McCain is going to be the next President. Although people will vehemently deny it in public, middle America still has ingrained racism that will prevent them from voting for an African-America President.
When it comes time to cast their ballot, they will be convinced by the Republican media machine that Obama is too liberal and too soft on terrorism, which combined with his being an African American will dissuade them from voting for him.
History does not have a lot of value outside of academics except for in very limited situations. I mean, how frequently does knowing who fought in the Battle of 1812 or was it "One if by land and two if by sea" or vice versa or any of the other random historical facts that you are forced to memorize throughout your life really come in handy. Maybe in Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit, but I don't think that History is nearly as important of a life skill as other hard skills such as Math or Science.
"Indecent Proposal" made me think a lot. If someone offered me a million dollars for one night with my wife and I was struggling to get by, it might be very difficult to turn down. However, it would be pretty tough to let your wife sleep with another man for money.
This is not practical due to the need of many people to travel further then they could realistically ride a bicycle. If you live in Connecticut but need to get to NYC for work everyday it is completely impractical to drive there. I do think it's a pretty good idea, but due to it's impracticality I'm going to have to say, "Try again, smart guy".
Unfortunately the pain still exists for a lot of people who feel like they are still oppressed by white people. The majority of African Americans still live in poverty and have worse educational system, health care, and career opportunities than do most white Americans.
I don't think necessarily that "reparations" should be paid, but I do think that we need to do more to help African Americans help themselves out of the poverty cycle.
I hope that something like this could work. I don't think our elected officials do a good job of representing my best interests. The Congress was formed because in that time people were uninformed about the issues that effected them, so they had to have an elected official represent them. I think that a tool like CD would work well if you could get the participation (especially the older population....my mom can hardly even check her email).
I think this site can be used to make ordinary decisions as well. Something like, "Where should we go to dinner tonight" could be hashed out online instead of in tireless email threads.
I don't want to sound racist or sexist, but I personally don't think the US will elect an African American male or a female president. There are way too many old school people that I think would vote "against" either of the other candidates rather than voting for McCain. So, I think he'll likely win the presidency. God help us.
No, I don't think that the US has an obligation to continue helping other countries in the world when there are plenty of issues at home that they should be focusing on. Not that I'm totally against helping other people out, but with the housing market crashing, the economy on the verge of recession, health care costs skyrocketing, energy costs skyrocketing, unemployment on the rise, etc there are much more pertinent issues to tend to at home.
The electoral college is better than a direct popular vote in the following ways:
- Contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected president,
- Enhances the status of minority interests,
-Contributes to the political stability of the nation by encouraging a two-party system,
-Maintains a federal system of government and representation.
Moving to a popular direct vote system would incentivize a multitude of minor parties to form in an attempt to prevent
the popular majority necessary to elect a president. The surviving candidates would be drawn to the regionalist or extremist views represented by these parties in hopes of winning the popular election.
Umm...okay, so we should just have anarchy then?
It seems to me that the American Government and the leader of the free world is a bit more than "theatre" as you claim. How can you say that everyone is "distracted and deceived" by the election. Shouldn't we care who is going to be the next President of the US? Shouldn't we inform ourselves of the issues and the candidates take on the issues so we can make an informed voting decision?
He's not a whiny punk, it's just that he gets fouled so damn much and is such a fierce competitor that he gets pissed when he gets hacked. The crap that the Wizards tried to pull where they beat the crap out of him was ridiculous.
Everyone who's not a Cavs fan is just jealous that we've got the second coming and you don't.
Yes, we are going to attack Iran in the near future. The US has already condemned Hizbollah as a terrorist organization, and after what has been going on in Lebanon and Israel recently I think that war with Iran is closer than you may believe.
