Politics

I was wondering what your opinions were, if the need arose for an American draft, as to whether women should be drafted alongside men. Pros? Cons?

Today in the news: Moody's warns France on possible negative outlook So, summarizing the article in my own subjective words: Moody's sees no reason yet to change France's AAA rating, but still influences the economic world and the political debates, by making front page news of an announcement of a possibility in the future. This press release about a possible lowering of the rating of France may cost the French tax payers millions of euros, in higher interests... and there isn't even any reason to change the rating yet! These credit rating agencies have gained a LOT of power over the last year. Until some time ago, nobody had ever heard of them, but now they are…

What was Obama's success? Well now you can decide on Foxnews, and one of the options isn't even something that happened when Obama was president. Can you spot it? Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/17/thousand-days-obama-whats-presidents-biggest-accomplishment/#ixzz1b6IP01I4

Thinking about the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attack, it occurred to me that the two wars, thousands of lives lost and hundreds of billions of tax dollars spent in the interim was the result of the "conservative" response. I remember thinking, right after the attack, that an aggressive military response was the wrong thing to do, especially because Al Qaeda was being called an "Islamic" terrorist organization. Not Afghani, not Pakistani, not even Arabic, but Islamic as if the whole religion were responsible. You don't respond to religious fervor with armed force or you just create more religious fervor. I also remember thinking that we were missing out on a uniqu…

Cut/Cap/Balance, passed by the House, is expected to fail in the US Senate, even if allowed to be debated and voted on, the President has said he would veto and it's almost a sure case the Senate could not over ride the 'bill', even if the House could. However many are in agreement that the States should be allowed a voice in adding a "Balanced Budget" amendment to the Constitution (the balance), which takes a 2/3rd's vote from both Chambers. IMO if presented separately and the President could do nothing about it. Do they even know this??? Did you....and while your at it, where do you expect the National Debt to be January 1st, 2013, my guess being 18T$, regardless what …

I have read a very interesting article and also I see a documentary about EMP bombs – Weapon of mass destruction If the Russian will build something very smaller and sell it I think will create a lot of mess in this world. What do you think about this "bombs" ??

In most cases, you want people working for you to have experience. In the case of legislative political representatives, experience can also be a bad thing by continuing an ineffective status quo. It can even lead to ugly things like corruption, scamming the system, cronyism and misrepresentation. We often see newcomers throw their hat into the political ring saying that they'll use their "new eyes" to more easily see what's wrong with the system and work to correct it. We know that bringing in fresh viewpoints can often invigorate business. Does that really work in politics though? Term limits are favored by the vast majority. Why? So people don't make a career o…

So those who have kept up with the news lately might have noticed that today the United States senate approved a measure that would impose duties on goods imported from Nations who manipulate their currency. The main target of the legislation was China. As you know China has consistently devalued their currency in order to compete with emerging economies by selling products for much cheaper than other competitors. The legislation can be summed up fairly well here in a Washington Times piece, the article later goes onto say, Now while many here might agree with the proposed legislation I remain somewhat stand offish. You see this legislation reminded me o…

Now that is is eminent it does seem it was inevitable. We can see how deeply horrible the economy is. Unless you are in Washington DC. But Wall Street has to have known it. I am currently resigned that it was only a matter of time. Have you moved your 401k out of stocks? If not-why not (there is no penalty for shifting investments) Still what are the reasons the street and the country are crashing? I can think of factors- can you?

Sarah Palin did the right thing: she chose not to run for president. However, she already announced that she will still be involved in politics in the future (she'll devote herself to God, family and country". And that in the coming weeks she would "co-ordinate strategies to assist in replacing the president, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House". (source: BBC) Her populist right-wing Tea Party ideas will work far better when she is not in power. Even better, while she has no official position, she has absolutely no responsibilities. From the sideline, you can just shout things, and make it all seem so simple. A good strategy team can come up with interesti…

I was hit by the idea: "Society is the prime suppressor of Freedom.". Society is built upon certain rules/practices wherein they dictate how an individual should act and the limits of what a person can say, contrary to the idea of Freedom. A society 'for' freedom eventually overpowers its ruling body; therefore a dictatorship itself does not at all circumstances censor. Even notions that withhold Freedom should be free to be expressed but is not in a 'free' society(as preposterous as that is). I was told Nazism is in a way still in Germany, free, but is frowned upon and so what freedom is that. Ultimately free society is not so free. I want to hear some arguments and …

One argument that is often made against helping the poor is that it is wrong to tax the wealthy, and that the poor have no right to any wealth. In this post, I would like to suggest that the poor may be entittled to compensation from the land and natural resources which are being withheld from them. "The deadliest form of violence is poverty" - Ghandi "The earth is the general and equal possession of all humanity and therefore cannot be the property of individuals." - Leo Tolstoy "When the 'sacredness of property' is talked of, it should always be remembered, that any such sacredness dos not belong in the same degree to landed property. No man made the land. I…

Graham Palmer, industrial engineer from Melbourne

Same story, different market. I mean, at this rate, why invest in anything if China is always going to be there, undercutting anything and everything? A number of companies received stimulus funding to help propel blossoming, more efficient solar technology among other green projects, only to be undercut by the Chinese, driving 5 of these solar companies into bankruptcy already, the biggest one to the tune of half a billion dollars. Of course, you can always say that research wasn't adequate enough to take into account the ever-present, looming, but hidden sweat-shop threat. I've been doing a little reading lately on the Chinese economic threat posed by such mismatche…

How do you view wealthy people? I said: IMO, there is no such thing as too rich. I think this for a few reasons. Firstly, they do help bail out our country via (a) the taxes while they are alive, and (b) from the death tax. (not to mention the tax on whoever receives some of their fortune as an inheritance, I'm not certain of the current rules.) Secondly, a rich person generally will want a nice house, clothes, car, mowed lawn etc, and will create jobs for others who are not as fortunate. IMO, wealthy people are essential to our economy. Edit: I should add, as long as their wealth is acquired honestly. Greg said: In th usa all that wealthy people …

The threads about food shortages in the political forum, bring up the fact that there is a connection between government and our food supply. There is also a connection between food and our economy, and between food and international national relationships. And we might want to improve the connection between science and voters, because just hoping the future won't be as bad as some say, is not highly responsible, and as self governing people, perhaps we should be more responsible? While those arguing against fear mongering have made a good point too. Running around like chicken little crying the sky is falling, is not helpful either. However, what are the po…

There are thousands of examples where innovation has been suppressed, or durability has been compromised, to maintain profitable business. We've used the highly inefficient incandescent light bulb for over one hundred years (90% of its energy goes to heat instead of light). The 1908 Ford Model T got 25 mpg and a hundred years later the average gas mileage is worse: 21 mpg. Plastics and other materials have been reduced in strength in order to decrease product lifetime and increase repeat purchases. Planned obsolescence limits the product lifetime where weakening the structure is impractical. Often politics is used to insure that inefficient methodology is adopted, like u…

Everyone has health needs at some time or another. Having insurance to cover those needs reduces stress and worry about catastrophic events. Preventative medicine helps lower costs to everyone. The list of benefits of being covered for health is enormous and well-documented. I think the federal government is the perfect place to handle a risk pool like health insurance. Not all insurance, just health insurance (not everyone drives cars or boats or owns homes). The for-profit angle of health insurance companies seems to run counter to what most people would want for themselves. After all, a for-profit insurer can crunch the numbers and decide you're just not worth deal…

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/opinion/republicans-against-science.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=general I guess this is probably old news for the scientifically aware in the USA - but for an outside observer it is a bit worrying

I have Russian friend who says that politics is the root of all evil. I laughed when he said this but then he asked me how many wars have not been started by politics and this got me thinking, is there any truth behind this? Do you trust your most well-known politician? I don't trust any politicians, not even the Australian ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-14765837 From a bystanders position, and being a fan of both the beeb and the guardian I am probably not getting the whole story; but it does seem from a reading of the popular press in the UK that Wikileaks, or possibly more accurately Julian Assange, has gone a little over the top and is now losing friends even amongst the western liberal press

Down here "Liberal" are from the right and "Labour" are from the left. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZvYPPZpc4I&feature=related Says it all really.......

Before the unrest in Libya, the Libyan people had high standard, good wages, social and health insurance. Gadaffi is a sort of dictator, but his people are happy, fed and satisfied. He led a revolution without spilling a single drop of blood. And after all these years, there are riots in Libya? Which sane man would protest for democracy if he has everything he needs in the present system? So the first protest must have been caused by the Western insurgents in Libya - the ultimate goal is of course that 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. Civil war and the intervention is merely the last phase of such a plan. The people of Serbia and Montenegro who have experienced something…

Darn, that should be "a real chance for power of the people, instead of "change". But if we move from apathetic to a strong and united voice, that would be a good change. I do things to exercise my political muscle that I usually think are as futile as a flea climbing up the leg of an elephant with the intention of rape, but this action might have a real effect, because companies are sensitive to public opinion. I think it has real potential if enough people get involved, because the media is responding to this conflict and large numbers of people get media attention. This action is a whole lot better than rioting in the streets and burning down buildings, and w…

Total taxable income currently is around 7 trillion dollars per year. A 2% increase in ss and medicare would decrease the annual deficit by at least 140 billion dollars a year. This little increase provides a potential breakeven since total taxable income will increase each year, along with the population. From one perspective, its easy to say that the payroll tax rates were never properly set, if it has run away from us, but the increased rate of inflation in the medical field likely accounts for most of the runaway effect. Medicare tax rates (and ss, to a small degree) have just never been adjusted accordingly. Waiting till people are in retirement to admit that a…