TWEET OF THE WEEK
From @ebertchicago: [Glenn] Beck University drops reading requirement. I'm not sure which is more surprising... the phrase Beck University reading requirement or the phrase Beck University.
'KARMA SUCKS' OF THE WEEK
Uruguay reached the last four of the soccer World Cup thanks to Luiz Suarez. Their young spiker, I mean striker, punched away a goal-bound ball volleyball style, preventing what would have been the last second quarterfinal winner for Ghana. So I could only laugh apoplectically when, late their semifinal content against Holland, the Uruguayans were whining hysterically about an alleged... handball in penalty area.
THAT'S A RELIEF
Uruguay's elimination was welcome also because no one will miss the whining, diving and time wasting that they were almost as good at as volleyball. But their dismissal ensures that this World Cup will be won by a positive attacking team: either the Netherlands, Germany or Spain. This is a welcome development in a tournament that, early on, threatened to shatter the mark for the lowest scoring World Cup ever. Instead, the five goals scored in the Uruguay-Netherlands match was the most scored in regular time of a World Cup semifinal since 1962.
CHEATING BY ANY OTHER NAME WOULD STINK AS BAD
Even though I'm American (and thus unfortunately part of the English soccer sphere of dominance), there's a hypocrisy which I've never quite gotten: why diving alone is heinous crime worthy of tarring and feathering, but jersey grabbing, elbowing and rugby tackling is 'savvy' defending. I guess I'm not sophisticated enough to distinguish between these different forms of cheating, the latter being far more prevelant and ruinous than the former.
THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!
A few weeks, ago, I tweeted a link to his blog entry on human rights abuses in Angola . It was automatically re-tweeted (amplified) by a Twitter feed set up by the PR arm of the Angolan government. Thanks for your cooperation, stupid propagandists!
Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label misc. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Bits and pieces
CAMPAIGN 'CONTRIBUTIONS': FREE SPEECH OR CORRUPTIVE?
Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that: excessive campaign contributions to a judge create an unconstitutional threat to a fair trial (federal judges are appointed but many state and local judges are elected). I find this shocking. I thought that campaign bribes... umm... I mean 'contributions'... were simply a magnanimous expression of civic good will by a person or corporation. I thought they were a manifestation of (hold hand over heart) our constitutional right to free speech. How could the purely noble and beneficent action of a campaign 'contribution' constitute a potentially corrupting act? How could justices rule against 'free speech'?
NEWSPAPER 'ELITISM'
An essay in The Christian Science Monitor by a journalism professor opines that newspapers need to drop their elitism and remember their roots.
Update: The BBC News Editors' blog ruminates on The End of Fortress Journalism.
TEACH DRINKING
While some publications are leading a hysterical, counterproductive witch hunt against teens having a beer, others are taking a more rational approach. This piece in The Atlantic opines that drinking ought to be taught to teens. I've often said that the way we Americans treat drinking is completely absurd. We don't just give kids a set of car keys the day they turn 16 and say "happy driving." We decide that driving is serious and ought to be taught, that teens will learn best by doing it incrementally and, initially, with adult supervision. Yet we jettison this sensible approach when it comes to drinking alcohol and are stupefied as to why binge drinking is the result.
MYTHBUSTERS
The NPR program On the Media did a good show debunking a number of commonly held myths. This segment addressed the falsehood that President Obama was a Muslim (it's testament to the incoherence of ignorance that the 'Obama is a Muslim' and 'Obama's CHRISTIAN pastor is an America-hater' charges can spread simultaneously). This segment interviews a sociologist and Vietnam Vet who investigated much trumpeted claims that Vietnam war protesters spitting on veterans was a widespread phenomenon. The researcher delved into press archives from the sixties and seventies, and what he found was very surprising: not a single firsthand account of a vet getting spit on, and close to no published claims by anyone so ignobly victimized. He noted that it really wasn’t until about 1980 that these stories began to circulate, which is incredibly suspicious considering the divisive nature of the Vietnam war.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Real Time host Bill Maher recently bemoaned, " "[W]hat we need is an actual progressive party to represent the millions of Americans who aren't being served by the Democrats. Because, bottom line, Democrats are the new Republicans." The Green Party of the United States responded.
STONEWALL REDUX
Police officers raided a gay bar arresting seven people and sending one to the hospital after he had his head slammed into a door by the forces of 'order.' This is not something out of Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Nor is it a story from the 1950s. It's out of Fort Worth, TX and it happened only a few weeks ago. The raid occurred shortly after the screening of a documentary on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall raid in New York, the event widely seen as the trigger of the gay civil rights' movement in America. We have a gay councilman. We've had an ordinance prohibiting discrimination over sexual orientation for years. People are angry and confused, and so am I," said Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks. Not only did police fail to explain why the raid occurred, they had the audacity to blame the victims of their unprovoked raid. I know Texas is not the most progressive state in the country but this remains the 21st century and this incident deserves a state investigation.
THE LOST VILLAGES
On the 50th anniversary of the opening of the St. Lawrence (River) Seaway, North Country Public Radio has a series of stories on the Lost Villages. These municipalities, mostly in Ontario, were literally wiped off the map with the Seaway's construction.
Last month, the US Supreme Court ruled that: excessive campaign contributions to a judge create an unconstitutional threat to a fair trial (federal judges are appointed but many state and local judges are elected). I find this shocking. I thought that campaign bribes... umm... I mean 'contributions'... were simply a magnanimous expression of civic good will by a person or corporation. I thought they were a manifestation of (hold hand over heart) our constitutional right to free speech. How could the purely noble and beneficent action of a campaign 'contribution' constitute a potentially corrupting act? How could justices rule against 'free speech'?
NEWSPAPER 'ELITISM'
An essay in The Christian Science Monitor by a journalism professor opines that newspapers need to drop their elitism and remember their roots.
Update: The BBC News Editors' blog ruminates on The End of Fortress Journalism.
TEACH DRINKING
While some publications are leading a hysterical, counterproductive witch hunt against teens having a beer, others are taking a more rational approach. This piece in The Atlantic opines that drinking ought to be taught to teens. I've often said that the way we Americans treat drinking is completely absurd. We don't just give kids a set of car keys the day they turn 16 and say "happy driving." We decide that driving is serious and ought to be taught, that teens will learn best by doing it incrementally and, initially, with adult supervision. Yet we jettison this sensible approach when it comes to drinking alcohol and are stupefied as to why binge drinking is the result.
MYTHBUSTERS
The NPR program On the Media did a good show debunking a number of commonly held myths. This segment addressed the falsehood that President Obama was a Muslim (it's testament to the incoherence of ignorance that the 'Obama is a Muslim' and 'Obama's CHRISTIAN pastor is an America-hater' charges can spread simultaneously). This segment interviews a sociologist and Vietnam Vet who investigated much trumpeted claims that Vietnam war protesters spitting on veterans was a widespread phenomenon. The researcher delved into press archives from the sixties and seventies, and what he found was very surprising: not a single firsthand account of a vet getting spit on, and close to no published claims by anyone so ignobly victimized. He noted that it really wasn’t until about 1980 that these stories began to circulate, which is incredibly suspicious considering the divisive nature of the Vietnam war.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
Real Time host Bill Maher recently bemoaned, " "[W]hat we need is an actual progressive party to represent the millions of Americans who aren't being served by the Democrats. Because, bottom line, Democrats are the new Republicans." The Green Party of the United States responded.
STONEWALL REDUX
Police officers raided a gay bar arresting seven people and sending one to the hospital after he had his head slammed into a door by the forces of 'order.' This is not something out of Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Nor is it a story from the 1950s. It's out of Fort Worth, TX and it happened only a few weeks ago. The raid occurred shortly after the screening of a documentary on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall raid in New York, the event widely seen as the trigger of the gay civil rights' movement in America. We have a gay councilman. We've had an ordinance prohibiting discrimination over sexual orientation for years. People are angry and confused, and so am I," said Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks. Not only did police fail to explain why the raid occurred, they had the audacity to blame the victims of their unprovoked raid. I know Texas is not the most progressive state in the country but this remains the 21st century and this incident deserves a state investigation.
THE LOST VILLAGES
On the 50th anniversary of the opening of the St. Lawrence (River) Seaway, North Country Public Radio has a series of stories on the Lost Villages. These municipalities, mostly in Ontario, were literally wiped off the map with the Seaway's construction.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Bits and pieces
Occasional series of essays linking to stories interesting in their own right but for which I don’t have time to devote individual essays…
-DANCE OF THE DELUSIONAL DENIALISTS. Denialism seems to be the cause of the week. First, Pope Benedict XVI took flack for revoking the ex-communications of four ultra-conservative bishops who broke with Rome over Vatican II, the council which brought the Catholic Church into the modern era. The move by the Pope was designed to promote unity within the Church but he took heat from Jewish groups because one of the bishops is a Holocaust denier. The Pope's timing was seen as particularly crass, coming only a few days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. Only a few days before his rehabilitation, the bishop told Swedish television, "I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler." He went on to estimate that no more than a few hundred thousand Jews were killed by the Nazis and suggested that it wasn't due to any conscious policy of industrial mass murder. Another denialist also made news with some bizarre claims. Sonia Karadzic, daughter of indicted Serbian war criminal Radovan, insists her father is innocent. This is not newsworthy in itself but she went on to claim that the Srebrenica massacre, the worst war crime in Europe since World War II, was ordered by then-US president Bill Clinton. She told the BBC, "It goes back to 1993, two years before the tragedy. It was determined then that Srebrenica would be the location of a crime, and that there would have to be a minimum of 5,000 victims. That was determined by President Clinton." This is the same Pres. Clinton who spent years RESISTING calls for US intervention in the Balkans.
-RENDERING JUSTICE. Former Nixon White House lawyer John Dean wonders if we are civilized enough to hold our leaders accountable for war crimes? Doubtful. 'Justice' is for low-level war criminals like the Abu Ghraib brigade or for high-level war criminals in geopolitically minor countries like Karadzic and Liberia's Charles Taylor. High-ranking war criminals in powerful countries get a free pass so long as they put their hand on their heart and swear they 'meant well... honest!' As long as we do that, we have to 'forget about the past' in the name of 'national unity' and 'respect for the office.' Accountability (for high-ranking officials only; Joe Six Pack is still punished if he breaks the law) must be sacrificed in the name of 'moving forward.' I think I've used every cheap catchphrase that's used to try to sweep such crimes under the rug. Though Dean warns Other countries are likely to take action against officials who condoned torture, even if the United States fails to do so. So-called executive privilege, the nakedest of authoritarian power grabs, is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated on the American people, though that merits an essay by itself.
-NOT A CULT OF PERSONALITY, JUST LEADERSHIP. This weekend, Bolivians voted comfortably to approve sweeping changes to their constitution to decentralize power and grant equal rights to the country's large indigenous population. "This will be an egalitarian Bolivia, a Bolivia that leaves behind a dark, colonial, racist past," explained the country's vice-president. The changes were largely opposed in the country's economic heartland, where the people are predominantly of European descent. This is not surprising. People who have historically used state power to achieve and maintain positions of privilege will never give away those positions of privilege without a fight, often literally. Witness Ian Smith and his lunatic followers in Rhodesia or his successor Robert Mugabe and his (every shrinking) band of fanatics in Zimbabwe. They come to see their position of privilege as one of birth right. They see calls for equality as 'grievance politics' or 'special rights.' Bolivia is a very class-divided country, even by South American standards. President Evo Morales, the nation's first indigenous head of state, deserves tremendous praise for trying end Bolivia's social apartheid and raise the standard of living for the long-oppressed majority. Unlike one of his fellow left-wing South American leaders, Pres. Morales seems more concerned about improving the lives of his people than his own global superstardom.
-FREEDOM OF CHOICE, EMPLOYEE STYLE. Apparently The Employee Freedom of Choice Act gets the thumbs up for Human Rights Watch. While some states, such as New York, guarantee collective bargaining rights in their constitutions, there is no such protection nationally. HRW views this bill as a key protection of employees' right to freedom of association.
-STRANGER DANGER? Good news: according to new research, children online are far less at risk from pervy adults than is widely feared by parents. Bad news: they are far more at risk from their peers and cyberbullying.
-WHAT THE F...UDGE IS WRONG WITH SOCIETY? A 15 year old in California uses social pressure to discourage swearing and as a result receives death threats for it. Sadly, I'm not making this up.
-SOMETIMES NEW YORK STATE GOVT REMINDS ME OF A BANANA REPUBLIC. Political theater is so predictable that it's almost comical. Or it would be if we weren't spending millions of dollars to pay these clowns. Earlier this month, Democrats took control of the New York State Senate for the first time in 40 years. They spent much of those 40 years promising democratization of the institution should they take power. Republicans spent much of those 40 years treating Democratic members lower than dirt, rather than representatives of New Yorkers (Assembly Democrats do the same thing). For example. majority Republicans barred minority Democrats from putting their names on bills to be voted on by the whole chamber. But as soon as the change happened... well you know what followed. Senate Democrats introduced very modest rules changes. Republicans whined that they weren't democratic enough. Of course, they had 40 years of their own to implement minority-friendly rules and refused. Democrats promised a committee to study further changes. Republicans whined that the further changes should be made now; three months more was far too long to wait... after 40 years of obstructionism. In 2007, (then-minority) Democrats introduced a reform bill that was voted down by the GOP-run chamber. A few weeks ago, (now-minority) Republicans introduced a nearly identical bill and which was defeated in the Democrat-run chamber. Most Democrats who voted for the 2007 bill voted against this bill. Most Republicans who voted against the 2007 bill voted for this bill. No wonder the New York legislature is regularly described as the most dysfunctional in the nation.
-SPEAKING OF HYPOCRISY... My local Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand was recently appointed to the US Senate to fill the seat vacated by now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There will be a special election to fill Gillibrand's House seat. Republican county committee chairs decreed state Assembly minority leader Jim Tedisco, the biggest media whore in Albany, as the GOP candidate for the race. Tedisco, who bears a startling resemblance to a used car salesman, doesn't actually live in the Congressional district he wants to represent. Apparently he has a summer home in the district to where he claims he's going to move should he get elected. In 2006, then-challenger Gillibrand was attacked by Republicans because although she lived in the district, she had not lived here long enough for their standards. Standards which have dramatically changed a few short years later.
-SPEAKING OF DYSFUNCTIONAL... If you or I arbitrarily decided to stop paying taxes because money was getting a little short, we'd be in big trouble. But apparently it's okay when the state does it. As described by Adirondack Almanack blog, one of the cost-cutting proposals by NY Gov. David Paterson is to cap the state’s property tax payments to local towns, counties and school districts that host state Forest Preserve lands. About half of the land in the huge Adirondack Park is owned by the state; the other half is privately owned. Paterson's proposal would be devastating. It would decimate local government and school coffers, thus hugely increasing the tax burden on the region's private property owners (because while the state tax payments may disappear, you know that state mandates on municipalities and schools will not). Especially since the poor private sector economy inside the Blue Line and according lack of sales tax revenues makes the region's localities heavily dependent on property taxes as a revenue source. The Catskill Park in southeastern New York would also be affected.
-TONE DEAF MUSIC INDUSTRY. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has gained infamy by suing college students who illegally shared songs. After a wave of bad publicity, the RIAA finally smartened up and changed its strategy to press the file sharers' internet providers to cut off service. The record industry continues to shrivel because for too long it resisted new technologies rather than figuring out ways to make it work. Anyway, in what presumably is one of the last lawsuits, a Harvard law professor requested that the proceedings be streamed live on the Internet. The still tone-deaf RIAA objected. The judge slapped them down. She pointed out that the RIAA claims the whole point of their lawsuits was not to go after each illegal downloader but to serve as a broader deterrent and that their objection to publicizing the trial is at odds with this claim.
-DANCE OF THE DELUSIONAL DENIALISTS. Denialism seems to be the cause of the week. First, Pope Benedict XVI took flack for revoking the ex-communications of four ultra-conservative bishops who broke with Rome over Vatican II, the council which brought the Catholic Church into the modern era. The move by the Pope was designed to promote unity within the Church but he took heat from Jewish groups because one of the bishops is a Holocaust denier. The Pope's timing was seen as particularly crass, coming only a few days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. Only a few days before his rehabilitation, the bishop told Swedish television, "I believe that the historical evidence is hugely against 6 million Jews having been deliberately gassed in gas chambers as a deliberate policy of Adolf Hitler." He went on to estimate that no more than a few hundred thousand Jews were killed by the Nazis and suggested that it wasn't due to any conscious policy of industrial mass murder. Another denialist also made news with some bizarre claims. Sonia Karadzic, daughter of indicted Serbian war criminal Radovan, insists her father is innocent. This is not newsworthy in itself but she went on to claim that the Srebrenica massacre, the worst war crime in Europe since World War II, was ordered by then-US president Bill Clinton. She told the BBC, "It goes back to 1993, two years before the tragedy. It was determined then that Srebrenica would be the location of a crime, and that there would have to be a minimum of 5,000 victims. That was determined by President Clinton." This is the same Pres. Clinton who spent years RESISTING calls for US intervention in the Balkans.
-RENDERING JUSTICE. Former Nixon White House lawyer John Dean wonders if we are civilized enough to hold our leaders accountable for war crimes? Doubtful. 'Justice' is for low-level war criminals like the Abu Ghraib brigade or for high-level war criminals in geopolitically minor countries like Karadzic and Liberia's Charles Taylor. High-ranking war criminals in powerful countries get a free pass so long as they put their hand on their heart and swear they 'meant well... honest!' As long as we do that, we have to 'forget about the past' in the name of 'national unity' and 'respect for the office.' Accountability (for high-ranking officials only; Joe Six Pack is still punished if he breaks the law) must be sacrificed in the name of 'moving forward.' I think I've used every cheap catchphrase that's used to try to sweep such crimes under the rug. Though Dean warns Other countries are likely to take action against officials who condoned torture, even if the United States fails to do so. So-called executive privilege, the nakedest of authoritarian power grabs, is one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated on the American people, though that merits an essay by itself.
-NOT A CULT OF PERSONALITY, JUST LEADERSHIP. This weekend, Bolivians voted comfortably to approve sweeping changes to their constitution to decentralize power and grant equal rights to the country's large indigenous population. "This will be an egalitarian Bolivia, a Bolivia that leaves behind a dark, colonial, racist past," explained the country's vice-president. The changes were largely opposed in the country's economic heartland, where the people are predominantly of European descent. This is not surprising. People who have historically used state power to achieve and maintain positions of privilege will never give away those positions of privilege without a fight, often literally. Witness Ian Smith and his lunatic followers in Rhodesia or his successor Robert Mugabe and his (every shrinking) band of fanatics in Zimbabwe. They come to see their position of privilege as one of birth right. They see calls for equality as 'grievance politics' or 'special rights.' Bolivia is a very class-divided country, even by South American standards. President Evo Morales, the nation's first indigenous head of state, deserves tremendous praise for trying end Bolivia's social apartheid and raise the standard of living for the long-oppressed majority. Unlike one of his fellow left-wing South American leaders, Pres. Morales seems more concerned about improving the lives of his people than his own global superstardom.
-FREEDOM OF CHOICE, EMPLOYEE STYLE. Apparently The Employee Freedom of Choice Act gets the thumbs up for Human Rights Watch. While some states, such as New York, guarantee collective bargaining rights in their constitutions, there is no such protection nationally. HRW views this bill as a key protection of employees' right to freedom of association.
-STRANGER DANGER? Good news: according to new research, children online are far less at risk from pervy adults than is widely feared by parents. Bad news: they are far more at risk from their peers and cyberbullying.
-WHAT THE F...UDGE IS WRONG WITH SOCIETY? A 15 year old in California uses social pressure to discourage swearing and as a result receives death threats for it. Sadly, I'm not making this up.
-SOMETIMES NEW YORK STATE GOVT REMINDS ME OF A BANANA REPUBLIC. Political theater is so predictable that it's almost comical. Or it would be if we weren't spending millions of dollars to pay these clowns. Earlier this month, Democrats took control of the New York State Senate for the first time in 40 years. They spent much of those 40 years promising democratization of the institution should they take power. Republicans spent much of those 40 years treating Democratic members lower than dirt, rather than representatives of New Yorkers (Assembly Democrats do the same thing). For example. majority Republicans barred minority Democrats from putting their names on bills to be voted on by the whole chamber. But as soon as the change happened... well you know what followed. Senate Democrats introduced very modest rules changes. Republicans whined that they weren't democratic enough. Of course, they had 40 years of their own to implement minority-friendly rules and refused. Democrats promised a committee to study further changes. Republicans whined that the further changes should be made now; three months more was far too long to wait... after 40 years of obstructionism. In 2007, (then-minority) Democrats introduced a reform bill that was voted down by the GOP-run chamber. A few weeks ago, (now-minority) Republicans introduced a nearly identical bill and which was defeated in the Democrat-run chamber. Most Democrats who voted for the 2007 bill voted against this bill. Most Republicans who voted against the 2007 bill voted for this bill. No wonder the New York legislature is regularly described as the most dysfunctional in the nation.
-SPEAKING OF HYPOCRISY... My local Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand was recently appointed to the US Senate to fill the seat vacated by now-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. There will be a special election to fill Gillibrand's House seat. Republican county committee chairs decreed state Assembly minority leader Jim Tedisco, the biggest media whore in Albany, as the GOP candidate for the race. Tedisco, who bears a startling resemblance to a used car salesman, doesn't actually live in the Congressional district he wants to represent. Apparently he has a summer home in the district to where he claims he's going to move should he get elected. In 2006, then-challenger Gillibrand was attacked by Republicans because although she lived in the district, she had not lived here long enough for their standards. Standards which have dramatically changed a few short years later.
-SPEAKING OF DYSFUNCTIONAL... If you or I arbitrarily decided to stop paying taxes because money was getting a little short, we'd be in big trouble. But apparently it's okay when the state does it. As described by Adirondack Almanack blog, one of the cost-cutting proposals by NY Gov. David Paterson is to cap the state’s property tax payments to local towns, counties and school districts that host state Forest Preserve lands. About half of the land in the huge Adirondack Park is owned by the state; the other half is privately owned. Paterson's proposal would be devastating. It would decimate local government and school coffers, thus hugely increasing the tax burden on the region's private property owners (because while the state tax payments may disappear, you know that state mandates on municipalities and schools will not). Especially since the poor private sector economy inside the Blue Line and according lack of sales tax revenues makes the region's localities heavily dependent on property taxes as a revenue source. The Catskill Park in southeastern New York would also be affected.
-TONE DEAF MUSIC INDUSTRY. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has gained infamy by suing college students who illegally shared songs. After a wave of bad publicity, the RIAA finally smartened up and changed its strategy to press the file sharers' internet providers to cut off service. The record industry continues to shrivel because for too long it resisted new technologies rather than figuring out ways to make it work. Anyway, in what presumably is one of the last lawsuits, a Harvard law professor requested that the proceedings be streamed live on the Internet. The still tone-deaf RIAA objected. The judge slapped them down. She pointed out that the RIAA claims the whole point of their lawsuits was not to go after each illegal downloader but to serve as a broader deterrent and that their objection to publicizing the trial is at odds with this claim.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
More bits and pieces
Occasional series of essays linking to stories interesting in their own right but for which I don’t have time to devote individual essays…
-WESTERN CANADIAN GANGSTERS. In a couple of different places recently, I’ve heard/read about how organized crime has taken a chokehold on life in a most unlikely place: the western Canadian province of British Columbia. In fact, the marijuana trade already represents 5 percent of the province’s entire economy. The Canadian weekly Maclean’s has a long exposé on the influence of organized crime in BC.
-WELCOME TO THE 20TH CENTURY. NPR reports on a high school in Mississippi that held its first interracial prom… just a few months ago.
-SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HAREST WORD. After Australia’s example, Canada became the latest western country to apologize to its native people for that whole genocide thing. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently stood on the floor of the House of Commons and apologized for the past policies of ethnic cleansing against aboriginal people which "has caused great harm, and has no place in [his] country." Five aboriginal leaders also addressed Parliament. Will President Obama be next?
-THE OBSTRUCTIONIST. Albany is a very different place than it was only a year ago. Combative governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace. The equally feisty Joe Bruno resigned after 12 years in charge of the Senate’s rapidly shrinking Republican majority. The only person left from the infamous three men in a room is Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. A recent piece in New York magazine wonders if Silver is ‘the master of passive-aggressive politics, or the guy who keeps bad things from happening to good people.’ The title of the piece is ‘The Obstructionist,’ so you can probably figure out the conclusion.
-THE WORLD’S MOST LIVABLE CITIES. The International Herald Tribune ran a list of the world’s most livable cities. Given America’s obsession with sprawl and the automobile, it’s not surprising that no city in the continental US made the top 20. Montreal, Vancouver and Honolulu were the only North American cities in the top 20. It also ran a useful piece on examples of good urban design, for the benefit of people that actually care about such things. Though apparently things are going in the right direction in San Diego.
-MASS TRANSIT ON THE UP? One of the things the livable cities have is good public transportation, which is why few North American cities rate highly. But as The New York Times reports, the relatively high price of gas in the US is pushing mayors to invest more in mass transit.
-OBAMA AND THE SCAM. Ethanol is now largely discredited. Especially since it takes more energy to produce than burning it releases. So it’s not a good harbinger of strong future energy policy based on renewable resources to learn that Sen. Barack Obama is closely linked with the scam that is ethanol.
-OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE. In case you’re not depressed enough, Alternet has a reminder of the ten worst moments of the Bush reign.
-WILL UNITED SPAIN REIGN? Fans of the Beautiful Game were overjoyed to see stylish Spain win the 2008 European Championship over more pedestrian and/or negative outfits like Italy, Germany and France. Quite often, success is soccer leads observers to wax eloquent about the sport’s power to bring people together. Multiethnic France’s win in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 and divided Côte d’Ivoire’s run to the 2006 African Nations Cup final and World Cup are examples. However, Victor de la Serna of The Guardian warns not to expect the Spanish national team’s victory to have too dramatic an effect on the regional separatism that’s long plagued the country.
-WESTERN CANADIAN GANGSTERS. In a couple of different places recently, I’ve heard/read about how organized crime has taken a chokehold on life in a most unlikely place: the western Canadian province of British Columbia. In fact, the marijuana trade already represents 5 percent of the province’s entire economy. The Canadian weekly Maclean’s has a long exposé on the influence of organized crime in BC.
-WELCOME TO THE 20TH CENTURY. NPR reports on a high school in Mississippi that held its first interracial prom… just a few months ago.
-SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE HAREST WORD. After Australia’s example, Canada became the latest western country to apologize to its native people for that whole genocide thing. Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently stood on the floor of the House of Commons and apologized for the past policies of ethnic cleansing against aboriginal people which "has caused great harm, and has no place in [his] country." Five aboriginal leaders also addressed Parliament. Will President Obama be next?
-THE OBSTRUCTIONIST. Albany is a very different place than it was only a year ago. Combative governor Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace. The equally feisty Joe Bruno resigned after 12 years in charge of the Senate’s rapidly shrinking Republican majority. The only person left from the infamous three men in a room is Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver. A recent piece in New York magazine wonders if Silver is ‘the master of passive-aggressive politics, or the guy who keeps bad things from happening to good people.’ The title of the piece is ‘The Obstructionist,’ so you can probably figure out the conclusion.
-THE WORLD’S MOST LIVABLE CITIES. The International Herald Tribune ran a list of the world’s most livable cities. Given America’s obsession with sprawl and the automobile, it’s not surprising that no city in the continental US made the top 20. Montreal, Vancouver and Honolulu were the only North American cities in the top 20. It also ran a useful piece on examples of good urban design, for the benefit of people that actually care about such things. Though apparently things are going in the right direction in San Diego.
-MASS TRANSIT ON THE UP? One of the things the livable cities have is good public transportation, which is why few North American cities rate highly. But as The New York Times reports, the relatively high price of gas in the US is pushing mayors to invest more in mass transit.
-OBAMA AND THE SCAM. Ethanol is now largely discredited. Especially since it takes more energy to produce than burning it releases. So it’s not a good harbinger of strong future energy policy based on renewable resources to learn that Sen. Barack Obama is closely linked with the scam that is ethanol.
-OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE. In case you’re not depressed enough, Alternet has a reminder of the ten worst moments of the Bush reign.
-WILL UNITED SPAIN REIGN? Fans of the Beautiful Game were overjoyed to see stylish Spain win the 2008 European Championship over more pedestrian and/or negative outfits like Italy, Germany and France. Quite often, success is soccer leads observers to wax eloquent about the sport’s power to bring people together. Multiethnic France’s win in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000 and divided Côte d’Ivoire’s run to the 2006 African Nations Cup final and World Cup are examples. However, Victor de la Serna of The Guardian warns not to expect the Spanish national team’s victory to have too dramatic an effect on the regional separatism that’s long plagued the country.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Odds and ends (pt. 2)
Note: Continued from previous entry
KNOWLEDGE IS... DUMBERER: A good book review in The New York Times explains how American society is not merely apathetic to logic and knowledge in the political process but downright hostile. This op-ed in The Washington Post also bemoans the dumbing down of society.
FREE TUITION FOR NNYers?: A local legislator from New York's northwestern St. Lawrence County is pushing an intriguing proposal to provide significant tuition assistance for all students in the county provided they attend one of the county's several four-year colleges. He hope to get funding via the state lottery which is now a slush fund for the general coffers but originally conceived as a way of better funding education. Good luck with that!
THE POLITICS OF FEAR: Spencer Ackerman has a great column urging Democrats to take a stand against the politics of fear. The Republicans have set the fear-mongering agenda and Democrats will only succeed if they change the paradigm. He points out that Obama has been fairly vocal in this regard, although he's been not nearly bold enough in opposing either militarism in general or Iraq in particular where it most counts: funding and timetables. To no one's surprise, Hillary "I'm not sure if I'm a hawk or a dove today... let me check the polls first" Clinton has been worthless in this regard.
MUSCULAR MEDIA: It's not much of a secret that advertising and the media contributes to poor body image among many girls. Now research suggests that it does the same for many boys too.
SIMPSONS BAD FOR KIDS, BAYWATCH GOOD: You might not think busybody conservative Christian groups in the US would found any common cause with the Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela... but you'd be wrong.
HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS OUR ELECTIONS: You may have heard about the very excellent book How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. Well it turns out that they also may explain US elections. It's not an entirely new theory that in the US, "soccer" types tend to be more diplomatic, internationalist and likely to vote Democratic or left-wing while "gridiron" types (sometimes referred to by the more accurate term throwball) tend to be more forceful, parochial and like to vote Republican or right-wing. Definitely not surprising considering the nature of each sport, but interesting nonetheless.
THE RISKS OF LOWERING CRIME: North Country Public Radio has a long piece on something I want to explore in more detail myself at some point: how decreasing crime is harming communities in northern New York. The dependency of many North Country communities on the prison-industrial complex was always going to be risky. When you pin your future on something the rest of society wants to eliminate... although this shows the economic desperation many Adirondacks' communities face.
JOHNNY FOREIGNER: One potential way to spur economic development in this region might be more foreigners. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York offers this analysis of the foreign-born population in upstate New York. It concludes that foreigners contribute to the region’s human capital in important ways. This population boasts a greater concentration of college graduates than either the region’s native-born population or immigrants downstate... the more highly educated appear to be entering skilled occupations—in medicine, science, and research particularly—that complement those of native-born residents. Of course, a lot depends on how upstate New York is defined. But one thing is clear. Whether it's Bosnians in Utica or Eastern Europeans in Lake George's tourist industry or Mexicans and Central Americans on the dairy farms of northern New York or in the horse stables of Saratoga, upstate is certainly seeing an increase in cultural diversity.
ON MY CHRISTMAS LIST: Guess whose gonig to bye one of these shirts' off there back's!
KNOWLEDGE IS... DUMBERER: A good book review in The New York Times explains how American society is not merely apathetic to logic and knowledge in the political process but downright hostile. This op-ed in The Washington Post also bemoans the dumbing down of society.
FREE TUITION FOR NNYers?: A local legislator from New York's northwestern St. Lawrence County is pushing an intriguing proposal to provide significant tuition assistance for all students in the county provided they attend one of the county's several four-year colleges. He hope to get funding via the state lottery which is now a slush fund for the general coffers but originally conceived as a way of better funding education. Good luck with that!
THE POLITICS OF FEAR: Spencer Ackerman has a great column urging Democrats to take a stand against the politics of fear. The Republicans have set the fear-mongering agenda and Democrats will only succeed if they change the paradigm. He points out that Obama has been fairly vocal in this regard, although he's been not nearly bold enough in opposing either militarism in general or Iraq in particular where it most counts: funding and timetables. To no one's surprise, Hillary "I'm not sure if I'm a hawk or a dove today... let me check the polls first" Clinton has been worthless in this regard.
MUSCULAR MEDIA: It's not much of a secret that advertising and the media contributes to poor body image among many girls. Now research suggests that it does the same for many boys too.
SIMPSONS BAD FOR KIDS, BAYWATCH GOOD: You might not think busybody conservative Christian groups in the US would found any common cause with the Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela... but you'd be wrong.
HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS OUR ELECTIONS: You may have heard about the very excellent book How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization. Well it turns out that they also may explain US elections. It's not an entirely new theory that in the US, "soccer" types tend to be more diplomatic, internationalist and likely to vote Democratic or left-wing while "gridiron" types (sometimes referred to by the more accurate term throwball) tend to be more forceful, parochial and like to vote Republican or right-wing. Definitely not surprising considering the nature of each sport, but interesting nonetheless.
THE RISKS OF LOWERING CRIME: North Country Public Radio has a long piece on something I want to explore in more detail myself at some point: how decreasing crime is harming communities in northern New York. The dependency of many North Country communities on the prison-industrial complex was always going to be risky. When you pin your future on something the rest of society wants to eliminate... although this shows the economic desperation many Adirondacks' communities face.
JOHNNY FOREIGNER: One potential way to spur economic development in this region might be more foreigners. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York offers this analysis of the foreign-born population in upstate New York. It concludes that foreigners contribute to the region’s human capital in important ways. This population boasts a greater concentration of college graduates than either the region’s native-born population or immigrants downstate... the more highly educated appear to be entering skilled occupations—in medicine, science, and research particularly—that complement those of native-born residents. Of course, a lot depends on how upstate New York is defined. But one thing is clear. Whether it's Bosnians in Utica or Eastern Europeans in Lake George's tourist industry or Mexicans and Central Americans on the dairy farms of northern New York or in the horse stables of Saratoga, upstate is certainly seeing an increase in cultural diversity.
ON MY CHRISTMAS LIST: Guess whose gonig to bye one of these shirts' off there back's!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Odds and ends (pt. 1)
This is the periodic odds and ends entry I write when my bookmark of articles to blog about gets too long...
RACE AND ECONOMICS: In the wake of Sen. Barack Obama's much-discussed speech on skin color, Shankar Vedantam wrote a fanastic op-ed piece in the Washington Post about the topic. He points out that while many whites feel that black complaints about inequality are rooted in past injustices, the most troubling inequalities are in the present. The average black person in America is 447 percent more likely to be imprisoned than the average white person, and 521 percent more likely to be murdered. Blacks earn 60 cents to the dollar compared with whites who have the same education levels and marital status. The black poverty rate is nearly twice the white poverty rate. Blacks tend to die five years earlier than whites; the infant mortality rate among black babies is nearly 1 1/2 times the rate among white babies. And because of long-standing patterns of inheritance, blacks and whites begin life with substantial disparities in family wealth.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: WAMC Northeast Public Radio had a story on the problem of human trafficking in New York's Hudson Valley.
CENSORSHIP: In another skirmish in the Bush administration's ongoing battle against science and knowledge (a part of its wider war against reality), a US Agency for International Development-funded organization is now blocking searches on the word 'abortion' from its massive database. It's one thing to ban government funding for abortions themselves. But to use funding to intimidate medical organizations into banning any discussion of the practice is pretty brazen, even by the standards of the day.
CAFFEINE ADDICTS UNITE!: You know how some coffee-addicted people get crazy when they don't get there daily fix? Turns out there might be a medical reason why.
HEROIC RAPISTS: This op-ed piece originally from The Los Angeles Times illuminates the rather disturbing statistic that female US soldiers are more likely to be raped by a 'comrade' than killed by enemy fire in Iraq. Doctors at a Veterans' clinic in West Los Angeles reported that 41 percent of their patients were victims of sexual assault and 29 percent raped... while serving in the US military. Could someone please remind me how gays would ruin the military...
HOW PREDICTABLE IS CONFLICT?: Can computers predict wars? A Radio Netherlands report explores the matter.
HILLARY'S WAL-MART YEARS (cont.): Sen. Hillary Clinton has based her campaign against Barack Obama on her supposed edge in experience. The non-partisan Center for Public Integrity has a closer look at the much-touted experience of a woman that blue collar unions are inexplicably falling over themselves to endorse.
HYBRIDS IN THE MOUNTAINS: Adirondack Almanack blog hosts a good discussion (both in the original essay and in the comments) of hybrid cars and their use in the Adirondacks.
TOP TEN SIGNS OF THE IMMINENT APOCALYPSE: Number seven.
RACE AND ECONOMICS: In the wake of Sen. Barack Obama's much-discussed speech on skin color, Shankar Vedantam wrote a fanastic op-ed piece in the Washington Post about the topic. He points out that while many whites feel that black complaints about inequality are rooted in past injustices, the most troubling inequalities are in the present. The average black person in America is 447 percent more likely to be imprisoned than the average white person, and 521 percent more likely to be murdered. Blacks earn 60 cents to the dollar compared with whites who have the same education levels and marital status. The black poverty rate is nearly twice the white poverty rate. Blacks tend to die five years earlier than whites; the infant mortality rate among black babies is nearly 1 1/2 times the rate among white babies. And because of long-standing patterns of inheritance, blacks and whites begin life with substantial disparities in family wealth.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING: WAMC Northeast Public Radio had a story on the problem of human trafficking in New York's Hudson Valley.
CENSORSHIP: In another skirmish in the Bush administration's ongoing battle against science and knowledge (a part of its wider war against reality), a US Agency for International Development-funded organization is now blocking searches on the word 'abortion' from its massive database. It's one thing to ban government funding for abortions themselves. But to use funding to intimidate medical organizations into banning any discussion of the practice is pretty brazen, even by the standards of the day.
CAFFEINE ADDICTS UNITE!: You know how some coffee-addicted people get crazy when they don't get there daily fix? Turns out there might be a medical reason why.
HEROIC RAPISTS: This op-ed piece originally from The Los Angeles Times illuminates the rather disturbing statistic that female US soldiers are more likely to be raped by a 'comrade' than killed by enemy fire in Iraq. Doctors at a Veterans' clinic in West Los Angeles reported that 41 percent of their patients were victims of sexual assault and 29 percent raped... while serving in the US military. Could someone please remind me how gays would ruin the military...
HOW PREDICTABLE IS CONFLICT?: Can computers predict wars? A Radio Netherlands report explores the matter.
HILLARY'S WAL-MART YEARS (cont.): Sen. Hillary Clinton has based her campaign against Barack Obama on her supposed edge in experience. The non-partisan Center for Public Integrity has a closer look at the much-touted experience of a woman that blue collar unions are inexplicably falling over themselves to endorse.
HYBRIDS IN THE MOUNTAINS: Adirondack Almanack blog hosts a good discussion (both in the original essay and in the comments) of hybrid cars and their use in the Adirondacks.
TOP TEN SIGNS OF THE IMMINENT APOCALYPSE: Number seven.
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