Category: government

Occupy Capitalism

On By Rick McIn economics, GOP USA, government, photos5 Comments

I’m naturally sympathetic to popular uprisings … the Tea Party and Occupy _______, for example.

Nothing ever improves unless people get passionate.

On the other hand, both those movements have been mostly irrational and incoherent. Especially Occupy.

Occupy what?

Here’s the first list of complaints I can understand:

• a failure to price public goods (clean air, water, etc.) effectively
• high levels of inequality
• “the provision and distribution of medical care”
• undervaluing of “the welfare of unborn generations”
• financial crises

Those are from Economist Kenneth Rogoff.

Rogoff, not surprisingly, feels that free market Capitalism is the best solution for each:

… I am often asked if the recent global financial crisis marks the beginning of the end of modern capitalism. It is a curious question, because it seems to presume that there is a viable replacement waiting in the wings. The truth of the matter is that, for now at least, the only serious alternatives to today’s dominant Anglo-American paradigm are other forms of capitalism. …

Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?

Government regulatory reform is needed, not any experiment with Communism.

Why are the USA, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Italy — to name a few — so much worse off than their economic neighbours?

That’s the question.

(via Freakonomics)

Rick Perry is finished

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, internetLeave a comment

He should resign from the campaign right after he fires the guy who recommended he post the most hated video in the history of YouTube.

Check the numbers … 9,576 likes, 403,251 dislikes (as I post).

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Pandering to his Christian, Family Values base, he underestimated the power of a viral meme gone wrong.

Amber Mac has a good write-up on the issue – Should Rick Perry’s YouTube ad be banned as hate speech?

… perhaps not “hate speech”. But he’s certainly got some of his ‘facts’ wrong.

I’m not happy with the job Obama’s done as President. But when the alternative is a nob like this cowboy, or — worse — the Newt — ‘merica is in trouble.

carbon emissions rose 5.9% in 2010

On By Rick McIn government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Bad news for Mother Earth:

… Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year, upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession might persist through the recovery. …

NYTimes – Carbon Emissions Show Biggest Jump Ever Recorded

Surprisingly, China is suddenly ready to commit to binding cuts.

… Speaking to reporters Monday, the country’s chief negotiator in Durban, Xie Zhenhua, said major economies including China should be legally obligated to curb greenhouse gas emissions after 2020.

“We accept a legally binding arrangement,” he said.

Mr. Xie, however, said China would agree to binding cuts only if the U.S. and other powerful nations take aggressive steps in the next decade to address climate change …

Chinese Overture Jolts Climate Talks

I heard the same thing in Hong Kong from a consultant to the Chinese government — they are serious.

Personally, I think, even with China on side, international treaties are not going to work. We’d be better to put the money into researching new technologies to remove Greenhouse Gases from the atmosphere (“sinks”).

In general, voluntary efforts to reduce Carbon Footprint are a good thing. Let’s encourage those efforts, too.

(via Freakonomics – Worldwide Carbon Emissions No Longer Dropping — Is Anyone Surprised?)

Rex Murphy Defending Canada’s Oil Sands

On By Rick McIn climate change, economics, government, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Canada’s Oil Sands could be better regulated, certainly, but using them to symbolize evil is disingenuous at best.

I agree with the outspoken Rex.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

What percentage of delegates in Durban would I call hypocrites? … More than half, I reckon.

(via CBC)

Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got

On By Rick McIn ethics, governmentLeave a comment

Last February, a 19-year-old, self-described sixth-generation Iowan stood before an Iowa legislative panel to argue against a state constitutional amendment. The teenager, Zach Wahls, stood up at the podium and gave a three-minute speech about his life in a two-mothers home. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

After the video was posted to YouTube, Wahls became an Internet celebrity, praised for his eloquent and impassioned speech. …

… the Iowa senate was considering an amendment that would ban same-sex marriages in one of the six states in the United States that legally recognizes it. …

The publicity also helped kill the proposed amendment. …

Washington Post

When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

On By Rick McIn ethics, GOP USA, governmentLeave a comment

OK, lets say you’re like this guy:

… I’ve been a Republican all my adult life. I have worked on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal, at Forbes magazine, at the Manhattan and American Enterprise Institutes, as a speechwriter in the George W. Bush administration. I believe in free markets, low taxes, reasonable regulation, and limited government. I voted for John ­McCain in 2008, and I have strongly criticized the major policy decisions of the Obama administration. …

I can respect that.

I’m a fiscal conservative myself. Unfortunately the USA has no Party that’s proven itself fiscally conservative.

But what the Republicans have done since the rise of the Tea Party movement is simply wrong. And terribly wrong for the USA.

Historians will look back on this era as one of the low points of American history, especially if Obama wins again and they get another 4 years.

When this lying, evil scumbag is the voice of moderation in the field of candidates, you haven’t got much to choose from.

It’s worth reading David Frum … before you go on FOX TV and call him a closet Liberal.

NY Magazine – When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?

Thanks Tom for the link.

SOPA sucks … American legislators are criminals

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, internetLeave a comment

Proponents of the latest disastrous IP bill , the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) insist it only targets the “worst of the worst”: so-called “rogue” foreign websites that profit from pirating U.S. intellectual property. But the broad definitions and vague language in the bill could place dangerous tools into the hands of IP rightsholders, with little opportunity for judicial oversight. One very possible outcome: many of the lawful sites you know and love will face new legal threats. …

Etsy
Flickr
Vimeo

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Anybody who thinks about SOPA for more than 15sec will realize it’s an idiotic idea.

… It’s a power play from big corporate media companies — the sort of legislation that nearly everyone strenuously opposes but which might pass because the money is on the wrong side. …

Daring Fireball by John Gruber

American legislators are mostly bought off by old media. How does that happen. Here’s one painfully obvious example just brought to light by 60 Minutes, a show that aired Nov. 13, 2011:

… The next national election is now less than a year away and congressmen and senators are expending much of their time and their energy raising the millions of dollars in campaign funds they’ll need just to hold onto a job that pays $174,000 a year.

… Most former congressmen and senators manage to leave Washington – if they ever leave Washington – with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived …

(Peter) Schweizer says he wanted to know why some congressmen and senators managed to accumulate significant wealth beyond their salaries, and proved particularly adept at buying and selling stocks.

Schweizer: There are all sorts of forms of honest grafts that congressmen engage in that allow them to become very, very wealthy. So it’s not illegal, but I think it’s highly unethical, I think it’s highly offensive, and wrong.

Steve Kroft: What do you mean honest graft?

Schweizer: For example insider trading on the stock market. If you are a member of Congress, those laws are deemed not to apply.

Congress: Trading stock on inside information?

Implicated are Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner and many other heavy hitters. If they were anyone other than the group of people writing the laws, they’d be in prison.

There is some hope this criminal behaviour can be slowed – Measure to ban Congressional insider trading gains steam

Putin is a MAN’S MAN

On By Rick McIn government, humourLeave a comment

Who wouldn’t want to be a ruthless dictator … who gets to indulge his every adventurous fantasy.

Not only does Putin have his own personal photographer following his every move, day and night, but she’s a former model and “Miss Moscow” finalist.

see more on The Atlantic – Vladimir Putin, Action Man

via DF

Rick Perry – born again Republican

On By Rick McIn GOP USA, government, humourLeave a comment

I’m thinking Rick Perry could beat Obama in the next election, despite his looks … He looks like a made-for-TV-movie American President. Phoney.

Perry spent his first six years in politics as a Democrat, in a somewhat forgotten history that is sure to be revived and scrutinized by Republican opponents if he decides to run for president. …

Rick Perry: The Democrat Years

When I checked on that damning history on Wikipedia, I found that it was not included. Some Republican editing, I assume.

Next problem for Rick Perry – I’m not sure the Tea Party crowd is going to approve of his Corndog eating lifestyle.

Current:

Campaigning outside Pittsburgh today, GOP frontrunner Rick Perry attended a picnic at St Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Oil City where he enjoyed a foot long corndog while touring the fabulous reproduction of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.

There’s an old truism that politicians should never eat hotdogs. These photos will show you why.