USA should QUIT the Middle East

On August 22, 2015August 18, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, government, things getting worseLeave a comment

Andrew J. Bacevich:

… Today, three-and-a-half decades after America’s War for the Greater Middle East was launched, that region is less stable than it was when U.S. forces first began making their appearance.

Costs, sustained as well as exacted, have been considerable. Successes have been few and transitory. …

… In our day, it’s not Saudi Arabia and Iraq that the United States should worry about defending, but Canada and Venezuela. Given startling adjustments in estimates of accessible global oil and natural gas reserves, the United States can count on being able to satisfy its energy requirements by drawing entirely on sources within its own hemisphere for many decades to come. We don’t need the Gulf.

So although ISIL is as vile and vicious an organization as humankind has managed to produce in recent memory, it does not pose a particular danger to the United States. …

U.S. policymakers who conclude otherwise — who persist in claiming that it’s incumbent upon the United States to “degrade and defeat” ISIL — are throwing good money after bad. …

Politico – ISIL is a problem, but not America’s problem

Andrew J. Bacevich is writing a military history of America and the Middle East.

American troops should put boots on the ground … in America. Bring the troops home.

US Flag Around the Earth --- Image by © Images.com/Corbis — US Flag Around the Earth — Image by © Images.com/Corbis

the right to die

On August 19, 2015August 16, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

Economist – Doctors should be allowed to help the suffering and terminally ill to die when they choose

The argument is over the right to die with a doctor’s help at the time and in the manner of your own choosing. As yet only a handful of European countries, Colombia and five American states allow some form of doctor-assisted dying. But draft bills, ballot initiatives and court cases are progressing in 20 more states and several other countries (see article).

In Canada the Supreme Court recently struck down a ban on helping patients to die; its ruling will take effect next year. In the coming months bills will go before parliaments in Britain and Germany. …

The right to die

I’d like that right. Voluntary euthanasia is working well everywhere it’s been tried.

John Oliver on televangelists

On August 17, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Some televangelists are utter criminals. 😦

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

“the right of the people to keep and bear arms”

On August 16, 2015August 14, 2015 By Rick McIn firearms, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

… The United States is the only country with such a constitutional amendment, though a few keep similar policies (e.g. Mexico, Switzerland). Every other democracy that maintains stricter gun controls continue to scratch their heads on why this is such a big deal. …

Russel L. Honoré ( born 1947) is a retired Lieutenant General who served as the 33rd commanding general of the U.S. First Army at Fort Gillem, Georgia. He is best known for serving as commander of Joint Task Force Katrina responsible for coordinating military relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina-affected areas across the Gulf Coast and as the 2nd Infantry Division’s commander while stationed in South Korea.

related – Honore: America’s in denial about gun culture

How Republicans Can Appeal To Women

On August 14, 2015August 12, 2015 By Rick McIn ethics, government, humourLeave a comment

The Onion nails this one. 🙂

How The GOP Can Appeal To Women

Koch Bros – “It’s the evil thing”

On August 12, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

The Koch brothers aren’t true evil, I was surprised to learn. But they’ve put together a coalition that intends to spend almost $1 billion in 2016.

I do believe that money is intended to buy election wins for Republican candidates who will be expected to support polices that benefit … the Koch brothers.

This is a business move. Though they lost perhaps half a billion trying to defeat Obama, they hope to get back more than 1.5 billion if the next President is a Republican.

Click PLAY or watch a protest song on YouTube.

If you don’t like billionaires buying elections, campaign against the politicians they support.

Obama invading Texas?

On August 12, 2015August 11, 2015 By Rick McIn firearms, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

This guy thinks so.

He’s one of the Patriots sworn to defend citizens against their own government.

Personally I feel people like this pose a great danger to citizens.

The Jade Helm 15 conspiracy theories are based on the eponymous United States military training exercise, scheduled to take place in multiple U.S. states from July 15 to September 15, 2015.

… training will take place in the states Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah.

When officials at the Pentagon unveiled Jade Helm this spring, it triggered an eruption of the Big American Crazy — that recurring paranoia that has attached itself throughout the nation’s history to suspected threats like the Masons, the Papists, the Communists, the Islamists and the international banking cartel. Texans, in particular, lost their minds. They worried that the drill was in fact a furtive plot to seize their guns …

YouTube videos emerged claiming that Jade Helm’s “Helm” was an acronym for “Homeland Eradication of Local Militants.” …

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has identified more than 1,000 active Patriot groups nationwide as of 2013 that are “opposed to the ‘New World Order,’ engage in groundless conspiracy theorizing, or advocate or adhere to extreme antigovernment doctrines.” …

Are Rogue Militants Preparing for War on American Soil?

There are scores of patriot groups, but what makes Oath Keepers unique is that its core membership consists of men and women in uniform, including soldiers, police, and veterans. At regular ceremonies in every state, members reaffirm their official oaths of service, pledging to protect the Constitution—but then they go a step further, vowing to disobey “unconstitutional” orders from what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government.

contraception reduces abortion

On August 7, 2015August 5, 2015 By Rick McIn economics, education, ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

In the United States 98% of women have used birth control at some point in time and 62% of those of reproductive age are currently using birth control …

(I assume the other 2% practice abstinence.)

About a third of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime. It’s a difficult and traumatic decision for most. 😦

Anything we can do to reduce the rates of unwanted pregnancy and abortion should be considered.

A study published in Obstetrics & Gynecology found that the availability to free contraception caused a drop in teen birth rates and cut the rate of abortions for all participants by more than half.

For American teens, the drop in abortion rates may be closer to 75%.

Colorado teen birthrate dropped 40% over a few years when low-cost birth control was made available. An anonymous donor funded the $23 million initiative

old white men deciding what women can do with their bodies

If you restrict access to sex education and contraception, expect more abortions.

Roman Catholics and (many) evangelicals should expect more abortions because they limit access to contraceptives.

The Roman Catholic Church should council women not to have abortions. But then provide help for those additional children they want born. Many are born to young, poor and distressed mothers who don’t have access to abortion. Those children really need the help of the Church.

___

… Around 44 million abortions occur each year in the world, with a little under half done unsafely.

Abortion rates have changed little between 2003 and 2008, before which they decreased for decades due to better education about family planning and birth control. …

Those who are against abortion largely claim that an embryo or fetus is a human with a right to life and may compare it to murder.

Supporters point to a woman’s right to decide over her own body and to human rights in general. …

The blue and green colours indicate those nations where abortion is mostly legal on request.

“Every Sperm is Sacred” is a Monty Python musical sketch satire of Catholic teachings on reproduction that forbid masturbation and contraception by artificial means.

Obviously 1 egg or 1 sperm is NOT life.

But there is a legitimate argument on when a human life actually begins. I don’t have a strong opinion on this.

A late-term abortion often refers to an induced abortion procedure that occurs after the 20th week of gestation. Those are – obviously – even worse than first trimester abortions.