Politics

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

I don't need an IP address to identify him, and apparently many of you don't either, since several of you figured it out before I did. I have met few people in my 25 years of online debate that are as callously disrespectful of other people's opinions than he is, and as much as I respect his knowledge and insight, he is, in the end, 180 degrees polarized with my goals for this board. This will not be a board where people throw ideologies in each others' faces in the name of "debate", and denigrate and browbeat each other into submission. *WILL NOT!* I hope you all are okay with that, but if you're not, you're welcome to send me or another mod or admin a private me…

There's no reference sticky at all in the Politics forum, and since we have no academic history or social science section to speak of I thought this might fit in best here. I was thinking that since there is a vast body of research in countless fields and subfields, members should start off by picking a well defined and supported area of history or social science scholarship and provide links to only open access general resources. Perhaps, if SFN ever spins off a separate section for social sciences, we can delve deeper and maybe draw on particular avenues of research. Well, I'll start off with my area of interest. Strategic Studies Globalsecurity.org - Exce…

a continuation of the digression of this thread. highlights from previous posts: ^ecoli admitting he never saw spielberg's movie, then criticizing spielberg for message of said movie after spielberg's denial of any intent to portray said message. ^please note the bolded section ^me clarifying that the aforementioned question was indeed relevant to the discussion, then noting a few pieces of relevant information (pay attention to the bolded statements and figures) ^sayo makes a good point. which reminds me. i had an english teacher misinterpret a very ambiguous paper i wrote. she said it was on masturbation. i said it wasn't. she still trie…

Let's see if I can stir up some controversy. My take is that Alito has done an excellent job and will do just fine in the Supremes. Some of the democratic questioning has been intellectually dishonest but no more than was to be expected. Fortunately, the only clever tactic they have used is to ask questions the know Alito can't ethically answer (e.g. FISA) and then posture about a predictable lack of response. It does border on the surreal to see Ted Kennedy lecturing anyone about credibility but Teddy has never lacked nerve. Jay Leno joked the other night about him writing a story for kids about a dog named "splash." You just have to laugh... I should…

What would happen if minimum wage was $10 here in the United States? Ten dollars is not very much and I think it would relieve the strain on the various welfare programs that have to subsidise low wage jobs. Some say minimum wage allows more jobs for kids, but personaly I do not want my kid to thing their time is worth less than $10/hour. What are your thoughts?

Hayabusa, launched by Japan's space agency JAXA, appears to have failed in its mission, and hope is dimming for a successful return. The craft was originally designed to land on an asteroid, fire a pellet into it, and collect the resulting debris to be returned to earth. However, data suggests that it did not manage to fire its pellets, meaning any dust it collected would be in tiny amounts. To make things worse, JAXA is unable to maintain complete control of Hayabusa's orientation, suggesting that most of the gas thrusters have failed or frozen. The space agency managed to orient the craft with its ion engines, but this is only a temporary measure, and the ion e…

A little hypothetical here: If you were desighning a new political system, what would you concider vital to include, without which the system either wouldnt work, or wouldnt be fulfiling what you concider the central duties of a political system. eg, from what i understand of it, the american constitution seems to be saying that protection of certain freedoms (speach, religion etc) are central duties of the political system -- rights so inportant that the very political system of the country is desighned to maintain them It also seems to be saying that a democratic system is vitally inportant, either for the same ideological/ethical reasons as the freedom of s…

What do you think of the recently rejected plan to grant amnesty to republican fugitives? This guy, is pretty sure where he stands and he has a fair point but TBH, I think that the idea could have done some real good.

Just curious you all think the impact the loss of Ariel Sharon will be on the peace process.

I think this is fascinating given the current context of the "war on terror". It goes right to the heart of a number of issues. The gist of the issue here is that Steven Spielberg's latest film, "Munich", has raised some controversy because of its portrayal of the down side of retribution. The movie focuses on Israel's actions following the killing of its atheletes at the 1972 Olympic games, suggesting that there was an awful price to pay for hunting down those terrorists and killing them. In essence, the cycle of violence continues. I couldn't find the Sun-Times piece, but here's a quote from it at IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2005-12-26/film/4 …

Please find the news article here... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9871982/ 'NASA has outlined what it could do, and in what time frame, in case a quarter-mile-wide asteroid named Apophis is on a course to slam into Earth in the year 2036. The timetable was released by the B612 Foundation, a group that is pressing NASA and other government agencies to do more to head off threats from near-Earth objects.'