_id
stringlengths 37
39
| text
stringlengths 3
37.1k
|
|---|---|
402902df-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00024-000 | Two-state solution gives Palestinians unequal rights |
402902df-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00062-000 | Shimon Peres. "One Region, Two States". Washington Post. February 10, 2009: "Dissenters from the two-state solution contend -- not without some reason -- that Gaza and the West Bank are too small to absorb the Palestinian refugees. Yet this would also be the case under the one-state formula; it would result in a state that is merely 24,000 square kilometers and that already overflows with a population exceeding 10 million (5.5 million Jews and 4.5 million Arabs). While cynics might question the size of the West Bank and Gaza, optimists should look no further than Singapore for reassurance." |
402902df-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00025-000 | Israelis/Palestinians are too intermingled for two state-solution |
402902df-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00018-000 | Two-state solution offers peace, the most important factor |
402902df-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00041-000 | Edward Said, a famous Palestinian writer and activist, advocated for a one-state solution, arguing: "Two people in one land. Or, equality for all. Or, one person one vote. Or, a common humanity asserted in a bi-national state."[1] |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00020-000 | Prisoners are rightly punished by denying their vote |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00014-000 | The state is hypocritical in taxing prisoners but not giving them a vote. |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00022-000 | A right to vote hardly diminishes a prisoner's sentence. |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00060-000 | The clearest indication that voting is a privilege and not a right is the fact that minors cannot vote. Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable for the state to deprive criminals of their voting privileges. |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00030-000 | Prisoners are unfit for society so unfit to vote |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00038-000 | Prisoners have a right to express interests through voting |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00091-000 | "Voting Rights of Prisoners". Australian Democrats Action Plan. - "Australia is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, part of which provides that every citizen shall have the right to vote at elections under universal suffrage without a distinction of any kind on the basis of race, sex, etc or other status." |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00046-000 | Depriving prisoners a vote wrongly disenfranchises them |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00001-000 | Most liberal democracies extend voting rights to prisoners |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00054-000 | Tucker Carlson, MSNBC News Commentator. "The Situation with Tucker Carlson". June 26, 2006. - "Now why would we, as citizens, as non-felon citizens, want felons helping to pick our representatives. If you're a convicted felon, convicted of a violent crime, you have bad judgment. Why do we want people with that judgment picking our representatives?"[4] |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00017-000 | Voting offers prisoners a sense of citizenship, reintegration |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00085-000 | The imposition of a prison sentence is a good general index of the seriousness of a crime, and those who have committed serious crimes should suffer “civic death”. Where people are exceptionally not imprisoned, they should be deprived of the right to vote for the period for which they would usually have been imprisoned. |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00040-000 | Felons have bad judgement, should not help elect reps |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00078-000 | Prisoners are not treated as “civically dead” when it benefits the State: they are liable for taxation on any earnings and savings that they have. There should be no taxation without representation. |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00048-000 | Even governments can choose to rule that prisoners forfeit their right to vote or deserve the punishment of being deprived their vote, we should ask, "what's the higher road?". In terms of democracy, the higher road is to extend the vote to all citizens, including citizens that have commited crimes and are imprisoned (they are still citizens). This is the higher ground. |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00003-000 | Equal protection clause does not protect prisoner votes |
9acf5a44-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00079-000 | In many countries, people start earning money and paying tax before they are old enough to vote (particularly if they leave school as soon as they are allowed to do so). This implies that the right to vote is given to those who can be expected to use it responsibly. Those convicted of serious enough crimes to be imprisoned have shown that they have no respect for society. They therefore cannot be trusted to vote responsibly in the interests of society. |
c3fa8e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:27Z-00033-000 | Graduated response protects creative arts, lowers prices. |
ed2ba9d8-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00036-000 | Birthright citizenship lacks critical government consent |
ed2ba9d8-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00047-000 | "George F. Will: Citizenship a birthright?" Washington Post. March 28th, 2010: "If those who wrote and ratified the 14th Amendment had imagined laws restricting immigration -- and had anticipated huge waves of illegal immigration -- is it reasonable to presume they would have wanted to provide the reward of citizenship to the children of the violators of those laws? Surely not." |
ed2ba9d8-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00004-000 | Without birthright citizenship, countries foster underclass |
ed2ba9d8-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00035-000 | Native American kids not citizens, why should kids of illegals be? |
475596d3-2019-04-17T11:47:21Z-00015-000 | Wrong for govt to mandate unnecessary med procedures. |
b784fde6-2019-04-17T11:47:38Z-00085-000 | "Why Electric Cars?". Who Killed the Electric Car? (Website). - "By using domestically-generated electricity rather than relying on foreign oil, we can achieve energy independence and will no longer need to engage in costly wars in the Middle East to secure an energy supply." |
ab3e066e-2019-04-17T11:47:19Z-00009-000 | Online relationships let students in need reach out. |
ab3e066e-2019-04-17T11:47:19Z-00027-000 | Teachers need to connect with students in their digital world. |
ab3e066e-2019-04-17T11:47:19Z-00028-000 | Vast majority of teachers use "friendships" appropriately. |
ab3e066e-2019-04-17T11:47:19Z-00036-000 | "Editorial - Facebook not appropriate for students, teachers, but alternatives possible." Star News Online. August 5th, 2011: "yes to keeping teachers and school employees from 'friending' their young charges on unsupervised social media sites. But also, “yes” to finding a way to harness the appeal of networking sites for academic purposes – in a safe, controlled environment." |
ab3e066e-2019-04-17T11:47:19Z-00006-000 | Damaging to force teachers to "unfriend" students. |
70ffe88-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00034-000 | Republicans believe in supply-side economics and lower taxes. |
70ffe88-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00142-000 | Democrats favor a higher minimum wage, and more regular increases. The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007 was an early component of the Democrats' agenda during the 110th Congress. In 2006, the Democrats supported six state ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage; all six initiatives passed. |
70ffe88-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00113-000 | "Should fiscal conservatives vote Republican." We Op-Ed. March 5, 2008: "tax rate on those individuals from the highest tax bracket has been dropping precipitously since the end of WWII, regardless of which party held the white house. In fact, the rates began to fall under Kennedy, a Democrat, and continued through Johnson, another Democrat. The tax rate held steady through Nixon, Ford, and Carter, before tumbling further under Reagan. The tax rate bottomed out in 1989, under Bush I, at 28%- less than a third of its modern peak of 94%, under Truman. Bush then raised taxes from their absurd low, and they have been bouncing around the 30s every since. So from this graph it seems pretty clear: Keeping taxes low for the wealthy has been a bipartisan effort for the last sixty years." |
70ffe88-2019-04-17T11:47:25Z-00012-000 | Republicans are more friendly to businesses large and small. |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00031-000 | Vivian Troen and Katherine C. Boles. "How ‘Merit Pay’ Squelches Teaching". Boston Globe. September 28, 2005: "The idea of merit pay, sometimes called pay for performance, was born in England around 1710. Teachers' salaries were based on their students' test scores on examinations in reading, writing, and arithmetic. The result was that teachers and administrators became obsessed with financial rewards and punishments, and curriculums were narrowed to include only the testable basics. ... So drawing, science, and music disappeared. Teaching became more mechanical as teachers found that drill and rote repetition produced the 'best' results. Both teachers and administrators were tempted to falsify results, and many did. The plan was ultimately dropped, signaling the fate of every merit plan initiative ever since." |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00016-000 | Student performance does not demonstrate teacher performance |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00009-000 | Merit pay motivates teachers to cheat on test-scoring |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00047-000 | Darcy Ann Olsen. "Teachers Deserve Merit Pay, Not Special Interest Pay". CATO. May 22, 2001: "This article appeared on cato.org on May 22, 2001. "Teachers need more money, according to a new survey by the American Federation of Teachers. Noting that teacher salaries last year climbed 3.2 percent, or 0.2 percent less than inflation, AFT president Sandra Feldman said, 'Salaries must at least become competitive to attract and keep quality teachers.'" |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00017-000 | Teacher merit is too hard to measure for merit-pay to be fair |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00040-000 | "Top Ten Reasons Why Merit Pay for Teachers Is a Terrible Idea". Education Portal. July 10, 2007: "1. Standardized Test Scores May Be Unreliable. Most merit pay programs are tied to the scores students receive on the tests required by Bush's No Child Left Behind Law. As the American Federation for Teachers and the National Education Association have pointed out, these standardized test scores are seldom reliable and do not provide an accurate barometer of a teacher's performance." |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00004-000 | Merit pay for teachers would be a bureaucratic nightmare |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00043-000 | "the final word on why merit pay is bullshit". Journeys of Jack Tripper. April 29, 2009: "It penalizes teachers who are assigned students with bad parents or bad backgrounds". |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00044-000 | "Top Ten Reasons Why Merit Pay for Teachers Is a Terrible Idea". Education Portal. July 10th, 2007: "Teachers only have so much control over how much and how fast a child can learn. Even if they are willing to go the extra mile, state law may not allow them to do so. For example, in California, teachers cannot require students to stay after class or school to get help." |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00015-000 | Merit pay for teachers is tied to unreliable standardized tests |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00000-000 | Past examples of merit pay for teachers have failed |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00023-000 | Merit-based pay helps attract and keep quality teachers |
91988e1b-2019-04-17T11:47:31Z-00008-000 | Teachers should be paid more; based on merit |
8de3af5b-2019-04-17T11:47:40Z-00041-000 | . American Psychological Association (Resolution on Sexual Orientation, Parents, and Children) "There is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation: lesbian and gay parents are as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children"; and "research has shown that the adjustment, development, and psychological well-being of children is unrelated to parental sexual orientation and that the children of lesbian and gay parents are as likely as those of heterosexual parents to flourish." |
cac3c973-2019-04-17T11:47:27Z-00079-000 | Jeff Madrick. "How big government helps the economy take off." Boston Globe. September 7, 2008: "Reagan swept into office on the promise of tax cuts and reducing government, and what followed were the boom years of the 1980s. To conservatives of the time, it seemed strong proof that the arguments of Friedman and his followers were correct. [...] But there is also a strong case that they were wrong. In 1992, President Bill Clinton succeeded in passing legislation to raise the income tax rate on higher income Americans. Harvard's Feldstein, who had served as Reagan's chief economic adviser, claimed that the tax increase would reduce the incentives to work and therefore the incomes of the wealthy. It turned out to do nothing of the kind: the top tier of Americans, in fact, made more money." [see argument page for extended quote]. |
7785529c-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00017-000 | All energy sources need back-ups; wind energy is not uniquely bad |
7785529c-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00052-000 | Wind power could free up natural gas to replace oil in cars. |
7785529c-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00053-000 | Abundant wind energy can displace fossil fuels and slash emissions |
9bc8d269-2019-04-17T11:47:38Z-00069-000 | Solar power cannot produce enough energy to replace coal |
9bc8d269-2019-04-17T11:47:38Z-00009-000 | Solar energy is safer than nuclear energy. |
9bc8d269-2019-04-17T11:47:38Z-00046-000 | The recovery/payback period can be very short. |
9bc8d269-2019-04-17T11:47:38Z-00038-000 | Solar panels convert energy less efficiently than other energy sources. |
81972726-2019-04-17T11:47:33Z-00056-000 | Developed nations did not always know that they were causing global warming by burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This knowledge only began to form in the 1980s and 1990s, over a century after the industrial revolution had begun. It is inappropriate, therefore, to hold developed nations morally accountable for starting the industrial revolution and causing global warming; they knew not what they were doing. And, once developed economies were dependent on fossil fuels, it was not possible for them to immediately act on their knowledge and stop using fossil fuels - particularly when not everyone accepted the science behind global warming. It is, therefore, wrongheaded to "blame" the developed world for global warming and saddle them with the "punishment" of a greater obligation to combating it. |
81972726-2019-04-17T11:47:33Z-00041-000 | Developed countries caused global warming, they must fix it |
48e36bc4-2019-04-17T11:47:26Z-00057-000 | "Jim Webb: The case for financial reform." August Free Press (Virginia). May 12, 2010: "Consumer protection. Abusive lending practices have proliferated in recent years, with little oversight or regulation. I am a cosponsor of two amendments that would crack down on outrageous credit card rates, by allowing states to regulate interest rates within their own borders—as they could prior to 1978—and by capping the maximum allowable rate at 15%. I also voted to preserve a strong, independent consumer protection agency that will have the ability to conduct meaningful oversight, while exempting smaller banks and other businesses from potentially onerous regulations." |
54a53d73-2019-04-17T11:47:23Z-00038-000 | Young illegal immigrants are here to stay. They can either be treated as assets and developed, or treated as criminals and allowed to fester unused. |
f9ecc418-2019-04-17T11:47:36Z-00042-000 | Pickens Plan - "The Plan calls for building new wind generation facilities that will produce 20% of our nation's electricity and allow us to use natural gas as a transportation fuel. The combination of these domestic energies can replace more than one-third of our foreign oil imports. And we can do it all in 10 years." |
2e721803-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00004-000 | Hydrogen is more challenging than alternatives |
2e721803-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00110-000 | Joseph J. Romm, PhD in Physics at MIT and assistant secretary of energy under US president Clinton, said in the movie "Who killed the electric car" (2006), "Hydrogen is a much tougher alternative fuel than any other alternative fuel we've ever pursued." |
2e721803-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00099-000 | Most fossil fuels are toxic and emit toxins when burned. Carbon monoxide poisoning is one of the most common form of death that can result from burned gasoline. Hydrogen, however, is entirely non-toxic. It can, therefore, save lives. |
7983ff18-2019-04-17T11:47:22Z-00024-000 | Some "fossil fuels" are worth subsidizing for environment. |
7983ff18-2019-04-17T11:47:22Z-00025-000 | Oil subsidies essential until clean tech becomes viable alternative. |
7983ff18-2019-04-17T11:47:22Z-00012-000 | Subsidizing oil can help create and keep jobs. |
3c84a242-2019-04-17T11:47:36Z-00032-000 | It has been a Palestinian position that Jerusalem can "remain the capital of Israel" and can "remain undivided". This is a as long as that does not preclude the Palestinians from also having their capital in a "shared" city.[1] |
3c84a242-2019-04-17T11:47:36Z-00038-000 | If all Jerusalem becomes the capital of both Israel and Palestine, this would create all sorts of potential problems. For example, if a baby is born in a shared Jerusalem, will its civic nationality be Israeli or Palestinian? And if an act is committed in Jerusalem which one nation's government recognises as a crime but the other doesn't, who decides what should be done? Different countries sharing a disputed territory but not dividing it is very illogical, even more so if that territory is the capital of both. Imagine what would have happened if the UK, France,and the USA decided to share Berlin with the USSR instead of dividing it! |
3c84a242-2019-04-17T11:47:36Z-00027-000 | Hady Amr, Director, Brookings Doha Center. "Shared Sovereignty, Jerusalem and the War of Ideas". Brookings Institute. 21 July 2007 - "Sometimes and in some places, conflict is so intractable that all but the most unlikely solutions are fated to fail. In those times and places, we need to try methods that have not been considered in the hopes that unconventional solutions will offer opportunities not available through line-drawing. This is such a time; Jerusalem is such a place; shared sovereignty is such a solution. And the benefits can be global." |
fdb7b7d4-2019-04-17T11:47:29Z-00085-000 | David Kiley. "Fast Food Menu Calorie Counter Should Be National Law". Business Week. July 17, 2009: "The Menu Education and Labeling Act, known as MEAL, would require restaurant chains with 20 or more stores to display calorie counts on their menu boards. The bill also would require printed menus at such chains to include calorie counts as well as information about trans fats, carbohydrates and sodium. [...] It seems to me that a national reg like this would do wonders to lower our healthcare costs. NYC estimates that it may save 30,000 cases of Diabetes. That’s from a statistic model, so who knows?" |
fdb7b7d4-2019-04-17T11:47:29Z-00027-000 | Labeling has not decreased obesity, why would calorie counts? |
fdb7b7d4-2019-04-17T11:47:29Z-00073-000 | Jeff Jacoby. "Want a warning label with those fries?" The Boston Globe. January 11, 2009: "with the rise of the Internet, Americans have access to more such information today than ever before. Yet Americans are also fatter than ever before. [...] Perhaps that is because hectoring people about calories doesn't usually make them thinner. It doesn't work when family members do it. It won't work any better when regulators do it. Not even in Massachusetts." |
fdb7b7d4-2019-04-17T11:47:29Z-00059-000 | Steve Chapman. "Force-fed the facts". Reason. June 23, 2008: "the entire effort rests on assumptions that are unexamined and unfounded. The first is that consumers place a high value on the information being mandated. Actually, most of it is already accessible (online, among other ways) to anyone who is interested. In many places, it is available onsite, on tray liners or pamphlets." [Therefore, customers already often have a choice to inform themselves on the calorie contents of foods in restaurants]. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00099-000 | Animal testing has helped develop important drug treatments |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00041-000 | Animals are usually only used for testing for specific studies. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00192-000 | Marymoose. "The Case Against Animal Testing". Helium - "One of the main arguments against the use of animals in research is that animal studies can't actually confirm or refute hypotheses about human physiology or pathology. In straightforward terms, it can be argued that only research done with humans is relevant to humans." |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00042-000 | Tested animals are treated humanely. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00134-000 | Humans have an evolutionary right to uphold self-interests by testing animals. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00195-000 | It is not a justification for animal testing that some humans eat and hunt animals. A tenant of the animal rights community is that any form of harm to animals is wrong, usually if it can be easily avoided with reasonable substitutes. It is, therefore, also not appropriate to say that "the eating and hunting of animals goes without much public outcry, so why alienate animal testing?" The truth is that the eating and hunting of animals is met by substantial protest by animal rights activists. Again, hunting and meat consumption do not provide cover for animal testing. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00076-000 | Animals are important to testing life-saving drugs before they are safe for humans |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00201-000 | The potential human benefits of a particular animal test are typically weighed against the harms that it will entail for animals. Scientists are not wanton in inflicting tests on animals. Rather, they are often bound to meet specific ethical requirements in the trade-off. The harm of the testing must be thought "worth it" for the benefits that it will produce. animal research is justified because it has reducing human suffering. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00205-000 | Animal testing and the subjugation of animals undermines a fundamental scientific reality; that humans and animals are kin. With humans and Chimpanzees sharing 99.4% of their genetic code, and humans and mice sharing 99% of their genetic code, it is important to recognize that humans are, on a scientific basis, the kin of animals. The testing of animals undermines this scientific understanding by subjugating animals. This is harmful to broader scientific progression in society. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00055-000 | People would never want their own pets tested; why other animals? |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00207-000 | Many argue that animal rights activists are simply anti-science. This misunderstands the intentions of animal rights activists. They fully acknowledge that they science is important and even that animal testing can lead to major advancements in science. But, as is typically said, before science should ask if it can make certain advancements, it needs to ask if it should. Ethics has authority over all human endeavors, including science. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00057-000 | Animal testing has improved understanding of animals and their welfare. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00091-000 | Responsibly ending animal testing will not impede medical advancements. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00033-000 | The human benefits of animal experimentation are not proven. |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00003-000 | Polls show massive public support for banning animal testing for specific household products |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00094-000 | Animal experimentation is important to treatments of bacterial infections |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00215-000 | Coalition for Medical Progress, a UK-based pro-animal testing group. "The People’s Petition". on 20 April 2006. - "2.) I believe that medical research using animals, carried out to the highest standards of care and welfare, and where there is no alternative available, should continue in the UK." |
fd3161b0-2019-04-17T11:47:42Z-00185-000 | "Why do scientists use animals in research?". The American Physiological Society. Retrieved May 3rd, 2008 - "In addition, scientists can easily control the environment around the animal (diet, temperature, lighting, etc.), which would be difficult to do with people. However, the most important reason why animals are used is that it would be wrong to deliberately expose human beings to health risks in order to observe the course of a disease." |
e31bfa66-2019-04-17T11:47:37Z-00065-000 | Nonrenewable fossil fuels are inherently primitive and destructive to the environment. They involve extracting a fuel source from the ground instead of extracting it from the various forms of the sun's energy. This is unsustainable, and should be avoided. |
a657588d-2019-04-17T11:47:36Z-00026-000 | Professor John Shepherd, director of Britain's Tyndall Centre for Climate Research, said in 2001, "Our view is that the argument is being diverted into what is really a rather unproductive area and people should get back to talking about carbon emission reductions at source by use of renewable (fuels) and whatever else they think is necessary."[3] |
d48f37bf-2019-04-17T11:47:20Z-00038-000 | Paul Boxer. "It's up to parents to enforce a ban on violent video games." NJ.com. July 1st, 2011: "High-profile events such as teenagers getting inspired by the actions of a violent video game character can be tragic, but they also distract from the large body of knowledge that has accumulated on the impact of violent media on children. Since the early 1970s, scientists have observed very clear, frequently replicated and strikingly robust effects. In experimental studies, children who view violent television shows or films — or who play violent video games — are significantly more likely to behave aggressively in comparison to children who view nonviolent television shows or films, or who play nonviolent video games. In long-term studies, individuals who consume violent media during childhood end up more aggressive as adults, in comparison with peers who consume nonviolent media during childhood. The studies that have produced such findings now number in the hundreds. The effects have been seen in children from urban areas, as well as suburban and rural areas; in the United States, as well as many other Western and non-Western nations." |
d48f37bf-2019-04-17T11:47:20Z-00034-000 | Violent video games are real danger to young minds. |