2014 June
2014 June 30
Study: You Eat Twice As Much Sugar As You Should
Junk foods like soda have an incredible amount of sugar. So imposing a junk food tax would do a significant amount towards reducing people’s consumption of sugar as well as reducing the consumption of many other unhealthy foods.
2014 June 29
U.S. Lays Groundwork to Reduce Land Mines and Join Global Treaty
Landmines are a terrible weapon because of their difficulty of finding after the battle and clearing the area of danger for civilian use. However, I don’t believe that any class of weapon should be off limits unless an international military organization is around to enforce such bans and which is capable of ensuring sufficient penalties for failing to obey such bans. Such an organization must also be able to protect all members of threats from countries which do not sign up.
2014 June 28
Mexican law enforcement accused of firing on U.S. border agents
The US knew that there was a migrant rescue operation being conducted by the Mexican military against a drug cartel. However, such incidents could be minimized by solidly blockading the border so that the word will get out among all potential migrant communities that there is no hope of successfully crossing the border illegally. Furthermore, informants could make lots of money by turning over information about potential migrants, when and where to catch them and also by informing about drug production, refining, transporting and consuming activities.
2014 June 27
Obama asks Congress for $500 million to train Syria rebels
This sounds like another Central American messy quagmire of the 1980s. If the US decides to get involved, we need to first accurately deal with the primary issue and place the secondary and tertiary issues at a lower priority. The main issue is ensuring that each sufficiently distinct people groups have their own independent country. The Kurds have been requesting and fighting for their homeland for centuries. The US should withhold all aid to any Syrian party until an agreement is reached that will give the Kurds the Syrian portion of their homeland. After that is accomplished, then there will be a smaller Syria and it will be a little easier to manage.
2014 June 26
U.S. Loosens Grip on Decades-Old Crude Export Ban
A ban on crude oil exports should remain in place because such a ban will help ensure that we have a larger domestic supply when the time comes that we are in very short supply. Although this ban may increase the price of crude oil, both domestically and internationally, it is in the long-term interest of the United States to withhold exports so as to have a greater future supply and to insulate against future supply disruptions.
2014 June 25
European court tells France to keep paraplegic on life-support
After having been in a vegetative state for 6 years without signs of improving significantly, this individual should qualify for passive euthanasia. Furthermore, this situation could have been avoided had Vincent Lambert (the vegetative individual) formulated a will that specified his wishes under such circumstances before graduating from high school.
2014 June 24
Obama says US should have paid maternity leave
No we shouldn’t. No company should be required to offer any benefits other than wages to its workers and neither should any be required to offer wages during any time that they are not working. The only thing that could be mandated for a company of large size would be that they should guarantee the employment position of the worker upon their return from leave.
2014 June 23
Misspelling on Medill diploma gives students last laugh
Although this is a small scale spelling error, the same principal should apply. The first person that finds the error and brings it to the attention of the proper authority should get a reward. What should the reward in this case be? It should probably be 10% of the total fine amount. Perhaps the fine should be $10 per diploma. Multiply this by 30 diplomas in which the error occurred, and the total penalty is $300. So the reward would be $30.
2014 June 22
Forensic pathologist identifies remains of Texas woman missing since 2006
If we had a DNA database for every individual in the country (ideally every country should do the same), then we would have had positive identification of the body virtually immediately.
2014 June 21
Prominent Belarusian Rights Activist Released
A tangential address to this problem could be more related to preventing it than solving it, although it could have helped solve it as well, and that is that all published information should be policed. Under such regulations, it would be more difficult to propagate falsehoods and unjustifiably sway public opinion through the dissemination of false or biased information.
2014 June 20
‘I don’t believe you!’: Paul Ryan levels blistering attack against IRS boss over ‘lost’ emails explanation
Prevention is always better than the cure. Preventing this whole situation could have been possible if the tax code didn’t allow the claiming of tax-exempt status for any group. If people want to donate to ant political group, they should do so, but income taxes should be charged to that political group.
2014 June 19
Mourners at Tamil man Leo Seemanpillai’s funeral attack ‘cruel’ asylum policy
It is unfortunate that some asylum seekers who truly have valid claims are denied those requests. However, the best way to eliminate the need for people to seek political asylum is for the international community to make greater efforts at ensuring that situations within countries are sufficiently stable to eliminate the pressure for such requests. When a situation within a country develops to a point that people seek refuge externally, that is when the international community should be obligated to actively either intervene by any means necessary to rectify the situation. At the very least, an enclave within the offending country should be set up as a catch basin for the fleeing refugees.
2014 June 18
Obama proposes vast expansion of Pacific Ocean sanctuaries for marine life
We need more protected lands and waters. Yes, we have expanded protection and enforcement sufficiently continually in the past, however, there is still much over fishing and over extraction of resources in the waters that need to be slowed.
Taxing activities that utilize the extraction of natural resources should definitely be implemented.
2014 June 17
Russia cuts natural gas supply to Ukraine
Russia has all the authority it needs to shut down the pipeline. It doesn’t need any other country’s permission because it is it’s own sovereign country
2014 June 16
President Obama ignored general’s pleas to keep American military forces in Iraq
This is a false headline and should be retracted. A fine should be levied on the publisher. This fine should be based largely on the readership size for the paper. However, the actual substance of the error would be used to form the core figure of such a punishment, upon which the readership numbers would be multiplied.
Because this headline error involved a very popular/important person (the President), and because it actually clearly gave an absolutely false impression of the President’s actual position, the fine should be large. However, because the actual text of the story did clear up the issue satisfactorily, the fine should be reduced. Nevertheless, since there was an error, and since this error involved the headline which can only be interpreted as inaccurate, and since lots of people actually read the headlines to get their news, the fine should be significant.
I will assume that the Washington Post has a readership of 50,000 with an additional internet readership of around 25,000. So the total readership would come out to be 75,000 people.
Because it was such a basic fact that was in error, I would suggest that the fine be levied at the level of $1 Per reader. Therefore, the total fine for the Washington Times should be $75,000, plus any associated court costs.
2014 June 15
Iraq steps up offensive against rebels
The role for keeping peace and order in the international sphere would belong to an international organization, preferable and international military organization.
2014 June 14
GM recalls half million Camaros, safety crisis deepens
If more things are standardized, recalled would become less frequent. Nut I wouldn’t want everything standardized because that would be a more boring world, however more standardization would be good for all industries.
There should be a comprehensive consumer research database that everybody would be able to check before they buy any product. This same database could serve as a database which people could also input their reports of their experiences which various products and services.
Having a single database that everyone goes to to submit and read reviews would be orders of magnitude better than having hundreds of review sites scattered throughout the internet.
2014 June 13
Detention centers overflow with kids crossing border
How hard can it be to prevent people from crossing a physical boundary (international Boundary)? Obviously, illegal immigration is continuing because of a lack of political will. There is no other valid excuse. Technically, this is an incredibly easy problem to solve.
2014 June 12
U.S. Budget Deficit Narrows as Economy, Jobs Boost Revenue
This is somewhat good news because this problem’s rate of getting worse is slowing down. But we have an incredible amount of total debt which is just very depressing to see. In order to finance this debt, we will borrow (at interest) yet more money from the Federal Reserve. Naturally, we do need to balance our budget, but we need to get rid of our debt-based money supply and transition over to debt-free money is that managed primarily for the public good.
2014 June 11
California court strikes down teacher tenure rules in major ruling
There should not be tenure for teachers. All teachers should have their employment decisions guided by their ability to teach.
2014 June 10
Supreme Court ruling muddies water in Lejeune pollution case
Statutes of repose should be abolished just like statutes of limitations should be abolished. Anybody should be allowed to bring legal proceedings against anyone else without any limitations on time or any other parameter. However, every legal proceeding should be required to begin with going through an arbitration process in which all parties, apart from discussing the case, are informed about the potential costs and standards of evidence related to their particular case. Most importantly, people should feel comforted that a professional jury, who has an edge in identifying tricky legal behavior or lies trying to be perpetrated by either side, would be the body that eventually decides a case.
2014 June 9
Putin envoy warns Finland against joining NATO
NATO is an organization whose purpose has been outdated. It needs to be replaced by an international military organization whose purpose is not regional, but global. Nevertheless, Russia should stay out of the affairs of other national countries who are well within their right to join whatever international organizations they choose. The principal for this is that each significantly distinct people group should be allowed complete independence to make their own national decisions.
2014 June 8
Obama Plans Steps to Ease Student Debt
There would be less of a need for students to go into such debt getting an education if we would streamline the educational system and take out a lot of the vestigial parts that have accrued over the centuries. There are many course requirements that should be dropped or shifted because either of their relative uselessness or non-optimal placement in an individual’s educational career. There should be more self-paced courses that students would be able to study independently without needing so much support from traditional educational infrastructures, thus reducing costs. Some school subject could be combined to further increase the efficiency with which education is conducted. Mental conditional courses could be made mandatory to increase the efficiency with which students retain knowledge. For students that get good grades or who have the ability to finish courses quickly, they should be rewarded with a refund of part of the cost of that class.
2014 June 7
Early Exposure To Bacteria Protects Children From Asthma And Allergies
Children should be exposed to various forms of bacteria in controlled, sanitary environments so that the benefits of ‘exercising’ the immune system could be realized. For example, perhaps the single greatest benefit provide to both children and the rest of the population could be obtained by instituting a policy of banning antibacterial products from being sold at will. Such products should only be sold by prescription only when there is a legitimate need for them, such as to care for people with already compromised immune systems or who have shown another medical need for such products. Some other benefits in this area could be obtained by reordering the priorities of the educational system, mainly by requiring them to clean up after themselves. Other beneficial policy changes would require children to take health classes as a regular core course, work more with their hands doing things such as crafts and basic house work,
2014 June 6
Vodafone reveals direct government wiretaps
Governments should not have the right to monitor ‘at-will’ the content of telecommunications, but they should have the right to access the metadata. So these 6 countries out of the 29 that Vodaphone operates should, in my opinion, be prevented from accessing content without a warrant. However, countries with a good credit rating could be allowed a greater leeway if they have a good ‘credit rating’. In other words, countries need to either get permission for or just do the surveillance, but in either way reports of each instance of interception need to be reported to the proper authorities (such as some representative government body) and followed through to determine if the intercept actually ended up being justified (by logging each intercept and following it through to completion, either guilty ot innocent).
2014 June 5
Guilty Plea by Sergeant in Killing of Civilians
I don’t understand the logic of pursuing the death penalty against a defendant, but then when the defendant admits to the crime, the prosecutor would agree to drop the death penalty. Did the crime somehow become less severe because the defendant agreed to tell the truth? How bazaar! If a crime deserves the death penalty, give him the death penalty. The defendant’s mental awareness during the crime, his behavior during trial, the feelings of the prosecutor, the color of the judge’s hair, etc., should have no bearing on whether the death penalty is sought.
For this crime, there is really no valid reason to drop the death penalty because it wasn’t just one or two people that were murdered, it was 16 people. And they were not captured enemy combatants who were already subdued. These were civilians, most of them women and children.
We need to hold our troops to a higher standard than this. They are our representatives to the people in those places they serve. If they perceive our troops acting like this without sufficiently harsh punishments, they will resent us even more. That is not a good way to make long-term friends.
2014 June 4
150 marine scientists warn of port construction threat to Great Barrier Reef
The first step in minimizing environmental degradation is to make sure that all entities engaging in such activities are actually held responsible for acting in as much of a closed system as possible. This means that all negative externalites would be internalized, as much as possible. This means that not only would externalized environmental degradation be reduced, but so would all actual projects that have a negative environmental component to them. This is because the costs of internalizing these formerly externalities elements would increase the cost of such projects, undoubtedly resulting in their not being economically profitable.
2014 June 3
U.S. Supreme Court OKs taking DNA from those arrested
Police should have the right, not only to take DNA samples from anyone arrested for a serious crime, but for anyone arrested for anything. Actually, every person born or residing in this country should be obligated to give a DNA sample and keep such information on deposit in a government database.
2014 June 2
Czech PM declares emergency as floods threaten Prague
Dams are obviously very useful for making rivers navigable and for water storage, but their were more emphasis on policies of leaving reservoirs more empty, at least for the tributaries, or building dams along the tributaries and keeping them empty only for times of flooding, then humans would be able to better control flood of these great proportions.
2014 June 1
Iraq Smashes Al Qaeda ‘Poison Gas Cell’
It is unfortunate, but the current chaos in Iraq would not have been possible (at least the chances would be far lower) if we had left Saddam Hussein in power. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but even at the time it was widely known that military levels of chemical, biological or other WMDs were not possible to be produced/stored in Iraq because of the international inspection teams roaming around, even if they were only sporadically in the country. Yes, the international community did have the legal authority to invade Iraq and depose Saddam because of his erratic and suspicious behavior, but given a cost/benefit analysis at the time, it would have been far wiser to deal with other, more pressing issues.
History is like a pile of pick-up sticks: you move one stick and it has an effect on all the others, though it may not be immediately obvious at the time. European meddling in middle eastern affairs, especially their virtually arbitrary drawing of international boundaries and carving up artificial countries containing groups of people who should have never been placed together, has contributed to a great deal of our current angst. History might very well have been more peaceful without the disruptive intervention of Western colonizers in the middle east, Africa and elsewheree
The really frustrating part in this current Iraq era, is the fact that so many in the US and the international community were so irrationally (in my opinion) committed to keeping Iraq unified, it just blew my mind. That was perhaps the largest fundamental error in this war. There were 3 distinct groups of people in Iraq who clearly qualified to get their own country.
It should have been a no-brainer to give the Kurds in the north their own homeland. They would have eventually gotten parts of Iran, Syria and Turkey, which is their historical range. Right now Syria is broken up by civil war and this would have been the perfect time to allow the Kurds to take back their portion of Syrian territory. When Iran and Turkey become politically unstable, then the Kurdish portions may be restored from them and the Kurdish people would constitute a complete country. How big of an ally Kurdistan would have been for the West! We successfully blew that opportunity!
Much of this could have been avoided by just following some logical principles concerning the granting of territory for distinct groups of people.