Speaking of ideology, that word has become just about as demonized as the L word.
Credit for coining the term usually goes to Karl Marx who saw it pretty much as a set of concepts held by ruling classes to justify dominance. More lately it has been generalized to include any world view, frame of reference, or series of unifying ideas that help to explain the world. In contrast to Marx, these are now more often referred to in cases where ideologies may justify or aim to make changes in society.
Obama is known for his antagonism to ideology (in favor of pragmatism.)
Ideology has gotten a bad rap. Ideology does not need to be secret. Ideology does not need to be rigid or hateful.
As an organization needs a vision, so too do social movements and individuals. So the questions for ideologies, are:
a. Is a held ideology transparent.
b. Is a held ideology open to modification if reality intervenes?
c. Is an ideology used to justify actions which are generally considered immoral or evil.
I'm suspicious of those who deny that ideologies don't exist. Richard Bell was a famous political scientist who proclaimed the end of ideology in America in the 1950's. It seemed like a way of saying, "there's really no disagreement in America about what we are doing, so if you seem to disagree there's something wrong with you."
Many cite radical Islam and terrorist acts and actors as examples of the dangers of ideology. These movements are dangerous; and they are based on ideologies. But these ideologies violate the suggested rules above.
When Obama denigrates ideology, I'm guessing he's using this as a short hand for "inflexibility."
Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater:
1. Ideologies exist as social realities and influence much of how groups act.
2. Understanding an underlying ideology helps understand actions or movements, or even methodologies. (See Karl Mannheim on relationship of ideology and epistomology - how we know things.)
3. Having an explicit ideology that is flexible and continually reexamined in the light of observed realities helps provide an articulation of views that may assist people in acting consistently the light of their vision.
We don't feel revulsion when we walk into a hospital and read their vision statement. Likewise an ideology, can help to inform both those who hold it and those who disagree.
The alternative: some kind of relativist pragmatism that does not provide a moral compass. (or more likely hides one that people would rather not discuss.)
Interesting how (my) interests don't change so much. I wrote my senior undergraduate thesis on applications of Karl Manheim's ideas about the relationship between ideology and epistomology.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Punctuation
I am not a bad writer, or grammarian, or punctuator. I do believe I'll go to my grave without learning when to put period or comma within or outside quotation marks or parentheses.
Sometimes we grow to be fond of our little glitches. That's not "self-serving", or "self-serving," or (self serving?)or (self-serving)?
Sometimes we grow to be fond of our little glitches. That's not "self-serving", or "self-serving," or (self serving?)or (self-serving)?
Color Politics
Blue State, Red State.
I continue to have problems with this version of geographic identity politics. To me Red will always be left. Of course Karl Marx might point out that the working class folks in red states are victims of "false consciousness." Antonio Gramsci has a gentler description: "Bourgeois Hegemony." This is less of an elitist concept than it sounds. There are many other examples of exploited folks sympathizing with their captors, rather than following their own "interests." Certainly the "Patricia Hearst" syndrome is one example. In that case, I believe, our courts even recognized the concept.
If Foxnews was following that, they'd be saying we have Marxist or Communist courts. Would that it was so!
I continue to have problems with this version of geographic identity politics. To me Red will always be left. Of course Karl Marx might point out that the working class folks in red states are victims of "false consciousness." Antonio Gramsci has a gentler description: "Bourgeois Hegemony." This is less of an elitist concept than it sounds. There are many other examples of exploited folks sympathizing with their captors, rather than following their own "interests." Certainly the "Patricia Hearst" syndrome is one example. In that case, I believe, our courts even recognized the concept.
If Foxnews was following that, they'd be saying we have Marxist or Communist courts. Would that it was so!
What's your butt for?
Question:
What's the biggest muscle in the human body?
Answer:
Gluteus Maximums (your butt muscle)
Question:
What's it used for?
Answer: Running (almost exclusively)
This, from a NYTimes article reporting research that humans are better adapted for distance running than most animals. In part because of the anatomy of our feet and toes, but mostly because we are adapted for efficient cooling, especially compared to hairy animals.
So some quoted research says a well conditioned human can outrun a horse in hot weather at distances of 26 miles.
So why the prevalence of runner injuries:
Hypotheses:
1. Runners start to train as adults, not children
2.Overtraining
3.Running on hard surfaces
4.Runner hunters may have alternated running with walking
5.Overpadded running shoes generate a destructive running technique. (See Tarahumara sandal used for long distance running.)
What's the biggest muscle in the human body?
Answer:
Gluteus Maximums (your butt muscle)
Question:
What's it used for?
Answer: Running (almost exclusively)
This, from a NYTimes article reporting research that humans are better adapted for distance running than most animals. In part because of the anatomy of our feet and toes, but mostly because we are adapted for efficient cooling, especially compared to hairy animals.
So some quoted research says a well conditioned human can outrun a horse in hot weather at distances of 26 miles.
So why the prevalence of runner injuries:
Hypotheses:
1. Runners start to train as adults, not children
2.Overtraining
3.Running on hard surfaces
4.Runner hunters may have alternated running with walking
5.Overpadded running shoes generate a destructive running technique. (See Tarahumara sandal used for long distance running.)
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Applied neuroscience hits me on the head
I believe there's a pretty well accepted theory that you never forget anything, that it's all in there somewhere, but the access through the increasing (with age) jumble of synapses makes you appear to forget, because you don't cognitively go where the memory sits.
To make this theory literal, I imagine a bright cursor, maybe looking like pacman moving along those synapse highways.
So here's an experiment you might try. I took whatever first came into my head and let the cursor float to similar memories.
As it happened, the first thing that came to my mind was getting hit in the head:
Hit in the head memory 1:
A softball hit by Mr. Wheeler at Hawthorn Avenue school (sixth grade) went way too far and hit me in the head all the way at the other end of the playground. He felt guilty since a teacher (he was a semi pro football player) shouldn't have been shaggin flies with the kids.
Hit in the head memory 2:
At summer camp I was strolling along in a daze and walked between a counselor and a tree. It happens he was trying to throw (what we used to call) a trench knife into the tree. Luckily when it hit me in the head it was handle first. He was also guilty and scared to death.
Hit in the head memory 3:
Ice skating (illegally) on a pond at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield. I was probably 14, and playing ice tag. I desperately wanted to tag Ed ____ my personal nemesis. I totally lost it when I couldn't catch up with him, and without thinking, just dived at him like a football tackle. Unfortunately his skate came up and the back of the blade got me and opened up a flap of skin just between my eyes. Recall, those areas really bleed a lot. A half inch in either direction might have taken out an eye.
Hit in the head memory 4:
In Morgantown I was up a tree with an electric chain saw (is that an oxymoron) and the branch I was cutting above me came off before I expected and whacked me pretty hard on the head, knocking me out of the tree. The lucky thing is I didn't cut myselfwith the saw. I did bleed a lot.
Hit in the head memory 5:
Panther 21 demonstration in NYC approx 1969. Policeman attacks my friend, Lee, with billy club, he's all tangled in a cape (dumb thing to wear to demonstration) so I jump on the policeman's back to pull him off. In his heavy blue coat it took him a while to notice me, but eventually he let go of Lee and took after me. He was swinging away with the club, and I felt like a super hero slowing the picture down. I actually blocked every blow with my (armored with newspaper up my coat sleeves for the demonstration) arms. He eventually gave up. Actually this is a "not hit in the head" story, because he tried and failed. I guess the cursor still found this one with the search terms "hit" and "head." When I saw a doctor later because of swollen and sore arms, he quipped my head was harder and could have taken the blows better. I think he was being literal, but the figurative version makes a better story.
By the way, there are a lot more, but I'll stop.
So what's the point? I don't walk around with a consciousness of those incidents. But when I said hit on head to the cursor, it immediately drug these up.
Take a bath and let the good thoughts flow!
To make this theory literal, I imagine a bright cursor, maybe looking like pacman moving along those synapse highways.
So here's an experiment you might try. I took whatever first came into my head and let the cursor float to similar memories.
As it happened, the first thing that came to my mind was getting hit in the head:
Hit in the head memory 1:
A softball hit by Mr. Wheeler at Hawthorn Avenue school (sixth grade) went way too far and hit me in the head all the way at the other end of the playground. He felt guilty since a teacher (he was a semi pro football player) shouldn't have been shaggin flies with the kids.
Hit in the head memory 2:
At summer camp I was strolling along in a daze and walked between a counselor and a tree. It happens he was trying to throw (what we used to call) a trench knife into the tree. Luckily when it hit me in the head it was handle first. He was also guilty and scared to death.
Hit in the head memory 3:
Ice skating (illegally) on a pond at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield. I was probably 14, and playing ice tag. I desperately wanted to tag Ed ____ my personal nemesis. I totally lost it when I couldn't catch up with him, and without thinking, just dived at him like a football tackle. Unfortunately his skate came up and the back of the blade got me and opened up a flap of skin just between my eyes. Recall, those areas really bleed a lot. A half inch in either direction might have taken out an eye.
Hit in the head memory 4:
In Morgantown I was up a tree with an electric chain saw (is that an oxymoron) and the branch I was cutting above me came off before I expected and whacked me pretty hard on the head, knocking me out of the tree. The lucky thing is I didn't cut myselfwith the saw. I did bleed a lot.
Hit in the head memory 5:
Panther 21 demonstration in NYC approx 1969. Policeman attacks my friend, Lee, with billy club, he's all tangled in a cape (dumb thing to wear to demonstration) so I jump on the policeman's back to pull him off. In his heavy blue coat it took him a while to notice me, but eventually he let go of Lee and took after me. He was swinging away with the club, and I felt like a super hero slowing the picture down. I actually blocked every blow with my (armored with newspaper up my coat sleeves for the demonstration) arms. He eventually gave up. Actually this is a "not hit in the head" story, because he tried and failed. I guess the cursor still found this one with the search terms "hit" and "head." When I saw a doctor later because of swollen and sore arms, he quipped my head was harder and could have taken the blows better. I think he was being literal, but the figurative version makes a better story.
By the way, there are a lot more, but I'll stop.
So what's the point? I don't walk around with a consciousness of those incidents. But when I said hit on head to the cursor, it immediately drug these up.
Take a bath and let the good thoughts flow!
Take A Bath, For Blog's Sake
OK. I just took a bath. (That's meant to be a twitter parody....like anybody cares?) but what happened after I got sleepy and stopped reading is free floating that led to many blog ideas. Don't worry...I'll hold some in abeyance in a little journalforblog of future ideas. But my advice to any blogger with writer's blog is take a bath and just let it flow.
So now I'll introduce my father. Abe saw it as is job in life to love my mother. He did a good job at that. He was also prickly, eccentric, considerate, very responsible, a bit of a hermit, and liked for people to think of him in those ways.
Au contraire he had his own social wisdowm.
Case in point. About 1953 when I was nine, I had some kind of high drama fight with my parents which brought me to the point of running away. I packed up my oversized boy scout backpack with a sleeping bag, grabbed 10 cans of cat food and my white cat, Pom, and emerged to the "TV room" announcing my departure. While my mother looked apoplectic, my dad, said enjoy yourself and be safe. Pride wounded because they didn't protest, I marched out, went around the block (Newark, NJ) and came back into our apartment. My Dad looked up from a book and said, "I'm glad your back." and that was it. Fight over, rebellion over, one happy family again.
The first memory of my Dad that came floating up in the aforementioned bath was his weekly late Sunday morning nap on the floor of our living room. We lived on the second floor of a two and a half and it was pretty nice, with a lot of light streaming in the windows. He looked so at peace. The sun made him look almost angelic. The bald head was just sopping up the rays and glistening in the light. Why did he take his naps on the floor? I still don't know. But if I did bother him sleeping, the response was always the same, "Why don't you go take a run around the block."
Not bad advice!
So now I'll introduce my father. Abe saw it as is job in life to love my mother. He did a good job at that. He was also prickly, eccentric, considerate, very responsible, a bit of a hermit, and liked for people to think of him in those ways.
Au contraire he had his own social wisdowm.
Case in point. About 1953 when I was nine, I had some kind of high drama fight with my parents which brought me to the point of running away. I packed up my oversized boy scout backpack with a sleeping bag, grabbed 10 cans of cat food and my white cat, Pom, and emerged to the "TV room" announcing my departure. While my mother looked apoplectic, my dad, said enjoy yourself and be safe. Pride wounded because they didn't protest, I marched out, went around the block (Newark, NJ) and came back into our apartment. My Dad looked up from a book and said, "I'm glad your back." and that was it. Fight over, rebellion over, one happy family again.
The first memory of my Dad that came floating up in the aforementioned bath was his weekly late Sunday morning nap on the floor of our living room. We lived on the second floor of a two and a half and it was pretty nice, with a lot of light streaming in the windows. He looked so at peace. The sun made him look almost angelic. The bald head was just sopping up the rays and glistening in the light. Why did he take his naps on the floor? I still don't know. But if I did bother him sleeping, the response was always the same, "Why don't you go take a run around the block."
Not bad advice!
Coal Mining in China
Mining coal in the US is pretty darned hazardous. Roof falls and crushings by equipment are continued hazards. NIOSH reports the appearance of a newly agressive version of black lung that appears and progresses much more quickly than the old versions.
Mining in places like China and South Africa make WVa mines look like a walk in the park. Recently China began to address its horrible mining safety and health conditions by appointing the former director of it national health and safety agency, Wang Jun, as governor of a major coal mining province (Shanxi.) Small coal mines (that thrived on bribery and cutting corners on safety) are being nationalized. We can hope that this is light at the end of the......mine.
...from the Economist
Mining in places like China and South Africa make WVa mines look like a walk in the park. Recently China began to address its horrible mining safety and health conditions by appointing the former director of it national health and safety agency, Wang Jun, as governor of a major coal mining province (Shanxi.) Small coal mines (that thrived on bribery and cutting corners on safety) are being nationalized. We can hope that this is light at the end of the......mine.
...from the Economist
Jewish Joke
Question: Why do Jews get out of jail?
Answer: They eat lox!
Well I truly love this joke. But an additional reason for telling it is I learned it from my mother. She was not exactly a big joke teller, but jokes fit into her larger persona as warm, smiling, a bringer of happiness.
As a school teacher she always had stories about school....mostly about her fellow teachers and administrators. One appalling story was about a teachers room conversation in which a teacher indicated that people from Latin America spoke Latin. Logical yes. Ignorant, amazing. Do we forgive this because it was the 1950's?
Answer: They eat lox!
Well I truly love this joke. But an additional reason for telling it is I learned it from my mother. She was not exactly a big joke teller, but jokes fit into her larger persona as warm, smiling, a bringer of happiness.
As a school teacher she always had stories about school....mostly about her fellow teachers and administrators. One appalling story was about a teachers room conversation in which a teacher indicated that people from Latin America spoke Latin. Logical yes. Ignorant, amazing. Do we forgive this because it was the 1950's?
Blog Rating
Under my blog title, you'll see a blog rating of LPD
"L" means that this blog is left.
"P" means this blog will contain personal perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories.
"D" means it will be derivative and contain or refer readers to other sources.
"L" means that this blog is left.
"P" means this blog will contain personal perceptions, feelings, thoughts, memories.
"D" means it will be derivative and contain or refer readers to other sources.
Expatriot Novels
There is a particular power to expatriot novels. An edginess that maybe stems from the displaced condition, conflict of cultures, uprootedness.
My three favorite (in order) are:
A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler. This is about Vietnamese in Louisiana. The expatriot part is complicated by their war history and memories.
Things Fall Aparte, by Chinua Achebe; A Nigerian moves from rural to urban area.
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul: An Indian living in the EAst Cost of Africa moves to the interior (probably Zaire)
Okay. What are your favorite expatriot novels? Use comment!
My three favorite (in order) are:
A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler. This is about Vietnamese in Louisiana. The expatriot part is complicated by their war history and memories.
Things Fall Aparte, by Chinua Achebe; A Nigerian moves from rural to urban area.
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul: An Indian living in the EAst Cost of Africa moves to the interior (probably Zaire)
Okay. What are your favorite expatriot novels? Use comment!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
....so you didn't link to the Nation
The most interesting point in several of the mentioned articles on Afghanistan is that several are actually optimistic about Pakistan. While the majority of Pakistanis don't care for us (Americans), they don't want a fundamentalist nation or government either. As in Afghanistan, our attempts to help (drones killing civilians while seeking Al Quaida) push them towards opposition. Left alone, several authors say, they are making progress in establishing a working democracy and will deal with their own problems.
Sometimes adults think they need to solve all their kids' problems. Often that becomes an oppositional situation. Likewise the first world errs by imposing its world view on second and third world nations. Opposition and dysfunction are often the result.
Sometimes adults think they need to solve all their kids' problems. Often that becomes an oppositional situation. Likewise the first world errs by imposing its world view on second and third world nations. Opposition and dysfunction are often the result.
Why I read the Nation
I receive and read many many many magazines. My favorite is the Nation (yes even more than boatbuilding magazine.) It informs and challenges while being very well written. Here's what Wikipedia says:
What a list of heroines and heroes (Ezra Pound excepted)!
A particularly great issue is the latest special issue on Afghanistan, which you can view on line:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091109
The Nation is a weekly[2] United States periodical devoted to politics and culture, self-described as "the flagship of the left."[3] Founded on July 6, 1865 at the start of Reconstruction as a supporter of the victorious North in the American Civil War, it is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the US. It is published by the Nation Company, L.P. at 33 Irving Place, New York City.
The publisher and editor is Katrina vanden Heuvel. Former editors include Victor Navasky, Norman Thomas (associate editor), Carey McWilliams, and Freda Kirchwey. Notable contributors have included Albert Einstein, Franz Boas, Martin Luther King, Jr., Bertrand Russell, Barbara Garson, H. L. Mencken, Gore Vidal, Edward Said, Christopher Hitchens, Hunter S. Thompson, Langston Hughes, Ralph Nader, James Baldwin, Clement Greenberg, Tom Hayden, Daniel Singer, I.F. Stone, Leon Trotsky, George Orwell, Henry Miller, Franklin D. Roosevelt, James K. Galbraith, John Steinbeck, Barbara Tuchman, T. S. Eliot, Kurt Vonnegut, Robert Frost, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hannah Arendt, Ezra Pound, Henry James, Charles Sanders Peirce[4], Jean-Paul Sartre and John BeecherWhat a list of heroines and heroes (Ezra Pound excepted)!
A particularly great issue is the latest special issue on Afghanistan, which you can view on line:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091109
Is USA Today Worthwhile?
I often read USA Today. One reason is that sometimes they break stories you don't see anywhere else.
Today is an example.
They report that 300 Filipino teachers were recruited to Louisiana to fill hard to fill positions in math, language, and special ed. These teachers followed the same route as other migrants, being recruited by intermediary agencies that collect large up front fees from the teachers, finders fees from the school districts, and by holding these teachers' H-1B or J-1 visas extract additional funds from the teachers. The teachers are held in virtual servitude to the recruiter, crammed together in high priced housing of poor quality. Teachers knowingly paid up front recruitment fees of $10,000 to $16,000 for the opportunity to come for these jobs, but had no idea they would be subject to continuing fees once they arrived: $1000 marketing fee, $595 evaluation and transcript fee, $3920 processing fee, ripoff slum housing, etc, etc. They were given two choices, move forward with these fees in the US on the prospect of getting a teaching job, or returning to Philipines with a huge debt. AFT (teachers' union) has sparked an investigation including the recruiters, and whether the participating school districts did or should have known the score.
You can get more information on a blog started by some of the teachers:
http://pinoyteachershub.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated
Today is an example.
They report that 300 Filipino teachers were recruited to Louisiana to fill hard to fill positions in math, language, and special ed. These teachers followed the same route as other migrants, being recruited by intermediary agencies that collect large up front fees from the teachers, finders fees from the school districts, and by holding these teachers' H-1B or J-1 visas extract additional funds from the teachers. The teachers are held in virtual servitude to the recruiter, crammed together in high priced housing of poor quality. Teachers knowingly paid up front recruitment fees of $10,000 to $16,000 for the opportunity to come for these jobs, but had no idea they would be subject to continuing fees once they arrived: $1000 marketing fee, $595 evaluation and transcript fee, $3920 processing fee, ripoff slum housing, etc, etc. They were given two choices, move forward with these fees in the US on the prospect of getting a teaching job, or returning to Philipines with a huge debt. AFT (teachers' union) has sparked an investigation including the recruiters, and whether the participating school districts did or should have known the score.
You can get more information on a blog started by some of the teachers:
http://pinoyteachershub.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated
Incipient Forgetfulness
I am ok with a slow increase in forgetfulness. So, nu, I'm lucky to live long enough to forget some stuff.
One does stand out: For 60 years I could put down a book and pick it up a week later and go right to the place I left off. Now I'm clueless. I've joined the legions who turn the corner of the page to find where they left off. I don't even trust a bookmark not to fall out. Signposts of aging. That's ok.
One does stand out: For 60 years I could put down a book and pick it up a week later and go right to the place I left off. Now I'm clueless. I've joined the legions who turn the corner of the page to find where they left off. I don't even trust a bookmark not to fall out. Signposts of aging. That's ok.
What is a Mensch?
....from Raising Your Child To be a Mensch, Neil Kurshan, courtesy of Roz:
"Zay a mensh! - Be a mensch! - was an expression repeated a thousand times in the homes of many first generation Jewish immigrants. Children who knew no other words of Yiddish knew these three words. Menschlichkeit is responsibility fused with compassion, a sense that one's own personal needs and desires are limited by the needs and desires of other people. A mensch acts with self-restraint and humility, always sensitive to the feelings and thoughts of others. As menschen we feel a genuine passion to alleviate the pain and suffering of those around us.
The term 'mensch' literally means a 'person' or 'man,' but it represents a moral ideal for all people, men and women alike......Menschlichkeit is the opposite of cruelty, pettiness, and self-centeredness. It means being sensitive to other peoples' needs and seeking out ways to help them......In the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe where the term arose, to call someone a mensch was the highest compliment that could be given."
May we all aspire......
"Zay a mensh! - Be a mensch! - was an expression repeated a thousand times in the homes of many first generation Jewish immigrants. Children who knew no other words of Yiddish knew these three words. Menschlichkeit is responsibility fused with compassion, a sense that one's own personal needs and desires are limited by the needs and desires of other people. A mensch acts with self-restraint and humility, always sensitive to the feelings and thoughts of others. As menschen we feel a genuine passion to alleviate the pain and suffering of those around us.
The term 'mensch' literally means a 'person' or 'man,' but it represents a moral ideal for all people, men and women alike......Menschlichkeit is the opposite of cruelty, pettiness, and self-centeredness. It means being sensitive to other peoples' needs and seeking out ways to help them......In the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe where the term arose, to call someone a mensch was the highest compliment that could be given."
May we all aspire......
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Accordioncrimes the blog title
I've received thousands of questions about the blog title. Besides being the title of one of my favorite books, I kinda like the image an accordion committing or perhaps defining a crime.
Try out several whimsical images of accordion crime:
Accordion as Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
Accordion as Robber Baron assembling vast wealth at the expense of a new urban working class.
Accordion as 21st Centery banker/speculator, riding the bubble till it burst.
Or maybe the idea here is that an accordion crime is a crime against beauty, music, dance, the things that make being human worthwhile.
Or that it is an accordion (squeezebox) crime to squeeze the breath out of people by poisoning their air.
Accordion crime joke:
Q.What is an accordion crime?
A. An accordion crime is a pure example of redundancy.
Special Accordion Offer!!!!!
I'll deliver a free accordion performance or lesson to anyone who submits an accordion crime drawing to this blog.
Try out several whimsical images of accordion crime:
Accordion as Robin Hood stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
Accordion as Robber Baron assembling vast wealth at the expense of a new urban working class.
Accordion as 21st Centery banker/speculator, riding the bubble till it burst.
Or maybe the idea here is that an accordion crime is a crime against beauty, music, dance, the things that make being human worthwhile.
Or that it is an accordion (squeezebox) crime to squeeze the breath out of people by poisoning their air.
Accordion crime joke:
Q.What is an accordion crime?
A. An accordion crime is a pure example of redundancy.
Special Accordion Offer!!!!!
I'll deliver a free accordion performance or lesson to anyone who submits an accordion crime drawing to this blog.
public option
Such a neat trick that the business community and right wing have convinced many Americans that a "Public Option" is intrusive at best, and evil at worst. We have governments for the purpose of organizing things in the "public" good that "private" systems don't take care of. Thing like roads. Oh, I forgot, Government telling us where roads should go is an imposition on my "right to free roads." Oh, I forgot, Government programs such as social security impose on my "right to grow old in poverty." etc. etc.
It's a good thing that most academic political scientists declared ideology dead in US politics as early as the 1950's. Maybe this was just a funeral for the prevalence of left ideology. As you may have noticed, Obama goes down this road as well. (That's a topic for the future.)
Still, polls consistently say that the majority of Americans favor the public option. So what's with Congress. Are they a bunch of old grinches, who just can't get with the peoople? Or maybe when lobbyists exercise their free speech rights and lobby for insurance company benefits, they are smarter and more persuasive than the rest of us. Or maybeeee, just maybeeee, the color of money (=votes) and sometimes other sleazy benefits that accompanies the lobbyists trumps the "public" voice.
Which brings me to the point of this rant. I'm with Grannie D who at 90 walked across the US to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform. The undue influence of corporate money is the one public policy issue that undercuts and undermines attempts at other improvments that may threaten the excessive profits some some corporation. Grannie D was right to make this her focus. And she was right that we needed dramatic action to galvanize people around this issue. Any ideas?
BTW, this is certainly nothing new. John Williams in his book West Virginia and the Captains of Industry, documents how coal companies in the 19th century spent large sums to buy themselves senators and congressmen from West Virginia so that the coal industry would be sure to have a leading voice present in Congress.
Link to Grannie D: http://www.grannyd.com/
It's a good thing that most academic political scientists declared ideology dead in US politics as early as the 1950's. Maybe this was just a funeral for the prevalence of left ideology. As you may have noticed, Obama goes down this road as well. (That's a topic for the future.)
Still, polls consistently say that the majority of Americans favor the public option. So what's with Congress. Are they a bunch of old grinches, who just can't get with the peoople? Or maybe when lobbyists exercise their free speech rights and lobby for insurance company benefits, they are smarter and more persuasive than the rest of us. Or maybeeee, just maybeeee, the color of money (=votes) and sometimes other sleazy benefits that accompanies the lobbyists trumps the "public" voice.
Which brings me to the point of this rant. I'm with Grannie D who at 90 walked across the US to call attention to the need for campaign finance reform. The undue influence of corporate money is the one public policy issue that undercuts and undermines attempts at other improvments that may threaten the excessive profits some some corporation. Grannie D was right to make this her focus. And she was right that we needed dramatic action to galvanize people around this issue. Any ideas?
BTW, this is certainly nothing new. John Williams in his book West Virginia and the Captains of Industry, documents how coal companies in the 19th century spent large sums to buy themselves senators and congressmen from West Virginia so that the coal industry would be sure to have a leading voice present in Congress.
Link to Grannie D: http://www.grannyd.com/
Monday, October 26, 2009
baby dancing
Here's a URL. It's not a link. copy and paste into your browser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q
beyond flying to the moon.....beyond apple pie.....beyond loyal dog.....beyond favorite oldie!
Thanks to Cindy O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTxfIDYx6Q
beyond flying to the moon.....beyond apple pie.....beyond loyal dog.....beyond favorite oldie!
Thanks to Cindy O
Business Tries to Derail Tax Reform
During his campaign, Obama announced a plan for tax reform, particularly pinpointing earnings that us companies take abroad or off shore. Big industry has put on a quiet full court press with the usual promise that this will hurt local jobs.
Business Week points out (Oct 26) that the arguments are largely fictional. For example the ostensible corporate tax rate is 35%. Big anti reform lobbyists GE and Proctor and Gamble pay 5.5% and 25% respectively, Currently IRS is suing Proctor and Gamble for allegidly illegally using the a Barbados subsidiary as an "abusive tax shelter."
Business Week opines, "the companies' tactics and past IRS battles raise troubling questions."
Way to go Business Week!
I read Business Week for my weekly news magazine because, representing the most liberal wing of the business community, it seeks to restrain the most barbaric industry practices that might really threaten the capitalist system. ...and they know and understand that world. They have been railing against ridiculously high executive salaries for year.
Business Week points out (Oct 26) that the arguments are largely fictional. For example the ostensible corporate tax rate is 35%. Big anti reform lobbyists GE and Proctor and Gamble pay 5.5% and 25% respectively, Currently IRS is suing Proctor and Gamble for allegidly illegally using the a Barbados subsidiary as an "abusive tax shelter."
Business Week opines, "the companies' tactics and past IRS battles raise troubling questions."
Way to go Business Week!
I read Business Week for my weekly news magazine because, representing the most liberal wing of the business community, it seeks to restrain the most barbaric industry practices that might really threaten the capitalist system. ...and they know and understand that world. They have been railing against ridiculously high executive salaries for year.
nisht geshtoygn un nisht gefloygn
Nisht geshtoygn un nisht gefloygn....this from Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch:
This common yiddish saying translates as, "it didn't climb up and it didn't fly." Wex notes this phrase as an example of yiddish as an oppositional "in code" language that the dominant culture wouldn't understand. According to Wex this phrase which is intended to express skepticism as in "pigs don't fly" really refers to Jesus who didn't climb to heaven and didnt' fly there (or didn't climb onto the cross.) Pretty harsh, no? Germans would understand each word of the yiddish, but not the reference. Wex: "Yiddish started out as German for blasphemers."
Here's an example of how language can evoke the conditions and perspectives of a community more quickly and powerfully than pages of discourse or description.
This common yiddish saying translates as, "it didn't climb up and it didn't fly." Wex notes this phrase as an example of yiddish as an oppositional "in code" language that the dominant culture wouldn't understand. According to Wex this phrase which is intended to express skepticism as in "pigs don't fly" really refers to Jesus who didn't climb to heaven and didnt' fly there (or didn't climb onto the cross.) Pretty harsh, no? Germans would understand each word of the yiddish, but not the reference. Wex: "Yiddish started out as German for blasphemers."
Here's an example of how language can evoke the conditions and perspectives of a community more quickly and powerfully than pages of discourse or description.
Newspapers and "place"
I'm almost getting inured to the analysis and opinions re: dying of newspapers. But an article in Nov Harper's on newspapers and "place" (Final Edition: Richard Rodriguez) has a powerful quote, "We will end up with one and a half cities in America -Washington, D.C., and American Idol..........We are without obituaries, but the famous will achieve immortality by a Wikipedia entry."
hmmmm
hmmmm
Sunday, October 25, 2009
US soldier in Afghanistan
It costs $250,000 to keep one US soldier in Afghanistan for a year. (Economist)
Soupy Sales
It took his obituary to for me to know that Soupy Sales lived and worked in West Virginia. How over the top was he? I admit I loved his show about 85% and was embarassed about 15%. I probably was unconsciously thinking he reflected on all silly leaning male Jews, with myself implicated of course.
We'll never forget that he told his kid audience to go into their mothers' purses and send him the pieces of green paper. This link says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNv3rVV1mfs
We'll never forget that he told his kid audience to go into their mothers' purses and send him the pieces of green paper. This link says it all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNv3rVV1mfs
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Pessimistic Prediction
When America invaded Afghanistan I predicted disorder would spread eventually not only to Iraq, but to Pakistan....too true. Now I'll predict that before this is over, the world will be facing similar struggles in places like Indonesia and Malaysia. Now that is a really scary thought (as if internal problems in nuclear armed Pakistan are not enough.) ....and I am usually a political optimist.
White glove regrets
I am usually a person of very few regrets....self appointed leader of "jews without guilt"....however a post by Bill Case on my Facebook about my wearing a fedora (and its link to a fedora wearing picture of Myer Lansky) reminded me of one of those.
My mother died in 1988, my father in 1992. The big regret here was (as only child) not living close by to support them in their later years. That's one of my big 3 (regrets!) But the little one that keeps nagging at me is one thing I didn't keep when I cleaned out their house in Springfield, NJ. In my parents closet on my mother's side (my father didn't touch a thing of hers in the four years since she died) was a long flat box. When I opened the box I found it contained many pairs of long white gloves. I can still recall the scent of powder in that box. I can see the gloves in a slightly different shades of white, some plain, some crocheted, lying quiet and still in that box. When was the last time they saw the light of day?
Now my mom was not a particularly dress up kind of person. Those gloves of hers evoked an earlier time and an earlier her, in a way nothing else ever has....If I imagine my mother wearing any of these, I am transported (with her) into a past time and sensibility I never knew. It's like a magic ship to another time... a time where elegance was desirable, where women were mostly covered.
I wish I had those gloves so I could ride that ship more often. And what might it feel like if I could actually open the box and touch and smell the white gloves????
Postscript: Where are the gloves now? Are they still resting in their box? When I took everything I wanted from their house, I had a church from Newark clean out the house to get ready for sale. Their payoff was to sell the things left behind in a used goods shop. Is there an elegant African American woman now wearing my mother's gloves, or have they just become costume dressup for some kid?
My mother died in 1988, my father in 1992. The big regret here was (as only child) not living close by to support them in their later years. That's one of my big 3 (regrets!) But the little one that keeps nagging at me is one thing I didn't keep when I cleaned out their house in Springfield, NJ. In my parents closet on my mother's side (my father didn't touch a thing of hers in the four years since she died) was a long flat box. When I opened the box I found it contained many pairs of long white gloves. I can still recall the scent of powder in that box. I can see the gloves in a slightly different shades of white, some plain, some crocheted, lying quiet and still in that box. When was the last time they saw the light of day?
Now my mom was not a particularly dress up kind of person. Those gloves of hers evoked an earlier time and an earlier her, in a way nothing else ever has....If I imagine my mother wearing any of these, I am transported (with her) into a past time and sensibility I never knew. It's like a magic ship to another time... a time where elegance was desirable, where women were mostly covered.
I wish I had those gloves so I could ride that ship more often. And what might it feel like if I could actually open the box and touch and smell the white gloves????
Postscript: Where are the gloves now? Are they still resting in their box? When I took everything I wanted from their house, I had a church from Newark clean out the house to get ready for sale. Their payoff was to sell the things left behind in a used goods shop. Is there an elegant African American woman now wearing my mother's gloves, or have they just become costume dressup for some kid?
Friday, October 23, 2009
News comment: Global Warming and the American Public
An AP story appearing in our local paper today, indicates that many fewer Americans believe that Global Warming is for real than several years ago. The explanation posed by the aticle is the worsening economic conditions which raise the perceived economic cost of controlling the causes of global warming. I think they have something with that theory. Sure tells you something about the self serving nature of beliefs. Standing this observation on its head argues (as did Karl Marx) that economic security is required to bring out the best in human nature.
Cooperative Extension....America's most democratic institution
I have had a 30 career in West Virginia University's Extension Service. Most of these have been within my field of occupational safety and health: teaching, consulting, researching how to make American workplaces safer for workers. Six years were in administration as Associate Director. The Extension Service is under recognized as an incredible (but continually overstretched and stressed) institution. In my mind it is one of America's most democratic institutions.
It is a governmentally supported institution that benefits from steady funding streams, but acts like most non profists or NGO's by working consistently to better the lives of ordinary Americans, For example, WV's Extension Service has offices and faculty in each of WVa's 55 counties who probide significant socially beneficial programs in agriculture, youth development, family life, health, nutrition and community development. Think of the amazing reach attained through its ability to dissminate signifcant information (recent example: H1N1 recognition and prevention) by face to face mechanisms in the communities of our State. The people who work in Extension are also smart, committed, hard working, and self motivated to make the world better. I can't think of a better career to recommend to a young person. I have (and continue to) loved mine.
It is a governmentally supported institution that benefits from steady funding streams, but acts like most non profists or NGO's by working consistently to better the lives of ordinary Americans, For example, WV's Extension Service has offices and faculty in each of WVa's 55 counties who probide significant socially beneficial programs in agriculture, youth development, family life, health, nutrition and community development. Think of the amazing reach attained through its ability to dissminate signifcant information (recent example: H1N1 recognition and prevention) by face to face mechanisms in the communities of our State. The people who work in Extension are also smart, committed, hard working, and self motivated to make the world better. I can't think of a better career to recommend to a young person. I have (and continue to) loved mine.
In the light of day
I'm not sure if this isn't completely narcissistic. Anyway I'll try anyway.
Dorothy Healey, a leader of the West Coast California Communist Party who was very sympathetic to the developing New Left (she left the CP in the early 1970's and joined New American Movement, used to comment about all the newand old left "parties" claiming to be "vanguard", "you're not a vanguard unless anyone is following you...."
So the same applies here.
Question: What's a blog that no one reads:
Answer: A Journal
Question: What's the most difficult thing about wanting radical change...to some kind of democratic socialist world?
(One) Answer: How to live in today's capitalist world and make progress toward that goal. i.e. take part in reform that doesn't challenge the system while trying to have that reform move toward more radical change.
This is a question for nations, organizations, and also individuals (me) in their day to day lives.
Two nights ago we saw a film about collective housing created by Jewish Communists in the Bronx in the 1930's. Ultimately in the 1040's the communist leadership of the coop allowed the cooperative to go under to privatization because they wouldn't raise rents $1.00 per room on themselves and fellow workers (for "ideological" reasons. At the same time it was their ideology that lead them to racially integrate this housing in the 1930's when even other "socialist" housing coops would not.
Question rephrased: How to stay optimistic. Cornell West likes to say that he has hope, not optimism. hmmmm.
Dorothy Healey, a leader of the West Coast California Communist Party who was very sympathetic to the developing New Left (she left the CP in the early 1970's and joined New American Movement, used to comment about all the newand old left "parties" claiming to be "vanguard", "you're not a vanguard unless anyone is following you...."
So the same applies here.
Question: What's a blog that no one reads:
Answer: A Journal
Question: What's the most difficult thing about wanting radical change...to some kind of democratic socialist world?
(One) Answer: How to live in today's capitalist world and make progress toward that goal. i.e. take part in reform that doesn't challenge the system while trying to have that reform move toward more radical change.
This is a question for nations, organizations, and also individuals (me) in their day to day lives.
Two nights ago we saw a film about collective housing created by Jewish Communists in the Bronx in the 1930's. Ultimately in the 1040's the communist leadership of the coop allowed the cooperative to go under to privatization because they wouldn't raise rents $1.00 per room on themselves and fellow workers (for "ideological" reasons. At the same time it was their ideology that lead them to racially integrate this housing in the 1930's when even other "socialist" housing coops would not.
Question rephrased: How to stay optimistic. Cornell West likes to say that he has hope, not optimism. hmmmm.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
why am i here?
because my daughter Abby said start a blog.
Why did she say that? I don't know.
Some theories:
1. I was tending to mouth off about political stuff on facebook.
2. Maybe she thought I had something interesting to say????
3. She thought it would be fun for me.
I know nuthin' about doing a blog. So I guess that means I can do anything
There is nothing that I desire more of this blog than that you comment. Please comment!
Why did she say that? I don't know.
Some theories:
1. I was tending to mouth off about political stuff on facebook.
2. Maybe she thought I had something interesting to say????
3. She thought it would be fun for me.
I know nuthin' about doing a blog. So I guess that means I can do anything
There is nothing that I desire more of this blog than that you comment. Please comment!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
