Citizenery and Responsibilitiveness ;-)

The Lobbyists Seem to Love Hillary

steamroller50 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:04:56 +0000

According to opensecrets.org, Hillary Clinton is the top recipient of lobbyist campaign contributions. Does this conflict with her plan to reform Washington?

Lead by Example

steamroller50 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:47:10 +0000

I’ve never actually read the Daily Kos before. I neither like nor dislike the site. I did like this article:

I Refuse to Buy into the Obama Hype

The author decided to make up her own mind. She did her homework!!! That’s what we need right now. We need to do our homework. If we base our decisions only on the candidate’s sales pitches, we’ll end up with the “same thing” that we have today.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein

Need help getting started?

In Honour of President’s Day

steamroller50 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:44:50 +0000

While I’m not a big quote person, I found this post on Presidential Quotes interesting. Here are my favorites:

Warren G Harding
“Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little.”

Richard Nixon
“A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”

Gerald Ford
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

Neat!

steamroller50 — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:26:56 +0000

It will be interesting if this technology pans out!

Key to the Next Stage of Social Evolution

steamroller50 — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:54:12 +0000

This article from the Toronto Star (the New York Times / Washington Post of Canada) reveals a game changing technology. I can’t say if it does what the inventor claims. That’s a job for a really smart person.

What I do know is that the invention which gives us distributed power generation gives us massive social change. Think about it:

Our dependency on foreign oil bottoms. There goes one of the two excuses for being in the Middle East.
No more black outs caused by power plant failures or trees falling on power lines.
No more power lines.
No more massive, centralized power plants polluting our air and water.
Greenhouse gas emissions plummet, potentially preventing disastrous climate change.

Ah, dare to dream!

History has a Funny Way of Repeating Itself

steamroller50 — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:49:38 +0000

http://sxmprivateeye.com/files/images/gay_marriage_cartoon.gif

The Gold Limit… Not So Much

steamroller50 — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:10:03 +0000

In my post, The Gold Limit, I asked the question

If we return to the gold standard, won’t that limit economic growth?

Turns out the answer is no. Some friends at work helped me understand (at least I think I understand). Here’s why:

The growth I’m referring to is GDP growth.
GDP measures the number of transactions in our economy.
The gold standard, while limiting the amount of currency, does not limit the number of times said currency can be transacted.

So my main concern with returning to the gold standard is not that concerning after all. Don’t worry, I’ve replaced it with a new concern…

I don’t know jack about economics!

Time to hit good old wikipedia. There’s some guy named Adam Smith I’d like to learn more about

The Gold Limit

steamroller50 — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:46:12 +0000

If we return to the gold standard, won’t that limit economic growth?

The world’s gold supply is limited. If currency must be backed by gold, then the world’s money supply is limited.

With a limited money supply, the global economy becomes a zero sum game.

IANAE so I’m sure I’m missing something. I just don’t know what that something is.

Dolly, You Don’t Need to Know What You’re Eating!

steamroller50 — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:24:23 +0000

The FDA does not think it’s necessary to inform consumers that they’re consuming cloned animal products. From TFA:

Officials said they don’t think special labels are needed, although a decision on labeling is pending.

I haven’t decided whether or not cloned animal products are right for me. I want to know, however, whether or not I’m eating them.

The Sunlight Foundation

steamroller50 — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:14:25 +0000

I came across the Sunlight Foundation today while checking out Programmable Web’s rss feed. Looks like a nice portal into the world of government oversight.