Politics

In countries like Australia, voting is compulsory, while in countries like the USA, voting is voluntary. I hypothesize that, if voting is voluntary, then there will be a bias by politicians to supply more extreme policies in an attempt to get people to vote. Would you agree with this? Have there been any studies on the topic? http://www.answers.com/topic/public-choice-theory

I got an interesting civics lesson today from an unlikely source -- a circuit court judge in a criminal proceeding. No, thankfully, I was not sitting at the defenant's table. I was sitting in the jury box. One of the more interesting statements from the judge was (and I'm paraphrasing here, because I didn't want to be "the wierdo in the back row who's taking notes") that there are only five countries in the world in which citizens have the right to a trial by jury. The Wikipedia article on jury trials seems to support this assertion, if not the judge's specific statistic. I didn't realize there were so many differences in other legal systems. Some of th…

Yeah I know, here goes ol' Pangloss looking for bias in the media again. Believe me, I'll understand if you think that about me -- I wonder it about myself sometimes. (Hopefully it's at least a good sign that I recognize that predispotion in my thinking.) Here's the story, and the quote I'm curious about: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4673421.stm Ok.... um.... am I the only one who sees a problem here? Are they saying that a referendum to hold a referendum on abortion laws was defeatred, are they saying that a referendum to overturn abortion laws was defeated, or are they saying that a referendum to maintain abortion laws was defeated? Mayb…

So what do you folks think of this case? It went a bit further today, with the New York Times' Judith Miller (who refused to reveal the names of people she spoke to on the phone) went to jail. Matthew Cooper, as it turns out, got a last-minute reprieve when his source let him off the hook. That's interesting, and it suggests to me that (a) we'll learn very shortly who that source is, and (b) it won't be Karl Rove (since he'd have no reason to let Cooper off the hook). The Wikipedia has a very good, objective, extremely in-depth article on the subject here. I actually recommend reading this article even to those who are familiar with the case (something I'm …

Fascinating PBS Frontline running this week about the use of private contractors in Iraq. Hallibutron's subsidiary alone supplies a whopping THIRTY BATTALIONS worth of support, at a cost of $12 billion so far. In total we have something like 150,000 contractors in country. Some of the more interesting problems explored include poor communications between the private contractors and the Army, and resentment amongst soldiers. The full (60-minute) episode can be viewed online here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/warriors/view/ One thing about this that struck me is that we may be looking at the future of warfare, in a sense. Nobody wants to join…

This story just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Today the White House said that it would look into allegations that Iran's new president was one of the people who took Americans hostage when they took over the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. Here's a story about it from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4636955.stm A couple of interesting quotes: (Emphasis mine. That's really interesting.) Fascinating. Both sides seem to have some validity to their claims, and it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

http://www.comingsoon.net/news.php?id=10308 Time to break out the tin foil hats.

A Jury just returned a verdict of NOT guilty in the Michael Jackson affair. Do we think that justice was served? If not, why not?

From the Washington Post: PASADENA, Calif. -- A space probe hit its comet target late Sunday in a NASA-directed, Hollywood-style mission that scientists hope will reveal clues to how the solar system formed. It marked the first time a spacecraft touched the surface of a comet, igniting a dazzling Independence Day weekend fireworks display in space. The successful strike 83 million miles away from Earth occurred just before 11 p.m. PDT, according to mission control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which is managing the $333 million mission. Scientists at mission control erupted in applause and gave each other hugs as news of the impact s…

ABC News's David Kerley reported tonight that electricity production in Iraq exceeds that of before the war! The reason for current blackouts is the vast purchasing of home electronics, like Internet-capable computers and satellite television receivers, items BANNED under Saddam's rule. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everything's great in Iraq. But SURELY this is an *overwhelming* indication that naysayers on the far left are spinning things out of proportion when they talk about underdeveloped and unrecovered infrastructure. A print version of the story may be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=890243&page=1

More here.

Explain. Here's the text of HJ Res 10 if you need it.

Simple question: Should the testimony of convicted criminals who have been offered a plea bargain in exchange for their testimony be sufficient on its own for the prosecution of a third party, given the absence of any other evidence? 60 Minutes did a piece last night about Richard M. Scrushy, the CEO of HealthSouth who is currently on trial for fraud after his company apparently cooked the books. The jury is deliberating today. The evidence against Scrushy consisted entirely of the testimony of five HealthSouth CFOs, all of whom plead guilty in plea bargain arrangements to testify against Scrushy, who claims ignorance of their deception. This of course follo…

A recent poll released by National Geographic indicates that 60% of Americans believe that life exists on other planets. Some other interesting results: More men believe that life exists on other planets than women (69% men / 51% women) Women are more likely to feel 'nervous and afraid' if we learn that life exists elsewhere (27% women /13% men) Regular church goers are less likely to believe that life exists elsewhere (46% church / 70% nonchurch) Republicans and Democrats are just as likely to believe in life on other planets 70% of Americans believe that these life forms would be similar to humans, and 80% believe they would be more technologically advanc…

ABC News' John Yang on Saturday's nightly broadcast, talking about Friday's casualties in Iraq: I don't know what's more infuriating about this -- the statement that families of dead marines take their deaths "in stride", the implied connection between a death in the family and needing to take a political stand, or the underlying premise that opposing the occupation of Iraq equates to forward progress!

A new Rasmussen Reports survey shows a 70% approval for the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Clearly the left wing of American politics has failed to make its case. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2005/Gitmo.htm

Take a look at this section of a wikipedia article on the political spectrum. I suppose as politics is so complex the Friesian political spectrum is the closest thing to acurate although far from it. Do you think that it's possible to create a model of various political posisitions? If so what would it look like?

I just read a TIME magazine article which included specific details of intelligence gathering methods used on a detainee at guantanamo bay. It was very interesting. The methods the US interrogators used would probably be considered "light" torture by most people. Although I'm an advocate of aggressive interrogation, I cannot support torture. Naturally, I found myself questioning whether or not some of the methods they used were "over the line" for me. The detainee is supposedly the "20th hijacker". One thing particularly interesting was how concerned the interrogators were with his physical health. The article notes that he was seen by doctors up to three times a day.…

This might displease some creationists. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-06-02T180216Z_01_N62647062_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-DINOSAUR-DC.XML

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1791164,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0000532 Interesting article about CERN's grid for the Large Hadron Collector. Apparently it will be handling 1.5 gigabytes of data per second for over ten years. The data will be passed around "a global grid that stretches across Europe and the United States". Cool. My favorite stat from the article: Translation: They're hosting electronic distro for Doom IV.

Would you like one of these on your desktop ? Earlier this week, IBM (NYSE: IBM - News) unveiled its latest and greatest supercomputer. The 91-teraflop monster, dubbed "Watson Blue Gene," is capable of cranking out a mind-blowing 91 trillion calculations per second. This ultra-powerful -- yet remarkably affordable, practical, and accessible -- computing tool is likely to give IBM a significant competitive advantage over competitors such as Affymetrix (Nasdaq: AFFX - News), Intel (Nasdaq: INTC - News), and General Electric (NYSE: GE - News) in the life sciences, information technology, and material sciences sectors. IBM officials are confident that they'll be able …

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6595798/site/newsweek/ A new pill able to increase our memory is in experimental stages. A memory destroying pill is also being worked on. What do you guys think of this?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/17/AR2005061700863.html Similar links in case that one's registered: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/business/17cnd-tyco.html http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=8826570 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4105628.stm

From: http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,159348,00.html now why on earth would 20 people not be proud to sign their respective names on a piece of paper condemning lynching in this land of the free? what is so frightening is that these 20 people decided that supporting such legislation was very likely a bad choice, as it would lose them support more than it would gain them support. i, for one, am disgusted. discuss as you wish

John Danforth is a moderate Republican who many will remember was appointed by Janet Reno to investigate the Waco incident. More recently he was our last ambassador to the United Nations, a post which he left in January, after which he was asked to serve as special envoy to Sudan. He's an Episcopalian minister, and he may also be remembered for officiating at Ronald Reagan's funeral last year. (Notably, he also officiated at Washington Post owner Katherine Graham's funeral in 2001.) My point in all that being that he's an example of a christian, a conservative, and a Republican, but he isn't trying to convert the world to fundamentalism. He is well-respected by …