Politics

One of the persistent claims of fiscal conservatives is that so-called "progressive" policies like graduated income tax, welfare, or social security are unfair and harmful to the economy by punishing economic success and rewarding failure. Like most broad, provocative generalizations in politics, this claim is (by my statistical analysis) about 80% bullshit. If it were actually true, nobody would try to become rich, because it would be more advantageous to be poor. Obviously we don't have that problem, nor would we even if we managed to cut off "corporate welfare" or close all the various loopholes those with a lot of money can take advantage of to pay far less than you …

Or so he claims: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7105001.stm I've hoped this festering sore of a case would finally break open and something would come of it, but so far we've seen little beyond the trial and subsequent pardon of Scooter Libby. This is direct confirmation by a White House insider that the President sought to directly deceive the American people by asking his press secretary to lie. Well, there's my spin, I'm sure there's others who will try to spin it the opposite direction somehow.

Over 70,000 patients in the US now need kidney transplants, but less than 16,000 donations are found each year. The waiting list has grown to five years, and each year 5,000 waiting list patients die. An American doctor has proposed a solution -- allowing people to sell their kidneys for money. The plan involves psychological screening and government regulation, and the recipient receives a large cash payment (maybe $60,000) and free medical care for life (probably some sort of insurance plan). The article below sketches things out a little differently from the TV story, but it's from the same source. (I've seen odd discrepencies between their TV stories an…

The Australian media has attacked the LDP because of its policy of legalizing incest. The LDP claims incest is a victimless crime. Suppose we were to adopt a capitalist system of morality. The reason why capitalists should believe incest should be legalized is the same reason why free trade should be legalized. Evident in the failure of communism, politicians are not good at running your life. Under a capitalist system, you as an individual choose what car to buy, what stocks to buy, or whom you have sex with. If a man decides through his own contemplation that buying a Ford is his choice, then capitalists believe in the consumer given the right to choose rather than …

Choose the (main) candidate for United States President you would like to see get the nomination from the Republican and Democratic Parties. If you feel like nominating a candidate from each party because you support both or would like to see a particular race (like me), then feel free, but obviously nominating a candidate from the party you oppose just because you think he/she is weak misses the point a bit. Let this be a vehicle for discussion and what-not. If your candidate isn't listed feel free to make a bitter, rejected post to that effect. EDIT: Don't select multiple candidates from the same party if you can help it. That sort of distorts the results.

Is it me, or most of the time when the expression "political correctness" is used in a debate, it's simply a fallacious argument to discredit an idea with minimal effort ? In short, it's a straw man. Not that "political correctness" doesn't exist, but it's not, in itself, an argument. It's just amazing to see how far people are ready to go just to avoid a debate of substance.

I had a conversation over at dinner last night about this and the one conclusion that despite all claims and all forms of propaganda out there, most people and most nearly all institutions (e.g. colleges, corporations, governments, etc) seem to be inherently racist or intolerant to some degree. For example, take the various "diversity" and other affirmative action programs upheld in many colleges. Though I am supported by such programs myself (and I know I probably shouldn't be complaining especially since I have a huge scholarship from those programs, but I'm not a person who takes things for granted or a person who believes in ideology), one observation I see is th…

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/31/funeral.protests.ap/index.html BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals in the belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality. Albert Snyder of York, Pennsylvania, sued the Westboro Baptist Church for unspecified damages after members demonstrated at the March 2006 funeral of his son, Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. The jury first awarded $2.9 million in compensatory damages. It returned later in the afternoon with its decision to award $6 mi…

Pat Robertson, televangelist and southern baptist who proclaimed 9/11 God's punishment for tolerance of gays and abortion, has given his official endorsement to Rudy Giuliani: non-practicing Catholic, thrice-divorced, conspicuously Italian-American, New Yorker, supporter of gay marriage, abortion rights, and harsh gun-control laws. Thoughts?

I've been following this "Kid Nation" controversy for a while now, trying to form an opinion. Or rather trying to find a reason not to believe that the end of western civilization has arrived. As you may know, CBS put together this thing as a reality show featuring children who were basically at a run-amok summer camp without adult supervision. A kind of real-life Lord of the Flies scenario. For money -- a $5,000 stipend, with a chance to win more. Children as young as EIGHT were allowed to participate. And the parents willingly signed their children up for this. The same sort of parents who would probably bring a lawsuit if the nearby public school were to se…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7090901.stm Sound familiar to anyone?

Our success is killing us The aims of technology are achieved and our chances for survival are fatally diminished. The fault is not in our technology but in us. The fault lies within human society. McLuhan made us aware of the fact that technology is an extension of our self. I would say that we and also our ecosystem are both gestalts, a whole, wherein there are complex feedback loops that permit self healing and various means that protect us from our self. The dictionary defines gestalt as meaning a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties no…

CorporateSexOffenders.com has labelled YouTube as the most dangerous site for harboring pedophiles. See http://www.corporatesexoffenders.com/?archive=159 Don't you think this disgust at pedophiles is good reason to limit free speech?

MIT student arrest for "fake bomb" at Logan Airport. (The news sites I perused don't actually show the device. Great reporting) http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/09/21/star_simpson/ http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/09/woman_arrested.html http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/21/mit-student-arrested.html People, don't carry anything that has blinking LEDs, or exposed wiring in Boston. Ever. Apparently crude electronics = explosive. They apparently don't understand that a real bomb probably wouldn't look like a cartoon- or MacGuyver-ish-TV bomb. It would be disguised to look like a cell phone, or an ipod, or in a book, or something else …

http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/11/cast_your_vote_for_real_scienc.php Conservative bloggers (more here) have helped push Steve McIntyre's pseudoscience blog http://climateaudit.org to the top of the vote for the 2007 Science Weblog Awards. Here's a writeup on some of the pseudoscience Steve McIntyre has tried to push, for those interested: http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/09/the_mcintyre_factor.php Steve McIntyre is a former mining executive with no climate science background. His writing on climate science has thus far been limited to his blog and the non-peer reviewed conservative journal Energy & Environment: http://pubs.acs.org…

Bush compared Congressional Democrats' opposition, err, "stalling" on "important pieces of legislation," i.e. condoning the spying he performed illegally on American citizens for so long with ignoring the rise of Lenin (yes, who cares about Stalin, Lenin was the real bad guy) or Hitler. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/politics/main3441060.shtml This invective wouldn't be stupid and inept if Bush were likening the leader of a specific nation to Lenin or Hitler. If he were likening Ahmadinejad to the next Hitler it'd make Bush a dick, but at least it'd be somewhat apt. Ahmadinejad is at least the leader of a country. But no, Bush isn't doing that. H…

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709220333 Specifically, he told his classroom that the Adam and Eve story, which directly contracts the evolutionary concept of all life on earth originating from a common ancestor, should not be interpreted literally. Now granted, this was in a western civilization class and not in a biology classroom, but the result was several students filing a class action lawsuit, resulting in the university's decision to fire the teacher. Should science end in the science classroom? Should teachers be afraid of teaching science when it conflicts with religion? I certainly don't think so. I would certainly …

What moral attitude should we take toward Globalism? From the American workers view the positive side of Globalism is that many workers worldwide in very poor countries will experience a significant increase in their standard of living because the manufacturing of certain products that were manufactured in America are manufactured in their country. From the American workers view the negative side of Globalism is that the standard of living of many Americans will decline significantly because of the work that has gone to poor countries. From the American capital owning and financial brokerage view Globalism is the best thing since sliced bread. What moral …

Quote ""Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed 60 Minutes: Iraqi's Fabricated Story Of Biological Weapons Aided U.S. Arguments For Invasion 'Curve Ball' Revealed (CBS) 60 Minutes has identified the man whose fabricated story of Iraqi biological weapons drove the U.S. argument for invading Iraq. It has also obtained video of "Curve Ball," as he was known in intelligence circles, and discovered he was not only a liar, but also a thief and a poor student instead of the chemical engineering whiz he claimed to be. 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon's two-year investigation will be broadcast this Sunday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Curve Ball is an Iraqi defect…

Here is a place for all good Science Forums readers to discuss what you love or hate about the UN. If you have an opinion about the UN or just want to make a comment, please post it here. For example: Do you feel that the organization is effective or not. What have they done right? What have they done wrong? What might you change about the UN if you could do so? Should the UN even exist? What should the UN's mandate be? Should they have control over US military forces? Share your conspiracy theories. Anything else? I'll get the ball rolling. To start with, I feel that the UN is a self serving, largely ineffective, corrupt organization which sits o…

Link includes video: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20153859,00.html At least seven people are DEAD because of those fires. This was on one of the most popular daytime television programs in the country. I think Carlin is an idiot and a jerk. What a completely moronic and insulting thing to say. I think there's a perfectly valid point to be made that housing development methods contributed to these problems -- nobody seems to disagree with that point. But this is the kind of knee-jerk idiocy that drives people AWAY from doing the right things, like building housing more intelligently and fighting global warming. What the heck was he thi…

This is one thing that I am trying to figure out. It is a well known fact that the voter turnouts in recent elections, presidential or otherwise, are rather low. A quick look at the charts on PBS website shows that since the 60's, voter turnout has been on the decline: http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/votestats.html It seems to me that people don't really seem to care anymore. Indeed, in an article about this on CNN, one guy who was interviewed, when asked this question, said "it doesn't make a difference to me". Other people I have asked said similar things and expressed similar views, that their either "too busy" or "i don't have time to think about it" and so on. Co…

PBS's Frontline has a new episode out this week about the showdown between the United States and Iran. As usual it provides great insight into the conflict. The entire episode is available for viewing online. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/showdown/etc/synopsis.html One of the points presented in the piece is that the US missed an opportunity to work with Iran on settling Iraq before the insurgency. Unfortunately I think the producers let Iran off the hook for much of its two-wrongs thinking. If Iran is such a white hat how 'bout they show it by being a good neighbor instead of a bad one? People wondering "whether Bush will start another war" ar…

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/18/science.race/index.html Just wondering what you all thought of this guy. I don't know anything about him, really. Is this race remark a big deal in Europe? Seems like the comments I've read debunking his comments aren't really substantive - rather sound more like people who are concerned with the downstream implications rather than the accuracy of his statement. But is it really irrational? How is he wrong? Don't misunderstand, I don't think he's right. I just want the meat and potatoes that proves him wrong. Anyone?

Why does money determine who becomes president of the United States instead of ability, vision, and leadership? If you disagree with my opening premise, that’s fine, but I am opening this thread with that as a maxim, so please do treat it as a given. Money, or more accurately, the ability to raise lots of it, determines the final list of 2 or 3 from which the citizenry can choose when entering the ballot box. On several occasions and for too many years, when I have arrived at the local high school or community college to place my vote, I have felt disheartened knowing that I was not choosing the best person for the job, but I was instead choosing from the …