Dancing with Fire's definitions

Social Work

The professional activity of helping individuals, groups, families, organizations, and communities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and to create societal conditions favorable to their goals. Social work requires knowledge of human development and behavior; of social, economic, and cultural institutions, and of the interaction of all these factors.

Social workers use their knowledge and skills to provide social services to clients, as defined by the National Association of Social Workers. They help people increase their capacities for problem solving and help them obtain needed resources, facilitate interactions between individuals and between people and their environments, make organizations responsible to people, and influence social policies. One common misconception of social workers is that people believe that most of them are "baby snatchers.” People don't see the services provided by social workers, the families social workers have helped, or the children social workers have saved, or the parents that come back to thank the social workers.

by Dancing with Fire October 16, 2011

Kung Fu

Kung fu is one of a number of Chinese martial arts designed to refine the body and the mind. It is perhaps one of the most widely known Chinese martial arts, because many films incorporate kung fu techniques. There are hundreds of styles of kung fu taught all over the world, although they can be loosely divided into two camps: Shaolin style kung fu, and other techniques, some of which have a history which out dates the Shaolin order. Kung fu is seen with a variety of different spellings including gung fu and gong fu. This spelling variation is due to the difficulty of transliterating from Chinese to other languages. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese was transliterated using the Wade-Giles system, which transposed the Chinese “g” sound with a “k.” Parts of China and Taiwan still use the Wade-Giles system, but most of China has begun to use pinyin, which has replaced the “k” of the Wade-Giles system with a “g.” Bruce Lee and other famous martial artists from China also used the “g” when talking about gung fu. Shaolin gung fu has its origins in the fifth century. Like some other martial arts, it began in religious temples, where the monks sought a mind and body discipline.

In addition to the fighting style, kung fu also includes mental exercises and religious practices designed to balance the whole body. Kung fu is fundamentally about aligning the practitioner with chi, the life force which is believed to move all around us. Shaolin temples resembled universities, integrating a wide range of subjects of study. Therefore, traditional Shaolin styles such as Wing Chun, Crane, Praying Mantis, and Hung Gar incorporate knowledge from fields outside martial arts, such as the healing arts and meditation. Advocates for Shaolin styles believe that they are more rounded martial arts styles, and that practitioners will benefit from them on a whole body level. Other fighting styles, some of which predate the Shaolin style, are also lumped under the kung fu umbrella. They include Pa-Kua, Eagle Claw, and Eight Drunken Immortals styles. These kung fu disciplines are not considered to be Shaolin style because they did not originate in temples, and are focused primarily on fighting techniques. Whether Shaolin or otherwise, kung fu is characterized by self defense tactics which turn the energy of an attacker against him or her. Although the techniques may vary, individual kung fu styles teach grapples, throws, kicks, punches, and the use of weapons such as staffs. In addition to the physical discipline, most kung fu styles place an emphasis on respect, honor, and living a balanced life.

by Dancing with Fire January 9, 2011

Scissoring

Basically when a woman squeezes a guy tightly between her thighs making it hard for him to breathe. It's basically like a wrestling hold. The woman applies pressure to her victim once she has her thighs wrapped around her victim's body. There are a couple of different types of scissors like head scissors, body scissors, reversed head scissors, figure four, etc. Xenia Onatopp is a well known character known for scissoring her victims to death between her thighs in the James Bond movie Goldeneye. Scissoring can also refer to lesbian sex. Also note that women can scissor women or men scissoring women, etc etc.

Dude Jasmine was scissoring me so tightly yesterday. I eventually passed out between her thighs.

by Dancing with Fire November 4, 2010

Libertarian

Libertarianism boils down to two simple questions:

1) What does it mean to have liberty?

2) How do we, as a society, implement liberty in our daily lives?

Libertarians believe that people should be free to do whatever they want just as long as they do not hurt other people. For instance, if someone is minding their own business while smoking weed in their car or in their backyard, most libertarians will argue that he or she should be left alone. If the individual is truly sovereign, then they should be able to put whatever they want into their own body. For it is the individual who owns their body, not the state. Libertarians, such as the Libertarian Party, believe in "minimum government, maximum freedom"; while libertarians, such as the anarcho-capitalists wish to abolish the state. For this reason, people tend to stereotype all libertarians as anarchists. Libertarianism is a very broad political philosophy. One doesn't need to be a member of the party to be a libertarian, nor do they need to be an anarcho-capitalist. Finally, they do recognize the potential dangers of large corporations. They are pro-free market; not pro-corporation. They're also not made up of "wealthy individuals." This is also a generalization. They could come from a poor background, a middle class background, or a wealthy background. Libertarians believe everything should be voluntary.

by Dancing with Fire September 29, 2013

Carl von Clausewitz

The Prussian military theorist who is widely acknowledged as the most important of the major strategic theorists. Even though he's been dead for over a century and a half, he remains the most frequently cited, the most controversial, and in many respects the most modern. His most notable work, Vom Kriege (On War), was unfinished at his death.

"To achieve victory we must mass our forces at the hub of all power and movement, the enemy's centre of gravity." - Carl von Clausewitz

by Dancing with Fire October 11, 2011

Guerrilla Warfare

When a small irregular force takes on a large regular force through the use of hit and run tactics, the element of surprise, sabotage, destroying the enemies line of communications, etc.

For guerrilla warfare to work, the insurgent army must have the full support of the inhabitants in the area in which the guerrilla forces are trying to liberate. The enemy is also the source of the guerrilla army’s ammunition. Guerrilla is Spanish for "little war" and it originated with the actions of small bands of Spanish soldiers who fought against Napoleon’s French army in the Peninsular War (1807-1814).

by Dancing with Fire July 8, 2011

Menshevik

A member of the non-Leninist wing of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party.

The Mensheviks and Bolsheviks were both Communists, but they disagreed on how the revolution could be achieved. The Mensheviks believed in mobilizing the Russian masses (workers and peasants) against the existing establishment and in using the parliamentry system to achieve it, whereas the more radical Bolsheviks believed that the revolution should come about through the works of a small group of intellectual elites such as Lenin. The reason this confuses a lot of people is because Menshevik means "minority", and Bolshevik means "majority", when actually it was the Mensheviks who believed in a revolution of the majority, and the Bolsheviks in one of the minority. The reason for these paradoxies is that the names actually represent the size of their respective parties rather than their viewpoints-- the 1905 split between the two factions revealed that the MAJORITY of Communists were Bolsheviks, and the minority were Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks went on to carry out the revolution successfully.

by Dancing with Fire April 8, 2013