Boldrin and Swamidass: A New Bargain for Drug Approvals - WSJ.com

This editorial in July 27 2011 Wall Street Journal really has a good approach to simplifying the whole drug approval process.

Boldrin and Swamidass: A New Bargain for Drug Approvals - WSJ.com

We do want any new drug to be safe. However I'm not sure that the Government needs to get involved in a drug's effectiveness.

If it isn't effective, doctors won't prescribe it! Hospitals won't use it, and government medical insurance shouldn't pay for it to be prescribed.

I would add two more conditions onto a revision of the law as proposed by Michele Boldrin and S.Joshua Swamidass in this article:

1.A patent on the new drug might be pending--but should not be approved until the drug is proven effective.

2. The drug company must maintain an on-line database that shows the number of patients using the drug and the reported side effects and "improvements" reported. That provides the public all of the information necessary to make decisions on whether or not to use the new drug. Of course patient privacy must be protected. Also the site has to be open to the public, and presented in a way that non-doctors could understand.

Jared Polis: Raise Revenues, Not Taxes - WSJ.com

I would love to see the US stop fighting against revenue opportunities and start "collecting" on them. This congressman has a great bunch of ideas: Jared Polis: Raise Revenues, Not Taxes - WSJ.com

Device Raises Fear of Facial Profiling - Emily Steel and Julia Angwin - News - AllThingsD

I have mixed emotions about facial recognition. I think it should be legal. Small towns have always been able to recognize "strangers in town" -- so this is just a tool to get us back to that era.

Device Raises Fear of Facial Profiling - Emily Steel and Julia Angwin - News - AllThingsD

However, since I've owned L1Identity Solutions stock for a long time, I'm concerned that this company BI2 seems to have pulled ahead of it!

Republican Freshman Blames Obama For Debt From Iraq War | ThinkProgress

My concern is that when the Republicans say it long enough, loud enough and often enough (with help from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, of course), people will actually believe it!

Republican Freshman Blames Obama For Debt From Iraq War | ThinkProgress

Robert Herbold: China vs. America: Which Is the Developing Country? - WSJ.com

It is clear that the US is falling behind..not just China, but the rest of the world too!

Robert Herbold: China vs. America: Which Is the Developing Country? - WSJ.com

The Sunny Side of Smut: Scientific American

The right-wing and religious nuts from every religion and in every country have been fighting for decades (centuries) against what they call pornography or smut. It appears from this study, that the problems they attribute to smut aren't actually caused by it.

The Sunny Side of Smut: Scientific American

It would be interesting to see a similar study made of violent movies and video games. Does scenes and games depicting murder, robbery, rape, and mass killings incite violence? If not, then maybe the US Supreme Court was correct in allowing children to buy violent media. If so, then the Court was wrong in allowing children to buy violent media, while banning them from buying subjectively defined "pornography" -- Their decision was along the lines of "Make war, not love."

Strauss-Kahn case: 4 ways French and American law differ - The "perp walk" - CSMonitor.com

I've always thought the "perp-walk" tradition in the US should be illegal. It is basically a publicity stunt done by the police department and prosecutors to attempt to build public opinion against the accused.

Strauss-Kahn case: 4 ways French and American law differ - The "perp walk" - CSMonitor.com

I also think I agree with the French privacy laws that protect personal activities from the public. Why should our romances, hobbies, family and health details be permitted to be tossed around in the public? Of course, if someone is running for public office, or if they post those details voluntarily on web sites, that makes it public.