Suppose that a particular right is both worthy of judicial support and in need of it. The details of codification take on an importance equal that of the right itself, because the final law is responsible to the entire legal system and also to itself. (Illicit drug example)   more »

I know undocumented foreigners and would not affect scorn towards them in place of the affection I feel; but nor can I close my eyes to problems generated throughout the country by such a presence. I don't want my state, Massachusetts, following Arizona's lead, but those states bordering Mexico are on the front line of a national struggle and sealing that border is a must step in any reconciliation between Americans and foreigners residing here illegally.   more »

In an ideal world, employees should be paid in accordance with both the effort they make and the benefit that they bring to the company. It must be difficult for management to set pay standards for the lower ranks, but for themselves it is impossible: their contribution is unique as is their personal interest in the outcome.   more »

For centuries, homosexuals have been harassed into separate closets and are now being told that a military demand for confidentiality is about returning to that situation. Crusaders instilling such shame and defenders from them imagine that this policy is about their own holy war. It is not, but rather it asks whether homosexuals will be allowed to move onto this or any non-disclosure without being stigmatized as acting in shame. Nor is it about imposed dishonesty; after all how can one lie if one doesn't tell? How can one's silence infer homosexuality if none who are asked answer? The problem is not with Don’t Ask Don't Tell; it is with those heterosexuals who presume that they are only on the don't-ask portion of the protocol. Why are setting-the-record-straight soldiers being allowed to place the onus of the policy's practicality on the homosexual community?   more »

Beyond the risks associated with false positives, breast tissue is so sensitive to a mammography’s radiation as to be threatened by the very examination developed to protect it. (December 23, 2009 update)   more »

With the 20th anniversary celebration of the toppling of the Berlin Wall, I reminisced still twenty years further back upon an earlier visit to Berlin in November of 1969 only to discover that I had somehow misunderstood how that visit had actually ended.   more »

On October 25, 2009, CBS Sunday Morning tackled the multifaceted issue of obesity. Here I examine some of the topics covered.   more »

Not a professional—I have enjoyed a long interest in biology. In the early nineties I was struck by the destructiveness of diseases related to an inappropriate immunological response. At that time I chose to read up on the subject and in a chapter on cancer found that I could not continue without resolving a question about what I had just read.    more »

Mainstream medicine recommends avoiding both intentional and unintentional exposure to the H1N1 virus. I hope that they are right and perhaps they are, but the degree of certainty in their pronouncements indicates to me that they may be prescribing out of their depth: out of what may really require an application of probability theory.   more »

This list of features is an overview of my earlier proposed healthcare plan. It reconciles a federal sense of what is important with an actuarial and medical sense of what is. The details would dynamically emerge from a federal legislature, and actuarial as well as medical wikitables. The tables would be kept apolitical much as is the U.S. Supreme Court; their modification, restricted but not necessarily to one country. For most details regarding implementation, please read that early post, Healthcare: A Nationwide System (www.outonatwig.net).   more »

Long before the founding of Islam the charging of interest on loans had been broadly forbidden. Early encounters with interest bearing loans had often led to impoverishment and in response community by community condemned the instrument. Beginning with England under Henry VIII, many non-Islamic countries began recognizing the value brought to the borrower in a loan’s temporal empowerment.   more »

In early 2003 Saddam Hussein had at the very least access to materials and designs for the production of weapons of mass destruction; further he would soon have had at his disposal the unfettered wealth of Iraqi oil fields. At that time President Bush appeared to be faced with a dilemma: either live with the coming critical mass of oil and homicidal mania, or launch a preemptive war.   more »

With the looming energy crisis, it is clear that we must revive the licensing of nuclear reactors by insuring the security of their radioactive fuel and waste in use, storage, or transit both from mishaps accidental or seismic; and from seizures or explosive scatterings by terrorists.   more »

Most illegal immigrants are hard working and, for that, low paid. Poised against this and the constant watchfulness is an informal benefits package paid by but beyond the reach of most Americans.   more »

For every nation that supports its citizens in obtaining health services there are financial limitations that make some care unavailable. Here I propose a system that mediates optimally between our deepest values and the realities of illness and scarcity. It would cut paperwork while spurring and even redirecting medical research.   more »

Understanding and ignorance both shape our choices. The latter may limit freedom whether or not there is an encroachment on our rights in that we approach the choosing point with its long term possibilities distorted or otherwise misunderstood and pass freedom by without recognizing it.   more »

Here I consider human rights in general, using specific rights only as examples. Although some of the conclusions that follow are my own, by the essential nature of the subject, most of this may well have been bouncing around for years. Such an overview helps me to get through the specifics; may it do so for you too.   more »

I just viewed Nova’s special on the confrontation between Evolution and those in Dover, Pennsylvania who feel disenfranchised by that theory’s preeminence. It is unfortunate that many who trust their religious experience have turned to such a limp reconciliation as Intelligent Design. I will address some issues raised in that show, but my main interest is in redirecting you towards my earlier article, Evolution, as a basis for mutual understanding.   more »

There is mounting pressure from many elected officials in Massachusetts to allow communities to dig more deeply into a grand old deceit that hints of special relationships with luck.   more »

This is about a national identification card and system that would secure the privacy of holders. There is much to be gained and by what follows little likelihood of a breach in their trust of personal information.   more »

I write here of distortions in terrorist relationships to heritage and to self, not about their finding my country, the United States, to be a detriment to either. Stripped of these distortions, disappointment in our involvement would not be constantly upstaging its own agenda.   more »

There is something missing from the current confrontations with Iran and North Korea: a clarification of those less obvious actions constituting a nuclear assault.   more »