Trickle-up economics
Posted 11:28 AM

Our economy is failing due to trade deficits. We're buying more than we're building.

It's one thing to buy components overseas, and then reassemble them and provide value - that's positive economic behavior. It's another thing if you buy Chinese-made disposable cameras and sell them in retail stores - providing no economic value at all.

Let's be more cautious in our tax-cuts and tax-incentives. We need to promote the sort of businesses that have high GDP/capita and highly profitable exports. Merely tax the industries that are focused on import and resale, the import of luxury products, and products that damage your health. Then we'll use the money for scientific research, education and leadership training.

Alas, trickle-down economics has no basis in reality, but rich men like the sound of it because it reminds them on peeing on the poor.
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Pure Imagination
Posted 6:07 PM

Pure Imagination from the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Soundtrack

There is no
Life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be

If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Wanta change the world?
There's nothing to it

There is no
Life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be


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It's like he read my mind
Posted 7:34 AM

Democratic frontrunner, Howard Dean, announced a six-point renewable energy strategy to get us off the oil standard within 20 years. This policy would be a direct attack on the Bush family's income. George Bush actually owns oilfields in Kuwait. Unlike the rest of us, Bush and his supporters profit immensely from high oil prices, war, and our sagging deficit-riddled economy.

I donated money to Dean's campaign. Maybe he's reading my weblog for policy ideas. Or maybe it's just that renewable energy is a way for the U.S. to simultaneously create jobs, restore the economy, and diffuse tensions in the Middle East.

You decide.
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Our list of favorite vitamins and supplements
Posted 9:32 AM

Here's the list of youth-enhancing supplements that I've personally taken and are part of my family's regimen.

Even if we're on vacation, we always start the day with Emergen-C. I like to spruce it up with seltzer and juice. This provides a nice base-level of nutrients.

I then add a packet of Green Vibrance. This is a potent mix of antioxidants and probiotics. My girlfriend prefers Immuno Shield instead.

We spruce up this antioxidant mix with 300mg's of Alpha-Lipoic Acid, 300mg's of Co-Q 10, and 4 mg of Astaxanthin.

We add 1g of Olive Leaf (150 mg Oleuropein) and 1000mg of Lysine for antiviral support every other day.

In addition, we take 150 mg of Hyaluronic Acid, for joint and skin wear and tear resistance, although many people prefer Glucosamine - a precursor.

My girlfriend takes a separate iron supplement, but I'm hemochromatosic, so I don't take it.

We love the Ultimate-10 probiotic from the Vitamin shoppe, although I don't take it as often, since I'm already taking the Vibrance...which has plenty of probiotics. Probiotics should be refrigerated, however, so when we're travelling, we take along Jarrodophilus. It's not as potent as the Ultimate-10, but it doesn't need to be refrigerated.

Since I'm allergic to cats, I take BioAllers, which, over a 6 month course, has caused a profound improvement in my allergies. I no longer need Primatine mist. I highly recommend this technique.

I also highly reccommend Bliss throat guard when coming off of antibiotics, or just before the onset of winter. It trains your immune system to deal with throat issues. You can feel it working.

Any suggestons would be welcome.
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Does Gephardt want to pay for Lockheed?
Posted 10:17 AM

Gephardt, seemingly, supports having the poor in America suffer to make Bush rich in Iraq.

The $87 billion appropriations bill contains absolutely no oversight committee to watchdog expenses. Bush can spend the money with discretion. Thus, our troops will continue to suffer under a false appropriation which has the best interests of Bush in mind - not the best interests of our troops.

Currently, our troops in Iraq are being fed by local villagers. Meanwhile the Bush administration, backed by senators like Gephardt and Lieberman, are promoting more expenses on fighter jets that won't be ready for another 20 years.

Gephardt, who is supported by union bosses, has voted to ensure that his constituents get rich making missiles. But only a few pennies of that money will go to support our troops.

Howard Dean would never have allowed a bill to be passed unless he was sure it contained the oversight necessary to ensure that all of the money went to support our troops in Iraq. Many senators proposed amendments that would have established a nonpartisan oversight committee to review the expenses. However this was shouted down as "unnecessary" and a "filibuster" by Bush supporters.

Well, at least our troops will continue to enjoy the tasty local Iraqi cuisine.

Labels: politics

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Howard Dean needs us in Iowa
Posted 9:51 AM

Howard Dean needs us in Iowa. Gephart is not a man for the people. Only 22% of Howard Dean's contributions are in the $1000-$2000 range. 78% of Gephardt's contributions are in this range.

The candidates will remember where their support came from.

Average people, small businesses are backing the Dean campign. People contributed an average of only $74 to his campaign. Gephardt has repeatedly positioned himself on the side of the workers wheras the truth is that he caters to "union bosses"... not union members.

Dean is out for fiscal responsibility and freedom in America. And he needs our support in Iowa now.

If you can't drive out to Iowa and go door to door. The Dean campaign will pay for the transportation and lodging. And if you don't have time to campiagn, your donation will be put towards these initiatives.

Dean is the candidate that will get America's pulse beating again.

Labels: politics

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On religion
Posted 5:53 AM

God is the universal force of cooperation and diversity.
God is the delicate balance between dark energy and gravity.
God is a covalent bond betwen two atoms that need an electron.
God is love.
God is love.
God is love.


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Rage against the dying of the light
Posted 12:01 PM

Mankind now has the ability to roll-back aging by regenerating damaged and aging tissue.

Example 1

Example 2

Really. There's a lot more than that out there. I read an article recently that prolonged stem cell injections reset all bodily aging. This was an Advanced Cell Terapeutics article in at lef.org's latest magazine... which isn't online.

I'm sure that if we, as a race, got behind this assault on death itself.... we'd have it licked. There are groups forming to do just that.

Now, here's the funny thing: some people are saying that this would be a bad idea. Why? They cite reasons like "overcrowding". The fact is that places where people live long have fewer population problems. People make up lots of "reasons" why they want to die. They have all sort fo reasons why they want to die. That sounds a lot like "giving up" on trying to live.

This is the most saddest thing I've ever heard of ... Bush "wants us to die". Well jump off a frigging cliff then, but don't pass legislation designed to drag everyone else with your dumb ass.

I for one don't want to die anytime soon. That's why I do things like eat, and, umm, look both ways before crossing the street. And I don't want my firends or parents to either. And I don't see a reason, now that it's possible, for me to accept the Christian Right's assertion that we should die sooner because they say so.

Yes, indeed there are people in this country that are fighting tooth and nail to stop research that will halt aging and disease. They can always just choose not to live longer. It's not like anyone would be forcing them to get treatments.

It is a sickness that we have in this country. The idea that we can force each other to comply with laws that do not impinge on each other's rights must be abolished.

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A simple plan to fix the U.S. "democracy"
Posted 2:37 PM

If we charged people a $200 federal tax penalty for failing to vote in a federal election, it would stir a subtle but powerful shift in the counciousness of the country.

People, feeling compelled to vote, would also feel compelled to talk about voting. If only to complain about it!

But that's OK. This talk would lead, over time, to political discussion and involvement. And, finally, a restoration of "Democratic" part of the Democratic Republic known as the United States.

It's a slow process. But, I think, it's something that's nonpartisan, and something that we can probably agree on.

Regardless of your political perspective, our country would be more democratic if more people voted.

Labels: politics

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Mr Bush: Answer these Seven Questions, Please
Posted 10:44 AM

Here's seven questions that Bush won't answer, taken as an extract from Michael Moore's new book on the Bush family's history of involvement with terrorists and war-profiteering.

Some of the facts:

Salem bin Laden - Osama's brother - first started coming to Texas in 1973 and later bought some land, built himself a house, and created Bin Laden Aviation at the San Antonio airfield.

Private Saudi government jets, with President Bush's approval - were allowed to fly around the skies of America, when travelling by air was forbidden, and pick up 24 members of the Bin Laden family and take them first to a "secret assembly point in Texas". They then flew to Washington DC, and then on to Boston. Finally, on September 18, they were all flown to Paris, out of the reach of any US officials.

Labels: politics

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A voting system we can "approve" of
Posted 11:56 AM

Currently, we have a two-party system where the only choice is between fake-liberal crooks and phony conservatives who are out to spend all our money to finance manufactured wars.

Recently, articles on approval voting have been cropping up on campus as political theorists start to think about solving some of the sticky problems with elections.

Grad Student Explores New Voting Options
[Cornell Daily Sun - Sep 29, 2003] IRV and Approval Voting go head to head in a search for a true majority-elected president.

Votive Offering: How to Have Your Election Cake and Eat It Too
[The MIT Tech, MA - Sep 30, 2003] This time, citizens may be able to vote their sincere preferences. Approval voting gets closer to Condorcet results, in the simplest way.

Theme year speaker examines electoral system
[Wake Forest University Student Newspaper, NC - Sep 18, 2003] Approval voting, would help remove strategy from elections, allowing voters to vote for as many candidates as they approve of.

Of course, try getting a representative, elected under the currenty system, to come out in favor of a new one. If any voting reform is to be possible, it will have to be a true grassroots movement.

Citizens for approval voting is trying to do just that. They are a grassroots organization who is putting pressure on politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, to change our outdated voting system to one that's proven to better capture and count our political preferences.

Labels: politics

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The Death of Big Oil
Posted 10:50 AM

STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM - News) announced today that they have perfected a technique for producing solar cells that generate electricity cheaper than oil.

For some, wind power is already fulfilling part of that promise.

As long as these technologies aren't bought and patented by Exxon, or suppressed by Bush, big oil will continue to die slowly on the vine.
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Mix of the day
Posted 9:25 AM

Today's soundtrack. OK, there's no way I'm going to be posting these every day. As opposed to Tuesday's, this one is a shorter mix. Be warned, I'm feeling rather posthuman today...
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