Politics

NY Times' take. I love winning.

Well a few days ago I predicted that ExxonMobil would post a new corporate record profit and become the world's largest corporation. I appears I was right on both counts. Wal-Mart's total came in just under $300 billion in FY2005 according to Wikipedia, and ExxonMobil managed to rake in about $371 billion, and set a record profit of just over $36 billion (just under ten percent, which is a whopper compared with Wal-Mart's sub-4% margin). http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/30/business/exxon.php

My gosh, I was just looking at politics threads from the September 2004 period... what a feisty bunch here! I thought it was crazy now, check it out then. Most of this I believe being attributable to the upcoming national election.

What is your reaction to Google's decision? http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/01/24/google.china.ap/index.html My initial reaction is highly negative.

Nature is running a story about a physicist who claims that black holes do not exist. George Chapline, of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, says that he believes the collapse of stars does not lead to black holes. Instead, the space time contained within the star becomes filled with dark energy, which causes intruiging gravitational effects. "If the dark-energy star is big enough, Chapline predicts, any electrons bounced out will have been converted to positrons, which then annihilate other electrons in a burst of high-energy radiation. Chapline says that this could explain the radiation observed from the centre of our galaxy, previously interpret…

(I know that's not correct to call it "Palestine", but I got halfway through typing that title in and realized that I lacked an appropriate noun, and then I realized it was actually kinda interesting to leave it in error like that, if you see what I mean.) I was just curious what the reaction here might be. Two things about this strike me as being of particular interest at the moment: 1) The level of vehemence amongst the supporters of Fatah is amazing to me. Demonstrating in the streets and angrily denouncing leaders and threatening violence is something I normal associated with Hamas supporters, not Fatah. What's interesting about that to me is that whil…

The only book I've read of any real substance is Bernard Lewis' What Went Wrong. Lewis, an 85+ year old professor emeritus at Princeton, has been described as "the only genuinely acknowledged dean of Middle East studies in the West." His views seem generally supportive of my own: Or, perhaps, my views have been influenced by the one genuine intellectual I've read on the subject. So, I ask you, what authors do you recommend on this subject? I'm not really looking for authors with an agenda or talking heads from Fox, CNN or the NYTs. I'm looking for genuine academics who have spent their lives trying to understand this culture. FWIW, here's a New Yorker a…

The war on drugs is there to create jobs. Consider how many jobs it creates. There are high paying tax free jobs for the inner city. There are many jobs for lawyers, law enforcement, criminal justice system, the prison system, the rehab system, etc., plus the multiplier effect that results as this seed money goes back into the economy. If we decided the drug war was another Viet Nam, that was a non righteous money pit that could never be won (WWI, WWII, Korean, Viet Nam, Persian Gulf all combined took less time to complete), many jobs would be lost. To me it does not seem fair that we enslave (inprison) a good fraction of the American people to justify all these jobs.…

Here's why I think socialism works, and why it's better than capitalism. I'll keep this short and informative. Health-care, education, and housing should be free, Because the country needs smart and healthy people to prosper. Because health, education, and a home are the bare minimums for a normal life. Because people should be free to choose what to spend their earnings on. Socialism doesn't need a tax system, because government already owns all businesses/firms. Any money the people spend will go to the government, and the government will then use it to pay the people who work for it. The flow of money balances out, nobody makes any profits, and thus j…

Finally the Bush administration has gone on the offensive and started arguing it received implied authority when authorized to conduct a war. It kind of makes you want to say "well, yeah, duh" when you hear Atty. Gen. Gonzales say that the power to fight a war includes the power to detain and/or seek intelligence from the enemy. "Duh" is an equally valid response to the notion that Congressional limitations on the executive gathering intelligence might not apply in war. As I expected, Gonzales argued that the FISA procedure was cumbersome and did not give the NSA the necessary agility to deal with modern communications. He also said, as I also expected, that he was…

Hey ! We have an election in Canada, nobody cares ?

The photo for this article is priceless. http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/25/army.study.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories

http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=100420

Some background here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4613108.stm A number of things bother me about this incident. (Or if I may borrow a phrase from Senate Democrats last week: "I find these things puzzling.") - Statements by locals that they observed the UAV hovering around the area for several days before the attack (so much for the element of surprise) - Statements by State Department officials to ABC News that even if they had killed Zwahiri then it would largely be only a "symbolic blow" in the war on terror - Lack of permission from Pakistan - The deaths of innocent people, including women and children - Yet more antagonism of …

Oh, hell, might as well get this out there since it is primarily what the confirmation hearing was about (and since I love to stir up controversy). 1. Will Roe be reversed? 2. Should Roe be reversed? 3. If Roe is reversed, should state legislatures restrict the woman's right to choose an abortion and/or right to take human life? 4. If so, what sort of statute would you push to enact in your state? My answers would be: 1. Probably so. 2. I'm torn. Roe is weak & fuzzy legally and we have paid a price by removing the issue from the legislative sphere. We've never had the discussion in a meaningful way since Roe was decided. Judicial fiat has rem…

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17863387%255E7583,00.html

whats wrong with eating animals? we have canine teeth for a reason.

That said, I've got a few questions. 1. Can the creationist movement achieve its objectives where science education is concerned? I suspect we'll see a movement that has the political and legal energy to secure a major reconsideration of establishment clause case law or at least craft an argument for some significant ID education program that would pass the present judiciary's muster. What do you think? 2, If creationists overcome at least the national legal hurdles, the battle in most states will turn to the legislatures and school boards. In that war of public opinion, what can secularists do to prevent a resurgence of anti-evolution pedagogy in the schools? …

In 2006 we will have new material from space that MAY hold the key to the start of life here on Earth, it`s been trailing a Comet and has taken samples from it`s dust trail. it`ll be the 1`st "Space samples" brought back since the 1970`s read more: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994515

I would like to propose an onion model for govenment priorities. Nobody likes paying taxes, but it is easier to swllow if one feels they are getting some direct benefit. As such, in the center of the onion are those things which benefit everyone. For example, clean water and air, roads, firefighting and police, national defense, etc., benefit almost everyone. The next layer of the onion is for the future and the past. This layer would be for all children from conception to age 4, and for all seniors older than the average life expectancy. The children are the future and their personality is formed by age four. Optimizing the children is an investment in the future of…

This article tells of a very long shot made by a US sniper in Iraq. What do you think of the use of snipers in war? I have talked to some who call this murder..... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/01/wirq01.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/01/ixnewstop.html

from Yahoo News HARRISBURG, Pa. - The concept of "intelligent design" is a form of creationism and is not based on scientific method, a professor testified Wednesday in a trial over whether the idea should be taught in public schools Robert T. Pennock, a professor of science and philosophy at Michigan State University, testified on behalf of families who sued the Dover Area School District. He said supporters of intelligent design don't offer evidence to support their idea. "As scientists go about their business, they follow a method," Pennock said. "Intelligent design wants to reject that and so it doesn't really fall within the purview of science." Penno…

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/664156.html Fortunately, the terrorist was apprehended before his destination was reached, but officials say that the many Hannakah parties and gathering are prime targets for suicide bombers. The suicide bomber, who was traveling in a taxi, was stopped at a checkpoint, where he blew himself up. Amoung the dead were two Palestinians (the taxi driver and the bomber's guide) and and IDF officer. This was the 5th suicide bomber carried out by the Islamic Jihad networks. "For every suicide bomber that succeeds, we have stopped dozens who did not reach their targets," said Colonel Aharon Haliba, commander of the Ep…

Also, Slate has a story on Russ Tice, the NSA whistleblower who's likely to be the star witness in the case. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4622232.stm

http://courts.state.ar.us/attylist/new/bynum.cgi?num=++73019