Politics

I'm not sure I get this thing. Take a look at this cartoon: Yes, it's clearly a reference to the recent news story about the Connecticut woman who was attacked by a chimpanzee and was subsequently shot by police, but the thing I don't understand is why the cartoonist thought that the reader would be able to make a humorous connection with the president and his stimulus bill. Why would the police shoot the president? I don't get it. Can someone explain the joke to me? I don't see how I can figure out whether or not it's racist if I don't understand it. But if the only connection between the chimpanzee and the president is the comparison of African Amer…

Then don't get one. /me hides from the flame war. But, on a serious note, I don't understand the big deal.

Did you know that Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas have constitutions that explicitly forbid atheists from holding state office? Well, they do. http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Laws_and_other_rules_against_atheists_and_agnostics I must say, it sure is a good thing we have that intelligent piece of writing we like to call the Establishment Clause. Maybe if we pretend it doesn't exist then people can just keep pushing their religion throughout our society until they're forcibly stopped from doing so, and forced to abide by our constitution (or, instead ). Speaking of legality, all laws against ath…

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aDYQRfop9MWc&refer=us Yeah, what can I say. This sucks. This is the one criminal act Bush perpetrated which I really can't see anyone defending. Bush knew what the law was, and so did the people involved. The people involved sought a presidential signature to cover their asses. And not just one signature, instead Bush signed off on the program dozens of times. Our precious personal info was diverted into the NSA without warrant. Telcos, featuring potential litigation, pressured Bush and Congress to cover their asses, because they had done something illegal. A federal judge ruled it was illegal. …

Here is a nice (where is that tongue-in-cheek smiley?) piece of bipartisan legislation: The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act. It would remove restrictions on federally-funded research that requires researchers to make their publications publicly available (e.g. PubMed, arXiv). The galling title of the thread is a statement by Allan Adler, Association of American Publishers VP for government and legal affairs to the House Judiciary Committee last week. Some reading: http://paulcourant.net/2008/09/17/fair-copyright-in-research-works/ http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6595774.html http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/02/open_access_the_time_to_act_is.php?u…

This poll is only for countries such as the US that have the first past the post (aka winner take all) system of voting. In the last election, did you vote for the person you most wanted to win? Or perhaps the lesser of two evils?

Alan "Ayn Rand is Rolling in Her Grave" Greenspan said today that he made a mistake in trusting the real estate mortgage market to police itself, and that it should have been more tightly regulated. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/business/economy/24panel.html?bl&ex=1224993600&en=da694ed4921c5e8b&ei=5087%0A IMO this is a staggering blow for the Austrian/Libertarian crowd. I'd love to find out what my Austrian economist-professor cousin thinks of this, but he's not on speaking terms with me since I told him I'm voting for Obama, whom he thinks is an actual communist. (lol)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090206/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bailout_oversight Not sure how I missed this one (ten days old at this point) but a Congressional oversight panel's study shows that Paulson overvalued the stocks of ailing financial companies by tens of billions. Paulson is gone, but Neel Kashkari, a holdover from the Bush Administration, remains in charge of the program, and has defended the Treasury Department's valuation of the stocks. Neel Kashkari heads the "Office of Financial Stability." I wonder why this guy still has his job. Shouldn't Obama fire him for such a gross oversight?

So, the hot topic in American politics and economy this week is whether or not the big 3 automakers in Detriot should receive a bailout to help them through this difficult time. Good ideas on both sides have been raised. Powerful men who made a name for themselves, such as Ted Turner and T.Boone Pickens, tend to ask, "Where will they stop?" or "Who gets a bailout next?" and comment "I never got a bailout." I can't help but appreciate the underlying sentiment. When do we let people pay for their mistakes, and take the medicine for a sickness they contracted due to their own poor decisions? However, I'm becoming more convinced by arguments made in key economic…

Ok, our union here is posting up bulletins making a stink about our CEO capping his pay but not his 394,000 shares of stock. I guess I'm confused, what exactly could the problem be here? I don't see how his shares of stock hurt the company, nor how selling them would somehow be a good signal to investors in a troubled economy. What is it that I don't understand about this?

This is prompted by a comment in a thread about the stimulus package. I'll paraphrase rather than quote, because I think a direct quote would be out of context, but basically the implication was that there is pork in the stimulus package (and would be worse if it wasn't being opposed by the Republicans) The recent discussions about cutting the NSF out of the package really irked me (not sure how it's playing out), because investing in science research is just that: an investment. It will pay dividends down the road. So I ask, where's the pork? i.e. what's in the stimulus package that won't generate economic growth and/or jobs? (not to imply that I think there'…

I thought the question itself could use a thread, since a lot of posts right now sort of go around this question. After seeing some of the "pork" highlighted by republicans that is just "flagrant spending" and not economic stimulus really made me wonder about what exactly is good economic stimulus. There are some ideological differences in approach, but from what I can tell: 1) Job Creation. Spend money putting people to work. Most easily done from the public center (parks, roads, etc) but perhaps increases in grants could help businesses higher more employees, if the grants had stipulations regarding use for hiring US citizens. The private sector job cr…

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pay-impact-2009feb05,0,4979583.story I don't know why they would do that (restructure their pay packages). Isn't that just begging for trouble that isn't really there? Why would a company "rethink" its entire compensation structure just because of the possibility that they might be bailed out at some point in time? And maybe more to the point, why would we care if they did? So what? It's not as if they lack incentive to become CEOs -- it's only in the event of a bailout that they would be capped. Doesn't this just give them more incentive to AVOID a bailout by doing better business? It seems that way to me. I li…

Yeah, that headline grabbed me. When I first read this I thought it was fairly open and shut: blogging insults about your teacher, especially off school grounds, is entirely protected free speech. Any punishment should be fought tooth and nail. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/05/lawmakers-press-free-speech-foul-mouth-blog-case/ But then I got to wondering how it is school authorities achieve the power to restrict freedom of movement, behaviors and etc constitutionally, let alone speech, in the first place. Is it rights that we, the parents, grant the school upon enrollment and admittance? Something I was supposed to have read before I signed? At …

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/02/06/italy.euthanasia.berlusconi/ Eluana Englaro has been in a vegetative state with irreversible brain damage for 17 years after a car accident. The parallels with the Schiavo case are legion -- family split over whether to end her life, a prior statement from the victim asking not to have this done, and the government intervening on moral grounds. Gee. I guess it wasn't just a Bush thing. How 'bout that? What a moron. Somebody wanna feed this guy a decent science adviser? I guess my feelings on this are obvious -- what do you all think?

Or maybe a cool thou? What is the lesson here? Maybe they'll know better from now on. And be glad they're not in China. *ouch* The scenarios beg a question. And I'll put it to you, the science forumer. Were these problems uncovered because the market corrected things (with its nifty invisible hand), or because of government regulations? Don't forget about lead in toys and so many other joys we get from unregulated nations. My answer is below. Don't peek until you've answered. (the winky face is keeping an eye out) [hide]In this case.....government regulation. However, it's often both the market and the government combined who provide t…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/24/pakistan-barack-obama-air-strike Obama has ordered an airstrike against what was once an "ally in the war on terror" The goal of the strike was to target Al Qaeda leaders, potentially including Osama bin Laden All I can say is... about time?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123367405418643627.html?mod=googlenews_wsj Is it possible to find qualified people without tax issues or illegal houseworker issues?

I ran across this piece by Rush this morning, thought it was interesting. He's essentially proposing to let the republicans spend half the stimulus money their way and let the democrats spend half their way and then compare the results. I got a kick out of it, since I do like his proposed half better, but I don't see how this could ever settle the debate about how to get an economy out of a recession. Not like it could ever happen in the first place, but a fun idea nonetheless. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123318906638926749.html

Apparently groups like Amnesty International and even some governments are calling for Israeli soldiers to be prosecuted for war crimes. Not once amidst all of this hullabaloo does anyone even remotely suggest the same treatment for Hamas terrorists. Now I am not one to ever suggest that two wrongs make a right. Certainly if any member of the Israeli military deliberately committed some atrocity, then they should absolutely be prosecuted for it. But we all know what this is really about, don't we? This is about Israeli policy. Specifically the policies of dropping bombs on civilian areas that Hamas terrorists were hiding in, and/or the use of white phosphorous. …

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011303372.html?hpid=topnews I'm surprised how much rigamaroll we've gone through to get here. After years of mincing definitions about what constitutes torture and what does not, we have something conclusive. A senior Bush administration official, Susan J. Crawford, responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo, has officially concluded that Mohammed al-Qahtani was tortured, due to a "combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani's health" So where do we go from here? I'd like to see a new administration which places human rights above getting an…

Just heard a bit of his inauguration speech on way home in car. I got a bit emotional. In this time of turmoil, war and financial unrest - I sincerely hope he is as successful a president you have had. Good luck guys! God Bless America! God Bless Barack Obama!

On January 26 Barack Obama had his first televised interview as President, which he gave to the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya. The subject was, naturally, his approach to the Muslim world. A lot of liberal commentators are celebrating it, declaring "the war on terror is over," etc. I wouldn't go that far, but I do think it's a huge improvement in tone over Bush, and I'm interested (and actually optimistic) to see how Islamic public opinion of the United States develops over the next few years. I think he came across as firm, but still respectful, openminded, and appreciative of the complexity of the situation. That alone should get him much farther than Bush, even if he doesn't …

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7817135.stm In light of this, was Israel's invasion of Gaza a good idea? I'm going to go with no.

(NOTE: This is a bump of an old thread, and this post is the original post from April of last year. Please see my reply below.) This week's action on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was interesting to follow. Lilly Ledbetter was a manager at Goodyear Tire for 20 years. In her lawsuit she alleged that she only found out after she retired that she had been paid significantly less than male managers -- even those with less seniority -- for her entire tenure at the company. A jury agreed and awarded her a quarter-mil in back pay and 3 mil in damages. The case went to the Supreme Court last year, and the justices overturned the case, on the grounds that it violate…