talisyn
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Posts posted by talisyn
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I thought this would be a discussion about 'old' Star Wars vs. 'new' Star Wars
Ultimately, the power to stop this march towards a free-market USSR lies with the voting citizens.
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http://i.imgur.com/uAf5Dhp.jpg (click the image to enlarge it, after you click through to the link)
It's perfect!
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This one has haunted me since I read it when I was 8:
The Listeners
"Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grass
Of the forest's ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller's head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
"Is there anybody there?" he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller's call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
'Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:--
"Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word," he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
Walter de la Mare
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I look forward to January 2015. The states that have done their part for the ACA to succeed are the guinea pigs, so to speak. We'll know a lot more about state exchanges, what works and what needs tweaked, and the will of the people participating.
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It's a huge freedom of speech issue, not to mention personal privacy. Why should it be illegal to call more than 1 person your spouse? It's ok, in the eyes of the law, to have sex, raise kids, pay common bills, with more than 2 people but say the word 'wife' or 'husband' and the law will be after you in no time flat. Crazy. I'm glad this judge had some sense.
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Me too. Miley would make a lousy Pope.
though there has been precedent...
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I don't think Mandela has a lot to fear from his ultimate Judge. He served his time in prison and chose liberty and conciliation with apartheid supporters. I think he was wise to serve only 1 term. Just long enough to nudge his beloved country on a good path, but not long enough for old wounds and disagreements to hinder real democratic progress
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Quote by Terry Pratchett: The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes re... Pretty much explains why we buy butter, even if it's 3x that of margarine.
“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”
It's a good day when I can quote Terry Pratchett :)
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A lot of kids in this area have parents working long hours in multiple jobs. Other than teaching the basics of 'please', 'thank you', eating with mouth closed, and other basic civilized niceties, there really isn't much opportunity for fancy dress.
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Spoken by noted Commie Terrorist Sympathizer Newt GingrichSome of the people who are most opposed to oppression from Washington attack Mandela when he was opposed to oppression in his own country.
After years of preaching non-violence, using the political system, making his case as a defendant in court, Mandela resorted to violence against a government that was ruthless and violent in its suppression of free speech.
As Americans we celebrate the farmers at Lexington and Concord who used force to oppose British tyranny. We praise George Washington for spending eight years in the field fighting the British Army’s dictatorial assault on our freedom.
Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Continental Congress adopted that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Doesn’t this apply to Nelson Mandela and his people?
Some conservatives say, ah, but he was a communist.
Actually Mandela was raised in a Methodist school, was a devout Christian, turned to communism in desperation only after South Africa was taken over by an extraordinarily racist government determined to eliminate all rights for blacks.
I would ask of his critics: where were some of these conservatives as allies against tyranny? Where were the masses of conservatives opposing Apartheid? In a desperate struggle against an overpowering government, you accept the allies you have just as Washington was grateful for a French monarchy helping him defeat the British.
Bytebear, the number. The vote. They speak for themselves. Clear-cut facts.
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33 Genius Elf On The Shelf Ideas
I liked the one with the army men
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Elf on the Shelf revealed to be part of secret NSA spying program
I admit, I love the Cleatus idea. But I'm not going willingly.
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I'll see your links, and raise you this commentary The Surprising Republican Civil War That Erupted Over Nelson Mandela and Apartheid - PolicyMic
Mandela wasn't Martian Luther King, Jr. But he ended up more like him than when he started.
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Do people have a right to fight for their freedom? Do slaves have a right to seek redress from their oppressors? Or do they patiently wait until their masters give it to them?
Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu and a host of others, black and white, are responsible for South Africa's change in social, economical, and political bloodless revolution. They are better people than I am.
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He was amazing. He was a member of a 'questionable' organization in his early years (although how you can call it terrorism when the entire societal order was against a person simply and only because of skin color and ancestry) who used the years in prison to shape his soul into something strong, wise, and gentle. I'm grateful that he lived up to the hype.
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Okay.... These are dinosaurs... But the idea is sound:
Dinovember: The Month When Plastic Dinosaurs Come To Life | Refe Tuma
It's kinda viral right now... A lot of sites that have it are running sloooooow.
I know a lot here don't like HuffPost, but their site is fast!
Q
I LOOOOOVE this one!!!! I'm going to do this next year, it'll be so much fun.
The difference between the dinosaurs and the elf is, the reptiles don't report to Santa. I was singing some Christmas songs to my 3 yr old the other day and got to 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' and I realized that this was a horrible song to sing to an impressionable child. If my child is going to be paranoid it'll not be about jolly elves.
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I appreciate that she's proud of her body, and I really like that she didn't do this: Hot Mom Defends Herself Against Facebook Haters
But I think she should have worn more clothes
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We're waiting until the 3 year old is about 6 for the narc-on-a-shelf, we figure she'll be better able to regulate her behavior to achieve the right good to presents ratio
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It makes sense. I thought I implied that in my response, let me expound :)
The powerpoint presentations were key in my company. Most of the pre-computer employees (most of the floor workers, that is) had never before used technology in this manner. Microsoft office was a new, not very exciting, and sometimes very intimidating, language for them to learn. Standard procedure in olden days was the employees take complaints/concerns to supervisor, who would then decide whether or not to do anything, and often times upper management were clueless until they got an email from a VP or the president because the floor employee went outside the chain of command. With months of data presented to supervisors and their bosses in a format familiar to them it was easier for them to see our pov and in turn request capital from headquarters for improvements. We, the employees, understood that we were taking on more work for no extra pay.
(But there is the expectation that this had better translate into a more than 1.3% raise in pay next time the contract is up, because we have that data as well.)
My point in all this? The workers have been managed in such a way that we will invest time and effort into new, odd things. We will defer pay for a certain amount of time. We will be team players. This would not have happened in the old butt-chewing managerial days.
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I am really struck by the difference in managerial attitude between what has been expressed and my company's manager style. I wonder if it's because most people are talking about offices and my work is primarily production? Or maybe because my company is Canadian, eh?
A few years ago the company decided to give the workers this wonderful program called 'Roadmap'. It's where the floor workers, while performing their job, would find inefficiencies that are safety and/or money hazards and present the information in pretty little PowerPoint presentations and colorful handouts to supervisors on a weekly basis, with headquarters expectations that the supervisors will fix the problems or report why they can't fix them. We also get quarterly bonuses based on quality, safety, and delivery. It's very successful (who doesn't like getting bonuses?) and a good way for rank-and-file to see how their mental and physical capital is invested and of worth.
Treat your people like grown adults, identify and solve problems with them, and give them money. It works for my company
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My job works on the assumption that, after a certain period of training, we the operators, etc. know our jobs and it's the supervisors task to clear obstacles out of our way to french fry perfection. This works really well (our factory is getting mega capital projects cause we just rock) but some of our supervisors are very old-school about whip-cracking. Fortunately, they get rotated every 6 months :)
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What in the world is wrong with, "Can you please bring mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie?" If it's not perfect, who cares?? People are more important than a perfect meal, and "perfect" is subjective, anyway.
The fact that so many people accept and applaud her behavior explains so much about driving on the freeway and going to Walmart on any given day.
I agree!
It's important, when dealing with mortal beings, to understand that sometimes people cannot perform their tasks exactly. And it's important to see that good things can happen when people deviate from plan. For instance, my mom was suppose to make the yams and marshmallows but forgot to buy the stuff, so we ended up with chocolate and pumpkin pies. And only 2 people were disappointed
Tithing question
in Advice Board
Posted
My newly-converted husband asked this a few weeks ago when we were going over bills, so we had a nice little talk about appreciating the blessings God gives us. I'm glad you still want to obey this great commandment, I know it's blessed you (and me) in many ways. Keep the faith!
I see the way tithing is distributed sort of how I see taxes distributed. If you don't want your taxes to fund the military, then think of them as funding upkeep of the Lincoln Memorial. If you don't want your tithing going to Church-run universities, think of it going to upkeep of your meeting house, or the flowers on Temple Square. I don't know about you, but I don't pay enough tithing to worry about being the sole support of any Church-run operation