Van's Blog

Petition the government online!

van.malcolm — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:31:45 +0000

I think the petition site at whitehouse.gov is a great thing. Petitions that receive enough digital signatures (25,000) are guaranteed an official response. Good for the people to be able to post their views to the right audience (as opposed to a blog which no political decision maker will ever read ), and good for the government as a real-time indicator of public opinion.

Please support my petition for the government to convert its fleet to electric and biofuel-powered vehicles (beginning with the post office): http://wh.gov/Tbf

Or create your own petition at https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/

How embarassing

van.malcolm — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 20:40:44 +0000

I just saw this headline from USA Today: “Obama aide: Speech will not conflict with football”. Boehner’s and hill republicans’ general prissiness, and Obama’s helplessness in the face of it, here are really disappointing signs of how childish American politics has become. Where’s the dignity? Where is the community of responsible people who directly represent us in Washington? What are we left with when our system of representation fails us so badly? Today’s politicians would apparently suggest football :\ Meh.

Stop Coddling the Super-Rich

van.malcolm — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 16:55:12 +0000

Warren Buffett’s op-ed is a down-to-earth piece of common-sense that congress seems to have forgotten (or to have never had). It would be great if Buffett stayed vocal about getting Capitol Hill moving.

Aviation security: CLEAR

van.malcolm — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 20:05:10 +0000

This seems to me to be a terrible idea. It’s also a scary (new?) sector of business. In particular, I’m not at all convinced by the author’s breezy argument that poorer travelers would not be disadvantaged or even discriminated against.

WTF Sarah Palin

van.malcolm — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:44:03 +0000

Please, let’s not elect her for anything again. I’m willing to go ahead and make that promise. Anybody else?

Tucson Shooting

van.malcolm — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:17:10 +0000

This tragedy has captivated the public, both at home and world-wide: but the inability of anyone stateside to address the real problem, the real cause of shootings like this in America, is incredible. Gun supporters can argue for second amendment rights all they want, but real data refutes their arguments completely. Totally. Fundamentally.

No guns please

The simple statement from the Brady Centre website that “Over a million people have been killed with guns in the United States since 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated” (Childrens’ Defense Fund, p. 20) is empirical proof enough that guns do not prevent crime in America.

A complementary figure from the same website is: “U.S. homicide rates are 6.9 times higher than rates in 22 other populous high-income countries combined, despite similar non-lethal crime and violence rates. The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is 19.5 times higher” (Richardson, p.1).

I am an outspoken fan of civil liberties and the rights of citizens, and as far as I’m concerned, people can keep their hunting rifles. But on no level can I convince myself that anyone needs to be carrying around a Glock semi-automatic pistol (other than police). At the very very least, they should not be allowed outside of one’s own home. More reasonably they simply shouldn’t be sold to anyone, and their possession punishable with 20 or so years in prison without parole. Period.

So when people argue that guns are for personal protection, they are ignoring the numbers. World-wide empirical data is clear: implementing strict gun laws will reduce the number of tragic shootings and deaths in our country. Why aren’t we paying attention to this!!?

Happy New Year!

van.malcolm — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 19:17:31 +0000

Here’s to a great 2011 everybody!

Black Friday

van.malcolm — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 12:28:14 +0000

Quote from an NPR article on 26Nov2010: “Last year, the Thanksgiving shopping weekend accounted for 12.3 percent of overall holiday revenue. Black Friday made up about half of that.”

Wow.

Tübinger City Run

van.malcolm — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 18:33:09 +0000

Football Fever

van.malcolm — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:18:37 +0000

Every few years I become a sports fan – it’s Soccer World Cup time again and if I were a betting man, I’d say it’s South Korea for the win! I don’t think the US will do nearly as bad as expected, making it to the final eight. And of course Germany will make it to the final four.