Politics

The purpose of this thread is not to debate whether or not any woman should be president, or whether or not a specific woman should be president. I am aware that there is a percentage of American citizens who believe, whether for religious, sexist, biological, societal, or other reasons, that the position of the President of the United States should not be held by a woman. I am simply trying to get some idea of what that percentage is. Don't bog down in extreme hypothetical what-if situations. In general, would you vote for a woman candidate? (If your response is something like, "Well, it depends..." then your answer is yes. I am looking for the percentage who, un…

ABC News' Jake Tapper ran a hillarious story last night about attempts by both extremes in American politics to use the Disney movie "March of the Penguins" to further their political agendas. The written version of the story may be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1203358&page=1 At first the penguins were adopted by conservative groups, which extolled their monogamous virtues, and even put them up as an example of Intelligent Design. But then the New York Times and others from the political left came forward and pointed out that there's been a same-sex penguin "couple" (two males) at Central Park Zoo for years -- they even raised a "foster chi…

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/14/politics/14weapons.html

Very interesting... Something called the M prize is grabbing the attention of scientists who seek to reach immortaliy. http://beta.news.yahoo.com/s/space/hangintherethe25yearwaitforimmortality Who lives and who dies? Will money or merit decide the immortals?

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/10/01/new.planet.moon.ap/index.html ---sample from CNN article--- 'Planet Xena' has a sidekick: Gabrielle LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The astronomers who claim to have discovered the 10th planet in the Earth's solar system have made another intriguing announcement: it has a moon... ---endquote--- http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1603_1.asp ---exerpt from Sky and Telescope--- A Moon for the "10th Planet" October 2, 2005 The solar system's largest known Kuiper Belt object (KBO), the recently discovered body known as 2003 UB313, isn't wandering through space alone. Michael E. Brown (Caltech) and his col…

This may not mean much to our international guests -- sorry about that. But I think some here might find it interesting. Last week all three networks reported the Gallup poll numbers showing that the President's approval rating had dipped to 40%. I thought it might be interesting to see if the networks reported the new poll numbers from Gallup today, which showed a 5 point bump to 45%. A five point bump in a single week is actually quite a story -- generally anything over four points is considered to be a major change, and entire initiatives have been tossed out or shuffled to the back burner over less dynamic poll results. I didn't get to watch NBC News, h…

Apparently Spike Lee is making a new movie about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He also has a new autobiography out. He had a few choice words about Katrina on CNN the other day: http://www.sptimes.com/2005/10/12/Artsandentertainment/Spike_Lee_plans_film_.shtml I'm really disappointed in this personally, because I'm a huge fan of Lee's work. He's one of those directors whose movies tend to be hit-and-miss, in the sense that they often don't work all that well as a whole, but individual scenes and sequences can be incredibly powerful and effective. He's a rare talent. But I think it's wrong for him to fan these particular flames. Not only does h…

Apparently the Nobel Peace Prize this year was an award given to "the most anti-Bush politician available". http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/

http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2005/10/life-in-hell.html had to pass this along.

I've always been fascinated by the roles of Democrats and Republicans virtually flipped 180 degrees (several times) in the last few years. A few examples I've been pondering without really putting the effort into to flesh out in greater detail: - Racism: Consider a chief complaint that liberals have about Republicans, that they are nationalistic, hateful, bigoted, and racist. But that hasnt always been the case, in fact the pre-1967 the Democrats held the Solid South, and in fact many pre-1967 Democrats were members of the KKK. Now, the previously solidly Democratic South is solidly Republican, and the previously bigoted Democrats are now solidly pro-minority rights. …

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aMWClq_2Lglo&refer=top_world_news Three smaller bombs, 26 dead and at least 95 wounded. Restaurants and open air cafes hit. The bombs were packed with small ball bearings to cause maximum injuries. RAAF C-130s are in Bali to evacuate Aussie wounded, they should be heading home around midnight AEST. (1400 hrs GMT) It would appear Westerners are being deliberately targetted and tourists are warned to stay in their hotels. I've just seen footage of the actual explosions, not good. Aussies are still intending to go to Bali for holidays. Comments from the airport today "Bugger them, I'm going on h…

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/short_burst_oct5.html "Scientists have solved a 35-year-old mystery of the origin of powerful, split-second flashes of light called short gamma-ray bursts. These flashes, brighter than a billion suns yet lasting only a few milliseconds, have been simply too fast to catch... until now. If you guessed that a black hole is involved, you are at least half right. Short gamma-ray bursts arise from collisions between a black hole and a neutron star or between two neutron stars. In the first scenario, the black hole gulps down the neutron star and grows bigger. In the second scenario, the two neutron stars create a black hole...…

Sales of SUVs are plummeting. These numbers are really huge -- perhaps unprecedented in the history of domestic auto sales. http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P131570.asp?GT1=7159 Fascinating. I had no idea they were dropping that fast. It could end up beign a spike, and no doubt the numbers are being enhanced by the end of the hugely popular "Employee Discount Pricing" program, but as Toedtman states, this really looks like a major shift in the market.

The Iranians are smuggling weapons into iraq over the border, and this is why the insurgency continues to kill US soldiers and innocent people. We cannot trust their government, because their president was one of the terrorists who held hostages captive in the Tehran incident. He does not want any sort of peace and this is because he wants to rule the Middle-east in a theocracy. It is a danger to everyone and must be crushed by the rest of the world with an iron fist. I am tired of those fools who blow themselves up and kill innocent people, and they call themselves Muslims. It is frustrating to hear of the massacres, it almost makes me want to join the army and take rev…

Read the Wikipedia piece below http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing Which do you think is more convincing, the argument for offshore outsourcing or the argument against?

In another thread Bascule made the interesting (and as I later determined by visiting the Congressional Budget Office, *correct*) point that income revenues have been lower under the Bush administration in spite of the Bush tax cut. Apparently there's been a bit of a turnaround. I guess the general idea (whether true or not) is that you cut taxes, wait for the change to percolate, and then look for a result. But of course that's a Republican ideal, and the real picture is obviously going to be far more complex than that. Still, it seems that Republicans will have something to cheer about this fall. http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/12758013.htm …

This story really touched a nerve with me. For some reason the administration seems very forthcoming to those who hold no official position, your Robert Blake type. Yet official inquiries into information are often flat out denied with no explanation. Secrets are needlessly kept from both the public and government officials, and the administration asks Congress to make decisions in ignorance. That's an absolutely abhorrent idea to me which seems to run directly counter to a free and open democratic process, and instead the information is kept within a small oligarchy who seems to think they should pull all the strings. So, think of this as a case instance of wh…

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/08/science/08cnd-brain.html?ei=5094&en=7f83ee9b96d40611&hp=&ex=1126238400&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1126224003-zyBKE45IEICeBUIKvUHFdg "Two genes involved in determining the size of the human brain have undergone substantial evolution in the last 60,000 years, researchers say, suggesting that the brain is still undergoing rapid evolution... ...The new finding, reported by Bruce T. Lahn of the University of Chicago and colleagues in the journal Science, could raise controversy because of the genes' role in determining brain size. New versions of the genes, or alleles, as geneticists call them, appear to …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4298814.stm The third space tourist ever has launched in a Soyuz and is headed for a 10-day stay at the ISS. I think this again is going to spark a lot of debate among space-program skeptics, saying that "if all we're doing is flying tourists, what's the point of the ISS?" Frankly I don't know if NASA should be a tourist destination. It would be rather entertaining to have a billionaire on a Mars flight, but I don't know why they wasted cargo space on a dinky Soyuz just because someone forked over enough money. Opinions?

Allard (R-CO), Bond (R-MO), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Cornyn (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Roberts (R-KS), Sessions (R-AL), Stevens (R-AK) Yes, here we have a Republican sponsored bill which 90% of Senators, 45 Republicans and 43 Democrats, all voted for. This is McCain's bill banning the use of torture in military investigations. This is from McCain's statement on the bill: So, like the topic says... the people who voted against this bill are assholes. One of my senators is among these people, and he will definitely be receiving a very nasty letter from me...

The United States' military expendatures were between $455 and $462 billion in 2004. The lower estimate comes from a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the higher one comes from a newer NATO report. Here's some interesting number crunching on these figures: US defense spending comprises 47% of the world total, and is more than the military spending of the next 32 most powerful nations combined. The next highest nation was China with $67 billion. The US is #1 in military spending per capita at $1,540/person compared to the next highest nation, Israel, at $1,451/person. However, that $1,451/person figure includes $2.16 billi…

"The only relevant divisor of humanity is socioeconomic. There are those with money and power and there are those without. Everything else--race, gender, and religion--is a smokescreen." Would you agree with this statement?

As you may have heard, Florida's new "stand your ground" law goes into effect today. I was perusing the news and ran across this interesting item: "Tourists travelling to Florida are being warned to avoid aggressive arguments with locals because they risk being shot." http://www.itn.co.uk/news/63537.html At first it sounds like something the British government or tourist authority might do. But in fact it's an action being taken by more extreme elements of the American gun control lobby. In particular, this effort is being lead by Sarah Brady, whose husband was shot alongside President Reagan in the Hinckley assassination attempt in 1981. Seems like a …

For those of you not familiar, the story concerns the statement made by William Bennett (a former Secretary of Education in the Reagan administration) on his radio show to the effect that if you were to abort every black baby then the crime rate would go down. Here's the actual quote: (Source: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007342) As Ellis Henican said in Newsday, yikes! Clearly he's speaking of a hypothetical which even he considers to be abhorrent, but my question is, is the statement so antagonistic and insensitive that it requires an apology? His position basically prosecutes an idea put forth in the best-selling new book "Freakonomi…

Gorillas have been seen for the first time using simple tools to perform tasks in the wild, researchers say. Scientists observed gorillas in a remote Congolese forest using sticks to test the depth of muddy water and to cross swampy areas. Wild chimps and orangutans also use tools, suggesting that the origins of tool use may predate the evolutionary split between apes and humans. You can find the full BBC article here.