Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
From Reuters: By a show of hands, the National Assembly rejected Thursday a bill concerning hacking on the Internet which would have enacted a "measured reaction" up to and including the suspension of internet access for the authors of illegal downloading. This dramatic turn of events was caused by the absence of deputies of the …
Continue reading "The French Reject Sanctions Against Downloaders"
This is really cute: California mega-church pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren says he apologized to his homosexual friends for making comments in support of California's Proposition 8, and now claims he "never once even gave an endorsement" of the marriage amendment. Monday night on CNN's Larry King Live, Pastor Rick …
Continue reading "Now He Tells Us: Rick Warren Bails on Proposition 8"
Or at least that's what University of Colorado law professor Paul Campos thinks: Decisions such as the Iowa Supreme Court’s recent announcement that the state’s constitution requires the state to make same-sex monogamous marriage legal pose a practical dilemma for those of us who support gay marriage, but oppose the more egregious varieties of legal …
Continue reading "Iowa Supremes Legalise Same Sex Civil Marriage: Right Decision, Wrong Reason?"
Earlier I posted a quote from Charles Freeman on dollar hegemony. The source behind that is here, but he also touched on another interesting subject that no one is talking about: There's another issue that no one's paying any attention to, and that is the consequences of the erosion of the world order that we …
Continue reading "The Rule of Law, or, If You Don’t Believe in a Civilisation, It Won’t Last"
From Charles Freeman, via John Ross Crooks, currency trader: “One [longer term strategic issue] is very apposite today, and that is the future of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency. At Bretton Woods, the dollar became the global reserve currency, backed by gold. A quarter century later, Nixon eliminated the gold backing for our …
The Elitist Snob discovers that the Europeans aren't on the same wavelength as he is: While President Nicolas Sarkozy of France did not repeat an earlier threat to walk out of the conference - "I just got here," he joked - he made it clear he would reject an agreement that puts off stringent new …
They used to say that in the old Soviet Union about the end result of this: But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new …
The New York Times is worried: "There are absolutely historical precedents for what is happening with Beck," said Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "There was a lot of radio evangelism during the Depression. People were frustrated and frightened. There are a lot of scary parallels now." The conservative writer …
We're one step closer... Instead of granting GM's request for up to $30 billion in loans, the administration will provide only enough money to keep it going for the next 60 days while it develops an even more sweeping restructuring plan under new leadership. The government is expected to demand tough concessions from union workers …
Continue reading "Giving Wagoner the Boot: Moving Towards the Yank Version of British Leyland"
This time, it's the UK: JONATHON PORRITT, one of Gordon Brown's leading green advisers, is to warn that Britain must drastically reduce its population if it is to build a sustainable society. Porritt's call will come at this week's annual conference of the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which he is patron. The trust will …
Positive Infinity 