Category Archives: government, law, and politics

Primary Pendemonium

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States Causing Chaos in Presidential Nomination Process

The fiercest battle surrounding the 2008 presidential election may not be taking place among the many candidates campaigning for the White House, but rather among the states vying to be the first in the nation to hold a presidential primary.

Florida’s decision 10 days ago to break ranks with a Democratic National Committee (DNC) schedule of early contests and slate its own primary for Jan. 29 now threatens a chain reaction that could prompt other states, including Iowa and New Hampshire to switch their dates.

Maybe this childishness will result in all states holding primaries the same day.

A fella can hope, can’t he?

REAL ID = Real Mistake

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Stop REAL ID! Submit comments to the Dept. of Homeland Security by May 8th!

  • A broad coalition of organizations across the United States is urging the public to submit comments rejecting the illegal national identification system created under the Department of Homeland Security’s REAL ID program.
  • Five states and several members of Congress have rejected the scheme, which creates a massive national ID system without adequate security or privacy safeguards, which makes it more difficult and costly for people to get licenses, and which makes it easier for identity thieves to access the personal data of 245 million license and cardholders nationwide.
  • To take action and submit comments against this fundamentally flawed national ID system, click here! Comments are due by 5pm EST on May 8, 2007.

Reflection on Gonzales v. Carhart (the recent Ruling on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban)

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Judicial Life Potentially Enters the Womb
550 U.S. ___ (2007)

On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States decided, 5 to 4, in Gonzales v. Carhart (Carhart) that the Partial-Birth Abortion Act of 2003 (Act) was constitutional in view of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833 (PP), and Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (Roe). The Act banned the abortion procedure identified as “intact D&E” but kept legal the “standard D&E” procedure Continue reading →

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Thug Life

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[While going through old posts, I found a comment that I felt deserved a post of its own. Since the author is a relative of mine and a guest blogger here, I took the liberty of editing the text and publishing it here. Funky]

Violent music, aggressive thoughts linked

“Violent lyrics in songs increase aggression-related thoughts and emotions and could indirectly create a more hostile social environment, according to a U.S. a study released yesterday.”

Quite some time ago, Funky off-handedly related this article to gangster rap. Indeed, gangster rap music feeds the need to feel empowered, to feel righteous in the fact that anyone who crosses you shall be an ant to be squashed. You feel less frightened, but you continue to support the environment that you fear. Everything is a fight for life.

“DESTROY THE THREAT! ASK NO QUESTIONS! DO NOT HESITATE!!!”

You have to romanticize your screwed up social environs. Otherwise, you won’t feel good behaving in such an inhumane, psychotic manner. So, yes, it induces aggressive thoughts. It helps to have these when everyone else is about to pounce on you and destroy your life! Or so you think.

That’s the real problem, though. People often behave stupidly when they perceive a threat. Take reactions to 9/11 , for instance. One day I hope they make a study about American foreign policy showing that it can “increase aggression-related thoughts and emotions and could indirectly create a more hostile social environment.”

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An Information Science Solution to Pittsburgh Public Transit Woes

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Bob Firth, Informing Design
“The Long Squiggly Line That’s Killing Our Transit System and an Information Science Solution”
February 21, 2007, 3:30 pm
Room 501, 135 N. Bellefield Ave
School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh

The recent proposed cuts to funding of the Pittsburgh Authority
Transit system have led Bob Firth and his company, Informing Design,
to consider a radical redesign of bus routes based on efficient
transportation systems that are being used in Washington, DC, Los
Angeles, Cleveland and even Curitiba, Brazil. In this talk, Bob Firth
will present his ideas for developing a cost-effective and efficient
bus system, based on years of experience in studying transportation
flows in Pittsburgh and applying basic information science principles
to solving problems of navigation and wayfinding.

Bob Firth is founder and president of Informing Design, which is an
innovative company that has designed a number of novel wayfinding
tools including the colorful Pittsburgh Wayfinder signs and the
www.bigburg.com collection of print-on-demand maps. The talk is
sponsored by the Spatial Information Science Research Interest Group
of the School of Information Sciences and will be followed by a
reception in Room 522.