Arkady's Thoughts

Have you heard of Ardi?  Better known as Ardipithecus , is another missing link of human evolution possibly answering the age old Darwinian question; If humans did not evolve out of apes/chimps, then how can evolution be a viable concept?  Ardi, a 4-6 million year fossil shows a human ancestor with two anatomical mysteries impossible to ignore.  Ardi has significantly reduced canines, teeth substantially smaller than a chimp, but far more importantly, Ardi is a bipedal !  Bipedal-ism is a trait only available to humans and an evolutionary development that pushed human development forward. This discovery is yet another nail in the coffin of religious sentiment and control of social agenda.  Advocating creationism in the face of mounting evidence will become increasingly more difficult and will start silencing anti-evolutionary religious advocacy.  While religion in gener...

Everyone wishes to visualize themselves on a political spectrum and many visual representations exist, however most are wrong or miss the point.  You are probably familiar with the square and the four quadrants or the even more disappointing circle that sells the notion that political extremes start on polar sides, but end up in the same point.  Presenting:  Political Spectrum 2.0 No complicated gages, arrows or meters.  Presented are several major political ideologies read from left to right.  As you approach the right government grows and this is all that matters.  Where does one stand in respect to size of government?   Overlaid are examples of policies and prominent leaders/thinkers of the past 100 years, the examples or not refined and are quite subjective in terms of what or who belongs where, but they do serve to nudge the general idea forward (there were also space limitations). Why does bigger government matter?  The bigger the...

Congratulations Mr. Obama apparently the Norwegeians caught the hope and change fever and reduced the Nobel peace prize to a set of promises.  At least Gore (sort of) made a movie (8.0 on IMDB, well done) despite being debunked along with the "experts" at the international climate change counil. At least Arafat once attempted to seek peace even if it was after waging terror on innocent civilians.  Today's winner fittingly shocked observers because while he has not accomplished anything YET , he has fantastic potential.  Why the shock? The Norwegeian commitee consists primarily of politicians representing political leanings of Norway's parliament, a body with strong socialist ties. Still, the peace prize has often landed into the hands of people leaving a mark on histry. Men like Gorbachev deserve all the recognition in the world for dismantling one of the most oppressive regimes the world has seen by simply believing in personal liberties.  Lech Wal...

According to CATO's Michael Cannon , an individual who devoted years researching and writing about America's health care, over 2 trillion dollars .  Cannon points to missing mandates, Medicare cuts that have traditionally been blocked and new federal spending.  CBO's calculation based on 829 billion dollars was hard to swallow for various reasons .  Cannon uses an already existing model of my own state and our version of ObamaCare more affectionately known as RomneyCare to arrive to the final number.  But the worst part is that the Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary cost estimate omits the cost of the private sector mandates in the Baucus bill. In Massachusetts, those costs accounted for 60 percent of the total cost of reform. That suggests the actual cost of the Baucus bill – $829 billion plus $75 billion plus $33 billion, times 2.5 – is well over $2 trillion. This strikes at the core of the main argument, government programs never material...

Democrats are delighted and the GOP is scrambling after yesterday's announcement suggested the Senate version of the bill will be a cost cutter .  A major hurdle the liberals had to clear was to convince Americans that reform was coming and it meant saving money.  Polls suggest most Americans are reluctant to believe an 800+ billion dollar bill can save anything, but the CBO certainly gave Obscure proponents a huge boost. There is just one major problem with CBO's analysis and it would appear that the bill was crafted and modified specifically to extract this kind of conclusion.  Several weeks ago CBO estimated the Baucus bill would add to deficit, now suddenly the bill will  decrease the deficit - what gives? The bill is front loaded.   Taxes on all related medical devices under $100 and higher rates for "Cadillac"/"gold-plated" insurance plans begin as early as 2011.  However the actual implementation of the bill and the benefits provided ...

CBO released their estimate on Baucus' chairman's mark and claim 81 billion dollars will be "saved".  However estimating the bill in this particular phase is an exercise in futility because after all the amendments and merging with the house bill, the costs can be and will be significantly higher.  Still, CBO claims that in the next ten years we will enjoy an 81 billion dollar "saving" assuming of course that the current version of the bill is implemented as is.  CBO should know better than anyone this will never happen and releasing these numbers simply gives the liberals more ammunition in convincing liberal Republicans to get on board.   CBO also made specific mention that 94% of Americans will be insured up from 83%, or about 29 million Americans at the cost of 829 billion dollars.  Wow, those are some very expensive Americans, but what happens to the rest of us?  - Those with excellent insurance providers will have to pay more, because "gold...

Obama indicated to Congress that he is undecided on troop buildup in Afghanistan, but at the same time pledges no reductions.  A man with no experience what so ever has found himself in a tough situation and can't decide, which is fine when it comes to buying a dog, not so fine when it comes to American lives.   Military situations cannot exist in a state of inaction, inaction leads to paralysis which leads to death.  Obama is close to committing a crime here, this is akin to a general trying to decided whether to pull his division out of deadly fire or send help and ultimately making no decision.  A recipe for removal.  There are two options in Afghanistan and while one is more obvious both make more sense.  First option is to withdraw soldiers out and leave an invisible special operations presence to disrupt the Taliban from making progress.  If that combination worked to remove them from power it could certainly prevent them from obtaining it a...