The Predicate

Desipundit is calling for a Blog Quake Day to help focus on the relief efforts for the South Asian Quake. It also lists various organizations that you can give your contributions to.

I think this is important in the light of today's BBC news article that says:

Many of the world's richest countries have so far failed to support a UN appeal for victims of the South Asian quake, a top UK-based charity has said. The charity, Oxfam, said less than 30% of the $312m (£175m) sought by UN aid agencies had even been promised. It said the US, Japan, Germany and Italy had given less than their "fair share" as large economies. Belgium, France, Austria, Finland, Greece, Portugal and Spain had so far donated nothing at all, it added.

1. Earthquake news and help information - this blog is being maintained by some of the folks who did a lot of work in the post-Tsunami relief efforts.

2. Is it just me or is there a general apathy towards the earthquake in the Indian Blogsphere, just because it was Pakistan that was the most affected?

3. What do Jihadists who wrote that ""Katrina, a soldier sent by God to fight on our side... the soldier Katrina joins us to fight against America." have to say about the earthquake in Pakistan?

4. BTW, there is no evidence that Osama Bin Laden himself was injured or killed in the earthquake, though members of Lashkar-e-Toiba were killed.

5. From the "Is-it-April-1st-yet" section, news that Sir David Frost has joined the Al-Jazeera TV. What next? Breakfast with Frost in the icy caves of Pakistan with Osama Bin Laden?

- Balaji.

Tags: roe v wade, roe v. wade, abortion, tom barnett

I was following the John Roberts nomination and hearings, and most of the veiled attack seemed to center on his stance on Roe v. Wade. The left and the right seem to think that Roe v. Wade will dictate the judicial landscape and a woman's right to abort will be seriously affected if Roe v. Wade is overturned by a conservative Supreme Court. I was thinking how the health care climate has changed over the years and how it will change drastically as outsourcing health care goes prime-time.

Currently, the thinking on outsourcing is on the lines of cutting cost. i..e., going to India to have a surgery done at a cheaper rate than here in the U.S. But, outsourcing can also mean that outlawed practices like late-term abortion (or abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned) can also be done overseas. As the rates fall and "medical tourism" takes off, it will be very affordable to have such procedures done elsewhere. What will the right do about it?

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Since tax cuts are not popular with the president and since half of the suggestions by Tim Grieve’s article aren’t practical or likely to happen under the current administration, perhaps other means of fundraising or cost cutting need to be explored.

How about cutting a chunk of the budget in one over-indulgent area that might solve much of New Orleans woes? I know most people for or against this area’s budget get overly excited when discussing this, I’m only suggesting a 25% cut for one year; a whole 100 billion dollars of it. That’s right, 419 billion dollars is budgeted for defense. This is not an arbitrary number, I got it from the Budget for Fiscal Year 2006.

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- Balaji.