2015 June
2015 June 1
Kerry set to fly home with broken leg
Bicycle riding is dangerous and many more measures should be taken to ensure that routes are safe, pavements smooth, and crossings are safe. When more people begin riding bikes, it will become even more dangerous because collisions between riders will inevitable increase as bicycle congestion along bike routes increase. That is why we will need to have safe bike routes everywhere so that the currently limited routes are not overfilled with riders. Riders need to be spread out. Fortunately, kikes take up much less space than other vehicles, so I can be done. But ridership will not increase until the increasing cost of fuels begin to significantly reduce demand for other modes of transport.
2015 June 2
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Where charity stops and bullying begins
Elderly people should have their financial spending supervised so that scammers and other imprudent spending is controlled.
2015 June 3
Another reason why people should not be given pensions. People should just be forced to save throughout their lives and should not be able to touch that money until after they retire or are a certain age.
2015 June 4
Bill plans more academy schools
More diversity of education forms will allow better systems to become visible and hopefully catch on.
2015 June 5
Culture is root of poor conduct, ASIC says
Fairness, and not technical advantage, should be what guides our social and government policies by which our businesses operate and interact with the public.
2015 June 6
2 Convicted Murderers Escape From Maximum Security Prison in Upstate New York
The penalty for these escapists should be increased because of this additional crime. This escape should be treated as a new crime, and all the search costs associated with this escape should be paid by these criminals.
2015 June 7
Too often it seems that people who resign or otherwise leave their jobs are also out of danger of having to pay for their misdeeds. Yes, if they did something criminal, then they would still be prosecuted, but even if gross negligence lead to severe problems, they should still be prosecuted and be made to pay. People who cause problems should still be held responsible even if they no longer work in their former positions.
2015 June 8
McKinney police officer on leave after video shows him pushing teen to the ground Friday night
Here is another example of humans acting like animals, not knowing how to react during tense times with police in action. When police are in action people need to do what they tell them to do. You could always complain later, but if you disobey the police at the time or try to push the limits of what they will allow, you’re just asking for trouble. I never cease to be amazed at how stupid people could be.
2015 June 9
Bikers Rally in Waco Over Incarceration of Those Arrested at Deadly Brawl
It may very well be the case that the majority of the bikers held are innocent, but based on the way humans of a group tend to react when a few within that same group cause trouble, I’ll bet that a good many of them actually were guilty of being idiots and likely acted in ways that provoked the police into becoming even angrier at them, making the police want to arrest them.
2015 June 10
Bill Clinton Says He Will Stop Giving Paid Speeches if Hillary Wins
There is nothing wrong with earning as much money as the market will bear for giving speeches or whatever. However, the income tax should be structured progressively in such a way so that as income rises, the tax rate rises. So at around an income of $20 million per year, the tax should be around half total that amount.
2015 June 11
U.S. Weighs Sending Hundreds of New Troops to Iraq
The US should not send any more troops to Iraq. Yes, it might improve the short term situation, but we are definitely not truly welcomed there by the locals, and our presence will just lead to further dependence. More importantly, we need an international organization to be responsible for creating and keeping order there. Any individual country, especially the US, just does not have the logical and moral authority to intervene in this conflict. Yes, we broke Iraq and it is our obligation to try to fix it, but we need to use other means. Our military cannot perform this function.
2015 June 12
LAPD kill unarmed black man Ezell Ford
“Cameras on cops” is exactly what we need. Will it solve everything? Obviously not. But it will help so significantly, that it is definitely worthwhile.
2015 June 13
EPA takes first step to limit greenhouse-gas emissions from airlines
CO2 should only be charged emissions fees using the same principles as other pollutants. Namely, each pollutant should be charged per unit of emission. Whether it comes from a plane, a coal-fired power plant, car exhausts, or wherever, the same fee should be applied because it all goes into the air.
2015 June 14
Pope Creates Tribunal for Bishop Negligence in Child Sexual Abuse Cases
The Catholic church needs to recognize that the Bible never called for religious authorities to be celibate. This doctrine has caused needless troubles for the church.
2015 June 15
Phone records show Amtrak engineer was not using cellphone ahead of crash
Video camera footage would have more quickly helped determine whether the train driver was using his phone. Just like black boxes on airplanes, trains should have the same thing. But all these transportation vehicles should also have video recordings of cockpit activities. The cost of recording media have fallen so much that cost is really no longer a significant obstacle toward this goal.
2015 June 16
Suspected Boko Haram suicide bombers kill 27 in Chad capital
The ignorance of the terrorists continue. Unfortunately, their ignorance is not something we can ignore because it comes at the expense of innocent lives. But the best, long-term way to deal with it is to create an environment that is not conducive to terrorist thought. We need to help create the political environment that lead to the empowerment women, the education of the population, the economic development of the communities. Once people are freed from their feelings of despair, then they are freed from the fateful messages of terroristic thought.
2015 June 17
“Battling the Death Star”: Seattle “Kayaktivists” Slow Arctic-Bound Shell Oil Rig as Fight Goes On
It is unfortunate, but it is only because governments do not require companies to be responsible for all their activities, including errors that lead to disasters, that people need to protest against the creation of potential disasters in the making. All business should be responsible for any negative externality that results from their planned and unplanned (accidental) operations. Why is it so hard to convince people of this? Companies should purchase insurance if they cannot engage in certain activities (and their potentially unaffordable liabilities if things go wrong). The only thing that matters is that companies/industries, over the long term, actually pay their true costs of operations.
2015 June 18
Nicaragua: Thousands Protest Construction of Massive Canal
The canal should not proceed because of the severe disruption to the natural environment that will occur, including the invasive species that will pollute each side of the canal. Furthermore, the costs of international transportation are low enough already. Further reductions in cost will lead to better efficiencies for producers in far away lands, making it harder for people to compete with super efficient international producers.
2015 June 19
Dominicans of Haitian descent fear mass deportation as deadline looms
It was wrong for the Dominican Republic to stripe the citizenship retroactively to 1930. That’s changing the rules in the middle of the game. The DR could change the law from this point forward, but should accept the existing naturally born people of Haitian descent as citizens.
2015 June 20
Arizona: 200 Immigrants Stage Hunger Strike in Private Detention Center
Guards need to treat people with respect. Yes, people can act like idiots while they are being detained, but to exacerbate the situation by not providing adequate access to goods and services to which they are entitled, is just asking for trouble. Furthermore, detaining people just for being illegally in the country is not a valid enough cause. Now if they are a flight risk or if they are a danger to others, then yes, any degree of supervision could be authorized.
2015 June 21
North Carolina abortion ultrasound law rejected by US supreme court
To argue that abortion should be available on demand, and be consistent, would require that abortion be available for all age groups, or at least for all people under the age of majority, usually 18. Obviously, that wouldn’t be right. So there needs to be some sort of criteria which must be met for abortion to be allowed. Those criteria should be based mainly on the health of the baby.
2015 June 22
Judge Orders U.S. Army to Let Sikh Student Join ROTC
Depending on the degree of potential complications that may result of the turban, this person should be allowed to participate. Of course, it will result in a less uniform appearance of service members. But would it detrimentally affect the quality of their service? It would be more ‘baggage’ that such individuals would need to carry into battle.
2015 June 23
South Carolina governor calls for removing Confederate flag
The Confederate flag is an integral part of the history of the state, but its use in contemporary culture is still too closely associated with racism. The flag needs to be retired from all prominent official placements.
2015 June 24
U.N. report says both Israel and the Palestinians may have committed war crimes
Naturally, this conflict involves uncountable instances of retribution and emotional escalations. However, it is more understandable that the term ‘war crimes’ more accurately describes the indiscriminate launching of rockets into Israeli territory or suicide bombings on buses and markets, than Israeli solders shooting into residential areas from which they suspect attacks knowing that mass innocent casualties would result.
The Palestinian people need their own country. They are native inhabitants to the land, and need to share the space with the Jews who have been unique among the world’s peoples in that they have retained their language and culture for many centuries while not having a homeland. Their original homeland was in Palestine (from which they were expelled) so they too, are entitled to that land.
2015 June 25
Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide
Marriage is increasingly viewed as a secular commitment between two people, regardless of gender. In keeping with the continuing advancement of knowledge and civility, and the acknowledgment that people have different sexual preferences, likely due to congenital or developmental defects, it is imperative that we understand the underlying causes of these deviant sexual practices so that we could minimize their negative effects.
2015 June 26
Man Decapitated in Suspected Islamist Attack on Air Products Factory in France
The free exchange of ideas within a society may possibly have either helped identify or helped moderate this criminal terrorist. Either government sponsored classes on current events or a requirement that all high school students have taken classes on the facts of religions may have helped reduce the chances that this individual commit these actions.
2015 June 27
Fire at black church in North Carolina ruled arson
The arsonist should be required to pay for all costs associated with this crime, including the entire cost of investigating the crime, and rebuilding the church, plus punitive penalties.
2015 June 28
Floatplane carrying sightseers crashes into remote Alaska cliff, killing nine
To reduce the chances of these crashes, we could make traveling (tourism) more expensive by raising the cost of fuel (eliminating the subsidies and requiring producers to incorporate all externalities into their prices). Perhaps it wouldn’t have helped much in these areas, but having a system of minimally aesthetically intrusive monorail trains throughout an area might reduce the need for more dangerous aerial sight-seeing tours.
2015 June 29
Greece Will Close Banks to Stem Flood of Withdrawals
Going into debt on a large scale, perpetually, is never good unless you know exactly how to get out of it, and know you will have the means to do so. Greece is at the mercy of the creditors. Fractional reserve banking and the creation of credit is like a ponzi scheme which will catch up with all of us at some point in the future.
2015 June 30
Puerto Rico’s Governor Says Island’s Debts Are ‘Not Payable’
Creditors should be more careful to ensure that they have the borrowers best interests at heart. Otherwise, if their due diligence is not done, or if it is apparent that they were not looking after the borrowers best interests, or at least advise the borrowers of their best interests, then the lenders should have some consequences to pay, in terms of absorbing some of the debt liabilities.