Iran's display of test-fire missiles this past Sunday has fueled accusations, threats and strong debate among other world leaders. German and French spy agencies have suggested that the Iranians are possessors of more nuclear power than has been made public. However, the Obama administration, unlike its allies, suggests that Iranian efforts to design nuclear weapons were most probably stunted early in 2003. Photographs of a suspiciously, hidden faculty on the front page, hint at Iranian attempts for designing a nuclear warhead. According to Israeli spy intelligence, a plant in Qum has been identified as the center for uranium enrichment: an element crucial to creating bombs and is in fact, the hardest step in warhead design. This is an argument all-too similiar to the intelligence argument on the eve of the Iraq war. Hopefully, this doesn't escalate into a third distraction for the White House and the Obama administration.
While on the subject of White House policies, the health care reform plan proposed by Obama has been questioned and criticized at every angle. Yet another more controversial medical issue that would have to find a niche in the health care reform plan is abortion. Legislators have yet to establish any solid policy on the Pro-life/Pro-choice debate. President Obama has promised that federal subsidiaries would not pay for elective abortions, but both sides of the debate in the House and the Senate are fighting to determine the finer details. As of now, it is agreed by Democratic Congressionals that insurers would have to finance their abortions through private sources. This would obviously be counterproductive to the problem with private insurance companies and Obama's vision of federal overhaul of health care. I think it raises a good question as to how government would need to endorse particular sides to ethical debates. Is abortion ethical? Should abortion be covered under a federal health care plan? Legislators are in over their heads trying to sort through every situation of medical coverage.
In the Science section of the New York Times, is an article discussing the growing problem of free-ranging domestic cats as unnatural predators in wildlife ecosystems. I was learning about this very issue in my Wildlife Ecology class so it caught my attention instantaneously. Domestic cats whether free-ranging or feral, have been invading wildlife ecosystems, disrupting species populations and even driving some to extinction. The problem is that ground-nesting birds, small mammalian species and other prey species have not evolved to deal with such predators as cats, making them vulnerable. I have kept a number of cats as household companions in my lifetime, none of which were let outside. I think its an issue not many people have considered. I know when I first heard about it, it was a surprise to me.
While on the subject of White House policies, the health care reform plan proposed by Obama has been questioned and criticized at every angle. Yet another more controversial medical issue that would have to find a niche in the health care reform plan is abortion. Legislators have yet to establish any solid policy on the Pro-life/Pro-choice debate. President Obama has promised that federal subsidiaries would not pay for elective abortions, but both sides of the debate in the House and the Senate are fighting to determine the finer details. As of now, it is agreed by Democratic Congressionals that insurers would have to finance their abortions through private sources. This would obviously be counterproductive to the problem with private insurance companies and Obama's vision of federal overhaul of health care. I think it raises a good question as to how government would need to endorse particular sides to ethical debates. Is abortion ethical? Should abortion be covered under a federal health care plan? Legislators are in over their heads trying to sort through every situation of medical coverage.
In the Science section of the New York Times, is an article discussing the growing problem of free-ranging domestic cats as unnatural predators in wildlife ecosystems. I was learning about this very issue in my Wildlife Ecology class so it caught my attention instantaneously. Domestic cats whether free-ranging or feral, have been invading wildlife ecosystems, disrupting species populations and even driving some to extinction. The problem is that ground-nesting birds, small mammalian species and other prey species have not evolved to deal with such predators as cats, making them vulnerable. I have kept a number of cats as household companions in my lifetime, none of which were let outside. I think its an issue not many people have considered. I know when I first heard about it, it was a surprise to me.
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