It is clear that the US is falling behind..not just China, but the rest of the world too!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Robert Herbold: China vs. America: Which Is the Developing Country? - WSJ.com
Friday, July 22, 2011
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 AmericanIt 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."
Friday, July 1, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Israel Gaza Blockade
This is interesting. Apparently there is going to be another attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-borer-gaza-blockade-20110626,0,3515948.story
It should put Israel in a difficult position of denying aid to people who have been "locked away" for an extended period. If Israel fires upon this ship, it would seem to be an act of war --after all it is freedom of the seas. I would like to see US warships support this attempt. After all, Israel is the ONLY middle east country who has attacked the US, and it is the only middle east country which routinely spies on the US -- we've caught many spies and have deported them over the years. Why should we help them? They've got nuclear weapons and would like to use them against their virtually unarmed neighbors.
It should put Israel in a difficult position of denying aid to people who have been "locked away" for an extended period. If Israel fires upon this ship, it would seem to be an act of war --after all it is freedom of the seas. I would like to see US warships support this attempt. After all, Israel is the ONLY middle east country who has attacked the US, and it is the only middle east country which routinely spies on the US -- we've caught many spies and have deported them over the years. Why should we help them? They've got nuclear weapons and would like to use them against their virtually unarmed neighbors.
U.S. budget deficit: Borrowing and spending the GOP way - latimes.com
I agree with this article and It is certainly believable, since it was written by Mike Lofgren who was a Republican Congressional Staffer.
The only time that Republicans seem to get excited about balancing the budget is when the other party is in office. Bush cut taxes and started unnecessary wars to help keep the economy from tanking. Now the Republicans don't want any economic stimulation (deficit spending) because they don't want the economy to recover prior to the 2012 elections.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Autopsies on the decline - latimes.com
Autopsies have been on the decline for decades. See this article:
I think it is a mistake. I think there should be an independent organization with a separate budget to perform autopsies for medical quality control.
The percentage of deaths that get autopsies does not need to be very high -- possibly 1 or 2%. However they need to be done against standards. The data collected needs to go into a database, and there should be enough randomness in the sampling technique to insure that deaths all over the country are subject to autopsies.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Battle Over Power of Attorney - WSJ.com
Interesting discussion about power of attorney in the Wall Street Journal. It sounds like what ever you do to try to do good estate planning could result in making the attorney's rich -- particularly if the family feels like they are being treated unfairly.
The Battle Over Power of Attorney - WSJ.com
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