₦airaland Forum

Self-Sufficient!

^lol, thank you. Though I was never really 'gone'. Palin is in Haiti now . . . she doesn't have time for moose hunting at the moment, but I'll be joining her soon enough. She says you're welcome to join anytime

"Palin in Haiti". . . . .

in Haiti doing what? What happened to Alaska?

Are her knees blocking your entry? Flip her over. . . .

Great Achievement and Big Congratulations to him!!

Oh, . . welcome back! I was wondering if you up there in Alaska shooting and hunting with Palin.

What is ritualism?

If you sit daily with your family to eat at the dining table, then you are observing a family ritual.

If you take bath and cleanse yourself daily, then you are observing a ritual.

If you take class test or exam at the end of every semester, then you are in a ritual.

If you pray five times daily or every morning, then you observe a ritual.

If the Chief priest offer a slaughtered goat or dog to Ogun every year, then that's ritual.

If the village make sacrifice and give offerings to Yemoja every year, then this is ritual.

Ritual is that activity which is routinely observed or carried out as an actionable event to preserve the cohesive and communal bonding of a family ties, or an individual with another individual or with God, or a village or community with another community. . . . . it is an exchange and nothing to be scared of.

We need to change our view and fear of the word "RITUAL". There is nothing there waiting to kill or change who you are. A person seeking to kill or change you really does not need a ritual sacrifice to do that, they just need to know how to speak and influence your mind. WORD and INFLUENCE is more dangerous than RITUAL and SACRIFICE.

Lmao!!!!

Nigga, ctfu!!

It was at that workshop that pidgin authorities standardized it

. . . pidgin authori wetin?

Nna, na which piple dem be dis authority wey carry pidgin go for university go publish for sake to standardize am? Dem don first go Warri go get Chief permission? You dey yab here say dis ya professor sabi book pass Chief, heh?

Make usa see trouble o!

Power,

. . . becareful how you handle your new knowledge. It has many great benefits but be sure you observe the dos and donts of usage. Sugar is good and it's sweet, but used wrongly sugar is also dangerous and deadly!

Can the Government dictate how a citizen spend or can it compel the citizen to make a purchase of a commodity or product which in the Government's view is a benefit to the public? . . . . and can it enforce this compliance, with provisions to penalize violators? Is this the role of the Government and is there any enumeration to that effect in the Constitution?

Read. . . .

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/12/13/va.healthcare.ruling.pdf?hpt=T1

The internet is there for you to search. It will give you idea of the Fulani as a cultural and ethnic group

. . . . . .I think Fulanis should teach who they are, and not leave it to people to research them on the internet. The contents on internet are contemporary. . . . Fulani is an ancient people and they are best represented by voices of the ancient - a well versed Fulani, proud and connected to his/her roots and willing to share for cultural understanding and awareness.

The mystery of marijuana as an instrument of ritual has to do with its numerical significance.

It has 5 fingers. . . .

5 is the numerical value for revelation or manifestation.

Marijuana also has regenerative seeds, which makes it one of the original herbs that GOD subdued to the benefit of mankind at time of creation.

I have often repeated that President Obama need a handful of Democrats to run a partisan warfare and overwhelm the Republican blockade.  Ex-President Clinton is one of such warriors.  

Faced with a possible split in the party loyalty - reminisce of 2008 primaries -, this invitation was an attempt by President Obama to reassure the base.  

What truly shocked me is not the appearance on Friday but that Obama admitted - in reverse to his earlier downplaying of many successes of the Clinton Administration, preferring instead to glorify Carter and  Regan as two of the most successful Presidents in recent decades - that Clinton's Admin was a time of prosperity and success for the country.  

Now, it could have been handled with less formality and a seamless transition by having VP Biden usher both Presidents onto the stage.  Biden has a warm touch and a sense of practical humor, whereas his Boss is more formal and genteel. . . . . .an inappropriate fit for the situational drama that followed.

This is just Negro's opinion  , . . . .nothing more!

Cap28 and Pres-Elect,

In its early days, Wall street was controlled by pawn brokers, auctioneers and loan sharks.

If you dig deeper into that turf battle and control of the treasury between Government and Wall street you will end up with same conclusion that the Nazis did in regard to the concentration of capital power in a few hands.

From its inception, and uptil today. . . . the Board of Governors of the Federal Bank are majority Zionists. Nothing happens on Wall street without their approval and consent.

You cannot separate corruption on Wall street from the boardroom of the Feds. The two are interwoven.

Unemployment insurance was extended for a further 13 months as part of the agreement for the Bush tax cut extension. If that is the case, after 13 months, how will an unemployed person continue to receive benefits?

. . . . by seeking to exercise rights of eligibility in those aspects of the legislation that does not raise a prohibition for the entitlement.  That's how they have done it and that's how they will continue to do it. 

Do you know how many benefits exist beside unemployment insurance?  SSI, worker's comp, Disability, Veteran's, Medicare. . . . .    it's a gold mine for those who know how to exploit the loop holes.

In these days when we cannot even believe our Scientists to tell us the truth about the so-called Global Warming, I always take anything that even professionals say with a pinch of salt. Many now stake their positions not on the facts, but on political leanings and persuasions.

These same people convinced us that unemployment will not exceed 8% if we passed the stimulus bill. I guess we are all wiser now. Have you noticed how every time there is a release of new economic data, it is always preceeded by the term "unexpected". An unexpected jump in unemployment, jobless claims, sales etc, We can't trust anybody anymore. We have to use our common senses to draw conclusions that sit well with us. Our Politicians, Economists, Scientists, Investors are all compromised!!!

Brilliant response!

How about the argument that Tim Geithner was the only person, in the entire country, most qualified to solve the economic problem and that Senate must not consider his tax evasion as grounds for disqualification as Secretary of the Treasury - the department that oversees IRS?

So much for intelligence! . . . .and they wonder why the unintelligent Sarah Palin is pulling the political carpet from under them.

Too much theories, no applications. It is going to get worse because even when the economy start to recover many people might prefer to remain on their welfare programs and earn more for doing nothing than go back to earn an insulting wage under back breaking employment conditions.

Katsumoto,

Listen to what Cap is saying. . . . .underneath all these dealings there is a shadyness that makes government a co-conspirator in the wall street shenanigans.

I was posting a response to you this morning and was banned for content. Here is a retry of the content but in a summarized version. . . . The economy is in trouble from two quarters - public treasury and private capital market. The root causes for their problems is outlined in brief below:

1. Public treasury - root cause for this problem is the "shock and awe" failure in Baghdad.

2. Private market - President Bush froze, seized and penalized underground monetary networks (real property). The sanctions choked off buoyancy to the conventional banking networks and damaged their holding vaults, which is valued in raw assets. Mortgages and fund markets (real property mixed with prospect yields) both subsist on the raw assets and so they went belly up when their source of investments dried up.

I hope this posting is not censored and you can read this summarized version.

This is very sad news!  Bawomolo will be missed dearly, particularly for his contributions in the politics section.

May his soul rest in peace and may God give consolation and relief to his family.  
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To Seun,

I know it's against the rules in NL to announce deaths but I will suggest that the rule be reviewed to allow forum for a decent grieving and well wishes in memory of deceased members.

In fact, the Bush tax cuts actually increased government revenue. According to economist Brian Reidl of the Heritage Foundation, The Laffer Curve (upon which much of the supply-side theory is based) merely formalizes the common sense observations that

•1. Tax revenues depend on the tax base as well as the tax rate,
•2. Raising tax rates discourages the taxed behavior and therefore shrinks the tax base, offsetting some of the revenue gains, and
•3. Lowering tax rates encourages the taxed behavior and expands the tax base, offsetting some of the revenue loss.

If policymakers intend cigarette taxes to discourage smoking, then they should know that high investment taxes will discourage investment and income taxes will discourage work. Lowering taxes encourages people to engage in the given behavior, which expands the base and replenishes some or all of the lost revenue. This is the "feedback effect" of a tax cut.

Tayo,

These are ideals, theoretical proposals that will not apply or produce the expected outcome on a personal or corporate tax. . . . . they do have validity in excise tax!

If you attach regulatory taxes (fines, penalties, seizures) to the personal income tax, any increase in rates will not necessarily result in the behavioral response that this economist alluded to. 

There is no catch-net alternative for an employee that quits a job because of high tax rate.

Corporate tax is handled differently than personal tax and so this theory will equally not be practical in a business environment.  Traditionally, government uses incentives to encourage business to expand production, conduct research and development, improve process and methodology for increased efficiency and so on. . . .  So a high corporate tax will simply be passed on to consumers. 

If you apply this tax theory to personal habits and nefarious activities - tobacco products, liquor and alcohols, unlicensed prostitution, casinos and lottery gamblings. . . . then, true the base will respond as described by the economist.

The theory is applicable only to excise tax!

This is not intended for general discussion, just a word of thanks to the moderator for restoring my posting privileges after it was suspended few days ago.

I posted a controversial topic relating to Monsanto. . . . . .I will not repost it out of respect for Nairaland. It could bring some uneeded attention here. However, I suggest to you folks to update yourself about the doings of the company.

So if my posting offended NL, I regret that. I thank the moderator for restoring my privileges.

like I said, this thread is about obama's negotiating ability. He doesn't need a phd to know how to negotiate.

Pres,

I believe President Obama has great negotiating skills. He started his Presidency good but he waited too long to delegate powers. The critics need a face to associate with their issues and for the first year of office, Obama repeatedly presented his face on every controversial domestic issue - including the Havard Police and Professor Gates episode.

There were many times when he could have delegated powers to his cabinet secretaries but he choosed to face the camera and defend issue after issue. He became too intimate and familiar to the public and in the process lost the majesty of his office. Colin Powell came out, along with some other people like George Soros, and advised that the President need to ease off on speeches and personal involvement on common issues. He eased off but it was too late!

Joagbaje,

Just a quick feedback. I like your view. You have an in-depth understanding of the scripture but it seems you are heavily focused on the letters. In the places where you gave meanings to the spirit, it is quite enlightening, except that you may have been too broad in your interpretation.

Some texts ought to be interpreted narrowly. Many pastors fear the dilemma of pushing a narrow interpretation of the Bible at the cost of sacrificing a scriptural truth. Using wisdom to navigate the borderlines should not and does not in any way challenge the truthfullness, instead, it upholds the mystery of the word and the office.

A good example is where you said "-a pastor should be involved in every aspect/sphere of a believer's life."

That's true, but could you have given it a narrower revelation and still hold onto the truth,. . . . absent the controversy?

". . . . . a believer needs to maintain a healthy relationship with his/her spiritual guide. It's the path of success, divinely and in mundane realities"

@TOPIC.

This is the background on the wikileaks.

1. The site was founded by a handful of individuals, some of them in government administrations and political establishments distributed around the world.

2.  It is not a membership organization but it has a network of freelance but authentic contributors.  

3. It was first targeted by the Bush administration during the Valerie Plame scandal and had to go underground for a period. Coming out of that brush with the authorities, wiki changed its method of operations.  It was re-born with a face, in the person of Jillian Assange.  Other operators remained anonymous.

4. There is a wikileak operations team in NSA, FBI and CIA.

5. The team has the goal of infiltrating the organization with the purpose of correctly identifying and decapitating its network from within.

6. The criminal case of sexual assault against Assange is just one of the many issues the government is pushing against the organization and because Jillian is the face of wiki, his case is the only one made public to that effect, the other controversies are suppressed. . . . .at least for now.

7. Government intelligence operations team has indeed succeeded with its infiltration and some of the leaks you see are mixed.  

8.  The leaks are the arrowhead of a spear thrust at Iran and primarily aimed to distance and isolate it from its sympathisers in the middle east.  

9.  In the brink of the global economic meltdown, national policies are changing. . . . . expansionism is out, conservatism is in.  This is eroding trust between allies and treaties are slowly being reviewed for re-negotiations.  USA is forced to take a bold and unapologetic stance to reclaim its wading glory.  It cannot be done diplomatically, politically or militarily. . . .so the only credible access with which to achieve that objective is the use of overt intelligence - in your face type!  The grievance is that US is loosing its circle of influence and its not a gradual erosion. . . . but a steep and fast one that need to be halted quick.  

10. The incidences in the wiki database are legitimate and authentic reports . . . . however, the leaks are not.  They were not authorized release.  


So who released them?   I will let you figure that out.  

With this release, expect global intelligence teams as well as diplomatic missions to barrage State Department as well as Pentagon for answers.  US is now positioned to manipulate those answers and follow-ups along a channeled vision.  It can use this opportunity to shape policies and regain its position as the shepherd of the global world.  
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This is just Negro's opinion, . . . . it's nothing more than that!  

I really like the above as it provides extremely fertile ground to sow the seeds of productive and profitable discourse.

. . . oh yeah, there are many seeds to sow. . . .you just wait!

Before I make any real comments, might I ask, where do you stand on the side of the "we" and more importantly, why do you stand there?

lmfao! There is a third define for the "we", I purposely left it out yesterday. . . . as in when "we" meet in Spring!

It won't be thanksgiving but you will be "thanking' me as if it was.

^ ^ ^ I think NK is manipulating recent political frictions in US, both on domestic and foreign relations, to its advantage. It appears North is in concordance with Iran to pre-empt any attempt by the West to "shock and awe" Iran over its nuclear programs.

I say this because if you go back. . . as far back as 2005. . . . you see a see-saw trend in their attitude and ambition to self-impose on the globe.

Now that everyone is shifted focus to Korea, gives Iran time to ride up on the lift while NK plays and fiddles around with this joke script called "UN sanctions". Then when it gets hot in Korea, Iran throws its own shell and scuttles everyone back to Middle East. . . . . .to issue more UN sanctions, while NK takes turn on the uplift of the see-saw. Back and forth they go. . . . and the world go with them.

All these people are nuts. . . . . it does not matter how it ends there are only two beneficiaries to all these nonsense (1) Securities and Trade; (2) Defense contractors.

THANK GOD!!!

I believe the NK leaders projected that image of insanity to deliberately create a "cloud of unknown" - sort of a mystifying and reclusive identity that elicits caution from the approaching enemy. It's a masquerade! Given the appropriate measure of penalties the mask will come off.

Wow!  Thank you for asking that question JeSoul. 

The plurality can take multiple content depending on what the political issue is.  Obama, many years ago while still a community organizer raised the possibility of resource re-distribution to give social balance.  The target of that program is a plurality that can comprise of all people of many racial backgrounds who by certain social measures fall in the dis-enfranchised (dis-empowered) category of the demographics, as supported by both statistical data and census results.  However, while popular stereotypes would suggest that this plurality is the Black population, we (data consumers) have come to accept. . . . . given the current economic hardships, that it is fluid.  A person who 10yrs ago was on a $100,000.00 salary and would be offended to be labeled "poor" is now today on food stamp and in a shelter home. 

So the "we" is a grouping. . . . . a band of people energized for change in the social imbalance.  As you have witnessed, Tea Party is energized on the opposite side to that and have argued repeatedly that the constitution does not warrant social balance. . . . it only fundamentally guarantees liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness and that every other articles under that is an enumeration. 

If you look at the partyline, "we" would translate to what side of the politik one is standing on - as in "we, the Repubs" or "we the Dems", or "we whatever party"!

Again, it is fluid and you can dribble in and out of it as the content of the argument changes but the theme remains the same.

This demands a firm response.  NKorea is testing the ground to see how the powers would respond . . . . . would it end in a slap to the face, or a fist knuckle delivered with a upper cut to the lips?   

Who are those likely to respond, if any?  UN is currently in a flux and at best their reprimands is not worthy of the signatures that come with it.  So who else will stand up to NK?  Europe. . . US. . . .Japan?

Europe has a new attitude when it comes to global conflicts - if it's not on their territory or within a threatening vicinity then their only commitment is lip service, no movements on ground. War is expensive and with a continent on the brink of loosing centuries of gains earned from Imperial bullcrap, they are not willing to stretch for any foreigner's benefit.  As we have seen in Afghanistan, NATO was designed for big expectations. . . .when employed in a compact war it performs below par.  NKorea is loud but it's a compact territorial front for a warfare.

US under President Obama will not do it either, unless he is forced under a threat of impeachment would he order forces to face off with NK.  First, there was gain on the ground pre 2001 State of The Union speech where Bush camped NK in the "Axis of Evil".  Everything went down hill from there and fast!  Any move by US to face off with NK will upset China and Russia immensely.  Second, Israel is watching to see what US will do.  If US show any agression towards NK, then Israel will rally Europe to force Obama to see Iran as a far more present and immediate danger than NK and to therefore make similar assertive steps to nuetralize Iran's power, even if it's just in principles.

Japan is cornered!  All it can do now is mediate and hope that the problem does not escalate.  Any escalation can spill over into other contended islands and territorial grounds in the area, whether between NK and SK or between China and Japan, especially given recent tensions between the latter two. 

This is just Negro's opinion.