An argument for and an argument against the public option.

For anyone keeping up on the topic of internet censorship, this probably came as no surprise. A while ago, the Chinese Communist Party mandated that any computer sold within the Mainland as of July 1 come with pre-installed censorship software that the Chinese Communist Party says would protect youth from “harmful” websites. What they say they mean is “pornography”, what they really mean are websites that may be politically sensitive, anything from the advocation of Taiwanese sepratism to pages on, for example, the Congressional Executive Committee on China, a United States government think-tank (which was blocked when I tried to access it in Beijing). The CCP has since backed down, at least a little. More recent news reported that installation of the software is now voluntary, but it will be pre-packaged on computers. It’s still a troubling possibility; autocratic governments sometimes define rather fluidly what “voluntary” really means, but it’s at least better than we originally thought. It does bring up a good question, though: What’s the responsibility of corporations to comply with political directives?

Read the rest of this entry »

This is an addendum to my column that ran today, updating the events that have transpired since I wrote it on Tuesday.

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must be beginning to wonder exactly what year it is.

An anonymous Youtube user has posted a video showing a fragment of massive demonstration in favor of defrauded presidential candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi in Imam Khomeini Square on Thursday. The New York Times reported that it appeared even larger than Monday’s protest, which Tehran’s mayor has said may have itself drawn as many as 3 million people.

Similar protests have drawn tens of thousands in cities all across the country.

Despite the Khamenei/ Ahmadinejad regime’s repeated attempts to stifle dissent regarding the disputed results of last Friday’s elections– arrests, police brutality and shutting down the lines of communicatoin– as well as trying to buy time by making token gestures to the opposition such as a partial recount, the opposition does not appear in any way to be letting up.

It is beginning to appear that the Iranian government’s decision to rig the election may indeed produce a far worse result than anything that may have happened had they simply allowed Moussavi to assume his rightful place as Iran’s next president, begging the question– where will this end?

Will we soon see something along the line of the 1979 revolution that put this theocratic regime in place likewise remove them from power?

- John Hill

One of our staff eds this week talked about the F.D.A. being given regulatory control over tobacco products. I, personally, saw it as well as the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 to be measures meant to protect the consumer; and so added a blurb about it in the staff ed (a perk you get when you’re editor.)

Afterward, I got an email asking why we didn’t use one of our previous staff eds to talk about that Credit Card Legislation. I meant to, but overlooked it.

Since Obama signed it last month it’s no longer timely, and so it won’t be in a future staff ed. However, here’s some sources for people who are interested in finding out more. I’d look at them in their order to understand why the measures put in this legislation were chosen as opposed to others.  

What led consumer advocates to want legislation.

A brief of what’s in the new law.

Ben Stein had an interesting column last week in Yahoo! Finance, called Why This Time Feels Different. He talked about why this recession feels more pronounced than others. While “feels” is a bit difficult to measure I could see his point.

Although this recession is often called the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the decline in output and employment is much closer to other recent recessions (see this). However, Stein’s argument that this recession could “feel” worse than its partners could still be true. Over the years people have begun relying on selling their homes for financing their retirements. Because this recession more than the others hit housing, these Americans have essentially lost an unexpected chunk of their retirement savings. With baby boomers starting to reach retirement within the next several years, this could make a temporary pay cut or job loss seem somewhat less significant.

The New York Times had a piece last week about changing the diet of cows to reduce their methane emissions. According to the article, the UN believes that livestock is one of the most serious threats to our global climate. By switching to this new diet a Vermont farm saw an 18 percent drop in methane output, and France has seen an even bigger 30 percent drop.

This is all great, but I was waiting for the catch. Phrases like, “They [the cows] are healthier,” “Their coats are shinier, and the breath is sweet,” prime me to think that going green in this case costs more.

However, there are cost savings! With the new diets cows are producing 10 percent more milk, live longer (produce more milk over their lifetime), and have better health (which I’ll assume means they are cheaper to maintain). What’s more, the new diet that incorporates flax seeds could be made even cheaper if a flax seed heating/processing plant were built here in the U.S.

This is an interesting development. Production could remain the same (or slightly increase) while decreasing emissions. Whereas, in Ireland and Denmark their efforts to decrease methane emissions are leading them to decreased production of beef and milk. Earlier in March of this year, Ireland proposed a 13 pound per animal cow tax (and Denmark was considering an 80 pound tax per cow). Considering the demand for beef and milk are expected to rise in the future the former seems like the better option.