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The cynics will be out in force Friday following the U.S. Federal Reserve decision to begin buying bonds again.
Among the first of the naysayers was Romney for President Policy Director Lanhee Chen, who offered a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't assessment of the Fed's move, saying it only proved the economy was still in trouble.
From now until November, it turns out that any proposal to fix X,Y or Z will only be taken as more evidence that something is wrong.
"A third round of quantitative easing is further confirmation that President Obama's policies have not worked," Chen said.
OK, now that the rhetoric portion of the statement is out of the way, what's next?
"We should be creating wealth, not printing dollars," Chen said. "As president, [Republican presidential nominee] Mitt Romney will enact bold, pro-growth policies that lead to robust job creation, higher take-home pay and a true economic recovery," Chen said -- end of statement.
So, what's left after the rhetoric is more rhetoric. Note to self: Beware of anyone who announces he is going to "enact" something.
In the same news cycle, Romney criticized President Obama's strategy dealing with China's protectionist policies with Romney flat out declaring he would name China a currency manipulator "on the first day" in the Oval Office.
Scary version: He is not kidding. If Romney can alienate half of London during his Olympic Summer Games visit, just imagine what he can do in his first day as president.
The trouble with a trade war with China is that it could end up like a game of poker in which the better hand has nothing to do with winning or losing. The winner here will be the player with the deepest pockets -- the player who can withstand the losses longer or outflank an opponent with wealth.
Treating China as the enemy is a touch shortsighted. The true enemy is outsourcing, not China, specifically.
To combat outsourcing, the United States needs to create a far-reaching set of policies that covers such items as intellectual property protection and development of raw materials, like rare minerals, domestically.
Larger problems than currency manipulation keep the international playing field tilted, such as the discrepancy in tax, environment and labor laws between the United States and countries with emerging economies.
It is a luxury, for example, to have laws restricting oil drilling in circumstances in which other nations might give oil companies a green light.
To hurt China where it counts, declaring the country a currency manipulator is certainly a quick way to cover a lot of ground. Unfortunately, it could slow economic progress in China -- and that's different than slowing economic growth, although the two go hand in hand.
Obama's call for a "level playing field" with China is more than rhetoric; It's an admission that dealing with China is far more complicated than it might first appear and long-term goals need to be enhanced by short-term goals, not derailed by them.
In international markets the Nikkei 225 index in Japan rose 1.83 percent while the Shanghai composite index in China gained 0.64 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong added 2.9 percent while the Sensex in India gained 2.46 percent.
The S&P/ASX 200 in Australia climbed 1.17 percent.
In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain rose 1.34 percent while the DAX 30 in Germany rose 1.17 percent. The CAC 40 in France added 1.79 percent while the Stoxx Europe 600 climbed 1.08 percent.


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We've created this buyer's guide to help you better understand supply chain planning and optimization software. This guide is intended to help you to evaluate the right solution for your business.
Here's what we'll cover:
What Is Supply Chain Planning and Optimization Software?
Common Features of Supply Chain Planning & Optimization
Evaluating Supply Chain Planning & Optimization Software
Benefits of Supply Chain Planning and Optimization Software
What Type of Buyer Are You?
Deployment Models and Pricing
Supply chain planning software helps organizations manage and replenish their inventory through sales and demand forecasting. As part of a supply chain management (SCM) system, planning solutions, such as sales and operations planning (S&OP), serve an important function in the ongoing effort to reduce waste and increase profitability.
By offering a tool such as demand planning software or S&OP, SCM software providers give organizations the ability to take a glimpse into a number of possible futures. Based on an analysis of historical market trends and an awareness of the organization's upcoming promotions and product rollouts, demand planning systems enable simulating potential demand and adjusting an organization's incoming inventories accordingly.
Optimization software handles capacity planning as well as sequencing and scheduling. Beyond simply providing demand estimation data, it allows organizations to act immediately on any pertinent information gathered from the data by altering delivery schedules, shifting stored inventory loads and adjusting revenue and expense projections. These actions ensure that the buyer does not purchase too many or too few supplies to meet demand.
Specific features of this software include:
|Cost and capacity modeling
|This essential feature provides the quantitative tools to model future and anticipated supply and demand activities.
|Customizable planning goals
|The right system will allow you to create plans based on your individual business priorities. This should include the ability to capture and compare multiple versions of a forecast based on different "what-if" scenarios.
|Problem detection
|Ensure that the software will help you identify material shortages in any plan and suggest solutions to address those problems.
|Data synchronization
|This describes the ability to connect to a data source, facilitating delivery schedules, inventory loads and expense/revenue projections.
Recent advances in networked solutions have brought about a series of collaborative solutions that allow buyers and suppliers to share the burden of planning and reduce the amount of nonproductive inventory. Vendor managed inventory software is one of the many planning systems that takes advantage of e-Kanban technologies, which alert the vendor when the buyer has run out of supplies so that they can send in new batches of products.
When selecting a software, cost will be an obvious concern, as will the features and functionality. You should also consider order consistency, hands-on management activity and inventory levels as important influencers in your decision-making process.
Businesses will see a variety of benefits that come with the successful implementation of planning and optimization software. The right system will enable you to:
Improve operational planning. Planning and optimization solutions are designed to improve and streamline your supply chain, from procurement to storage and transportation. They enable supply chain managers to redesign and optimize the supply chain by modeling complex logistic routes along with adding model constraints specific to their business. In addition, advanced systems provide analytics capabilities to create queries, maps and reports.
Ensure cost-effective operations. Supply chain planning and optimization is a complex process that involves data analysis, optimization algorithms and simulations to create optimum supply chains for businesses. Optimized supply chains enable companies to reduce transportation costs, manual effort and storage costs. In addition, it allows users to manage demand variation and business constraints.
Create accurate simulation models. Simulation techniques enable users to analyze relationships between relevant factors and their impacts on the supply chain to aid in decision-making. This helps when forecasting storage availability, scheduling production and managing inventory that makes logistics and supply chain operations move forward smoothly.
Third-party logistics provider. Organizations that manage the supply, storage and transportation of supplies for another business need an planning and optimization software to streamline and optimize their processes. A well-established supply chain planning process allows managers to proactively identify possible challenges and correct them in a timely manner. Logistics companies can also optimize their routes to save on costs by using machine learning and advanced algorithms.
Manufacturing vendor. Planning software lets manufacturers view storage space availability, predict product demand and collaborate with suppliers. The software also allows manufacturers to track and manage inventory levels to prevent stock shortages and the loss of production.
Distributor or supplier. Distributors are the backbone of any supply chain industry and serve as a bridge between manufacturers and retailers. Planning and optimization software enables distributors to manage products from different suppliers and maintain optimum inventory levels in their warehouses. In addition, the transportation of products to different retail or customer endpoints is carried out by these distributors.
Planning and optimization software is typically available in one of two deployment models, which tend to have different pricing structures:
Cloud-based. Cloud-based planning and optimization software is hosted on the vendor's servers and is generally priced under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, which means that users typically pay a monthly or annual subscription fee based on the number of users. There is a gradual shift in the market as more software vendors are opting for cloud-based solutions. Also, customers are more inclined to adopt these solutions, as they offer added flexibility and don't incur additional IT infrastructure cost. On the flip side, subscription-based solutions tend to be more expensive in the long term compared with solutions that follow a license-based pricing model.
On-premise. On-premise planning and optimization software is hosted on the user's own servers. Users may need specialized IT infrastructure, such as servers, operating systems and a network configuration that are compatible with the software. Typically, on-premise deployment costs a flat, upfront fee to use the software indefinitely, though there may be recurring support and maintenance fees involved. The upfront fee is also generally based on the number of users on the system.
Our service is simple and 100% free to customers like you because software vendors pay us when we connect them with quality leads. You save time and get great advice. Vendors get great referrals. It's a win for everyone!

subset: commoncrawl


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2005-10 Jeep Grand Cherokee Interior Door Handle Pair - 1ADHS008181ADHS00818
Part Details
- Color: Light Brown
- Quantity: Pair
These door handles are just what you need to get your vehicle in good looking form again!
- Comes as a PAIR
- Fits both LH (Driver Side) & RH (Passenger Side) FRONT
- Replaces dealer part numbers: 1BC161D5AA, 1BC171D5AA, 1EH121D5AA, 1EH131D5AA
- All Light Brown Finish
- Direct replacements
- Built to strict quality control standards
NOTE: There are different shades of gray available for this application, please contact your dealer to compare the part number(s) listed above to ensure the correct match.
These door handles are great replacements and have good cost savings over the dealer units.
Special Note:
- These new handles are made in the original color shade. Due to vehicle age and fading from the sun, our new handles may not match your existing handles or bezels exactly. If you are looking for an exact match, we recommend replacing handles in pairs or sets.
Item Condition:
Lifetime Warranty
This item is backed by a Limited Lifetime Warranty. In the event this item should fail due to manufacturing defects during intended use, we will exchange the part free of charge (excludes shipping charges) for the original purchaser.
|Grand Cherokee
|Jeep Grand Cherokee Front Light Brown Interior Door Handle Pair


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This cake turned out a little surreal even by my standards and that's its charm. Where else will you see pirate seals with a ship's figurehead of a seal Amy Winehouse? ("In a psychiatric institute" is not an acceptable answer).
I feel I should explain the thought process behind the cake...even though it may frighten you to have an insight into the workings of my mind. Like most 11 year old boys, my nephew is fascinated by pirates. One of his favourite toys is Gottron, a rather lovely seal, who has ambitions to be a singer (he does have a beautiful singing voice so it isn't a hopeless dream). Here is Gottron:
Keeping up so far? Good. Now, some while back I ordered marzipan seals and they've been unused and sitting in my cupboard ever since. Then I found a superb pirate ship cake tin...can you see where this is going?
Complicated tins cry out for cake release rather than just butter as you keep more of the fine detail; you can even see the little staircases between decks:
Of course, no pirate ship would set sail without a carved figurehead and I'm therefore hoping you'll see the logic in a boatful of singing seals picking Amy Winehouse as theirs. All makes sense now doesn't it? Please tell me it makes sense!
They tried to make her go to rehab, but she said "No, no, no":
The cake is made from my trusty Genoese sponge recipe. My nephew is a sponge hoover and I know that if I made anything else he'd be disappointed. The recipe can be found here and I used 1.5x the quantity as the tin was so big. For your convenience I have set out the increased amounts below, but the basic mix will be enough for most average tins.
All pirate ships have names and this one is no exception:
The crew had to serve a purpose in order to earn their keep. These two are on cannon duty. If you think the cannons look like Twix bars it's because you have no imagination:
I freely admit I am no cake decorator but I am rather proud of this. What it lacks in skill it makes up for in oddness:
Gottron, meet Amy:
Genoese sponge never disappoints; it's soft and crumbly and tasty and delicious:
Abandon ship! Abandon ship! She's lost half her hull and is sinking!
As it was a birthday tea, I also made my Nutella cupcakes. The recipe for these can be found here and I urge you to try it as they are the best cupcakes I've ever tasted! Modest as always!
Ingredients (for the genoese birthday cake):
For the sponge:
For the buttercream:
250g Unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
400g icing sugar
Blue food colouring – to be used in half the buttercream
- Preheat oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/325°F/Gas mark 3
- Grease (or brush with cake release) your chosen tin.
- Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Don't skimp on this stage as it's the key to creating an airy sponge. I like to beat the butter on its own and then add the sugar as it seems to give a paler, lighter result.
- Add the flour and eggs a little at a time. Because you're adding them alternately in small amounts the mix will not curdle.
- Add the vanilla and beat the mix until it's fluffy, pale and glossy. Taste a tiny bit to ensure it tastes smooth – if you can taste any grittiness it isn't properly mixed.
- Spoon into your tin.
- Bake. The larger your cake the more cooking time it will need. Larger cakes can take anything from 40 minutes to over an hour. The key, as always, is the look and whether a skewer comes out clean. Ensure that you skewer the cake in different places as I often find the edges may be cooked but the centre still very raw. Be patient – it's worth the wait!
- Let cool in tin before turning out.
- Now make the buttercream. Beat the butter and vanilla together until smooth and pale then stir in the icing sugar before beating to a smooth buttercream. At this point, I split the buttercream into two bowls as I wanted to leave half of it naturally coloured, and then colour the other half blue for the sea.
- Assemble your cake as required.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful things you have made.
- Eat.


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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Agriculture Policy: An urgent need for serious dialogueTweet
The failure of the House Farm Bill is old news now, but the future of the Farm Bill will make news for some time to come. And agriculture may have to come to grips with reality that the 2008 Farm Bill was the last one to see a linkage of farm and food policy. And there is reason to wonder if the 2008 Farm Bill was the last omnibus farm policy document. The agricultural community has become more focused on those prospects since the monumental vote last Thursday. What are they saying? What is next? Are there options?
There are few options available now, and even fewer that are good, and fewer still that might become reality. Please review the observations and analysis at Farmgateblog.com.The House leadership has a challenging task after its disparate membership rejected its own committee's Farm Bill for the first time in 80 years of creating national farm policy legislation.
1) The House leaders can direct their Agriculture Committee to create a fiscally pared down, purely partisan bill designed to only get Republican votes. With the GOP majority in the House the outcome would be severely reduced spending on food and nutrition programs, and it could totally eliminate that $80 billion annual program area and only address the $16 billion annually appropriated for commodity programs, conservation, rural development and non-food programs.
2) The House could do nothing and let the 1949 Permanent Farm Law take effect. That will not happen, since that was the specter created by the "fiscal cliff" at the start of the year, which would have caused milk prices to increase to $6-$8 per gallon. The Permanent Agricultural Law guarantees farmers commodity prices based on an inflation rate anchored in 1910-1914. At the end of November, USDA calculated those to be: corn, $12 per bushel; soybeans, $28.90 per bushel; wheat, $18.30 per bushel; cattle, $292 per cwt; hogs $160 per cwt; and milk, $52.10 per cwt, all of which would severely jolt the economy.
3) The House could extend the 2008 Farm Bill for another year to keep structural integrity for agriculture. That is what occurred at the outset of the year, which many found quite distasteful because of the cost, but since the House was not given a chance to vote on its Agriculture Committee's Farm Bill proposal in 2012, there was no other choice at that time.
4) The House could also consider the Senate's 2013 Farm Bill, which makes only a $400 million annual cut to food and nutrition programs, and would likely not get more than a handful of Republican votes in the House.
When you have a majority of the votes rejecting a Farm Bill, some because it does not spend enough and some because it spends too much there is little room for compromise. That is where the House leaders are scrambling to determine their next move; and there is not much wiggle room.
The timetable for farm legislation is not friendly at all. There are only 17 more legislative days on the House calendar between now and the August recess. Once lawmakers break for their "district work period," they will not return until September 9. At that point there will be only 9 legislative days prior to the expiration of the extended 2008 Farm Bill.
When the House members return home for the August recess, the Democrats will be praised by their metropolitan constituency for rejecting the proposed 3% cut to the SNAP program. Rural Republicans with an agricultural constituency generally voted for the bill and will be thanked and told to keep working hard. Both sides will feel energized.
On Monday the House leadership pulled from scheduled floor debate the annual appropriation bill for agriculture. Such legislation is approved annually to authorize funding for the policies in the Farm Bill. The action signals an attempt to re-write and use the annual appropriation bill to be a vehicle for funding a one year Farm Bill.
While that may chop the five year proposed House Farm Bill into 20% of its whole, it would prevent any long term policy planning at the USDA, and make all programs and services subject to annual review, when and if the Congress gets around to it.
Such a plan may be written to obtain enough Republican votes to pass in the House, but there would be few Democratic votes, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says such a plan would not be considered in the Senate.
All of this signals the need for a rational dialogue on the future of agricultural policy, an initiative offered by Dr. Neil Conklin of the Farm Foundation, a non-profit group "focused on informing the debate with comprehensive, objective information, rather than shaping the political landscape." Conklin invited his leadership to comment on the failure of House to approve the legislation and received numerous reactions that reflect the weightiness of the times:
- Former NRCS Chief Bruce Knight: "We are now at a fork in the road—will leadership in the House of Representatives tack to the center or tack to the right to gain the votes for final passage of a farm bill? The farm /nutrition alliance that has successfully moved previous farm bills appears to be unraveling. I fear that if this continues neither meaningful reforms of nutrition programs or farm programs will be achieved.
- Kansas farmer Jay Armstrong says: "People are beginning to think more about their food, what they eat, and where does all that money the government spends on the farm bill go. This is good as it opens up the opportunity for conversations about food and agriculture. The sad part is the lack of objectivity in explaining issues to our lawmakers and decision makers."
- Former USDA Agriculture Secretary John Block: "A failure like this will put more pressure on the Congress to do something. A lot of people will complain that [Congress needs] to get something done. This was not that hard. Once they come back from recess, they might have a different perspective."
Conklin said a new initiative must come forward and shared the optimism of one of his colleagues at the Farm Foundation, "The real challenge is how do we find a new equilibrium to support agricultural policy for the 21st century. Iowa farmer Varel Bailey, an eternal optimist, notes: "...In the past, some of the major changes in policy have happened at times of a near impossible political situation." The years 1862 and 1933, come to my mind."
Conklin said the "Farm Foundation has begun a Dialogue on Food and Agriculture in the 21st Century to allow a diverse mix of stakeholders in today's agriculture and food system to have civil discussions on critical issues shaping the future." That is where we are, and with the acceleration we have toward the need to feed 9 billion people by 2050, those diverse stakeholders need to converge and find a common ground in short order.
The need to feed the global community as population explodes will put pressure not just on agronomists and animal scientists, but policy makers who must agree on objectives as well as paths to achieve those. With the failure of the House of Representatives to approve the Farm Bill last week, there is no indication that progress is being made. Communication is necessary, and new efforts must be initiated to create a dialogue for the future of agriculture.
Posted by Stu Ellis on 06/26 at 10:07 PM | Permalink


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Transform your photos into one-of-a-kind, hand painted masterpieces!
by Ruth Housley
Image Size
The image is near the edges of the product but doesn't cover the entire product. Some of the background color may appear around the outside edges of the image.
Background Color
Our ceramic coffee mugs are available in two sizes: 11 oz. and 15 oz. Each mug is dishwasher and microwave safe.
11 oz.
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1 - 2 business days
Thank you so much Alan for your comments, and likes. Ruth
Beautiful autumn landscape! L
Thank you so much Ellen for your comments. Ruth
I love this one. The clincher for me is the mailbox. Wonderful landscape painting and color.
Thank you so much Ludmila for your comments. Ruth
Thank you so much Iris for your kind comments. Ruth
Thank you so much Chris for your kind comments on the painting. Ruth
Lovely painting....
Lovely serene landscape Ruth - Chris.
Very pretty, Ruth. Love the many shades of orange!
Nice landscape painting Ruth - thanks Chris.
Ruth,This is a gorgeous Fall Painting.Done very well. Thanks hun on nice comment on Burgundy Flower. Hugs,Marsha Take care.
Average Rating (4.85 Stars):
Debi Reininger
January 18th, 2019
Connie Johnson
January 16th, 2019
Connie Johnson
January 16th, 2019
I wanted to do a landscape that was autumn time with hills in the background with a house setting among trees and a country road leading to it and have a mailbox out by the road. The big tree in the foregournd is a rusty orange autumn tree.
Ruth Housley Fine Art and Photography I have been doing photography since I was young and as a family we took trips and I always like to photograph subjects and nature and to be outdoors seeing all of God's beautiful creation. Photography is an art too as well as oil painting and you can see all around you something that is art to take a picture of and its beauty. I did paintings in Oil and enjoyed it very much but I got tired of being inside and doing the paintings. I did all of my oil paintings in my home (studio) but now I like doing photography more and being in the great outdoors. Hope you enjoy all that you see and my paintings are still for sale in my galleries. I was born and raised in Eastern West Virginia. I went to...
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text:
Sporting goods store managers and employees require nearly as much quick thinking and situational awareness as the athletes who purchase their goods.
They contend with multiple seasons. Not just summer, winter, spring and fall, but also baseball, football, ski, soccer, hockey and back-to-school. That's in addition to sports like golf, tennis and cycling that happen all year long.
To further complicate matters, much of the inventory for these recreational activities is available in different colors and sizes. Stock can span from pocket-sized to forklift-required and can cost from a few cents to five figures. In some cases, inventory is age restricted. Many stores also do custom work, from team jersey monogramming to custom-fitted golf clubs. It is also common for sporting good stores to sell government-issued licenses for hunting and fishing.
Given the wide range of products and services that they offer, sportings goods stores need the right software to keep it all organized and accounted for. This Buyer's Guide details everything you need to know about sporting goods point of sale (POS) software.
Here's what we'll cover:
What is Sporting Goods POS Software?
Common Features of Sporting Goods POS Software
Market Trends to Understand
Sporting goods POS software can help put a store's front and back halves in sync.
On the front-end, POS software allows cashiers to process sales and returns with a variety of payment methods, lookup order histories, print receipts and manage customer contact information for things like rewards programs. Then, on the back-end, the software can update things like inventory, the accounting general ledger and any relevant customer relationship management information as transactions occur.
When implemented correctly, the result is seamless, real-time communication between the many facets of your store, with less error and more automation than manual methods such as pen and paper or spreadsheets.
In addition to core business functions, store owners should evaluate the following functions to meet their unique requirements:
|Team and league management
|As part of CRM, the system should track required gear for teams and leagues. Many teams have particular uniform colors. Leagues often specify gear like shoes, pads and other equipment. The POS system should also track appropriate discounts for members and coaches. Some systems allow authorized league officials to create an equipment list online, complete with UPC codes. The list can be printed on request at the store and posted on the team's website.
|Seasonal sports ordering
|Sports equipment and general merchandise change season to season. The sporting goods inventory software should make recommendations for new orders. In addition, it should track existing inventory and make sales-versus-storage recommendations.
|Work order management
|Sports equipment stores offer a variety of personalizing and customizing services. These range from monogramming and silk screening shirts and jackets to ordering custom made titanium shafts for golf clubs. The work order system should integrate with POS for deposits and the CRM for history and tracking.
|School list management
|Many school districts have specific requirements for physical education uniforms. Participants in school athletics approved uniforms and equipment. Identical in concept to team and league management, school list management tracks the equipment that students need by school. Some systems allow authorized school officials to create the list. The list can be printed on request at the store and posted on the team's website.
|Size, width and color look-up
|Many items come in different sizes and colors. The system needs to provide answers to questions like "Do you have this jersey in black?" or "Are these cleats available in 10D?" or even "Is there a 31" version of this bat?" The system also needs to track historical size and color sales as a guide for reordering and ordering new, similar stock.
|Integrated Internet sales
|Many independent stores are expanding online. The store system should integrate inventory and checkout functions with the online system, updating quantities and pricing as necessary. Advanced systems will also support team, league and school list management for online purchases.
|UPC code catalog
|The items available to a sporting goods store are many and varied. Keying item descriptions in manually is labor intensive and time-consuming. The system should have an extensive catalog of items and descriptions and links to suppliers' online catalogs to download inventory information.
|Law enforcement reporting
|If the store sells firearms or age-restricted items (for example, paintball markers or spray cans of field marking paint), it should provide all required reports for local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
|ID scan
|In addition to law enforcement reporting, stores with restricted merchandise should perform ID scans. The system should scan and retain ID information for buyers and verify that the format of the ID is correct.
|Spoilage reporting
|Many sporting goods stores have perishable goods. Examples include bait and biological attractants. The inventory system should alert when the stock is expired and should provide spoilage reports. It should also generate restock orders to keep the inventory fresh.
|License sales
|Many states and the federal government allow sporting goods stores to sell licenses and specific hunting endorsements. Duck stamps are an example. The system must track such sales and provide any necessary reporting. In advanced software, the CRM system will notify customers when licenses will be available.
Retail analytics. Sporting goods POS systems are increasingly including sales reporting and inventory analytics features to help small business owners make better sense of their numbers. Using this information, stores can better promote best-selling items, forecast seasonal demand, identify valuable customer demographics and more.
Mobile POS. If you're looking to make your checkout process more efficient, mobile POS systems are quickly becoming a must-have. Using a tablet or smartphone, your employees can meet customers where they're shopping in the store to save time and increase the likelihood of purchase.
Our service is simple and 100% free to customers like you because software vendors pay us when we connect them with quality leads. You save time and get great advice. Vendors get great referrals. It's a win for everyone!


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Governor Jindal issued the following statement in response to Monday night's State of the Union address by President Obama:
Tonight, President Obama doubled down on failed policies from the past while outlining his shortsighted vision for the future. Instead of committing his second term to growth and prosperity, the president confirmed that we have gone from the greed of Wall Street to the greed of government. It's about more, more, more. More government, more spending and more economic uncertainty.
Government will never be big enough for President Obama. Taxes and spending will never be high enough for President Obama. Every policy championed by the President this evening is dependent on more money for government and more government control. Every debate in Washington is about taking more money out of the real economy and putting it into the Washington economy. It's government greed at its worst, and it's unsustainable.
This President believes in pro-growth policies, but the problem is this – he believes in growing the government economy, not the private sector economy. We've had four years of growing government, and the results have been disastrous. It is liberalism run amok.
It is time to grow the American economy, not the government economy, and the President must now show real leadership. With four more years in office, he needs to step up to the plate and do the job he was elected to do.
Copyright 2013 WAFB. All rights reserved.


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I am an atheist/ agnostic but after careful thinking, I've decided that perhaps virulently promoting atheism (as this community is doing) isn't really good for society. Please don't get offended, just read my arguments below calmly and rationally. If you can argue that I am wrong, I will listen to those arguments and change my opinion.
Note 1: I am using science in all my arguments, not religion.Not all my links point to scientific studies, but I'm sure you could find relevant evolutionary psychology papers if you googled for it.
Note 2: Please don't take offense, I'm not a sexist or a misogynist. I am trying hard to be as unemotional as possible in my arguments.
Argument 1: Polygamy is bad for society
What percentage of our (pre-civilizational/ barbaric) ancestors are males? The answer is not 50%. As evolutionary psychology points out, 80% of our female ancestors managed to reproduce but only 40% of our male ancestors did so. (Link: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/goodaboutmen.htm). Simply put, in barbaric societies, males were the high-risk high-reward sex whereas females were the low-risk low-reward sex.
Males are genetically polygynous (interested in sex with as many women as possible - this makes sense as men can produce millions of sperm every day and have a low reproductive cost)
Females are naturally hypergamous (interested in only one man but the best; the top 'alpha' man - this makes sense as a female produces one egg per month and has a high reproductive cost due to pregnancy and child birth).
When sexuality is uncontrolled, the combination of male polygyny and female hypergamy results in polygamy a.k.a harems (one man having sex & children with multiple women).
The ones who suffer are the beta males - the ones who have been sexually selected out. They typically become violent and don't contribute to society. There is an argument to be made that the Taliban practices polygamy and this is the source of violent behavior of terrorists from that part of the world. (Link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200706/ten-politically-inco...)
When promiscuity is controlled through strictly enforced monogamy, every man gets a wife. This reduces violent behavior and unlocks the productive capacity in males. I don't have the link available but a man who is already married or believes that he will marry in the future will be 4x productive as an unmarried man who does not believe that he will ever marry (e.g.) Japanese grass-eaters ostracized by an increasingly promiscuous Japan (Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/27/japan-grass-eaters-sala...)
Alpha men don't significantly contribute to society - they are not scientific geniuses or hard workers. They are typically physically aggressive men. Contrary to feminist dogma, physically dominant men (even dominant to the point of abusive) are attractive to women because they exhibit alpha tendencies - The Dark Triad of Narcissism, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy.
Alpha men understand their higher attractiveness (compared to betas) and adopt a pump-and-dump sexual attitude. They have many sexual partners but don't bother helping with raising their young; some of their young will die due to lack of resources but they make up for it in numbers.
Betas adopt a nourish-and-protect sexual attitude. They have only one sexual partner, whom they win by proving their love and commitment. Then they have children with only this partner, but provide resources and protection to ensure their children grow up successfully.
Monogamy is the cornerstone of civilization. See the Moralia versus Libertalia argument (Link: http://www.hookingupsmart.com/2011/10/14/relationshipstrategies/how...). In a monogamous society, with greater male economic participation and lesser violence, prosperity, rule of law and art flourish.
Argument 2: Promiscuity naturally leads to beta ostracism and harms society
Promiscuity - Defn: Any form of sex outside of monogamous marriage (including exclusive relationships)
Non-exclusive relationships (polyamorous relationships) are almost always polygamous (one alpha man with many women). This results in many beta men losing out.
Exclusive relationships also result in beta men losing out - Why? If enough alpha men are not available, hypergamous females would rather not enter into any relationship at all rather than be with beta men - "The Where have all the good men gone?" tirade from many women in modern promiscuous culture.
Promiscuity is the leading cause of single motherhood. Many women will rather have children with alpha men (who will later abandon them) rather than with good beta providers (whom they find dull and boring).
The social effects of unleashed promiscuity are enormous - 40% out of wedlock births, single motherhood and increased Govt debt/ taxation to support single motherhood by the State which steps in to replace the father.
Single motherhood produces children 2 to 10 times more likely to suffer from:
(Link: http://owningyourshit.blogspot.com/2012/03/transcript-of-fempocalyp...)
Argument 3: Atheism promotes promiscuity (Edit: by being silent about it)
I am not saying that atheism caused promiscuity (that happened in the 60s due to a variety of other reasons including feminism) but atheism has played a role in the rise of moral relativism, especially with respect to promiscuity.
The Golden Rule is perhaps the first tenet of religious morality but it is not the only one. The second most important tenet of religious morality is monogamy.
I have seen many arguments about how atheists are equally moral (if not more so) than religious people. In all these arguments, people assume that morality = Golden Rule.
Based on my personal experiences, many atheists seem to think that:
Morality = the Golden Rule
Promiscuity = personal freedom (i.e.) promiscuity is acceptable behavior that the Church restricts because the Church is old and stupid. Many atheists don't seem to realize the far reaching social effects of promiscuity.
This moral relativism on promiscuity is obvious even in this site. For example http://www.thinkatheist.com/forum/topics/atheists-are-not-moral-peo... does not deal with promiscuity at all. http://www.thinkatheist.com/forum/topics/what-is-your-stance-on-mar... has answers from many atheists clearly exhibiting moral relativism on the subject of promiscuity.
[Edit: The majority of your arguments were against this. I can understand why this may look like a strawman argument. Let me clarify:
There is a strong correlation between divorce risk and low IQ. There is also a strong correlation between high IQ and atheism (giving you folks a compliment, take it :) ).
Atheism as a movement, originated primarily amongst high IQ society. But it has now gone mainstream and is growing fast, scarily fast almost. As Uncle Ben put it, "with great power comes great responsibility". But Atheism does not seem to be taking up that responsibility from the Church. Yes, the Church is broken and old and corrupt and its practitioners are bigots and hypocrites. But, it is still the only thing out there taking a stand against promiscuity. Atheists seem to walk away from the responsibility of condemning promiscuity and most Atheists promote sexual freedom.
Morality naturally comes to Atheists because they are high-IQ individuals who are better able to visualize the impact of their life choices in the future. But, as atheism goes mainstream and the Church dies out, what happens to all the voices condemning promiscuous behavior?
We are not more evolved now in anyway than we were in the past. We are, still at our core, apes struggling to build great civilizations. We all (especially low IQ individuals) need moral guidance to help us in this struggle, to make better life choices.
Can you point links to me about prominent Atheists condemning promiscuity? Is the Atheist movement willing to take up the mantle of promoting social morality from the Church after slaying it? ]
[Edit 2: I am not a troll, I've just been super busy last few days, I will have more time this weekend to reply to some comments below. The essential thing I am trying to say is that religion is not pure evil, and we should not look at it in terms of black and white.
There are definitely good things about religion. There is a very interesting theory that religions also evolve over time and the most popular religions are the most useful ones to society, and they became popular precisely because they were an advantage to societies that adopted them. For example, societies with religions that promoted monogamy were almost always more successful in combat over societies that had religions that did not emphasize monogamy. The reason is because in societies that practiced monogamy, soldiers had a genetic stake in survival of that society (they had their own children to protect). Rome fell because of polygamy - the top politicians had harems and orgies and monopolized the women, resulting in loss of morale amongst troops who did not get the chance to be fathers. Rome was increasingly forced to rely on mercenaries rather than patriotic troops to protect her. After the treasury ran out, Rome collapsed because disenfranchised beta males, who had no genetic stake in Rome, simply walked off and allowed the barbarians to invade.
My point of view has always been "What is best for society?", and not "What is true?". Atheism is the correct working hypothesis because there is no proof for God and we have to use Occam's razor at all times. I don't see any downside consequences of high IQ people discovering/ discussing Atheism. But, we have a moral obligation (as the high IQ elites in our society) to do what's best for society. Imagine a ghetto filled with the poorest, uneducated people in our society. We have to make the decisions that will benefit them.
I don't really have a problem with Atheism, but I have significant issues with the Atheist Movement. For instance, take the advertisement "There is no God, Relax". This advertisement is targeted at people who have made bad choices in their life and have been sexually irresponsible. They are probably feeling guilty about these choices and the Atheist Movement is offering them an easy way out. It tells them "There is no Hell or Heaven, so relax and continue making bad choices". In reality, there is no hell or heaven, but there are societal consequences of your choices. In reality, guilt is often a very useful biological mechanism for correcting bad behavior, but Atheism is offering them a way to rationalize away their guilt so that they can continue making bad choices. I am speaking about this from personal experience, I have known people who commit adultery and rationalize their guilt because they think that the concept of 'sin' is meaningless as there is no God.
Also, to all people accusing me of being a sexist and having double standards, I am not asking for double standards from men and women; I am demanding high standards of expected social morality from both sexes. How is that sexist in any way?]
I am going to judge the merit of a social construct on the basis of its usefulness, not on the basis of its truthfulness. I will only promote an idea to society only if I am convinced it will help society.
If the Traditional Conservative Church (not the Modern version that tolerates no-fault divorce) is useful to society as an institution that encourages monogamy, I would rather have that than Atheism.
Views: 8076
Shankar, I do not believe monogamy helps society in any way. The position of atheists is not to force society to believe and practice polygamy. Our position is to afford society the free will to choose between polygamy and monogamy.
Strong arguments can be made that children benefit from being raised by monogamous parents. There is already evidence that children in single-parent situations do measurably worse statistically than kids in intact two-parent families as measured by indices of health, wealth, emotional well-being, suicide rates, success in school, success in later interpersonal relationships. turning into criminals, being criminally abused, etc.
Eugene, I think you will have a hard time arguing that monogamy is worthless to society.
This is not to say that most single parents aren't trying their hardest and that there are individual cases that are absolutely heroic. It's just that statistically, the results are not as good for the single-parented kids. There are good societal reasons to favor traditional two-parent marriage, ESPECIALLY when one of the parents stays home. A lot of the trouble kids get into happens in that period between when school lets out and they are in the presence of a parent.
RE: "I'll admit that firm belief in something might make it easier to restrain your behavior."
I agree completely Derek, and I choose to believe in the value of my fellow Human beings,
Okay...let's take your argument to the end.
I guess that my workplace then also promotes promiscuity because it says nothing about it in my employee handbook. I also guess that I can't practice monogamy and discuss how much I value stability within my family when the topic arises simply because I lack a belief in god and do not adhere to a religious institution. Seems a bit ridiculous to me.
I believe that I can promote family values without also promoting supernatural beliefs as part of the package (which is something that I actually find to be not useful to society in modern times). Atheism in of itself is simply a lack of belief, beyond that I can find others who share my interests and values without acquiescing on the issue of a god for the sake of convenience (skeptics, secular humanists, etc).
I don't get where you're trying to get at. as many have posted, atheism does not equal polygamy. and about your "facts" about men being "naturally" polygamous and women being "naturally" hypergamous is a total BS! SOCIETY made women be subservient. women can be as polygamous as any male and there is nothing wrong with that.. the difference is that the culture we have today allows women to develop their own personality and choose how they wanna act. secondly, even if that is true, women being polygamous is not wrong. you are thinking like a religious person by saying enjoying lots of sex is somehow bad for our society. get your head out of your ass, my friend. it's natural and there is nothing wrong if you choose to practice it a lot with different people. You'd find if YOU did a little more research that atheist females are far more responsible about who they sleep with and practice safe sex. I've been to too many catholic schools when i was a teenager to know that what you're gonna say is a load of crap. If you don't know what I mean by that then you obviously need to do some research!
Peace and have a good day.
follow up.. do you know for sure that these single promiscuous mothers are atheists? if so, are you sure that the reason why the males left the females is because they cheated on them? is it mostly womens fault that they are single mothers?
I certainly don't agree with the original poster, but I must correct you a bit. Promiscuity isn't having lots of sex, it's having lots of sex partners. I won't say promiscuity is good or bad, but I do know that a promiscuous person is a lot more likely to both contract and spread STD's. That can't really be disputed.
I get that but this man seem to have the same mind as any misogynistic man, that any woman who has sex with "several" partners is promiscuous. I believe he got the idea that atheist women are "promiscuous" from atheist groups in facebook or whatever. It's true that atheist women are more open about their sexuality. they do not try to hide it like religious women. and from any misogynistic/sexist man's point of view any woman who expresses their sexuality is a slut/promiscuous.
Atheist women promiscuous? I wish! :P
don't we all ;)
I really can't offer too much more than: Epic Fail!
If you start an argument on a nonsensical premise (atheism promotes promiscuity), have nothing to even remotely support the premise, any conclusion you reach which verifies the premise is bound to be nonsensical.
I did hear once that Humanist conferences are great places to pick up wild freethinking babes!
Probably just a rumor to get folks to come..;p)


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text: Job Discussion Forums :: View topic - Libya-City Education and Language Studies job offer Get TEFL Certified & Start Your Adventure Today! Job Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Libya-City Education and Language Studies job offer Job Discussion Forums Forum Index -> General Africa Forum View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message dragonpiwoJoined: 04 Mar 2013Posts: 1612Location: Berlin Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:21 am Post subject: Libya-City Education and Language Studies job offer I have seen this ad on another website for quite some time. $2000 per month in Libya is a disgrace. I feel so strongly about it that I am going to write to them and let them know. I have many years experience in Libya and have worked in 7 oilfields there. Libya is dangerous right now. Ansar Al-Sharia control the western gate to Benghazi. The Libyan interim leader had an assassination attempt yesterday. The gas plant at Mellitah got shut down a week ago because two militias had a gunfight there. Our company has issued a letter informing us that travel will now be escorted by armed people. $2000 a month is a vile offer. When you come here...you are now very much at risk as many embassy websites will tell you. Even when your life isn't in peril, Libya is a bloody hard place to live in. Everything and I mean everything depends on staying long-term and setting yourself up. Buying the car, getting your sat TV, buying your own weights, refreshment kits, fishing rods (if near the sea), films, books and everything. I get paid quite a lot and have lots of holidays and I've got to the stage when it works for me and I am happy...in fact, very happy with my life. Of course they need to pay us more but 3 or 4 times that outrageous offer is what they should pay right now (and always) for oilfield work. The Red Cross got bombed in Misratha by the way and they had helped the Islamist rebels in the war, who later bombed them. That is the reality of Libya-March 2013. Back to top CANDLESJoined: 01 Nov 2011Posts: 605Location: Wandering aimlessly..... Posted: Tue Apr 16, 2013 9:04 pm Post subject: Tripoli What about Tripoli? Employers have said to me no problem, but everyone else is saying otherwise? It would be good to hear from people who are teaching and living out there. Thanks.javascript:emoticon('') Back to top dragonpiwoJoined: 04 Mar 2013Posts: 1612Location: Berlin Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 10:59 am Post subject: erm I'm in Libya and have been for years.......the salary is a disgrace...but it's pretty calm. That can change in a heartbeat. Look at the FCO website. Back to top citadelJoined: 12 May 2012Posts: 68Location: Over the river and through the woods..... Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 1:26 pm Post subject: I am making a great salary now, but I have to down 8k USD each year, with no reimbursement. I live in Shanghai at the moment, but worked in Irag for much less. I will tell you I saved much more there on the third of the salary I am making in Shanghai. I think it boils down to the cost living. I am looking to work and join some former colleagues in Libya, so it would be great to get some feedback. Again, I spent some time in Iraq and worked in the Middle East for close to ten years. Back to top dragonpiwoJoined: 04 Mar 2013Posts: 1612Location: Berlin Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 6:46 pm Post subject: erm...I'm in Libya now..... Libya has gotten more expensive. I'm on an oil rotation direct hire. I've seen that offer and it's pitiful for Libya and is one of a few recent ones which make my blood boil. Iraq? interesting...Oil and Gas or a Kurdish Uni? Got offered a job there with Shell in the Majnoon Field in Feb...but turned it down as the contract wasn't long-term. In Libya....petrol and kebabs are cheap....not much else these days. The price of a chicken has doubled in the past year for example. Why leave Shanghai if you are doing so well? Back to top citadelJoined: 12 May 2012Posts: 68Location: Over the river and through the woods..... Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:42 am Post subject: The job in Shanghai is far from great. While I make a great salary, the cost of living plus the annual non-refundable expenses is a 'deal killer'. In less than 12 months, close to 17,000 USD goes towards settling in. The situation I am in not good at all and job is not a rewarding experience. I was trying to point out, that in some posts one may make much less, but living and settling in expenses are much less as well. By the way, where did you find job adverts for Libya anyway? 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Watch The Video Of Rep. Mike Rogers Attacking Fellow Reps For Saying They Had No Idea NSA Spied On Foreign Leaders
from the could-he-be-any-more-condescending? dept
The fun starts a little over five and a half minutes in when Rogers starts lecturing Schiff about not saying what Schiff knows is true, and making not-particularly-veiled claims that if only Schiff had done his homework, he'd know about it. Schiff shoots back to point out that dumping a ton of documents and insisting that he must know everything in them is quite different than directly informing him of this very serious activity, leading to a long and ridiculous lecture from Rogers that has to be watched to see the scolding father tone he adopts, all the while knowing he's full of crap, because Schiff clearly has him dead to rights. The information may have been buried somewhere, but the Committee clearly was not informed directly about these activities. If they had been, when Schiff asked his question of Clapper, Clapper wouldn't have tap danced like he did around the question. He would have just said, "We did inform you."
Rogers: I would argue that to say that we're in the dark is mystifying to me. Some members spend a lot more time based on their schedules, which are significant, in this Congress. But, it is disingenuous to imply that this Committee did not have a full and complete understanding of activities of the intelligence community, as was directed under the national intelligence priority framework, to include sources and methods.And, just for fun, I've left Bachmann's questions in the video if you'd like to see what was so important that Rogers had to "reclaim his time" and not allow Schiff to speak. It's a bunch of questions about just how evil Ed Snowden is, complete with making the entire panel state that Snowden is a traitor, despite not actually fitting the classification under the law. The only one who refused to play that game was James Cole who says considering the legal proceedings, he really can't comment, which Bachmann refuses to accept as an answer.
Schiff: Will the Chairman yield?
Rogers: I would yield.
Schiff: Chairman, are you suggesting you and the Committee were informed of the wiretapping of foreign leaders if that report is correct?
Rogers: Well, I wouldn't confirm any specific activity by intelligence community. As the gentleman knows -- as I have highlighted -- that we have access to all sources and methods and there is lots of product to be reviewed by the Intelligence Committee, through the Intelligence Committee and through the members of the Committee. Any implication that through the reviews that this Committee would not be informed to the status that has been in question is not correct.
Schiff I'd be interested to know, Mr. Chairman --
Rogers: We would be happy to take you to the committee and spend a couple of hours going through mounds of product that would allow member to be as informed as a member wishes to be on sources and methods and all activities of the intelligence community under the national intelligence framework.
Schiff: I would just say --
Rogers: I think we need to be careful about what we talk about but I think it would be disingenuous to use the classification...
Schiff: ... I think it would be disingenuous, Mr. Chairman, to suggest we have information if we don't have it. I would like to find out just what we were informed by the intelligence community. I would also like to find out if this is in the posture that you sometimes see in litigation, where you're given a warehouse full of documents...
Rogers: Again, reclaiming my time. Reclaiming my time. This is a very unique Committee on Capitol Hill. It's the only committee on both sides of the chamber that has both military and civilian intelligence activities. That is an enormous responsibility for every member of this committee, enormous. We don't get to take personal staff from the office to assist in processing of information we may have to do as members of this committee. I think it is to the semantics of exactly who, what, when or why, if you're asking if intelligence community submits a selector to every engagement in their business to the intelligence committee, that would be ridiculous. And no one would receive information in that way, not even the Director of National Intelligence would receive it in that particular way. To know what the framework is and know what the guidelines are and know what the reporting is and go through the very significant oversight of this Committee and the review of the product, which is incredibly important to the end, and to say this Committee is somehow in the dark on intelligence activities simply is not accurate.
I think we need to be incredibly careful about making any assertions that somehow we're in the dark because that information is available in robust amounts of material in our particular Committee. It is time consuming. I get it. It's a very time consuming committee. Again, this feeds into this flame of misreporting about lack of oversight or our intelligence community is running around doing what they want to do outside of the law or any oversight is wrong. Again, I just caution members before you might make any statement to the contrary, I would argue that a significant portion of your time should be spent in the committee reviewing the materials available and made available by the Intelligence Committee accordance with the law we are charged to do. With that, Miss Bachmann.
Schiff: Mr. Chairman, can I --
Rogers: Nope.
Schiff: -- will you yield?
Rogers: No. Reclaiming my time. I will not. Miss Bachmann.
So, rather than actually get to the heart of the matter on an important question of whether or not the intelligence community actually provided this important information to the Committee, we're treated to a game of bogus name calling. Ladies and gentleman, this is "Congressional oversight" under the leadership of Mike Rogers.


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Anti-Gay 'Ender's Game' Author, Orson Scott Card Goes On Bizarre Racist Rant
Ender's Game author, Orson Scott Card already has many members of the LGBT community calling for the boycott of the upcoming film adaptation of the novel, and now it appears that the author has gotten himself into even more hot water.
Using the frame of a "silly thought experiment" which he describes as a "game of Unlikely Events," Card went on a bizarre racist rant in a May blog essay post that's been brought to the public's attention now.
In it, he compares President Obama to Hitler and goes even further with statements that have clear racist implications.
Having been anointed from the start of his career because he was that magical combination -- a black man who talks like a white man (that's what they mean by calling him "articulate" and a "great speaker") -- he has never had to work for a living, and he has never had to struggle to accomplish goals.
Obama will claim we need a national police force in order to fight terrorism and crime. The Boston bombing is a useful start, especially when combined with random shootings by crazy people.
Where will he get his "national police"? The NaPo will be recruited from "young out-of-work urban men" and it will be hailed as a cure for the economic malaise of the inner cities.
In other words, Obama will put a thin veneer of training and military structure on urban gangs, and send them out to channel their violence against Obama's enemies.
Instead of doing drive-by shootings in their own neighborhoods, these young thugs will do beatings and murders of people "trying to escape" -- people who all seem to be leaders and members of groups that oppose Obama.
As with "urban" music, in this case urban is simply another word for "black."
Is Card trying to get EVERYONE to ditch his movie (well, everyone besides anti-gay, conservative white men)??
Step away from the blog, Orson. Maybe take a nap??
Image Source
In the interest of Truth I cannot let that slur stand. Orson Scott Card did not make any racist remarks. He just compared Obama to Hitler.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with Card, unless you think the problem with Hitler was his race, that's not a racist remark.
Maybe you think his remark was foolish, and perhaps it was. Like just about everyone, Orson Scott Card is sometimes foolish. For instance, he's a registered Democrat. But there's no evidence that he's a racist.
However, Card's comparison was not baseless. There is a well-documented connection between Obama and Hitler. (The connection is indirect, of course, since Hitler died 16 years before Obama was born.) The connection runs through Obama's longtime "spiritual mentor," the man who performed Obama's wedding and baptized his two daughters, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Rev. Wright is an outspoken admirer of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In fact, Wright's (and Obama's) church featured Farrakhan on the cover of their church magazine, and awarded Farrakhan their "Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter Award" because, they said, he "epitomized greatness." (In another issue, Farrakhan & Obama were both on the cover.)
And, guess what? Louis Farrakhan is an open admirer of Adolf Hitler. Here are a couple of quotes:
"The honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that Almighty God Allah revealed to him that the white race is a race of devils."
"The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man."


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ATTENTION to ALL Veterans going to DC on 11.11.11
#VetsCalltoAction #DutyCalls
The following Code of Conduct applies to ALL initiatives in which The United States Patriots Union and/or The Veteran Defenders of America are engaged.
Both organizations have a strict Code for membership that we expect all members to adhere to whenever representing our organizations.
The Patriots Union is formed by and open to American citizens who believe in the following fundamental principles –
Personal Freedom - Individual Liberty - State Sovereignty and Rights - An unalienable Right to Life - Free-Market Economics - The Bill of Rights - The US Constitution as written and ratified - National Sovereignty and Security - Color Blind Justice and the Rule of Law - Our Declaration of Independence - A right to work, earn and own - A morally and ethically sound society and government
1) We are an organization of professionals who at all times act in a professional manner.
2) We call for peaceful actions, with the law and the constitution on our side.
3) We DO NOT need or desire violent actions and will NOT sanction any form of violence.
4) We never ask if, but how.
5) We always intend to finish what we start.
6) We want to have our say, but will defend the right of others, to have their say as well.
7) We will resist all efforts to escalate a situation to violence.
8) We will watch out for each other, and de-escalate a situation before it becomes violent.
9) We will not stoop to the ill behaviors of others. We will stay on the high ground.
10) We will use only minimal force to end a confrontation when all else has failed.
11) We will speak clearly, concisely and factually at all times.
12) We will clean up after ourselves when gathering in public places.
13) We will self-police our behaviors and that of our fellow patriots at all times.
14) We will be part of the solution, never part of the problem.
15) A right to self-defense is essential to liberty. But we will not initiate violence.
The Veterans Day Event on 11.11.11 is a March in support of the Veterans Declaration to Restore the Constitutional Republic. Members of Congress will have seen the Declaration before November 11, 2011. The March is to come together in support of the demands made in the Declaration.
The Snooper Report.
Join us as we Take Our Country Back.
Sic vis pacem para bellum
Fight Accordingly


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school, term commonly referring to institutions of pre-college formal education. It also properly includes colleges, universities, and many types of special training establishments (see adult education; colleges and universities; community college; vocational education).
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Blogged about this book being on the way from Amazon; now it's here.
I just started it and I'm on page 7, but it's very exciting. I'm absolutely going to recommend this book to anybody who wants to use Rails on enterprise-level projects. The criticism that Rails is simplistic for that problem space is easily adressed and overcome with the methods between page 0 and page 7. I'm not even kidding.
(Actually, it's not explicitly addressed - the book predates Rails, and may have significantly influenced its design - but if you see how he addresses enterprise-scale code bulk problems with code generation in a J2EE context, it's pretty easy to map that general strategy to Rails. He uses it to get around J2EE's ORM issues, the bulk and inconvenience of J2EE, and of course that's already handled in Rails with ActiveRecord - but you could just as easily use it to write a program in Ruby to write a Rails app for you. In fact his template-generation techniques are pretty similar to scaffolding, but there's no reason any Rails developer couldn't write their own scaffolding generator, and customize it for a particularly large, complex application, or for Ajax scaffolding rather than plain old vanilla scaffolding.)
Anybody who cares about Rails at all should get this book immediately.
I've always been a fan of code generation, having written Perl & Unix shell scripts to auto-generate Perl & Unix shell scripts since way back in the day, but this is some really awesome shit. It never occurred to me that it should be an architectural strategy.
I wish I had time to back all this enthusiasm up with a substantive review, but I'm going to be lucky if I even get the whole thing read before RailsConf. Long story short, though, anybody who admires Lisp's macros needs to realize that Lisp doesn't have a monopoly on code which writes code. You can write code which writes code in any language which runs on Unix, and if you're not doing that, you're doing things by hand which should be handled programmatically - like, for instance, BUILDING APPLICATIONS.
Seriously, this is a good book. It makes you wonder why in the hell you have to write has_and_belongs_to_many in Rails models and explicitly specify a habtm-style join table in the migrations when the proper approach is obviously to write a script to auto-generate all that boilerplate for you. It's ironic that so many people who love Rails never take the time to emulate its design in their coding practices. If you're building a gigantor-mungus enterprise app in Rails, you should only ever type the words has_and_belongs_to_many once - when you're writing the program that will thereafter do that typing for you. That may sound facile to the average Rails developer, but the average Rails developer works within a relatively small problem space. What about when you're on an enterprise project with 158 different tables? Do you really want to type has_one or belongs_to over 150 times? Do you really want to type out all those :foreign_key parameters by hand? Of course you don't.
This is a COOL book.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Code Generation In Action Is AWESOME
Posted by Giles Bowkett at 11:06 PM
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Failure to Stop on Breakpoints or Show Source Code
There are several reasons why Wing may fail to stop on breakpoints or fail to show the Python source code when the breakpoint is reached:
Missing or Incorrect Source File Names -- The most common cause of failure to stop on breakpoints or to bring up source windows while stopping or stepping through code is a mismatch between the file name that is stored in the *.pyc file and the actual location of the *.py source file.
This can be caused by (1) not saving before you run in the debugger, (2) using partial path names on PYTHONPATH or when invoking a script from the command line (the partial path stored in the *.pyc file may become invalid if current directory changes), (3) moving around the *.pyc file after they are created, or (4) using compileall.py to create *.pyc files from source. The easiest way to solve this is to use only full paths on PYTHONPATH and remove any suspect *.pyc files.
Concurrent Processes -- Wing may fail to stop when debugging an application that gets invoked repeatedly in separate processes, for example a CGI script invoked multiple times from a browser as part of a page load. This is because the debugger can only debug one process at a time. If the debugger is already connected to one process, the second and later processes will not be debugged and thus may miss breakpoints.
Other Problems -- Less common causes of this problem are (1) running Python with the -O optimization option, (2) running Python with psyco or other optimizer, (3) overriding the Python __import__ routine, (4) adding breakpoints after you've started debugging an application that spends much of its time in C/C++ or other non-Python code, and (5) on Windows, using symbolic links to directories that contain your source code files.
For more information, see the Debugger Limitations section.


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1. Re: How to open with technical flat calibration in 7.0Jeff Schewe Apr 25, 2012 4:13 PM (in response to q38)1 person found this helpful
q38 wrote:
Camera Raw 7.0 changed the sliders, and after hours of scientific experimenting I can not find a combination that opens images that are technically exactly flat (gamma 2.2 of course) without deviations to the straight curve.
You can't...but what you CAN do is create a custom DNG Profile in DNG Profile Editor that has a flat, linear curve and use that profile as the basis of a no curve starting point. Also note that the new PV 2012 does some auto highlight recovery and the image adjustments are based on image adpative range and end point settings.
2. Re: How to open with technical flat calibration in 7.0Noel Carboni Apr 25, 2012 6:38 PM (in response to q38)
q38 wrote:
Camera Raw 7.0 changed the sliders, and after hours of scientific experimenting I can not find a combination that opens images that are technically exactly flat (gamma 2.2 of course) without deviations to the straight curve.
Is this true if you choose the PV2010 development process? I had thought that was supposed to still be identical to what it was before.
Nothing says you HAVE to use PV2012 to develop your scientific images. You can set the development process into the Camera Raw defaults or create a Preset.
3. Re: How to open with technical flat calibration in 7.0areohbee Apr 25, 2012 8:25 PM (in response to q38)
There's a lengthy discussion about this in the LIghtroom forum:
4. Re: How to open with technical flat calibration in 7.0q38 Apr 25, 2012 8:34 PM (in response to Noel Carboni)
Thank you so much to both Jeff and Noel, you gave me a warm feeling of community in my struggles.
Noel, of course you are right, I didn't know about that. That explains why, if I adjusted a DNG flat in 6, then opened it in 7, it would come up with the old sliders in place. It opens exactly the same in 7 when I choose 2010, right down to the bit level.
Jeff, I have been learning how to use the DNG Profile Editor you recommended. When I build a profile with a linear tone curve and apply it under 2010, all the sliders are left as default, even the "S" tone curve, EXCEPT "Blacks" needs to be set off the default to "0". When applied under 2012, all the sliders should be set to default EXCEPT Whites to +25 and Blacks to exactly +25. Even then the highlights are a little different, I haven't measured yet to decide if they are more or less accurate.
To others in the scientific community: Even opened linear like this with Adobe RGB (and even extended ProPhoto RGB) there can still be issues with colors going negative, and false colors in highlights as some channels saturate before others. You can use Adobe DNG Converter to do the dematrixing by choosing Custom > Linear(demosaic) and Uncompressed. Then "open as" the resulting file in "Photoshop RAW" mode, also known as "RAW RAW" (not camera raw), and choose the appropiate sizing parameters. With a little trial and error you can get at the raw data right out of the sensors, exactly as it was recorded, except demosaiced. (If you deselect Linear but keep Uncompressed checked in DNG Converter and open as a single channel, you can actually get under the Bayer array.) The problem is you are on your own with the tone curve, and some cameras have really weird piecewise linear protocols that can't be described in a continuous equation. And all metadata is lost in RAW RAW format. It is probably an impossible dream to wish that Camera Raw could give the straight data off the sensor, calibrated only for gamma 2.2 tone curve. Such a mode would have no setting for exposure or color temperature as it would always show the full saturation range for each sensor. Images would look dark and greenish because for a very good reason red and blue sensors are designed to be less sensitive than green.
5. Re: How to open with technical flat calibration in 7.0Noel Carboni Apr 26, 2012 4:44 AM (in response to q38)
I suspect scientific analysis is exactly in the opposite direction from which Camera Raw is heading, so you may be right about it being an impossible dream.
Something to consider might be to look into the various software packages made for astroimaging. I think you might find that, since astroimagers must do some oddball things (such as stack multiple exposures) the software there may be capable of giving you low level extractions of raw files. I do know that some astroimagers (myself included) use dSLR gear. It's been a while since I did it, and the old program I used to use - Images Plus - might be able to see into raw files. Another one that comes to mind is Maxim DL.


text: Witnesses who testified before the Congressional Task Force on Overcriminalization included (left to right) Reed D. Rubinstein, Rachel Barkow, Lawrence Lewis, and Joyce Kinder. The Congressional Task Force on Overcriminalization, which was created on May 7, 2013, by a unanimous vote of the House Committee on the Judiciary, held its third hearing on Oct. 30, 2013. The task force — composed of five Democrats and five Republicans — has been charged to "conduct hearings and investigations and issue a report on overcriminalization in the federal code, as well as possible solutions."The official topic of the Oct. 30 hearing was "Regulatory Crime: Identifying the Scope of the Problem." The witnesses at the hearing included Reed D. Rubinstein (Partner, Disnmore & Shohl, LLP) and Rachel Barkow (Segal Family Professor of Regulatory Law and Policy, New York School of Law), as well as two victims of regulatory overcriminalization, Lawrence Lewis (Bowie, Md.) and Joyce Kinder (Grand Ri


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Rare Books and Special Collections Mission Statement
The Rare Books and Special Collections department of the Mullen Library at the Catholic University of America, exists to support and enrich the instructional, research and service programs of the University and to provide service to the research community at large.
The Department acquires, arranges, describes, preserves, interprets and makes available to researchers, materials, which, because of their uniqueness, value, provenance, content, form, or physical condition require special treatment.
Send questions and comments to: firstname.lastname@example.com


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New Richmond WI Cancer Center gives Wisconsin patients a choice
NEW RICHMOND -- The Cancer Center of Western Wisconsin has many milestones to celebrate at its first anniversary.
The New Richmond facility, a collaboration of six community-based Critical Access Hospitals, recently saw its 100th radiation therapy patient. It treats about 18 radiology patients a day, nearly double the initial goal of 10, said Center Director Bobbie Jo Heinsch.
There have also been increases in medical oncology patients seen, overall.
The oncology care program serves as a model of the benefits of a cooperative approach to healthcare - improving access, care and coordination of services for area residents.
The Center's state-of-the art radiation therapy equipment would have been cost prohibitive for any one of the regional hospitals to install on its own, but by pooling resources, we can provide personalized care closer to home, said Pat Cooksey, Director of Business Development and Marketing at Hudson Hospital & Clinics.
Previously, cancer patients in western Wisconsin were forced to travel to Maplewood, St. Paul or Minneapolis for ongoing treatment. For example, a former patient drove 90 minutes round-trip for 10-minute appointments that spanned five-days-a-week for six weeks.
In addition to HealthPartners' Hudson and Westfields hospitals, collaborators in the Cancer Center of Western Wisconsin include the Amery Regional Medical Center, Baldwin Area Medical Center, Osceola Medical Center and St. Croix Regional Medical Center.
All provide medical oncology staffed by HealthPartners physicians - bringing increased access, as well as a consistent process and level of care. Patients can enter the system at any point, and also be referred between locations for second opinions and follow-up care.
In addition to medical oncology and hematology consults, each of the individual sites also has full chemotherapy services as well as lab services, and imaging services such as CT and mammography. Other supportive care services include massage therapy, physical therapy, social work, cancer support groups and nutrition consults.
The Cancer Center has also participated in a number of community-wide events, educating residents on prevention, treatment and clinical care.
In the future, it will continue efforts to build regional brand awareness, as well as undertaking clinical research and standardizing patient support materials, Heinsch said.


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- GPS-based speed, pace and distance
- Real-time, average and max. heart rate
- Calories
- Heart rate limits
- Heart rate graph in real time
- Peak Training Effect & Recovery Time
- Manual & autolaps
- Chrono
- Countdown timer
- Interval timer
- GPS track analysis*
- Heart rate zones*
- EPOC & V02 max values*
- Swapping of sport while logging and exercise
- Preconfigured multisport modes
- Sports comparison*
- Post-analysis of multisport exercise by sport*
- Interactive map and charts by sport/section of an exercise*
- ANT+™ and Suunto ANT support for PODs
This product is ANT+™ certified.
Visit www.thisisant.com/directory for a list of compatible products.
- Responsive running pace/speed (FusedSpeed™)
- Running cadence with Foot POD
- Lap comparisons by each kilometer/mile*
- Ghost Runner (Suunto App)
- Marathon End-time Estimator (Suunto App)
- Multiple Bike POD support (Suunto ANT/ANT+™)
- Bike Power (W), average and maximum
- Bike Power 3 s, 10 s, 30 s
- Bike lap and lap maximum power
- Power distribution & graphs*
- Peak Power Curve for peak power outputs*
Bike Power requires use of optional ANT+™ bike power sensor.
- Swimming time by pool length, lap, total
- Swimming pace & distance
- Swimming stroke rate, count & type
- Automatic intervals
- Dynamic lap table with strokes, pace and durations*
- 1000+ free Suunto Apps for outdoors & training
- Up to 50 Apps pre-configurable in watch
- Logging of all App values for post-analysis
- Suunto Apps creation with:
- Chrono, GPS, HR, weather and altitude data
- Running, cycling, swimming data
- Rich math functions, if/then logic, sound, backlight, etc.
* in Movescount.com


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Sit-ups, once the darling of the fitness community, have fallen out of favour in the past few years. Leading the charge is Stuart McGill, a professor of spine mechanics at the University of Waterloo, whom Maclean's magazine referred to as "the man who wants to kill crunches."
McGill's beef with sit-ups, crunches, and any other similar exercise, is that bending forward is tough on the spine. And since everyday life demands a number of forward bends, like putting on shoes and emptying the dishwasher, why increase the strain on the back by adding sit-ups to the mix?
In place of crunches, McGill suggests performing exercises that work the core muscles without a forward bend. He claims exercises like the plank, the bird dog and "stir the pot" are better choices.
Not everyone agrees with McGill. Strength and conditioning specialists Bret Contreras and Brad Schoenfeld question McGill's argument that curl-ups have a negative impact on spine health. In an article published in the August 2011 edition of the Strength and Conditioning Journal, Contreras and Schoenfeld contend that experiments such as those done by McGill and other researchers don't replicate the real-life application of the exercise.
"The studies in question attempted to mimic loading patterns of occupational workers by subjecting spinal segments to thousands of continuous bending cycles, which is far beyond what is normally performed in the course of a dynamic exercise program," said Contreras and Schoenfeld.
They go on to explain that the average ab routine consists of two to three sets of a limited number of crunches, punctuated by a rest between sets. This is nowhere near the procedure used in the cited studies measuring the consequences of repeated abdominal curls, which mechanically simulated 4,000, 6,000, 10,000 and 86,400 forward-bending cycles using pig spines.
"Thus, total bending cycles per session ultimately amount to a fraction of those used in the cited research protocols, and these cycles are performed intermittently rather than continuously," said Contreras and Schoenfeld.
They also question whether experiments using the spine from a pig's cadaver (standard practice in the field, as pig spines are close anatomically and biomechanically to humans) are an adequate reflection of the workings of the spine in a living, breathing human. The authors contend that healthy spines attached to a living human adapt positively when subjected to moderate exercise. Spines gleaned from cadavers do not.
So if the wear and tear of years of forward bends isn't the culprit behind disc injury, what is? Contreras and Schoenfeld point to studies suggesting that heredity factors, such as the size and shape of the spinal structures, play a far more significant role in the degeneration of discs over time than do crunches.
But that's not all they have to say. Not only do they think the scientific community has been too harsh on crunches, they propose that the exercise is actually good for your spine. They cite improved delivery of nutrients to the discs of the spine, enhanced flexibility of the spinal column and improved strength of the rectus abdominus (the long abdominal muscle that runs from the pubic bone to the sternum) as reason enough to add crunches to your workout routine.
In response, McGill isn't ready to back down. He suggests that the argument about whether to crunch or not can get complicated, and it's not as easy as labelling an exercise good or bad. The real question is whether the exercise is right for you, based on your personal goals and history of back health.
He also says he does plenty of experiments with humans and, through his clinical practice, has experience dealing with athletes, the sedentary and everyone else in between, so his conclusions are not just based on experiments with porcine spines.
And he still advocates against crunches. "Most back pain in young people 20 to 50 years of age is due to excessive forward flexion," said McGill.
So where does that leave the average exerciser looking to improve core strength?
Well, you need to weigh the risks against the benefits before deciding to add crunches to your workout. If you have back pain or a job or activity that demands lots of forward bending, like a hockey player or a construction worker, then you should avoid crunches and do a challenging exercise, such as stir the pot, which, according to McGill, does a better job of challenging the core without the stress of a crunch.
However, if you are free of back pain, healthy and active, adding crunches to your ab workout probably won't have dire consequences. But you should limit the number of crunches to a moderate number, performed no more than a couple of times a week with at least 48 hours of rest between sessions.
One thing McGill, Contreras and Schoenfeld all agree on is that hundreds of crunches a day have few benefits and lots of risk. So get used to the plank, stir the pot and the bird dog — they're your new best friends.


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Hello to every one! I present you Mount and Blade: Imperialism. This is my first mod. It is a native-based mod. We travel to a future-time Calradia. The year is 1760 and Gunpowder has found good use into calradian hands.The descendant of the ancient bloodline and their factions are fighting for total domination on the continent of Calradia.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.
Again, a video from shorun666, with demostration of cavalry and some commendatory.


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Romney to Outline How He Would Govern
WASHINGTON (AP) - Mitt Romney will explain more about what he would do as president, a strategy shift intended to change the trajectory of a race that President Barack Obama appears to be winning.
Seven weeks before the election, campaign aides say Romney plans to release a new batch of TV ads, re-focus his campaign appearances on his economic plan and make a series of speeches aimed at offering voters a more concrete outline of his plans for the country.
The move comes as Republicans openly fret about the state of their nominee's campaign and press Romney to give voters a clearer sense of how he would govern.
It also comes as polls show Obama with an edge nationally and in key states, and amid reports of infighting at the Boston-based campaign.
Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Material may not be redistributed.


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Atkinson Drive
creativity for the home
June 15, 2012 By Sam
I genuinely love getting to write about how I strive to live beautifully – and creatively – in my home. It's not always perfect or pretty, but I hope that I can help inspire you! Read My Story ...


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Cops Looking for Police Officer Impersonator in Absecon
The Absecon Police Department is asking for the public's help in identifying the individual that posed as a police officer and conducted a motor vehicle stop on Absecon Blvd and Turner Ave on January 7, 2013, at approximately 10:45 PM.
According to a press release from the Absecon Police Department, the victim, a 24 year old female from Brigantine advised police she was heading back to Brigantine Monday night on Absecon Blvd. when the suspect, described as a white male wearing a uniform, stopped her vehicle. The suspect advised the victim that he was working a detail in the area and requested to search the victim's car. The victim, not realizing the suspect was posing as a police officer, allowed him to do so. After the suspect searched her vehicle he left the area on Absecon Blvd. The victim was unable to provide any details on the suspect vehicle except that it was a car and not an SUV and the accused had a dash board emergency light.
The victim described the accused as a white male approximately 6 foot tall with a skinny build. He had blonde hair and brown eyes and he was clean shaven. He was wearing a navy blue shirt that appeared to be a police officer's uniform shirt. The victim was able to give a detailed description and police were able to compile a composite sketch of the suspect. If anyone recognizes the suspect from the sketch they are asked to contact the Absecon Police Department at (609) 641-0667.


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Three Down, One To Go
With preseason coming to an end this weekend, I found myself asking what have we learned from these exhibition games? After all isn't that what preseason is all about? Of course, Cowboys fans what a win every game no matter what, but when it comes to preseason its more about seeing how the backups handle their roles, and learning who should stay and who should go.
Most would agree, the starters have looked amazing. Training camp served its purpose and served it well this year. Tony Romo looks rock solid. The power of Marion Barber and Felix Jones looks unstoppable. The defense looks tough (with a few minor adjustments).
Kevin Ogletree– who knew this undrafted rookie would prove to have so much talent. I agree with the fact it is only preseason but I certainly see Ogletree making the team before Stanback.
David Buehler – many questioned drafting a kicker, more questioned him making the team, but this special teams 'specialist' not only has an accurate kickoff but can tackle as well.
Keith Brooking – his experience and leadership reminds me of Zach Thomas last season. Its always nice to have a veteran role model on the squad.
Corey Procter – his performance has been underwhelming and rumors persist that he will be cut.
Courtney Brown – after getting an earful from Coach Phillips in front of the cameras, Brown's most recent pass interference penalty was possibly the straw that broke the camel's back.
Isaiah Stanback – he has been given a few too many chances to prove he can be a reliable receiver. Keeping him on the roster any longer is just absurd, when he's actually healthy enough to play he hasn't shown he has what it takes to make the team.
Bobby Carpenter – another first round draft pick letdown. He most likely won't be cut because of injuries to rookies and the lack of depth at LB. However, that doesn't mean I have to like him.
Penalties– they have got to get better disciplined. After 3 match-ups the Cowboys have racked up 32 penalties for 300 yards.
Special Teams– too many of the penalties just listed came from special teams. Field position means too much to continuously give up yardage for holding and other pathetic penalties.
Jon Kitna– hopefully it won't matter how Kitna played in preseason because we won't see him take the field. Some are saying he's not the guy, but he is only a backup after all. His age is definitely catching up with him, but in time of need he may still be able to get the job done.
I'm sure there are a few I missed. Who would you add to pros or cons? Is there anyone you are still undecided about? The Cowboys have to cut three players for tomorrow's deadline, who will it be?


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Event Coverage
FASHION WEEK: Nick Irwin for TIGI at Mara Hoffman
Nick Irwin, for TIGI, went rogue this season for the Mara Hoffman fall/winter 2013 collection shown at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NYC. While so many finishes were sleek or full, Nick decided to go for "skinny" hair.
"The inspiration for this show is all about mystics and misfits," he told me moments before showtime. "The models represent a caravan of new age sophisticated travelers." Nick adds that the hair is molded and "has a refined raw texture, accented with hair jewelry."
In this one minute video, Nick breaks down the look and offers his HOW TO. He adds, "I'm just keeping the girls beautiful." We agree.