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-Demosthenes-

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About -Demosthenes-

  • Birthday May 13

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    Public Health
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    Biology Physiology Medicine
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  1. This is ridiculous. Just saying something will happen doesn't satisfy the burden of evidence. Birthrate has been going down for decades, showing a strong correlation with urbanization. As more of the population becomes urban birthrate will only continue to fall. Just because you can reason out something in your head doesn't mean it's not bull #&^$
  2. That's interesting. Whatever academics want to call it -- it's judgment based on race. Some get discriminated against because of their race as they apply for a college. I'm not saying this is bad or good. I just want to call a spade a spade. Whatever discussion there is in the public about theses issues should be a lot more open and honest.
  3. Maybe, I don't know. Any judgement based on race is racism (obviously). Questions about which types racism are good or bad are subjective. The point is that American culture has a long history of racism and some want to fix it with a different flavor of racism. I'm not saying it is good or bad, merely observing it.
  4. It's obvious Mitt will say anything he thinks voters want to hear. But the thread brings up some interesting points. Why shouldn't private entities be able to practice discrimination? I don't know, maybe because it's really lame. Ideally, in the world where ultraconservatives live, society would take care of itself without major government intervention. Discriminatory businesses would be boycotted and driven out of business. This is, however, not the case. The people can then use the government to make laws to solve these problems. Ironically, in order for a law to protect a racial or gender group it must single out the group. Race or gender based protection is just that, race or gender based. So we have the Grutter v. Bollinger case that ruled colleges can consider the race of potential students. Does a college that preferentially accepts minorities racist? Perhaps, but maybe not in a negative way. Is a law that creates equal pay for women discriminatory against men? Perhaps, but it would exist in a world where men already benefit from discrimination more often than women do.
  5. This is by and large pretty true. Most republicans are not that fiscally conservative (except when it suits them). Both parties are fiscally liberal, thus the tea party backlash. The United States used to be A LOT more state government controlled (rather than federally controlled). We have historical figures like Lincoln and FDR who we can thank for changing that. Obviously, now there needs to be more federal control (See how conservatism affected the Guided age, etc) However, I think a fact missed by many Europeans and other developed nations is the shear size of the US population. Being five or six times the size of the UK, just the state of Texas is bigger than Australia, California has more people than Canada, and like two and a half times the size of the Netherlands. The United States is perhaps more usefully compared to the European Union is some cases. In this respect we have MUCH more control from the federal government than the EU has over it's member nations. States really need to administrate their own issues, in fact I think even more so than they do now. As far as health reform, as least this last bill, it was passed by federal congress and signed by the president. Everything in it is within federal control, I don't think it necessary to 'convince 50 separate govts to give up some of their precious "Rights"'.
  6. It's such a relative judgment. For example, both parties are very liberal when compared to the government originally organized in the United States.
  7. All the Republicans I know always vote republican and all the Democrats I know always vote democrat... every time. This is only what I've noticed, but it seems that partisanship isn't an interesting trend in the US politics, it actually IS US politics. I know SO MANY people that don't even know what conservative or liberal means, they don't know who their state's senators are, etc. All they know is they are a Republican/Democrat and they take that to the poll. The small amount of Independents always have the deciding vote because no one else cares. When they do care it's because they think it will affect their bank account. Boo American Voter, Boo.
  8. Hmmm, the conservative in me loves this. While obviously nit picking your idea, I can't help but suggest that this might have some interesting effects. The US has troops everywhere. There are huge contingents (like tens of thousands) in places like Korea, Germany, or Japan, and as many as ten thousand in places like Italy or Britain. I don't know know a lot of the effects of discontinuing these installments would be. I'd rather expect if the US cut back the UN would come forward. A lot of neo-con ideas can come out, but the seas and air are safer for trade because of a lot US military presents/actions. To what extent I'm not sure. But I'd expect something to fill the power vacuum, hopefully someone benevolent (more neo-con "benevolent imperialism" -- sry guys). There's an interesting comparison to public schooling. As opposed to "phantom socialism" (mentioned by swansont), the government does have substantial control on at least a few sectors of industry. Just because these services have traditionally come from government sources doesn't mean that those same services could not come from private sources. Any time a government exerts any control by legislation or displacement of services it is socialism. I don't think that these are necessarily bad things, but there's no reason to forgo the socialism label, as it applies. Anyways, I've thought that whole charter school controversy has been interesting. Public schools get so much money and they teach children, but charter schools that are privately operated are given the same amount of money and their children usually preform better. The interesting comparison is that private mangers in this case have out-preformed their public counterparts. They got more return for their money (usually). This is often the case for other services the government offers. The government often inefficiently offers services, which cost everyone more money (because the government is obviously is publicly funded). What's worked in this case is government money with a private extension to manage that money and offer services. Applying this to your idea the government could put money up for a business, let it be privately operated, and take a cut. But that almost resembles our current tax system more than your original idea. I'm probably just rambling now, but I don't think the inefficiencies are inherent in government. I rather think it's a symptom of a cultural disinterest in education and activism in real politics -- as apposed to the more exciting and dumbed down version of politics (most people in the US actually think that this is politics) rhetoric and partisanship.
  9. I'd have to agree with lemur, bullying is some form of communication (and the freedom of "Speech" is obviously not merely about verbal speech). That being said I think that there are bigger sociocultural trends at work here. Western culture used to be very community based, and there were a lot of social norms. Society regulated itself more. More and more each generation rejects social norms as irrational and want to make more of their own decisions (which isn't necessarily bad, just different). Maybe it's about adapting to a more diverse culture with more people and more connections and influxes of other cultures, or maybe it's just what societies do over time (or urbanization, etc who knows). The culture is more and more based on rationalism and individualism and less and less traditionalism and community. As a result individuals have more and more extreme behavior. Flawed logic/rationalism can cause this as much as flawed traditionalism can cause the opposite, blindly doing whatever the rest of society does. Society has to enforce some sort of rule anyways because some of these extreme behaviors hurt others, unfortunately it's not just seen as "unacceptable" -- it has to be legislated. So we see more and more legislation to control what people do because there are no unwritten laws anymore (or rather not as many). Specifically, we see freedom of speech slightly hindered because legislation is needed to keep a society form hurting itself.
  10. Clinical experience is a must for most PA programs, and at least of PA shadowing.
  11. God talks to Man, Man writes in book, books kept by men, books put into Big Book by Men. God only does one step, it can get messed up anywhere else along the way.
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