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Tag Archives: politics

Population growth and resource usage

One important issue not receiving enough attention is efficiency increases forced by population growth. The Earth is a finite system: resources do not grow as population does. This means that to maintain the same results (standard of living, &c.) as population grows, efficiency must increase. This is important for issues such as land use, food [...]

Constitution?

Must watch! This is scary. We had come to expect stuff like this from G. W. Bush, but not Obama. He did vote for the renewal of the KGB act, so we can’t expect too much. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, [...]

On the road to government accountability

Yesterday Obama sent an important memo to the heads of departments and agencies in the executive branch. The President wrote: A democracy requires accountability, and accountability requires transparency. As Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” In our democracy, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which encourages accountability through [...]

Why I support Fort Wayne’s light pollution ordinance

I wrote this in response to Tim Pape–my city councilman–who asked that I explain my reasoning for supporting the light pollution ordinance. It passed, but it seems that most people in Fort Wayne oppose it. I think the opposition exists for three reasons: A significant fraction of Fort Wayne is anti-government, not just anti-bad-government. This [...]

Fort Wayne light pollution ordinance text

The City of Fort Wayne passed a light pollution ordinance this week. The quantity of criticism of this commonsense law is amazing. I certainly agree that this shouldn’t need to be a law, but unfortunately, it does. The only problem I see with this ordinance is that it only applies to residential properties. It is [...]

Light pollution ordinance: Surprising good news

In surprising good news, the Fort Wayne city council passed–and the mayor signed–a residential light pollution law. This is something I have supported for at least twelve years. I can see the point of some on the council that this shouldn’t be a law, but their reasoning is wrong. It shouldn’t need to be a [...]

The first Wednesday of November

I’m not the only one.

STI

Now is the perfect time to remind everyone of the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence (STI) Project. The major (and minor) political parties are doing their best to prove this effort futile.

“Drill, Baby, Drill!”

“Drill, Baby, Drill!” We have heard this phrase constantly since the Republican convention. The thought behind this chant is that increased American oil production will lead to lower gas prices. This idea is based on supply and demand. With a constant demand, increasing supply should lower the price of a resource. Drilling in the US [...]

Voting

Ben Witherington just wrote a good post on Christians voting. Uninformed and single-issue voters annoy me. Oh well. Maybe this will be the year we finally get rid of Mark Sauder.