An "entitlement" exists SOLELY by government fiat. Break down the word itself and focus on "title" -- something that does not exist in nature. Think of "titles" like "Duke" or "Baron" or "lord" ... and think back to the days of monarchies where "title" conferred economic power. In those days, ALL the land of the "realm" was presumptively owned (granted by GOD to the control) by the monarch ... the sovereign. The 'subjects' were, for the most part, mere chattel. ALL the proceeds of anyone's la...

I've been remiss for far, far too long in meeting Laura face-to-face and telling her how much I appreciate her ... even though a fat, dirty, old man like me might not be the foremost member of her fan club. My procrastination and reticence caused me to drop the ball -- a mistake I don't wish to repeat. Now for the background ... and the bad news ... (I'll post this here rather than post a 'support thread' in GD or the Lounge) As some might know (I'm not really a "tell all" type), I was compel...

We're again talking past each other, creating a pot luck stew for yet another food fight. It's not merely that each person presumes a differing set of "facts" and not just that we each live in our unique worlds based on our own life experiences, the way our 'world' has treated us, and how we've learned to frame what we see. It's also a matter of speaking to distinct and conflicting objectives ... the questions of prudent behavior vs. guilt ... the questions of how one is advised to behave pru...

... is, afaik, based on the absence of subject diversity in a "school." Thus, the Engineering School or the Nursing School affords the student such a concentration, while a true collegiate education covers a breadth of subject areas. My undergraduate degree is in Mathematics, which is (along with the sciences like Chemistry and Physics) a degree concentration in the College of Liberal Arts. There is no question that the Mathematics training offered a mental discipline that was invaluable, I fin...

... a "n_____-lover." That was ALL about race ... and the threat of violence or death (e.g. "Mississippi Burning") for the unforgivable social sin of being a "traitor to race." Such attitudes aren't in the soil or controlled by the calendar ... and were not limited to just the south or just THAT time. We each live in a different world. We look out at our personal world and "see" a very unique and personal reality. From the glances of other people one passes on the street, to the body language...

... some can find is in their crotch. I can just see it. Protests outside the Nazi concentration camps ... protests against 'sexism' in billeting. Yeah. That's a 'cause' worth protesting. God forbid we find cause in our common humanity. It's gotta be about gonads. :eyes: Let's keep the world safe for Sarah & Tawd Pimping Their Kids!! :puke:

Once upon a time, the custom was to display the bloody sheet resulting from the 'deflowering' of the bride on her wedding night. It (supposedly) 'proved' she was a virgin at her marriage. More often than not, it is thought, the blood was that of a sheep or goat. The bride, in those days, was usually a teenager. The notion that the intact state of a teen-aged bride's hymen is of public interest - and that the PARENTS' 'honor' was somehow dependent on her virginity - is the kind of medieval, ...

Thanks. :hi: * This is a public service posting on behalf of the International Association of Fruits & Nuts, Ad Hoc DU Chapter. :silly: ** This message may or may not reflect the opinions of 10minutearticle, 1plain1peanut, AcadamiaNut, aquanut, B3Nut, blackwalnut, bobbonutrino, bozosleftnut, bulugnut, BUSHISNUTS, butternut, butternutty, buttnutt, Canadiangunnut, capsnut, Carnut, CarNutAtl, Cash U. Nutt, CA_liberal_nut, Chanute, coconut, Coconut Buddha Ape, coconut55, CoconutMonkey, coconutofd...

... impacting that minority is buying in to the "identity politics" of conservatism. It's NOT a liberal (or progressive) viewpoint at all. Implicit in such a posture is the notion that "identity politics" is somehow valid and worth embracing. It's NOT. Do liberals and progressives REALLY want to send the message that whites should "vote white" and straights should "vote straight" and males should "vote male"????? That's EXACTLY the message being sent when it's presumed that ONLY a black can re...

... is some "major solution" and all should be right with the world if the "right person" is elected. I suppose it's the imbalance created by all the "rally the base" and GOTV hype that precedes eveery election ... but it just ain't so and NEVER will be. I've been consistent over my entire tenure on DU and even before that it's ESSENTIAL for any citizen of something that aspires to be a 'democratic republic' to continuously engage other citizens in political dialog, arming themselves with facts...

Every rational, law-abiding person incorporates considerations regarding their personal safety into their behavior. We all, to one degree or another, think about what we might do that makes us more or less likely to be the victim of a crime. It's not about "blaming the victim" as much as it is about making choices that are in our own power to make. For example, to be less likely to be the victim of a robbery we might commonly choose to avoid carrying valuables, carrying large amounts of cash, o...

Since it seems to be such a popular topic, I'd like to describe what I saw CONSISTENTLY during three and a half months of eating out in the restaurants of Paris and environs many years ago. Working in Aulnay sous Bois (a suburb) and staying at the Novotel (a plastic Motel 6), it was necessary to eat dinner in Paris or go mad. Virtually every evening was invested in selecting, making reservations, driving to, eating, and driving back from a restaurant in Paris. Les Guide Michelin was INVALUABLE ....

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When Roger Smith became the CEO of GM, the die was cast: the MBA 'abitrage' types took over. The "car guys" were told to STFU and do what they were told. What's that about? Simply this. There was a decades-long struggle within GM between the Guys Who Made Money and the Guys Who Made Cars. The GWMM crowd was all about trading paper and playing money games ... and the factory rats were mere window dressing for those arbitrage games. The GWMC crowd were all about cars ... big ones and small ones ...

I don't even begin to have all the answers ... like so many who seem to think they do. Almost all I've heard since even before I was drafted and sent to Viet Nam is "illegal war" and "baby killers" and "involuntary servitude" and "give peace a chance" and so on and so forth. Even now, like then, it's overwhelming to wade through the "global perspective" and examine all the righteous and simplified summations of that time and that war. It was difficult enough to sort through my OWN situation a...

... betrays nothing but ENVY instead of disdain for those not shouldering their share of the burdens of national service. Instead of making an even MORE egalitarian and equitable national service system, the WHINERS are placated by ALSO escaping and letting the least enfranchised stand in harm's way. Then, to add insult to injury, the privileged 80% insult and demean those who wear the uniform of their country. Baby killers! War criminals! Abdicating the social contract of a democracy the p...

... which are a kind of 'balloon payment' on employee compensation. They were not "performance bonuses," per se. They were employee compensation agreements set in early 2008 to ensure that certain key personnel, deemed essential to reducing the massive default exposure AIG faced as a result of its wholesale CDS business. It seems that AIG saw the problem in early 2008 at the latest, possibly as a result of an internal audit review or other accounting analysis. The idea behind a "retention bonus...

Perhaps "red herring" would be a better term. :shrug: (This is a .) By framing this as an argument about teachers and their abilities, it PRESUMES that the 'problem' (at least in large part) is teachers. What this ignores is the fact that every student has MANY teachers as he/she navigates their way through the public schools. Every student, however, has far fewer parents -- but we're not testing parents, are we? Of course not. We can't get our jollies by firing parents. By forming this UTOPIA...

They're the "let those other guys do it" party -- they're entire strategy is one of subcontracting, outsourcing, and pass the buck. Why? Because they don't know Jack Shit about doing a job themselves - not adminstration and not operation -- nada. They regard government as a mechanism for collecting taxes (from the little guys), passing laws (to entrench privilege), and forcing governments of other nations to enact entitlements for the global corporatists (and letting the little guys die for t...

(In other words, I disagree.) The Social Security system, first of all, includes retirement, disability, survivors, and health insurance based, at least partly, upon some minimum and maximum amount of quarterly taxed payroll earnings. For the purposes of calculating a "primary insurance amount" (for retirement), the greater an individual's taxed payroll earnings then the greater an individual's benefits. Thus, raising the "cap" would, under the current system, result in a increased benefit. A...

:eyes:

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For thirty-five years, labor (the "bottom 90%" of the working class) has been increasingly short-changed. The Gini Index tells the story. As the "bottom 90%" receive a diminishing share of the income pie, the payroll taxes on that "bottom 90%" ALSO fade in sustaining the Social Security system. The 'problem' with the Social Security Fund projections are based on the impoverishment of the working class -- the "class war" that has been enriching the rich and raping payroll workers. The Social Sec...

... reduce ACTUAL guilt vs. innocence to a near irrelevancy. (1) Deterrence -- If, in putting a person to death, there is some deterrent influence on another person contemplating a heinous crime (try to imagine such a scenario) then it's not really all that important that the person put to death ACTUALLY committed the crime. It's only important that the claim is made and the punishment connected to the crime. I have some difficulty, however, contemplating the degree to which there are people w...

"It's for sure a white man's world in America. Look here: I raised that boy since he was the size of a piss-ant. And I'll say right now, he never learned to read and write. No, sir. Had no brains at all. Was stuffed with rice pudding between th' ears. Shortchanged by the Lord, and dumb as a jackass. Look at him now! Yes, sir, all you've gotta be is white in America, to get whatever you want. Gobbledy-gook! "

“The Economic Bill of Rights” Excerpt from 11 January 1944 message to Congress on the State of the Union It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people — whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth — is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-hous...

"In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. "The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world. "The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the world. "The third is freedom from want -- which, translated into universal terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -- everywhere in th...

... we DIDN'T return fire when rocketed from towns and villages. In my year (1969) at Long Binh (USARV HQ Company), I can't count the number of times we were awakened at night by incoming indirect fire (mortars or rockets). I saw people die. One time it ws the MP barracks. Another time it was the Warrant Officer barracks. I survived near misses - one time in particular I remember diving for the ground and thinking it took too long for gravity to work. We had radar and computer-controlled a...

There is perhaps no more pervasive and long-lasting conundrum in humanity's history than the apologetics for actions chosen and the motivations underlying those actions. As the human ape became more and more entranced by his facility to virtually (if not virtuously) travel in time and foresee some distant and desirable (or frightening future), the question of 'correctness' in achieving some such state has been a constant perplexity. Morally wrong actions are sometimes necessary to achieve mora...

When I was in Viet Nam in 1969, I was stationed at Long Binh, USARV HQ Company. For many months, we'd get indirect fire (mortars or RPGs) at night that'd awaken us and send us scrambling for cover. I saw people die in barracks hit by incoming. I've hugged the ground after a near miss. We had fire control radar-equipped artillery in those days, too. That equipment could track the ballistic trajectory of incoming and fire off a computer-controlled round or more to within mere feet of the origin...