Politics

The age of reason is long past, at least in the realm of politics. Making a case through logic and reason is difficult and influencing others to see things your way can take a lot of perserverance and repetition. In the age of sound-bite politics most don’t have that kind of patience. Reason has been replaced by something called “hackery”. Hackery is the art of dispensing with an opponents view by attacking an organization or individual rather than an idea. One can also champion a cause by associating it with a well liked individual or concept. Here’s how it works. If you are opposed to something that has been proposed by a Democrat, rather than take the time and effort…

Casper "Cap" Weinberger did this country much good but was treated shabbily by a process run amok. Here is an excellent article summarizing the pressures and temptations influencing independent prosecutors such as Lawrence Walsh. The most damning indictment against Walsh was the indictment Walsh filed against Weinberger the week before the 1992 presidential election. Nothing could more clearly prove that this was a man clinging to national relevance. Casper Weinberger, in my view, deserves no asterisks by his name in today's obituaries. May he rest in peace.

Jobs Americans Wont Do? There is a popular myth in this country that illegal immigrants are needed to do jobs that “Americans will not do”. The fact is that illegal immigrants do jobs that Americans wont do for $6/hour or less. Certain employers have come to expect dirt-cheap labor and when they can’t find it domestically, they’ll import it illegally. Many Middle Eastern companies make use of imported labor. A skilled carpenter in the United Arab Emirates makes all of $7.60/day. Perhaps if we follow this model carpentry will become a job that “Americans wont do”. Some argue that cheap labor is necessary in order for American firms to stay competitive in the global m…

Here's the Toronto Star article of the same name. And here's the National Review's rebuttal: I'm posting these articles to frame a question that has been bugging me for a few years. I think I'm something of an aberration to several of my liberal friends. I'm fairly free thinking, likable (I hope!) and kind of non-conformist. I think they view my conservatism, for want of a better word, as a flaw in an otherwise good friend. My conservative friends view my liberal friends as somewhat weak minded. I'm generalizing but I wonder, candidly, how many here would admit to similar feelings about those on the opposite side of the political spectrum?

A virus known as Ad-36 has been found in the blood of 2000 obese patients in Australia. New research shows that this virus may be linked to weight gain. Animal models, such as chickens, mice and marmosets that have been infected by the virus have all been shown to experience weight gain. This virus, usually associated with colds, diarrhea and eye infections has been found, in one study, to be in about 30% of a group of 500 obese Americans, compared to 11% of the non-obese population. The mechanisms by which the virus causes weight gain is not yet clear, especially because the virus doesn't seem to have an effect on the body mass index. http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi…

I worry more about grey goo than nukes for the reason stated in the portion I've bolded below: Among the cognoscenti of nanotechnology, this threat has become known as the "gray goo problem." Though masses of uncontrolled replicators need not be gray or gooey, the term "gray goo" emphasizes that replicators able to obliterate life might be less inspiring than a single species of crabgrass. They might be superior in an evolutionary sense, but this need not make them valuable. The gray goo threat makes one thing perfectly clear: We cannot afford certain kinds of accidents with replicating assemblers. Gray goo would surely be a depressing ending to our hum…

South Dakota House Approves Abortion Ban: This is unconstitutional. Roe vs Wade has a precedent which extends privacy rights to the protections of ones own organs, and says the government cannot compell anyone to give up or share any of their organs for any reason, even to save a life (otherwise, we'd be abducting people off the street to harvest their organs for use in others). Abortion is protected because the fetus doesnt have a right to use a womans organs, not even for its own life. Abortion opponents recognize the fetus is a distinct human being with all the protections as an adult, but on what basis can they say anyone has the right to use another persons or…

In 1970 a Russian scientist, Vitaly Efimov, proposed a new state of matter. Only now has this state been confirmed to exist. What is the Efimov state (quote World Science): If one of the rings (or in the Efimov state, an atom) is picked up the others will follow. But if one ring (or atom) is removed the structure will fall apart (or repel). This quantum mechanical effect only occurs at a billionth of a degree above absolute zero, previous experiments carried out at a millionth of a degree failed because it was too hot! World Science: http://www.world-science.net/otherne...ewstatefrm.htm Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0315174950.htm

What are laws? Government is defined at the entity that has most power among a group of people. Thus if the mafia controls the government then the mafia is by definition the government since the mafia has most power. Government with this monopoly on power uses it to set a standard of right or wrong and enforces this standard with its power. An alternate definition of patriotism is not love of government but love of the people ruled by the government. Government and people are different things. Imagine a group of kids in a pre-school and the strongest boy in the group uses his muscles to gather all the males together and form a group. The group of all boys is a countr…

Its not breaking science, but its pretty.

For all the ridiculous comparisons people make between American Christian evangelists and the traditional vein of imams, I wonder why no one ever mentions men like Amr Khaled, someone who actually engages in televangelism, has diversified his message with appeals to young Muslims to stay fit, develop hobbies and an interest in bettering their communities, and all without the cosmopolitan learnedness typical of the Islamic and...yes, left-leaning Christian clergy?

Well, a new report explains what you should do: http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID=1 From the Boingboing coverage: "Would you like to be happier? Become a rich, married, religious, Republican, white person from the Sunbelt, says this Pew research report." This is why I'm glad to say that pursuing my own personal happiness is not my most important life goal (although I suppose it can be argued that my pursuits are vicariously for my own happiness) Ultimately, underpinning all of my beautiful, teleological, goal-directed pattern seeking nature is atheistic existentialism. From this the core of my belief can be summed up as: I'm a random f…

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20060318/bob10.asp Can light pollution from our urban centers be effected the environment more than we originally realised? A series of photographs, taken by Chad Moore, suggests that light from cities is penetrating further into 'nature' then we realized. This causes a potential for concern due to the high sensitivity of nocturnal animals to light. This excess light may cause changes in the cyclic patterns of nature's wildlife, effectively altering the ecosystem. In some places, the effect of light pollution are so dramatic, especially near large cities such as Los Angelos, that the stars are being completely obscured…

A new plastic which could rival silicon is currently being developed. The plastic is an organic polymer which has been previously used to make flexible display screens (by Philips) and LEDs (by Cambridge Display Technology). A new semi-conducting polythiophene with a modified molecular structure is hoped to have significant advantages over silicon, which previous semi-conducting plastics have not. This means that semiconductor chips could be produced more cheaply and with better quality than before. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4825388.stm

hello was viewing the yahoo news site when i saw in the entertainment section a report on 'v for vendetta' taking the top box office spot in america for the week. how is this politically amusing? well click on the report and near the bottom is a button that says 'discuss' go their to be amused. perhaps ideas do have the power to threaten. strange thoughts mr d

ND is something I'm quite passionate about (a passion which only intensified after visiting the Hiroshima Peace Park). I suppose it stems from the whole Singularitarianism thing and worrying about existential risks, i.e. ways humanity can annihilate itself. Nuclear weapons are definitely on the top of the list for now. On this thread revprez asked me why I dislike the administration's stance on Pakistan, believing my thoughts to stem from the actions of A.Q. Khan. And they certainly do: in addition to selling centrifuge designs and components to North Korea and Iran, Khan was the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb. Non-proliferation agreements have limited "legal…

The Oxford Research Group was critical of Bush's war plans and was commissioned by ABC, BBC and Der Spiegle: Here are some selected findings: 70.6% said "very good" or "quite good" when asked: "Overall, how would you say things are going in your life these days – very good, quite good, quite bad, or very bad?" 51.5% said "much better" or "somewhat better" when asked: "Compared to the time before the war in Spring 2003, are things overall in your life much better now, somewhat better, about the same, somewhat worse or much worse?" 64.2% said "much better" or "somewhat better" when asked: "What is your expectation for how things overall in your life will …

A study of nearly 350 patients has found that high doses of a new statin drug, rosuvastatin, could break up fatty deposits in arteries and therefore "reverse" heart disease. The researchers studied the patients over a two-year period and found that the number of deposits in the arteries decreased, although they cautiously note that they have not proven this to lower heart attack rates. This is good news for people with high cholesterol - the drug also cut levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol by 50%. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4800772.stm

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have discovered a new cell in mice that acts as both a killer and a messenger in the immune system. Usually, one specific type of cell will attack an invading virus or bacteria, releasing a chemical that attracts "messenger" cells that spread the word to other immune system cells. However, 1/10 of the cells in the spleen of mice seemed to do both of the roles at once. When researchers injected an anti-cancer drug that acts as both a protein-blocker for cancer cells and a growth factor for the abnormal immune cells, the immune cells were "lured" towards the cancer and shrunk the tumor. In mice that did not display t…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11856589/ This blew me away! I thought this had been settled in the nineties. Funny, half of the course would be "not-sex" education. When I had sex ed, it was like a one day thing. Abstinence: Not doing it. There's not much to it than that. I just don't understand how they could spend a full school quarter on it!

For years, no long-term studies have been undertaken to determine if marijuana actually has long-term side effects. Many users have claimed that there are no side effects to marijuana smoking. Now those users have been proven wrong. A study of marijuana users vs. a control group found that use of marijuana gradually lowers learning abilities and impairs memory. The effects aren't drastic, but they were enough to make one of the reasearchers state, "It definitely fogs your brain." http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8839

This would be funny if it weren't so serious.

Most right-wing man in history: Ghengis Khan. Most left-wing man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Discuss.

Scientists have recently discovered a large, 19 mile (31 kilometer) crater in Egypt. The astroid that made the crater was probably about 3/4 of a mile wide. An impact like that would have destroyed everything in hundreds of miles. For comparison, the Chicxlub crater that was left by the asteroid that may have killed the dinosaurs is about 100 to 150 miles (160 to 240 kilometers) wide. The crater was discovered in satellite images by Boston University and researchers Forouk El-Baz and Eman Ghoneim. El-Baz named the crater Kebira which means "large" in Arabic. http://space.com/scienceastronomy/060303_big_crater.html I find it amazing that we are still discoveri…

I find this curious. The Democratic Party will not even get behind sanctions for Iran and North Korea, obvious enemies in the global war on terror. But they will rally around the political lynching of Middle Eastern allies like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE--their principle defense being that no Iranians, Iraqis or North Koreans were onboard the four aircraft that slammed into the WTC and Pentagon on 9/11. In short, I can't think of a single openly hostile nation the Democrats have considered more worthy of their muscular "anti-Islamism" than those with governments actually aiding American efforts. In the unlikely event that Democrats ever again gain the reigns of…