Politics

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0412/p06s03-wome.html http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8146766 It will be interesting to see how this goes. The angle I'm wondering about is the idea that a rapid pullout by Syria may end up becoming an example of why the US should NOT pull out of Iraq early.

ok, I've been recently wondering... everyone knows that US dollars are the most wanted currency in the world. Using this advantage, what if say US government secretly created money and used to buy in the market? It seems like a perfectly good idea.

Space.com is reporting that engineers found a small crack in the foam insulation covering the shuttle's external fuel tank. The crack is not expected to be a safety concern, though it delayed the shuttle rollout for a few hours. The space shuttle Discovery began its 4.2 mile journey to the launch pad today. It is scheduled to launch sometime in mid-May.

Just last week I was ranting about how the far right has been over-the-top in its criticism of the Judiciary and blaming everything in sight on "activist judges". Then the far left goes and makes their case for them. On Friday the 9th Circuit court of appeals overturned a 1995 murder conviction because relatives of the victim wore buttons with a picture of the murder victim on their clothing during the trial. No, really. Here's a link to a news article reporting the appeals court verdict: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/04/08/state/n172951D73.DTL Reuters/NY Time article (requires registration): http://www.nytimes.…

Churches get tax exemptions, which mean that arguably they're being supported by the government, right? Therefore shouldn't science get equal time at the pulpit? Can I get an AMEN?!

The New York Times ran a funny sidebar story today about President Bush's Ipod playlist. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/11/politics/11letterbox.html? Apparently one of his aids downloads the tunes from Apple and installs them for him, and he listens while running. Or signing important bills. Something like that. Anyway, here were some of the artists and tunes from the list. Mostly C/W, but some fun '80s stuff. Oddly, no sign of Huey Lewis's "Hip to Be Square". John Fogerty, "Centerfield" Van Morrison, "New Biography," "Brown Eyed Girl" John Hiatt, "Circle Back" Alan Jackson George Jones Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets" Joni Mitchell, "(You're S…

Hybrid Efficiency Overstated? http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BB21CF567-A36C-4EF0-8E64-D8177D37D004%7D&siteid=google&dist=google Interesting article. Note that it's almost a year old, and gas prices are significantly higher now (more than a dollar higher in California than the example in the quote below), but I still think it's interesting. This quote seems particularly on point: I wonder why the EPA's tests are off by a higher percentage with hybrids versus regular cars.

Well, the Pope is dead. Poor old man. He died of sepsis caused by a UTI.

What are the pos/cons for abusing a child? Should it be allowed? Do you have any facts to share with us? I think that child abuse should be prohibited as much as possbile, but I also think that children should obey their parents. After all, you owe everything to them.

Looks like Saudi Arabia has a lot more oil than previously believed. They're talking about an increase of almost two-fold, and enough of it is from new sources that they're looking at a 33-50% capacity increase (from 10 to 15 million barrels per day). Of course this is just a drop in the bucket compared with the 20+ mbpd increase we're looking at over the next 5-10 years from China+India alone, but I think it does underscore the point that you can never really say that we fully understand what's going on down there. Arab News: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=61713&d=7&m=4&y=2005 Bloomberg: http://www.chron.com/cs…

On the morning of September 11th 2001, there were multiple war games taking place by the U.S. Airforce and NORAD. The point of this thread is to try and figure out how those war games may have affected the response by NORAD and the FAA and also to find out who was in charge of those war games. Vigilant Guardian Vigilant Warrior Northern Vigilance Northern Guardian Tripod II On May 8, 2001, President Bush made Dick Cheney to coordinate development of US government initiatives to combat terrorist attacks on the United States. (Source: Crossing the Rubicon, Michael C. Ruppert - Cited from White House Press release, may 8, 2001) Would that have put Dic…

I have decided to coin a new word: Fundamentalistas! Definition: Anybody who adopts a theologically-derived political ideology that flies in the face of logic and reason. Not limited to American fundamentalist christian conservatives. Usage: "There were fundamentalistas all over my lawn, drinking Jesus juice from Diet Coke cans and singing hymns." "I wanted to have an abortion, but the fundamentalistas were in front of the clinic on the only day I could get off from work."

Are any of you worried about how much pornography there is out there? It's fine to believe in free speech. But consider that 80% of school students have accidentally stumbled upon porn while on the Internet. Consider that many young people are mimicking what they see in pornography on their young friends. Even though Internet censorship is very difficult, don't you think some effort needs to be made? Or will this effort be fruitless?

Got this idea from Flareon's post in the USA thread. I thought about making this a poll, but really I'm more interested in hearing what people think about their sources and why they chose them, rather than getting some numbers on which sources are most popular. Thoughts? Just to kick things off, I'm subscribed (paid sub, for a course I'm taking) to the Wall Street Journal, and I have free online subs to the New York Times and the Washington Post. I also drop by CNN and MSNBC from time to time, but I usually start news runs at Google News (useful because it often slaps international links right alongside domestic ones for domestic events, so I can quickly see h…

I think only the people hiding under the largest of rocks, on the most distant planets, without cable, havent heard about the plan to reform the US Social Security system to privatize security. The problems are to social security are obvious (increasing burden on taxpayers, especially as more people are retiring earlier and living longer), but I dont think privatizing social security is a solution (the 39 - 55 year old group will lose immediate benefits before investments have time to compensate, and price index formulas predict privatizing will result in net loss for investors). So, I have a better plan: Allow Americans to opt out of social security. The idea isn…

I do know that Japan, China, and the Koreas have very strict immigration laws. Even with Mexico, it is about 1000 times more difficult for an American to move there than vice versa: October 27, 2004 Immigration And The Unmentionable Question Of Ethnic Interests By Kevin MacDonald Arguments over immigration are usually limited to cultural or economic factors. Political scientists like Samuel Huntington point out that the culture of the country will change dramatically if there is a continued influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants. And economists like George Borjas have demonstrated that large masses of newcomers depress wages and create enormous demands on…

Interesting article: http://www.thebirdman.org/Index/Temp/Temp-TheUSIsNotNumber1ButItDoesDoNumber2.html I guess most humans have not learned as yet how to maintain an empire for the long term. One needs to consider history, human psychology, and resource maintenance and then plan accordingly if they want their empire to last.

I'm not sure this is the right forum, so if I placed it in the wrong one, let me know. Just curious on everyones thoughts about this. Things were starting to look up for the peace process, but now I fear that things will erupt once more. Edit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4367787.stm

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050401_first_extrasolarplanet_pic.html after observing the prospective planet at GQ Lupi since 1999, they've made it definite. it is for sure a planet and not just some background object that looks like a planet. it's just a fluke they announced on 1 April. the same story is posted at cnn.com http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/04/01/extrasolar.planet.photo/index.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05087/478649.stm Interesting article about the upcoming evacuation test of the A380. I had no idea that could be so dangerous, but I guess it makes sense. But the test is important, and needs to be done. Unfortunately it happens all too often that a passenger plane will be involved in some sort of incident requiring the rapid evacuation of the passengers. There've been a number of hard landings and fires aboard planes readying for take-off. The airplane business is one of those morose industries in which most of those safety regulations have a large body count behind them. But what's really interesting about the above article are…

Setting limits on weapons for China International Herald Tribune Saturday, February 26, 2005 Quotes: "Of all the things the Europeans said to President George W. Bush about lifting their arms embargo on China, only one really mattered: They're going to do it whether he likes it or not. Bush's response was equally clear: If you do, you'll be provoking me and the Congress at your peril." "To the Europeans, China merely represents an alluring trade bonanza. For the United States - as well as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan - it remains a potential military threat. Selling China weapons that might be used to shoot down United States aircraft assigned to …

Reuters is reporting that paleontologists have observed what they believe to be soft-tissue, including blood vessels, inside of a T-Rex thigh bone. The scientists were forced to break the bone in half because of transportation limitations. It is unknown whether it will be possible to isolate DNA fragments from the tissue.

Is anyone else slightly disturbed by the fact that Discovery HD Theater and Milnet have a special 2-hour show about the Iraq War filmed in HDTV? I dunno, maybe it's just me. It does look amazing, but... it just seems like it's kinda inappropriate somehow. I mean it's *entertainment*, or at least EDUtainment....

(This thread will probably be of most interest to USians.) I am like most Americans: I find voting to be very frustrating - the Dems hardly stand for anything at all in recent times (its almost as if they exist for the sole purpose of opposing the Republicans), and the Republicans are deeply unethical. Both parties are so inconsistent that I cannot persuade myself to vote for them at all. But, like all the others, I cant help but vote for them because in the grand scheme of things, I could either chose to vote for the "lesser of two evils" or for nothing at all. If I may be permitted to paint with a wide brush, I find most people do not vote for third parties, but…

The Wall Street Journal, in today's official editorial, has finally thrown in the towel on Tom DeLay. As you may know, the Journal is one of the few strongly conservative editorial voices in the mainstream print media (the Washington Times and the New York Post are the other two "big" names that leap to mind, but the Journal really has the most clout). They do a very good job of offering counterpoint on their op/ed pages, but their official opinions are always strongly conservative. Because of those alternate voices (it's quite a popular thing for well-known liberals and moderates to write op/eds for the Journal), the "Opinion Journal" is one of my regular stops on the…