Abortion- For (though it depends how far into the pregnancy; 4 months is reasonable, beyond that we move into a grey area).
Affirmative Action- Undecided. Role models are clearly very central to children, so Affirmitive Action now could make it uneccessary in the future. On the other hand, this is a rule that should be bendable, since I've seen awful people get hired into permanent positions this way.
Biometric National Identification- Against. Makes identity theft rather easy if you have all that information in one place.
Cloning- For. You know, identical twins don't turn out exactly the same. Now, take a person and place them in a completely different time period, with a completely different uterus (fetal alcohol syndrome has nothing to do with genetics, for example, and generally nutrients and blood types vary a lot) and give this person a completely different set of parents, and you have a totally different individual.
Death Penalty- Against. The Canadian Senate did a study that proved that it's actually cheaper to keep dangerous criminals in jail until they die than to kill them, and statistics in several places have shown that removing the death penalty corresponds with dropping crime rates, and instating the death penalty correspons to a jump in crime rates. I won't go into the underlining psychology and costs of death row trials, but suffice it to say that the death penalty is unintuitively very ineffective.
Euthanasia/Mercy Killings- For. Given that "Euthanasia" in practice tends to mean "pulling a plug on a machine that wasn't even invented 10 years ago" I don't think there's anything too unnerving about it.
France- They make nice bread and cheese. They shouldn't be allowed to have nukes.
Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Expression- Against. I'm for it in the vast majority of cases, but against in a number of extreme interpretations of "you can say anything" (i.e. allowing Neo Nazi propaganda, allowing publishing how to make a Nuke, allowing subliminal messages in movie theatres, and so forth).
Genetic Engineering- For. It's been one of the cleanest sciences ever in terms of its negative side effects.
Gun Control- For. Now, don't interpret this to mean "ban all guns" or anything (that would be silly) just that you shouldn't be able to buy a fully automatic rifle from a hardware store with less licensing than what you need to drive a car (which, after all, isn't built to kill people...).
Homosexual Equality- For. The only minor caveat is adoption, since children of gay couples often have issues which other children do not. Granted, that's no worse than children of single parents, so I can't honestly raise it as a real objection.
Legalization of Marijuana- For, provided you slowly phase out tobacco at the same time >_>. Otherwise, hmm...probably still for. Too many people use it, and things just get ugly when they go underground (drinking during prohibition was just dangerous).
Mandatory Military Draft- Against.
Mandatory Minimum Sentences- For. As much as there are good judges, there are also corrupt judges; procedure and paperwork in government is there to keep an otherwise easily corruptable system more honest.
Minimum Drinking Age- For. It can actually stunt growth below a certain age. Now, it should be legal for University students, as it's a joke to try and stop them anyway and they're mostly done growing (so 18 as a drinking age works nicely).
Pass/Fail Grading System- Against. I love it and all, and it's given me some stupidly high marks (top marks in some grad courses from a letter grade university, and 100% in honours newtonian mechanics from a percentage university) but I can't honestly say I deserved some of those. Some classes, do, however, work well with the system, so I'm not against it across the board, just that it shouldn't be standard.
Porn/Adult Entertainment- It should be legal, since pushing stuff underground is always bad. It also shouldn't be in my face, and I should be able to avoid it and keep it away from my kids if I don't go looking for it.
Prayer in School- (Allowing people to pray wherever they wish) -- Allowing people to pray whenever they wish is fine. Having a teacher mandate a prayer to a class is not fine, especially in multicultural areas. (Well, fine for religious private schools, just there should be a non-secular alternative).
Premarital Sex- For.
Racial Profiling- For. As much as it is discrimination, I'd rather police use statistics to their full advantage.
Separation of Church and State- For. Seems like a no-brainer with today's multiculturalism.
Sex Education in School- For. Prevent the spreading of AIDS if nothing else.
Video Games- For. The statistician in me feels it should be mentioned that asking this on a videogame website is likely to give a biased response >_>.
Violence in Entertainment- Against...kinda. I think it should be reduced, given that it gets into kids cartoons and films whereas love scenes or nudity jump things up to a T rating at least (see my response on sex education).
Women in the Draft- For. If you're going to have a draft of the whole population, then have a draft of the whole population.
Women in the military- For. Heck, it's been found that women are better at running submarines since they eat less food, require less space, and get along better.
