After the election

I have mentioned before that I am not to happy with the choices that the US has for President. I don't like Kerry for his ideas and his demagoguery and on the other side I think that Bush has not done a good job, and even though that I can not say that we shouldn't get rid of dictators abroad, I believe the role of the US as world police is wrong. Also Bush has not accomplished his promises and the spending has gone crazy in this administration. My friend Brad Lips in his blog Lips Brothers quotes the following from a NRO article that he just published:

The challenge for conservatives remains the same whether Bush wins or loses. Victory followed by complacency could be just as damaging as outright defeat. Conservatives ought to recommit themselves to a shared vision, and for that we should look to Ronald Reagan.

Although I am not a conservative, I couldn't agree more with the quote. Regardless if Bush wins or looses, if you are a Libertarian or Conservative we have to take a stronger position against big government, and in favor of more freedom.

Electoral College

In anticipation to the upcoming election I am trying to understand the electoral college and how it works. While I am reading about it on different sources I will be posting below the links to places that offer an explanation. I will add more links as I read them and eventually I will grade them in order of quality of explanation, so you would be able to go directly to the most clear one. This since I have heard so many different explanations about this institution on the previous days, none to my satisfaction.


Links:

Wikipedia

CNN

Daylight Saving Time

This coming sunday in the US we turn our clocks back one hour, so we will be able to sleep one hour later. Since I am a recent arrival to this country I found this webpage that explains the rationale behind this curious practice not observed near the equator.

McElroy and DV

I came across her website long time ago, but I have not checked it back in a long time among other things because I only go through websites that have Rss or Atom feeds. This time it caught my attention her parallel blog on domestic violence (DV) and her own experiences with the issue some 20 years ago. As always her positions are not the traditional feminist positions, and are more geared toward individualistic feminism. She cites also George Rolph expert on DV against males and the gender bias that currently exists on the issue towards taking only into account the violence against women and not against men. McElroy tries to draw paralalells to her own experiences and how she thinks Rolph's insights are non-gender specific.

Head of the OAS resigns

Yesterday at 5 Miguel Angel Rodriguez Secretary general of the OAS resigned. What a pitty, the press says that he recived a personal loan from a Minister that received the bribe:

"The evidence seems damning enough: Rodriguez's close friend and former housing minister, Jose Antonio Lobo, now under house arrest while cooperating with authorities, told prosecutors last week that then-president Rodriguez demanded a cut of the lucrative deal. Rodriguez claims the money was not a bribe but a personal loan, a loan that ended up in a Washington bank account held by his wife. There is no paper trail, according to Rodriguez, because it was a deal done con el pelo del bigote -- from the hair of his moustache -- a Costa Rican idiom for word of honor. "

Check the story by Marcela Sanchez of the Washington Post (registration required). Lets hope this is all a coverup of the guy in prison and Miguel Angel is innocent. I don't know him personally, but I have spoken with him a couple of times over the phone to invite him to conferences and he has always struck me as a very accesible and humble person. I have known from other people that he is a very honest and principled man. His resignation could only mean that he is a very principled man that gave out his post to defend his dignity.

Michael Moore exposed

This new film Celsius 41.11 promises to debunk and expose Michael Moore lies. Produced by Citizens United the film's trailer gives a glimpse of a more realistic view of whatever has happened in the last four years. Hopefully the producers will allow this movie to be downloadable as Michael Moore did for his movie as I mentioned on a previous post. In the meantime watch the trailers here. You can also watch it free on a theather near you if enough people sign up here.

JibJab #2 has arrived

The second release of the political sattire cartoon phenomenon of this election year has arrived. This one titled "Is good to be in DC" has the hard time of being overshadowed by the raving success of "This land". Check their website and check if the second release is funny as the first one.

Now you can own both on DVD, I will run to get my copy too. So far my only concern at this time of the posting is that their website is having problems to load due to the heavy traffic so be patient, or if you want to see them on tv today check at the following stations:


October 8th, Catch the JibJab brothers on the

boob tube!


The Today Show

Between 7:30 AM and 8:00 AM EST


CNBC Squawk Box

Immediately after the Today Show


CNN

Between 9:15 AM and 9:30 AM EST


FOX News - DaySide

Between 1:30 PM and 2:00 PM EST


CNBC Capitol Report

Between 3:00 PM and 3:30 PM EST


ABC News Now (tentative)

Between 5:00 PM and 5:30 PM EST


MSNBC – Countdown with Keith Olberman

Between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM EST

Big Brother in Virginia

The use of RFID in Virginia Licenses is currently being taken into consideration. That has sparked a debate over privacy and security issues. The traditional privacy advocates views is that this might be a nightmare and that our privacy is going to be thrown into the trash. On the other hand tech gurus, and big companies that will be able to handle more efficiently their inventory and offer better suited products to the consumer preferences, argue that RFID is only going to make our lifes easier. Reason Magazine had a good article that explored the pros and cons of this new technology that is being pushed by big companies as Walmart as well as governments, and it's hottly debated among libertarians.

Si Suecia puede por que Ecuador no?

A los socialistas les encanta citar como ejemplo de modelo de reformas Suecia. Aquí incluyo un link de la BBC sobre Vouchers en Suecia y el impacto que este ha tenido en el sistema educativo. Lo interesante de la nota es que a pesar de las sospechas que generaba el sistema en los sindicatos de profesores, estos ahora se han convertido en defensores del sistema (siempre y cuando cumpla con ciertas reglas que ellos han impuesto).

La eliminación de las Aduanas

Constantemente nos quejamos de que uno de los problemas nacionales más grandes es la corrupción. Quizá una de las fuentes mas grandes de corrupción es el contrabando. Todos nos quejamos de la corrupción que esto significa y sin embargo muchos de los que se quejan de la corrupción de las aduanas no tienen empacho alguno en ir a comprar a la bahía o productos que sean contrabandeados.

Mas sobre las ventajas de la Educación Privada

Ante el comentario de Alby en el post Educación y Etica en la cual citaba un comentario que negaba los beneficios de los vouchers en la educación y que reproduzco a continuación:

My wife suspected it all the time

Ever since we moved to our new home there has been a fish tank in our room that belongs to the owner of the house. Since the fish are too big and the tank is huge we have accepted those pets until a new home for them could be found. My wife complains that the fish tank is smelly, I don't have a good sense of smell, and besides the smelly food that its poured in the tank every once in a while I don't see why they should be smelly. Now imagine this morning that I was reading about the Ig Nobel Prizes, that honor the best in oddball research, run the gamut from a nudist library to a psychology experiment featuring a man in a gorilla suit to a recent finding that herrings communicate by farting. I don't know what kind of fish we have but my wife suspected it all the time the fish tank is in fact smelly. We definitively have a group of chatty fish in the tank.

Se acabó la fiesta en Venezuela (The party is over in Venezuela)

Only weeks after the national recall referendum Chavez is tightening the grip on the opposition. For those who believed in the legitimate democracy of Venezuela and its blessing by Carter and the Gaviria's OAS, how can they explain this?

How I feel about the current political debate

Throughout this electoral campaign, I have felt uncomfortable with the current political positions; I think that the candidates are more alike than most people think. I was reading the last Cato Policy Report and on the back page there is an essay by David Boaz. The essay could have not said better on what I think about liberals and conservatives. Read the essay and you will probably agree with Boaz and me.