Politics

.......he's so blatantly homophobic? How can you represent the people if you don't believe in the basic right to formally express love? Same sex marrage is not a premise that's way out there (like polygamy, which is legal in some US states), it's a fact of life in the modern life. Not going into the warmongering, alcoholic stupidity of the man. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3110581.stm

Annenberg uncovers what everybody knew four years ago and seem to forget.

It looks like Hollywood is not happy with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Roger Ebert gave it one star, and his primary beef seems to be over the fact that the "White House gets a free pass" and that the famous Hollywood stars "exist in the movie essentially to be ridiculed for existing at all, I guess". http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041014/REVIEWS/40921007 I haven't seen it yet, but it sounds to me like they deserve a credit for not bowing to the pressures of political correctness, producing a satire that goes after BOTH sides. But I wonder how long it will be before the far left criticizes their decision to release the film just…

This campaign is becoming characterized by deceit. Forget Iraq/WMDs -- I'm talking about deception taking place right now. I want to know when Kerry is going to drop this ridiculous "ties to the Saudi royal family" line. That's the kind of Michael Moore tactic that's going to get him back into trouble. The reason he was so far behind in the polls before is because of lack of credibility in his attacks. He's dipping right back into that same well these days. In addition: - "$200 billion" is not the amount we've spent on Iraq. It's half that. - "1.6 million jobs lost" is double the actual figure. - Pharms got a $139 billion bailout is well documented t…

If you're voting for Kerry, please state why you are here. I'm not fishing for arguments, I'm just trying to get a feel for why people are voting kerry.

I'm kind of stealing this poll from another site. but, its a good question. Reeves was a proponent of stem cell research. Kerry even mentioned him in his presidential debate. What do you think?

honestly, i really can't understand why so many people support bush. i'd like some reasons. and please, make them factual. nothing like "because he is the best to protect us against terror" because bush has had a chance as president and kerry has not. therefore its all speculation that kerry will do bad. i dont want comparisons. i want some reasons for why you(if you do) support bush.

Do you think voters of the LP will affect the election by taking away votes from a canidate? If so, which one?

I was at the library and saw a poster. It was talking about how it ismportant to vote, BUT it was in Spanish. For those of you that don't know, I live in America. I found that poster disturbing. I don't think you have any right to vote if you can't understand the national language. What do you guys think?

Astronomers working in Chile think they may have taken the first direct image of a planet circling another star. The star, called 2M1207, is 230 light-years away and is very much smaller and fainter than our own Sun. The pictured companion is 100 times fainter still and tested the technical limits of the Yepun telescope. Astronomer Christophe Dumas said: "It is a strange feeling that it may indeed be the first planetary system beyond our own ever imaged....The thrill of seeing this faint source of light in real-time on the instrument display was unbelievable." Benjamin Zuckerman, of the University of California, in Los Angeles, added: "If the candidate compan…

Did anybody actually watch this? It looks like a lot of people decided it wasn’t important. Anyway I think Cheney undoubtedly won. Edwards just seemed childish trying to argue with him. I loved the way Edwards told us a ‘personal story’ during one of his answers. It was mush more entertaining than the first presidential because there was so many personal attacks. Unfortunately the buzzer was never used, although Edward interrupted Cheney at one point. Any thoughts?

The latest issue of Skeptic Magazine that takes Bush to task for his abuse of science: http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic10-08-04.html The Politicization Of Science in the Bush Administration: Science-As-Public Relations Dylan Otto Krider There’s a war going on—and not just the one in Iraq. This conflict may not get as much media play, but it could have just as great an impact on our safety, national prestige, and long-term economic health. It is a war over the integrity of science itself, and the casualties are everywhere: career scientists and enforcement officials are resigning en masse from government agencies, citing an inability to do their jobs due …

http://www.planetaryinvestments.com/ These guys take claim to the right to sale land plots on the moon and Mars. Now what exactly is the law on other planet land ownership? Should we be allowed to buy it? Many questions.

Do you think they should be allowed to do this?

We had a discussion here recently in which someone tried to suggest that only the United States has violated the WTO. Which is, of course, ridiculous, but after I demonstrated that it's not the case, I got to thinking about Kerry's plan to stop outsourcing in America. The basic idea is that he wants to provide tax incentives to companies that keep jobs in the US instead of sending them overseas. Now, setting aside for the moment the obvious flaw that every company in the country will immediately apply for these incentives, claiming outsourcing pressures (sigh), another thought occurs: Wouldn't this be a violation of the WTO? Obviously this would only apply if…

I've noticed how many anti-Bush people there are here, so I'd like to ask, what do you think Kerry will do for the US? No, not what he promises to do, what you think he'll do. And how. Don't say "he'll fix the education system" try to give a little explanation ("increase funding by yada yada" or whatever) so we can just see how feasible it is. I'm expecting a large amount of interest in this.

There has been some talk on the subject, and of course I didn't really believe any of it, but then I did some reading... First Purple Heart: From: http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200405041626.asp Yeah folks that would be 3 to 4 MILIMETERS tenths of a centimeter, that doesn't seem like a very hurtful wound to me. From: http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/kerry_pur_hrts.htm It seems he agrees with me. Kerry agrees himself (from:http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/04/27/Politics/Purple.Hearts.Three.And.Out-656749.shtml) If he was hurt... (From:http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/kerry_pur_hrts.htm) From: http://www.insightmag…

NOW WE’RE READY, MR POPE With public poetry which sets out to record, confront, and influence the external world, one must ask what is the structure of society the poet is dealing with; where does the poet stand in relation to the world of politics, religion and the broad base of values and beliefs; what channels of communication and social definition are available to the poet; in what ways is social change affecting his position and his poetic response to society and how does the personal and professional life of the poet affect his place in the poetic order and in the wider flux of life in society. -Ron Price with thanks to Isabel Rivers, The Poetry of Conservati…

I know there is a thing called free expression, but it still says something when one of their political cartoons says "smart words - crush America and wipe Israel off the face of the earth". I can't link it but you can just go to the site http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage and it is on the bottom of the page (Cartoons the one about samrt bomb-smart words). Am I wrong in thinking that this is the epitome of hatred through words? Once they get a nuke it will be "delivered" to Israel and then Israel will drop their nukes and then...........

Imo, capitalism works best with lots of competition, and the bigger businesses get, the less competiton there is. One of their biggest threats is their influence in politics. Any thoughts on how we can curb this unfair influence?

Guns...

life would suck if the 18th amendment were still in effect. what do you think?

source = http://www.nature.com/news/2004/040927/full/040927-4.html If all goes according to plan, by early October SpaceShipOne will have become the first privately funded spacecraft to have carried a pilot and the weight of two people to 100 kilometres above Earth's surface, returned safely, and then repeated the journey within two weeks. Those are the criteria that must be fulfilled for SpaceShipOne to claim the US$10-million Ansari X prize, donated by private benefactors "to jumpstart the space tourism industry". There is a respectable tradition of scientific innovations being stimulated by cash prizes. French industry offered the rewards that prompted Jea…

I thought it was a good debate. Much better than had been predicted. I thought Kerry won on style, and Bush won on substance, but both victories were marginal. Bush got a little too argumentative and gave Kerry the "smoothness" victory. But what counts more with me is substance, and there the only flaw I could see in Bush's arguments was when he was a bit hung up on justification for Iraq. For the most part Kerry was unable to punch a hole in Bush's armor, and Bush showed strong on foreign policy knowledge (what a contrast with four years ago!). There was only one point that Kerry made that Bush was unable refute, but Bush put up at least three that I coul…