Early Retirement for Injured Federal Employees
In once sense, there can always be the identifiable spectrum bifurcated into the “before” and “after”, and the conditions, the context and the significant differences characterized by each. There is the time “before” the 1929 stock market crash, and then the “after”. There is the “before” period in Nazi Germany, and the “after” timeframe subsequent to defeat. […]
They are the connections by which a society maintains a fabric of commonality, whether by myths, narrations of stories handed down, religious knowledge or books and movies. It used to be that the “Good Book” was the mainstay of the reference points, so that when a person referred to having “eaten the apple”, for a simple example, one immediately knew that the reference points between a sin committed […]
Is it wrong to ascribe wrong motives? And, unless there emerges practical consequences, does it matter? If a non-family member forms a relationship of friendship with an older person, do we fairly ascribe an underlying intent of malicious deliberation? We may think thus: He is hoping to gain something – gifts in return; an inheritance, perhaps; or, maybe even a more blatant act of stealing or forcibly engaging in a criminal enterprise. On the other hand, there could be a purity of motives – of responding to loneliness and a desire for company; but who in this world ever believes that, anymore? […]
In athletic parlance, it refers to an individual and a status, allowing for a fifth year of eligibility when the rules mandate a restriction to a four-year period. The word itself is quite malleable, and reflects well the technicality involved in avoiding the direct letter of the language. Being a redshirt (noun), a redshirt freshman (adjective) or redshirted in his first year (verb) reveals to us the capacity of language to jump like grammatical forms of hopscotching that amazes and intrigues; and the cautionary prelude to a wink-and-a-nod is prefaced with, “You are being too literal”. […]
Have you ever tried catching multiple entities with a net? Whether more than one butterfly, or goldfishes in a pond, or even debris floating at the skimming water’s edge, the act of scooping, trapping and encircling with the tool of a net requires dexterity and unique hand-eye coordination. Then, the one first caught escapes, and the frustration of gain-versus-loss ensues. Is it greed which continues to compel despite the persistence of loss and diminishing return, or sheer stubbornness that we somehow battle against our own interests even when further escape occurs? […]