In his farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation that a military-industrial complex, led by interests within the government, the military and those industries supplying the military, could stray from the original intent of national defense towards private interest. We were invoked to get it right by constantly scrutinizing decisions coming from those defending us, and to do this beyond the fears that may be engendered. This was about scrutiny, not abandonment. Today his words may easily be dittoed for the two biochemical-industrial complexes: food and pharmaceuticals.   more »

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. Many close their eyes to felt warmth, replacing it with affected rage rather than just doing what has to be done; others are blindsided to problems generated throughout the country by this trickle invasion. 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 »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Here three pairs of contrasting perspectives grapple with our exit from Iraq and two plans emerge:    more »

Whenever a single piece of legislation encompasses disparate issues, the public loses its ability to assess the voting record of elected officials. Everything is thrown into a single barrel: quality expenditures along side pork. This constitutes at once a degradation of representative democracy and a squandering of the public wealth.   more »

When Chile and Argentina were ruled by brutal generals, I would gladly have had their regimes toppled. But our (U.S.A) executive branch had chosen instead to lay down with dictators and—not surprisingly—it rose up with a contorted sense of the legitimacy of its actions.   more »

When one nation attacks another, there is the possibility of retaliation or the imposition of real sanctions by the international community upon the aggressor. Without such possibilities international laws regarding aggression would be moot. Unfortunately, by secluding themselves within nations while remaining separate from the governmental processes, terrorists are a de facto loophole in this chapter of international law.   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 »

Although I believe that the process known as Global Warming is taking place, I recognize that the theory is at a stage that necessitates a scrutiny and counter scrutiny that can only benefit science.   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 »

This was written in response to slot machines at racetracks. See update addressing a proposed casino.   more »

This is an alternative to the three-strikes-you’re-out legislation.   more »

A community’s best defense against those bent on murder is a reliably applied penalty that coerces each of us. The two front runners for such a penalty are death and the elusive incarceration that ends in death.   more »

By the nature of its task Social Security will be forever coming up short. The challenge is to avoid confusion as to how our decisions redound to the well being of contributors.   more »

We Americans are a diverse people. Some find it is inconceivable that a man or woman be allowed to marry a member of his or her own gender, while others cannot fathom the taking upon oneself of such allowing or disallowing. Clearly we are guided by different notions of what constitutes marriage and thus of what constitutes love itself.    more »

Where there is trust, the shortest route to a person’s beliefs is a straight question, but at this time where in the Middle East is there trust....   more »