Politics

Harold has seen the light and is now no longer a skeptic regarding AGW. To make up for past misconduct, and to prevent further "spinning of wheels chasing red herrings down rabbit holes"(delightfully memorable phrase), I contribute a suggestion. Sue the carbon emitters, take them to court. Start with the frivolous ones like NASCAR and all those with the deep pockets to sponsor these vehicles. Winning in court will be a piece of cake with all the evidence at our disposal and we can educate a lot of rednecks which will be sure to be paying close attention to the trial. We will win big and use the funds to pay for ever more ambitious targets while those newly educate…

And women or womyn, as the case may be, have a safe and happy Independence Day. A little patriotic trivia for you, Francis Scott Key was a pacifist and opposed the War of 1812 on religious grounds. But on the Fourth of July we celebrate not being cursed with a monarchy in addition to our other burdens. Long live the Republic!

Do you think same sex marriage should be made legal by SCOTUS? Why or why not? Do you have a half hour? If so, this collection of clips from the arguments conducted just today at the Supreme Court of the United States is really digestible and well edited: http://www.scotusblog.com/2015/04/super-cuts-from-same-sex-marriage-arguments/ Direct link to the above referenced audio (so well done and so timely!): http://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SSM-Supercut-Small.m4a

I'd just like to take a moment to thank the conservatives on SFN. I grew up in Indiana and my friends got married today. They were the first couple to have a same-sex marriage in my home county. Thanks, conservatives. If it weren't for your ban, we would have had to wait longer for marriage equality. I wholeheartedly encourage the conservative members in states without marriage equality or same-sex marriage bans to call their state legislature and ask for a ban so all 50 states can have marriage equality.

Yesterday this 21 year old went into a church, sat for an hour listening to Bible study, then shot and killed 9 people. How long until we will hear discussion in the news about his PARENTS? His parents must be very embarassed, since they created a monster. This psychopathic boy is probably the product of bad parenting, or no parenting. It will be very interesting to know more about his parents. The origin of most problems in the world is bad parenting, or non-parenting. "...Roof's father gave him a .45-caliber pistol for his birthday, according to uncle Charles Cowles." http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/06/18/charleston-suspect-is-dylann-roof.ht…

"There is no place in science for 'toeing the line' with some 'doctrine' or 'consensus'. The best science is always the one that breaks the consensus. This is why we celebrate Einstein and Boltzmann today, for example. In their day, both stood up against the prevailing 'consensus'. Yet, today we know there is no 'ether'- Einstein was right, Kelvin was wrong. And, yes, thermodynamics is derivable from the kinetic theory of matter and...atoms do exist- Boltzmann was right too." -Zdzislaw Meglicki

On Tuesday on the Jimmy Fallon show presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke about the first meeting between himself and his future foreign bride, Columba. " It was love at first sight. I spoke little Spanish and she spoke little English, but when you are in love you can overcome those barriers pretty quick. There's another language that matters the most." John Ellis "Jeb" Bush is an American businessman and politician who served as the 43rd Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. He is the second son of former President George H. W. Bush and former First Lady Barbara Bush, and the younger brother of former President George W. Bush. Bush met his w…

Why is it that most of the countries in the world are in debt?

http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html

I read a great article about space policy I wanted to discuss. Here's the link to the article by Dave Baiocchi and William Welser IV: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/space/2015-04-20/democratization-space In overview, space exploration has, in the past, been the domain of major states. As technology continues to find ways to make sending satellites and other vehicles more affordable, private companies are laying plans to increase the number of launches and vehicles dramatically. But right now, space policy is still largely non-existent, and certainly isn't geared up for the massive efforts private enterprise has in mind. Right now, the Outer Space Treaty loo…

There are many conspiracy theories that surround this idea, and they talk about the formation of the New World Order, or a one-world government. However, nobody seems the question what the problem with a one-world government would be. So, is there any reason to not have one?

I said nothing about how Hitler or Stalin were deposed or not. And I certainly wouldn't encourage thinking that what they did was anything but criminal. However the Weimar republic in Germany in the 20s had runaway inflation. I'm sure you've seen the pictures of the weelbarrows full of Marks needed to buy a loaf of bread. In ten years Hitler had rebuilt the economy ( through military spending among other things ) such that Germany could challenge the major powers of the world militarily again. Stalin had his 5 yr plans in the late 20s with the express purpose of modernizing the Russian economy. And they succeded. The fact that 8 million Ukranians died of starvat…

I was thinking about how, in the future, there will be cloud-homes or cloud cities, maybe. However, the question is it illegal to have one at the moment? If one were to be built(theoretically), would it be against the law? Is there any law against limits on how high it can go, legally?

The red dotted line is China's claimed territory. http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-32941829

So, I was watching this documentary about the obesity of a truck driver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTAEvlKvRv8 Summary: A truck driver(the focus of the discussion) is obese because he is forced to unhealthy foods due to the requirements of his job. I think a way to solve a part of the obesity problem is to automate the movement of products geographically. The problem is the American economy relies on transportation of goods in order to keep the system moving as it is. I think the broad solution is to automate jobs that relate to this movement of goods. This would mean that people would have the ability to spend more time on their health rather than on …

Why did the UK opt out of the Schengen agreement?

I find this revolting: http://www.foxsanantonio.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/graphic-video-fort-bliss-soldier-moments-before-his-death-while-custody-12884.shtml#.VVsmaUZGSd5 When is the system going to change? I don't know if there were racial implications or simply police officers being jealous of this guy's position, or them being impatient. It has got to stop. People talk about passing laws. Why can't we just enforce the laws that we already have?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsSipotuQAI Factory Diesel Storage Tank Explodes Footage recorded footage in Jeddah, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia Occurred On: Apr-24-2015 Talk about overreacting. That explosion is like a mile away or more.

I think the argument is, correct me if i'm wrong, most world powers don't want Iran to have a nuclear bomb. Iran argues they don't want a bomb, they just want nuclear-electric power. However, most Iranians believe that Iran has just as much right to a nuclear bomb as any other world power, for self defense. But the Supreme Leader has stated that they don't want a nuke bomb and they believe nuclear weapons are bad inherently. (Maybe not considered Islamic?) But his religion says it is ok to lie to infidels about such matters. So all Iranians understand that the outside world should not trust the ayatolla's word. If they say they don't want a nuke bomb, they…

In the interest of fairness, just seems like a reasonable question to ask.

From all video evidence, there seems no reason to shoot a fleeing man in the back. When officer went to his car to run info, there were no warrants. However, man ran away. Police apparently overreacted. Here's my idea. Put a small number of homeless people to work carrying around video cameras. There job is to film anything like this. They should be trained to hold the camera steady, unlike the video we have.

With all the not-a-candidate(yet) fund raising going on right now, I was wondering what people think of the Federal Election Comission? Is it possible to find somebody who most people will agree enforces fair rules equally, or will the current deadlock allow the candidates to play the rules instead of the game?

Didn't know wether to call this 'Stupid government responses to a problem' or 'Insane social engineering'... The desire to switch from fossil fuels to electric as a means of powering cars is a commendable one ( although it makes no sense in some parts of the US where most of their electricity is generated by burning coal ). Governments, in a rush to "be seen to do something', are therefore offering rebates on electric vehicles to force the take-up of the new technology. The most popular electric vehicle that I know of is the Tesla, a very nice electric vehicle, but it costs roughly $100,000 in the states and $150,000 in Canada. Obviously a little above the afforda…

AS in topic title - is the political world order deterministic enough so that at some point in the future we'll be able to predict what course world politics will take? Like you know, predicting with >90% certainity that 5 years from now country X will go to war with country Y and win after Z months of combat or that country U will have such and such foreign policy vis a vis country V etc Is that even possible? Political "scientists" often make predictions about future events but these predictions are not based at mathematical modelling. So they may "predict" that by 2030 US will still be majority white and world's most powerful country or that China will face pro…

Institutions that represent the weak are subject to the same nepotistic influences they defend against, and so constant reform, if not disintegration and rebirth, of these institutions is essential. This is what the trend toward coalition in European political parties represents - a regrouping in part triggered by the collapse of aggressive Communism, but probably timely anyway. The American system doesn't seem to be following this trend, so, is this a problem? Icebreaker.