Category: government

All in the Family – far, far ahead of its time

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

All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. …

Produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin and starring Carroll O’Connor, Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner, and Sally Struthers, All in the Family revolves around the life of a working class bigot and his family.

The show broke ground in its depiction of issues previously considered unsuitable for U.S. network television comedy, such as racism, homosexuality, women’s liberation, rape, miscarriage, abortion, breast cancer, the Vietnam War, menopause, and impotence. Through depicting these controversial issues, the series became arguably one of television’s most influential comedic programs, as it injected the sitcom format with more realistic and topical conflicts.

The show ranked number-one in the yearly Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976. …

This is one of my favourite scenes.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

 

Norman Lear, age-92, just published his autobiography – Even this I get to experience.

Lear is extremely liberal, the opposite of Archie. Actually, Normal Lear had Maude, Bea Arthur, represent his personal views.

In some ways Archie still symbolizes the old white male conservative dinosaur. Carroll O’Connor died 2001.

all-in-the-family-tv-sp08

Archie Bunker’s ideas should have died with him.

Band Aid 30 – Do They Know It’s Christmas?

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, musicLeave a comment

I bought the single on iTunes. 100% of that revenue is supposed to go to the cause.

Band Aid 30 is the 2014 incarnation of the charity supergroup Band Aid. The group was announced on 10 November 2014 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure.[1] As in previous incarnations, the group covered the track Do They Know It’s Christmas?, written in 1984 by Geldof and Ure, this time to raise money towards the Ebola crisis in Western Africa. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

As Bono said, it’s not for Ebola, it’s to prevent the NEXT Ebola.

Obama on net neutrality

On By Rick McIn economics, government, internetLeave a comment

Obama is saying the right things. But so often his right words do not translate into right action.

Let’s wait and see.

President Obama … urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take up the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality, the principle that says Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all internet traffic equally.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

world poverty dropping fast

On By Rick McIn economics, good news, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

In 1820  the vast majority of people lived in extreme poverty and only a tiny elite enjoyed higher standards of living.

Economic growth over the last 200 years completely transformed our world and poverty fell continuously over the whole 2 last centuries. This is even more remarkable when we consider that the population increased 7-fold over the same time (which in itself is a consequence of increasing living standards and decreasing mortality – especially of infants and children – around the world). …

Even in 1981 more than 50% of the world population lived in absolute poverty – this is now down to about 20%. This is still a large number of people but the change is happening incredibly fast and for our present world the data tells us that poverty is now falling more quickly than ever before in world history. The first of the Millenium Development Goals set by the UN was to halve the population living in absolute poverty between 1990 and 2015. Rapid economic growth meant that this goal  – arguably the most important – was achieved (5 years ahead of time) in 2010.

Our World in Data

ourworldindata_global-poverty-1820-2010-share-of-people-living-in-extreme-poverty-–-max-roser

If you like that good news, click over to their home page for even more positive data. The world is improving in many ways.

ourworldindata.org

Russell Brand Criticizes Stephen Harper’s Reaction To Ottawa Attack (VIDEO)

On By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

I don’t know Russell Brand and won’t likely follow him in future, but on Harper’s reaction, he makes a good point here.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The USA will ultimately fail and withdraw from the Middle East to concentrate on homeland security.

Chrétien announced in Parliament March 2003 that Canada would not “join with the so-called Coalition of the willing”. Chrétien did the right thing.

Harper is doing everything wrong this time. 😦

Rex Murphy on the Ottawa shooting

On By Rick McIn dead to me, ethics, government, things getting worseLeave a comment

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

From here on in I will support and campaign for the Canadian political Party that vows to withdraw military from the Middle East.

Harper’s Conservatives are dead to me.

Canadians are today less safe at home, not more.

Eisenhower was wrong

On By Rick McIn economics, government, travel2 Comments

It’s as if you can’t trust a President / Commander in Chief. 😦

Though he never directly used the term “domino theory“, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower put the theory into words during an April 7, 1954 news conference, when referring to communism in Indochina:

Finally, you have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the “falling domino” principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences.

Introducing the domino theory, that if Vietnam fell to communism, the rest of Southeast Asia would soon follow. Press conference, April 7, 1954.

wikipedia

Today Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Canada? are NOT Communist.

domino_theory

Eisenhower was wrong.

… Hanoi will be the fastest growing city in the world in term of GDP growth from 2008 to 2025 …

On February 2013 Dubai-based property developer Global Sphere announced a mega-project to build about 70 residential towers in Hanoi in an area dubbed the Hanoi Wall Street. The first phase, valued at $10 billion, is expected to be finished by 2020. …

Fall of Saigon - evacuation of CIA personnel 1975
Fall of Saigon – evacuation of CIA personnel 1975

The USA could not win in Vietnam. Nor can they win in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, …

Santayana
George Santayana – The Life of Reason

When you hear a leader call for armed intervention, follow the money. Who’s going to profit in the proposed military action?

Gay marriage in Idaho

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, government, happinessLeave a comment

Idaho is one of the most Republican States.

Yet …

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed same-sex marriages to proceed in Idaho, lifting a temporary stay issued two days earlier by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

The developments capped a busy week for gay rights. It started with the court’s refusal on Monday to hear appeals from decisions striking down same-sex marriage bans in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The next day, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, struck down bans in Idaho and Nevada.

Supreme Court Allows Same-Sex Marriage in Idaho

I’d say the battle for same sex marriage in the USA is pretty much decided.

click for larger version
click for larger version

Here’s a list of prominent American opponents of same sex marriage. I’m looking forward to those politicians flip-flopping on the issue.

Cruz and Huckabee are two who will stay the course.

I’m stunned that the U.S. of A., normally so slow to change anything has changed so quickly. Where is the Tea Party of 10 years ago?

Where are the Christian Righteous?

Where is the Pope?

… Oh right. We have a reform Pope. A new report by a top-level Vatican panel on the family calls for a more positive view of homosexuals.

Congratulations to my Gay friends and advocates for the dramatic turnaround in American public opinion. I do feel it’s for the best.

On the other hand, I completely understand the argument by opponents that the word “marriage” has traditionally meant a legal contract between one man and one woman. That’s true.

Seems the definition of a word can change over time.

In addition, fewer adults in the USA are married than ever before. More people will never marry. Will decline in marriage result in a less stable society? I doubt it.

related – FOX News – Is gay marriage battle over? The silence on the right is deafening

FreedomTM – Daniel Suarez

On By Rick McIn books, economics, governmentLeave a comment

Highly recommended. The plot of the Daemon (book series) is brilliant. And important.

Picking up a few months after the end of Daemon (2009), Suarez continues his popular technothriller and SF saga.

The computer program Daemon has taken over the Internet, and millions have joined its virtual world. Now the effect is spilling into the real world as Daemon assumes control of financial institutions, and the program’s real-life converts flock to small towns to re-create a sustainable lifestyle amid the agribusiness monoculture of the Midwest. …

Amazon

Freedom_MMIsometric02

It would make a great movie. But nothing is in the works yet.

German Universities now tuition free

On By Rick McIn economics, education, good news, governmentLeave a comment

Though Germany is a fiscally conservative nation, they’ve decided to invest in students. Education is the future.

All German universities will be free of tuition starting 2014.

free tuition Germany

More equal access to all citizens. The rich are less advantaged than in the past.

How does the tax burden compare with the most expensive nation?

Germany – 39.90%
USA – 22.70%

These tax rates apply to single people with no children, on an average salary for their country.