May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
An “angry” President Barack Obama lashed out at individuals he feels are responsible for that Gulf essential oil spill Friday, telling reporters within the Rose Garden: “You experienced executives of BP and Transocean and Halliburton dropping more than each other to point the finger of blame at somebody else. I will not tolerate any more finger-pointing or irresponsibility.” But as CBS News‘ Chip Reid factors out: “Mr. Obama’s been president for nearly 16 months. Does he get at least a small piece with the blame?” Pointing to President Obama’s staunch defense of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Reid answered his personal question: “Not a bit. … He portrayed his administration as valiantly fighting the great fight against the essential oil companies from day one. …So although the president is pointing the finger of blame, he’s also functioning difficult to make sure that with time the finger doesn’t do a 180.”
In the President’s thoughts the federal government apparently can perform no wrong. The leading solution to every issue our nation faces is larger, stronger, and more intrusive federal government regulations. But a closer appear in the details surrounding the spill exhibits that it had been an already overly oppressive regulatory legal framework, coupled with lax enforcement, that created the mismatched incentives that led to the disaster.
The federal federal government is the owner with the waters where drilling takes place and bears ultimate responsibility for what occurs on its house. Energy businesses seeking to produce our organic assets should survive a phalanx of federal rules before any motion can be used. For starters, any action used by the federal federal government, including offshore drilling leases, requires a detailed environmental effect analysis mandated through the Nationwide Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). But NEPA is this kind of a draconian law, and the process could be so slow thanks to litigation, that to get anything carried out the federal government often grants waivers towards the NEPA process. Which is precisely what happened using the Deepwater Horizon essential oil rig in query.
Rules also require the Interior Department to inspect rigs at normal intervals, and also the Deepwater rig was supposedly inspected less than two weeks earlier towards the accident. The rig’s emergency shutoff valve, which reportedly experienced a dead battery, also passed inspection just 10 days before it failed. As well as these intrusively written but leniently enforced regulations, the Essential oil Pollution Work (OPA) of 1990 set a $75 million liability cap beyond direct cleanup costs for just about any offshore essential oil spill. The net outcome of all of all these policies is really a scenario where nobody is accountable for security simply because everyone is.
The solution towards the Gulf oil spill isn’t a brand new ban on domestic energy production or a lot more intrusive rules. The very best way to make sure future spills don’t occur is make power companies accountable for security but to then also hold them fully responsible for any mishaps. Combining liability having a responsibility for safety maintenance ought to minimize the likelihood of accidents by directly connecting profit motives to safe operations. It can also be high time the entire NEPA process was reformed. NEPA’s pervasive application creates it highly burdensome and hard to follow, which drives the require for waivers. As waivers turn out to be the norm, they turn out to be easier to attain even when, possibly, they ought to be denied.
If the Obama management insists on micromanaging every aspect of energy manufacturing then it should also be ready to have the hand pointed at by itself when things go incorrect.
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May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
Economics professor Meir Kohn described his journey from energetic socialist to libertarian and suggested that the role of federal government should be restricted in a speak, “How I Became a Libertarian,” on Tuesday in Silsby Hall.
Kohn mentioned that his libertarianism is “empirical” and is based on his life experiences, not on ideology.
Kohn described his earlier existence within the United Kingdom, where he joined a Zionist socialist motion in London at age 16. As a socialist, he considered that “money [was] the root of all evil” understanding that unhappiness was caused by material desires.
Kohn relocated to Israel at age 18 and lived inside a kibbutz in Ami’ad, a town just north of the Sea of Galilee.
Kohn’s kibbutz, which is an agricultural settlement, was depending on socialist ideals, Kohn mentioned.
“All members of the kibbutz worked wherever they were assigned,” Kohn said, noting that person choices had been provided consideration.
In the kibbutz, Kohn worked as an irrigation worker, he mentioned.
“Wherever you work on the kibbutz, you do not receive pay [for your work], but you receive advantages in kind,” Kohn mentioned. “There was no private property.”
Cigarettes, for example, had been free for everybody within the kibbutz, which is why Kohn said he started to be a smoker.
Kohn said that he started to be disillusioned with socialism while in Israel. His encounter living inside a kibbutz in Israel taught him that socialism “doesn’t bring happiness.”
“People weren’t a lot more or much less happy than they were if they had been anywhere else,” Kohn said.
He explained that on a kibbutz, although “material circumstances had been pretty equal” for everybody in the community, “perceptions are refined in proportions to the smallness of the variations.”
Kohn added that socialism also did not have long-term attractiveness to most individuals simply because “incentives mattered.”
He explained that there were only two groups who stayed at the kibbutz — the “deadbeats,” or lazy and unmotivated people, and also the “saints,” or staunch socialists. Everybody otherwise left the kibbutz, Kohn said.
Following he left the kibbutz, Kohn abandoned his socialist views and went on to university, where he started to be a progressive, he mentioned.
Kohn declared that his progressive philosophy was grounded on two main tenets — that “we possess the knowing of how to make points better,” and that “we possess the means to create points better.”
Kohn declared that his experience in teaching Economics 26, a course on the economics of monetary intermediaries and markets, and his person research created him question his faith in progressivism.
Regulation S-P in the monetary sector, which can be intended to prevent banking crises, has not been efficient historically, he said.
The current global monetary crisis was not a turmoil brought on by a shortage of regulation, but “was a turmoil of regulations,” Kohn mentioned.
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May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
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NEW DELHI (AP) — Proposed Indian federal government regulations which would restrict the tenure of administrators in national sports federations to 12 years had been rejected unanimously through the Indian Olympic Association on Tuesday.
A unique meeting of the IOA made the decision that no Indian sports activities organization will amend its constitution to incorporate any of the guidelines advised by Sports activities Minister M.S. Gill.
Suresh Kalmadi, the IOA president, said inside a declaration the autonomy from the IOA and the National Sports activities Federations could not be eroded.
“First and foremost, the Olympic Charter states obviously that only the National Olympic Committee has the best to decide the conditions of office for the office bearers and executive members,” Kalmadi said.
The proposed Indian law, as well as restricting chiefs of numerous sports activities federations to conditions no longer than 12 many years with or without having a break would restrict secretaries and treasurers to eight many years, but they would need to consider a four-year gap before going for re-election.
This month, the Global Olympic Committee warned India of potential sanctions more than federal government interference within the working of nationwide sports federations.
The IOC mentioned autonomy was the basic principle within the Olympic Charter and any external interference could lead to India’s exclusion from global sports activities occasions.
On Tuesday, Kalmadi inside a letter thanked IOC president Jacques Rogge for “the committee’s wholehearted help for autonomy.”
A confrontation among the federal government and the IOA is brewing months ahead of New Delhi hosting the Commonwealth Games in October.
Kalmadi mentioned the sports organizations obtain a pittance from the sports activities ministry.
“The ministry’s expense of training of India’s elite athletes for international competitors may be proven in grants to nationwide sports activities federations, leading to the impression how the IOA and National Sports Federations are performing nothing but wasting public money,” Kalmadi mentioned.
May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
Washington – The greatest overhaul of US financial regulation in seven decades scraped passed a crucial procedural hurdle within the Senate Thursday, paving the way for a last vote on the legislation before the end with the week.
The Senate voted 60-40 to limit debate on the financial reform payment, a best priority for US President Barack Obama that aims to tighten government regulations within the wake of the devastating 2008 monetary crisis.
The procedural vote restricts the number of amendments that can be offered within the coming days before a last vote on the reform payment requires location. The achievement came after two weeks of tough haggling between Obama’s Democrats and opposition Republicans, who nevertheless mostly oppose the bill.
If the legislation is handed, the Senate’s version would nevertheless need to be reconciled within the coming weeks with a different bill approved through the reduce House of Representatives last 12 months.
The successful vote arrived just a single day following the very exact same motion was rejected 57-42 over the objections of most Republicans and two Democrats.
Vast majority Democrats required sixty votes for that procedural motion to pass and managed to bring three Republicans to their trigger the 2nd time around. Two Democrats, upset that the reforms are as well weak, nevertheless voted against limiting argument.
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May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
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The Wall Street Journal lately published “Our Big Issue: Obesity” penned by a British physician Anthony Daniels, pen name Theodore Dalrymple, who feels that the fat issue is due to fragmentation of families when it comes to meal occasions. Families don’t prepare or enjoy foods together. Quick and already ready foods dominate the kitchen table. It is simply a consequence of the modern culture we reside in. He wishes that the fast-paced fragmented American family life would return towards the days of home-cooked foods and sit-down dinners.
He recognizes that this ideal world is extremely unlikely. As a outcome, he suggests that federal government should regulate and restrict additional the foods we eat. Sugar and fat content of quick meals will be an region of federal government intervention.
He’d better be kidding. Anyone who has been viewing Jamie Oliver’s display Food Revolution has seen how nicely intentioned federal government regulations on school nutrition can result in very unhealthy foods that fulfills the needs but not healthful. (Is really a squirt of ketchup really a vegetable serving?). Federal government does have a role in society, but will be not able to repair this issue.
Regrettably medical doctors can’t stop the obesity epidemic possibly. Recent reports mentioned that primary care doctors shortage the instruction and assets to tackle the issue with their patients, even as they really feel the responsibility to supply guidance. The issue is that in a survey of 290 medical doctors discovered that 72 percent had nobody within the workplace qualified to discuss weight management. Of the 90 % of obese patients who were counseled to lose weight, about a third of sufferers mentioned they weren’t told how you can slim down.
Successful the war on obesity will not come from federal government regulation or somehow getting doctors to be much better in educating and counseling sufferers. It won’t be households resorting to some simpler slower pace of life that existed a couple generations ago.
Successful the war on being overweight and turning the tide will be due to the same large multi-national organizations that are being vilified. McDonald’s top chef, Dan Coudreaut, will impact a lot more lives each day than any physician could actually recommend over an entire profession depending on his most recent development which graces the McDonald’s menus nationally. The real query is regardless of whether our corporations will begin taking on this new social obligation in maintaining our country wholesome or would they instead want to continue to kill their clients slowly from inside out and dump the wellness consequences onto an increasingly dysfunctional expensive healthcare program, other employers via escalating premiums, and ultimately destroy US competitveness by creating an harmful fatter workforce that’s not able to meet the problems of the future?
Although there is going to be individuals quite skeptical about companies and companies repairing the problem which they aided produce, it seems that this really is the case. The Washington Post noted that big food organizations are committed to decrease the calories from fat in current items, offer more healthy choices and more compact portions.
This really is an encouraging very first action. Sustaining a healthy weight is a lot more than asking people to choose wisely each and every meal. It’s about helping the public creates the best preferred options by creating products that are healthy, nutritious, and reduce in calories from fat. Dining places and food businesses should lead the way to slow after which reverse the trend.
Otherwise with the status quo, children born since 2000 will the very first generation of Americans not to reside as lengthy as their parents because of to obesity related ailments like diabetes.
Secret to weight loss is actually: Consume much less. Move more. When businesses get it right, eating less will be simpler to do. It is going to be the private sector that starts to resolve the being overweight problem.
May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
In spite of expectations that the Gulf oil spill will ultimately be attributed to human error, the power business should brace for a lot more government regulations on Gulf of Mexico drilling and a change in focus to normal gas shale plays onshore consequently from the spill, in accordance to participants inside a panel discussion on energy Thursday morning.
Four energy authorities from various locations of the industry shared their thoughts on the spill and other power issues in the Houston Power Forum, which was component from the Houston Business Journal’s four-day Celebrate Enterprise event.
“In the near-term we anticipate there will be moratoriums and new regulations, but in the long-term our wish is the fact that cooler heads prevail and that there will probably be no significant alter in operations for offshore drilling,” mentioned Dick Stoneburner, chairman, president and chief operating officer of Houston-based Petrohawk Power Corp (NYSE: HK). “Still, there may be a shift to where we see much less provide from offshore and more leaning on onshore natural gas supply.”
Stoneburner was joined in the discussion by Adrian Goodisman, co-head U.S. and managing director of Scotia Waterous; Sayun Sukduang, vice president of acquisitions, investments and financial advisory for GDF Suez Energy North America; and Thomas Gros, senior vice president of product sales and advertising for Reliant Power Inc. (NYSE: RRI).
Goodisman told the crowd of about 300 that had gathered for that breakfast address that even before the spill, the Gulf experienced been dropping out of favor with some power businesses, both because of competing onshore plays for natural gas and because of the string of hurricanes that have strike the Gulf in current years.
Consequently, he expects the Gulf to turn out to be a lot more of the “big boys’ game” as independents change their concentrate to onshore normal gasoline shale plays.
Gros mentioned the hope in the industry is the fact that there will be “regulation instead of legislation” in the wake of the spill. “There is a right way to complete this,” he said.
All four panelists agreed that the spill, largely blamed on British oil giant BP Plc (NYSE: BP), would most likely bring more interest to green power.
“The complete business was currently below more regulatory stress, so this may help the U.S. go down the path of a lot more renewable generation,” Sukduang said.
The panelists also tackled other issues such as the challenges facing independent operators, infrastructure hurdles for electric and normal gas automobiles and how you can take benefit of normal gasoline as a bridge among petroleum and green power.
Read more: Goodisman: Gulf to become a lot more of a ‘big boys game’ following spill – Houston Business Journal
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May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
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Economics professor Meir Kohn described his journey from energetic socialist to libertarian and suggested that the role of federal government ought to be limited in a speak, “How I Became a Libertarian,” on Tuesday in Silsby Hall.
Kohn explained that his libertarianism is “empirical” and is based on his existence experiences, not on ideology.
Kohn described his earlier life in the United Kingdom, where he joined a Zionist socialist motion in London at age 16. As a socialist, he believed that “money [was] the root of all evil” and that unhappiness was caused by substance desires.
Kohn relocated to Israel at age 18 and lived in a kibbutz in Ami’ad, a town just north of the Sea of Galilee.
Kohn’s kibbutz, which is an agricultural settlement, was based on socialist ideals, Kohn mentioned.
“All members of the kibbutz worked where they had been assigned,” Kohn said, noting that individual preferences were given thing to consider.
In the kibbutz, Kohn worked as an irrigation worker, he mentioned.
“Wherever you function at the kibbutz, you don’t obtain pay [for your work], but you receive advantages in type,” Kohn mentioned. “There was no private property.”
Cigarettes, for instance, had been free of charge for everyone within the kibbutz, which can be why Kohn mentioned he started to be a smoker.
Kohn said that he started to be disillusioned with socialism while in Israel. His encounter living in a kibbutz in Israel taught him that socialism “doesn’t provide happiness.”
“People were not more or less happy than they were if they had been anyplace else,” Kohn said.
He mentioned that on the kibbutz, while “material circumstances were quite equal” for everybody in the community, “perceptions are refined in proportions towards the smallness from the variations.”
Kohn added that socialism also did not have long-term appeal to most individuals because “incentives mattered.”
He mentioned that there had been only two groups who stayed on the kibbutz — the “deadbeats,” or lazy and unmotivated individuals, and the “saints,” or staunch socialists. Everybody else left the kibbutz, Kohn mentioned.
After he left the kibbutz, Kohn abandoned his socialist views and went on to university, where he started to be a progressive, he mentioned.
Kohn said that his progressive philosophy was grounded on two main tenets — that “we have the knowing of how to make points better,” and that “we possess the means to make points better.”
Kohn declared that his experience in teaching Economics 26, a course on the economics of monetary intermediaries and markets, and his individual study made him question his faith in progressivism.
Regulation S-P in the monetary sector, which can be intended to avoid banking crises, has not been effective historically, he said.
The current worldwide financial turmoil was not a crisis brought on by a shortage of regulation, but “was a turmoil of restrictions,” Kohn mentioned.
“Far from stabilizing the financial program, the trigger of the majority of the instability,” he mentioned.
Every time there was a banking crisis, the federal government responded by adding however “another level of regulations,” including stricter capital requirements, Kohn mentioned.
Federal government regulations have “distorted” the way in which individuals look for to make earnings, Kohn said.
For example, deposit insurance policy, which was implemented within the early 20th century and designed to protect smaller banks from failure, produced a “moral hazard problem.” With deposit insurance policy, financial institutions started to engage in riskier expense methods, he explained.
The federal government today is “an organized use of force,” using its legislative authority to enforce policies including taxation to redistribute assets from one sector with the society to an additional and also to market specific nationwide pursuits, Kohn said.
According to Kohn, this arrangement is problematic because societies frequently “do not possess the know-how to create points better” and because people are often “the greatest judges of what is great for [themselves].”
“Government isn’t a especially good instrument to create the globe a better location,” Kohn said.
Kohn said that he became a libertarian by default, following coming to “an absence in belief” that federal government regulations can make things better.
“If you shed your progressive faith, you become a libertarian by default,” Kohn said. He added that he is open to changing his political views in the future if he finds compelling “new evidence.”
Kohn acknowledged that although we “live inside a culture that’s imperfect,” it may be “better to reside using the imperfections” than to make an effort to right them via regulations.
Government authorities ought to not cease to exist altogether, Kohn said, because they still have essential roles to play in protecting person rights and stopping foreign aggression.
The role of government authorities, nevertheless, should be restricted to these two responsibilities, simply because “anything else the federal government seeks to do will not turn out nicely,” Kohn said.
Kohn is working on a book, “How and Why Economies Develop and Develop: Lessons from Preindustrial Europe and China,” that will analyze the different types of federal government approaches to economics.
The speak was sponsored through the College Libertarians.
May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
Room covered by green building certification applications will increase from six billion square feet in 2010 to 53 billion globally in 2020, according to a report out this week from Pike Study.
“Green constructing methods are progressively becoming the regular within the architecture and building industries,” states Pike research analyst Eric Bloom.
By 2020 80 percent of eco-friendly certified structures will be within the industrial sector, according to the statement, up from 73 percent today. Most commercial green certifications will be retrofits of current buildings, while in the residential sector most licensed buildings will be new construction.
Three trends are driving growth in eco-friendly constructing: the attractiveness of green-certified commercial space to corporations from an environmental/CSR standpoint, the potential savings from energy efficiency, and government regulations mandating structures be more environmentally friendly.
Therefore far, most government regulations have applied to public structures, this kind of as California’s Green Buildings Initiative. However the report says those needs are gradually spreading to industrial buildings as well.
Whilst Americans are most familiar using the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) regular, in accordance towards the World Green Building Council, you will find nine other eco-friendly building score techniques globally. The Pike Study report cites an extra 11 “green certification building programs” in its statement.
Possibly way, more are on the way in which. ”The global GBC Network now includes Eco-friendly Building Councils in more than 70 nations, up from only 8 in 1998 when the Globe Green Building Council was formed,” a spokesperson mentioned in an e-mail. The WGBC doesn’t differentiate among score techniques in terms of environmental rigor.
A single not insignificant contributor to that 53 billion square ft: the 1.8 million within the Empire State Constructing, which will be certified LEED Gold following an energy retrofit due to become finished in 2013.
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May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
Our buddy benfrankspal, after a distressing absence from your current film threads to which he may have created immense contributions that are now alas lost to history, requested this morning about Rand Paul:
Listed here are my inquiries, Rand Paul questions:
How does he as a libertarian square the circle using the Tea Celebration he now speaks for (he did final night in his victory speech) on issues like selection vs. state power more than a woman’s body and right to select?
And what about Paul fils and Papa Paul and their radical critique of American military intervention within the Center East and the Tea Partiers?
Typical floor? Does not matter?
It is all about gutting federal government programs and deficit reduction without tax raises although profound philosophical variations are immaterial?
How much of the civil libertarian is Rand Paul? What about the teabaggers?
Is Paul a conventional libertarian or some kind of watered-down “neo-libertarian?”
Superb inquiries. I do not know the answers to all of these but I did a little bit of noodling around on the couple of them.
You know the acronym LUG – lesbian until graduation, which can be said (so I’m told) of a particular kind of Wellesley or Mt. Holyoke undergrad? Nicely, Paul is a LUG too: libertarian until guided (by expediency to be or else).
A actual libertarian believes in abortion privileges (government shouldn’t manage a woman’s choice). A actual libertarian thinks gay people ought to be in a position to do what they want and have equal rights.
Paul is virulently towards abortion privileges, as you are able to see here on this declaration from his web site. He doesn’t discuss gay privileges on his internet web page, interestingly, but a sympathetic blogger late final 12 months described his position as thus:
What the article does not specify is how the libertarian method towards the issue is to oppose “government sponsored” Gay Relationship. The distinction is hugely important.
Rand Paul, and other usually Right Libertarians have no problem with a Gay or Lesbian couple getting a relationship ceremony inside a public park or public facility with a couple of attorneys, a priest or rabbi, and scores of friends and loved ones. Any libertarian would of course, be fiercely opposed to any local government regulations prohibiting the issuance of this kind of a permit.
They want to obtain married. Have at it. But why ought to the government be involved?
“Why ought to the government be involved?” is a query that’s sure to get about 60% of an American audience nodding its collective head in agreement, no matter what are the concern. But it is truly absurd right here. The federal government may be involved in marriage for centuries, and as he surely knows that ending that is an impossibility, he’s de facto towards gay relationship. He should be requested in a future argument if he’d support closing the requirement that male-female couples go lower to the courthouse and enroll and get blood tests.
In sum, bfp, no conflicts that I can see. As long as libertarianism keeps him on safe ground (bashing the UN and global alliances, say), he is one. But when need be, he’s a religious conservative. A ideal amalgam of what the tea party motion is. But do not look for any consistency.
It does however distress me to say that he bears a vague resemblance to Danny Kaye, a single from the all-time excellent Hollywood song-and-dance funny males. I pray I can watch The Inspector Common the following time without considering of Paul.
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May 20, 2010 - Posted by kellyadamson - 0 Comments
A new plan setting out the way in which Higher Peak Borough Council deals with petitions has been authorized.
Under Government regulations, the council should have a petition plan in place by June 15. They should also have an online petition facility which enables anyone to create a petition about the council’s program and sign the petition by December 15. The authority’s draft petition plan was authorized at the normal meeting of the council final week.
Applications should have a minimal of 4,000 signatures before they are heard by the council. Petition organisers will then have 5 mins to existing the petition and it will likely be discussed by councillors to get a maximum of 15 minutes. But councillors believed the quantity of signatures needed was too higher.
Cllr Caitlin Bisknell mentioned: “I think it ought to be a lot reduce. It has been decreased from 6,400 to four,000 signatures but I think it should be looked at and be closer to the typical dimension of just one ward, which is close to 2,000 to 2,500.
“I broadly welcome this but believe the quantity of signatures required for petitions to become noticed are way as well high.”
And speaking following the meeting, Cllr Bisknell, leader with the Labour Group, said: “This makes a mockery of attempts to modernise local federal government, although sadly it does apparently be a sign of things to arrive.”
Cllr Emily Thrane mentioned: “We already have our own petition scheme but individuals in Whitehall usually know much better than us at local degree.
“I think the principle is suck it and see. I’m perfectly pleased to become versatile and will be completely happy if councillors come asking us to have it looked at again. The question of signatures and some other details needs to be worked out.
“Perhaps one with the very first applications ought to be to petition for altering the conditions by which the council receives petitions.”
Cllr John Faulkner added: “I am not towards applications at all. I am very encouraging of them.
“My objection is that the government is interfering with how we offer with applications. I believe that is the crux with the issue.
“It ought to be within the compass of a qualified council like Higher Peak to offer responsibly and effectively with applications as they arise.”
The council is going to be able to reject petitions they think about to become vexatious, abusive or otherwise inappropriate.
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