Politics

Do you think FOX will actually fire Beck?

1 in 5 U.S. moms have babies with multiple dads, study says I don't think this is an April Fools joke, I just think it's stupid. The word "kids" is plural, and the define of plural is "two or more". Am I demographically/statistically/linguistically challenged, or what? Can one kid have two or more birth fathers and, if so, is it really this common?

What worries me is that from this side of the ocean (Europe) I don't particularly care whether the USA gets a democrat or a republican. The most important thing to me as an outsider is that the most powerful country with the largest economy has fair elections. A democracy should have an electorate that is well-informed, and the elections should be based on facts. Instead, American elections are a very emotional affair where very minor issues can play a huge role. And slander is the preferred and tested method to gain votes. If you base your campaign on slander, rather than facts, then democracy is dead. How can the American democracy be cured from the worthl…

In a number of countries, some sections of the society are backward, both socially and economically. The government of such countries, for ex. India, has granted reservation of certain percentage in the governmental services. This percentage is 27% for India. This means that people who belong to reserved class will get 27 seats out of every 100 in department, if they apply for the respective jobs. The advantage of this system is that people who are socially and economically poor can get benefit and raise themselves as active citizens. The disadvantage is that those who have better qualities and belongs to general or unreserved section of society get no job and those wh…

What would happen if either a few hours before voting began in a U.S. Presidential election or shortly into the voting the candidates for President and Vice-President of a major political party were assassinated? No doubt the response of the country would be absolute chaos, since some votes would be cast by people who did not yet know the candidates were dead; other people would change their votes in unpredictable ways because they did not know how properly to vote in such a situation; and still others might stay at home and not vote, thinking the election could not be held. The electoral result obtained would no doubt be absurd, since it would be more a reflection of p…

In this video from MARCH 25, 2011, Hannity repeatedly claims that the birth certificate has never been shown. And here I thought this was settled years ago. Sure enough, it was settled way back in 2008. You can even see the official scanned copy here: So, why do people keep claiming that the birth certificate has never been shown? Why do so many people actually believe it and/or that he was born in another country? In an age where fact checks are so easy, it's amazing to me that this absurdity isn't immediately exposed and those purporting it ridiculed.

This topic is a little awkward, imo, because it implies legitimacy in ethnic segregation; but since globalism has been for centuries evolving as national-statism and seems to continue in that direction, I am curious what people think of this. Should each ethnic identity be associated with a corresponding region or should regional governance be neutralized of all ethnocentrism - or something in between? How should ethnicity be regulated in politics/governance?

What were their motives? And has it made this world a better place?

My general impression is that democratic civil discourse is most anti-critical during a popular regime. In fact, this may even form the basis for authoritarianism since people are most afraid to dissent when what they are dissenting from is overwhelmingly popular. An extreme example would be the difference between the way Hitler was "heiled" during the height of Nazism compared with how he is regarded since. A less extreme example might be the way dissent was repressed and feared shortly after 9/11 compared with the popularity of criticizing Bush as a bad president since. This begs the question of whether unpopular leaders should in fact be replaced with more popularl…

Title and the poll says it all - I would like anyone to argument his answer to the poll.

So Obama now has his own war for oil. Let' not pretend this is a great humanitarian effort. There are plenty of countries with leaders who treat their citizens worse than Gadhafi. You don't see us bombing Yemen, or the Ivory Coast. No oil you can treat you citizen however you like. Sure, Obama has France, the UK and other European countries on board. They need that Libyan oil more than we do. Heck, that's why they didn't think they needed Iraq. They had Libya. Europe and the UK even forgave Libya for Lockerbie for that sweet Libyan oil. Obama even signed a deal to sell Gadhafi arms to keep the oil flowing. Oh, the irony is so sweet.

why is the iranian president so weird? also iz it true that zionists control our media? I keep finding a lot of conspiracy theories (e.g. them being the causes for the US war in Iraq) on youtube involving the jewish people and i am wondering whether these have any credibility. thanks.

Looking at the piles of rubble and debris from the tsunami leads me to wonder what I would do with it all. Since it's pretty cold there now, I thought about burning it for heat but then I wondered how much is wood/combustible and how dry it would be by now. What do you think? Is harvesting the debris as fuel a viable means to combine clean-up efforts with energy-needs, or are there reasons this would be impractical?

Maybe my analysis is incorrect, but it seems like Ghadaffi is primarily hated because his regime controls oil wealth without widely distributing it to create a comfortable middle class to support him as a "benevolent provider for the 'national family.'" As the UN and various other regimes coordinate their support in favor of popular appropriation of the oil-wealth, it makes me wonder if this is the beginning of something more widespread globally. Are we about to see a new world order emerge in which the popular will to consume oil-wealth at a level that satisfies majoritarian consumerism completely eclipses the will to conserve (oil) wealth by restricting prosperity to …

What does the anti-Gaddafi discourse suggest about new directions in global governance? Imo, the message being sent out is that wealthy elites will not be allowed to govern their wealth if they do not use it to appease fellow national citizens. What Gaddafi's main "crime" seems to be is that he controls oil-wealth and struggles against popular attempts to wrest governance of that wealth away from private control. Presumably, once his subjugation is complete, his wealth will be taken from him and redistributed for popular interests. So this seems to be yet the latest show of power that governments will take control over private wealth as popular-will determines fi…

What do you guys think? Apparently the state owned banks in ND give loans to local businesses at a reasonable rate and funnel the interest into the state as revenue instead of into the pockets of a CEO as profit. Should more states do this?

In multiple Arab countries, it appears that Muslims want to have a democracy. Hardly anyone seems to cry for the Sharia, or for a Muslim-state. The pictures we see now are not of bearded men dressed in curtains, but of young men in jeans, wearing baseball caps. Women independently join protests, and apparently enjoy a freedom comparable to my country. It also appears that our freedom-loving Western democracies support dictators, even when a population cries for democracy. The behaviour of all Western countries can at best be called opportunistic, supporting the dictators until their position becomes unstable, then quickly switching sides to the revolutionists (and ma…

plu·toc·ra·cy [ploo-tok-ruh-see] –noun, plural -cies. The rule or power of wealth or of the wealthy. A government or state in which the wealthy class rules. A class or group ruling, or exercizing power or influence, by virtue of its wealth. Now, you might think I'm crazy to even suggest the possibility. I mean, we elect our representatives, right? So, they act in the interest of the People rather than those that paid to get them into office, right? Let's take a look and see whether American politics is for the People or the wealthy 2% and the corporations. Cutting teacher training, job training, and help for the poor in favour of help for oil companies th…

This morning, "Anonymous" released the first part of a series of leaks alleging fraud in Bank of America's mortgage practices: http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0314/Bank-of-America-accused-by-anonymous-website-of-hiding-data http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/hackers-say-bofa-unit-tried-to-hide-mortgage-error/?src=mv Apparently this is the first part of the leaks, although the leak website is currently offline after being overloaded with traffic. The emails are light on evidence and detail, so there's not much to conclude so far. This looks like it'll be an interesting week in the news.

If collective bargaining is actually undermined, what would the effects be for social-economics generally and the "middle class" lifestyle specifically? Would the same number of people find ways to individually gain access to the same standards of living? Or would some people negotiate highly favorable contracts, wages, and benefits while others lost out in theirs? Or would management simply drive down as many people's wages and benefits as possible and grow the gap between rich and poor to its maximum? If the middle class would be impoverished in this way, how would the standard of living for the rich change? Would more people become rich? What would really change …

Mubarak and now Khadaffi were/are under popular pressure to abdicate their power, but how would that actually work in practice? If an individual becomes unpopular as a leader, what power would they have to abdicate or not? Presumably the point is that these individuals are obeyed by military forces and those who are rebelling against them want to control those forces. But why would the military give up just because their commander abdicates? Apparently what these rebellions want is not for the commanders to abdicate but for them to use their power to command the military to obey some other commander or interests besides themselves or the interests that they have been …

Hi everybody! I am wondering if someone decides, hypothetically, to go overseas say for a holiday however chooses not to get health insurance or anything similar, how much would his/her family have to pay if the person going on the holiday somehow dies overseas (e.g. from a tornado) to get their body flown back for burial to their country of origin? How much is it for you country? Is it expensive? How about if you have two bodies that need to be flown back? Would the cost double in this case? ...just curious.

As I recall, the last time gas prices were rising there came a point (@$4/gallon) where media sources reported as the breaking point where people were willing to make drastic changes to their daily practices, seek more fuel-efficient vehicles, etc. instead of just accepting persistent price increases passively. As fuel prices subsequently decreased (to @$3), it seemed like people/businesses were going to make many reforms to prepare for the possibility that prices would go up again. So, what do you think? Have people/businesses developed coping strategies that make them less dependent on fuel or did people expect the government to fix it all and avoid making any a…

Theoretically, energy conservation could reach a level where only renewable sources would be needed. The irony of this would be that if such high levels of conservation could be achieved, non-renewable sources would become much less scarce relative to consumption. What do you think will progress further faster, renewable supply or conservation of demand?

The health care discussion really has two separate parts. One is the issue of people who need or want better health care for themselves or their families. The other is people who want more opportunities to make more money and consume more and acquire more wealth. People look to health care for both of these goals: medical treatment and other health care and jobs and business opportunities to make more money. But the shadow side of the discussion is what kind of wealth and consumption do people want to increase along with the quality of their health care? In other words, people want healthy and even medically-enhanced bodies, but that is not all. They also want to…