Politics

Interesting position from a democrat. I would never agree to conscription. All military should be volunteer only. If you are fighting a noble and worthy campaign, then the country will be behind it and volunteers will be plentiful. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,230598,00.html http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/11/19/rangel.draft.ap/index.html It's funny too, because democrats are supposed to be the anti-war crowd. I guess Rangel didn't get the memo. I wonder how many New Yorkers are feeling betrayed after voting for him. These next two years with the Dems in power are going to be so awesome...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6185380.stm Any chance that it will stick? It's going to be hard to control the many groups that are out there, especially considering that leadership isn't centralized. But, I think it's a good sign that mid-east leaders are able to make agreements on their own volition.

Hello For those of you who not do believe it wise to allow citizens to possess firearms, read here to see just what a weapon can do to help stop crime. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061116/ap_on_fe_st/groin_shot The grand and glorious comedy of life continues. Mr D =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Added by Moderator Pangloss: Mr D's question for your consideration is as follows: In countries that allow citizens to possess fire arms should there be a test for a bare minimum level of intelligence for a person to own a firearm. And what would you propose that test to be? Remember people can still possess a weapon but what level of competence, and i…

Note: it's from Argentina, as opposed to America, where political ads are 99% mudslinging and lies.

This thread is here to discuss the possible candidates for the 2008 presidential elections (yeah I got sucked intowatching the regular new yesterday and it was all they were talking about). To get the ball roling Rudy Giuliani (mayor of NYC 92-02) has anounced an exploritory comittee to investigate his chances at winning te presidency. Personally I think he would sweep the national elections because o his strong liberal leanings, charisma, hero status, and he's a republican. However if he ran as a republican he would have a difficult time winning the republican base in the primaries because of his liberal leanings (supports stem cell research, Gay rights, the enviro…

Socialized medicine is one of the few things I tend to be quite liberal about. It seems natural for the government to handle medicine. Police, fire, medical - all fall under the same basic category in my opinion. There is a place for private industry within all of these things, however. Which leads me to this thread. There are a number of negatives associated with socialized health care that are unacceptable. Government efficiency, or lack thereof is a biggie. Lack of appeal for doctors and researchers is another biggie, as I've heard the capitalist approach to medicine does seem to attract leading talent from all over the world. I've heard nothing but horror …

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/11/17/inhofe-hoax/ His argument in a nutshell: 1) The globe is not warming, only parts of it are 2) The effect of greenhouse gasses is negligable 3) What warming is occuring (only in the northern hemisphere) is the result of (unnamed) natural forces 4) There is no scientific concensus 5) Global warming is a fabrication of the far left, including "George Soros, the Hollywood elitists," and "the far left environmentalists on the committee that I chair" I felt this was a pretty clear indication of how global warming has been politicized. Is there a need for a basic degree of competency in holding an office where you make policy …

Hello So Pangloss would like the 'wisdom of' post to have a discussable question attached, fair enough. So kindly read the link the story in that post leads to and the question for discussion is this. In countries that allow citizens to possess fire arms should there be a test for a bare minimum level of intelligence for a person to own a firearm. And what would you propose that test to be? Remember people can still possess a weapon but what level of competence, and in what area - plus what does your test consist of in written-verbal-physical or combination. Mr D

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/11/post.html#posts This is an interesting article about how integrating new technology in the voting process maybe introducing a whole lot of security problems, and nobody who's making these programs nor the politicians want to talk about it, because it's too expensive. I'm curious to how likely it would be that somebody hacks into the system to change election results. Obviously we won't know for sure until it happens, but is it worth it to wait and see?

There is at least one difference between politics and science. The Laws of Nature aren't capricious (at least I hope not) Gravity has nothing to gain by making things fall up. Politicans generals do, and can fudge the numbers. Thomas Jefferson said the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. I've recieved some censure for saying some things were fudged: inflation, facts on 9/11 (although I doubt many of you believe that Bush didn't lie about Iraqi WMDs),previous election results. Despite what you may think, it's not true that I never saw a conspiracy I didn't like: I THOUGHT this election would be stolen, but based on the little time I've had to look, there is not enough …

One of the fallouts of the mid-term election is that gun control is actually now LESS likely to pass in the coming year. Not that it was especially likely in the Republican-controlled legislature, but Democrats have clearly pushed it to the back burner in order to keep the Big Tent open for moderates who are angry about Iraq. This will be one of the areas where you'll want to watch and see if Democrats can stay together under the Big Tent, or if they instead start to fragment and disperse. This is one of those subjects that often play very well with a local constituency but very poorly on a national level. So you won't see it raised by any of the Democrats with 200…

i know there are lots of arguments in favour of capitalism, and arguments against communism, technocracy (the bit about money, not the meritocracy bits), etc, but reguardless of these, do they have merits as temporary emergency measures in the case of a huge economic emergency? a few things to bear in mind: surely, all pros of capitalism have to be ignored in the middle of a stock-market crash or hyper-inflation? reguardless of the benifits to innovation etc that normally come with capitalism, if money is worth so little that its more economical to burn it than to use it to buy firewood or pay for electric heating, or if farmers stop producing food for the cities …

Conserving energy. Driving less. Turning off your computer. What are you doing to help slow global warming?

Here are the official results. Of 25 districts, with #2,#3 unreported and #13 too close to call its: 18 Republicans 4 Democrats 3 Unknown Does this strike anyone else as funny in a state that was a swing state in 2000 and 2004, with the rest of the country going Democratic?

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/United_States_Democrats_win_House_majority It seems that the Democrats have taken the House of Representatives, and maybe the Senate. In my district the incumbent won, Democrat Jim Matheson. I voted for him, my parents voted against him . Yes, a democrat in Utah; crazy but true. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what changes.

One of the first promises that Democrats are making after winning control of the US legislature is lower interest rates on student loans. This is actually one of those rare areas where everyone in politics *should* agree that the current system (as more-or-less instigated by the Clinton administration) has been working very well, and is ripe for a rejuvenation following spiking interest rates and deliberate inattention from the Bush administration. While this is generally good news, there is some cause for concern that Democrats might upset the apple cart if they're not careful. If they bend over backwards they may upset the delicate balance between profit motive an…

Can be anything you like! Just be aware that what you list as extremism may say more about you than it does about the extremists you're trying to out! --------- Here are a few to start us off: You may be an extremist if... - You think everything Bush does is wrong - You think everything Bush does is right - You think everything liberals do is wrong - You think everything conservatives do is wrong - You think Michael Moore accurately reports the truth - You think Rush Limbaugh accurately reports the truth - You think Cindy Sheehan's rants about America make a lot of sense - You don't think Cindy Sheehan should be allowed to protest at all - You …

As usual, Bush waited until the Hurricane came and went before doing anything. Democracy in action I guess.

I didn't hear any of this on the radio but I read about it online. Apparently Rush Limbaugh went on some sort of diatribe about Michael J. Fox on Monday, basically alleging that he was faking his Parkinsons for political reasons. Article in the Washington Post At first I found this abhorrent, but then I read that apparently Fox has admitted that he has deliberately refrained taking his Parkinsons medication before making political appearances. He says he does that in order to show what the symptoms look like. I can see how Fox might have a legitimate reason to do that when it comes to, for example, testifying before Congress about stem cell research, so …

Have they finally turned outright partisan? Or do you buy the justification here:

im intruigued: given that it's unique and odd, and in the middle of forming/growing, why we dont get more discussion on the eu in here? i'd have thought it'd be an interesting conversational piece. so... the eu, discuss, i guess. btw, to get the ball rolling, and another reason i find the lack of interest odd: if all the member states of the eu are combined (as may possibly be the case in the future) and compared to the us, the eu has a better economy and greater spending power, better relations with the rest of the world, and, i suspect, a more powerful army and better R&D base. so, if the eu becomes a fully-fledged supernation, would it not displace the us …

No, I haven't seen it. Yes, I know there's already a (completely speculative) topic about it. But I just saw a short review of it that I thought was interesting, by Scott Tobias, that maybe answers some of the questions we had back then.

Oh noooooos! t3h crazy vegan has started a thread on how great it is to be craaaaaazy! I dont usually start theads like this, but I thought it was in the interest of all the pet owners on this forum: Iams breeds dogs and cats for testing their petfood, and their tests consists of forcefeeding dogs to the point of sickness and death, the animals are treated without any respect from the animal handlers, dogs are trapped in cages and neglected to the point that they display stereotypical behavior for hours on end. The cages in particular are small and have nothing to stimulate the animals, the cage bottoms are lined bars spaced too far apart for the animals to stand …

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/061023/full/061023-10.html Does rule by non-scientific thinkers lead to the persecution of scientists on the basis of specious reasoning?

New Jersey's highest court today approved marriage benefits to same-sex couples, leaving it up to the state to decide whether to call it "marriage" or something else along the lines of "civil union". What's interesting about this to me at the moment is the timing. One of the reasons why Republicans are so concerned at the moment is the perception that social conservatives are feeling ignored by a President and congress they had pinned high hopes on. Many political observers have been saying that these folks will stay home (or actually vote Democrat, especially in light of the Mark Foley scandal). This sort of thing may well re-energize the right wing right w…