What right has Israel to survive over that of any other state that came into existence largely by evicting and killing its indigenous majority? Admittedly it depends how far back you go, since most states including the US would be on shaky ground in this respect, but this is within living memory of many whom still live there.
I am not a fan of Israeli Government, but even I don't deny the Israeli's right to a homeland. True, 1948 was unfair to the Arabs but it was 60 years ago. We cannot correct a wrong with another one. We can however tell the Israelis that we do not, and will not, tolerate their illegal territorial claims. Just because the Nazis did it to the Jews in the 1930-40s, doesn't mean the Jews have the right to do it to someone else.
The current financial crisis is more to do with lending poor people more money they can afford to pay back and everyone living beyond ones means who are now drawing in the reins.
But thats the BANKS who are at fault. Ordinary People are not financiers, when you ask for a loan you should get HONEST appraisal of how much you can afford to borrow. Bankers and Financiers know all the rules and loopholes to cheat, ordinary people don't. The problem in America is Predatory lending, Banks that took a gamble on the housing market by extending loans to people who couldn't pay them back, and now they want homeowners+US Government to pay for their own bad judgement and greed. There is no way a mortgage should be legally allowed to go up 400% in a single month, its extortion. Its the Bush Administrations fault because they run the FTC, (the governmental organization thats supposed to be policing this type of scam). But the GOP has always had a lassiez-faire (deregulation) attitude in business: and the housing market crisis is the result.
To reduce crime you need to reduce income inequality. Income itself has little to do with it. Taxing the rich to pay for meaningful work, urban regeneration, better education and welfare reform might be a better idea.
"Income inequality has been associated with both homicides and births to adolescents in the United States and with homicides internationally. … These results, coupled with no association with absolute income, suggested that violence and births to adolescents may reflect gender-differentiated responses to low social status and could be reduced by reducing income inequality"
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1449337 You are absolutely right, but therein lies the problem. The Uber-Rich in American don't feel obligated in paying taxes. Actor Wesley Snipes is about to do 3 years for this, and hes small potatoes. You take the Mars Family (the candy company), Richard Scraif (big US Publisher) these guys pay millions in legal fees (they have entire law firms, devoted to this) and political contributions to avoid paying income tax. Leona Helmsley (big real NYC estate devolper) was quoted as saying "Only little people pay taxes". All of these people are not Millionaires but BILLIONAIRES. And heaven help any politican who raises their taxes. The GOP Jihad in the 1990s against the Clinton's started because Bill Clinton raised the taxes on the uber-rich by 1%, (which led to the largest economic boom in 30 years, but I digress...). The GOP didnt give a damn about God, Bosnia, Guns, or Lewinsky, it was the tax hike on the rich that pissed them off.
There is a long-term energy crisis evolving that involves OPEC, but this is due to Western dependence on oil and the lack of investment in alternative sources of energy. Ultimately it is caused by the extravagance of Western society and developing countries attempting to emulate them.
And of new oil demands by emerging markets, but otherwise you are correct. Well said.
I totally agree, at least as far as corn feedstock is concerned, but perhaps the real source of the problem is that there are too many people in the world, driving oversize inefficient vehicles further than they need to. The US and Western Europe (if not the world) however has a surplus of food (if not why are a large proportion of the population obese?) and a shortage of oil from stable sources, so the promotion of biofuels in such areas is hardly surprising.
Its a factor but not the overwhelming one. The reason I say this is because Food prices are going up everywhere, especially in countries (Middle East, Africa, Asia) that eat more rice than grain, and therefore biofuel is not grown there. There is not a global food shortage (although there are regional shortages due to severe drought). But the real culprit is high oil prices as its so much more expensive to ship food now.
I agree. However, if you see a terrorist around every corner, want 100% protection, and can’t discriminate in favour of whites, this is inevitable isn’t it? How would you use technology and intelligence if in charge of security?
I was just reading a few moments ago that US border patrols now have the right to check your laptop PC as your cross the border. Not to check to see if its a bomb, or being used to smuggle drugs, but to actually make a copy of your files and examine them. George Orwell is turning in his grave.
Workers in developing countries have been, and still largely still are, the slaves of the Western powers. Most still toil the land and work in sweatshops for a pittance so Westerners can buy cheap food, raw materials, and low grade manufactured goods so we can re-brand and repackage them and sell them off at extortionate profit. Without them and the more recent immigrants the base would fall out of the world economy.
The Japanese played dirty, but they accepted the new rules after the war and flexed their economic muscle instead. For a country with hardly any indigenous resources they must be an example to the industrial world.
I don't call that playing dirty, I call it playing smart. They redeclared war on the USA in 1945 but chose another method to wage it, and this one they are winning. You have to give them credit, they were smart. As for the Chinese, what you say WAS true but thats presently changing. Now the Chinese want to live like westerners do (cars, cellphones and laptops), to get that lifestyle that means companies have to start paying more in salaries. This is actually good news for us, because as Chinese salaries go up, so will the price of their imports to compensate. This will Allowing for US and European brands to compete at home, doubly so because our products are superior in quality to the Chinese. The era of cheap Chinese junk is soon to be over.