Politics

So far, The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act has been found constitutional by three federal District Court judges and one federal Circuit Court (aka Appeals Court) panel. It has been found unconstitutional by two federal District Court judges and appeals are pending in these cases. If any Circuit Court finds the Act unconstitutional, it would create a circuit split and virtually guarantee that the case would go to the Supreme Court. Both Courts that found the Act unconstitutional, focused on the “individual mandate” portion of the Act, which requires individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a substantial penalty. Thus far, all analysis of the …

Let us get straight to the point, I fear for my future, our future. And by 'our' I am particularly referring to my fellow citizens in the United States. Our nation has been growing into a strange corporate controlled police state for sometime, and while I realize that we are not on the level of a country like China or North Korea, I find our fate even more terrifying. Let me explain. Technology lately, as most would agree, has been advancing and growing beyond what many of us ever imagined. And if you have ever read a Brave New World or 1984 you as the reader may find it easier to understand my fear. As technology grows, methods of control become more and more in…

A comment by Phi in another thread got me thinking. (Emphasis mine.) I admit to being on the fence a bit with this one. On the one hand I have to say that once the term is served, then yes the debt is paid and the person should get a new start with a clean slate, otherwise what was the point of prison anyway? On the other hand, if I was a parent I'd want to know if serial sex offenders were moving close to my kids school as well. This isn't meant as a thread as to whether jail is a good option or not, but regardless of the punishment chosen, when does it end? When does the person stop paying for their crime?

Once again I have heard a rant about how the ban for gay marriage is forcing people's religion onto others. I have always found this to be a hypocritical point of view and somewhat inaccurate at the very least. Historically marriage has been a religious institution. The basis of marriage was to make a vow in the sight of God and for all men to bear witness to that vow. Since marriage is a religious ceremony, the hypocricy and the denial of the freedom to practice ones own religion comes in to play when the freedom to define it as a religious act under the practices of that religion are denied. Marriages that do not meet this criteria, whether same sex or not, should fall …

If Barack Obama is Christian, then why does he support gay marriage? Maybe you need to be american to understand...unfortunately I am not. So, anyone care to explain...?

Have both parties finally jumped into a Bar-B-Q pit that neither can escape? And remember, these two guys are not politicians. http://video.foxnews.com/v/1684723972001/trump-gets-over-maher/?playlist_id=86858&intcmp=obnetwork

Is it just me? Or do others also think that the calibre of our current crop of politicians is pretty small? Not knowing the ins and outs of US politics I won't comment on whether Obama is a good or bad President, but he certainly seems "Lacklustre" from the outside. Either lacking a grand dream for the future of his nation or is unable to communicate that dream. All the Republican opponents remind me of generic talking heads. Carefully media trained but no substance. Down here we have Gillard who is at best a plain out and out liar and at worst certifiably delusional. She's living in a dream where for two years every poll has shown we don't want a carbon tax but s…

Add that up... It's more than $71 billion per year. For context, US agricultural subsidies (which are enormous) are $180 billion. Imagine all of the firefighters and police officers and teachers we've laid off that we could hire back with that money and help the economy. What do you think?

http://www.amazon.com/The-Republican-Brain-Science-Science--/dp/1118094514/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339059556&sr=1-1 Anyone read this? (Full disclosure: I do not know know Chris Mooney, but that is kind of a coincidence at this point; we know many of the same people.) It looks fascinating to me - but I suspect it doesn't explore very well why liberals deny science, when they do (i.e. European liberals and GM foods; the previous generation of American liberals and nuclear power). The problem may be that just at this particular moment we don't have enough anti-science liberals for the scientists to study. Anyway, seems to be an important …

! Moderator Note Moved from "Why do men commit so many rape crimes?" thread I agree with the majority of your post, but I am not sure about this part: I think it's a tad simplistic. I'm not too sure the majority of rapists are that affected by social stigmas. There's no doubt the victims are, but how many of those turn out to be rapists, and what percentage of rapists are boys who were raped or molested as children? Are you sure the relation is that strong as to have it decrease if society ignores boys more? And another point -- I think we still dont' have equality in treatment between boy and girl victims, but at least in the case of children I am not too s…

Free market capitalism provides fastest economic growth possible. However free market capitalism is "unfair", leads to extreme income inequality and destroys jobs through automation. Economic cycles produce unemployment which can lead to revolution, or destruction of capital by the democratic government to create demand for excess human supply (e.g. The Great Depression). If being poor and unemployed was a crime then revolutions/destruction of capital wouldn't happen. The first country to adopt free market fascism will experience huge economic growth because the bourgeoisie will be able to accumulate capital exponentially, and replace obsolete human workers with machines …

You are a mad man. The age of criminal responsibility is 10 in the UK and some US states. Do you honestly think a 10 year old can consent to sex? You may as well propose that we don't have an age of consent at all, that we just permit all the 'consensual/hramless' sex between adults and children...

I don't know if there is something more fundermental than politics. Sometimes it feals like that in lack of politics, for example amoung thr disinterested there is a sort of gravitation to the right. Sometimes a good idea comes along and receives a lot of resistance emediatly but nobody knows why this is, even those who are agains't it don't know why. Even amoung those who wouldn't dream of being prejudiced agains't black, or indian, or eastern european don't mind at all about being prejudice agains't the French, but have no idea why. To me privicy is just a word, and a supcious one at that, it cirtainly seems to serve particular political views better than others, al…

Hi, How do you guys take it when you see an atheist who has explicitly stated that he/she is an atheist pray to God? When you see a politian do this a couple of times, does it make your blood boil? Do you feel manipulated/toyed with and how would you quantify the sincerity of their prayers? It doesn't make any sense for me to hear why atheists would pray but some still do it. What goes on in your mind when you see an atheist pray or for that matter or religious person not pray (if there is such a kind)?

My answer to a young military retiree who wants everyone to reaffirm their allegiance to this country each 4th of July by reciting the "Declaration of Independance"

As a somewhat middle of the roader, I'm still a right leaning illiterate asking myself, what has either party done to bring our national debt under control? And at some point in the near future, will it really matter? Someone please take over the reigns since I simply don't have the capacity to equivocate an answer to such a problem.

Pathetic. I seem to remember the death of when facts mattered. From Jerry Coyne, "No, it’s not half of Americans that hold an anti-scientific belief about evolution. It’s more than 3 out of 4—78%, to be exact. God-guided evolution is just as antiscientific as the idea that God guides photons and electrons—or chemical reactions. It’s time to stop saying that the beliefs of theistic evolutionists are in harmony with science."

This is really turning into an absurd quandary of how to get things done. I just read this new report, though it was an opinion piece, on Fox describing how there were NOT little beacons in the stocks to track their whereabouts, directly contradicting another report several weeks ago. This was kind of central to the story, since without the trackers, the only way to follow action on the guns is to chance upon them in a random bust. It is really unthinkable to just provide unfettered arms dealing to cartels. The whole system in the first place leaves a lot to desired in terms of sensibility. What could they be smoking? It almost seems like a Republican setup to make…

OK, this thread is for those who agree that the US system is among the worst in the "first" world. Fareed Zakaria recently aired a nice special about how to save the American healthcare system. In that special, he presented the following arguments: He then provided glimpses into a few of the better healthcare systems that we might possibly learn from: Taiwain Something like US medicare for all citizens, but if covers everything and they employ IT(smart card) to improve administration efficiency and improve the care for the costliest patients. But, they rely on the asian work ethic to provide great care at low cost. Their doctors work their a$$ …

Looks like Obama is having a bad day. Just thought I would try to cheer him and his supporters up.

The "Arab Spring" indicates that Muslims are seeking democracy, according to an editorial this month in the Wall Street Journal. The claim is also made that our wealth of intelligence and the drone attacks all insure that the militant's dream of destroying the West is doomed to fail. But is that really what the "Arab Spring" is doing---or is it that Islam has been overthrowing secular regimes and replacing them with regimes that are either corrupt, weak or both? Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt were all secular. The Islamic, non secular regimes in the Near East are Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, and what we have waged war against for ten years in Afghanist…

Whilst reading the thread “Racially-motivated Prison Rapes” I was struck by the following, so rather than sending the thread off topic I’ll start this one. Why does society put so many people in prison? Incarceration of the very violent is sensible, society as a whole deserves protection from such people, enabling the possibility of rehabilitation in a controlled environment. Incarceration of non violent people starts to move into the realm of revenge, driven in a large part by rampant media instilling fear into societies mind. It seems to me that treating people, who for instance sell drugs or fail to pay taxes, like this, can only serve to create harden…

Former President Jimmy Carter was recently quoted as saying that the Democratic Party has been hurt at the polls for its vehement pro-choice views on abortion. The issue hurts the Party with liberal Catholics and Latino voters who otherwise may vote Democratic. President Carter also, concluded that he "Could never believe that Jesus Christ would support abortion." The Democratic Platform currently contains language to allow taxpayer funding of abortion. National polls have consistently demonstrated that most Americans do not support the government paying for abortion. In fact, a February 2012 Quinnipiac University poll (national sample of 2,605 registered vo…

We all know there's been a long wait for a new, vastly improved battery that could potentially revolutionise electronics by supplying higher currents for vastly longer periods, well now that may have come closer to reality... News article here: http://www.world-science.net/othernews/050513_batteryfrm.htm This is a process know as betavoltaics and has been around for a long time, however it produced very low current because many of the electrons produced were released at random angles and missed the 'electron-collecting-surface'. In the new design silicon (the 'electron-collecting-surface') has been made with pits and inside each pit is the radioactive gas,…

I read a post this morning via Brad DeLong then through an article shared by Andrew Sullivan that sent me to a post by Julian Sanchez that struck a chord with me. They are discussing the state of online interactions with people. In short, it's not very frequently anymore that people seem to come into discussion threads or comments sections to bring any new information, nor do they seem too often to arrive with a desire to understand the position of the "other side" or explore whether or not it's worth changing their mind based on the information available. Nowadays, folks are so busy (whether consciously or unconsciously) reinforcing their personal echo chamber t…