Archive for the ‘US Politics’ Category
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
This post is available as a PDF file here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/theystillcant.pdf
30 December 2009
In August of 2002 I endured a personal challenge. At the time, I was sitting on a bar stool at a friend’s house in my Iowa home town listening to a classmate prattle on about 9/11 and all of ...
Posted in Geopolitics, Sci / Tech, US Politics | 10 Comments »
Monday, December 21st, 2009
This essay is available in PDF form here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/myworldview.pdf
“Your world view is, well, wrong.”
Those were the last words I ever heard from a guy I’d been friends with for more than 30 years.
That was back in late 2004. At the time, I was sitting in Beijing, China, and had recently ...
Posted in Cultures, Geopolitics, Outside the Fishbowl, US Politics | No Comments »
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama presented his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, earlier today.
The headline you will read in the mass media regarding the speech will likely be some variation of “Obama defends US wars as he accepts peace prize.”
The press will be doing its self-anointed job of ...
Posted in Geopolitics, US Politics | 6 Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Back in March, I posted a series on Health Care Reform:
Thoughts on Health Care Reform
Health Care Reform FAQ
Health Care Reform: The Options
Health Care Reform: The Cost Drivers – One Academic’s View
Health Care Reform: $2.4 Trillion and $85.6 Trillion
My goal was to lay a foundation of impartial information before the hyper-partisan media, parties, ...
Posted in health care reform, US Politics | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Adult Americans
Between 1989 and 2007 Americans knowledge of current events dropped by 8.3%
93% know Arnold Schwarzenegger while 36% know Vladimir Putin
32% know Sunni and Shia as two branches of Islam
41% know the name Muslims use to refer to God and the name of Islam's sacred text
33% believe that Iraq carried ...
Posted in Cultures, Geopolitics, US Politics | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Our friends often ask us about our perspective on national and international issues due to our travels, experiences and perspectives.
This is an excerpt from a recent email exchange on that topic:
There continues to be very little insight and understanding of the challenges that face the country among the American people, ...
Posted in Cultures, US Politics | No Comments »
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Our friend, Lee Wochner, recently attended a town meeting on health care. It was, by his account, less scrum, and consequently more exchange of information, than other such events held recently around the country.
While there, Lee took some photos of the signs some of the attendees were displaying. When asked ...
Posted in US Politics | 5 Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
While researching the "Lessons From Saddam" post, I came across The National Security Archive of George Washington University.
The National Security Archive is a repository of information and documents, many obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. In short, it's a collection of things some people in the U.S. Government wished ...
Posted in Cultures, US Politics | No Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
This post is available as a PDF document here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/lessonsfromsaddam.pdf
*******
For the 23 people in the United States who have not been wholly consumed by the All Michael, All The Time media onslaught, it’s been an interesting week.
For instance, California, the world’s 8th largest economy, went officially, publicly broke and started ...
Posted in Cultures, Geopolitics, US Politics | 3 Comments »
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Last night I did a very unusual thing. I was in the room while CNN was on and I watched Sarah Palin's goodbye-for-now press conference. It was unusual because a) I don't watch television and b) I especially don't watch European and American news television. So, it was an unusual event ...
Posted in US Politics | No Comments »
