Politics

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?)…

I. Among other things, these investigators found that parts of the frontal cortex, the seat of many higher cognitive functions, are bulkier in women than in men, as are parts of the limbic cortex, which is involved in emotional responses. In men, on the other hand, parts of the parietal cortex, which is involved in space perception, are bigger than in women, as is the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure that responds to emotionally arousing information--to anything that gets the heart pumping and the adrenaline flowing. These size differences, as well as others mentioned throughout the article, are relative: they refer to the overall volume of the structure relative …

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/business/18space.html?hp Apparently the US Air Force is asking for a Presidential National Security Directive to develop satellite weaponry which could be used to take out satellites of other countries. Weapons in space time. I dunno, I guess I can understand both sides of it, but it does seem like it will guarantee a space weapons race, whereas before we at least had a chance to prevent it.

This is rapidly turning into a fascinating example of the need for caution in reporting. As you may have heard, Newsweek reported last week that an anonymous senior official told them that guards at Guantanamo had tried to intimidate prisoners by flushing the Koran down the toilet. The administration and the Pentagon reacted angrily to the assertions, which came with no proof of any kind. But the damage was done, and dozens are dead in demonstrations in the Middle East as a direct result of this story being reported. Newsweek today said it might have erred in running the story. That's huge. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/15/international/asia/15cnd-afghan.ht…

What's going on with Japan and the republic these days. Last I heard both had a feud over some oil laden territories. China is too resourceful and I wonder who would win If they had a military feud with the Japs. If there is a third war I bet It would start from Asia, those guys just won't seem to waste any time. What's anybody's take on North Korea's position? And will Iraq eventually become the new Isreal in the M.E?

War time propaganda is nothing new. Lately, I have seen that perhaps the Holocuast has been exaggerated for the most part. To explain my views on this subject, I have given some links that might be insightful to you as well. Firstly, I beleive the numbers were exaggerated. Six million Jews did not die. http://www.zundelsite.org/english/101/english1011.html The rumors of death camps began before death camps were even initiated. http://www.zundelsite.org/english/debate/012_jam.html "Holocaust" authors claim that the Nazis were able to cremate bodies in about 10 minutes. How long does it take to incinerate one body, according to professional crematory operators…

Lately I've read about a few Bills passing through the US Congress with 'riders' attached. These riders are sometimes unrelated things that would get voted down on their own. I'm wondering why these were originally allowed, it seems a flaw in the system that people can pass legislation without it being really assented to, or sometimes even noticed. Does anyone in the US think it's worth changing?

linkage More linkage From the first link. It should also be known that to the best of everyones knowledge the woman has gone missing in the Philipines, you can guess the three most probable reasons. "if anything unfair had happened" Howard has apologised for nothing and conceeded nothing. Lets get the reporting straight. An Australian citizen is deported to a foreign country, seperated from her child, and now possibly dead, and Howard says '*If* she was treated unfairly.' He's lucky he isn't within fist range. And how come this only comes to light now? Could it be because the media is barred from all aspects of this process, like so…

Question: Does anyone know anything about the CIA and the drug connection?

i think that capitalism sux, because people are lazy and/or greedy. if they weren't, then it wouldn't be too bad. if people weren't lazy and/or greedy, then communism would be the best system. i think that a military-esque system with incentives would work the best in real life. everyone is rationed a house, vehicle, clothing, ect. food would be distributed in a mess hall type manner. you may be saying "how would all of this be paid for?," but this system wouldn't use money. resources are put where needed. working hard earns privilage points, but being lazy earns you nothing and posiibly negative points. when you get so many points, you can do something special, say t…

I'm born (and still living) at Quebec city and it seem that I am the only one against the separation of Quebec province. I hate separatist!

Anybody got any ideas on how to takeover a small country? I was thinking it would be kinda fun to takeover some place like Venezuela, I mean, I'd make a much better dictator than Hugo Chavez. Or Columbia. It would be alot of work, and kinda risky, but I think if I got enough backers I(or anyone else for that matter) could takeover a country like that. Any thoughts?

Former conservative (now a kind of centrist Democrat) Arianna Huffington has started a new blog/news site called the Huffington Post, which might be interesting to follow because of guest blog entries and articles by celebs. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

There are many people in third, and second world countries who have tremendous intellectual, creative, emotional, and genetic potential. I believe that where they are waste their potential, hurting both them, and the whole world community. That is why I believe we should begin testing for the qualities which we would like in our civilization, and begin transporting(with some compensation to the home country of course) the individuals into an environment where their potential can be used. This already occurs to some extent with foreign exchange students, but I believe that if we were more proactive it would help both the country recieving the high potential individuals,…

I know this may not be the most exciting subject for many of you, but what do you think of predatory pricing? Do you support the view by the CATO Institute that predatory pricing is a myth (or a "conspiracy theory against big business," as they put it). Or it it real? How should it be dealt with?