All posts by Jack

Liberating Thoughts, Politics

What he said!

From Talking Points Memo via:

James Dobson: “If the nation’s politicians don’t fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we’ll see. Some religious leaders want new ethics rules for Congress, but that’s only a band-aid fix. Politicians need to root out this infection. Gambling – all types of gambling – is driven by greed and subsists on greed. That makes it morally bankrupt from its very foundation. Gambling creates addicts, breeds crime and destroys families. We need courageous office holders who will begin the process of shutting down lotteries, casinos and other gambling outlets.”

I think he has a good basic theme here, let’s try that some other ways:
Continue reading What he said! →

General

Making Sense?

I found this link at Making Light that addresses 13 things that don’t make sense.

Now, I don’t have problems with understanding why 12 of these scientific conundrums don’t make sense, but I do question number 2, the Horizon Problem.

Why is the uniformity of the expanding universe heat signature a problem? We can see 14 billion light years in any direction. The seen universe is 28 billion light years wide. The background heat radiation is constant in all directions because the same expansion physics happened in all directions. Why is this a conundrum?

And we are the center of the universe.

General, Politics

Organized Relations

I notice that Bush declares it legal to wiretap Americans without a warrant:

So, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, I authorize the interception of international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations.

from a Dec 19th, 2005 conference.

Evidently, Bush, sharp legal mind that he is, got this vetted by the same administration lawyers who think torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners is OK.

It is the last few words of the quote that worry me. Based on comments of the Vice-President, various administration officials and Republican lawmakers, over the past few years, I think the Democratic Party falls into the “related terrorist organizations” category, along with anyone who opposes the Bush and any of his policies. Good thing I’m not organized.

Politics

No, No, No, No, No

I heard Bush on the news last night saying that his job is to protect the American People. I believe he was saying this to justify spying on Americans without a warrant.

No, No, No, No, No!

Evidently Mr Bush wasn’t listening to himself when he took his oath of office.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

You see, Mr. Bush? Your job is to protect the Constitution, not the American People. I think we can defend ourselves quite nicely, thank you.

If Mr. Bush doesn’t listen to himself, why should the rest of us listen to him?

I notice, from the text of a speech he gave this morning, that he is still confused.

Liberating Thoughts, Politics

Gary Hart Interview

From a BuzzFlash Interview (via Sideshow) I found this quote from Gary Hart to be memorable:

… the reason you can’t mix religion and politics is, religion is about absolutes, right and wrong, good and evil. Politics is about compromise. If you cannot compromise on issues that are not central to a person’s faith – and that’s about 99% of the issues our country faces – then the country doesn’t work. The government doesn’t work.

I think I will have to check out the essay, God And Caesar in America: An Essay on Religion and Politics, that spawned the interview.

Yeah, without compromise, this country doesn’t work.

Geek Stuff

Frustration

Here I am trying to use my HTML tags to make a nicely formatted article and my browser won’t display them. In the previous article I set up the individual ideas as lists. They should be indented, with bullets. Do they show up that way? No. Look at the source code, doesn’t it show the < UL > tags and < LI > tags?

Silly browsers.