The dominant Al Sistani power group list will not lead to radical fundamentalism as in Iran, despite both have in common democratic elections. For centuries the Shi’ites have been a minority splinter group in the Muslim world, ironically because the Sunnis were more adaptable to historical trends, willing to bend to limited modernity, though painfully slow, provided it did not seriously conflict with Islamic law. However, Sunni has its own radical fundamentalists such as Zarqawi and bin Laden w...

  Explain How Conservatives and Liberals would answer the following: 1> Is it fair that the office cleaner to get to work uses the same value subway token as a middle manager? 2> Should earned income credit be abolished in favor of a tax table set at 1% of taxable income for the first $5,000 and 2% up to $10,000, and 3% up to whatever the poverty line is? Keep in mind that taxable income accounts for the number of dependents. The point is that everyone should pay taxes r...

Whatever happened to zero budgeting? Shouldn’t there be $2.7 trillion in revenue to match the budget? Of course in the past there was the massive surplus of social security to bail out the shortfall; now there are Saudi Arabia, China and Japan are more recent Santa and elves. Had social security not been the bank for extended expenditures, the fear would be that the account would sit in a bank account gathering meager interest, whereas treasury bonds would yield twofold. In the early days had...

May I be so bold as to suggest the following? Unless we intend to nuke the Middle East, we must end the dream of democratizing the Arab/Muslim world by force. Aside from the glaring fact that we cannot afford to continue wasting our human and material treasures, the tribal and nationalist obstinacy of other countries resents our meddling and, as in Iraq, only lead to insurgency and radical terrorism — a tragic price to pay. In lieu of this, the president should offer a Marshall Plan with stri...

In itself there is nothing wrong with free trade provided it stays on target of mutual benefit for participating nations as a whole . Unfortunately, actual practice loses sight of this. Canada, for instance, does benefit in its importation at bargain prices — but at our expense — of pharmaceutical products from its neighbor, while it exports “American” cars. Trade with China benefits a hungry consuming nation via — Wal-Mart, et al — but does little for the Chinese people working at sub par wag...

In spite of the impression that liberals wish Bush ill-will, I must say I was happy he finally had some good news in Iraq with the spectacular courage of the people there. More importantly the good news could mean that our troops may at long last get a breathing spell and events will wind down, meaning hopefully that they will be home sooner. Of course, the thugs will continue their destructive ways but eventually they will be forced to give in to the reality that the general populace is deter...

Must I stand accused of feminine hysteria in reacting to the chauvinist George Will who cynically attacked the MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins for her “hysterical” reaction to Harvard’s president suggesting that genetics — “a gender difference in cognition” — helps explain the lack of women’s proclivity to science? Will promptly attributes the professor’s hysterics to the “solecism” on the part of Harvard’s Summers daring to offend “progressive sensibilities.” Not unlike the infamous Thomas...

The penetrating question asked thirty-five years ago and came back to haunt Kerry in the election is that you don’t ask a military man to die for his country for a mistake. “Country right or wrong” was invented for just such occasions. To be sure Vietnam was a war of vainglory, but it was not in vain despite the manner in which it was terminated. The US had heroically fought for ten years in behalf of another people who, we believed, was worthy of assistance in forging a democracy under thre...

For social security to be under attack is nothing new — conservatives have for seventy years viewed it as nothing but an anti-poverty program. Poverty to conservatives is a matter of bad choices made in one’s lifetime of incompetence. Being low on the economic scale is no excuse for not putting aside a nickel or dime on every dollar made or going to night school to upgrade one’s pathetic existence. As for those truly incapable — orphans and disabled — there are abundant private charitable instit...

A better way for the poor and young to invest in the market is to forgo a hefty percentage of their tax return exemption and dependents to IRAs in the name of the taxpayer and in the names of dependents. When the children reach working age, each percentage of exemption would go into the child’s original retirement account. Is it wise economics to wish for further devaluation of the dollar in order to improve exports? Will the Democratic Party have the guts to position Dean as its chairman? — I d...

Suave sophist George Will, who eloquently expresses deceitful logic, pits the generation of 18-29 year olds who, he admits, voted heavily for John Kerry, against the older traditional generation. This Starbuck group of discriminating taste is restive over social security as it exists whereas the Maxwell House generations still favor the old percolating brand of governmental choice less mandate for retirement. If this were the case that the younger generation, used to many options in their liv...

Not a year goes by for as long as I can remember that the subject of reassessing and reforming public education becomes a central issue as though the education profession hasn’t been doing just that for the past hundred years as each generation requires a different set of tools. At the turn of the last century, class size was a problem owing to the influx of immigration causing concern for class management, particularly in targeting individually vastly diverse children. When city and state co...

During the heat of the Presidential election, the possibility of a draft expended many kilobytes on JU. What disturbed me most, being a rancorous old man, was the ugly head that reared up against a citizen’s army. Some went so far as to suggest that the kids of the ‘greatest generation” were not as efficient in fighting as they are now. I suppose what is implied is that we then had the luxury of “overwhelming force” for which the taxpayer today is unwilling to support. Even if Americans were ...

Sowell in one of his usual blustery columns claimed our education system fails to teach kids critical thinking. He then suggests watching old newsreels of Hitler to see the “adoring faces” of his duped audience. “Then read what he says and see it it makes any sense whatever. Yet he convinced others — and himself — that he had a great message and a great mission.” I lack ‘critical thinking” — being the product of public education to advance degrees, so I misread it and assumed he meant B...

747 Cubans left over from the 1980 Boatlift, were finally released from indefinite captivity after serving their crimes — from petty theft to murder. The reason for the eternal captivity was that Fidel refused to readmit them. Why not send them to Iraq as election officials or Afghanistan to work in the poppy fields? Copyright © 2005 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: January 14, 2005. http://stevendedalus.joeuser.com