Category: ethics

separation of Church & State

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, humour, Islam, philosophyLeave a comment

Yep.

That’s a no brainer.

Church and State

The separation of church and state is the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state.

If you value freedom, including religious freedom, you should support the separation of Church & State.

The government should have no involvement in your religion as they should have no involvement in your sex life. So long as you abide by the secular laws of the land.

If your religious practice breaks the law, you go to jail. If you cannot live with that, you must leave the nation. Immigrate to a theocracy, perhaps.

Some American Christians are intolerant.

The kind constantly quoting the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Pledge of Allegiance of the United States is an expression of fealty to the federal flag and the republic of the United States of America, originally composed by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942.

The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945. The last change in language came on Flag Day 1954 when the words “under God” were added.

Here’s the original version (1892) of the start of the pledge:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

I got on to this topic after seeing right wing Americans irritated and hateful over this incident from Jan 2013.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.


 
A school Cultural club read the Pledge of Allegiance in different languages, one of them Arabic. In that one replacing “God” with “Allah”.

To me the Pledge is just words on paper. Not sacred. Even less a sacred cow than the U.S. Constitution.

Here’s the funniest commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance I’ve seen.

The Whitest Kids U’ Know – Pledge of Allegiance

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

NRA does not fight a gun law!

On By Rick McIn ethics, firearms, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

Historically the National Rifle Association prioritized education, training and regulation of firearms. They were the safety advocates.

By sometime in the 1990s their main story changed to fighting any kind of gun legislation, no matter how minor, no matter how sensible.

Rather than discuss pros and cons, NRA talking headz shouted “Second Amendment” — as if it was Holy Scripture.

They became shills for the corporations who sell weapons.

But here’s a bit of good news.

… a new law in Washington State that will require spouses under domestic abuse orders to surrender their guns to authorities. This is no small matter. Intimate partner homicides account for nearly half the women killed each year, and more than half of these women are murdered with guns, according to federal statistics.

The surprising twist in the enactment of the Washington law was that the N.R.A. traditionally has fought hard against such legislation as a violation of Second Amendment freedom — but not this time. The law was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee last month after unanimous approval by the legislature once the gun lobby backed off from its standard tactic of political retaliation. “This is an election year, and no candidate wants to be portrayed as letting domestic abusers keep their guns,” said the Democratic sponsor, Representative Roger Goodman. …

NY Times

HB-1840-Washington

True gundamentalists should cancel their NRA membership. The NRA has sold out to … reason and common sense. 🙂

Here’s a pro-gun site called Enemy of the State™ railing against this legislation.

related – Michael Enright – Annie Get Your Gun: Michael’s Essay:

It is awfully hard to say something positive about the National Rifle Association, every mass murderer’s friend. …

Deadliest Animal in the World

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

Bill Gates:

What would you say is the most dangerous animal on Earth? Sharks? Snakes? Humans?

Of course the answer depends on how you define dangerous. Personally I’ve had a thing about sharks since the first time I saw Jaws. But if you’re judging by how many people are killed by an animal every year, then the answer isn’t any of the above. It’s mosquitoes. …

Gates Notes – Mosquito Week

deadly animals

(via Bill Gates on Facebook)

Reducing Firearm-Related Violence

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, firearms, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

The Institute of Medicine published findings:

In 2010, more than 105,000 people were injured or killed in the United States as the result of a firearm-related incident.

Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, CT; Aurora, CO; Oak Creek, WI; and Tucson, AZ, have sharpened the American public’s interest in protecting our children and communities from the harmful effects of firearm violence. While many Americans legally use firearms for a variety of activities, fatal and nonfatal firearm violence poses a serious threat to public safety and welfare. …

Priorities for Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence

gun_money

William Saletan summarizes:

Earlier this year, President Obama ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to assess the existing research on gun violence and recommend future studies. That report, prepared by the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, is now complete.

Its findings won’t entirely please the Obama administration or the NRA, but all of us should consider them. Here’s a list of the 10 most salient or surprising takeaways. …

1. The United States has an indisputable gun violence problem.

According to the report, “the U.S. rate of firearm-related homicide is higher than that of any other industrialized country: 19.5 times higher than the rates in other high-income countries.”


2. Most indices of crime and gun violence are getting better, not worse.

3. We have 300 million firearms, but only 100 million are handguns.

4. Handguns are the problem.

5. Mass shootings aren’t the problem.

6. Gun suicide is a bigger killer than gun homicide.

7. Guns are used for self-defense often and effectively.

8. Carrying guns for self-defense is an arms race.

9. Denying guns to people under restraining orders saves lives.

10. It isn’t true that most gun acquisitions by criminals can be blamed on a few bad dealers.

Rethinking Gun Control

Surprising findings from a comprehensive report on gun violence.

Republicans Say No to CDC Gun Violence Research. Most in the GOP don’t want to know the facts. And definitely don’t want their voters to know the facts.

Dr. Garen Wintemute, a professor of emergency medicine who runs the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, spent $1 million of his own money to continue the research.

As I’ve said before, I don’t think people are very far apart on this issue. Fire arms lobbyists are going to have an increasingly difficult fight buying politicians over the coming years. And they’ll have to outspend their opponents at an even greater rate.

070418_gunchart

Republicans must change. Or lose. Long term.

new – easier to BUY American politicians

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, things getting worseLeave a comment

U.S. Supreme Court ruled to raise the limit for individual campaign contributions from $123,000 to $3.6 million dollars.

Billionaires and corporations can now buy politicians legitimately.

crook politiicans

The rich have far, far too much influence on American politics already. 😦

I’m hoping there’s more disclosure on who donated how much to whom, in future. But not optimistic.

money politics

ultra rich Americans should worry

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Unless the GOP changes, they are not going to win many Presidential elections in future. No matter how badly the Democrats run the country.

Nobody believes Paul Ryan cares about the poor.

Republicans are still mostly in favour of the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer.

DEREK THOMPSON:

I’ve written, over and over, that the most important divide in our wealth disparity was between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. For example, when I compared the evolution in investment income since the late 1970s, I often imagined a graph like this from the Economic Policy Institute, showing the 1 percent flying away from the rest of the country.

1 top 1 percent

It turns out that that graph is somewhat misleading. It makes it look like the 1 percent is a group of similar households accelerating from the rest of the economy, holding hands, in unison. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A few weeks ago, I shared this graph (from the World Top Incomes Database) showing how the top 0.01 percent—that’s the one percent of the 1 percent—was leaving the rest of the top percentile behind.

2 top 0.1 percent

It turns out that wealth inequality isn’t about the 1 percent v. the 99 percent at all. It’s about the 0.1 percent v. the 99.9 percent (or, really, the 0.01 percent vs. the 99.99 percent, if you like). Long-story-short is that this group, comprised mostly of bankers and CEOs, is riding the stock market to pick up extraordinary investment income. And it’s this investment income, rather than ordinary earned income, that’s creating this extraordinary wealth gap. …

Unveiling the real story behind the richest of the rich

How You, I, and Everyone Got the Top 1 Percent All Wrong

So why should the top .01% of Americans worry?

Soon there’s going to be a backlash.

60 Minutes revealed that the U.S. stock market is rigged:

in the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized stock trading that now controls more than half the market.

The probes were announced just ahead of a much anticipated book on the subject by best-selling author Michael Lewis called “Flash Boys.” In it, Lewis argues that the stock market is now rigged to benefit a group of insiders that have made tens of billions of dollars exploiting computerized trading. …

Steve Kroft: What’s the headline here?

Michael Lewis: Stock market’s rigged. The United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged.

Is the U.S. stock market rigged?

rigged

I’ve got nothing against rich people. Lebronne James has earned every penny.

But when I see a dork, stupid billionaire … I get suspicious.

loser-donald-trump

How did this guy get rich?

It’s not smart. It’s not an efficient distribution of wealth to have so many dollars in the hands of so few people, many of whom do not deserve it.

The ultra rich should be prepared to move to that that retirement estate in Belize. 🙂

corrupt South African politicians

On By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Here’s the latest proposal shoveling tax dollars into the pockets of politicians.

Parliament’s new post-retirement travel policy, which could see MPs with 15 years or more of service gain 24 business class air flights a year for 10 years, has been agreed to in principle. It must still be adopted if it is to come into effect.

This policy was agreed to by the national legislature’s highest policy-making structure, the Parliamentary Oversight Authority (POA) …

The new post-retirement travel privileges would see MPs who had served one term of five years receive eight single economy air tickets a year for 10 years; those who had served 10 years getting 16 single economy tickets; and those with three terms under their belts receiving 24 single business-class tickets a year.

This could add tens of millions in expenditure from the national coffers at a time when Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has called for cost-cutting and savings.

And in a potentially controversial decision, the POA decided that these post-retirement travel privileges should also apply to all nine provincial legislatures, benefiting a total of 430 MPLs, in addition to the 400 National Assembly MPs and 54 National Council of Provinces delegates. The POA report also said there should be no restriction on the number of tickets used by a spouse from this new quota. …

Travel policy set to allow retired MPs to stay on gravy plane

reaction – Proposed retired MP travel benefit slammed

zuma

Here’s an overview of the corruption charges against Zuma.

I’ve yet to talk to anyone here who likes Jacob Zuma.

He’s currently being slammed for this scandal.

President Zuma says he shouldn’t have to pay for government paid improvements to his personal home because … he didn’t ask for the renovations.

I didn’t ask for Nkandla upgrade – Zuma

The cost of the refurbishments, which include a helipad, a swimming pool and even a chicken coop, ballooned from the initial estimate of R65m in 2009 to R246m.

South African elections are coming up. Most assume the NAC will win again. Many hope for some kind of strong opposition, however.

Norway the most GENEROUS nation?

On By Rick McIn economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

American right wing types love to complain that the USA gives away more foreign aid money than anyone else.

If you count GROSS dollars, it could be argued that the USA is the most GENEROUS nation.

If you calculate per capita or per GNP (Gross National Product) the USA drops down the list to perhaps 17th.

Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, Denmark are near the top of the list, per person.

net per capita

That said, I’m not at all convinced that foreign aid money is well spent. It could certainly be money wasted. 😦

via KRISTJAN WAGER – Is USA the biggest foreign aid donor? (2007)

Johannesburg Apartheid museum

On By Rick McIn ethics, travelLeave a comment

Excellent.

Ranked #2 of 68 attractions in Johannesburg:

… architecturally interesting and packed with thoughtful, often brutal, reminders of South Africa’s history.

Mandela

ApartheidMuseum.org

It’s only 25min drive from JoBurg’s OR Tambo international airport if you ever have a layover.