A few nights ago I was sitting in my hotel room flipping through the channels and I happened to catch the democratic presidential debate on CNN. It was a complete gong show in which Wolf Blitzer would continually try to cut off the candidates in mid-answer and the questions were framed in such a way to try and force them to boil everything down to simple yes or no answers. "Are you saying that human rights are more important than national security?" is one such gem he asked. ...
There is indeed no oil shortage, nor is there a food shortage. Global demand for both food and energy has been regularly outpaced by the supply but prices on both commodities have skyrocketed. Despite political rhetoric about needing to produce more oil and build more refineries domestically, that will not change the price, nor will any refineries come online anytime soon. All of those "solutions" will take years and cost a lot of money. Besides, here in Canada we're reg...
Excerpt from an article on the current state of the Union- http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/14046 “By virtually any measure, the United States is the least progressive nation in the developed world. It trails most of Western Europe in poverty rates, life expectancy, health care, child care, infant mortality, maternity leaves, paid vacations, public infrastructure, incarceration rates, and environmental laws. The wealth gap in the US has not been so wide since 1929. The Wal-Mart ...
Is the Surge really working? Although I am an unabashed liberal, I would like to ask the fine folks here to consider this article without political bias. I could care less whether a republican or democratic president was responsible for giving the order to go into Iraq. History does have a habit of repeating itself- so with that in mind I'm going to go ahead and ask if the surge is really working, considering previous occupations and how they ended... first, a little history. Back in janua...
Bush and Cheney have been chomping at the bit to go after Iran for a long time. Back in 2003, shortly after the proclamation that major combat operations had ended in Iraq, there was the widespread belief that most U.S forces would be out of the country within 6 months and available to continue the grand ol' march of freedom. One administration official pontificated that with the speedy fall of Hussein's regime in Iraq it was time to topple other undesirables in the...
Sooner or later the war in Iraq is going to end. I think everyone from all political persuasions can at least agree that at some point, the majority of U.S service personnel will leave the country and come back home. The reasons for coming home however may turn out to be far different than many folks think. When the troops come home, it will not be because of political or military victory. If those do occur it will be counted as an additional bonus and if victory hasn't be...
I've come across an excellent article written by Albert Einstein in 1949- his thoughts on socialism, and the evil of modern-day capitalism. For a guy who's considered one of the brightest minds of the 20th century it is certainly worth the read!! http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einst.htm
For the past 7 years, the Bush Administration has been pursuing tax cuts and government outsourcing with dogmatic fervor. We have heard plenty about the benefits of these tax cuts; acting as a stimulus for the economy, giving business large and small extra capital to invest or expand their operations (hopefully) hiring more workers in-country. Giving extra money back to the little guy so he can afford to buy more goods and services, thereby acting as another primer for t...
In this article I would like to discuss my opinion of GWB. This is not a Bush-bashing article, nor an attack on the right. This is an explanation of why I believe some of the things I do. This may shock some people to hear, but I used to be a conservative and I rooted heavily for GW back in 2000. I have no problem with conservatives or their policies, although I do disagree with some of them. I have no problems with "the right" or even the republican party for that matter. Certain indivi...
Everyone rejoice! All of our economic problems are solved! You know all of that doom and gloom we've been hearing about liquidity problems with major banks not having enough capital to cover their losses and keep running? Well it's all taken care of. Big papa government's stepped in and says they're gonna make it all better. They're going to set up a special corporation that is going to take all of the bad debt that is killing the banks, and at the same time they're going to give money...
Alright everyone, let's all gather round and chant the mantra of the new economic order: "Privatize the profits, Socialize the losses!" Huh?!? Wha?!? What kind of nonsense is this and just how in the hell does it affect the latest episode of Big Brother and the farce that is the presidential election? Our economy has altered RADICALLY. In these past few weeks your government has committed more nationalization than Chavez could ever dream of. Congratulations, you now li...
Did you know? The Great Depression didn't happen over night. The history books state that it started in 1929 but it took a few years for things to get really bad. Today, it's been just over a year since the near collapse of Bear Stearns (who is now dead) that has signalled the start of the the bad times the economy has been going through. Nevermind that this was predicted years in advance with the Fed encouraging bubble after bubble after bubble and transparency now nonexistent thro...
How much should we be taxed? From that simple question, countless byzantine volumes have been written dictating, who, what and how much get taxed. Quite literally, it's no laughing matter. Even uttering the word "tax" can bring about the death of comedy, mirth and all things good in this short life. But for all the unpleasantness associated with taxes, they are indeed necessary. The great question is not IF to tax, but whom to tax and how much. Here in my present abode of ...
It's time to pony up and admit it. With all the hoopla we've been seeing over the last couple weeks, Palin should be the one running for president in the Republican camp. She seems to be the focal point of the whole discussion at this point. McCain hasn't been getting too terribly much attention, for, well, anything, for pretty much this whole election. He's not charismatic. He doesn't have the charm or wit or any personable characteristics that will endear him to the American ...
It's an honest question. For just a few minutes, please suspend disbelief and take a look-see at this very interesting article- http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259 Written by a fellow who witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union and is now comparing how things would go down in a similar situation in the U.S. The basic premise is, since things were much worse to begin with when the Soviet Union collapsed, people were already accustomed to many of the hardships and therefo...