Politics – Page 33 – Doug's Views

April 22, 2013April 18, 2020

Tell Your Senator: Just Say No To CISPA

Last week the US House passed the The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and like all of these types of bills that have come through Congress, this bill only seems to protect businesses at the expense of people’s rights. It also gives more power to the Government to violate your 4th amendment rights in the name of “cybersecurity”. The White House has threatened to veto the law but now is the time to contact your Senator and tell them to say no to CISPA.

What is CISPA and why is it a bad law. Let the Electronic Frontier Foundation explain:

April 21, 2013April 18, 2020

Separating fact from fiction for the Boston and Texas tragedies

famous image of Police going into action after Boston Marathon bombing

Police go into action after Boston Marathon bombing

It was a rough week for a lot people last week. Two bombs were set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. A fertilizer plant blew up in Texas on Wednesday. The manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects heated up early Friday morning then concluded with the final suspect captured Friday evening. It is still early in these events and we don’t have all the information but I wanted to share some thoughts on the week where the known facts don’t match what is being said by other people.

April 6, 2013April 18, 2020

Obama’s Grand Bargain Nothing New

Speaker John Boehner and President Obama

The media heated up on Friday reporting that President Obama’s new budget deal will include cuts to Social Security and Medicare (GASP!!!!). It was reported that the “left” exploded at the idea of cuts to earned benefits. If the media would do their jobs they would know the President has been offering these “cuts” for a couple of years now and the Republicans have always refused the offer because they don’t want to increase taxes. They don’t want the President to have a win of any kind. Right now there is a lot more heat than flame.

April 2, 2013April 18, 2020

Atheists Support Islamophobia? No, Atheists Don’t Support Any Irrational Beliefs

Richard Dawkins, Islamophobe?

On Saturday, Salon posted an article by Nathan Lean that took to task famous atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens for attacking Islam. Lean insinuates these atheists have a streak of Islamophobia. But the real facts show the article is yet another hit piece against atheists. Atheists see all religion as irrational and mostly results in bad treatment of people (“evil”). It is disappointing when religious apologists cherry pick the good parts while ignoring the overall bad parts of religion especially in publishing an attack against those who have no religion.

April 1, 2013April 18, 2020

Genetically Modified Crops: Should We Be Worried? Sort Of

Genetically modified crops (GM crops) sounds scary like some sci-fi story. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers. But do we need to fear GM crops? We should be concerned about our food supply and what goes into it but the fear over GM crops doesn’t match the facts. However one major worry I have is how much big corporations are involved and how that might hurt some people in the long term either economically or health wise.