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 ##Vote Milvians  ##Vote Phanariotes Through faith and wisdom we shall prosper, and teach and learn. We are an empire reborn, and thus it is our holy duty to be an example to the world.
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Mar 10, 2014 12:13
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 ##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes I am pleased to find common ground with a number of Milvians in our Phanariote leanings. I am confident that the delevelopment of scholarship both secular and religious will strengthen the empire. Hopefully, further education will also allow the more heterodox subjects of the empire to see the light, without any repression involved.
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Mar 10, 2014 12:39
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 ##Vote Old Romans  ##Vote Expansionists The Rome of classic Antiquity was never satisfied with its borders, and neither should we. Expansion in ALL directions ensures we remain true to old Rome.
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Mar 10, 2014 12:47
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes My family has been voting for the New Byzantines for generations and I shall not dishonour them by casting my vote any other way.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:04
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes Ah, greetings. Senators, O' Great Empress. Forgive my rudeness and lack of manners, for this is my first meeting of the Senate, and one I'm glad to be part of. Some of you may remember my father, a passionate and outspoken if unloved member of the Senate. He thought that the Empire would never allow the Chosen People to hold titles, and that it was only through the art of moneylending and trade that we'd nourish ourselves a place in the Empire, ergo his almost all-consuming obsession with pushing Republicanism. If the sack and rebuilding of Venice proves anything, it is that he was incorrect. The Greeks and Orthodox are just as popular and proficient at trade as we are, and favored by the Empress as well. Do not mistake me, this is not a complaint, merely an observation. If my people are to find a safe haven and a place of prosperity in the Empire, it must come thanks to tolerance, education, and secularism. The Orthodox stranglehold on politics must be undone, for we now find ourselves lording over and protecting Jews, Mohammedans, and Catholics. Simiarly, bigotry, paranoia, and smallmindedness must be purged from the Empire. For these reasons and more I not only pledge my allegiance to the New Byzantine party and the Phanariotes coalition, but I encourage all right-minded men of the senate, especially the other Jews I see, to do the same. Thank you.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:11
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes While I consider myself a New Byzantine at heart, I heartily endorse the New/Old/Milivan notion of sending missionaries to convert the Ilkhanate Are we not already brothers in taking down the vile infidel Turks? We should further this by bringing the light of the true religion to their doors! The conversion of previously pagan Lithuania is a sign we should be trying to do this elsewhere as well!
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Mar 10, 2014 13:26
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##Vote Milvians ##Vote Phanariotes Friends, Romans, infidels, schismatics, heretics, drunks, and Komnenians (but I repeat myself), the holy Faith is seeing a resurgence. We have reconquered Antioch, and two of the five Patriarchs once again watch over their sees most faithfully. Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Rome remain, but the Empress has proven that God will reward our faith. Are we not his chosen people? Is the empress not his vice-gerent on Earth? I must say, however, that with our newfound wealth and power perhaps it is time not to relentlessly expand, but to remember that expansion has a cost - a great many people who are yet to understand and believe in the One True Faith, leaving our bishops spread thin and our knowledge spread moreso. Constantinople is one of the greatest seats of learning in the world, so I propose as a member of the Phanariotes that we accumulate some of our wealth to rebuild the Pandidakterion - both the Imperial Library and Imperial University have fallen into disrepair with the empire so focused on spending every last hyperpyron on the army. I imagine such an investment will pay off over the years, for a class of scholars who understand engineering, medicine, alchemy and optics will be able to improve both the empire's wealth and strength at arms. - - Also, here's the count of votes as of my post. Old Romans - 4 New Byzantines - 7 Milvians - 4 Komnenians - 3 Fraternalists - 0 T.R.A.I.T.O.R.S - 1 Iconoclasts - 0 Guiding Light - 1 Steppes and Republics - 0 Loyalists - 0 Unitas - 0 New Marians - 2 Expansionists - 5 Phanariotes - 11 occipitallobe fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 13:30
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes I would also like to re-iterate the importance of attempting to convert the Khans of the East, the one of the Ilkhanate in particular. Because if we don't, I see horse archers charging Constantinople fairly soon.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:36
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes Arbitrary Coin posted:While I consider myself a New Byzantine at heart, I heartily endorse the New/Old/Milivan notion of sending missionaries to convert the Ilkhanate Are we not already brothers in taking down the vile infidel Turks? We should further this by bringing the light of the true religion to their doors! The conversion of previously pagan Lithuania is a sign we should be trying to do this elsewhere as well! It's good to see the Senate back in session! I wholeheartedly second this notion.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:40
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Samuel posted:Do we actually get Roman legions somewhere up the tech tree? Not unless we can invent a time machine. Horsebanger posted:The Rome of classic Antiquity was never satisfied with its borders Except, you know, after Trajan.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:45
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 ##Vote Steppes and Republics Just to be clear we of Steppes and Republics take no issue with non-Steppe republics. Unless they are not part of the Empire. Screw non-Empire Republics.
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Mar 10, 2014 13:47
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##Vote Old Romans
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Mar 10, 2014 13:51
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Duckbag posted:Not unless we can invent a time machine. But aren't legionnaire's tactically superior to knights and peasants?
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Mar 10, 2014 14:07
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##Vote New Byzantines As always, it is the most reasonable and effective choice.
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Mar 10, 2014 14:12
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 ##Vote Komnenians We've come so far under the rule of the Komnenians. Not fully supporting them would be treason.
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Mar 10, 2014 14:14
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 ##Vote Fraternalists ##Vote Phanariotes Glory! Glory to the Empire, now the Venetian dog(e)s lay defeated at our feet! But our job is not yet done, there is still more that we can do to swell the coffers of our glorious state. Let us first make war on Genoa, and banish their trade posts from our land so our LOYAL Venetian republic can take back what posts it lost. Then, let us establish a Levantine republic, so that we may gain trade from that region too instead of the heretics and the infidels. Rejected Fate fucked around with this message at 14:21 on Mar 10, 2014 |
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Mar 10, 2014 14:14
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 ##Vote Loyalists As a loyalist, I will also throw my support behind all of the coalitions.  ##Vote New Marians ##Vote Expansionists ##Vote Phanariotes Also I continue to support the planned conversion of Khans.
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Mar 10, 2014 14:23
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##Vote New Marians ##Vote Old Romans
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Mar 10, 2014 14:47
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes Orthodoxy is the light!
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Mar 10, 2014 15:00
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes Educate the heretics, heathens and all others, with words and swords.
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Mar 10, 2014 15:23
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##Vote Old Romans ##Vote Expansionists My Empress, Cilicia must be incorporated immediately into the Empire. Our Armenian brothers must be persuaded to cease their schismatic nonsense (no, not the TRAITOR kind of schismatic, calm down) and rejoin the true Church. The Cilician Gates are not a bad prize, either. Many have been the times that they have served the Empire as a formidable natural fortification. Additionally, I would call your attention to Italy. While Sicily, the schismatic Bishop of Rome, and the Germans control large swathes of the peninsula, many independent or loosely affiliated lords remain and would prove ripe avenues for expansion.
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Mar 10, 2014 15:24
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##Vote Old Romans ##Vote New Marians
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Mar 10, 2014 15:29
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##Vote New Byzantines
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Mar 10, 2014 15:31
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 ##Vote Guiding Light ##Vote Phanariotes
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Mar 10, 2014 15:43
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 ##Vote Unitas I would like to point out that Unitas was founded as a coalition, but if the Empress disagrees, who am I to question? In any case, I find the description of my organization rude and painfully inaccurate, especially for one who is already implementing the policies we endorse. Giving Venice to Greek patricians is one glorious step down the long road to cultural and religious unity. However, it is but one step. We must do as our ancestors did: Romanize. Every citizen of the Empire should speak Greek and convert to Orthodoxy! All other languages and faiths are simply superfluous. Why would any deny this? I want the Empire to have a shared and glorious past, along with a great future to come! How can this be when all the barriers of old are pointlessly maintained? No, every doux, patrician and priest should be Roman, and have a mandate to Romanize the provinces! It isn't oppression or barbarity, but ascendance! Also: ##Vote Expansionists
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Mar 10, 2014 15:44
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##Vote Old Romans We must resture the shism between our faither and our catholic brothers and return ourselves to the level of greatness we once held.
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Mar 10, 2014 16:08
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##Vote Guiding Light ##Vote Phanariotes
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Mar 10, 2014 16:17
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##Vote Old Romans I am filled with pride that Antioch, glorious jewel of the Roman province of Syria is restored. May we continue to embrace the traditions and reclaim the Empire of Constantine and his noble forebears.
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Mar 10, 2014 17:03
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Sinner Sandwich posted:If my people are to find a safe haven and a place of prosperity in the Empire, it must come thanks to tolerance, education, and secularism. The Orthodox stranglehold on politics must be undone, for we now find ourselves lording over and protecting Jews, Mohammedans, and Catholics. Simiarly, bigotry, paranoia, and smallmindedness must be purged from the Empire. ##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes  Gurgen I Qutuzid Senator Sandwich speaks the truth. In her eternal wisdom Basilissa Valeria and her ancestors has seen to the rights of the minorities of the Empire, allowing Turks, Slavs, Jews, Italians and Steppe People alike to keep their faith and tongue in exchange for their loyalty to the Basilissa and the crown. Yet there are still large rifts to be mended between the minorities and the Greek majority. We are still treated as second-grade citizen, still not seen as true Byzantines. And there are even those who seek to go further still. The extremist TEA Party, or the Unitas as they style themselves, seek to eradicate everything they see as unfit and improper and replace with with a Greek Orthodox monotone. The Byzantine Empire, and in particular Constantinople, has a strength of Diversity. Jewish Moneylenders and Pecheneg Merchants exchange currencies in our docks, Norse Varangian and Turkish ex-Mercenaries guard our walls, Christian and Mohammedan children play on the same street and at times with each other, and even in Her very own Senate there are non-Greek tongues floating around from us gathered Senators. Works of science and art are not exclusively written in Greek but many in Arabic, Latin, and some even in Hebrew. I implore the Basilissa, may her ruling be true and just, to see to our diversity as a strength and not as a weakness. To further the acceptance of the minorities into the empire, and in the end to make us all equal citizen along her own Greek Orthodox roots. To educate the populace and fund the Imperial University of Constantinople. And finally, to cite senator Sandwich: "Purge the Empire of Bigotry, Paranoia and Small-mindedness."
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Mar 10, 2014 17:08
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 ##Vote True Religion's Advocates In Time Of Rebellion & Strife We may in these days have less rebellion and strife in our empire, but we have no less need of True Religion. We have no less need of reconciling ourselves with the one true Pontiff of Rome. No less need of true Christian humility and unity. Remember that a vote for T.R.A.I.T.O.R.S. is a vote for: - a clear and transparent government, - a separation of Church and state, - and creation of a broad international family all Christians of Europe can partake in, a grand pan-European dream of friendship and understanding. Also, I have a formal inquiry: can we still form new coalitions, or are we already at "enough is enough" level?
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Mar 10, 2014 17:13
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Heresy and idolatry! You would "undo" the Orthodox "stranglehold"? How can Senators not understand? There is one true faith: Orthodoxy. To allow any to stray from it is crime against God! You would condemn thousands to hell for political gain, or the feel-good "humanism" of the philosophers that still plague us? All of you are unworthy of seats in this Senate, or even a place in this Empire! What Unitas seeks is not monotony, but a world in which we are finally free! Freedom comes from equality, which cannot be as long as the chains of language, culture, and false faith hold so many conquered peoples back! The base steppe tongues have no place in the Imperial Court. Slavs stole the Balkans, but they can be properly assimilated. And Italians? The unworthy blood heirs must be retaught all they have forgotten.
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Mar 10, 2014 17:22
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##Vote Komnenians ##Vote Phanariotes Wait, you guys actually, like, vote on things? This is still the party where we drink a lot and talk about how great the Empress is, right? And that other thing the Empress said she likes, let's do that thing too. Now where did that adorable dog get off to?
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Mar 10, 2014 17:30
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Lord Cyrahzax posted:
I am not my father, and as such, I'll not risk alienating the Senate and our beloved Empress by reminding you that you were shunned from the Almighty's love the moment you were born, but I'll remind you, as I'm sure my father did, that the Empire has been kept afloat many times by the good works and heroism of those you'd seek to oppress, exile, or execute. Perhaps I should draw up my family's accounts, so that we may remind all the good men here that the mercenaries that crushed the Caliphs and Sultans of the East came on Jewish coin-- jewish coin that a Christian would have been unable to lend. Perhaps we should ask the marshal to give us a report of how many Steppe-dwellers, Italians, and even Bulgarians died keeping you and I safe from the Mohammedans and, long ago, from the rampaging douxes in the near-constant rebellions of the past. But I must apologize, I'm being far too aggressive. You'll have to excuse me, when the fate of thousands of Byzantine citizens is at stake, I cannot help but become impassioned. Senator Qutuzid made an excellent point, both in how diverse the foundations of Byzantine strength are, and in the necessity for a university. Perhaps, if our noble Empress sees fit to build such a center of learning, I will pay for your education there, so we may see the world with clarity together, unclouded by zealotry and pigheaded idiocy more befitting of a German peasant than a Byzantine senator. Ah, pardon me again, I'm afraid I'm having trouble holding my tongue. A thousand apologies, Senator Cyrahzax, but please, consider my offer, and reconsider your position. ...Blasted dullard.
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Mar 10, 2014 17:40
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Lord Cyrahzax posted:
My fellow Senator, what you propose is to forget the traditions that have sustained our great Empire in its strongest hours. Do you not recall that the very reason we lost the West was intolerance? While there is only one true faith, our infidel and schismatic citizens must be brought to the faith through its truth rather than by the sword. We are Roman and thus eternal; we can afford the patience necessary for a peaceful course of action in this matter. Your opinions on culture are simply provincial. We are all united by a common tongue and a common purpose.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:04
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##Vote Milvians ##Vote Expansionists
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Mar 10, 2014 18:07
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Duckbag posted:
##Vote Komnenians Friend senator, you seem to be in somewhat of a funk. I would worry less about the, so called "Black Chamber" and more about the new and exotic places to drink and party.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:14
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes While I think now might well be a good opportunity to vote for a Roman agenda, I feel the palpable need to oppose this so-called Unitas party, and find that the strongest speakers against it are New Byzantine thinkers, who I generally agree with anyway. If we spend time dividing ourselves into "true" and "false" citizens of our Empire, we will only devour ourselves. For, when we have only Orthodox Greeks in our empire, as "true citizens," who's to say a group thinking we must only have Orthodox Greeks who bet on the Blues as "True Citizens," or only Orthodox Greek soldiers, or how "Orthodox" does a man have to be to be a "true citizen"? Or so on. Once divisiveness has a foothold, once a citizen finds that loyalty and productivity, service and trust in his or her empress and his or her senate to protect and lead, is not enough to be counted amongst the true citizens, it will only grow into barbarism and unrest. Of course, the value of learning and scholarship, secular or religious, in hopes of better understanding our past glories, in better understanding new ways to improve our mighty nation, and in hopes of producing a better empire, a better citizen, a better society, cannot be overstated. About knowledge, I am nothing but an idealist.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:25
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes My family has long supported the New Byzatines, ever since we immigrated from our homeland in Germany, but for too long we have scoffed at these "coalitions." The New Marians were, and remain, superfluous. We stand surrounded by potential enemies, so of course we need to maintain a strong military, for both offense and defense and to keep rebellious douxes in line. The Expansionists, meanwhile, would see our forces stretched to the limit, not just militarily but in terms of bureaucracy. Their initiatives would also create an unnecessary number of new douxes. Though perhaps if some sort of bureaucratic post was created to organize the douxes, to keep them united a sub-banner of the empire, but then that post would have to be held by an individual of outstanding loyalty, and loyalty is always in short supply. In any case, the Phanariotes suggest wisdom and the gathering information. As we all know, knowledge is the cornerstone of strength. With the correct information and intelligence, one can shape the world. In the spirit of the Phanariotes, I suggest the creation of Universities, with a scholarship program where the best and brightest youths, of all classes and faiths, can gather to learn and add that learning to our glorious empire. I also suggest the expansion of the Black Chamber, for their services provide us with more immediate intelligence.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:39
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes
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Mar 10, 2014 18:40
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##Vote New Byzantines ##Vote Phanariotes When a serpent eats a large rodent or bird, its agility is impeded while it digests the meal. Such is the condition of Glorious Byzantium at this time. Let us finish digesting Antioch and the remainder of Anatolia before attempting the next course which good Caliph Ali has cooked up for us. Win over the Anatolian Turk and Armenian first and let them share in our enlightenment.
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Mar 10, 2014 18:48
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