From OhioChessFan Forum,

"cormier: eternity & infinity = Life are better understood by human(scientist) when time x space(distance) = speed ..... by by, tks G"

The correct equation is velocity * time = distance. You have to look at the units.

Velocity = meters/second

Time = seconds

Distance = meters

Notice (meters/second)* second = meters

Yes.

Of course if you define a war as armed conflict, then the Cold War was never real, but I don't suppose you are claiming that...

<I think the illusion was running out of steam by then.>

Hmm, maybe you are. So tell me: was the Cold War real in 1947? 1951? 1957? 1965? 1972? 1981? Explain your answers.

<Enter stage left...The War on Drugs.>

The War on Drugs was a Nixon coinage, I think, introduced around 1970.

<Mmm, not really inclusive enough is it, I know I know, what about, wait for it you are gonna love this....A War on Terror, get it, terror, war, a war ON terror, It'll be brilliant..>

Beginning with Reagan, the taxes became regressive and the middle class paid a higher percentage.

Just as in Greece this led to a revenue problem whicj led to debt.

The change was camophlaged by inflation.

For all but the wealthy the neoliberal taxation policy was an abject failure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-e...

Strawman. Of course, Goldman Sachs is not the only big financial firm in the <global> system. More importantly, as we both agreed, financial firms ride on top of a real economy --both up and down.

<If they are aggregating the world's wealth unto themselves...>

Absurd hyperbole = strawman.

<why all the layoffs?>

Why?

<...the company continues to reduce costs to raise profitability>

How?

http://blogs.barrons.com/stockstowa...

By cutting <workers who have underperformed or whose functions can be AUTOMATED.>

Result?

<Goldman shares were up 33 cents at $124.63 in late trading.>

What's happening?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...

October 2011:

<Slowing economic growth and heightened worries about European sovereign debt have weighed on bank stocks all year. None of the 24 members of the KBW Bank Index (BKX) has posted a gain in 2011,>

<A decline in trading revenue over the past two quarters has led large investment banks to focus on cost reductions, including job cuts. Goldman Sachs, led by Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, 57, said in July that it will cut about 1,000 jobs after its second-quarter drop in trading revenue was bigger than analysts estimated.

Bank of America, the largest U.S. lender by assets, announced plans last month to eliminate 30,000 jobs in the next few years. UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s biggest bank, said in August it will cut about 3,500 positions, or 5.3 percent of its workforce, to reduce expenses. Morgan Stanley said it wants to bring down annual costs by $1 billion over the next three years. >

<“What I would say is that the president’s actions should reflect what his administration is saying,” Santorum said on Glenn Beck’s radio program. “If the administration is saying that it’s not safe to have people down there, then just because you can send 25 Secret Service agents doesn’t mean you should do it. You should set an example. I think that‘s what presidents do. They set an example. And when the government is saying this is not safe, then you don’t set the example by sending your kids down there.”>

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brief...

Oaxaca is a stable part of Mexico (barring earthquakes), a quiet part at the moment; but publicizing the exact whereabouts of a child of the U.S. president isn't really a good idea ANYWHERE overseas at the moment.

It is ridiculous to send a POTUS daughter away "with friends" in the company of 25 secret agents, for sure (HOW could you NOT SPOT THEM??).

But not because Oaxaca ia dangerous, and assuming so shows a bit of ignorance on Rick's part. Hope he wises up some.

<Think what's been happening with our weather in the past week has been a bit unusual? You're right on--and more than a "bit" unusual! In 141 years of official Chicago weather observations, there's never been a March warm spell that comes even close to this one. It's literally "off the charts".

Up until this year, only ten of March's 4,371 high temperatures dating back to 1871 had reached or exceeded 80-degrees. And, of those ten 80s, just two had occurred by St. Patrick's Day (March 17).

The breadth and scope of the current warm spell is quite remarkable. A preliminary survey of Friday highs across the Lower 48 indicates at least 157 cities scattered across 22 states exceeded their high-temperature records for the date. One estimate is that more than 1,600 high-temperature records have been broken across the country over the past week.

Friday's 82-degree afternoon high, the Chicago area's warmest reading ever to occur so early in the year and a reading which equals the normal high for June 24, shattered the previous record of 78-degrees set 67-years ago in 1945. It marked the third consecutive record high to occur in the past three days here and is part of an unprecedented round of warm weather which has launched the 2012 allergy season a month early, pushed Lake Michigan's shoreline water temperature 10-degrees warmer than a year ago and confounded area vegetation, as evidenced by the early emergence of plants and flowers.>

will be? other traits are *already* routinely screened for in some countries, screenings which are suggested to be implemented in more countries, and they are already resulting in "expectancies" that some time in the not so distant future no more people with e.g. down's syndrome will be born (again, in some countries).

Bishop Fishers New Book Launched in Australia

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, MARCH 16, 2011 With disputes over bioethics issues continually in the news, Catholics are under ever more pressure to defend their stance on topics ranging from abortion to euthanasia to organ transplant and freedom of conscience.

Bishop Anthony Fisher, OP, recently launched his new book, “Catholic Bioethics for a New Millennium,” (Cambridge University Press), in which he seeks to explain and defend the Church’s position on a range of bioethical issues.

Bishop Fisher is not only the bishop of Parramatta, in Western Sydney, but also a professor in moral theology and bioethics at the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family in Melbourne.

There is much to celebrate about contemporary health care and bioresearch, he acknowledged in the book’s introduction. Yet, when it comes to ethics the mentality of what he termed “the technological imperative” is often present. Namely, that if something can be done it should be. Opponents of this mentality are then characterized as opposing progress.

Bishop Fisher outlines a number of guidelines that should be taken into account. They include the fact that there are objective truths about the human person, that as persons we possess an intrinsic dignity, that human acts are often complex, and that we have a responsibility to protect life.

The teaching of the Church, he continued, “is not some external source of moral thinking with which private conscience must grapple. Rather it, it informs conscience, much like a soul informs a body, giving it shape and direction from within.”

The bulk of the book consists of chapters on specific subjects, such as when human life begins, euthanasia, transplants and abortion.

In the chapter on stem cells he pointed out that the exaggerated hype about all the promised cures as a result of embryonic stem cell research has fallen on its face. Bishop Fisher pointed out that by now even Ian Wilmut, the creator of Dolly the cloned sheep, has given up on human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, and he says that reprogramming adult stem cells is the way to go.

Even if the promises of embryonic stem cells had come true the chapter goes on to explain that it is still unethical given that the early human embryo is truly human.

Christianity is not anti-science, as some allege, Bishop Fisher maintained, it is pro-science, but also has consistently defended human life from its earliest stages.

“Once parliaments, medibusiness or individual laboratories take us down the slippery slope of killing some for the benefits of others, we are well down a path towards other developments tomorrow that public opinion today would not countenance,” he warned.

Turning to the theme of abortion and genetic testing in another chapter, Bishop Fisher argued that the focus on rights and autonomy is not very helpful in determining what to do. “Motherhood is not about ownership or competition,” he observed.

Talking about supposed abortion rights fails to take into account our relationships with others and the implications of our choices for other people’s lives and for the common good, he pointed out.

When it comes to aborting embryos suffering from some kind of defect Bishop Fisher reflected that, instead of asking whether they would be better off dead, if compassion were our real concern we would be ensuring that disabled children were given adequate treatment and every form of assistance.

In his chapter on artificial nutrition for unresponsive patients Bishop Fisher made a more general observation about Catholic bioethics. Catholicism, he noted is opposed to many of the shifts in attitudes to the human person and has become a “sign of contradiction.”

That has come about, he continued, due to changes in philosophical views that today see the human person as some kind of functional system.

By contrast: “Christianity holds to a realist account of the person as a being that is material, living, animal, rational, free, social, emotional and immortal, and so offers metaphysical and biological arguments for this personhood from the first moment of that being’s existence to his or her last.”

Autonomy is not the source of human value or values, he noted, quoting John Paul II.

Two other very relevant chapters examine the role and responsibilities of Catholic hospitals and how Catholic politicians should act in their political duties.

"The obvious rejoinder is that the Republicans since Reagan haven't been conservative, fiscally or otherwise. It's just that, given a choice between being punched 20 times in the face (the Republicans) or 21 times (the Democrats), people not prone to masochism (non-liberals) will choose the former."