<![CDATA[Daily Comments]]>Freewebshttp://dailycomment.webs.com/index.htm<![CDATA[John McCain supports veto of health care for kids]]> Did you know John McCain supported George W. Bush's veto of health care for kids? ]]>http://dailycomment.webs.com/index.htm?blogentryid=34979422008-5-30T08:47:00-0100<![CDATA[]]> So I will do what I do best. Think.
And I have been thinking of the current political landscape. This is likely to continue for some months. So what is the thought of the day? This one is a little more abstract than I normally tackle.
Imagine that there is a deserted island. And it's in international waters, not laid claim to by anyone. A single man, Peter, paddles to this island and claims it as his own. He calls the place Peteronia. It's now his home. Is the island really his? Does he have the right to tell anyone else who shows up that they aren't allowed to land or that they have to get a visa?
The answer probably depends on how big a stick he has to defend his territory. If another person shows up and decides that he too wants to live on the island, there is little Peter can do to stop him. Unless of course Peter has a big stick and can chase the visitor away.
And if someone does come onto his island, and they take his coconuts, can he tell them that it's against Peteronian law to pick coconuts without a license?
Assume further that a person visiting Peteronia has her camera stolen. But Peteronia has no law against camera theft. Can the victim bring a case against the perpetrator in her home jurisdiction? What if someone got murdered in Peteronia?
This should tell us a little about our own situation. What does it mean that we "own" property? That purely means that we have a sufficient big stick to fend off someone who would want to take it from us. If someone tries to take over your house, you can call the police.
]]>http://dailycomment.webs.com/index.htm?blogentryid=34918512008-5-28T20:43:00-0100<![CDATA[Things Have Changed]]> Internet and the world wide web This technology advancement enabled people to communicate like never before. No longer could a few corporations control information. This affected politics in a very broad and profound way
Howard Dean successfully uses Internet to raise funds Howard was a populist candidate who was not expected to catch wind in his sails. Money raised from the Internet Supreme Court decides presidential election outcome I don't think this had ever happened before and is highly unlikely to happen again. I read the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court and I thought their logic was sound. How the US Supreme Court could undo their ruling was completely strange. What it really told me was the the US Constitution is flawed and has problems when elections are close.
September 11th 2001 Using a domestic aircraft as a weapon changed everything. Travel will never be the same. The effects of this are enormous and long reaching. The public is willing to see boogey men everywhere. So now we have terror alert levels and a willingness to use this fear to suit the needs of the powerful to control the masses.
Preemptive attack and invasion of Iraq Iraq did nothing to the USA. And yet had to suffer destruction and death at the hands of the US military. There is really no way to justify it. The change here is that the case was made that it was acceptable to attack another country just because it might attack the US some time in the future. That had never been done before.
These events and others have caused the path of history to change. And the sentiments of the public are changing to suit. We are midway through this change and we can see this by the difference attitudes to different politicians. The last two elections were very close. We don't know how the next election will turn out. Perhaps it will be as close as the last two. So far, we can see that the public isn't of a single mind. Some are holding onto the past and others want to get on with the new stuff.