On Mitt Romney

Today we have a second candidate: Mitt Romney. While he's also not my choice (I should stop admitting these things, though I suppose most of you know anyhow who I'm supporting) here is some basic information (also from CNN) on him:

- He opposes abortion rights except in cases of rape, incest, and protecting the mother’s life

- He opposes guest worker plan, opposes allowing illegal immigrants to gain legal status besides ways already in place, supports use of police for enforcement

- He supports banning assault weapons and thinks current background check are adequate

- He supports “covering the uninsured without raising taxes or creating a government-controlled system” (CNN)

- He opposes federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and opposes creating new embryos for research

- He opposes troops withdrawal, supports sending additional troops

- He opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions

- He supports private firms providing for retirement

- He supports tax cuts and wants to make Bush’s cuts permanent

For more information, go to his campaign site: http://www.mittromney.com/

On Ireland and Housing

Here's a clip from a story the BBC had that talks about Ireland and housing (the article was on making homes that produce no greenhouse gases):

Few European countries have seen such rapid economic growth in recent times as Ireland, where the "Celtic tiger" phenomenon stimulated the house-building industry, with demand and prices quickly rising.
Joe Durkan from the House of Tomorrow Programme, a project of the government agency Sustainable Energy Ireland, believes the introduction of energy performance certificates in this thriving house-building sector has raised the profile of energy efficiency.
"There's lots of information about it, and lots of excitement," he told BBC News.
"Builders are now using it as a marketing tool; the certificates have a sliding scale from A to G, and developers are now competing to offer A1 certificates on the properties they have for sale."