GroupThinkTank
Revolutionizing the world, one "I agree" at a time
Thursday, June 23, 2005
X-Pub, 3:52 PM:
SCOTUS Wants Your House?
A possibly significant Supreme court case that I want explained. The case allows local governments to seize private property against owners will (with proper compensation and all) to create for private economic development (i.e. businesses, not just highways). I think that there is a caveat that it must be part of a larger economic development plan. This seems to be an expansion of the accepted confiscation of lands for "public good." It was the four liberals and Kennedy for and the conservatives against.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html
For once I get to assert my right wingedness and say that I disagree. While one can certainly argue that commercial development is for the "public good" I think there has to be an implied adverb like "compelling" thrown in, since virtually anything a local government would want to build could be for the private good. I am particularly scared by the ability of private companies to push aenough money into the system to tear down neighborhoods.
Anyhoo, I was hoping one of them legal people would analyze for me.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
David Bernat, 4:38 PM:
UN Reform
"The reform bill, sponsored by House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Illinois, seeks to have the United Nations adopt 39 reforms, and threatens, if the reforms are not adopted within two years, to withhold half of U.S. dues [11% of total UN dues], which amount to roughly one-quarter [22%] of the United Nations' operating funds."
"The Hyde bill asks the United Nations to streamline its budget and programs with redundant missions, enhance its accountability by creating an independent oversight board and whistle-blower protection, and impose a uniform code of conduct for its peacekeeping forces."
Article - CNN
The bill was proposed by a Republican, and has passed in the House due to the Republican majority. Some Democrats oppose the bill on the grounds that this isn't the appropriate way to pass reforms; and the State Department says that since we are a founding member of the UN, this hurts our credibility.
But, don't those reforms sound reasonable? What's the point-counterpoint on this one?
Oh, and does anyone have any idea how the Democrats could impeach the president without handing the Republicans the election in 2008? My father proposed the idea (that there were murmurs of impeachment), but even though the evidence is there, I believe it would necessarily sacrifice the Dem's best chances in 2008 (once the mud dried) except Hillary who simply does not have Commander In Chief chops during this extended war on terrorism. Hillary-Clark 2008!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
X-Pub, 5:37 PM:
Mithraism
So for no good reason, I have gotten really into religion recently, and in perusing this site:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcno.htm
I came upon Mithra, a dude who was born on th 25th of December from a virgin womb with some shepherds and magi, healed the sick and blind, had twelve apostles preached morality, had a last supper, got killed and was reborn in late March, all a few hundred years before Jesus. I haven't been able to find what I thought was a really good website, and I was just wondering if anyone knew much about Mithraism. Particularly, I just wanted to confirm that what I just said is generally considered to be true (i.e. there was a religious figure who predated Jesus by a few hundred years who had the same biography as Jesus) and, if one accepted that Mithraism predated Christianity (with Mithra as described above), how one could avoid thinking that the literal history of Jesus wasn't a sham.
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
stephen, 8:32 PM:
Shots at Michael Moore... from the Left?
No details whatsoever. But nice to note the cultural phenomenon.
http://clivedavis.blogs.com/clive/2005/06/qa.html
