Thursday, February 18, 2010

“YIES / Yosano calls fiscal 2010 budget 'rubbish with no philosophy' - Daily Yomiuri On-Line” plus 3 more

“YIES / Yosano calls fiscal 2010 budget 'rubbish with no philosophy' - Daily Yomiuri On-Line” plus 3 more

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YIES / Yosano calls fiscal 2010 budget 'rubbish with no philosophy' - Daily Yomiuri On-Line

Posted: 18 Feb 2010 10:27 AM PST

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The Daily Yomiuri

Former Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano on Thursday decried the sharp rise in the issuance of government bonds under the government's fiscal 2010 budget, describing the draft as "rubbish."

In a speech delivered at a lecture meeting of the Yomiuri International Economic Society in Tokyo, Yosano, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Economic Policy Research Commission, said his party would fiercely oppose the budget, which he said has "no philosophy or backbone."

The ruling and opposition parities are currently debating the budget in the Diet. The ruling parties aim to pass it at the House of Representatives in early March. Bond issuance is expected to climb to a record-high 44.3 trillion yen under the government budget draft.

Yosano expressed strong concern over the nation's ballooning public debt, saying the issuance of government bonds "will increase exponentially under the administration of [Prime Minister Yukio] Hatoyama."

Yosano warned that foreign credit rating agencies likely will downgrade the rating of Japan's bonds if the current fiscal program continues, pushing up long-term interest rates. "If long-term interest rates rise, it'll be difficult for companies and citizens to borrow money. Mr. Hatoyama seems ignorant of the fact that the government's fiscal management affects the economy," Yosano said.

He criticized Hatoyama for failing to come up with ways to put the nation's finances on a healthy footing, such as by raising the consumption tax.

Yosano also blamed Hatoyama for breaking pledges he made in the Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto for last August's House of Representatives election.

Notable among the prime minister's broken promises, Yosano said, was his promise to cut wasteful government spending by 20 trillion yen, with 7 trillion yen to be cut in fiscal 2010. "The government bullied many people with its budget request screening for fiscal 2010, but only managed to cut about 600 billion yen," he said.

Yosano also criticized Hatoyama for not abolishing the provisional higher gasoline tax rate and for not making good on its pledge to cut the salaries of government officials by 20 percent.

"We were defeated by the DPJ's manifesto [in the lower house election], and the DPJ took the reins of government. So the government has the responsibility to keep the promises made in the manifesto," Yosano said.

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It's All Game: Social philosophy in game form - madison

Posted: 18 Feb 2010 06:38 AM PST

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The triumph of the ego versus the power of the collective. A ruined underwater city packed with murderous, genetically-enhanced freaks. A clash of ideals and an unbreakable, if creepy, bond between father and daughter.

Not exactly the stuff of your standard-issue save-the-world shooter game. Then again, the original Bioshock was never standard-issue — and neither is installment two, which proves as unsettling and unforgettable as its predecessor.

In the first game, you were an unlucky crash survivor in 1960 who found the entrance to the underwater metropolis known as Rapture. In Bioshock 2, set eight years later, you're now a different character, viewing the wreckage of Rapture as Subject Delta, one of the earliest prototypes for the Big Daddy, the diving suit-wearing monsters that stalked the halls of Rapture.

The situation, amazingly, is worse than ever. Andrew Ryan, the industrialist who created this would-be underwater utopia, was an unapologetic objectivist, a man who believed in unfettered profit and the triumph of the self. Ten years after his misguided social experiment imploded in greed, mutation and murder, he's been supplanted by the icy psychologist Dr. Sofia Lamb, a woman who wields a brutal and Orwellian collectivism. And an army of Big Sisters, lithe and deadly killing machines that enforce her authority.

High-minded social philosophy forms Bioshock 2's backbone, but the emotional kick hinges on the mysterious bond between Big Daddies (including, in this case, you) and Rapture's Little Sisters, the creepy girls who harvest the gene-boosting substance known as ADAM from corpses. You won't learn your identity, or even your name, until very late in the game, but you know one thing right away — you have to reunite with your Little Sister… even if she also happens to be Dr. Lamb's daughter.

The fact that you can now adopt Little Sisters and defend them as they happily harvest ADAM makes the inevitable, soul-scarring choice from the first game even harsher: Will you set them free and sacrifice the ADAM they carry, or kill them and fast-track your way to a new set of plasmid powers?

Rapture itself is as deadly and vibrant as it ever was, and you get to see even more of its neon, art-deco sheen this time around. Several sequences — looking up into the Rapture skyline and seeing schools of fish swirling, taking a tour through Rapture's history in the underwater amusement park — will take your breath away.

As amazing an experience as it is, not all the rivets in Bioshock 2 are as tight as they should be. As a Big Daddy, you ought to be nigh-unstoppable; instead, you're oddly underpowered through most of the game's first acts. The massive drill that resides where your right hand should be sure looks menacing, but it runs out of gas faster than a Hummer with a leaky tank. Splicers, those citizens of Rapture who've sacrificed their sanity and beauty to countless ADAM hits, can take you out with one or two melee swipes. Good thing there's a resuscitating Vita-Chamber around every corner.

Bioshock 2

2K Games/2K Marin

Xbox 360 PlayStation 3

Rated: Mature

Retail: $60

 

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Mount Vernon Statement: the contradiction at the heart of this ... - The Christian Science Monitor

Posted: 18 Feb 2010 12:57 PM PST

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New York

Have you heard the one where Ron Paul, Pat Robertson, and John Bolton walk into a bar? According to the "Mount Vernon Statement," the declaration of first principles signed yesterday at part of George Washington's estate by conservatives of varied persuasions, the punch line would be "Constitutional conservativism." Led by Edwin Meese, President Reagan's attorney general, the collection of prominent economic, social, and "national security" conservatives aimed to clarify and recommit themselves to conservativism's bedrock political philosophy. 

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They modeled the project self-consciously on the 1960 Sharon Statement that ushered in "new conservativism" when the Young Americans for Freedom signed it at William F. Buckley Jr.'s estate in Sharon, Conn. Like those young activists, Frank Meyer's and Mr. Buckley's vision of a theory able to "fuse" disparate American conservative ideologies inspired Meese and Co. The resulting mix of pabulum, historical revisionism, and internal inconsistency sheds light on enduring and contemporary tensions within American conservativism.

First, their argument. The main nugget of "Constitutional conservatism" is that America needs to return to the "limited government based on the rule of law" ideals of the Founders, who "sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government."

In "recent decades," the statement continues "America's principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities, and our politics," while the ""selfevident [sic] truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist." The signatories demand that the federal government respect Constitutional limits and apply the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal. 

They round out their philosophy by arguing that these ideals, embodied in the "conservatism of the Declaration," connect with the natural law tradition. Without this natural morality, the free market cannot operate; but with too big a government, "moral self-government" fails. Thus the connection between libertarians and social conservatives.

Thomas Jefferson would scoff at the characterization of the Declaration as "conservative." American conservatives have always had a difficult ideological road to travel. They have to be conservative about the historically radical ideas of democracy, liberty, and individual rights. The result here is an odd reading of the Founders, federalism, and the Constitution.

The signatories call for a small federal government for the sake of small government, but the Founders were more concerned with small federal government for the sake of small central government, leaving the states broad authority to govern and grow as they wish. Dispersion of authority, arguably more than the size of the authority, was the point of the constitutional limits and the 10th Amendment, with its reservation to the states or the people any powers not expressly delegated to the federal government by Constitution. 

As America grew more complex and interconnected, however, federal regulation made increasingly more sense as a means of securing national coordination and public goods, as exemplified in The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. But if the federal government and federal taxes shrunk down dramatically as Mt. Vernon supporters envision, most state and local governments – with the exception of Texas and a few of its conservative friends – would likely metastasize to fill in the regulatory and welfare gap, and we are left at square one. And the constitution, especially on their strict reading, would have little to say about this.

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Women's Focus I, Women's History Month Feature Release - TMCnet

Posted: 18 Feb 2010 12:21 PM PST

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SAN FRANCISCO --(Business Wire)-- The following releases focus on the topic Holiday VII, Last Minute: ALL TIME-OFFS ARE IN EASTERN TIME, UNLESS NOTED STORIES MOVED AT 4:35 AM ET ON FEB. 18, 2010.

NEW YORK--Safe and Sound: Stylish Personal Alarm Brings Peace of Mind to American Women Source: Ila Security The following knowledgeable industry leaders and scholars from Business Wire's ExpertSource database are available to discuss topics relating to Women's Focus I, Women's History Month Paula Findlen, Historian of Philosophy and Science, Stanford University Paula Findlen specializes in the rise of modern science, medicine, and technology during the European Renaissance, especially in Italy, by looking at the intersection of science, art, and technology.



She is currently finishing her book project "In the Shadow of Newton: Laura Bassi and Her World." Laura Bassi was an 18th century scientist and physicist who was the FIRST woman to officially teach college in Europe. She was one of the key figures in introducing Newton's ideas of physics and natural philosophy to Italy. She also carried out experiments of her own in all aspects of physics.

From About.com A noted Newtonian physicist of the eighteenth century, Laura Bassi earned a doctorate before being appointed Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna in 1731; she was one of the first women to achieve either success. Pioneering Newtonian philosophy and other ideas within Italy, Laura also fitted in 12 children.



In 2004, Paula Findlen received the Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize for her article, "The Scientist's Body: The Nature of a Woman Philosopher in Enlightenment Italy," which was judged the best article published in the history of women in science in the preceding three years. In addition to numerous articles on women and science, historical thought in the Renaissance, and the lives and works of Athanasius Kircher, Isaac Newton and Laura Bassi, Findlen is the recipient of numerous prizes and fellowships, including Guggenheim and Getty Fellowships.

PR Contact: Corrie GoldmanTitle: Humanities Outreach OfficerEmail: corrieg@stanford.eduTelephone: 650-724-8156 Registered journalists can submit queries to the ExpertSource staff and/or search for more experts in this and various other topics by going to www.businesswire.com and logging in with your email address and PressPass password. If you are not registered, you may do so at www.businesswire.com. For more information or assistance with ExpertSource, please contact Stacey Frank, ExpertSource Coordinator/Business Wire at 312/223-1037, stacey.frank@businesswire.com.

The following are upcoming Features Package release dates: Feb. 22 - Philanthropy I Feb. 23 - Consumer Focus I Feb. 25 - Arts & Entertainment I Questions? Contact Business Wire's Media Relations team at media.relations@businesswire.com or features@businesswire.com.

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