George Soros Speaks Politics

horos2c writes "Hey all, the philanthropic billionaire George Soros has tossed his two cents worth in about the election and about Bush's policies overall. Even from an apolitical point of view its an interesting read, that's for sure. He both speaks clearly and has a hell of a lot to say."

Comments

Soros is just a touch left-of-center...

[jdawg]

Hey now, I'm as big a pinko as the next guy, but trying to pass Soros off as some non-political concerned-citizen is just silly. He bankrolls Air America Radio, for chrissakes!

What A Horrible Summary..

[Pave Low]

All this article says is hey, go check out George Soros website where it takes you to his front page which is rather unhelpful and devoid of content. I wonder if this only made slashdot because of the anti-Bush angle.

At least this article could have taken the time to point out this man is rabidly anti-Bush, and is one of the biggest bankroller of opposition groups like MoveOn.

If you want more information on this man,
Here's one excellent background piece.
Here's an article where he compared Bush to Hitler.

Re:What A Horrible Summary..

[ethaneade]

For starters, he trumpets the oft-stated mistake that there is no connection between Iraq and al Qaeda -- at first he gets it right, saying "no connection between 9/11 and Iraq" but then states the fallacy. To see how much of a fallacy it is, read any recent (last 9 months) article by Stephen F. Hayes.
Next, he brings out the ridiculous draft claim. First, re-enlistment rates are at record highs. Second, there will not be a draft. Bush has stated that he doesn't want a draft, and the military has stated that it doesn't want a draft. The conscription bill in the house has been put there by Democrats trying to scare people.
His list of Bush flip-flops are silly, because they are merely listing points of the Iraq invasion plan. Of course we will first dismantle the army and reassemble it -- the first one wanted to kill us (baathists) and the second one is our ally!
This is just more of the campaigning that Soros is claiming to rise above.

Basis for Soros' philosophy:

[GOD_ALMIGHTY]

Soros is a follower and student of Karl Popper. I believe that Soros was most influenced by Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies. Popper is a really interesting person, who most /.ers would find a lot of ideas in common. You may find that some of the ideas you hold about rationality and science originated with Popper. I think that Karl Popper managed to breath new life into Liberalism when many were questioning how much further it could take us.

Karl Popper was also one of the first to advocate Free Markets as a feature of the Open Society, although I think that his idea of Free Markets more resemble what the current debate is calling Fair Trade rather than what is called Free Trade. The Clintons and many of the people that served in Bill's Administration were at least influenced by Karl Popper, which is why I think the Democrats during the 90's were so confusing to many in the far-left.

Re:Inspirational Words

[CodeMonkey4Hire]

statistics, please! when we talk about people dying, can we please use rates?!?
Are you saying that more people per capita die in car wrecks in the US then soldiers dying in Iraq?

• Auto Deaths for 2003
• Cars: 14.9 per 100,000
• SUVs: 16.4 per 100,000
• Pickup trucks: 15.2 per 100,000
• Vans: 11.2 per 100,000

In an article from April they said that there were 700 deaths for 135,000 troops. That was 13 months. That gives 479 deaths per 100,000. However, I am not sure whether that includes the war (I figured in the 1.5 months just in case). Let's try again. Here's a timeline. "Major Combat Operations" ended on 5/1/2003. On 9/7/2004, 1000th soldier was killed. That's 16.2 months, so using the same troop count (please feel free to correct me on this*), that gives 549 troop deaths per 100,000 !

Yes, there may be more people dying per month in the US, but not per capita! You have to normalize these things to have a valid comparison. That's why we use rates! And 15 or 16 people dying per 100,000 is far, far, far less than 549 per 100,000!!! Please, check your logic and your math and think about it.

* If you correct my numbers, please show how the totals change. Thank you.