirm that at least 15 British nationals were killed in yesterday’s atrocity but I should stress that the number may well rise as several more have been seriously injured in this horrific attack.”

Tánaiste Burton concerned over universal health insurance cost in Ireland

  

Joan Burton criticises some of the models put forward for the scheme as very expensive.

Joan Burton: The Labour Party is fully committed to UHI, though not at any cost.
Tánaiste Joan Burton has criticised some of the models put forward for universal health insurance (UHI) as potentially very expensive.
Ms Burton was speaking as the drift in Government over the roll-out of UHI continued to increase.
She said the Labour Party is fully committed to the plan, though not at any cost.
“I have said we want a better service, but in the context of health insurance we want an affordable health insurance system,” M/s Burton said.
“Some of the models that have been put forward have suggested very high charges potentially for individuals and families. Some of the figures being spoken about would concern me.
“We need to look for a model that is efficient, effective and good value for money.”
UHI is a major commitment in the Programme for Government, but there has been no progress on bringing forward the scheme.
Both M/s Burton and Minister for Health Leo Varadkar have separately cast doubts over the roll-out.
Mr Varadkar said a “big bang approach” was not the right way forward and small steps needed to be taken.
Reilly cornerstone
Within weeks of entering office, Mr Varadkar began playing down introducing the scheme in its current form. It was one of the cornerstones of his predecessor James Reilly.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has insisted he wants the model introduced in full.
Asked if he was watering down previous proposals, Mr Varadkar said: “No, we are modifying them and making them achievable and setting out realistic timeframes.
“One of the things I wanted to do when I took over in health,” he added, “was to start making concrete steps to universal health care, and we see that now with under 6s.”
Private patients
UHI would seek to eliminate Ireland’s two-tier health system by effectively making everyone a private patient. It is officially the Government’s healthcare reform blueprint.
Under a White Paper published by Dr Reilly, the system was to involve a multipayer model of competing private health insurers and a State- owned VHI.
The paper proposed that everyone would be covered for standard services, including GP and hospital treatment.
Mr Varadkar slowed down the introduction of UHI when he took office last summer.
Speaking yesterday, the Minister said making the change in small steps was the best way forward.
“There is a total commitment from both parties that we want to achieve universal health care, a single-tier health service based on need and not on ability to pay. But how we get there needs to be mapped out,” Mr Varadkar said.
“If we learned anything from the last couple of years, even from the difficulties we had getting the over-sixes and the over-70s over the line, it has been quite how difficult making change in health service can be. But we are still committed doing it.”

The Tánaiste Joan Burton is to enforce lone parent changes despite childcare fears

  

The Tánaiste Joan Burton has insisted she will press ahead with changes to the lone parent allowance despite accepting that childcare issues remain a serious problem in Ireland.

From next Thursday parents of children aged seven and older will no longer be entitled to the one-parent family payment.
Ms Burton defended the changes which come into force for over 30,000 families and insisted the move was not a cut.
The changes have been met by opposition from a number of groups including One Family which said that it would not work without childcare and after school services.
Ms Burton said she had set up a “significant number of supports” for families but acknowledged childcare remains a serious issue.
“I also want to stress as well that really I have put into place a seven-year transition period and one of the reasons I did that is I would be very anxious to see childcare in general improved in this country.
“I’m conscious as a society and a country we’ve a long way to go to get the kind of childcare system that I would like to see,” she told the Irish Independent.
The Labour leader said funding had been provided to the Department of Children for the provision of after school care services. She added that the changes would result in more single parents returning to work.
However, One Family said it has seen a surge in calls from worried parents who have worked out that they are set to lose between €30 and €140 under the plans.
Speaking about the claims from One Family, Ms Burton said her department would look at these cases if given the details.
“But the key thing we’re doing is that over the next period we will be calling in and inviting in to their local Intreo office any lone parent who has queries, we’ll work with them, we’ll work with their employers, if they give us the permission to do that, to seek to help them actually get back to work,” she added.
Meanwhile Ms Burton said the country could face “significant risks” if the Labour Party does not have a strong presence in the next government.
While Labour is facing a huge challenge at the next election, she said she remained optimistic about the return of sitting Labour TDs. Ms Burton said it was difficult to envisage how the Government would have operated fairly in terms of the difficult decisions that had to be made without the presence of Labour.
“It is the Labour Party which has held the line in terms of having fairness, in terms of protecting the basic rates of social welfare, in terms of insisting, given our demographics, on investment in new schools, in terms of addressing other deficiencies in our infrastructure,” she said.
She said it would be difficult to look at a post-election government without a strong Labour presence warning there might be “significant risks not just to economic growth but also to fairness in society and to addressing key social problems” without the party.
She refused to accept the party was facing a significant drop in TDs saying: “I’m an optimist and I believe that we have a very good story to tell”.

10 top tips to ensure your farm tyres are in tip-top shape before you go harvesting

  
Leaving machinery checks until the last minute before doing a job on the farm can result in unexpected machine downtime, according to Gordon Brookes, Michelin’s Technical Manager.
“Time, weather and crop constraints make it essential that machinery is ready for use,” Brookes says.
“The worst possible time to suffer tyre-related downtime is during the busy harvest period, so it really pays to ensure your machines are set up perfectly and ready to roll in advance.”
  1. Check your combine’s tyres for damage
During previous harvests tyres may have suffered accidental damage, leaving them with bulges, cuts or tears.
Checking the tread area and sidewalls right down to the wheel trim now guarantees that any problems can be detected as soon as possible.
Leaving damage unchecked can result in costly tyre failure and harvest interruptions.
  1. Check for flat spots
Long periods of inactivity can leave tyres with a ‘flat spot’ due to one section of the casing being deflected, creating massive vibrations on the road.
To combat this, mark the affected area of the tyres, move the combine into direct sunlight with other sections of the tyres deflected.
If possible inflate the tyres above your standard operating pressure for a couple of hours, whilst ensuring the manufacturer’s maximum inflation pressure is not exceeded.
Warming the tyres in the sunlight will prompt the casing to return to its normal shape.
  1. Check your tyre pressures
Ensure that tyres are inflated to the correct pressure in readiness for harvest, considering maximum cyclic load in the field and whether the combine will be used on side slopes or intensively on the roads.
  1. Tyre choice
If you need new tyres, or a new machine, take tyre choice seriously.
Tyre choice can make the difference between a good harvest and a great one and for most combines and foragers.
There is now a tyre that contains Ultraflex Technology, which limits soil compaction and disturbance on headlands whilst offering greater operator comfort, manoeuvrability and load capacity.
  1. Transport width
Is your combine too wide for the road or gateways and would a narrower tyre speed up the harvesting process?
If so, there are now tyres for combines that are narrower but have a greater contact with the ground.
For example, a Michelin 900/60 R32 conventional tyre assembly could be replaced by a Michelin IF 800/70 R32 assembly, giving a 15% larger footprint whilst making the combine 200mm narrower.
  1. Rear tyres
Rear tyres can affect the efficiency of the combine but are more commonly neglected. Rear tyres should be operated appropriately in line with manufacturer recommendations.
Farmers often don’t always realise that many of these tyres are designed for industrial machinery and require very high pressures which can cause damage on headlands.
It’s therefore important to allocate the same time specifying rear tyres as you would the front set.
  1. Regular tyre inspections
Daily tyre inspections can often be overlooked but are essential in prolonging tyre life and machine availability.
Spotting cuts and tears as they appear helps ensure they can be repaired in a timely manner and limits machine downtime.
  1. Watch those wheels
To prolong tyre life, wheels need to be kept in tip-top condition too. Kerbing or hitting a pothole can affect a machine’s wheel alignment, leading to rapid and uneven wear on the rubber.
  1. Putting the brakes on
It’s common sense advice that accelerating slowly and braking progressively maximises tyre life.
Easing off the brakes and making a conscious effort to accelerate gently can pay dividends in keeping rubber in service for longer.
  1. Other tyres are just as important
Make sure that all machinery involved in the harvest is in excellent condition and tyres inflated to the correct pressure, not just the harvester itself.
Consider grain carting as an example; is the road work intensive? If so, the tractor and trailer tyres need to be inflated accordingly to reflect this intensive operation.

Marital separation Sometimes ‘Morally Necessary’

Say’s Pope Francis

  
Nuns greet Pope Francis as he arrives to lead the weekly audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican on Thursday. The pope, speaking at his weekly general audience, said sometimes separation is “morally necessary.”
Pope Francis, speaking on family issues, says that sometimes marriages are so damaged that it is “morally necessary” for a husband and wife to separate.
“There are cases in which separation is inevitable,” the pontiff said at his weekly general audience. “Sometimes it can become even morally necessary, precisely when it comes to subtracting the weaker spouse, or small children, from more serious injuries caused by arrogance and violence, by humiliation and exploitation … and by indifference.”
“Let us ask the Lord for a strong faith to see with his eyes the reality of family life, and for a deep love to approach all families with his merciful heart,” he said.
The Associated Press notes: “Francis has been making a series of statements about family issues ahead of a much-anticipated October synod, or meeting, of bishops to address the topic. The bishops will take up many issues, including how the church can be more welcoming to divorced Catholics who remarry without going through the church process that declares their first marriage null.”
The church has long said that divorced members cannot participate in communion. Time magazine writes: “There’s no precise estimate worldwide, but according to Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, some 4.5 million Catholics in the United States (alone) are divorced and remarried without an ‘annulment,’ a declaration from a church court that the first marriage was invalid.”
In December, speaking in an interview with the Argentine newspaper La Nacion, Francis said the church must consider ways to integrate divorced and civilly remarried people.”