X. Benedict
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Posts posted by X. Benedict
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Pick any novelty 12 days of Christmas song.
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me......
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I think the key word she mentioned is Charter.
There are a lot of good Charters. But chances are with an entirely new or young teaching staff (like many charters), and most likely an inexperienced principal, a pretty lady that lives in Amherst doesn't stand much of a chance in a Charter filled with high-risk kids.
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The same dolts you fear would vote for Palin are the same dolts who voted for Obama, who are the same dolts who voted for Bush.
If you honestly believe Palin would be good for the country, you'd do yourself and everyone else a favor and STOP talking about her. I know there is this pre-conceived notion that the left would LOVE the idea of Palin running against Obama because he would crush her, but make no mistake...if we go into the 2012 presidential election with unemployment STILL in the 9.0% range, which many economists believe, Obama would lose if he ran against a mop. So be careful what you wish for.
I'm with you on this.
Maybe we should start talking up mops.
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I'm just going to speak facts.
Fact:
Job openings right now, are the highest they have been in over two years.
Fact:
unemployment rate is rising
Fact:
people out of work for over 6 months is at a record high
what does this lead to?
Job skill deterioration
I'm not sure how the numbers go, but my inclination is that job openings have to be a heck of a lot stronger just to account for people entering the job market for the first time who are never counted as unemployed.
The population isn't getting smaller. (I think that is a fact too)
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So at what point in your view should the emergency extension of benefits end?
it does, no doubt about it.. YOu actually get an immediate bang for your buck.. But you could also just print a trillion dollars and give every household a few thousand dollars, that would be stimulative as well...
There is always an expense for handing out free stuff.
So what is the expense?
in my view there are a few
1) added debt on top of debt
2) moral hazard.. There is no doubt that there is a decent segment of the population that is gaming the system
3) creates incentive for SOME to stay home and wait it out. Meanwhile they lose job skills sitting home
I'm not sure. The maximum benefit in New York is probably close to $400/week.
The average benefit is probably close to $300.
But the moral hazard seems to me a temporary risk. With unemployment so high I think i would suspend any assumptions about moral turpitude. The macro rate isn't coming down soon.
A fall in consumption could drive it higher.
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Although extending unemployment benefits so far out seems to smack me a bit wrong.
That is money that goes right back into the US economy at local levels.
It all gets spent.
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I disagree.
Or I would, if I could figure out what's so "conservative" about American Conservatism. Seeems to me to be little more than a code word for people who believe in religion and jingoism.
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Liberal and Conservative are meaningless labels that exploit you lemmings.
Liberals and Conservatives believe in 99% of the same stuff. It's the proportions they differ on.
Just think about it. You can't really talk about Liberality or Conservation without portions and proportions.
If it makes you feel special to be a Conservative. That's swell.
If it makes you feel special to be a Liberal. That's swell to.
You still agree on most of the stuff. It is the portions that bother you.
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It's hilarious to read this liberal "the people have the right to know" and "no more secret government's" BS when I recall their outrage over Valerie Wilson being outed.
Oh right that leak came from the Bush administration. Hang the bastards for treason!
Is there any logical discrepancy with wanting the Plame leaker and the WikiLeaker leaker prosecuted (on legal grounds), and at the same time believing the press is free to use whatever they have. (on 1st Amendment principles).
I don't see a problem with this stance.
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"But the most direct and significant kind of federal action aiding economic growth is to make possible an increase in private consumption and investment demand — to cut the fetters which hold back private spending. In the past, this could be done in part by the increased use of credit and monetary tools, but our balance of payments situation today places limits on our use of those tools for expansion. It could also be done by increasing federal expenditures more rapidly than necessary, but such a course would soon demoralize both the government and our economy. If government is to retain the confidence of the people, it must not spend more than can be justified on grounds of national need or spent with maximum efficiency."
Yes, this is just a rhetorical question. But the ideas and leadership put forth in this speech is light years away from where the leadership of the Democrats is today. So much so, that I believe anyone espousing these views today would not stand a snowball's chance in Hell of being nominated for President of the US.
Interesting.
But I think you are abstracting this to think Kennedy wanted/believed this in principle and not as a pragmatic posture.
The highest tax rate in 1960? 90% or higher.
Today it is around 35%. 15% lower than the Reagan years.
If we tried to go back to the Reagan's tax brackets people would be screaming communisism.
Actually, there is evidence that Philip of Macedon was as much a butt monkey, if not more so. And, from my cultural understanding, which is not as good as my military, it was more along the lines of:
You were a penetrator
or
You were a penetratee.
The guys in charge got to do the penetrating, as it was their right. Therefore, most of the Hellenic leadership was technically...bisexual.
And, bisexual is not gay.But, that's not really the right way to look at it. To put things in today's terms, a better example would be:
DC_Tom is the penetrator
and
conner is the penetratee
The rest is obvious. It doesn't make Tom "gay". It just makes him "dominant".
At least the board knows where to turn if we ever need to keep discipline in a Greek Hoplite Phalanx.
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And why not? Apparently X. Benedict thinks everything the Pentagon writes is sacrosanct. Including everything that came out during the Bush years, including the WMD findings.
Hardly the case.
BTW, I am not sure I'm at all decided about the best course with this. I think however that eventually a repeal is inevitable.
I also don't think it needs to be a logistical nightmare - but I could see it becoming one.
I talked to two colonels (army) in the last week. When DADT came up it, they seemed to shrug:
"The army I joined isn't going to be the one I'm leaving, and the army that the recruits are joining won't be the one they leave either. That's military life." (paraphrase)
Admittedly, and somewhat embarrassingly, I'm not above having some prejudices against a repeal. But at the same time, I haven't found a well-honed logical reason for not resolving this.
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Yeah, only I'm nto a neo-Nazi, I don't rob armored trucks and I don't buy large quantities of fertilizer. But hey, who's counting?
I wasn't referring to you. Sorry if you thought so.
I'm not a neo-Nazi either. Just screwing around. But I always ask if I'm allowed to transport fertilizer as part of my rental contracts.
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Mythologically speaking, you don't see Gorgons nearly as much as you used to.
Word.
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Well don't we have a bunch of witty lubbers here today.
If any of you could tell a binnacle from a barnacle (without googling it, Monkey-Boy) your opinions might be worth something.
Cue Orchestra ....
To hell with your Ma, I'll do your Pa said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
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This is so stupid you could press Antrel's face into some dough and make Dodo-bird cookies.
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Turner Diaries.
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Without reading the link (because Acrobat Reader is broken on this machine)...I find any statement by the Pentagon to the effect that repealing DADT can be done cleanly to be suspiciously optimistic, for no other reason than the Pentagon is the quintessential diarrhetic elephant.
And actually, now that I reflect...it's really four diarrhetic elephants. Policies that work for a fighter squadron or civil affairs battalion probably aren't going to work for a SEAL team or ballistic missile sub (though the submariners should be pleased as punch to finally come out of the closet
).I always wondered what hotbunking really meant.
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That's not news to anyone involved - not even the Iranians. Persian Shi'a and Arab Sunni have been at each other's throats for ever, and referring to them as "Muslim brothers" is patently ridiculous and, frankly, completely ignorant.
And in this specific case Saudis and Iranians basically fought a violent proxy war in Afghanistan as a sideshow to the Afghan-Soviet conflict (which Americans are blissfully unaware of because...well, what do you expect from a people that in response to Muslim extremists go out to the nearest convenience store and beat up a Sikh?) Hell, the Saudis recently granted overfly rights to Israel for the specific purpose of bombing Iran, and it was widely publicly reported...I don't think any wikileaks revelations are going to be particularly damaging or even interesting to the involved parties in this case.
"I thought they were all Muslims?" - G.W.B.
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Uhh...you do understand that if the President asked the Pentagon for a "Report of the Comprehensive Review of the Issues Associated with the Systematic Ass-raping of 60-80 Year Old Women"....they'd also not predict a mess, right? And, the Pentagon, both geographically and ideologically, is a loooooong way away from Ft. Hood, Texas, or Ft. Benning, Georgia.
My initial reaction:
Don't tell me that you don't realize that the request for this report came directly from the political office of the WH. The table of contents of this thing gives it away.
On second thought, maybe they aren't so slick after all. Well, then again, I'm a veteran consultant, and I am used to writing, never mind reading these docs.Reading......
Of course Obama wants to repeal this thing.
But he didn't fill out 400,000 surveys by himself.
Pentagon leadership says it is no big deal. Most of the Officer corps has already been to college and probably doesn't give gay issues too much thought as it is. In practice most people have a hunch about who is gay around them and neither they nor the gay person is likely to much press the issue. If you find out someone is "really" gay. The response is usually not "that's it! I can't work with that wiener-grabber!" but, "I kinda figured."
Either way the military leadership response amounts to: "Print the literature and we'll make it work."
No recommendations to re-create the Sacred Band of Thebes, however.
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Or, better, if you support lifting the ban, you must also support training and support for the company grade officers that are going to have to deal with this mess...while they are also preparing to go to war.
Actually the Pentagon doesn't predict a mess at all if it were repealed.
In relative terms the Support Plan is pretty thin and comes down to training the officer Corps and not anticipating any new "partner" benefits which would be a Congressional matter.
Support Plan For Repealing DADT
BTW ...the Marine Corps doesn't like the idea - only 53% think it won't be a problem.
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Interestingly enough....
the Pentagon's own report goes into the 1948 Racial Integration History experience,
as well as the experience of the more Weiner-Grabbing Friendly Armies of the world.
Ch. 8 + 9
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He was a long a part of the hockey landscape here.
Requiesat in Pace.
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I know it has become fashionable of late for many people to call themselves Libertarian.
Generally most Libertarians have been skeptical of most government secret classifications.
This is true of CATO, the ACLU, and the Libertarian Party have all against State Secrets and state secret legislation as contrary to transparency.
Up until now, groups such as the CATO Inst. have been pretty positive about Wiki-leaks.
However, responses in the last week has been somewhat muted/guarded.
Generally I'm interested in perspectives on this, as many people in this forum call themselves Libertarians.
Any links would be helpful as well.
Libertarians?
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No expert here, but I would think that any code or procedure that has to do with housing of troops would have to be reviewed and changes possibly made. Then issues dealing with health and retirement benefits of those gay members who are in a domestic partnership would need to be looked at and changed. Stuff like that I would gather.
Good answers.
If it is parallel housing, that would be significant.
I hadn't thought much about partner benefits.
Am I wrong hating athletes for these moves?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted · Edited by X. Benedict
So a guy (in Lee's case) is traded 4 times (I think Montreal-Cleveland Cleveland-Philly Philly-Seatle Seattle-Texas) and becomes free agent and choses to move back to a place his family was happy before, and he's a villian?
I don't get the logic.