Vladmir Putin, Czar of Russia announce today sweeping measures designed to centralize his authority politically and is stating that "terrorism" is now the number 1 problem in Russia. He said "Over the 15 years of its new life, civil society in Russia hasn't really awakened," Izvestia said. "And the president has decided that in conditions demanding fast, effective, and often urgent decisions, it's better not to have such a society -- because the authorities are uncertain of the results of wa...
Probably the most heavily scrutinized individuals in the history of politics are George Bush and John Kerry. Not a day goes by that someone doesn't e-mail me a political cartoon on one or both. They are, if you looked at them the way their critics do, personifications of evil and good, Christian and unholy, ready to lead us into battle or ready to run for the hills, ready to take on the challenges that face us in terms of social security, education, terrorism, the black plague and children ...
America is living in the middle of an information age. As a market analyst I see numbers thrown around from the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed (please call before 2 AM). We try to make sense of the numbers by using statistics to plot graphs and charts so that we can "wade" through the numbers without becoming "numb" and often this is a very useful tool for making sense of the overload. However, we often try to apply reasoning to numbers that is not valid and we now are in the...
There are 2 months before the national elections and one of the two main issues is American Foreign Policy, especially as witnessed in Iraq. The Bush Administration notes that since 9/11 we have destroyed the dictatorships in Iraq and Afghanistan and tightened American security to lessen the threat in the United States. I'm not sure how we will know we are safer (regardless of how many times the President tells us to think it) until terrorists are actually caught in some stage of trying to ...
I attended a recent showing of "Outfoxed" which was billed by those that I had heard speak of it as a left wing attempt at bashing Rupert Murdoch and Foxnews for right wing bias in editting the news to fit the propoganda mechanism that is the current right wing administration. There were descriptions that included "poor quality filming and camera work" as well as "editting issues" that made the film in part unwatchable. However, the film raises several issues that should be considered rega...
Quite often in my conversations on-line the topic of terrorist attacks comes up because around the country it is a unifying theme about how we live our lives today. People are somewhat to very concerned that before the election there will be an attack. They have surmised (rightly or wrongly) that homeland security is very difficult to do, that there are holes in the safety net that protects us and they think Al Qaeda must make a statement soon in order to remain relevant as a "topic of disc...
Several writers on JU have talked about why we should destroy the Imam Ali Mosque. They argue that it is a symbol of Iraqi and Muslim hatred for Americans and if it were destroyed it would tell the muslims that we meant business and would not tolerate this form of "gun and run" destruction. Others site the lack of commitment (including myself) to the war effort in Iraq, the parallels to Viet Nam and the lack of will of the United States to do "what is necessary" to win the peace. However, ...
The Nasdaq finished the day down 26 points to finish at 943 as more investors fled to the sidelines after yesterday's 8 point rally. Volume was considered light as less than 1.2 billion shares traded. The Dow finished down 75 to 7224 and the S&P was down 7 to 648. Volume on the New York Exchange was 930 million shares. The Kerry administration said again today that the tax on gasoline could not reasonably be lowered to give relief to the current level of $3.15 (average) that drivers ...
(I wrote an article "There Ought to Be a Law" to express the opinion that I felt that maybe our society should pull back a bit on making sports such a central feature of our kids life and provide a level playing field for maybe (if their parents chose) getting them involved in Sunday Schools by making Sunday mornings sports free. Many respondents (and I appreciate all views, even those 180 degrees opposed to mine) expressed outrage about interference into their lives by doing something like...
(This article reflects my sense of anxiety over what is a religious issue in a sense. However, I decided to put on the Politics Forum because it is about using laws to promote values in society.) Recently a long time friend invited me to a meeting of the education committee at my church. I no longer have children (well, she's 25, so, sort of, but not really) and spend most of my time in trying to encourage young families whom are seeking God to come and see what our church is all about...
Several years ago there was an article by Jeff Green in Computer Gaming World where he opined that PC gaming was not dead or dying but rather going through a tranisition. This seemed to me much like the wall street analyst who warns you to sell a stock when it's already down 20%. Since I have been PC gaming for the past 25 years (bought my first Apple II in 1979) it seemed a noble gesture for me to let game makers know what I think of the product and how it might be made better. (Borin...
We want the world to be happy, like us. We want terrorism removed from the Middle East. We will say that we want democracy, free trade and general abundance. Of course, to do this, we might have to do a little inventing. But Americans won't mind, they like invention. Since the war ended in Iraq last year the quiet voices in the Bush Administration (Wolfowitz, in particular, but Rumsfeld to a degree) have been considering what our "next best move" is in the Middle East. Now that Mr....
“I think a presidential election year is a marvelous thing. I think Senator Kerry is a patriot. And I think what ... what we’re doing is, we’re seeing an attempt to sort of draw the lines between the two parties in this country. And I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Franks said." There seems to be a certain amount of sentiment suggesting John Kerry should be given little or no credit for his service in Viet Nam. Kerry was awarded 3 purple hearts and regardless of how you try and slice ...
A few weeks ago there was a bunch of hoopla over John Kerry's Hollywood Star-studded cash bash when personalities like Whoopi Goldberg and John Mellencamp made derogatory statements about President Bush and the administration. John Kerry said at the end of the night that "Hollywood conveys the image of America" which many neocons saw as absurd and insulting. Michael Moore (not a Hollywood insider) is the right's whipping post for how the film industry misrepresents American culture and valu...
The U.S. press doesn't it discuss it very often or loudly (page 4) but the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly to the point that the only area that the NATO-American forces control is the capital. Historically, the warlords in the country have a siege mentality of waiting foreign occupiers out (for example: Russia) and are in no hurry to pick a side between the muslim extremists (the Taliban) and the westerners who want to say they are in control of the country. But growing ev...