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 Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 7:43 pm
I have to agree with Edward Yee and SuperGumby. Institutions matter alot. Especially in the developing world. Foreign Affairs: Why Democracies ExcelQuote: The advantage poor democracies have over poor autocracies becomes even more apparent when the debate moves from growth rates to broader measures of well-being. Development can also be measured by social indicators such as life expectancy, access to clean drinking water, literacy rates, agricultural yields, and the quality of public-health services. On nearly all of these quality-of-life measures, low-income democracies dramatically outdo their autocratic counterparts. People in low-income democracies live, on average, nine years longer than their counterparts in low-income autocracies, have a 40 percent greater chance of attending secondary school, and benefit from agricultural yields that are 25 percent higher. The latter figure is particularly relevant because some 70 percent of the people in poor countries live in the countryside. Higher levels of agricultural productivity mean more employment, capital, and food. Poor democracies also suffer 20 percent fewer infant deaths than poor autocracies. Development practitioners should pay particularly close attention to these figures because infant-mortality rates capture many features of social well-being, such as prenatal health care for women, nutrition, quality of drinking water, and girls' education. As the article summary notes, "poor democracies are almost always stronger, calmer, and more caring than poor autocracies, because they allow power to be shared and encourage openness and accountability". Take Liberia for example: Foreign Affairs: How to Rebuild AfricaQuote: Unfortunately, the interim government has used the time to make things worse. Liberian warlords and politicians have found it easy to outmaneuver the UN and the international community in the conduct of what locals, with their habitual grim humor, call "business more than usual." Despite claims that they are struggling for peace, democracy, and reconciliation, the warlords and their henchmen continue to use the country's institutions for personal profit. Even if one of the few respectable candidates wins the presidential election in October, there is little chance that he or she will be able to rectify matters. And if the UN starts to wind down its mission after the elections, as it currently plans to do, the most likely outcome will be a resumption of politics-as-plunder and war. Nothing worthwhile will have come of the hundreds of millions of dollars poured into Liberia by international donors or of the hundreds of lives lost by foreign peacekeepers. Africa's real problems are not the amount of aid sent there, but by the absence of democratic and accountable governments and instiutions (the author of the piece goes as far as to argue for the return of the international trusteeship because of the sorry state of instiutions in many problem spots). I don't think one needs to see an argument against nepotism as an argument against inheritence or the idea of the family as a basic concept. One can still allow a family to run as a family while expecting a state to function in a different matter for they are two different things.
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Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:42 am
Kazuma I don't think one needs to see an argument against nepotism as an argument against inheritence or the idea of the family as a basic concept. One can still allow a family to run as a family while expecting a state to function in a different matter for they are two different things. As long as we leave it clear that it only is being referred to in the governmental way. When nepotism is cut out of corporations, inheritance, etc. it is a violation of a person's right to do what they please with their own property.
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Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:54 pm
Speaking from the perspective of an employee of a company rife with nepotism, I must say there are some definite hazards to such activity. The shop manager at work only gets to keep his job, despit his total ineptness at managing anything, because he is married to the owner's sister. This laughable excuse for a human being is vile and abusive...I've been his target for years now, I know...and will never be brought to any sense of justice because of nepotism. There are good and bad examples in every area of life...don't assume it to be a good thing.
*seriously needs a new job!*
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Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2005 11:46 pm
ShiroKarasu *seriously needs a new job!* Don't we all? I'm almost obcessive these days in trying to find a new job.
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Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:26 pm
Fortunately, in more assuring news... CAFTA is 5 for 6! Quote: The Dominican Republic passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement Tuesday with an overwhelming margin, the U.S. trade office said. The Dominican Republic became the fifth country to vote favorably for the trade pact joining El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the United States. The trade pact approved by the United States late July, aims to expand trade with six Latin American countries including Costa Rica.
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Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2005 9:56 am
Our NATO "ally" Spain issues warrents for three US soldiers. USA Today: Spanish judge issues arrest warrant for 3 U.S. soldiersQuote: MADRID (AP) — A judge has issued an international arrest warrant for three U.S. soldiers whose tank fired on a Baghdad hotel during the Iraq war, killing a Spanish journalist and one other, a court official said Wednesday. A judge said the U.S. was not cooperating in the case of soldiers who fired on a hotel sheltering international journalists, above. AP file photo Judge Santiago Pedraz issued the warrant for Sgt. Shawn Gibson, Capt. Philip Wolford and Lt. Col. Philip de Camp, all from the U.S. 3rd Infantry. Jose Couso, who worked for the Spanish television network Telecinco, died April 8, 2003, after a U.S. army tank crew fired a shell on Hotel Palestine in Baghdad where several journalists were staying to cover the war. Reuters cameraman Taras Portsyuk, a Ukrainian, also was killed. The Spanish judge said he issued the arrest order because of a lack of judicial cooperation from the United States regarding the case. U.S. officials insist the soldiers believed they were being shot at when they opened fire. Following the Palestine incident, Secretary of State Colin Powell said a review of the incident found that the use of force was justified. In late 2003, the National Court, acting on a request from Couso's family, agreed to consider filing criminal charges against three members of the tank crew. This "universal jurisdiction" nonsense has gone way too far.
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Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 4:22 am
Third Infantry is in Iraq right now, and all I have to say is this: Come and get us if you got the balls. If they'd think we'd hand over a NCO, Company grade officer, and field grade officer without a fight, they are seriously mistaken.
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Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:52 pm
SuperGumby Third Infantry is in Iraq right now, and all I have to say is this: Come and get us if you got the balls. If they'd think we'd hand over a NCO, Company grade officer, and field grade officer without a fight, they are seriously mistaken. I don't think Spain has the balls. wink They already bailed in Iraq once and I don't think they have the nerve to go back throuh and then challange the United States in Iraq. I expect the most they can do is hide behind this nonsense of legal fiction. We saw this coming: That things like the ICC and the concept of universal jurisdiction would start this international law circus against the United States and its servicemen. It makes me glad that the United States did not ratify the Rome Statute for the ICC and legislated legal obligations for the United States government to protect its servicemen.
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Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:22 pm
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 12:29 am
Kazuma SuperGumby Third Infantry is in Iraq right now, and all I have to say is this: Come and get us if you got the balls. If they'd think we'd hand over a NCO, Company grade officer, and field grade officer without a fight, they are seriously mistaken. I don't think Spain has the balls. wink They already bailed in Iraq once and I don't think they have the nerve to go back throuh and then challange the United States in Iraq. I expect the most they can do is hide behind this nonsense of legal fiction. We saw this coming: That things like the ICC and the concept of universal jurisdiction would start this international law circus against the United States and its servicemen. It makes me glad that the United States did not ratify the Rome Statute for the ICC and legislated legal obligations for the United States government to protect its servicemen. damnit, I wish they'd try. I'm sure our lil mechanized infantry division would love to play with some spaniards that'd try to detain our guys.
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Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 2:36 am
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Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2005 1:55 pm
I don't, SuperGumby. Yes, we've heard about France and backroom dealings with Saddam, but can it be that this has more to do with France's refusal to join the coalition than we thought?'
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 4:09 am
Edward Yee I don't, SuperGumby. Yes, we've heard about France and backroom dealings with Saddam, but can it be that this has more to do with France's refusal to join the coalition than we thought?' I'm grinning due to France's inability to deal with what sounds like a bunch of rioting teenagers...
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 8:36 pm
SuperGumby http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051104/ap_on_re_eu/france_rioting Hate to say it, but I got a big grin on my face right now reading this. blaugh You don't suppose that they call Paris the "City of lights" because of all the car fires do you? xd I could have sworn that there were people in ED-P from the other side of the fence some time back who were arguing that Europe was "eclipsing America's fading star" or something like that. wink
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2005 11:07 pm
Appeals Court Declares Parenthood Unconstitutional, Group Says
By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
November 03, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - A new ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is prompting cries of judicial activism.
On Wednesday the court dismissed a lawsuit brought by California parents who were outraged over a sex survey given to public school students in the first, third and fifth grades.
Among other things, the survey administered by the Palmdale School District asked children if they ever thought about having sex or touching other people's "private parts" and whether they could "stop thinking about having sex."
The parents argued that they -- not the public schools -- have the sole right "to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex."
But on Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit dismissed the case, saying, "There is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children...Parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students."
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing for the panel, said "no such specific right can be found in the deep roots of the nation's history and tradition or implied in the concept of ordered liberty."
'Abhorrent'
"Anyone who wonders why pro-family organizations like ours have been so concerned about activist courts only has to look at this case," said a spokesman for Focus on the Family.
Carrie Gordon Earll, an issues analyst with Focus on the Family Action, called the ruling "one of the most abhorrent examples of judicial tyranny in American history.
"The 9th Circuit did more than rule against parents who were upset that their elementary-school-aged children were being asked explicit questions about sex in class. They told all parents they have no right to protest what public schools tell their children."
Earll said the court essentially declared parenthood unconstitutional.
"It's long been the liberal view that it takes a village to raise a child -- but never before have the 'villagers' been elevated, as a matter of law, above mothers and fathers.
"Every parent in America should shudder at this decision -- liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican," Earll said.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is the same court that struck down the Pledge of Allegiance in 2002 because of the phrase "under God."
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