socialism

A political ideology which has been applied at many different levels and with many different results. It has evolved over time and has influenced many other ideologies (such as National Socialism, Communism and moderate Liberal Capitalism, Anarchists also ocassionaly refer to themselves as liberal socialists).

Modern socialist ideas are normally based on re-distribution of wealth by means of a progressive taxation system. For example providing a minimum wage for workers and health benfits in times of sickness.

Although socialism has traditionally been associated with public ownership, many Socialist governments (such as the British Labour Party under Tony Blair) now favour a system of "democratic capitalism" where the government and the market co-operate to provide basic services and living standards to the citizens of a country. See also The Third Way.

Socialism is also associated with unionisation, stemming from a belief that workers should not be exploited by artificialy created market conditions. However the intensity of this belief does seem to vary widley across different groups of socialists.
Arthur Scargill's style of socialism is only one of many interpretations, and differs from Tony Blair's style of socialism.
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xxx

A Turkey (three strikes) in Ten Pin Bowling. The maximum score in any single frame (actually only the last one).
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wrap

A small folded piece of paper containing Speed or some other powdered drug.
I can do you a wrap for 10.
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chaska

a dang small little town in minnesota. Quite boring.
I hate the boring town of Chaska.
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signal to noise ratio

The ratio of useful information to useless information in any given statement.
George W Bush has a very low signal to noise ratio.
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mutually assured destruction

A situation in which two states have enough weapons (typically nuclear) to ensure that should one launch an attack the other would be able to respond in a strong enough way to destroy the attacker. Both would be destroyed.

This situation is supposed to prevent either side from launching such an attack.

The Cold War between the USA and the USSR in the 20th Century is an example of such a situation.
With our stockpiles of nukes we have mutually assured destruction in the case of a launch.
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virus

I picked up an AOL CD and now I have a virus.
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