Politics

While I've kept Hillary as a potential albeit undesirable candidate for my vote, much like Jon Stewart interested in her healthcare proposal (watch the video), she's just lost my vote. Celine Dion? I have to vote for that? What the crap? Hint to Hillary: People already think you're a harpy. Thinking about liking you makes me feel dirty inside. I hate to think you'll get the Democratic nomination, because you will be so devisive. And now you're going to make me listen to Celine Dion while you're campaigning? The horror! I'd just like to say I pledge my support to a man who is a uniter, not a divider. Obama '08!

Is Malathion still used in the US? Just checking. The political implications are being discussed in this thread.

Comrades! I come to you to inform you about the truth about communism. Now then, up to this point you got a rather one sided, and totally biased view purpotrated by those slimy capitalist pigs. All your life, you have been brainwashed into serving your corporate masters, of which all they do is exploit the masses in order to make a buck. Under Communism, this doesn't happen. In a communist society, the workers would own the means of production, and they wouldn't have to answer to any capitalist whore. You see, what these capitalist pigs don't understand is that the workers will inevitably rise up against them and overthrow their oppressive establishment. It is all na…

Okay so i was playing 'hitman2' 5 minutes ago, in case you don't know, this is a game where you go around assasinating people and causing general gorey slaughter by the bucket load with various interesting weapons. now, this game is rated 16+ as well. anyway, to the point. during one of the cutscenes i noticed a very crazy peice of censorship. the word 'goddamn'(it was in the subtitles) was bleeped out. what... the... hell...? what were the people who made that thinking? 'sure you can have all the gore you want, just don't cuss while your doing it' and why even use it if its going to get bleeped anyway? why can't people just leave things alone and let the profanity fl…

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/06/11/autism.vaccines.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories While the nature of autism is not well understood, most current research points to a combination of genetic causes. While I can't question their devotion to their children, these parents are blinded by a correlation implies causation fallacy (the time of the onset of symptoms and when the vaccine was administered) with absolutely no scientific backing.

Was scouring through the news this morning and ran across this... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,280413,00.html Personally, I'm against the death penalty in any crime, no matter how heinous. But, for the reasons people are put to death presently, I don't think this is too much of a stretch. A raped child, especially, is essentially dead when you consider who they are afterward compared to who they were. What do you all think?

Amusing quote from an article about the weekend's political happenings in France: Bwahahaha....

From this mornings paper. Link. So it's the students "Freedom of Speech" to have a PhD paper on "Laughing at the Disabled" but those who object are suspended for 6 months without pay for objecting to it? Obviously the student is expecting a pass but personally I think a smack in the mouth is more suitable. I would not find the intentional mockery and humiliation of the intellectually impaired acceptable in normal society and I fail to see why it should be acceptable in the name of "research".

Drunk driving deaths in the US are at a 16-year high. Almost 18,000 people died due in alcohol-related accidents. These are 2006 numbers which just became available from the DOT last week. 43,000 people were killed in accidents, so that's about 42% of all accidents. Yikes. But perhaps the real story here is that the trend is pretty flat, or so it sounds to me. The actual number of highway deaths has been gradually descending for a long time, though surely not as fast as we all would like to see. One glaring number is that 55% of the deaths involve people not wearing their seatbelts (but surely most had airbags!). Perhaps a little more spending on seatbelt educa…

Interesting article about a tenure controversy allegedly over race at MIT. The black professor in question was apparently denied tenure two years ago, and his contract runs out on June 30th. Another black professor is resigning in protest. The professor in question has been asking for a tenure review. He went on a hunger strike earlier in protest. Sherley, the professor who was denied tenure, is an opponent of embryonic stem cell research (he conducts his own research on adult stem cells). Certainly not a very politically correct position in academia or research these days! But he insists that the reason for his denial of tenure was his race. Interesting. …

It's interesting that the current situation with the candidates has produced a situation where the leading Democratic candidates are seen as moderates and the leading Republican candidates are seen as unable to win. You can put whatever spin on that you like (and I've read some darned interesting speculation), but one thing it suggests to me is that the extremes on the right will be more empowered over the next year than the extremes on the far left. But is this real influence, or just a temporary condition? Will far-right conservatives lose that influence once a clear front-runner emerges from the Republican pool (lake? ocean?) of candidates? And will the far le…

China i know is up and coming as a super power but for now we are alone should America be responsible for the rest of the world or should we remove ourselves as to not change the natural progression in other nations to be more useful to us both sides hold legitimate claim as policies on one hand we could change the world for the better but we could end up destroying our advantage over the other nations as the largest consumer and economic producer then on the other end of the spectrum we could isolate ourselves diplomatically and wait for the rest of the world to change and fix our own problems but that would alienate our allies and we cant take the whole world ourse…

http://www.slate.com/id/2167284/pagenum/all/#page_start In effect: direct mail voter registration checks with "do not forward" on the envelopes were used as part of a massively coordinated campaign (by the Republican party) to suppress voters, primarily those in college or the military (overseas, fighting) of their right to vote. Is this what's really at the heart of the attorney scandal?

Hmm, Kyoto deja vu: http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/31/bush.climate.ap/ I guess this is a step in the right direction, but I wish there were more of a focus of addressing climate change in a multitude of different ways, rather than just emissions limits

President Bush ratcheted up the sanctions on Sudan today, and promised that Americans would not turn a blind eye on genocide. China responded promptly, turning a blind eye to genocide by calling sanctions an unhelpful complication. China, which buys a lot of oil from Sudan, even threatened to veto further UN sanctions, which the US also called for today. I just can't wait to be told this is all my fault.

a deadbed Confession: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/300407deathbedconfession.htm Interesting!

Has anyone seen or read much about Ron Paul? I've read some stuff on this website and watched the video and was quite impressed. But I don't know enough about him, so take my post with a grain of salt. http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ I'm really liking this guy, and I appreciate the way he explains himself and his views. Seems like he'd have the potential to really shake up the republican debates, but I haven't watched to see if that's what happens or not. Per that video it certainly looks like it. The only issue I have with him is it seems like he just wants to get out of Iraq without any sense of responsibility for the mess we leave. Here's the cool pa…

This is so sweet. Sharpton definitely should be made to apologize, over and over again on someone's radio show. And his apology should be met with hesitant forgiveness - depending on the wrecking of his career or not. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271162,00.html This "mistake" is obviously a reflex of his bigotted beliefs that he usually can cover up. Of course, none of that will happen. No one's going to make a big deal out of this except for Romney, and I hope he presses on. Imus made a mistake and admitted it like a big boy, in the face of an unforgiving Sharpton. Al won't even admit he did anything wrong. Interesting how msnbc.com, cbs…

Regarding the recent Horizon documentary concerning the LHC, I was wondering if sensationalizing a topic really does have detrimental effects i.e. will physics just carry on running its course even if the general public is disillusioned by massive claims, or will it really damage the field of physics ? Does anyone have any examples where a report has sensationalized a topic and it has had clear and damaging effects to a certain field e.g. (off the top of my head) the topic of cloning.

Is our government really the product of various sects truly separated in regards to goals and agendas or does our government share something of a unity really in regards to such? What I mean is looking at the U.N or politics of its easy to see how there exists a real lack of trust for one and the real fact that the politics there has to breech such divides really in order to get anything done. Would you agree or disagree that our government via partisan politics is really heading in that direction, to be a fragmented body of politicians in various sects competing against each other.

Creationists have a noticeable impact in the political arena, especially in the GOP. But while the creationist movement is vigorous and show no sign of fatigue, it's hard to imagine how they could win. Sure, most Americans are on their side, fortunately, science is not a democracy and their "Teach the Controversy" strategy is doomed to fail, no serious courtroom would allow pseudoscience to be taught in science classes. Equally obvious is the fact that creationists will not be able to infiltrate science. Of course, this issue is important enough to make headlines, less important than abortions and gays, but more than many economic issues. In less than 2 weeks I saw it…

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20070526/tuk-uk-britain-education-fa6b408.html This seems silly. Surely a government asking the state private sector for help is essentially just passing the buck? The charity status 'issue" is irritating, states schools tend to have the PTA as a registered charity for whenever they need tax concessions so it's not like the Public and Private schools have an unfair advantage.

This is really no surprise. This is the government's job, to plan for such things. Even I predicted another Vietnam way back then. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070526/ap_on_go_co/iraq_missed_warnings

call me a monster but people should see that we need war every great nation has had an enemy Macedonia and Persia Rome and Carthage england and geramany not the best the USA and the USSR/Terrorism/North Korea we need someone to hate if we didn't we would fall into economic depression war makes a country strong we've been the greatest nation for to long to become pacifist

Pangloss has repeatedly broached how little of the 100 days legislation has passed (virtually none) I was reading this article the other day about the GOP's use of the "motion to recommit", a procedural tactic which can effectively kill a bill on the floor and send it back to committee: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/18/AR2007051801697.html From the article: Could this be an explanation for why the Democratically-controlled Congress hasn't passed much of their promised legislation?