Today Terri Schiavo is scheduled to be starved to death. There is a lot of debate over whether she wishes to live or not, but she cannot tell us, even though she can laugh, and respond to music and track things with her eyes. However, if society does wish to kill her, starving her is the most inhumane way of doing it. Death must always be quick and painless.

In the LokiTorrent Shut Down article damicatz created a post asking about ethics. Since I can't post replies, and the points he brought up are broader than just stopping illegal downloads, I thought I'd post my thoughts here and start a new thread.

Do you support arsonists? Maybe you do without realizing it.

View this ad and decide for yourself.

In January 1983 the Social Security Administration started to intentionally build up a large surplus in the Trust Fund to provide excess revenue to help pay for the retirement of the babyboomers in the early decades of the 21st century.

I've come to realize that the reason for most of the opposition to Social Security reform is a basic lack of understanding of what the Trust Fund is.

It used to be that the legal system was meant as a safety net to protect the innocent from false charges. Now however, the legal system's sole purpose is to protect the guilty as much as possible from the consquences of their actions.

Social Security is a big issue right now. There's a lot of information and disinformation being spouted around right now. However, all agree that there will be a Social Security shortfall in the future. Senator Boxer said herself that in 2042 the trust fund will have been depleted, and that Social Security will only be able to provide 73% of current benefits. I don't know about you, but I'm not looking forward to losing 27% of my "security," when it's barely meant to be more then the poverty

What is going on? I heard on the radio yesterday that Pelosi had created a 20 member Faith Committee. I thought that Democrats believed in a strong wall of seperation betweek church and state. Is the wall cracking?

The 2005 Libertarian Party of Minnesota Convention will be on April 9th. For /.'ers interested in libertarian issues, look at the line up of speakers:

• Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik
• Author James Bovard
• Journalist and Author Vin Suprynowicz
• Filmmaker Michael Wilson
• President of the Taxpayers' League of Minnesota David Strom
• Former Chair of Libe

The Democrats are about to appoint Howard Dean as the new party chair. This is the same guy who just proclaimed "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for." That's good for the party idealists, I guess. However, it kind of makes it hard to get *more* votes that you need to win a national race, when you start out by saying that you *hate* 51% of the American voters. Not that any Republicans

A Republican and a Democrat were walking down the street when they came to a homeless person. The Republican gave the homeless person his business card and told him to come to his business for a job. He then took twenty dollars out of his pocket and gave it to the homeless person.

The Democrat was very impressed, and when they came to another homeless person, he decided to help.

In Minnesota, one of the biggest health issues currently is banning smoking from public places. In the Star Tribune article on the smoking ban they end with these words.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Delano, questioned whether civil liberties were being damaged by such legislation.

SiliconJesus decided to write a JE that offered his view of society today, I think, one opinion being:

When 70% of the people who get arrested are black, in cities where 70% of the population is black, that is not racial profiling, it is the Law of Probability.

On Tuesday, veteran democratic Sen. Robert Byrd spoke out against those attacks while at the same time declaring his opposition to Rice`s nomination.

Well, well, well. I'm sure everyone knows about this by now. An Ex-KKK leader opposes a black woman. A tiger really can't change his spots.

Former President Jimmy Carter has been linked with a key figure in the U.N.'s oil-for-food scandal by the group leading the nationwide effort to evict the United Nations from American soil and halt U.S. funding of the U.N.

Move America Forward today will call upon Carter to provide a full accounting of his meetings and conversations with Samir Vincent, who yesterday pleaded guilty to participating in numerous illegal activities as part of the U.N. scandal.

SPONGEBOB, OTHER CARTOONS ACCUSED OF PROMOTING HOMOSEXUALITY As they are used in a video promoting tolerance. (CNN) Without hesitation, the media have seized this opportunity to mock the "religious right." (LA Times/