Moonbattery: Genius President Mispronounces Corpsman
Genius President Mispronounces “Corpsman”. Posted by Gregory of Yardale at February 4, 2010 12:16 PM. Real Clear Politics has the video. And it wasnt a one-time slip-up. He repeated the error twice. …

FREEDOM EDEN: Obama Mispronounces Corpsman (Video)
How could this brilliant orator make such a glaring error? I wonder if FDR or Lincoln could pronounce “corpsman” properly. Im guessing they could. Will the Leftists mock Obama for his butchered English? Im certain they wont. …

Weasel Zippers: Video: Obama Calls Navy Corpsman a Corpse-man…
I wonder if he can pronounce jackass properly?… VIDEO: Obama Mispronounces “Corpsman” At Prayer Breakfast (Real Clear Politics) ZIP.

The Captains Journal Honoring the Navy Corpsman
Every Marine infantryman and parent or spouse of a Marine infantryman knows the value of a Navy Corpsman and the high esteem in which they are held by the Marines. They are technically in the Navy (while the Marines are only part of the…

Wicked Funny Stuff: Corpsman
I say Corpsman–He says Corpsman! I say Idiot–He says Corpsman! I say dumb as a stump–He says Corpsman! I say identity crisis–He says Corpsman! I say double DUH–He says Corpsman! I say where is that hope and change? …

Obama Reads Corpsman As Corpse-Man | The Hill Street Blahg
Commander-in-Chief Comrade Obama cant even pronounce corpsman correctly. He thinks theyre corpse-man. What a maroon this elitist Harvard grad is. Obama is.

GruntDoc Blog Archive RealClearPolitics Video Obama…
RealClearPolitics Video Obama Mispronounces Corpsman At Prayer Breakfast. And, I dont care. Yes, he mispronounced a word I think he should have known, or asked about. He didnt, and thats just one of many things I wish hed done…

Obama teleprompter blues Reads Word Corpsman as Corpse Man…
This video shows Obama speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast and was talking about a Navy Corpsman who assisted the suffering people of Haiti. Obama pronounced it Corpse Man twice. …

Obama Refers To Navy Corpsman As A Corpse-man The Daley Gator
Obama Refers To Navy Corpsman As A Corpse-man. February 4, 2010 Leave a Comment. Click on the image below for video footage of Obamas most recent douchbaggery. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated) …

Is it fair to call Obama a skid mark for mispronouncing corpsman as “corpseman”?
Apparently I was a CORPSE-MAN all those years. I’m glad I have a brilliant, Harvard educated Commander-in-Chief now to set me straight…..Obama is quite the most brilliant person to ever become president ain’t he?????

As a proud, former member of the US Navy, I was a corpsman<Kor-man> Imagine my surprise when I found out that?
where he pronounced the word “corpsman” as “corpse man”…and he said it twice. For those who thought President Bush was a dummy because he mispronounced “nuclear”, will you be consistent and realize that Obama is a dummy too? He also thinks there are 57 states. Or do you only hammer Republicans for mispronunciations?

I heard an Obama speech today……?
Will the national news media jump all over the President for not being able to correctly pronounce the word corpsman in a speech today?Bush got slammed for “nuclear” and other words, will the NY Times, CNN, Washington Post jump on this?

What is a Corpse-man?
Can’t even say “corpsman” properly?
http://www. realclearpolitics. com/video/2010/02/04/obama_mispronounces_corpsman_at_prayer_breakfast. htmlMr. President, it’s pronounced “core-man” not ‘corpse-man”just saying, as the leader of our corpsmen, you’d think he’d know how to pronounce it.

Is it a sad day in America when our Commander-In-Chief?
http://www. realclearpolitics. com/video/2Looks like he lacks in his ability to read simple English from his teleprompter. I am still trying to figure out what george Bush has to do with Obama’s inability to read…So spot on.. You think because you’re the son of a veteran that it some how gives you some sort of relevance? Who claimed to be a hero here? all I see is you trying to wear your father’s uniform. The oath i took says nothing about liking or disagreeing with the president. How about you know what you are talking about before you make yourself look like such an ignorant tool.

If Obama is so smart, why did he mispronounce the word “corpsman” twice today at the prayer breakfast?
Much to my disappointment I read the following “A licensed physician or dentist licensed or graduate of medical or dental school in any country is not eligible for this rating.” Is this true, I want to get all of my schooling (including dental) out of the way and join the Navy to be a corpsman. At first I didn’t see why not…I want to do this to be a part of the special operations community…

Can I be a Navy Corpsman even if as a civilian I graduated from dental school?
I know you have to be an HM to go SARC. I just want to ask if an HMDA can apply for SARC?If not can i cross rate form HMDA to HM after bootcamp?

Recon Corpsman question?
Can i apply to be a SARC if my rate is HMDA(Hospital Corpsman Dental Assistant)?I really want to be a HM so i can be a SARC, but there is no opening, they gave me HMDA and Im shipping out next month.

Recon Corpsman requirements question?
I am in Hospital Corpsman School in the Navy and I am 2months pregnant. I’m one month away from graduating and I have heard 2 different scenarios of how this could go. I get to repick my orders since I lost my C-school and my career counselor told me that I would still be able to transfer to my next duty station if I’m under 20weeks but I also heard that they can keep me here for up to 2yrs (9 months plus 1yr). Can anyone help me come to a conclusion on that? Is that true?

Could the Navy keep me on a training command base for 2yrs because of pregnancy?
I was wondering what would be the best way to pack the care package for him, because he’s a Corpsman and he already carries a shitload of things. Also any idea of what kinds of food can be made with hot water?
Thank you,

A Hospital Corpsman (HM) is frequently the only medical care-giver available in many fleet or Marine units on extended deployment. Hospital Corpsmen serve as enlisted medical specialists for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. The Hospital Corpsman works in a wide variety of capacities and locations, including shore establishments such as naval hospitals and clinics, aboard ships, as the primary medical caregivers for sailors while underway. Hospital Corpsman perform duties as assistants in the prevention and treatment of disease and injury and assist health care professionals in providing medical care to Navy people and their families. They may function as clinical or specialty technicians, medical administrative personnel and health care providers at medical treatment facilities. They also serve as battlefield corpsmen with the Marine Corps, rendering emergency medical treatment to include initial treatment in a combat environment. Qualified hospital corpsmen may be assigned the responsibility of independent duty aboard ships and submarines; Fleet Marine Force, Special Forces and Seabee units, and at isolated duty stations where no medical officer is available.

The colloquial form of address for a Hospital Corpsman is “Doc”. In the U. S. Marine Corps, this term is generally used as a sign of respect.

Prior to the establishment of the Hospital Corps, enlisted medical support in the Navy was limited in scope. In the Continental Navy and the early U. S. Navy, medical assistants were assigned at random out of the ship’s company. Their primary duties were to keep the irons hot and buckets of sand at the ready for the operating area. It was commonplace during battle for the surgeons to conduct amputations and the irons were used to close the cuts and the sand was to keep the surgeon from slipping on the bloody deck. They were commonly referred to as Loblolly Boy, a term borrowed from the British Royal Navy, and a reference to the daily ration of porridge fed to the sick. The nickname was in common use for so many years that it was finally officially recognized by the Navy Regulations of 1814. In coming decades, the title of the enlisted medical assistant would change several times – from Loblolly Boy, to Nurse (1861), and finally to Bayman (1876). A senior enlisted medical rate, Surgeon’s Steward, was introduced in 1841 and remained through the Civil War. Following the war, the title Surgeon’s Steward was abolished in favor of Apothecary, a position requiring completion of a course in pharmacy.

Still, there existed pressure to reform the enlisted component of the Navy’s medical department – medicine as a science was advancing rapidly, foreign navies had begun training medically skilled sailors, and even the U. S. Army had established an enlisted Hospital Corps in 1887. Navy Surgeon General J. R Tyron and subordinate physicians lobbied the Navy administration to take action. With the Spanish-American War looming, Congress passed a bill authorizing establishment of the U. S. Navy Hospital Corps, signed into law by President William McKinley on 17 June 1898. Three rates were created therein Hospital Apprentice, Hospital Apprentice First Class (a petty officer third class), and Hospital Steward, which was a chief petty officer.

A revision in 1916 established a new rate structure. With the introduction of a second junior rate there were now Hospital Apprentice Second Class (HA2c) and Hospital Apprentice First Class (HA1c). The rating title for petty officers was established as Pharmacist’s Mate (PhM), following the pattern of some of the Navy’s other ratings (boatswain’s mate, gunner’s mate, etc.). Pharmacist’s Mate Third Class (PhM3c), Second Class (PhM2c), and First Class (PhM1c) were now the petty officers, and Chief Pharmacist’s Mate (CPhM) was the CPO. This structure that would remain in place until 1947.

During World War I, hospital corpsmen served throughout the fleet, earning particular distinction on the Western Front with the Marine Corps. A total of 684 personal awards were awarded to hospital corpsmen in the war, including 2 Medals of Honor, 55 Navy Crosses, and 237 Silver Stars.

In World War II, hospital corpsmen hit the beach with Marines in every battle in the Pacific. Joe Rosenthal’s iconic photo of the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, captured during that battle’s early days, depicts Pharmacist’s Mate Second Class John Bradley among the group of Marines on Mt. Suribachi that day. They also served on thousands of ships and submarines. Notably, three unassisted emergency appendectomies were performed by hospital corpsmen serving undersea and beyond hope of medical evacuation. The Hospital Corps has the distinction of being the only corps in the U. S. Navy to be singled out in a famous speech by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal after the conclusion of the war.[1]

Following the war, the Hospital Corps changed its rating title to the generic term it had used all alongHospital Corpsman. The rates of hospital corpsman third class (HM3), second class (HM2), and first class (HM1), and chief hospital corpsman (HMC) were supplemented by senior chief hospital corpsman (HMCS) and master chief hospital corpsman (HMCM) in 1958.

Hospital corpsmen continued to serve at sea and ashore, and accompanied Marine units into battle during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Fifteen hospital corpsmen were counted among the dead following the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. Today, hospital corpsmen are serving in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Prior to selection to the Command Master Chief program, the 11th MCPON, Joe R. Campa, was a Hospital Corpsman.

Because of the need for Hospital Corpsmen in a vast array of foreign, domestic, and shipboard duty stations, as well as with United States Marine Corps units, the Hospital Corps is the largest rating in the United States Navy.

The basic training for Hospital Corpsmen is Naval Hospital Corps School, located in Great Lakes, IL, one of the Navy’s “A” schools (primary rating training). Upon graduation, the Hospital Corpsman is given the Navy Enlisted Classification (NEC) code of HM-0000, or “quad-zero” in common usage. NECs are analogous to MOS in the United States Army and Marine Corps, or AFSC in the Air Force. There are primary NECs, and secondary NECs. For example, a Hospital Corpsman who completes Field Medical Training Battalion (FMTB) and earns the NEC HM-8404, moves that NEC to primary and has a secondary NEC of HM-0000. If that Hospital Corpsman attends a “C” School, then the NEC earned at the “C” School becomes their primary and HM-8404 becomes the secondary. Some Hospital Corpsmen go on to receive more specialized training in roles such as Medical Laboratory Technician, Radiology Technician, Aviation/Aerospace Medicine Specialist, Pharmacy Technician, Operating Room Technician, etcetera. This advanced education is done through “C” schools, which confer additional NECs. Additionally, Hospital Corpsmen E-5 and up may attend “B” school, qualifying for independent duty in surface ships and submarines, with diving teams, and Fleet Marine Force Recon teams, as well as at remote shore installations. In addition to advanced medical training, these Hospital Corpsmen receive qualification in sanitation and public health.

Of note is Field Medical Training Battalion (FMTB), with locations at Camp Pendleton and Camp Johnson, where sailors bound for service with USMC operating forces earn the NEC HM-8404, Field Medical Service Technician. FMTB provides specialized training in advanced emergency medicine and the fundamentals of Marine Corps life, while emphasizing physical conditioning, small arms familiarity, and basic battlefield tactics. As of 2001, this rigorous training is seven weeks long. Training for the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) familiarizes Navy Corpsmen with the Marines. A bond and mutual respect is often formed between Marines and their assigned Hospital Corpsmen, earning respect apart from their Navy shipmates. FMF Hospital Corpsmen wear the uniforms of the Marine Corps while on duty with the Marine Corps. If not, they wear the Navy’s new working uniforms. It has been proposed that all male Hospital Corpsmen be required to attend Field Medical Training Battalion (FMTB).

Hospital Corpsmen can further specialize, becoming a Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman, or SARC. They are usually found in both the FMF Recon and Marine Division Recon and MARSOC units. They are trained and skilled in combat, including combatant swimming, opened/closed circuit scuba diving, military free-fall and amphibious operations. They act as advisers regarding health and injury prevention, and treat illnesses from decompression sickness as well as other conditions requiring hyperbaric treatment.

Hospital Corpsmen who have received the warfare designator of Enlisted Fleet Marine Force Warfare Specialist are highly trained members of the Hospital Corps who specialize in all aspects of working with the United States Marine Corps operating forces. Attainment of this designation is highly prized among all Corpsmen. The Enlisted Fleet Marine Force Warfare designation for Hospital Corpsmen is the only US Navy warfare device awarded solely by a US Marine Corps General Officer. This awarding authority cannot be delegated to US Navy Officers. However, obtaining the title of “FMF” is a rigorous procedure and not every Hospital Corpsman who has been with a Marine Corps unit will wear the FMF warfare device. U. S. Navy officers in the medical community(Medical Corps (Doctor), Nurse Corps, Dental Corps) can earn and wear the officer equivalent to this insignia. Additionally Religious Program Specialists can earn and wear an FMF warfare device.

Be they assigned to hospital ships, reservist installations, recruiter offices, or Marine Corps combat units, the rating of Hospital Corpsman is the most decorated in the United States Navy with 22 Medals of Honor, 174 Navy Crosses, 31 Distinguished Service Medals, 946 Silver Stars, and 1,582 Bronze Stars. There have been 20 naval ships that have been named after hospital corpsmen.

“I solemnly pledge myself before God and these witnesses to practice faithfully all of my duties as a member of the Hospital Corps. I hold the care of the sick and injured to be a privilege and a sacred trust and will assist the Medical Officer with loyalty and honesty. I will not knowingly permit harm to come to any patient. I will not partake of nor administer any unauthorized medication. I will hold all personal matters pertaining to the private lives of patients in strict confidence. I dedicate my heart, mind and strength to the work before me. I shall do all within my power to show in myself an example of all that is honorable and good throughout my naval career.”

Grant me, oh Lord, for the coming events;Enough knowledge to cope and some plain common sense. Be at our side on those nightly patrols;And be merciful judging our vulnerable souls. Make my hands steady and as sure as a rock;when the others go down with a wound or in shock. Let me be close, when they bleed in the mud;With a tourniquet handy to save precious blood. Here in the jungle, the enemy near;Even the corpsman can’t offer much lightness and cheer. Just help me, oh Lord, to save lives when I can;Because even out there is merit in man. If It’s Your will, make casualties light;And don’t let any die in the murderous night. These are my friends I’m trying to save;They are frightened at times, but You know they are brave. Let me not fail when they need so much;But to help me serve with a compassionate touch. Lord, I’m no heromy job is to heal;And I want You to know Just how helpless I feel. Bring us back safely to camp with dawn; For too many of us are already gone. Lord bless my friends If that’s part of your plan; And go with us tonight, when we go out again.”

I’m the one called “Doc” I shall not walk in your footsteps, but I will walk by your side. I shall not walk in your image, I’ve earned my own title of pride. We’ve answered the call together, on sea and foreign land. When the cry for help was given, I’ve been there right at hand. Whether I am on the ocean or in the jungle wearing greens, Giving aid to my fellow man, be it Sailors or Marines. So the next time you see a corpsman and you think of calling him “squid,” think of the job he’s doing as those before him did. And if you ever have to go out there and your life is on the block, Look at the one right next to you… I’m the one called “Doc.” Harry D. Penny, Jr. HMC(AC)USN Copyright 1975

Reference: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships

PhM2/c John Bradley, USN, a Hospital Corpsman, was one of the six men who photographed by Joe Rosenthal raising the second United States flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. He is the only one whose face is visible.

During World War II, the United States Maritime Service created a Hospital Corps similar to the Navy’s and sent pursers through this Hospital Corpsman training, to serve in a combined administrative and medical role on civilian tankers, freighters, and oilers. Prior to this, there were no competent trained personnel to perform first aid aboard these vessels. The Purser-Corpsman was trained in anatomy, physiology, pharmacy, clinical laboratory, hygiene and sanitation, emergency treatment, first aid, and nursing. They were taught how to administer injections, treat compound fractures, administer blood plasma, and suture wounds.

The Maritime Services Hospital Corps School was founded at the Sheepshead Bay training station on December 7, 1942. Surgeon S. S. Heilwell (R), United States Uniformed Public Health Service, was placed in charge of training. The course was taught over four months, with a 12 week period of didactic classroom experience and four weeks of practical experience at a Marine hospital. The original class of 331 students resulted in 239 graduates on March 12, 1943, but demand saw an increase in the class to 600 students, to cycle in 50 student classes starting on a weekly basis. Training stations were instructed to provide careful scrutiny by examining boards for all candidates. Pursers on sea duty started arriving at the station on August 10, 1943. By January 1, 1944, there were 600 Purser-Corpsmen at sea, with 1,324 graduates in the Maritime Service.

Selection required an above average mark on the General Classification Test and definite interest in both administration and health care. A survey reveals that the men have an IQ average of 130 and two years of college. Pursers entering the hospital school are given ratings according to the length of time they have spent at sea. Those serving less than six months are given chief petty officer ratings and those with more than six months at sea receive ensign ratings. Of the 50 men who enter the school each week, 30 are pursers and 20 were apprentice seaman.

A-B C D-F G-H I-K L M N-O P Q-R S T-V W-Z

parents “make” children. children don’t ask to be born or taken care of. children are the parents’ responsibility by default.

childhood, growing up, first steps etc are a JOY to witness.

can’t stand it when people use it as an excuse, say things like “don’t be ungrateful! who stayed up all night when you had the flu? who? huh? I did!” that’s just insensitive, sadistic, selfish crap.

people are happier when they are rearing a child than they’d like to confess.
old age is not pretty, sure we’ll all get there so i should call it pretty but that does NOT make it pretty.

people spend money to be able to produce an offspring, they go to temples, do prayers etc, they’ll even adopt and accept a stranger’s sperm or uterus just because they want a kid so bad. ever find any adult going about adopting old people? not happening, why?

unconditional love possible only with a child?

or as some kind of a human investment plan?

Sirach 3

10 Never seek honor for yourself at your father’s expense; it is not to your credit if he is dishonored.11 Your own honor comes from the respect that you show to your father. If children do not honor their mothers, it is their own disgrace.12 My child, take care of your father when he grows old; give him no cause for worry as long as he lives.13 Be sympathetic even if his mind fails him; don’t look down on him just because you are strong and healthy.14 The Lord will not forget the kindness you show to your father; it will help you make up for your sins.15 When you are in trouble, the Lord will remember your kindness and will help you; your sins will melt away like frost in warm sunshine.16 Those who abandon their parents or give them cause for anger may as well be cursing the Lord; they are already under the Lord’s curse.

Another great column by Jewish scholar Dennis Prager.

Excerpt:

What is a man (as opposed to a boy)? The traditional understanding was that a man is he who takes responsibility for others — for his family, his community and his country — and, of course, for himself. A man stood for ideals and values higher than himself. He conducted himself with dignity. And he was strong.

[...]Boys today have fewer adult men in their lives than ever before. Many boys are not raised by any father. More are not raised by a father who lives in the home full time. Nearly every teacher and principal American boys have in elementary and high school is a female. The boy’s clergy person and physician may well be women. And few male figures in contemporary film radiate manhood as defined above.

[...]America has become a rights-centered rather than a responsibility-centered society. Aside from helping to produce a pandemic of narcissism, the rights-centered mindset is the opposite of the obligation/responsibility-centered mindset that makes a boy into a man. It is not good for either sex to be rights-preoccupied; but it is particularly devastating to developing men, as men are supposed to be obligation-directed.

[...]Males no longer have distinctive roles. Men do best when they are relied upon, when needed; and they feel most needed when they do something distinct from women.

[...]Many churches and synagogues have been feminized. This has occurred in at least three important ways: Clergy are increasingly female (and touchy-feely males) — for the first time in Christian and Jewish history; God is often depicted as androgynous and no longer either demanding or judging (He just loves all the time); and religion has been changed from morally and theologically demanding to a therapeutic model.

I think one of the big problems today is that men have abandoned their responsibilities to protect and provide because they are no longer appreciated. Instead, people have shifted the traditional male responsibilities to the government. Men have been replaced with a police force, welfare checks, social workers, and single-payer health care. If there is no recognition for doing hard things, having good character, and filling an important role, then men won’t even try.

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We need to find ways to improve the handling of appointments at the VA.  I do not believe that an appointment for 10:45 am thats not seen until 2:00 pm, is effective.  We have pushed the limits on what this system can do. On top of that we promise to care for the new veterans who are serving now and have yet to place any demand on the VA.  What will happen when they come home and half  of them need the VA in one way or another?

The VA needs people and funds to handle this load, but it must not come from deficit spending.  How is it we demand all these services but won’t pay for them, in real-time. Folks this means your tax dollars, real money, and it will mean a hike in your taxes. Oh, by the way, if you fail to take care of this, then the next time a president goes lunatic  and orders up a war for the USA, then YOU go fight it.

(Also published on the website of HIMAL Magazine)

As India prepares to mark the anniversary of Gandhi’s death, the tired old question of Gandhi’s ‘relevance’ will be rehearsed in the press.  Once we are past the common rituals, we are certain to hear that the spiral of violence in which much of the world seems to be caught demonstrates Gandhi’s continuing ‘relevance’.  Barack Obama’s ascendancy to the Presidency of the United States furnishes one of the latest iterations of the globalizing tendencies of the Gandhian narrative.  Unlike his predecessor, who flaunted his disdain for reading, Obama is said to have a passion for books; and Gandhi’s autobiography has been described as occupying a prominent place in the reading that has shaped the country’s first African American President. Obama gravitated from “Change We Can Believe In” to “Change We Need”, but in either case the slogan is reminiscent of the saying with which Gandhi’s name is firmly, indeed irrevocably, attached:  “We Must Become the Change We Want To See In the World.”  Obama’s Nobel Prize Lecture twice invoked Gandhi, if only to rehearse some familiar clichés – among them, the argument, which has seldom been scrutinized, so infallible it seems, that Gandhian nonviolence only succeeded because his foes were the gentlemanly English rather than Nazi brutes or Stalinist thugs.

Let me, however, leave aside for the present both the question of Obama’s Gandhi and the liberal’s Gandhi, and turn rather briefly to some more general problems in the consideration of Gandhi’s place in world history.  The Gandhi that is known around the world, and to a substantial degree even in India, is principally the architect and supreme practitioner of the idea of mass nonviolent resistance and the prime example of the ‘man of peace’.  The general sentiment underlying this view is clear enough, even if one thought of bringing to the fore evident objections to such a characterization of Gandhi.  One might argue, as some historians have, that the role of Gandhian nonviolence in the achievement of Indian independence has been overstated, or one could adopt the view, a more nuanced and interesting one, that ‘peace’ was not particularly part of the vocabulary with which he operated.  The centrality of ahimsa (nonviolence) and satya (truth) to Gandhi’s way of thinking aside, if one had to add another set of terms that might signify his practices and thought alike, then one would perforce think of brahmacharya (celibacy, closeness to God), tapasya (sacrifice, self-suffering), aparigraha (non-possession), and so on.   Though silence was an integral part of his spiritual and political discipline, Gandhi studiously avoided speaking of shanti (peace).  One of the many reasons he did so is that peace has all too often been used as the pretext to wage war.  Describing the barbarous conduct of the Romans some 2,000 years ago, the historian Caius Tacitus put it rather aptly: ‘They make solitude [desert] and call it peace’.  I suspect, moreover, that if Gandhi had been alive to see how he has been packaged, sold, and denuded of all insights and vitality by the practitioners of what are called ‘peace studies’, he would have been rather pleased at his insistence on nonviolent resistance rather than on peace.

Supposing that Gandhi is a supremely world historical figure, what is being invoked is the principal figure in the twentieth century associated with peace and nonviolence.  But this Gandhi, many will be surprised to hear, is a somewhat impoverished figure, one who cannot easily be reconciled with the Gandhi who was an emphatic critic of nearly all the critical categories of modern political and humanist thought.  Let me, by way of illustration, take up very briefly two ideas that have reigned supreme in our times.  Most political thinking in the West over the course of the last century has been riveted on the question of ‘rights’, and recent political movements in the West have, in addition to the rights of the individual, vigorously asserted the rights of groups, whether defined with respect to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or some other marker of identity.  Gandhi, at least in the received view, might reasonably be seen as falling entirely within this framework.  One can surely describe Gandhi as someone who initiated the modern campaigns against colonialism, racism, and xenophobia, and in this respect he can be viewed as an advocate of the right of people to live an unfettered life of dignity.

And, yet, if one should thus be tempted to assimilate Gandhi into a pantheon of the champions of human rights, one would doubtless be obscuring his profound skepticism towards the discourse of rights.  Rights are ordinarily claimed against the state, and those desirous of staking claims look up to the state to safeguard their rights. Gandhi recognized the state as, not infrequently, the most egregious violator of rights, and generally had little if any enthusiasm for the modern nation-state.  Indeed, Gandhi is distinct among modern political figures in decisively rejecting the narrow association that the idea of citizenship has come to have with the demand for rights, and in reinstating the concept of duty.  At the height of a struggle with the ruler of his native Rajkot late in his life, Gandhi averred that “in swaraj based on ahimsa, people need not know their rights, but it is necessary for them to know their duties.  There is no duty but creates a corresponding right, and those are true rights which flow from a due performance of one’s duties.”

We can also, in a similar vein, turn to Gandhi’s unflinching skepticism towards ‘history’ as a dramatic example of his repudiation of the liberal traditions of learning of the modern West and of the categories of thought marshaled by modern knowledge systems.  The story of how Indian nationalists responded to the colonial charge that Indians were deficient in the historical sensibility has been told often enough and need scarcely be repeated here, but suffice to note that nationalist thought was heavily invested in the idea of history and the commitment to history took many forms.  Whatever the ideological differences between armed revolutionaries, liberals, constitutionalists, Indian Tories, and Hindu supremacists, they were all agreed that that an Indian history, for and by Indians, was the supreme requirement of the day.  Here, as in so many matters, Gandhi struck a lonely path, departing from the main strands of nationalist thought.   It would be trivial to suggest that Gandhi did not lack an awareness of the past; but had he lacked such awareness, it is far from certain that he would have viewed his ignorance as a shortcoming.  Gandhi’s indisposition towards viewing the Mahabharatra, Ramayana or the puranic material as a historical record is pronounced; but he went much further, as in this pronouncement from 1924: “I believe in the saying that a nation is happy that has no history.  It is my pet theory that our Hindu ancestors solved the question for us by ignoring history as it is understood today and by building on slight events their philosophical structure.”  Though I myself am a teacher of history, Gandhi’s profound misgivings about the enterprise of history strike me as just and even prescient.  Among other considerations, such as his manifest concern about the pernicious attempts to transform Hinduism from a religion predominantly of mythos to one of history, he was also fully aware that nineteenth century ideas about history, and the inevitability of human progress, were but forms of social evolutionism.  Gandhi resisted the idea that the only history that India could live out was someone else’s history.

My point here may be encapsulated in the following way:  Gandhi has an inescapable presence in intellectual and public spheres, and in the knowledge industry, but in the most predictable ways.  The shapers of opinion and the framers of knowledge have entirely neutralized him, or, in the provocative language of Hind Swaraj, for which ‘world history’ has absolutely no use, rendered him effete.  (Elsewhere, I have written extensively on the cultural politics of sexuality surrounding Gandhi’s life, and my use of ‘effete’ is quite deliberate and self-reflexive.)  There is room for him as an Indian nationalist who articulated some unusual ideas of nonviolent resistance, forged a mass anti-colonial struggle against the British, fought to bring peace to communities torn apart by violence, and agitated for various social reforms.  It is unnecessary, for the purposes of this argument, to point to those critics who would describe him as a reactionary, a friend of the industrialists, an enemy of Dalits, an opponent of class warfare, and so on.   Recently, Mayawati and the Slovenian philosopher-clown Slavok Zizek have found common cause in describing him as more violent than Hitler.  Gandhi’s admirers have, it appear to me, sanitized him enough, and evidently have little patience for his withering critique of modernity, his strictures against Western systems of education, his sexual Puritanism, or his indifference to what I could describe as the regime of modern aesthetics.

Thus, on the eve of the anniversary of his assassination, the question of his ‘relevance’ strikes me as supremely irrelevant.  We should think rather of liberating Gandhi from everything that has beautifully conspired to constrain him.  First there were the Gandhians, a largely unattractive and insipid if well-intentioned lot who, like many practitioners of formal religions, followed all the external signs but showed little of the creativity of Gandhi.  Then there have been the infernal statues, towards which the pigeons have shown an admirable irreverence that would have made Gandhi laugh.   As the Gandhians aged and the statues had normalized Gandhi, the peace studies practitioners came forward with their institutionalized programs of study for peace administrators and conflict managers.  This narrative has many other chapters, but it should by now be transparent that the rhetoric of relevance has been the graveyard of Gandhi.

New image in the polite children photography contest

…
Babysetting Duties photography picture

Image : http://www.flickr.com

The hosting company to satisfy customer needs to reach, besides all deserve what to expect as a hosting provider really is the best web hosting company is right in the eyes of customers. In return, the customer will help spread the word of mouth on forums and web-hosting sites that further review is a catalyst for the growth of corporate customer base and therefore profits.

As basic expectations that a customer wants the site / s to be online and runningoptimal performance, so that any user can access it, access to information. Many activities are performed by a hosting company best suited to a site the user, and it works flawlessly. Some of the basic tasks of the best web hosting companies are listed below.

Not monitor server monitoring: most of their servers hosting providers around the day, or at least that is what this could be seen on their websites. But actually do? Wecan not be too sure. But if there is a serious Web hosting providers who offer themselves as the best web hosting company, aims to build server and then constantly monitored Web sites hosted on it. Usually host site monitoring service web server with managed web hosting packages.

This is a role played by the hosts, to provide customer service for its users. There are several tasks such as scanning event logs, identify and resolve problems with the server and connected/ S site hosted on it. The best web hosting company controls the server all day. One such hosting company uses complex tracking script on the server. If there is a problem, an automatic e-mail immediately to the appropriate department for server administration, was shot to be able to study the measures to solve with minimum time lag. Similarly, it is important to a hosting provider, select the 24×7 operation, such as problems can be solvedimmediately and without delay.

Software installation: The hosting provider is to provide the necessary hardware and software licenses for sites client required examinations responsible. In most cases, the best hosting provider takes care of installation, testing, debugging and deployment of software for the web client.

Software updates and security patches come: The best web hosting providers often do you update the software andThe installation of security patches required. As part of the server security, the best hosting providers proactively installing security patches before the client request is not so.

Worthy upgrade of the hardware: most Internet hosts, recognition, to provide the best hosting providers are often seen to offer the flexibility to upgrade or downgrade their hosting package. This information comes from a perspective of the customer, as there are sometimes very useful, if websites customers'suddenly begin to offer loads of traffic and the resources that missing part of the package of web hosting. It is then that the update package for Web sites of critical performance smooth. The upgrade process should be simple and the customer should be moved to the new server as soon as possible before, without any interruption.

Equipment maintenance and replacement of components: hardware maintenance usually take care of hosting providerssame, unless the customer has opted for the managed web hosting packages. An ideal web hosting provider would be faulty hardware in minutes, that time has been reported.

Back-up and Restoration: There are a limited number of hosts that offer free backup services to their customers. Automates the backup process that can be adjusted depending on the needs of users. These backups can be produced on request of customers again. A professional hosting companyPlans also offers additional security for certain nominal additional costs that may be taken at the request of the hosting provider for completion. These servers are usually from other server is located, or in various DC as a preventive measure against a wide range of natural threats and cyber.

Safely: as the server hardware is owned by the hosting company, but its security is their only concern. HARDWARE these must be protected against various threats appropriately.

The Hosting –Sellers who meet these criteria are generally suited to compete in the race for the best web hosting companies.

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Below is the planned roster of duties for the various officers, squads and squad leaders.  If the squad is on duty, the Squad Leader or Assistant Leader will be the Boy giving commands during the opening and closing parades.

The table will not be updated unless really necessary.  Any changes to the roster will be communicated to the persons before the parade.

Catholic social teaching is sometimes said to be the Church’s best-kept secret.  Of course, this is not a conspiracy to hide the truth; rather, it is simply that many people focus on other aspects of the faith when they decide to study.  Whether it is the sacraments, Marian doctrine, apologetics, or any combination of the vast landscape of Catholic teachings, many people do not know about the Church’s stance on social issues.

Of course, this is a shame because of the incredible beauty of Catholic social teaching and its applicability to our lives.  This blog series is meant to give a background specifically on the Church’s teachings about business and labor, the role of the State, and the effects of these things on society.

I hope and pray that all of you will read this series prayerfully, and that it will spark your interest in learning more about Catholic social teaching.  If at any point you wish to learn more about it, feel free to email myself or one of my colleagues (katholikos.catechetics@gmail.com), and we can give you a list of materials to read for more background information.  God bless, and enjoy!

Introduction

The social doctrine of the Catholic Church is a profound and insightful collection of wisdom, passed down through the years and frequently updated with modern interpretations and adjustments.  From “the first social encyclical, Rerum Novarum”[1] by Pope Leo XIII to Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical Caritas in Veritate, the Roman Catholic Church has provided her children around the world with a solid foundation from which to make sound moral, social, and economic decisions.  In fact, “she has not failed to raise her voice against”[2] the many injustices and misunderstandings that human beings often originate, just as she has not failed to offer sound advice and guidance to mankind.  A most necessary and weighty topic on which Holy Mother Church has expounded is that of business and labor, from the perspective of the worker, employer, State, and the whole of society.  This area of Catholic social teaching is quite applicable and coherent, setting forth intelligible principles from which one can justly and charitably make decisions that will benefit the entire global community.  Let us now move forward and address these intriguing and conspicuous issues under three headings; namely, responsibilities and rights of business owners and workers, the role of the State, and business in society.

Responsibilities and Rights of Business Owners and Workers

In 1891, Pope Leo XIII addressed the “vast expansion of industrial pursuits… the changed relations between masters and workmen… [and] the increased self-reliance and closer mutual combination of working classes”[3] that had been sweeping over the world during his time.  He treated issues ranging from the humane living conditions of workers to the right to private ownership of property, touching upon many of the rights that today seem common knowledge but were not so in the 19^th century.  Of particular importance is the issue of the relationship between business owners and their employees.  Pope Leo XIII had this to say about the interaction of these two parties:

“The great mistake made in regard to the matter now under consideration is to take up with the notion that class is naturally hostile to class, and that the wealthy and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict… it is ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic.  Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital.”[4]

This, it can be said, is a most fundamental truth, and one which sets the table for a discussion about the duties and rights that exist mutually between employers and employees.  Let us first deal with the duties of employees and their relationship to the rights of employers.

…it is beneficial to both the man and his employer to work well, because through work man improves himself.

The first and most obvious duty of an employee is “fully and faithfully to perform the work which has been freely and equitably agreed upon.”  In fact, “in work, [man becomes] ‘more a human being,’”[5] so it is beneficial to both the man and his employer to work well, because through work man improves himself.  Even so, man should not work only because it benefits him, but also because it is his duty as an employee to render services that correspond reasonably to the remuneration that he receives from his employer.

Work is at the same time a duty and a right, and is such because of the necessity of work for sustaining one’s life and “the formation of family life,”[6] both of which are inviolable natural rights.  Even more important than serving justice to one’s employer is the support of one’s family, since this is “the first and most important”[7] way by which we are led to know, love, and serve God.  This is a most grave duty, and requires workers to use the wages that they receive as a result of their work in a responsible way, both for the good of their families and the good of the employer, who cannot be expected to pay a higher wage to fund the wasteful habits of its employees.

It is imperative that the worker fulfill the duties he takes upon himself in setting up a contract with an employer because, if he does not do his job well, the well-being of the employer and his other employees may be put in jeopardy.

It is imperative that the worker fulfill the duties he takes upon himself in setting up a contract with an employer because, if he does not do his job well, the well-being of the employer and his other employees may be put in jeopardy.  Take, for example, a situation where an employee, acting as an agent of his employer, is negligent in carrying out his tasks.  If and when the negligence results in harm to a person, the employer can be held responsible for the damage, which could be as grave as the loss of life.  If the damage is severe enough, the business may be forced to close, thereby destroying the livelihood of the employer himself and his other employees, which would in turn further harm their families and society as a whole.  For all these reasons, the employer has the right to receive a full day’s work in exchange for the fair remuneration that he offers to the employee.

It is true that an employer has many duties to fulfill, and that these may be more extensive and complex than the duties of an employee.  The reason for this is that work was made for man and not man for work, because “as a person, man is therefore the subject”[8] and “purpose”[9] of work.  This fact must weigh heavily upon the employer when he makes decisions related to his workers, because these workers are more important than the work they can do.  It is with this mindset that we embark upon an examination and discussion of the duties of employers.

The greatest duty of an employer is to ‘respect concretely the human dignity of those who work within the company,’ who are ‘the firm’s most valuable asset.’

The greatest duty of an employer is to “respect concretely the human dignity of those who work within the company,”[10] who are “the firm’s most valuable asset.”[11] Apart from this, none of the employer’s other responsibilities can be fulfilled, because they are contingent on this primary duty.  Interestingly, the duties of employers relate to the rights of the workers just as, to some extent, the duties of workers correspond to the rights of their employers.  For example, employers are required to work against unemployment and provide unemployment benefits when necessary, for “the opposite of a just and right situation… is unemployment.”[12] Unemployment, or the lack of work for one who is capable of work and wants to do it, is harmful to man for several reasons already touched upon, and some not yet addressed.  These include the fact that man must work “because the Creator has commanded it,”[13] and that unemployment can lead to desperation, which often leads to grave evils.  Paul VI recognized the potential connection between contraception & abortion and unemployment, and stated that a family “has a right to the assistance which will assure it of the conditions for a healthy development.”[14] Related to this insight, let us keep in mind that the responsibility for unemployment benefits does not fall only on the employer, but also on the State.

[2] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Washington, DC: USCCB Publishing, 2005), 56.

[3] Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 1.

[4] Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, 19.

[5] John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 9.

[6] John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 10.

[7] John Paul II, Letter to Families, 2.

[8] John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 6.

[9] John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 6.

[10] Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Washington, DC: USCCB Publishing, 2005), 344.

[11] John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 32.

[12] John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 18.

[13] John Paul II, Laborem Exercens, 16.

[14] Paul VI, Octogesimo Adveniens, 18.

Review

Feature

• Color: Silver
• Size: X-Small
• Icon Speedfreak Alliance SSR Sportsbike Helmet for Men
• 2009 Model

Overview

Sometimes it’s hard to top yourself. We’ve put out so many sick graphics that coming up with artwork nastier than the Manic or Subhuman becomes a daunting task. We had to go deep – all the way too the skeletal level – to pull out the Speedfreak. Gutted, blistered, and oozing with sores. Available in seven distinct colors to match your own innards.

• DOT and Snell M2005 Approved
• Polycarbonate shell
• Imported
• 2009 Model

Sizing Note:

• XS = Hat Size: 6 5/8 – 6 3/4 – Inches: 20 7/8 – 21 1/4
• Sm = Hat Size: 6 7/8 – 7 – Inches: 21 5/8 – 22
• Med = Hat Size: 7 1/8 – 7 1/4 – Inches: 22 3/8 – 22 3/4
• Lg = Hat Size: 7 3/8 – 7 1/2 – Inches: 23 1/3 – 23 1/2
• XL = Hat Size: 7 5/8 – 7 3/4 – Inches: 24 – 24 3/8
• 2XL = Hat Size: 7 7/8 – 8 – Inches: 24 3/4 – 25 1/8

Specifications

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Jan 20, 2010 15:22:48

Junior Ready Bed Watch Reviews

On an almost daily basis, my partner and I seem to invent things.  Just the other day he was fast forwarding through the ads with the Sky TV remote, when he looked at me and said ‘we need a button that instantly fast forwards for 8 seconds at a speed of x30, so we can miss all the ads at the touch of a button’ and then he said ‘someone, somewhere is working on that right now’.  Whereas, I want ‘My Sky’ to have a click and drag feature so that I can move all my stored movies into my own file and my partner can put his into his own file, then we wouldn’t have to wade through each other’s stuff to find our favourite programmes.  I’m sure it’ll happen sooner or later.

It’s like the world is moving so fast that we are getting so used to ‘having’ everything, but sometimes it’s still not enough and we want more, more, more!

We went to see the 3-D version of the movie ‘Avatar’ recently and we loved every minute of it – it’s a definite ‘must see’ – although I have to say, we are being so spoilt by CGI and special effects these days that our expectations are becoming higher and higher and it’s getting so that we are becoming harder to please.  Horror movies even got to a point where they weren’t scary anymore because we’d seen so many horrible things in amazing, graphic detail, that gruesome body parts flying off in all directions at the hand of a chainsaw wielding demon no longer makes us flinch.

In such a fast moving world, it can sometimes be difficult to keep up.  Between trying to keep up with your work pressures and your ever-growing children, combined with general day-to-day life and keeping in touch with your extended family and friends, plus squeezing in time for exercise, holidays, sleeping and hobbies, let alone what’s happening in the rest of the world, it can all feel pretty overwhelming.

In this day and age of fast progression, sometimes you need to stop, take a breath, and figure out where you can get some help which might create a bit of extra time in your world so you can spend it doing the things you love.

This is where ‘My Virtual Assistant’ steps in.  Having your own Virtual Assistant can be very effective in helping you get things done, whilst freeing up your time allowing you to focus on other, more important, areas of your life and business.

Of course I can help you with ‘one off’ projects, but if you really want to make an effectual change to your workload, this can only be achieved by working together over a longer period of time.  My goal is to relieve you of your day-to-day, time consuming duties – things that have to be done, but aren’t generating profit – thus allowing you to concentrate on streamlining your business operations and becoming super-efficient.

So, when everything feels a bit overwhelming, give ‘My Virtual Assistant’ a call.  I look forward to talking to you soon!

Prince William earns his stripes on New Zealand tour… From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: international flight. The blog is also related to: trip.

Whether it’s at work with a co-worker or at a retail store with a member of their staff, we’ve all met the people who send signals, subtle or otherwise, that say, “That’s not my job!”

When I’m the customer and I encounter this, it makes me feel pretty negative about that particular business. I generally keep my mouth shut but avoid the place in the future.

When I’m at work and I encounter this, it makes me wish I spent more time playing first person shooter video games, especially the sort with extreme amounts of unnecessary gore. I wonder if there is a way to digitize an image of fuckface into one of those games?

This is how it typically goes down. A co-worker asks me for something, say it’s a fish. I stop what I’m doing and offer to teach them the method for getting that fish. “No, no, no!” they exclaim. “I don’t have time for that. Just give me the damn fish!” Fine, here you go, asshole.

It just so happens that this is something they need to know, because it’s going to come up again sooner or later, and next time I’m out of the office and they are fucked because no one has any clue what to do, who do you think they are going to call and hassle because it’s an “emergency?”

That’s not the end of it, though. These same people are usually the ones who go far out of their way to make sure you know how to do every single damn aspect of their job, and they give no quarter about accepting their work from you, instead responding, “you do it.” The same folks who couldn’t be bothered to learn anything from you are suddenly frickin’ gurus and you are their student so you can know how to do their work. Perhaps most amazing of all is that they actually expect you to go for a fucked up scenario like that. Truly sub-moronic.

Incidentally these are also often the same folks who blather on about the fact that you should be a “team player” and all that jizz. It’s so important to them about what you are and that you can be properly labeled – by them – in a manner that is satisfactory – to them – while they are in the middle of attempting to control every aspect of your interactions with them and/or your work-related duties.

So basically the person who this post is about won’t let me teach anything important about my job while at the same time he insists on teaching me about his – all while forcing “team player” bullshit down my throat. Congratulations! You’ve figured out how to tap an almost endless reserve of raw unadulterated anger in the middle of my gut.

Fuck that. If you treat me that way then that’s just one more tally in the “hate” column for you. I know it might be surprising to some, but I just tend to not dig one-way relationships that much.

Yep, it’s true.

I was browsing jobs the other day and came across this ad.

Turns out the people behind Tiger Beat & Bop, the tween magazines, are looking for an Editorial Assistant.

Sounds great, cause I’m a writer and already some experience with celebrity magazines!

(I send in comments to US Weekly’s Fashion Police every other week, and even turn them in to US Weekly’s Editorial Assistant.)

I can do this job!!!

So I already had it in my mind I would apply until I read further at some of the job requirements…

Duties include answering phones and taking care of office supplies.

Uh-oh…sounds more like an office assistant job. 

There’s also some editorial writing involved, as well as the “opportunity” to interview tween celebrities like Miley Cyrus!

So let’s see here…I’m nearing 40 and thinking of applying for a job at TIGER BEAT to interview teens like Miley Cyrus.

Let’s see…

40-year-old old guy interviewing Miley Cyrus at Teen Choice Awards: SO OMG MILEY, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE HERE WITH ALL YOUR FANS??? ARE YOU EXCITED!!!???!!!!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm sounds kinda creepy, doesn’t it?

Still, I was interested in seeing what the application process was like. 

So I clicked the APPLY NOW button and under the special instructions column got this:

Tell us why this is your dream job.

Here’s the cover letter I wrote would have written to Tiger Beat, in its entirely.

Dear Tiger Beat,

Why becoming Editorial Assistant for your magazine is my dream job.

Well, it’s not.

I have some experience writing for celebrity magazines and thought your ad sounded kinda interesting.

I’m not a “tween,” nor am I into “tween” artists, actors, and movies. In fact, I’m almost considered middle age and can’t stand most all tween celebrities (I especially HATE Miley Cyrus). But, I lost my writing job recently and need another one, quick! 

It probably wouldn’t work out anyway, cause in order to work at a celebrity magazine you typically need to be a bubbly, attractive female or a bubbly, flamboyant male who wants to kiss Adam Lambert.

Thank you for the opportunity to apply, but I’m going to pass.

Please do let me know though if there’s an Editorial Assistant opening at Senior Life magazine and I’ll be happy to interview the oldest Jonas brother.

Sincerely,

Andrew “No Longer A New Kid On The Block” Wisot

Andrew Wisot is a freelance writer for The Jay Leno Show and an US Weekly Fashion Cop who’s “between jobs.” Andrew will blog for LOLs until he’s employed again or 50,000 miles, whichever one comes first.

Email: andrew@willblogforlols.com

Dr. Ghazi Al-Shammari | Language: English | Format: PDF | Pages: 96 | Size: 4 MB
The Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, is the most excellent example as father and husband. He was very kind and tolerant towards his wives. They could not envisage life, without him.. He was the perfect head of family, managing many women with ease, being a lover of their hearts, an instructor of their minds, an educator of their souls, he never neglected the affairs of the nation nor compromised his duties.

The Prophet’s beloved wife, Aa’isha, said of her noble husband:

“He always helped with the housework and would at times mend his clothes, repair his shoes and sweep the floor. He would milk, protect and feed his animals and do household chores”

Not only was he a devoted husband, he also encouraged his companions to follow his example:

“The most perfect of the believers in faith are the best of them in morals. And the best among them are those who are best to their wives.”

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The economist. For “rights” and “duties,” I substitute “interests” and “incentives.”

So I bought a bunch of T-Shirts from ThinkGeek, smothered in awesome goodness. They weren’t cheap but it didn’t break the bank either. A T-Shirt is a T-Shirt (unless you’re one of those Ed Hardy wearing people, not awesome). After you add delivery to the order, them shirts start getting expensive but, you think to yourself, it’s ok, what’s a couple extra bucks for the geekly goodness? Right? Right.

Then, DHL phone you.

Did you know, for example, that one has to pay 45% import duty on a shirt. I, shit, you, not. I’m furious. Those filthy, back stabbing, thieving, cold hearted, communist bastards at customs are charging me 45% import duty on my order. To put it into perspective, including shipping, my total order for 7 T-Shirts came to R1505. I now need to cough up an EXTRA R827 for import duties and VAT because it’s a bunch of T-Shirts. For clothing, apparently, the government gang rapes one to, well, I’m not sure why. Possibly because they feel one needs to be gang raped as part of being a South African citizen to properly appreciate why one should buy local goods.

For the perspective part: I bought a Kindle and including shipping, VAT and estimated import duties, it came to R2700. Amazon then refunded me R500 from that which means the Kindle ended up costing only R2200 which is cheaper than the T-Shirts.

What kind of fuckery is this?

The gestation period of a llama is 11 1/2 months (350 days).

My brother was recently voted in as the President of a group called God’s Kidz. They are a band made up of 4-10 year olds within our church.

Mr. President

They did secret ballots (hands raised with closed eyes), and he even had to give an inauguration speech. He graced us with the opportunity to hear the oath he had to recite.

The Oath

“Repeat after me, I promise. I promise to fulfill my duties…”

Me: “Duties?” <chuckle>

“Yea, duties…”<chuckle>

“I promise to fulfill my duties…<chuckle>… for this band and for this church.”

The Milk Maid was unaware and unprepared for what she would find that day.

The incident occurred upon the departure from the pastures, carrying a full bucket of milk and attempting to not spill any as she made her way home.

As remembers, a walk that would have normally lasted less than three minutes, that day, took a lot longer.

Taking the usual path through the wilted forest, and crushing those crisp Autumn leaves, suddenly she stopped, stunned. Her eyes were wide and wild, looking at a figure rested up against a tree.

Looking over the Milk Maid’s shoulder; there is a bearded man, spayed and displayed, his back rested against the wilted tree and beside his head ( within which his eyes were closed and his mind was presumably unconscious) was a dripping, and what can only be described as a “vaginal” shaped hole, its milky sap pulsating from somewhere within and, once again presumably, his blood continuing to project subtly from the moist slit.

“What happened here?” She remembers thinking, re-counting her story to our sleeping minds.

This, of course, is when the man awoke.

“Aw, shit!” The man exclaimed through a mumbling growl. “What the hell was that?” He continued on to ask himself, before noticing the Milk Maid standing near-by, unable to do anything but stare at him and his wound, “What are you doing here?”

“Just been milkin’ the caws, sir,” she recalls saying, thinking quickly and forever trying to break the trance she was in.

“Oh, well don’t mind me then, on your way girl,” he said, shooing her away with a fluttering, shaky hand.

“But sir, you need a doctor, let me help you,” the Milk Maid said, “What happened to you?”

“What happened is not important, and it is of the utmost importance that you refrain from telling the Lady of the house, you hear?”

The Milk Maid remembers what was clear to her that had happened before she turned the corner onto that normally well trodden route.

The man, she says, was the Lord of the Manor, her employer when she could find no other work and subsequently now that she was twenty-four years old and had been in his employment for ten of those years, he had grown from a father into a personal hero and eventually succinctly being the object of her affection and eventual obsession.

Her living quarters were near-by the Lord and the Lady’s and irregularly, but the more irregular the more monumentally sounding it seemed, she would hear them late at night, fucking each other, the resulting sound being as if all four posts of their four-posted bed were a battering ram to the side of her head that she did not cover with her pillow.

She remembers, she wanted to hear them.

As the years went on though, and her obsession grew, it became painful to that very same ear of hers that wanted to listen at first.

Her duties around the house grew from a mere cleaning and cooking profession into doing pretty damn near everything around the house; the dishes, trapping the pests and raking the leaves. One of these duties, of course, was milking the cows.

She remembers that she was around twenty-three years of age when she first noticed it. She was late in her duty to milk the cow that day and that’s when she discovered The Man and his other partner, The Tree. At first she tells that she was sickened by it, but soon changed her milking schedule to watch him; the same time, every day.

The obsession and peeping continued on for nearly a year, day after day. The Milk Maid watched and began masturbating to his perverted sight in the near-by field, laying where the cows roamed her fingers deep inside her, resting on a slight hill where she could achieve a perfect view of Her Man and his relentless pounding of her; The Tree.

After a few months she even started pouring milk into the sappy hole in the tree, “A hint that she was watching him,” she said.

She enjoyed these moments as she and The Man grew closer and she grew further intwined in the idea that The Man, although he had expressed nothing directly to her of the sort, she imagined that he was crazed, some kind of a sexual pervert and that The Lady just couldn’t satisfy him anymore. He wanted the Milk Maid and would imagine it was her every day.

At least that is what the Milk Maid thought.

This was until it was Autumn, and more specifically, the night before the accident. The night was warm and quiet, the Milk Maid lay in bed, alone, and she was beginning to drift into a content, still post-coital from earlier in the day, slumber, when she heard the very same noise that taunted her so in her past.

He was fucking her again.

The Milk Maid was outraged and running downstairs that night, her footsteps did barely anything to dull the sound of the fierce banging against the wall and the exaggerated moans of The Lady.

The Milk Maid remembers exactly, she had two things running through her mind in that moment; ‘Fuck’, and ‘Him’.

She would no longer be his Tree.

In the darkness she recalled walking out to his tree with nothing but a bucket of milk, a badger trap and an axe. Using the axe to lever the hole wide enough to fit the set trap in she followed it up by pushing it back into its original position and pouring the remainder of the days milk inside the hole.

She remembers smiling to herself and returning to the house.

Climbing back into bed she could still hear The Lady and The Lord having sex from the other room, she smiled to herself and imagining the events of the day to come, she gently ran her hand down from her breasts to her stomach and eventually between her legs.

Ironically, the most unapologetically twisted stories always come to us in our dreams during a bout with sickness.

Open wide and take your medication,

Sickie LeRoo

WASHINGTON — The U.S. International Trade Commission sided with U.S. steelmakers in a case over Chinese steel Wednesday, voting that U.S. industry has been damaged by a flood of imports of subsidized steel from China.

The ruling, which will likely result in duties of between 10% and 16% on future imports of Chinese steel pipes used to drill for natural gas and oil, is the latest in a string of trade decisions against China, the U.S.’s largest trading partner, and threatens to aggravate trade tensions between the two nations.

On Tuesday, the U.S. imposed preliminary antidumping duties on imports of steel-grating products from China, prompting strong reaction and saying the move sends a “wrong, protectionist signal.” Earlier this year, the Obama administration imposed tariffs of 35% on consumer tires from China, prompting a probe by China into whether U.S.-made autos were being dumped in China at unfairly low prices.

The steel-pipe case is the ITC’s biggest ever by dollar amount, and comes as the world’s recession and overall drop in demand for steel products has caused steelmakers to fight for a smaller pool of customers. All six commissioners ruled that imports of so-called oil country tubular goods from China, totaling $2.8 billion in 2008, injured U.S. manufacturers. The commission is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, five of whom were appointed by the Bush administration and one by the Clinton administration.

The Chinese government can appeal Wednesday’s decision to the World Trade Organization, and Chinese steelmakers can appeal to a federal district court in New York that handles trade cases. Daniel Porter, a Washington attorney representing the Chinese exporters, said a decision on whether to appeal could be made in several weeks, once a detailed ruling by the ITC explaining the rationale for its decision is made public.

“We are obviously disappointed,” Mr. Porter said. Chinese steelmakers argued that the U.S. industry is trying to stymie legitimate competition and wasn’t injured by the imports. They note the U.S. steel industry was making record profits, especially in 2008, when selling pipe and tube to energy and exploration countries, and argued that Chinese imports increased to meet demand in the U.S. “It’s hard to see how those imports caused injury,” Mr. Porter said.

But U.S. steelmakers said China was pumping in so many imports that the prices eventually fell by half, due to undercutting, and caused inventories to swell. Imports of steel pipe from China nearly tripled in recent years, resulting in nearly half of the 6,000 workers in the domestic pipe industry being laid off, they argued.

John Surma, CEO of U.S. Steel Corp., said he was “pleased” with the ITC’s ruling on Wednesday. “This enormous surge of unfairly traded goods resulted in an overhang of inventory that crippled the domestic industry.”

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel and seven other domestic producers, along with the United Steelworkers, filed a trade complaint in April against Chinese producers and exporters, claiming China’s government was subsidizing pipe-production costs.

Last month, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed countervailing duties on the steel pipes ranging from 10.4% to 15.8%. The ITC’s decision Wednesday allows the government to finalize those duties. The Commerce Department and ITC will make separate decisions next spring on whether to impose antidumping duties if it is determined that the pipe products were dumped onto the U.S. market at prices below the cost of production.

Buyers of Chinese steel pipe, who go on to sell it to drilling companies, say they are in a tough spot now. “By shutting off this Chinese steel, it’s going to put a tremendous amount of pressure on the tubular industry,” said Mike Jordan, CEO of Mike Jordan Co. in Fort Smith, Ark.

Mr. Jordan said his company, which sold 250 million tons of tubular steel annually in the past three years, is now searching for products from other countries, but that “there’s not enough quality steel mills in the world to produce the type of steel needed for wells being drilled in the U.S.” He predicted that domestic steel producers will raise steel prices that could eventually be passed on to consumers of natural gas.

The United Steelworkers, which has been actively involved in filing trade cases and was the driving force in the tire case, said the decision would enable companies to bring back laid off workers. “Today’s vote by the trade commission makes it clear to American pipe workers and industry that the U.S. government will stand up against China’s violation of fair trade rules,” said Leo Gerard, the union’s president.

Still U.S. steelmakers aren’t expected to immediately begin rehiring, as inventory levels need to be reduced.

The Commerce Department’s International Trade Association issued a preliminary finding determining that Chinese companies are dumping steel grating into the U.S. market. Four companies will be charged with an anti-dumping duty of 14.36% while all other Chinese producers/exporters of steel grating will be charged 145.18%.

The U.S. imported $90.7M of steel grating in 2008. Alabama Metal Industries Corp (AL) and Fisher & Ludlow petitioned in this case.

Commerce reports the products covered under this preliminary finding as follows:

“…certain steel grating, consisting of two or more pieces of steel, including load-bearing pieces and cross pieces, joined by any assembly process, regardless of: (1) size or shape; (2) method of manufacture; (3) metallurgy (carbon, alloy, or stainless); (4) the profile of the bars; and (5) whether or not they are galvanized, painted, coated, clad or plated.”