Politics

While the gigantic financial meltdown of 2008 wiped $1.8 trillion in value off the nation's books, the War on Terrorism from 2001 to 2009 had already cost $2.4 trillion, against a total value of all goods and services produced in the United States of $17.5 trillion. Although the number of people killed in the 9/11 tragedy was only equal to the number of people killed every year in the United States by accidental drowning -- a problem which attracts very little funding -- the money spent preventing another 9/11 amounts to $800 million per person killed, or about 700 times more than the value ordinarily assigned to a human life lost by someone else's negligence in a tort s…

New "battleground" poll out today from Politico. These are special polls aimed at identifying key tipping points in the upcoming election. Some interesting take-away's here: - More people get election news from 24-hour cable stations than the networks, and Fox News is much more popular than CNN or MSNBC for that kind of news - Some analysts are concerned that viewers are turning to more ideological sources for news - Newspapers and the networks remain important sources, and in general the networks continue to have far more viewers than cable (the slides seem to be shallow, not steep, but gradual and continuing) - Glenn Beck has more positive than negati…

OK, so better results on a test while under the influence of "stereotype threat" is not quite the same as smarter. Part of the study was to activate "stereotype threat" by exaggerating how important the test is at accurately identifying their intellectual strengths and weaknesses, and asking them about their race, before the test. Black people who watched Obama's success did better than the ones who didn't. New York Times: Study Sees an Obama Effect as Lifting Black Test-Takers These guys think the study is full of it (but haven't actually read the study): Most bogus study ever? Original study: The ''Obama Effect": How a salient role model reduces race-based p…

Well, it looks like we are heading for the first hung Parliment since WW 2. We probably won't have a result for a week or so. Projecting forward with circa 71% of the votes counted it looks like this. Labor: 70 seats, down from 83. (Our "Left" wing party) Coallition: 72 seats up from 60 (Liberal and National Parties, our "Right" wing) Green: 1 (Their first seat in the Lower House.) Independent: 4 (And quite smart cookies, these 4) Since the single Green will side with Labor it all comes down to the Independents in the Lower House. Things could change as these are projections and the postal vote is yet to come in. The Australian Electoral Commission has…

Fascinating piece in today's Wall Street Journal, and no, it's not a claim that unemployed Americans are sitting high on the hog with unemployment compensation and refusing to look for work. Some conservatives won't like this article because it shows that the people are disconnected from the demands of businesses. Some liberals, like Paul Krugman, an "economist" who's busy today blasting Republicans, because it doesn't support the narrative about evil corporations hoarding cash. Check out this chart, based on statistics from the US Department of Labor: This quote is fascinating: So what's broken? Well there appear to be two stories here: Qualific…

http://abcnews.go.com/US/definat-pastors-irs/story?id=11726610&page=1 Several pastors across the USA are deliberately trying to lose their tax exempt status by recording sermons and sending them to the IRS. They are doing this so that they can then file lawsuits to challenge the constitutionality of the tax-exempt status restrictions. They say that it is unconstitutional because they have freedom of speech. I, however, think they severely misunderstand the situation. While they most certainly do have freedom of speech, they do NOT have the freedom of unconditional tax exempt status. If they fail to meet the conditions for the privilege of being tax exempt…

Great piece today from John Avalon. Avalon is a senior editor at The Daily Beast, which was started by conservatives but has columnists from both sides and a serious focus on a more common-sense approach to governance, elimination of corruption, and a return to centrism in America. Avalon is best known as the author of two books: Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics, and Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America. As you can see from the cover, conservative though he may be (he's married to Fox News contributor Margaret Hoover), he has no trouble aiming his shots at the right. Anyway, let's take a look at what he says: h…

California passed a law in 2006 that would have reduced green house emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. (details) But now that the economy has hit the skids, a new proposal would freeze that law until unemployment drops to 5.5% (it's currently over 12%). It's notable that when the emissions law passed in 2006, unemployment in California was at 4.8%. But the proposal has amassed quite a lot of opposition already, ranging from the Governator to unions and eco groups. Backers include oil companies and other business groups. Voters are split on the issue: I don't know who's right, but I think it's an interesting example of how difficult it is to deal with eco…

Ever had a neighbors tree branch hang over your fence and on to your property? Perhaps the shade from the branch killed plants in your garden, or maybe it ruined the siding of your home. You have a right to cut the parts of the branch which cross your property line, sometimes with the caveat that you do so in a way which doesn't damage the vitality of the tree itself. Why is it any different with clean air? When you live by the border of a state or country which emits carcinogenic agents into the air, should you not have recourse to have that addressed without being forced to flee? Do you not have justification and right to ensure that this air gets cleaned up so …

I'm not sure how much discussion value this really has, but I loved the story and thought you all might enjoy it as well. Basically DC Mayor Tom Felty lost the Democratic primary. But in a strange twist of fate, enough Republican voters actually wrote in his name to cause him to win the Republican primary. The GOP didn't actually field a candidate, and the total number of write-ins wasn't huge, but even so it's a pretty unusual event and perhaps an interesting example of bipartisan appeal. He's declined the GOP nom, which he apparently is not legally able to accept anyway, but he did issue this grateful acknowledgement to the write-in voters: http://www.…

This could become an interesting story next week. Apparently a small news service called the Inter Press Service (wikipedia description here) has unearthed an interesting immigration story. These quotes are a good starting point: The catch? These familiar-sounding quotes don't come from Mexico. They come from Guatemala. Apparently Mexico, which has long complained about the US building a wall on its northern border, is now in the process of building one of its own -- along its very long, winding southern border with Guatemala! And it's not small matter, either: Wow! Sure sounds hypocritical to me, at least on surface. But before I get to …

Late in the Bush administration the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the New Black Panther organization over accusations of voter intimidation at the polls. This video made the rounds at the time and may help jog memories: neGbKHyGuHU Eyewitness testimony was more severe: The federal government actually WON the case, but it was pending a sentencing recommendation from the government. Then the Obama administration took office -- and withdrew the case. The basis for this action stated by the NEW Justice Department was as follows: Odd that a judge didn't find that to be the case. But now a whistleblower has come forth with the a…

With the Senate now looking to have the government block access to websites it deems to be bad (which seems to be called "censorship" in other countries), it's worth pointing out that the Senate doesn't exactly have a good track record when it comes to deciding what technologies to ban. Back in 1930, some Senators came close to banning the dial telephone, because they felt that it was wrong that they had to do the labor themselves, rather than an operator at the other end. A "resolution", which passed, read: Whereas dial telephones are more difficult to operate than are manual telephones; and Whereas Senators are required, since the installation of dial phones in the …

Do you see what you're doing? You're arguing over the numbers to imply that there is some legitimate threshold where you can hold individuals accountable for actions attributed to a collective identity.

This short video demonstrates how budget manipulation has been done by our Federal Government for ages, "regardless" of who's in office. Take a look and tell me, what's right or wrong with it; if anything? http://www.wimp.com/budgetcuts/

In this video, Professor Terry Lovell gives a descent spin on what is happening in Arizona regarding the issue of llegal aliens. Is the majority of America right or wrong on their stand?

The liberal side of the media loves this story and has played it up like the Second Coming. And it's payed off for them, producing world-wide reaction. This guy's a two-bit loser from a congregation that's lucky to produce THIRTY people for a typical service (filmed by ABC News last night), and yet the media play he's been given has produced VIOLENT RIOTS in Afghanistan, and even a response from the POPE. Well duh -- how do they think the Afghans and the Pope found out about this guy? Because THEY TOLD THEM! This is exactly what frustrates main-street, red-state Americans about the left. The feeling is that the left generates the controversy in the first place a…

I loathe minimum wage. The next line in this short preamble expresses exactly how I feel about it. Quote: Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Unquote. My own take on it? If you don't want to fish?, starve. "Unchecked, Laziness manifests and grows much like a cancer". As did I, Sowell grew up in the thirties. Even living in a coal mining camp, I had all the advantages of being white. He on the other hand grew up in Harlem; but had the staying power to make it happen. Dr. Sowell has taught Economics at Howard University, Cornell University, Brandeis University, and UCLA. Since 1980 he has been a Seni…

It is very common to have a progressive taxing system, where the rich are taxed a greater portion of their income. The reasoning being that the rich can afford it, and perhaps also as a balancing device to reduce the gap between rich and poor, and other such reasons. Now, for a given overall revenue, this system would mean that were revenue concentrated into a few hands this would increase the effective taxation rate, compared to if the taxation were divided more equally. Therefore, the government can increase its tax revenue by concentrating income in lieu of raising tax rates. Additionally, concentrating the income also means that the tax rate on the poor could be d…

Our combat troops have withdrawn from Iraq, marking the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom. We still have about 50,000 troops there for training purposes, now called Operation New Dawn. So did we win? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War#2010:_U.S._drawdown_and_Operation_New_Dawn

The operative impact of all money is a function of how large a ratio of one's total assets it is. We could make a street person deliriously happy by giving him just one of the rooms of Jerry Seinfeld's 200-room mansion in the Hamptons, while it would probably take Mr. Seinfeld a few months before he even noticed he had lost one of the rooms of his mansion. This effect of money extends throughout the whole spectrum of income distribution, so for a middle class family unable to afford to send their child to university, getting $100,000 from Bill Gates' $40 billion estate would be a life-changing event, while no one but Mr. Gates' accountant would notice his loss. Thus ca…

I was interested to read today about a vicar jailed for four years for carrying out hundreds of fake marriages to bypass immigration law. In this case, it seems seems that some of the women were taken advantage of, since they were in dire financial circumstances. That alone make the whole episode unsavoury. But leaving that aside, and assuming that both parties are consenting with no duress, how does one define a "sham marriage"? Surely if both parties are willing to get married it should be their right to do so, and they should be given all the privileges of marriage irrespective of their motivations. Why should a couple have to demonstrate that they are "in lov…

People often complain about high taxes or public welfare programs which seek to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor by claiming that these policies "steal my hard-earned money." One way to undermine such reasoning is to probe the definition of 'my money' in this context. Obviously no one could become very wealthy if he lived isolated on a desert island and accumulated goods just by his own labor in fishing, lashing together bamboo sticks to make huts, or burning the underbrush for heat. Significant amounts of wealth can only be generated in cooperation with other people in a stable society, so no one can claim that the money produced is clearly 'his' rathe…

Article from Newsweek Magazine http://www.newsweek.com/photo/2010/08/24/dumb-things-americans-believe.html

I'm not sure what's more interesting here, the story about the mosque or the story about how it's become a national focus. Fox News has been running this issue up the flagpole for weeks, if not months, and with their popularity amongst conservatives it's hard to say that the issue has been purely a NYC local one. On the other hand, when the President of the United States comments on an issue it does tend to bring addition focus to the story. So I guess question #1 here is: Is Politico right? And if so, is this another example of the Obama administration responding/reacting to stories that are being driven by Fox News Channel? It seems that way to me…