Barack Obama’s grasp on what’s needed in a national energy policy is rather tenuous, as his recent statements demonstrate. First the good: "Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face. It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy," he said. "This transformation will be…
Author: marc
Marc is a software developer, writer, and part-time political know-it-all who currently resides in Texas in the good ol' U.S.A.
Obama: No Slavery Reparations
No presidential candidate running in a competitive campaign would dare stake out a position in favor of giving reparations to the ancestors of African slaves and, happily, Barack Obama, pure political animal that he is, is no exception. “I have said in the past — and I’ll repeat again — that the best reparations we…
Wal-Mart and Unions
The Wall Street Journal says that Wal-Mart is getting the word out to employees that electing Barack Obama would be bad for business and increase the likelihood of unions taking over in the companies stores. Both of these changes would be hazardous to employees’ future job prospects, the company insinuates. In recent weeks, thousands of…
CyberPunks, an Apt Name
Mattathias Schwartz’s article in the NY Times magazine serves as a brief peek into the anarchic world of Internet trolls and hackers, people who are generally considered the enemy by business computing professionals like myself. There’s a freedom, or the perception of it, on the Net that doesn’t exist anywhere else in quite the same…
So Close to Understanding
As in the conservative camp, there are smart liberals and dumb ones. When I encounter one of the former, my usual reaction is horror at the enormity of what such an intelligent person might do with his/her unfortunate ideals. Yet sometimes they give me hope. Christy Hardin-Smith shows signs of being such a person. Today…
Church Shootings Sad, Indicative
Sunday’s shooting at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was an event that proves even the places that are most sacred to us are not inviolable, that we must be ever-vigilant if we’re to keep evil at bay. If only that were possible in this world. Jim David Adkisson was by several accounts an unstable individual…
Birth Control Rules
Following on to yesterday’s piece about birth (and death) control, here’s more from ABC News: The Department of Health and Human Services draft proposal, which began circulating around Capitol Hill last week, would require hospitals receiving federal funds to certify that, in their hiring, they do not discriminate against people who refuse to provide forms…
Birth and Death Control
Hillary Clinton writes that the Bush Administration’s impending clampdown on access to birth control and "morning after" pills is outrageous interference in the lives of women. She’s right, of course, although the decision also impacts men only a little less directly. These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking…
Nuclear Power, Waste, and Theft
William Tucker, author of the forthcoming book "Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Can Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Long Energy Odyssey", says that nuclear power is both safe and required if we are to ensure that the electrical demands of Americans are met. I’ve written about this before, often enough to bore, frankly,…
Global Warming Science
Dr. David Evans, a pioneer in the modeling of climate change, now says that there’s no definitive evidence that man-made carbon emissions are contributing to global warming. Moreover, he seems to question whether the phenomenon of rising temperatures even exists. …since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main…