Content by ProfFnard
Posted at 7:29am on Mar. 26, 2006 Secure Elections
By ProfFnard
I am concerned what sort of alliance might be made between so-called liberals and so-called conservatives on what I'll call "secure elections".
By "secure elections" I mean initially the idea that no more than one in a million votes should be miscounted. I personally am not overly concerned with the use of money for advertisements, though I do believe in a reasonable amount of regulation such as disclosure rules, so much as I'm concerned that we be dedicated to the quality of elections, use the best engineering. It should not just be adequate for solid steel quality engineering.
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Posted at 7:00pm on Dec. 15, 2005 The Government Does Everything Incompetantly But Torture?
By ProfFnard
Before you think I'm some typical bleeding heart that can't stop the flow of emotion for those in a bad way, including criminals... or even especially criminals, halt!
My question is how the government knows who to torture?
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Posted at 6:33pm on Oct. 4, 2005 Relativity: Thomas Jefferson owned slaves
By ProfFnard
Thomas Jefferson owned slaves... paradox? How do you explain it? A father of American Liberty... also a robber of liberty? An abuser.
Must we decide, as classical analysis implies, that we must choose one or the other? If not, why not, and if so, must we cling to thin reasoning that argues an apology based on "convention" at the time, conventions among the rich which practiced slavery?
I think the best analysis is relativistic.
Rather than explain it, how do you judge it? I use this example to explain, once again, what I mean about relativity and why I believe relativity is the reality based philosophy, the philosophy of progressivism.
Also, I remind you I am applying the concept of relativity as developed by the natural philosophers.
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Posted at 6:32am on Sep. 14, 2005 Local Paper: Cheney Orders Power Company to Restore Power to Oil Pipeline, Hospitals Wait
By ProfFnard
This story at the Hattiesburg American claims that Dick Cheney's office contacted South Mississippi Electric Power Association and insisted power be restored to an oil pipeline. This lead to crews that were working to restore power to two rural hospitals being diverted to restore power to the pipeline.
Might I also add "!".
!!!
Was it just a big misunderstanding? refutations..? Shocked amazement and concern?
I shall state my bias, I suspect this sort of thing from Cheney, but I don't know the full story behind this yet. I DO NOT KNOW. They are serious allegations. I know that. The source seems somewhat credible, though of course I'm not familiar with the paper and reserve judgement even on that.
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Posted at 6:04pm on Sep. 7, 2005 I'm not saying we should blame the president.
By ProfFnard
At this sensitive time, we need to be solving problems, and the kind of accountability we need is the sort that will ensure we do not repeat mistakes. We need to identify mistakes so we can remedy them, and any other accountability, deriliction of duty, can indeed wait. The time right now is understand what went wrong from the point of view of engineering a restoration.
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Posted at 3:32am on May 16, 2005 Conservative Corner
By ProfFnard
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Posted at 9:16pm on May 9, 2005 Reverand Moon The Republican
By ProfFnard
I won't push a thousand anti-moonie facts your way, or even a lot of detail on the Republican to Moonie connections.
But I want to ask... are redstaters aware of Moon's activities? Do you think there is a problem with it. I read the complaints of many conservatives over Soros or Moore... Moore owns a video camera... Moonie owns a religion and the Washington Times.
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Posted at 4:03pm on May 4, 2005 Bush loves FDR (and my favorite Republicans)
By ProfFnard
"The current system today, by the way, doesn't say that.... I think Franklin Roosevelt would be proud to make sure of this: If you work your entire life and pay into Social Security, you should not retire into poverty," Bush said.
Bush said this in Mississippi on his selling SS private accounts tour and of course it is not the first time he's mentioned FDR and how much he respects FDRs vision.
I appreciate this as I too love FDR. Work programs were the wisest of public welfare programs, ensuring not only that people could feed their family at the least, but also directly contributing to the national infrastructure.
Yes, Bush and I agree, FDR was a great man of great vision.
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Posted at 12:36am on May 3, 2005 Obligation
By ProfFnard
The decay of obligation is a double edged sword I think... the obligation of labor, for example, should be at will only, you cannot fairly sell yourself into slavery ala the "indentured servant". The obligation of marriage should be dissolvable. I think there is an obligation to one's parents, but their behavior can obviate the obligation somewhat or even totally. Our obligation to our children? Trickier, I believe little if anything mitigates that obligation, though you might do something for your child out of obligation that they don't prefer (e.g. a loving parent might still turn in a criminal child).
Obligation Questions: after the break.
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Posted at 12:27am on Apr. 28, 2005 What Do You Think About Philosophy
By ProfFnard
I know this is broad... I'll give my bias. I think the philosophic spirit is crucial to continuation of progress we have seen in modern democracy. Oh, we have our ups and downs... maybe you think we are in a regression at the moment, but over all we've had an increase of freedom, of knowledge, standard of living.
I think this is because we are at the far end of three centuries of the reawakening of the philosophical nature. Not the nature of any particular school of philosophy, these are all over the map, of course. But in terms of the nature of philosophy overall, the characteristic that generates new philosophy, that produces tools to create and measure new philosophies, which is interested in the philosophies of others even if one finds them lacking.