I think steveplace covered that when he wrote 'we can find ways to view the US healthcare issue as "Hacker News"'.
In that sense, almost any political news can be made to be "relevant" to HN. The California budget deficit, Iraq, the tax code, the next elections, you name it.
And when the topic is politics, even though people here tend to remain civil, the level of discourse inevitably goes down.
For instance, consider your superlative usage of "murder". This sort of thing practically precludes any further fruitful discussion: anyone who disagrees with you is automatically in the uncomfortable position of "abetting murder".
In that sense, almost any political news can be made to be "relevant" to HN. The California budget deficit, Iraq, the tax code, the next elections, you name it.
And when the topic is politics, even though people here tend to remain civil, the level of discourse inevitably goes down.
For instance, consider your superlative usage of "murder". This sort of thing practically precludes any further fruitful discussion: anyone who disagrees with you is automatically in the uncomfortable position of "abetting murder".