Politics

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…

There are several problems with the inflated salaries normally earned by physicians in the United States, which now average around $200,000 a year, according to the AMA. First, these salaries create a class difference between most doctors and most of their patients, and this class difference reinforces the power difference in the doctor-patient encounter. The resulting social and psychological gulf between two people who should ideally bond with each other in a 'therapeutic alliance' undermines the empathy and intimacy which should play an important role in the healing process. Second, these inflated salaries encourage people to enter the medical profession not o…

This will be accepted without question by biological scientists in particular. Bacteria cannot multiply infinitely in petri dish or test tube - sooner or later the resources are exhausted and the population crashes. Bacteria in a test tube is a biological system in a finite space Humans on planet earth is a biological system in a finite space. Therefore human population and economic growth cannot grow indefinitely - sooner or later the resources will be exhausted and our population will crash. Is there anyone in here that rejects this as a logical fallacy?????

My father is a Bill O'Reilly fan and I'm occasionally subjected to moments of his nightly monument to himself as I transit from the computer room to other parts of the house. A night or two ago, he was hosting Dick Morris and I heard a snippet of the conversation that struck me. Dick Morris claimed that the only way to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was to change the regime (and criticized Obama for being naive for want to talk to them et cetera et cetera). Perhaps this my bias but that just rang in my ears like typical neoconservative tripe. It's Dr. Evil reasoning. Ahmedinijad is a dictator/religious zealot, dictators/religious zealots naturally want su…

Not that I care too much, but I think Romney will be the Republican candidate. I think the Rupaul, Bachman and Perry split the fringes. Of course, I picked Pawlenty back in May, so... I doubt Pawlenty will be picked as VP. Maybe Bachman, depends on how well she does. I would like to see Obama get another term, but Romney or Huntsman are the only Republican candidates that I think wouldn't run the country back in the ditch too far if they were elected.

On the 12th August historian David Starkey has told BBC's Newsnight ''the whites have become black'' and the ''destructive, nihilistic gangster culture'', he said ''has become the fashion''. You can find more details here. Various people have come to say how wrong Dr. Starkey is. The Labour leader Ed Miliband said the comments are "disgusting and outrageous". The BBC has received many complaints about Dr. Starkey's comments. So what do you all think? Is Dr. Starkey wrong in what he said? Or is he just wrong for saying it? Surely we do not want afro-american gang R'n'B drug culture to be prevalent in UK society (or anywhere else) ? This is irrespective of race.

Hello guys, i have been studying economics for 2years now, and i am really interested in how the economy of the world goes around. Recently i have been reading news on CNN, and i read about how the US has problems, and i see the word default, cutbacks, US losing power by 2025. What is happening?? i certainly know that the american economy is number one right now, but what issue suddenly puts the american economy on the decline, so much that it will collapse?? can anyone please give me a detailed information on this, if not good sources or video links??? thank you, i will appreciate any help offered.

http://site.adw.org/pdfs/10SSM_BOEE_RelLib_0205.pdf The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is arguing that DC's new Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act violates Catholics' religious liberty. The paper starts out with the Archdiocese opining that their religious liberties are being taken away but not saying exactly how. At first, I thought the law might have forced ministers to officiate gay marriages. But of course this is not the case. The Archdioceses' complaint is that The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act creates no penalties for discriminating against a gay couple. (the full text of the act is avail…

For about the last three years, wherever you drove, shops, stores, businesses of all kinds blatently advertised "We Buy Gold!." All over the country people who became unemployed and those behind in their morgage sold what gold they had to help them survive. Where did it all go? It was refined and turned into investment form for the rich! Those poor people who sold now see how much more it is worth (in dollars) than it was when they gave up their gold rings, bracelets and even teeth fillings. The rich now look back and see how they, the ones who bought that gold from the refiners who got it from the poor, how much profit they have from the misfortune of the poor, the p…

Climate change is just one of the many symptoms of human over population. Political instability, war and genocide are other symptoms. And climate change will exascerbate theses symptoms. Why aren't we collectively addressing over population and including population and fertility reduction in the mix of actions to reduce CO2 emissions?

Is anyone from Australia and did you watch the Four Corners report in the Comorra of Naples? It seems that the Italian government went on grandiose crusade of urban renewal, creating high rise appartment complexes that were supposed to house Italy's growing population and create vibrant high density communities. But it appears they have all become degraded high rise slums where the outcastes of Italian society are warehoused and that are the head quateres of all the Comorra familes. Does the former Italian vision sound familiar to anyone from the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane?

Pictures of the plane http://ca.news.yahoo.com/superfast-military-aircraft-crashed-pacific-ocean-darpa-says-210201382.html http://ca.news.yahoo.com/photos/darpa-falcon-hypersonic-technology-vehicle-2-shown-undated-photo-191044447.html This looks like UFO from other world !!! All I can say is wow. I'm sure all people looking up are going be reporting a UFO.

In a time of financial problems for the US, some historical perspective here.... answers.com I've looked around the Internet, but cannot find any other details. Can anyone shed some light on this near-catastrophe?

U.S. debt crisis weighs on markets at midday Growing worries about the U.S. debt crisis has markets in a downturn on Monday, though investors seeking a safe haven in a crisis drove the cost of gold higher. Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/debt+crisis+weighs+markets+midday/5154682/story.html#ixzz1T8qnt0sl Note what does this mean for the US and the world? What is going to happen?

What good does it serve society and why is demand for these things growing? Each year, younger teens are by collateral being exposed to free online pornography, they are getting addicted by it and enjoy it. As adults of the free world we are enabling this and I'm afraid this may have long-term psychological repercussions for everyone as we head into the future. To name and shame, here in Australia (where I come from) we've had quite a few politicians who have gotten into the habit of watching pornography in places they shouldn't be. http://express-advocate-wyong.whereilive.com.au/news/story/mp-paul-mcleay-resigns-over-porn-and-gambling/ But lastly, are the…

You still have not provided supporting evidence for this statement Captain Panic Cap'n Refsmmat. My mistake.

Europe and the USA have major debt and economic problems in common. Australia's debt and economic problems are no where near as big. Europe and USA also have virtually uncontrolled mass immigration from Africa and Mexico respectively. Australia has a very much small immigration intake. I wonder how closely uncontrolled mass immigration and debt and economic problems are linked. Clearly third world immigrants require significant welfare and services when they first arrive in a western country. The more immigrants the bigger the bill to the government.

Of my harshest critics, with all your talk of scientific rigour etc, which of you have formal science qualifications? I would just like to be assured that I am not facing off with a Bernard Salt type - self appointed and unqualified demographer.

Cicero is perhaps the best known Roman statesman. He defended the democracy of Rome and I love quoting him. However, he seriously failed to understanding economic reality, and so are we. Many Romans lost their land while they were off fighting wars for Rome, and they could not get jobs, because wars gave Rome plenty of slaves who were doing all the work. Rome shifted from a citizen military to a paid military, increasing what the government had to pay for war. We shifted from slaves to electricity and machines replacing the need for human labor, and never adjusted our economy to reflect this changed reality. We switched to a technological military force that needs …

The west has an oblgiation to stop taking resources from the third world to prop up its own population and profligate consumption level and to stop paying baby bonuses to induce its citizens to have more children than they otherwise would. But the third world has an equal obligation to cut its fertility down to replacement levels as rapidly as possible or to seek help from and to cooperate with the west in order to facilitate this. Currently the third world's solution to over population is primarily to allow its excess population to migrate to the west which only makes the inequity between the third world and the west and the west's insatiable demand for resources…

I think it would be useful if we get some clarity about the purpose of our Politics forum. Should our forum be like the real-life politics, including all the dirty tricks that politicians and media use (including logical fallacies, misinformation, twisting of facts, and prejudices against certain groups)? Or should we approach things from a scientific point of view, which means that points have to be backed up. Reading our politics forum, I get the feeling that mods ignore our own forum rules in order to allow the discussion to be more like in the media. I read many posts here on the politics forum that, in my opinion, seem to break forum rules 1c (prejudices aga…