tvashtarkatena

We're done here.

Ideas like 'first there was nothing then it exploded'? or 'first there was a little piggy, then its baby grew huge fucking ears and became really big and there were elephants? It's not the idea itself...it's the specious campaign to pass the idea off as science, first as creationism, then, when that got shot down, as ID, and ram it down the public's throats via the school system in direct violation of the 1st amendment.

...the right to petition for redress of grievances...

Bright blue suede, only the edges were too worn to do the only thing they were good at other than standing in etriers, which I wasn't doing any of at the time. My first rock climb (Mt. Conness, tolumne) was in those Nike running shoes with the super wedge shaped soles. It's funny to see those things come back like a bad TV show. Definitely not an edging shoe.

Creationism should be mocked, as should any thoroughly stupid idea foisted upon the public by idiots. It's 'practitioners' should be ridiculed and hounded off the public stage as the buffoons they are. Oh wait, they already have been. Check out the mockumentary 'Evolution on Trial' (PBS), and you'll see exactly what I mean. The morons fell on their own righteous swords...or lack thereof, in this court case.

Bill sticks it here. If you have the skill set of a Guatemalan day laborer, you're not going to get paid much more than one even if you live in Portland. And going forward, if your work product, regardless of what it is, can be delivered by clicking a mouse, then you're going to be competing with the entire planet. The only way the U.S. will compete is on the basis of skills and we've been doing a lousy job imparting those to the majority of our population for some time compared to the rest of the industrialized nations. Really? Do our skills lag behind the UK, Italy, Greece, Belgium, France, Spain, NZ? Which skills, exactly? Last time I checked, the American worker was still the most productive and creative in the world. It think this statement is unsupported and parroted crap. I also do not believe labor is as liquid as either you or Billcoe presume, especially in an increasingly energy-poor economy that will necessarily return to more local commercial relationships and geographical self-sufficiency. Not all goods and services can be got over the internet. Plus there is a cost, and often a fatal cost, to outsourcing. It's no secret that the right person in the right job can leverage his position to be many, many more times as effective and productive than some foreign cookie cutter replacement. Many companies have failed in their outsourcing efforts because they failed to understand the 'art' part of human capital. Yes, low level information jobs can be outsourced to wherever...often at great expense to quality of service and subsequent loss of market share and company image, and if the outsourcing company knows how to manage foreign resources. Most don't. Particularly smaller businesses, which, after all, comprise and will continue to comprise 80% of jobs in the U.S. Then there are higher level jobs, jobs requiring creativity, design, and a unique force of personality. Outsource these. Not so easy...at all. Finally, there are a host of companies in the U.S. that have said 'fuck this', and have invested in their home-grown human capital, and their doing just fine. Outsourcing is on model that works with replaceable, cookie cutter jobs in organizations that are savvy and big enough to manage the foriegn resource. That does not describe most jobs in the U.S. or anywhere else.

That's not a Tvash, it's a Tvashtar Catena. The venting of sulphur dioxide from this, the hottest volcano in the solar system, results in a graceful arching plume, as much as 150 km high, that glows iridescent blue as it is ionized by Jupiter's Van Allen radiation belt. It's truly one of the most spectacular phenomena on any world.

There are two issues under court review regarding the petition. One is the public disclosure of names on the petition. The other is public disclosure of the sources of funding for the petition. The ACLU's national policy is that disclosure of funding for public advocacy constitutes a violation of free speech. Our national privacy policies would indicate that the organization, at least on a national level, has tended to favor non-disclosure of petition signers' names. This is a WA state issue, however. Both issues are under review by the WA state chapter's legal committee. So far, the courts have recommended that, as long as the state has access to the names for the purposes of verification (and yes, there have been some shinanigans in that department in that case...like unregistered signatures), then the names should not be disclosed. On one hand, signature disclosure could chill participation in petitioning due to fear of retribution; from employers, crazies (death threats or death wishes are not uncommon in this business), family or peer groups. On the other hand disclosure improves s transparency in what is essentially a public process: the crafting of legislation. One could argue that there is no expectation of privacy for signing a referendum petition; it is done in public, after all, and it should (so the argument goes) be a public document in the interests of open government. On might also argue that the interests of having an honest and open referendum petitioning process, which has been subject to a fair bit of corruption of late, outweighs the individual signatory's right to privacy. If, however, signatures must be publicly disclosed, what other parts of the legislative process must be? Certainly, all formal testimony, debates, and hearings already are. Confirmation of voting by individual certainly is (but not how the vote was cast, of course). What of more informal interactions, such as lobbyist/legislator discussions? From a practical standpoint, this probably isn't much of a issue; many of these discussions happen in passing and are not recorded or documented. Personally, I'm in favor of name disclosure, with misgivings, but I'm unsure about disclosing funding. I do need to learn more about the possible ramifications of both.

You are a moron, Tvash. Yeah, I get that alot. The military. Licensing services. Oh, and I'd love to see 911 services privatized. "We're sorry, sir, but there was a problem with your bill this month..."

The same two crackers must have blown through my hood. I was workin' on something and suddenly I heard this cracker voice ask me "Are you a carnivore?" from a pickemup. WTF? Stay out of my progressive hood, Crackers, or I'll fuckin shoot ya.

Violence is usually a result of ignorance: underestimating your enemy and overestimating your own prowess. The unintended consequences start immediately. It spreads in weird ways and more often than not comes right back at the perp. Action/Reaction. After a short while it takes on its own momentum and pretty soon nobody can remember how it all started or why. BTW, I've got a 50 calibre machine gun in my house.

Are you the majority? more importantly, what's to misunderstand about a poorly written, massively boring, 2000+ year old work of at first psycho-violent, then wierdly wimpy fiction? The Bible. Why bother? Unless you buy the bull, of course.

OK, OK, don't be so sensitive...or coy, as the case may be.

Of course, in my day, all the overhead I just spoke of didn't yet exist...and the public schools in our area still sucked. Some don't, however, and it's usually because of a core of individual teachers and admins who won't except mediocrity as an end product. Productive parent involvement (I hear that there is an overabundance of the other kind these days) also seems to help. How to make that happen, however, well...how do you hire anyone who is a cut above the rest, hmmm? How do you recognize that june a se qua, joonisaykwa, as I said, I went to public highscool, special something in someone: a friend, an artist, a woman, a proctologist...well, that is the mystery of being human, or a unicorn, isn't it?

What's the wife's opinion on that?

BTW, be sure to vote YES on 71 if you're for equal domestic partnership rights for all. Confusing, I know, but there you have it.

This is the kind of stuff we have to deal with: "Stephen Pidgeon, the attorney who presented the case against Referendum 71 to the the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce's Public Affairs Council a few weeks ago (a "yes" vote on R-71 upholds state domestic partnerships legislation), reportedly had a rather unique take on why gay folks shouldn't be given the same rights as straight folks. According to sources who were at the endorsement meeting, Pidgeon blamed domestic partnerships for recent high-profile technical problems with Boeing's 787 and Microsoft's latest software upgrade. Both companies, Pidgeon reportedly noted, passed domestic-partner policies shortly before running into technical glitches. The new policy, he argued, had "undermined [employees'] ability to make good decisions," one source at the presentation says. The Chamber voted to endorse R-71."

Where do you think our medicines, and our doctors and nurses come from? Sociology majors? Communications? Keep telling yourself you are studying something important Prole. But be sure you can afford to pay your loans back while flipping burgers. Well, actually, a good friend of mine who went on to become an MD/PhD and is now a genetics researcher at the NIH majored in English Literature in college. And another former English major friend is just finishing up her nursing degree. Add to that several successful business folks, attorneys, and, are you ready for this? SOFTWARE ENGINEERS that I know. You're a moron, KKK.

yes to the first question as to the second question, i don't like any of the tax exemption bullshit that churches get, though i know the court has upheld it. tax exempt donations to charities is fine, but not charities who wrap it up in buddha/jeebus/mohammed whatever. it's probably just my angry atheism talking i don't know anything of sweden or norway's voucher experiment - enlighten me, if you can in a 1000 words or less - is comparing our giant heterogenous nation to a tiny homogenous one sound? wouldn't the transition to a voucher system dangerously destabilize the current public schools? schools and the infrastructure already built were designed for large populations which could only decline. future planning would be harder w/ potentially giant #'s of students coming in and out of the system. Denying tax exemptions to religious versus secular non-profits would violate both the Establishment and Equal Protection clauses. The problem with many churches is that they are pretty clearly for profit organizations, yet their tax exempt status remains unchallenged for because we enjoy a heavy pro-kristian political bias in this country. Vouchers are a side show, invented by the Right as both a smoke screen issue and a way to defund and dismantle the public school system rather than fix it. Anyone who claims to believe otherwise is either an idiot or a liar. As I understand it from talking with teachers, isn't one of the main problems with the public school system that an inordinate amount of funding goes towards supporting the huge administrative/peripheral personnel (rather than teachers) that have managed to attach their suckers into the system? It's not a matter of gross funding; it's a matter of skimming.

Where do i sign up? I really want to be part of something! PM me your credit card # and salvation is garunteed! Marc, You're young and Canadian, so I thought I'd educate you about a few things regarding your new religion. First of all, new religions don't come from Canada. They come from America. Second, you'll need to find a second, third, fourth, or preferably 400th hand account of your experience to legitimize it. My suggestion would be to wait at least a century, then have someone write your story down, preferably in another language...no, wait, you've already recounted it in British Columbian, so you're OK there, then sit back on your unicorn and watch the magic happen. Finally, no legitimate religion would have either a 10,000 dollar or 5 year limit on tithing. Good luck, and God Bless.

Vanity Fair is Spray about the train wreck that is American celebrity. It just doesn't get any better than that.

You don't?

Government has many drivers to innovate and improve efficiency: a continuous scarcity of resources, political pressure, the press, individual performance evaluation systems tied to success of mission. Just as many as any business, really.

Vanity Fair published two revealing articles about that showcase of American Family Values, the Palins. The latter is an interview with Levi Johnston, who lived in the Palin house for 6 months. Not complimentary, to say the least. The title of the first Vanity Fair piece was "It came from Wasilla".

And the well known fact that 80% of new businesses go out of business within 2 years...with complete loss of initial investment all around. So much for 'competition driven' fiscal responsibility. KKK has never occupied a position of budgetary responsibility in any organization, public or private. If he had, he'd know what a circus most businesses are.