Politics

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has an interesting editorial today about the current state of affairs in Iraq. His opinion stands somewhat in contrast with what I said in this thread (that we can finish the job with the troops we have). I don't agree with him, and I think he actually disproves his own point in this editorial when he talks about how we need to focus more on Iraqi police/troop morale than on "training" per se. But he makes some other interesting points, and he's always a good read. I've always felt that we sent more than enough troops to capture Iraq (and topple Hussein), but that time has shown us that it wasn't enough troops for the o…

This poll is a little America-centric... but for all you foreigners: If you commented that you were against the right to bear arms, do not vote republican or libertarian. If you believed Saddam had WMD, but were still against the war, you should vote green or democrat. If you're for abortion but against the death penality, democrat is the way to go. .. see http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm The other parties are self-evident and there is no "none" option, because if you think you're not in line with most of the beliefs of a party, you probably haven't seen the site I linked to. Try to pick the closest match, and if you're really out there choos…

Linkage: The Australian <Adrian cronauer> GOOOOOOOOOOOD MOOOOOORRRRNNNIIIING IIIIIRRRRAAAAQQQQ. </Adrian> O.K. back to reality. Excerpt: Seriously what are your thoughts on this, personal, political. Some topic starters. 1) I found it surprising, you've only lost 1700 people which, as invasions come and go, isn't shocking, I find it startling that such a minor casualty rate is supposedly "compelling" them bring back the draft. Something doesn't seem quite right here. 2) As I alluded to in my opening, this does seem more and more vietnam-ish everyday. 3) Say you go ahead with this. If you draft people into service, and gi…

Is bush planning on doing anythinng about the high rate of oil consumption? We guzzle so much gas every year, yet we aren't working so well with alternative energy. Why not? Sure, right now it isn't a big deal, but with oil oly depleting and population only growing, meaning the supply is decreasing and the demand is growing, so the price of it will skyrocket! We need to do something about it while we have time to!

Astronomers have detected the smallest extrasolar planet yet: a world about seven and a half times as massive as Earth orbiting a star much like ours. The new find may be the first rocky world found around a star like the Sun. It orbits the star Gliese 876, located 15 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Aquarius, and orbits with a period of 1.94 days at a distance of 0.021 AU, or 3.2 million km. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4089534.stm Because its mass is so small, it is not thought to be able to retain gases like hydrogren in the way that a gas giant does.

Someone told me that if all politicians worked for our betterment instead of there own selfish interest we would live in a utopia. My wife thinks all politicians are crooks.I am pondering that thought. Anyone wishs to enlighten me on this statement? pljames

Recently Floridians have caught the local legislation bug, thanks in part to the national reaction to the recent cases of young girls who were killed by repeat sex offenders. Communities all over Florida are imposing new "2500 feet" rules, that basically prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school, park, or other youth-oriented facility (day care, etc). The problem is that 2,500 feet can be a really large radius in an urban or even suburban environment. Often schools or parks are only separated by a mile or so, leaving very little room in between for the sex offenders to find a place to live. And the laws are retroactive, so if you …

It is also a Christian value to refrain from stealing, or murdering, are these evil as well?

Fascinating article in the Post today -- Bob Woodward's personal story about how he came to know Mark Felt, including his own story about how he came to work for the Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/01/AR2005060102124.html In a sense this is the story I've been waiting all week to read, really. Mark Felt's story is interesting. Bob Woodward's story is fascinating. My two bits' worth, anyway.

...can they not be defined as embracers of novelty versus embracers of the status quo? And with evolution traditionally favoring useful novelty, will humanity not continue to evolve to be more liberal?

(a continuation from the bush stem cell thread) a few quotes:

Physicists have recreated what the world was like immediately after the big bang at RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider). http://www.world-science.net/othernews/050420_quarkfrm.htm They basically smashed some atoms together with enough energy to seperate the quarks within the nucleus of the atoms (they used 40 trillion electron volts!).

How does the French "NO" vote on the E.U. constitution affect the status of it ever being ratified? Will the Netherlands vote "NO" next wednesday ?, if yes, does that sink the boat ? What is Chirac's future?

I'm curious what some of our European friends here think of the idea, popular in some circles in the US (particularly the right side of our political spectrum) that Europe's economic woes are fundamentally based on its more socialistic economy. Or as today's editorial on the Wall Street Journal's "Opinion Journal" puts it, "a product of the welfare state". Is that a fair statement? http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006768 Some points that they make: - Much higher unemployment - Much lower growth rate - Half of Europe's new jobs '80s & '90s are in the public sector - State ownership and subsidy of key industries - Rules that mak…

Stem Cell Passes in the House Bush hasn't vetoed anything yet. He will probably start with this one. He is in a no win situation, since I think most people favor it, but his evangelical base opposes it. We will have to wait until the next Pres, unless the Senate overrides the veto. You think Bush will actually veto this or let it go?

What do you think of this idea? Although I'll describe this concept in terms of the US system, it could apply to any democracy. Why not make it mandatory that before anyone gets to run for president he/she must take a psychological test that measures leadership qualities and skills, and the results of the test must be made public. At first, it may sound like this is an infringement against the right to run for president and an invasion of privacy, but when you think about it, running for president is still a choice any candidate to make freely knowing full well that he/she must take this test, and regardless of the results of the test, the candidate can still run - no…

Do you think mandatory country-of-origin label on goods are necessary? Mandatory country-of-origin labelling costs very much and there seems to be very few benefits. See http://www.countryoforiginlabel.org/overview.htm

Well I've been ragging on Republicans lately over morality issues. I think it's time to give them a pat on the back over economics, which were an important cornerstone in John Kerry's campaign. (Reminder: I voted for Kerry, so give me a little credit for objectivity here.) The States collected a record $600 billion in tax income last year, according to this report from ABC News(1). Some states don't know what to do with it all. Republican governor Mitt Romney wants to give it back to his constituents but his Democrat-controlled state legislators thinks that would be irresponsible (gee). Florida saw a huge surplus in spite of four hurricane strikes and a record n…

We all knew this was coming, right? http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=1000639&tw=wn_wire_story This is a great example of how "litigiousness" is not solely an American trait. You want to talk about chasing the entity with the deepest pockets....

ABC News is running an episode of 20/20 tonight. That in itself is not unusual, of course. Here's what is: - It's in HDTV. News programming in HDTV is an unheard-of rarity. Not one news program or cable news network is running in HD yet. The *only* news program in this country that runs regularly in HD is a 30-minute weekly news magazine on Mark Cuban's HDNet network. (They had the only HD footage of the pope's funeral a few weeks ago, which was kinda interesting.) - They spent a lot of money on this episode of 20/20. Flying all over the country. Interviewing experts. Setting up reenactments. Flying off to the Middle East and shooting a bunch of expensiv…

Interesting case. He was arrested yesterday here in Miami, which I think is a clear indication that he won't be granted asylum. Some background here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Posada_Carriles http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/11672193.htm In brief, he's an anti-Castro terrorist. Even if we take him at his word and ignore the Cuban conviction regarding the airplane hijacking that resulted in 73 deaths, he's admitted participating in hotel bombings in Havana in the late 1990s. Unfortunately the fact that he can't get a fair trial in Cuba complicates matters. Our own laws prohibit us from extradicting him to Cuba for that reason. I …

This could be a fun thread: how would you rate yourself as a politician if you ever decided to run for an important office? (That is, of course, if you havent run for office already ) Lets assume that you have the money, the time, and the will to run: Do you have good policy ideas? Fiscal? Social? Education, Environment, Foreign policy? Are you a talented public speaker? Do you scare children? ( ) Could you woo the voters? Do you cater to partisan interests? Would you run a smear campaign against a competitor? Overall, would you consider yourself an electable politician? If so, what party would you associate with, what would you do once elected, and how wo…

This is an interesting science-and-politics story. It's not getting much reporting right now because there are much bigger stories out there, but it's worth considering and I thought our angle here on SFN my be particularly valuable. The National Weather Service is in the process of upgrading its web site and otherwise expanding its services to the public. Streaming media and RSS/XML type data services and a big media push with a lot more appearances by their forecasters on TV, radio and in newspapers. Traditionally these guys have been pretty laid back (in fact there's an old joke about meteorologists who don't look good enough for local TV going to work for the…

Let's assume for just a second, that a contract could be agreed upon that would double everyone's net income. It would be based on a new "electronic dollar/pound/whatever" and have the value of the local currency. It would be a "World-owned" electronic currency that cannot be traded (in the money market) since its' value is dependent upon which country it was earned in. Therefore, the contract must include a price freeze on all current technology... including raw materials. New technology can get whatever it can get (name your price). The purpose of this "Supplemental Income" is to boost the economies of the world by giving the people (poor people like me... and you?)…