I’m a Beta and I’m happy. I wouldn’t want to be an Alpha or a Gamma.
Nobel Laureate Warns of Genetic Discrimination
“LONDON (Reuters) – One of Britain’s leading scientists spoke on Tuesday of his fears of genetic discrimination if people are not prepared for the medical advances expected in the next two decades.”
There’s an ongoing controversy at the University of Pittsburgh regarding same-sex benefits. I’m going to send in the following as a letter to the editor of the Pitt News.
Same-sex benefits do not make sense financially. Such benefits will not make sense until homosexual civil unions are recognized by the state as legally binding contracts like their heterosexual counterparts.
Before offering health benefits to partners, insurance companies want assurance of a binding marriage contract. This ensures permanence in the relationship. Without that permanence, fraud and abuses abound (eg Benefits could be offered to partners who are little more than roommates.). One might be tempted to call marriage impermanent these days, given the ~50% divorce rate. However, when the marriage contract is willfully terminated, benefits need no longer be offered to the divorced partner. Marriage is permanent in the sense that it does not cease with a simple “good-bye” as unbound partnerships can.
If I were making decisions for an insurance company, I would make it prohibitively expensive for a company to offer benefits to partners of its employees. This would serve to offset the inherent liabilities. I suspect that this is already current practice. Thus it does not make sense for Pitt, or any other company or institution in PA, to offer benefits to any unbound partners, same-sex or otherwise. Instead of crying to the ACLU or picketing the university, advocates for same-sex benefits should focus on getting homosexual civil unions recognized by the state as marriage contracts.
This is comforting.
Feds pull suspicious .gov site
By Declan McCullagh
“WASHINGTON–In a move that raises questions about the security of governmental domains, the Bush administration has pulled the plug on a .gov Web site pending an investigation into the authenticity of the organization that controlled it.”
Powerful New U.S. Intelligence Service (AONN DSI)
I happened to notice your AONN post when researching programs related to highly secret government intelligence operations/ programs and trained government assassins. I did some digging, made some phone calls, conducted some research and discovered some very fascinating facts. AONN under a secret Department of Defense/ Pentagon charter in connection with the Central Intelligence Agency Law Enforcement Group (yes, believe it or not, the CIA has a law enforcement arm/ aspect/ network (even though it is not part of the CIA charter, per se).
This is what happens when you don’t have a written constitution.
Internet Hate-Speech Ban Called ‘Chilling’
Council of Europe’s Internet restrictions raise uneasy questions about civil rights online.
By Michelle Madigan
“WASHINGTON–As European leaders move to ban Internet hate speech and seek support from the United States, civil liberties groups charge that the proposal would violate free-speech rights.”
U.S. to Collect Data on Travelers
“WASHINGTON – The government wants detailed information about every person who comes to or leaves the country by commercial plane or boat, and for the first time will require U.S. citizens to fill out forms detailing their comings and goings.”
“Rules proposed yesterday by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) seek more information from travelers than under current law and extend the requirements to U.S. citizens and others previously exempted. They also include a system to allow quicker cross-checking databases and matching records of arrivals and departures.”