2015 November 1

Obama orders US special forces to ‘assist’ fight against Isis in Syria

The US should not put any US humans on the ground in the effort against these terrorist groups because we are beyond the point of no return.  Any additional resources dedicated to combat these forces head on through military action in these remote locations have a rate of return that below our acceptable threshold. The better way for the US to provide resistance is to ensure that macro-level factors are structured correctly, such as economic relations between countries, trade set ups, information flows and degree of political interference.

2015 November 2

Youngest kids may be narrowing the “digital divide”

It’s good to know that the digital divide in this area between rich and poor is being narrowed, but I’m sure that most of the time, useless activities on these devices are causing far too much time spent on them to be ‘wasted’, meaning that such time is not spent for ‘productive’ purposes. One way to increase the productive use of time is to ensure that whatever information they come across, it is accurate.

2015 November 3

International Space Station marks 15 years

While many good things have resulted from human missions on the ISS, far more discoveries and such could have been done if the same amount of money had been spent on purely robotic missions. Naturally, less would have been known on the effect of long duration space flight on humans if we had spent the money elsewhere, so I could understand the argument. However, considering manned space flight to any locations farther than the moon is a truly ridiculous proposition, and it is amazing to see how much support a manned mission to Mars has.  Just goes to show that people have a hard time assessing risk, controlling their emotions, and ranking priorities.

2015 November 4

TransCanada denies politics behind Keystone delay request

I wonder how much, if any, subsidies or reduced transit fee rate promises, TransCanada has received from the various jurisdiction through which the pipeline will pass. If society could just be assured that companies will be charged fair market rates and be responsible for compensating for any negative externalities that result from their activities, then questions like these or suspicions of unfair practices would not need to be asked or suspected anywhere nearly as often as they are now.

2015 November 5

Satellite Shows Heat Flash When Russian Metrojet Plane Crashed, But No Missile: U.S. Officials

It appears that more and more news stories are being accompanied by objective evidence of facts relating to the news event. It is comforting to know that resources are increasingly being placed that are able to more quickly prove or disprove various theories about an event. This quicker determination of factors is increasingly necessary to help prevent wild conspiracy theories from growing out of control. However, just like the decreasing effectiveness of antibiotics with improper use, will the over use of immediate objective evidence lead society to develop some dangerous tendency to over question too many sources of this objective information?

2015 November 6

Vatican insiders arrested over suspected leaks

The Vatican should welcome the truth, in any form it takes. After all, this is supposed to be God’s conduit through which He communicates to human beings. How can any falsehood possibly be tolerated in such an organization?

Oh, maybe because the Catholic church is nothing more than a human institution that has evolved way beyond anything that could be classified as true to God’s Word.

2015 November 7

Wreckage East of Bahamas Is Sunken Cargo Ship El Faro, NTSB Confirms

To help encourage ship operators to ensure the greater sea worthiness of their ships, it would help if they knew that they would be liable to pay littering fees if their ships sank. Such fees would include a cost per pound (ship plus cargo), a pollution tax for each unit of hazardous pollutant (like oil or fertilizers) and a cost of damage to any sensitive environment that wreck may have damaged.

2015 November 8

EXCLUSIVE: HW Bush jabs at Cheney, Rumsfeld in new book

Even if their motives were pure, it is sad to know that the damage has been done. The question is, “How can a government assure that pure, intelligent, people in it’s leadership don’t make trillion dollar mistakes?” Such grave mistakes cannot just be brushed off. Even if their motives were pure. Billions of people must live with the consequences for decades. People in such positions of authority must agree to be held to strict standards as a condition of taking the job. The death penalty, torture or other very severe consequences must follow those who implement such grave mistakes. People in leadership need to be more careful. Of course, it helps if a population is smart enough to not push their policymakers into adopting such bad policies.

2015 November 9

Yellen says rate hike possible in December with solid economic data

Fiat interventions into the macro-economy should never be a standard practice designed into its management. An economy should be designed to be self-stabilized, requiring fiat interventions only during times of significant instability.

2015 November 10

Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline

It’s good that this project was rejected, but it is only bitter-sweet because again, this was a fiat invention by government into private business practices.  The way this should have been resolved is to allow the company to build the pipeline if it was willing to pay the true costs associated with doing so, including assuming all costs associated with any oil spills. In addition, if the land on which the oil sands are located are required to be put back in a functionally undisturbed state once extraction activities are finished, that would dramatically increase the cost of extraction and change the calculus of all involved.

2015 November 11

Virginia fraternity sues Rolling Stone over rape story

“Jackie”, the accuser should be required to pay compensation to all that she had accused of the rape. She, as well as Rolling Stone (specifically the people involved in this decision to publish), should also be required to pay significant sums to compensate all involved. The actual fines for each party should be determined by the courts, but given the very wide-spread circulation of the original story, and the relatively large number of people accused, the fine amounts should be high. $50 million seems like a fair penalty.

2015 November 12

Afghans vent rage at ISIS — and their leaders

In areas under ISIS and Taliban rule, it is incomprehensible how many people are actually sickened by actions of these leaders. If we could magically just know how many people are suffering and angry at these extremist leaders, the world might take more notice. However, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ is so true when it comes to society-wider governance. It is so important to have a well educated, economically satiated, basically healthy population living under the functional rule of fair laws regulating civil behavior. These are the basics of society-wide stability. However, an opposing dangerous factor, more prevalent in countries that have a long history (at least 50 years) of these basics in tact, grows stronger and harder to resist as time goes on. And that is the general apathy and loss of value attributed to these fundamental elements of stability. It seems as though populations need a political upheaval every lifetime or so, on order to put their priorities back into proper order.

2015 November 13

The complicated quest for simpler foods

Having an economic incentive to keep foods simpler will go a long ways towards that end. For example, if companies need to pay sales taxes for each transaction with another company, that would automatically mean that prices for food that require several different ingredients (from several different companies) would be more expensive. Also, having junk-food taxes would slightly shift market demand to more healthier foods.

2015 November 14

2015 November 15

French President François Hollande calls attacks ‘act of war’ by ISIS

Politicians making statements describing these events as an ‘act of war’ is infuriating. Yes, there are people that hate Western values, and there will always exist, and they will continue to oppose us until the end of time. But to declare this an ‘act of war’ entails a response that is disproportionate to the cause. Now that there is a significant Caliphate in existence in several Islamic countries, it becomes harder to suggest that attacks like this one does not rise to the level of ‘act of war’, but it is still reasonable to argue that, in fact, these are just crimes that need to be dealt with.  How do we (or should we) deal with crimes? By learning more about the environments that lead a person to commit such crimes, by addressing the underlying needs that give rise and motives to such crimes, by encouraging open dialog, interaction, and education as much as possible and to as many people as possible.

2015 November 16

2015 November 17

2015 November 18

How rising minimum wages and no tipping are connected

Wages should never have included tips as part of the compensation. Tips should have always remained as an additional compensation of gratitude over and above wages.

2015 November 19

Dangerous chemicals in cosmetics spur action by lawmakers

Every single chemical that is used in society should be vetted and checked for negative effects on human health.

2015 November 20

French Senate approves 3-month state of emergency

This state of emergency is not necessary. Sure an attack may occur within that time, but it could occur at any time.  The proper response is to be vigilant at all times. The nature of these attacks is such that a person armed with nothing more than a regular automobile can cause a significant terrorist incident by running into a crowd, killing many. It is not possible to ‘prepare’ for a terror attack. It will just come. Preparation, if done correctly, takes several years, even decades, because it involved practices that require very long lead times to prove effective. Basically, they are practices that result in friends. The more friends you have, the less likely you will be attacked, and the more likely you will be notified of the specific nature of the attack, if one were to be imminent.

2015 November 21

Threat of ‘imminent’ Isis attack puts Brussels on lockdown – as it happened

It is too often human and government nature to artificially inflate the ‘risk’ posed by a new threat when it has been preceded by an actual attack. This is even when, if the same information/threat had been given during ‘normal’ times, nowhere near the significance would have been applied to it. This is where a more objective measure of a threat would benefit society by not needlessly exciting them. Something that may help defuse such potential false alarms may be a more effective means to ensure the accuracy of information everywhere.

2015 November 22

Online abuse, threatening letters and security cameras at home: The non-Muslim woman supporting a mosque in her home town… and the price she has paid for taking a stand

Human ignorance and lack of sufficient connections with ‘other’ people in their day-to-day lives is the largest reason for intolerance and irrational fear. However, this fact needs to be balanced with the idea that it is good for people with significant cultural, religious, linguistic, etc., differences to remain separated. Having societies that are too heterogeneous will undoubtedly lead to a breakdown in social trust. This is just human nature. Yes, it would be nice if we could find a way to permanently and effectively remove this deep human trait, but we can’t. It can only be eroded very, very slowly.

So slowly, in fact, that perhaps it will never be able to permanently take hold because it appears that humanity cannot effectively retain lessons related to the virtues of transnational human cooperation for more that a lifetime or two (in the modern era) because complacency seems to cause the balkanizing forces of tribalism to rear its ugly head leading to separation again. The WWII generation seemed to understand the virtues of cooperation, but the next generation didn’t experience the stress and struggles of the Depression and WWII and scarcity brought on by era. So the lessons died.

2015 November 23

Two men temporarily kept off US flight after speaking Arabic

These two people should be compensated with at least $500 each for the embarrassment and inconvenience of this ordeal.

2015 November 24

In Context: Donald Trump’s comments on a database of American Muslims

There should be a database, or a ‘civilian record’, on every person permanently or temporarily within the country. Actually, this concept should be applied worldwide. If there is not criminal record, such a database would essentially be empty.

2015 November 25

Carson walks back support for Trump’s disputed 9/11 celebration claim

Too much attention is given to the words a candidate speaks while speaking to the media in informal events. People, especially the media, should know not to place emphasis on such words because they are very often not representative of the positions that person holds. It is much better to hold such candidates to things they have written down.  So much more policymaking, interviewing, and official ‘speaking’ should take place through writing, especially during political campaigns.

2015 November 26

Unrest in Chicago after police officer charged with murder in shooting of black teenager

At first, first degree murder seems to be to harsh of a charge. Instead, second degree murder would be more appropriate because this murder was not premeditated or deliberate. It was more of an on-the-spot decision to stop Laquan by shooting, that resulted in his death. However, shooting him 16 times would qualify as first degree murder.  There’s no reason for that many shots.

2015 November 27

E. coli from Costco chicken salad traced to tainted celery

Although the mass production of food does result in safer foods in part because of the economies of scale and inspection infrastructures and regulations that are set up, obviously sometimes the system fails. Nevertheless, the argument to diversify food supplies and migrate to distributed production systems like family farms and home-grown production, will inevitably lead to higher numbers of tainted food incidents. So the regulatory framework must be modified to ensure that food remains safe under such a production system. Though there is no specific solutions directly addressing these problems here, the best thing to avoid getting sick is to follow good hygienic practices. And these should be taught in schools.

2015 November 28

Getting creative to cut methane from cows

We could make the cow industry much more ‘creative’ much more quickly if we required them to pay a fee for every unit of methane their cows produce.

2015 November 29

Suspected Planned Parenthood gunman reportedly known to South Carolina authorities

In addition to the three murders, this gunman should be charged with the damage he caused during his crime. He should be required to pay those bills, as well.

2015 November 30

Tamir Rice family attorneys want own experts to testify

Why are police so poorly trained to approach a suspect?  There was no one nearby that the suspect could have immediately threatened. The police could have stopped several tens of feet away and then opened the door and taken cover while telling the suspect to drop to the ground. Instead, they stopped just a few feet from Tamir, giving no one enough time to assess the situation before making the determination that shooting was necessary.