Politics

As some of you may know, I'm a professor of information technology at a small southern university, and working on my PhD in information systems (the only point there being that they're paying for my education and I can't be real picky about where I'm working for a while). The other day an interesting situation came up and I haven't quite figured out what to do about it. I thought it might be interesting to see what other people think. This, of course, is Black History Month. It occurs in February because it's the shortest month of the year. (No, really.) That fact is bad enough, and many modern African Americans such as Morgan Freeman and Bill Cosby have commente…

Here in the U.S., we have very cheap gasoline (that's petrol, guys) compared to Europe, in large part because of much lower fuel taxes. My question is, why shouldn't we raise them to similar levels? Bear in mind that this wouldn't mean an overall tax increase - higher revenues from fuel taxes means other taxes can be lower. The incentive for raising them is high. The biggest problem for the United States overall is energy dependence, and higher fuel taxes would encourage conservation and more fuel-efficient vehicles (and energy-efficient homes and businesses, for that matter). So why not do it? Is it just the political difficulty of explaining to the public that yes, you…

If you watch, read, listen to news these days within a few mins you can pretty much tell the political affiliation of the source. You could search an issue on the net and you already know which popular sites will pop up. I was wondering if you find this heading in the wrong direction, information is being catorgorized in a way that make that sources inherently bias, especially places like here, you can post a source and I could say "oh fox news..." or "oh CNN...", most of the time it's truth manipulated by opinion. I think people have a legitimate pessimisitic view towards sources. Why isn't there more push for something like science which has a peer-reviewed styl…

http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070130/FON0101/70130043/1985 Will this pass? If it does, will it work?

And we're off to the races! The first Democratic casualty of the 2008 Presidential Election is: a white guy who said something insensitive about one of the "diversity" candidates! Shocking, isn't it? Boy nobody could have seen that one coming! This thing with Biden is so laughable it almost defies description. I don't mean whether or not he has some sort of prejudice -- maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. What's laughable is watching the infighting. God forbid any strong white male candidates should emerge from the "party of diversity"! Apparently what happened is Biden called Senator Obama "the first mainstream African American (running for president) who …

New technology funded by DARPA can extract water vapour from the atmosphere and turn it into usable drinking water, even in arid climates. The exact method is being kept a secret, but it employs the use of salts. The machine produces no toxic byproducts, and can turn out 600 gallons of water per day. It's currently being contracted for the use of the armed forces in Iraq. Currently, the transportation costs of fresh water to troops can cost up to $30 a gallon. This new technology will allow the costs lowered to 30 cents per gallon. What's more, is that the machine only requires 14% humidity. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71898-0.html?tw=wn_inde…

I'm a registered Democrat. I'm also a registered Democrat who's dissatisfied with Nancy Pelosi. After having been promised investigations into the many scandals which have occured under the Bush administration, we've since been informed that those investigations aren't going to take place. Is anyone else dissatisfied with Pelosi backtracking on her original promises?

I think it may just be time to move. My countrymen have lost their ****ing minds. Can America get any more stupid? Don't answer that...I already know it can... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,246279,00.html Texas Mayor Singles Out N-Word for Ban It's one of the most reviled words in the English language, but if one Texas mayor gets his way, getting caught uttering the "N-word" will hit offenders where it hurts. Mayor Ken Corley of Brazoria, Texas, has proposed a city ordinance that would make using the word in an offensive fashion a crime equal to disturbing the peace and punishable by a fine of up to $500. "I would like to, if possible, ban…

This is the best breakdown I've ever seen: http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/view/S62J0EQ9mVa6O_kEoi71E2-

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/23/cheney-libby-trial/ Looks like "Scooter" Libby destroyed evidence prior to testifying. According to a new report Cheney is "deeply involved" in the Valerie Plame scandal

Conservatism advocates traditional values and free market. If a conservative is for prostitution he is against traditional values, yet if he is against prostitution he is against the free market. So is a conservative for prostitution or not?

Ran across this stat on This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Legislation / GOP Support 9/11 Commission / 68 votes Minimum Wage / 82 votes Stem Cells / 37 votes Drug Costs / 24 votes Student Loans / 124 votes Energy Policy 36 votes (Average = 62) Intersting, isn't it? Kinda makes you wonder (amongst other things) why student loans weren't fixed during the previous Congress. George Will made the point that the student loan thing is interesting because it essentially amounts to a subsidy for profitable banks and middle class college graduates! An amusing point, to be sure, but I think it's one to chalk up to sanity and reason. Thank god they …

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/10/iraq.bush/index.html This kind of reminds me of another war that wasn't solved by sending more troops....Viet...something...

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2805859 Well, they're not cutting spending (surprise surprise) but when the oil companies are turning record profits this only makes sense.

Another powerful episode of Frontline is airing this week on PBS. The first new ep of 2007, the show consists of a documentary made by the brother of one of the victims of Catholic priest abuse in Boston. I know that doesn't sound very exciting or new, but this particular victim has a unique perspective and the twists and turns of his story -- in particular of how the priesthood handled his case -- are fascinating. As with many of their best episodes, this one is supposed to be placed entirely online, beginning on Wednesday. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/handofgod/

One thing I hear a lot of, especially from conservatives and libertarians, is that X or Y should be privatized or the domain of private industry rather than the government, with the reasoning that because of competition, private companies will be more effective / efficient / faster / insert performance metric here. But then you actually deal with private companies, and realize how accurate Dilbert is: the heads of the company are often clueless, the management can be staggeringly inept, and they waste billions of dollars on things like "team building" or obscene CEO salaries / perks. So, my question is, has anyone actually done real studies to compare which group …

Presumption (circa 2003) for the sake of argument: The US is going to invade Iraq, and you are charged with the responsibility of making that happen. There is no debate, you simply get to carry out the broad order of "invade this nation, topple its government, and construct a new democracy in its place". Question: How do you do it? Specifically, what steps do you take? What actions do you perform differently from how the US/UK actually did things? How, in a nutshell, do you prevent the onset of the situation we have today? Warning: Off-topic posts in this thread will be DELETED. You can talk about causes of the current situation, but posts about jus…

I was at Portsea over the weekend at my sister's holiday house. She is a proud conservative. She always tells me that she thinks political correctness is bad. She cites examples like using the word "intellectually challenged" as opposed to "retard" is silly. She also thinks the word "domestic engineer" instead of "housewife" is also silly. However, one day I made a sexual joke to her that was quite tame in my opinion, but she was quite offended and told me not to tell rude jokes anymore. Isn't this hypocrisy?

Hello. I'm seeking now for information to make the term paper in university. The topic is "Multiculturalism in the UK". I'm interested in everything: articles, web-links to similar projects, even your views. )) TIA for any help. )

Recently I have been thinking about the problems with the pharmeceutical industry, resulting in a high cost of drugs which, in addition to being a problem back home, means medical problems which are solvable using expensive medications run rampant in 3rd world countries. For example, the world's biggest killer is HIV. Problem: HIV is hard to cure! Despite enormous amounts of research spanning more than two decades, nothing close to a cure has been found, only expensive treatment regiments. New research is always promising, but none of it is anywhere near practical in terms of coming up with some sort of cure, or at least vaccination. Solution: Look for ways…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070105/ap_on_en_ot/democrats_mcauliffe_book Former Democratic Party boss and Clinton friend Terry McAuliffe is lambasting John Kerry's unsuccessful presidential campaign, calling his effort to unseat President Bush "one of the biggest acts of political malpractice in the history of American politics." This should be a book that everyone loves, well except for Kerry.

This is more of a question of law, rather than politics... read this first: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6233693.stm My question is, why should an international company, owned by a US-based company have to conform to a Brazillian court? Does the Brazilian government actually have the authority to fine YouTube, especially considering that it has no effective method of keeping this video off of their servers. And if YouTube decides not to pay the fine, who's going to enforce it? I'm basically asking about international law.

finaly.

Private enterprise should be free to do as it wishes and make and lose its money freely. On the other hand, public enterprise, being supported by funds from stockholders, should not be as much in control of their own destinies. I sound like a Marxist with that last line, don't I? Don't lose patience; this is where it gets more reasonable. Other holders of the public's monies (banks, etc) are audited by individuals chosen by the federal government. Why is it that public enterprise currently has the luxury of hiring their own auditors? CEOs that wish for improperly kept books and Enron-like endings are still able to do so, especially considering the fact that th…

Bob Woodward interviewed Gerald Ford back in 2004, but Ford asked him not to publish the interview until after his death. The interview was published today in the Washington Post, and may be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/27/AR2006122701558.html The most notable comment (and presumably the reason Ford asked him to wait) is Ford's position on Iraq. This may sound like obvious hindsight, but remember -- Ford wasn't running for anything when he said this. He has no political axe to grind here. And he made these comments in 2004, when things were not nearly so bleak. The interview is also interesting, talki…