http://www.democraticunderground.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:49:52 Sun, 22 Nov 2009 06:49:52 The purpose of “Half the Sky – Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide”, by Pulitzer Prize Winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, is pretty much self-evident from the subtitle. The authors say in the introduction to [link:www.halftheskymovement.org/|their book] that th... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/520 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:04:57 The rise of progressive third parties in US politics has always presented somewhat of a dilemma for progressive Americans. On the one hand, much of US history has been characterized by a dominance of conservatism, thus leaving progressives hungry for a new progressive party.

But on the other h... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/519 Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:05:39 In a previous post I quoted fellow DUer, 27inCali, on what many people, including me, believe to be perhaps the most fundamental problem that our country faces – the problem that lies at the root of [i]all[/i] of our other problems. The main theme of 27in Cali’s post, titled “Someone needs to say i... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/518 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:59:16 The under-treatment of pain in the United States is a public health problem of great magnitude. (It is also a major problem [link:scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=ois_papers|in several other countries] as well)

It has been estimated that from [link:updates.... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/517 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:01:22 It’s very interesting and revealing that Republicans would attack Democratic efforts to provide decent health care to millions of Americans who lack such health care by calling them “Socialism” and by calling anyone who advocates those efforts a “Socialist”. It’s the same old trick. They don’t dar... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/516 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:00:55 If you believe in democracy as a broad concept – the concept that a peoples’ government should be accountable and responsive to them – then you must be [i]against[/i] absolute or near absolute secrecy in government.

Yet in the United States of America, a nation whose people consider their count... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/515 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:02:33 “[i]I fear what they're doing… is setting the crown for a corporate state…. And by that I mean a rather small but very powerful circle of financial institutions… also some industrial corporations… Too big to fail… protected by (government)… The leading banks and corporations… will have the means to... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/514 Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:00:11 In my opinion the most important argument against imperialist wars is their immorality. It’s a terrible shame that U.S. politicians don’t use this argument more often. I guess they feel that they will be accused of being “weak” or “soft on defense”, or some such nonsense if they do so.

How ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/513 Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:31:39 Anyone who tries to tell us that support for a public health insurance option in the United States is weak or non-existent is either lying or seriously misinformed. As for Republican House Minority Leader [link:talkradionews.com/2009/10/boehner-public-option-as-unpopular-as-a-garlic-milkshake/|John... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/512 Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:10:50 Much has been said by progressives in recent years to the effect that the Republican Party is heartless and the Democratic Party is spineless. I will agree that the Republican Party – its elected politicians, that is – is heartless. Characterizing the Democratic Party as spineless is a somewhat mo... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/511 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:00:26 It’s hard to say whether Senator Ensign (R-NV) planned it this way. Did he really believe that his argument [i]against[/i] giving Americans the choice of government sponsored health insurance would make sense to anyone? Is he so blinded by ideology that he doesn’t realize that at least three quart... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/510 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:51:11 There are basically two ways to sell a product or an idea. One is to come up with a really excellent one and then explain it to people as honestly as you can. The alternative way – if your idea or product is pretty much worthless or even dangerous – is to lie about it. Of course, if you’re going ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/509 Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:17:50 Racism is a belief that other races are inferior to one’s own. It is typically accompanied by hatred at the individual level, discriminatory policies at the social and political level, and violence at all levels. Consequently, it is a major cause of war, as well as atrocities committed during war.... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/508 Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:50:06 The story of how our previously promised public health insurance option shrunk from an option that was originally supposed to be offered to ALL Americans, to one in which “less than 5 percent of Americans would sign up”, as our President said in his September 9th address to Congress, is an incredibl... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/507 Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:50:02 I see three major potential problems with mandated health insurance. But before I get into those potential problems I first feel the need to talk about what is NOT wrong with mandated health insurance.

Simply put, I see nothing wrong with mandated health insurance [i]in principle[/i]. In prin... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/506 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:01:05 Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States in both men and women. It accounted for more than [link:www.nhlbi.nih.gov/resources/docs/07-chtbk.pdf|652 thousand deaths] in the United States in 2005, which was about 27% of total deaths that year. By far the largest sub-category o... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/505 Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:00:48 [i]“If recantation testimony (which convicted a person of murder), either alone or supported by other evidence, shows convincingly that prior trial testimony was false, it simply defies all logic and morality to hold that it must be disregarded categorically…”[/i] – Minority opinion of the Georgia S... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/504 Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:33:36 As Congress considers voting down health care legislation that contains a public health insurance option that Americans may choose in place of currently available private health insurance, they – and we – should consider a few things.

The most fundamental consequence of failure to include a publi... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/503 Sun, 06 Sep 2009 20:04:37 In his book, “The Sane Society”, the humanist psychologist Erich Fromm discusses among other things the five human psychological needs that differentiate us from animals. For each of these five human needs he discusses healthy and unhealthy ways that individuals and societies deal with them. Deali... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/502 Sat, 05 Sep 2009 00:49:26 Appeasement is a tricky word. In common usage it has come to have a dual meaning – two distinct meanings that are not only vastly different from each other, but in some important respect the [i]opposite[/i] of each other. One meaning reflects favorably on the word; the other reflects very unfavora... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/501 Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:00:16 Americans have long supported a universal national health care plan. Typical of this support was a [link:msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/090617_NBC-WSJ_poll_Full.pdf|June 12th poll] that showed 72% of Americans in favor of “a government administered health insurance plan that would compete... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/500 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:10:48 There have been numerous strains of socialist thought put forth in recent centuries. A typical definition is [link:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism#cite_note-SocialismAVeryShortIntroduction-0|this]:

[div class="excerpt"]Various theories of economic organization advocating state, public or common ... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/499 Sat, 22 Aug 2009 21:01:38 The election of Barack Obama to the U.S. Presidency proves that racial prejudice among the American people has dissipated a tremendous amount since the days of slavery – much more so than many believed possible at the beginning of 2008. But at the same time, the desperate hysterical reaction [i]aga... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/498 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:40:20 Sibel Edmonds inspires a sense of awe and fascination among a certain segment of the American people who are hungry for truth and sick and tired of their country’s efforts to withhold vital information from us with the old “state secrets” excuses.


[b]Early life[/b]

Her early life offers... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/497 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:17:43 Some people were upset about my recent post on corporate tyranny because I didn’t offer solutions to the problem. Fair enough. Nobody enjoys reading about hopeless situations, which some may have interpreted my [link:www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6205149... http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Time for change/496 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 22:00:14