Politics

Winston Churchill had the following things to say about democracy..... "Democracy is the worst kind of government, except for all those that have been tried before." "The best argument against democracy is a 5 minute coversation with the average voter." I was watching a documentary called "The Code" by Marcus du Sautoy. In it he filled a large jar with jelly beans and got 200 odd people to guess how many jelly beans there were. Even though no individual was close to the actual number, when he averaged all the guesses, the result was almost spot on. That got me to wondering...........can anyone envisage a way to make democratic governments only ever legislate …

Economics Professors are scared that their students will ask a very simple question. What are quality and convenience? It may sound simple but these two things dominate our lives, but economists don't know anything more about it than you do. Why are they scared? Asking these questions shows the fundamental problems with indifference curve theory, which is the foundation of modern economics. This information has been covered up for more than a decade, but I'm asking you to show this to every economics student that you know. --- moderator: link removed. If you choose to participate as a proper member we'll reinstate it ---

The World’s situation is far from being perfect and it doesn’t seem to have perspective to repair itself(?). So there are growing in strength on one side e.g. - idealistic utopian visions, like Zeitgeist movement/Venus project expecting that the system will itself transform into resource-based, or - rage movements on the other side, like occupy movements or Anonymous which doesn’t seem to have realistic alternatives to what they are against. Let us think here about reasonable constructive possibilities which are both achievable in this moment and giving hope for the real improvement for our future. The general feeling is that the main problem is that the power co…

From: http://www.ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=178178 and http://kunstler.com/blog/2012/02/the-john-brown-moment.html Give Us Back Good Old FASCISM... In the 70s or 80s that which is happening in Greece would be considered, under all points of views, a Right Wing Fascist Type Coup, a Pinochet style change in government, it would be considered a pure Fascist like take of power on behalf of the Powers That Be (which are mostly the Capitalist, Free Market Ideology, Globalism Bible, Punish Workers and Anyone who is not a Superstar Winner like "Germany" and such) that want to impose a complete doctrine, an Economical Doctrine that is…

Barack Obama has perhaps accomplished more than any other President in just over three years of service. By deliberate design, Barack Obama daily makes America weaker abroad, less Free (more Authoritarian) at home, economically more feeble, and more bitterly divided than ever. Really, I think Barack Obama represents the greatest military campaign since Alexander the Great! He has done to America, in 3 years, what the Soviets were unable to do in 50. He has done in 3 years, what the Arab world has been unable to do in millennium. He is bringing all the Arab states together, under one banner, for a single purpose.→ The destruction of Israel. He's been like a …

How can the offspring of "Cuban Immigrants", dare to speak like a politician? http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=WiKrCUiP-fg

Are democracy and sustainability incompatible given that the vast majority of the general public are largely science illiterate?

I'm discussing with someone illegal immigrants and welfare. Here's my question, "do illegal immigrants currently receive welfare?" If so, please cite a source. Thanks!

Or he may as well have:

The American worker cannot and should not have to compete with impoverished third world laborers willing to work for survival level wages! I have no problem with free trade with another country, but only when it has similar living standards and environmental protection laws. I know Reaver is going to jump into this thread and complain that protectionism prevents the economy from expanding and would start trade wars. What will really prevent the economy from expanding is if the wages of the American worker decline even more. Yes, trade with China is lowering prices of many consumer goods, but it is driving down wages much more. American exports to China are in…

Here's a recent news article on this. I'll be the first to accuse myself of being cynical, but when I read something like this: Am I really supposed to believe that any company will incur a voluntary out-of-pocket expense? Do these companies get shareholder approval for such donations? Do they turn around to their shareholders and tell them, sorry, profits will be down slightly for the next decade while we engage in this donation program over in Africa? Do they tell employees that raises will be slightly less over the next ten years due to their give-away program? Or do they increase the costs of their products to be paid by insurance companies and pati…

I just watched a documentary called Occupation 101. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_jvXnPG9Xc Does anyone know of a good documentary that argues for the Israeli side?

To avoid democracy being deformed by money having a vote in addition to people, many countries have adopted restrictions on political campaign financing. Some allocate money to political parties based on their performance in the previous election, which unfairly entrenches the existing political power structure. Others allow private contributions only up to a certain amount, but this limit is always higher than the average voter can afford to spare, thus favoring the rich in what is supposed to be an equal democratic process. The ultimate goal of all reform efforts has to be to make campaign financing reflect the voter equality which is essential to democracy. One …

Santorum fail Yeah, will be interesting if this guy can last past Florida. He actually does a good job working the crowd and making his stupid argument appear valid. It would be nice if we had a presidential contender who actually was pro gay marriage and would debate this topic. I would have liked to share my opinion: 1) I think marriage is a core of a great society, providing a solid foundation to create families. 2) Extending this core to same gender couples will increase the number of stable families, improving society. 3) Marriage has evolved through time, it hasn't always been between only two people and was not liberally applied regardless of rac…

What the hell is going on? Imagine a World Without Free KnowledgeFor over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more. Make your voice heard Facebook Google+ Twitter

I always knew that the connection of beauracrats and (many) NGOs to reality was tenuous at best, but this out of Durban simply shows how far from the real world they are. From the UNFCCC agreement that they wanted to get signed at durban; So how much "new and addititional finance" you may ask? So America, your share is around $800 Billion. I'm so glad you can afford it. But seriously, how far divorced from any form of economic reality do you have to be to even make such a suggestion? Only people living in a total fairyland could think that Germany has a spare 30 Billion Euros to throw at this. (There are other ways of funding this, see below.) …

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I don't know if this is a phylosophical, ethical, or plain political topic, so it might be moved. I was wondering which side of the isle argues and politics more on emotions. It seems that one only has to say a phrase or make one comment that could be construde as not agreeing with someone's political view and someone will surely start a personal attack. This may lean more towards a phylosophical debate. But here recently I was told to move to the political forum where I could get with all the other George Bush wanna be's. It was that uncalled for outburst that brought this question to mind. When people make personal attacks, is it because they can't argue their point lo…

With privatization being such a big topic these days, and after reading many articles on both sides of the fence, it seems there are some sectors where profit and the need to grow as a business are actually detrimental to the goals of the sector. It's good market economics to see the need for toasters and manufacture some so everyone is happy, but what about those sectors where a cure is really the goal but maintenance makes better sense economically? Healthcare is probably number one on this list. Is the goal of medicine to cure people or to make money? More effort seems to go into treating symptoms rather than root causes, and some treatments, once prescribed, will …

If we had another constitutional convention in modern times, which would be better in the long-run... (1) To make it local to the US (similar to the one which took place in the 18th century, except with all 50 states), or (2) To include the global population in recognition that the world is now flatter than ever, and getting flatter still with each passing day?

Using such a caption is going to cost me big time since we have so few heros today that we feel worthy of being honored as HEROS. Many, if not most of you have no idea who either man is on the podium. But check out the honoree and then determine if he is worthy of this award? Give me your input. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU-A7eqadho&feature=related

We are scientists, but we are the minority. The global population don't have enough information to stop pollute or awareness other person. Imagine one world inhabited by scientists, would be a dream, everybody knows what to do to preserve oceans, rivers, forests, the nature in general. We need do something. This is the reason that I registered, that write for you and that I criated my blog (yesterday), to give culture and information to more people to get. But I need your help to disclose this blog and to create others. Link removed by Moderator Thank you, Leonardo maia.

I often hear about unemployment and discouragement towards outsourcing of jobs from random people in US whom I occasionally meet in IRC. There is often a common strong voice lifted against jobs going overseas and most of them are looking out for jobs. While some display anger others say that people should be recruited based on their meritocracy. So someone had to pull the breaks on companies outsourcing jobs outside and it came at the right time, a bill by congressman Tim Bishop which targets to put the breaks on relocation of call center workplaces to the more cheaper overseas locations. Will this be enough to tackle the increase in unemployment rate or whether more outs…

North Korean state television has announced that their leader, Kim Jong-Il has died last Saturday. The big questions are of course: who will be the successor, and will that be someone who will cooperate better or worse with the other regional powers and global powers? It seems that South Korea and Japan are taking no risks, and regard the situation with caution. It seems people are worried that the someone might decide that the attention must be diverted away (scroll down to bottom of article) from the internal lack of stabilty... and what better way to divert the attention away from anything than a war?

Here's a thought experiment.. (yes, I know this is implausible, but please accept the premise) Premise: Astronomers discover a huge, Pluto-sized body deep in the Kuiper Belt and realize that, due to a recently perturbed orbit, that it will directly impact Earth in 30,000 years -- destroying all life on our planet. Because of its size, this impact is unavoidable. Many suggest that the only way for humans to survive extinction is to start an intensive and expensive effort to terraform and colonize Mars, which would take at least 20,000 years to complete. Question: Does our generation choose to do anything about it, or do we shrug and decide to let future gene…