Politics

This unusual and interesting concept has been floating around since Myanmar (Burma) got smacked by a hurricane about a week ago. Aid agencies have been struggling to get permission to enter the country, with only a trickle of aid being allowed in thus far. The suggestion that's been made is that relief be provided to the country's people whether the regime in power wants it or not. The effort would be international in scope, and France is leading the charge with the US in support. The French want the UN Security Council to debate the issue immediately. Russia and China, however, are opposed to the idea. I think it's interesting but I am more than a little bi…

Culture warrior Bill O is at it again. This time, he's up in arms about one Miley Cyrus: http://www.usmagazine.com/bill-oreilly-dad-turned-miley-cyrus-into-a-sex-symbol-at-fifteen MIDDLE AMERICA DOES NOT APPROVE! Since when is "Middle America" code for uptight prudish assholes? Yes, the 15 year old star of Disney's Hannah Montana will be appearing in a provocative photo in a magazine nobody gives a crap about. Here it is for the curious: http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_01/MileycyrusVF_468x613.jpg OH NO! You can see her... back! Is this indicative of America's growing cultural debauchery, or do child stars just naturally grow up and tur…

As anyone around here knows I've been pretty much a pro-Obama anti-Hillary guy since the two of them emerged as the Democratic frontrunners some two years ago. Well, time has marched on, and primaries have revealed that others feel the same way. It's practically impossible for Hillary to win at this point... BUT SHE'S NOT GOING TO LET THAT STOP HER! urgh...

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/saddam-hussein.html From Saddam's diary: "The spread of the Persians... is more dangerous for Iraq than the Zionist entity, now and in the future," he wrote. "The Persians are similarly dangerous to the Arab nation, especially the Arab countries of the Gulf." The more friendly Iraq is with Iran, the better the Middle East situation will be. This won't happen with US presence in Iraq. Better to leave soon and let them have diplomacy. If Iran invades, it will be much easier to take them out than to sit in Iraq currently. Evidence the Iraq wars - the military is much more adept at killing and destroying than m…

The show originally ran about a year ago, and was repeated last week. The entire episode may be viewed online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/ I'm a huge fan of Frontline, so I was sorry to see this. There were some parts of it that were interesting and well done, but the episode centered around an approach that ALL sides of the GW debate here at SFN have agreed are flawed. They tout Kyoto, for example, completely ignoring its flaws (but the points about how it was like "flipping a bird at our allies" is one that most here have agreed on at various times). The real problem is that numerous examples of current events are touted as examples…

I have mixed feelings about the Jeremiah Wright situation, but I think more questions need to be asked. For those who haven't heard, he's Obama's pastor, who was jettisoned from the campaign last week after some of his more insensitive (but apparently quite common) America-bashing remarks became public. Here are some examples: Source here. Wright has also said that the US is responsible for 9/11 through its acts of "terrorism" against black people. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I guess he's entitled to his opinion. Wright helped organize the "Million Man March", and once visited Libyan president Qadafi with Louis Farrakhan, w…

Okay, so i was reading the newspaper and seen that gordon brown has decided to reclass cannabis as a class B drug again. He did this against the advice of his scientific advisors. I want to make one point very clear here before people respond: I do NOT care whether you think cannabis should be class A/B/C/legal or whatever, this is about ignoring scientific advisors. now, i thought the whole point of advisors was to tell you how it is. It is obviously impossible for the government leaders(or anybody) to be experts in every field they are likely to make desicions in, so they hire real experts to tell them what should be done and if they are about to make a stupid m…

As I look at (particularly American) society today, I see science under siege. Abuse and manipulation are rampant. The Bush administration has been doing like crazy, and it goes back further. Tobacco companies did it, Gingrich did it, Creationists do it, whole segments of society seem to be systematically distorting and misusing science in myriad and insidious ways. And it works. Why? I would suggest primarily the nature of its complexity and its "ivory tower" reputation, as well as how how poorly most of the public understand it or its methods. There are certainly other factors that I'm missing. In any event, science seems particularly and perhaps fatally vulner…

As you may have heard, the Kentucky Derby ended in tragedy yesterday when the second-place horse, a female named Eight Belles, possibly overburdened by an extremly fast pace set by a male who won by over 4 lengths, collapsed on two broken ankles and was immediately euthanized. Animal rights activists promptly leapt on the issue, bringing up the usual litany of concerns (many of which are valid, IMO), and pressed the current presidential candidates to speak out on the issue. At which point somebody remembered that two days earlier Hillary Clinton, in one of those standard publicity moves on the campaign trail, had stated that she was going to place a bet on Eight…

I know that many political commentators around the world, and especially in the US still doubt anthropogenic global warming and strongly oppose any measures to try and reduce it like the Kyoto protocol, and measures suggested along the lines of implementing a crbon tax. My question concerns primarily this: Why is it the conservative political movement, particularly the paleoconservatives, so vehemently deny that global warming is taking place? Personally, I agree with a lot on economics, and questions concerning goverment regulation and interference with the market, with Ron Paul, who does himself deny global warming occurring and has support from a lot of paleoconse…

This is not a thread to argue about Roe v Wade, rather just trying to understand the logic here behind the decision in Roe V Wade. I'm not really understanding the relationship between privacy and due process of law. These terms get tossed around a bunch, but when it comes down to it, I have a tenuous understanding of it, at best. (Does this not imply that with due process, then you can violate privacy and thereby stop an abortion?) And what exactly are they referring to with "privacy"? The knowledge of their pregnancy to begin with? Or physical violation? I'm unsure what component is a violation of privacy - or exactly what privacy was being violated. …

Lately it seems the media has been running many stories about how the conversion of corn and other grains into ethanol is greatly increasing the costs of food. It seems that because the USA is converting 25% of the corn crop into fuel, most of the world will starve. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121101834.html This seems like nonsense to me as, after the grain is converted ( http://www.ddgs.umn.edu/overview.htm ), the remaining material (distillers grain) still contains 91% dietary equivalent. Is 9% of 25% = 2.25% of only the US crop going to result in mass starvation? I think not. Another way I have thought about …

Separatist tensions are flaring in Georgia now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7375736.stm Abkhazs in Abkhazia and ethnic Russians in South Ossetia are growing restless and seem eager (with no Russian objections) to call on the case of Kosovo as precedent for their cause. Do they have a point here? Is there a difference between the two situations or is this a bit of Western hypocrisy? Or is it instead Russian hypocrisy? So many questions.

I contacted the EPA regarding the presence of radionucleotides in cigarettes, namely polonium-210 and lead-210, asking why they weren't regulated. This is the response I received: What I can infer from this response: The EPA is fully aware there are radionucleotides present in cigarettes. Present laws do not allow them to regulate the radionucleotide content of cigarettes. Let's put the issue of how harmful these radionucleotides are for a second... Do you think, just as a matter of principle, that the EPA should have the power to regulate them? And as an aside, I contacted my senator about preventable safety problems in cigarettes, including…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7354089.stm Parliament is about to debate measures that will see all forms of paid-for paranormal activities fall under the new Consumer Protection Regulations. Personally I'd love to see this happen in America as well.

Click the link to see the release party with Steve Jobs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mCCYLC-4xA Oh... how I love brilliance intertwined with humor.

According to the Constitution, the President of the United States must be a natural-born US citizen. He or she cannot be "naturalized", i.e. be a citizen of another country that has become a US citizen. This is the clause from the Constitution: The question is whether the phrase "natural born citizen" refers to Americans born inside the confines of the country, or whether they are born as citizens (i.e. to two American parents, or via one of the other criteria (there are many)). The framers probably meant the later -- people born as citizens, regardless of location. The framers never really talked about it, and (interestingly) the clause was never debate…

...if you count Florida and Michigan. From her "Fact Hub": http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=7265 Yes, if you count the states who did rogue primaries, including Michigan where Obama wasn't even on the ballot, Hillary leads the popular vote! If you don't count them, Obama is a half million votes ahead.

This should be good. John Stossel, one of the few libertarians in modern mainstream media, interviews the queen of welfare-state liberalism, Ariana Huffington. Here are some juicy experts from Stossel's weekly email announcement: Rofl. You tell her, brother! The show it tomorrow (Friday) night, April 26th, in the ABC network here in the states. I imagine it will show up on YouTube or at least ABC's web site.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4712330&page=1 Apparently more and more employers are taking a hard line about heathcare. Some companies refuse to hire smokers, for example. But what this story is about is a case in which employees stated on their applications that they were non-smokers (in order to get a healthcare discount), and then we seen smoking outside a building on company premises. To me that seems like a pretty clear-cut case of fraud, but the larger issue of employers screening applicants over healthy practices is one for concern, given the way it's based on medical information that can often be rapidly developing or not fully understood, …

Do we need to know who is right?

According to former Michigan governer John Engler, writing in today's Wall Street Journal, the increase in the trade deficit due to NAFTA is mainly due to increased domestic energy purchases from Canada and Mexico, NOT lost manufacturing jobs. If you remove that from the accounting, lost jobs due to NAFTA are almost offset by agricultural and manufacturing exports. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120873451908929781.html?mod=djemEditorialPage It actually makes a lot of sense to buy more energy in North America. It seems likely in fact that the amount will climb even higher, as Canada increases shale production. That makes NAFTA a good thing, not a bad thi…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jB9mb6XhD28

BOYCOTT CHINA OLYMPICS. Mod Note: This is a new Tibet discussion thread. I pulled the most relevent posts from the previous thread, which will be removed. Post away.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7336731.stm General Petraeus has told Congress that to keep the gains made by the surge, it is going to need to be maintained just a bit longer after the first withdrawals to be made in July. Is this reasonable? Perhaps predictably, Hillary and Obama don't think so, while McCain is probably more gung-ho than Petraeus. I'm really not sure of much of anything with Iraq. I've almost come to the point where I doubt I'm qualified even to have an opinion. I am quite sure of one point on which Petraeus and I seem to agree, however: leaving permanent bases in Iraq is a bad idea. Military bases aren't inherently bad, obviously, and if…