Responding to your comments
What great comments. Congratulations on your collective engagement with current events!
It seemed like three issues dominated the discussion -- Mexico, Iraq and Global Warming. People also brought up the graying of America, healthcare, and whether it makes sense for the U.S. to have troops in so many places around the world.
Cami asked a great question (historia!) about the definition of an earmark.
In these discusisons, I hope to serve as the "fact and logic police," correcting any factual errors or errors in logic that I notice in the discussion. I won't often enter the discussion. The goal is for you folks to have a space to discuss further the issues you raised online. If this is a good discussion (as I am sure it will be), please do continue the discussion online.
Starting with Mexico, there are public schools in Mexico. In fact, here's an article from Business Week, titled Mexico's Classrooms go Multimedia. Of course that article does not apply to all classrooms in Mexico, but if you are picturing Mexicans in backwards classrooms, perhaps you should think again :)
Here are some facts about Mexico's middle class that I have not yet been able to verify, but they might be an interesting starting point for further research. Because there seems to be so much interest about Mexico, perhaps we should look at the history of US-Mexican relations, starting with the Mexican War in the 1840s.
In Iraq, the financial cost of the war thus far is between one and two trillion dollars. Here's another source with a similar estimate. The figure Xavier cited, of about $200 million a day, seems about right -- though there are some estimates of closer to $300 million a day. We should definitely discuss further whether the proposed "surge" of 20,000 troops makes sense. If it does not make sense, what course of action would you propose?
As for global warming, let's take a look at the Kyoto Protocol. Here's a quick definition from Wikipedia:
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations.
Here's a summary of the U.S. position, from the same Wikipedia article.
If someone wants to do a research paper on any of these topics -- Mexican-U.S. immigration, The War in Iraq, or Global Warming, please let me know. All of those would be great topics.
It seemed like three issues dominated the discussion -- Mexico, Iraq and Global Warming. People also brought up the graying of America, healthcare, and whether it makes sense for the U.S. to have troops in so many places around the world.
Cami asked a great question (historia!) about the definition of an earmark.
In these discusisons, I hope to serve as the "fact and logic police," correcting any factual errors or errors in logic that I notice in the discussion. I won't often enter the discussion. The goal is for you folks to have a space to discuss further the issues you raised online. If this is a good discussion (as I am sure it will be), please do continue the discussion online.
Starting with Mexico, there are public schools in Mexico. In fact, here's an article from Business Week, titled Mexico's Classrooms go Multimedia. Of course that article does not apply to all classrooms in Mexico, but if you are picturing Mexicans in backwards classrooms, perhaps you should think again :)
Here are some facts about Mexico's middle class that I have not yet been able to verify, but they might be an interesting starting point for further research. Because there seems to be so much interest about Mexico, perhaps we should look at the history of US-Mexican relations, starting with the Mexican War in the 1840s.
In Iraq, the financial cost of the war thus far is between one and two trillion dollars. Here's another source with a similar estimate. The figure Xavier cited, of about $200 million a day, seems about right -- though there are some estimates of closer to $300 million a day. We should definitely discuss further whether the proposed "surge" of 20,000 troops makes sense. If it does not make sense, what course of action would you propose?
As for global warming, let's take a look at the Kyoto Protocol. Here's a quick definition from Wikipedia:
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations.
Here's a summary of the U.S. position, from the same Wikipedia article.
If someone wants to do a research paper on any of these topics -- Mexican-U.S. immigration, The War in Iraq, or Global Warming, please let me know. All of those would be great topics.
posted by Mr. G at 1/26/2007 06:24:00 AM
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