Archive for November, 2009

Punishing Traders For Being Traders

November 25, 2009
By Rick Shaw

As a small-time trader I resent the notion that I have to pay extra to reduce the federal deficit. But a house bill currently in draft aims to do just that by taxing both the purchase and sale of stocks, options, derivatives and futures at .25%. I have a better idea; why don’t we...
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How Infantile is American Society?

November 23, 2009
By Rick Shaw

James Howard Kunstler has written a great post today about American society and what we obsess over versus what we should be obsessing over. Below is a snippet of the full post, which is well worth the read: “How infantile is American society? Last night’s CBS “Business Update” (in the midst of its “60...
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Lobbyists Dictate Congressional Statements

November 15, 2009
By Rick Shaw

Today’s New York Times is reporting that the political action committee and lobbyists for Genentech and its parent company Roche provided statements to both Democrats and Republicans, to be entered into official Congressional Record. According to the Times’ article, Genentech supplied information to one of their lobbyists, Ryan, MacKinnon, Vasapoli & Berzok. The firm...
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My Take On Abortion

November 13, 2009
By Rick Shaw

I like to say I was raised by ‘a pack of women.’ I grew up in a household of two sisters, a mother, and very frequently a grandmother, who all did their part in my up-bringing. One of the benefits of that, aside from my steady rotation of crushes on my sisters’ friends was...
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How Damaging Is The Stupak-Pitts Amendment To Women’s Rights?

November 12, 2009
By Rick Shaw

The Stupak-Pitts amendment is relatively short–only twelve lines, eleven if you discount the section header. In fact, here is the entire text, quoted below: No funds authorized or appropriated by this Act (or an amendment made by this Act) may be used to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the...
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The Stupak Amendment

November 11, 2009
By Rick Shaw

I thought I was going to have a meaningful debate today on Twitter. The Stupak amendment to H.R. 3962 is getting a lot of airtime and a common thread is that the amendment restricts women’s rights, which it clearly doesn’t. When I tried to explain to someone (@RayBeckerman) that the amendment was simply intended...
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Community Lost

November 7, 2009
By Rick Shaw

When I was growing up, I ran around with all the other kids in my neighborhood. We knew each other’s families and we also knew the neighbors who didn’t have kids and the entire community helped keep an eye on us, kept us well fed on cookies, and in general helped raise us. The...
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Posted in Society, U.S. Identity Crisis | No Comments »

Pelosi’s Health Care Reform Bill Against Tort Reform

November 3, 2009
By Rick Shaw

Tort reform is a key aspect that must be included in any health care reform bill. Unfortunately, the latest bill, H.R. 3962 explicitly removes any cap on legal damages or attorney fee’s, as illustrated on page 1432, section 4a and 4b: (4) CONTENTS OF ALTERNATIVE MEDICAL LIABILITY LAW.—The contents of an alternative liability law...
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