Saturday, April 30, 2011

American exceptionalism

It is hard to take Rickie Santorum seriously as a presidential candidate.  He is at one or two percent in the polls, he lost his Senate race in Pennsylvania to Bob Casey, and he is spending time in Iowa and New Hampshire making outrageous statements about President Obama, the Second Amendment, abortion, and racial issues. Nevertheless, when Donald Trump is polling as the most popular of the Republican candidates, perhaps we need to take Rickie seriously.
At an N.R.A. convention, according to the Pocono Record, Rickie criticized President Obama for failing to tout “American exceptionalism,” the idea that this country is the most exceptional country among all others in the world.  And we are exceptional. 
We have lower life expectancy than Greece, Spain, or Costa Rica although we spend more money on health care per person than any other country in the world.  We have one of the highest rates of mental illness, less social mobility than almost every European country, one of the highest rates of incarceration, one of the highest levels of obesity, one of the highest rates of drug addiction. We are so exceptional it makes my head hurt. 
Patriotism should never be confused with nationalistic bombast.  Love of one’s country should not be confused with a blindness toward its problems.   
At vespers at 4-H camp we sometimes sang a song to the tune of Finlandia by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.  When I was a teenager, I thought it was one of the most beautiful songs I knew.  I still think so.  Here are two of the verses from the 4-H songbook.  Maybe it can serve as an antidote to this exceptionalism rhetoric.
This is my song, oh God of all the nations, 
a song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is; 
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
This is my song, thou God of all the nations;
a song of peace for their land and for mine.

Friday, April 29, 2011

We need a queen

With all the excitement surrounding the royal wedding in the UK, I was reminded again of a major flaw in our Constitution.  Our Founding Fathers made the Chief of State and the Head of Government the same person, and it hasn’t worked well.
Almost every major democracy splits those two functions.  Japan has a Prime Minister and an Emperor.  The UK has a Prime Minister and a Queen, Germany a Chancellor and a President, Belgium a Prime Minister (sometimes) and a King.  The Head of Government is the politician.  You can dislike him or her with no feeling of guilt.  The Chief of State, on the other hand, is the symbolic leader of the nation--the person who visits the sick troops in the hospital, tours the natural disaster area, comforts the populace in time of national turmoil.  Everybody loves the Chief of State.
When you mix the two, as in the U.S., it gets confusing.  President Obama visited Tuscaloosa today and was genuinely moved by the devastation, yet I’m sure there were many people who thought this was just a form of campaigning for the 2012 election.  If the Queen had visited, no one would have questioned her motives.  Perhaps we could borrow that young woman Kate who was married today.  She seems nice.
Note:  Linda C. was interviewed this evening on a show called the “Young Turks” on MSNBC.  She explained why the Ryan budget is such a bad deal for Medicare and the American people.  She was excellent.  

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Good news on condors

In the 1980s California was home to 27 condors, all of them in zoos.  No condors existed in the wild.  A breeding program was implemented--I remember seeing the baby condor chicks fed with hand puppets made to resemble adult condors so the babies wouldn’t imprint on humans.  The San Diego Zoo was a leader in the condor breeding program.
As the condor population increased, some condors were introduced into the wild.  Condors are carrion-eating birds, so California banned lead shot, which was interfering with reproduction when condors ate dead animals and ingested the lead which had killed them.
Today’s Morning Call carried an article entitled “From nearly extinct to thriving,” which noted that the total condor population could hit 400 this spring, with 200 birds living in the wild.  The condors still have problems, including the toxin DDE, which they ingest when eating marine carcasses. Nevertheless, this is a success story.   The largest flying bird in North America, a bird I thought was destined for extinction, has bounced back.
Who is responsible?  Private wildlife agencies, private environmental groups, the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, and the state of California.  Without our taxes, the condor would be long gone.  I am so pleased the condor is on its way to viability, and I am so pleased that our state and federal governments made it possible.  And I am so tired of the conservatives who want to "starve government."

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Congressman Lou Barletta: Stupid or a liar--you make the call

A week ago, on April 20, Congressman Lou Barletta held a “town hall” at the Amvets in Lansford.  The town hall had been advertised in our local newspaper, the Times News.  I had been to a Labor Council meeting on Monday and a Palmerton Area School Board meeting on Tuesday, and I didn’t feel like going to meetings three days in a row.  My wife Linda said she would go to the Barletta town hall by herself.
At that meeting she confronted Barletta about his vote in favor of the Ryan budget, a vote to kill Medicare as we know it.  While she was talking, two guys wearing tee shirts with the chopped-up snake began to yell at her to shut up and sit down.  Another member of the audience, unknown to Linda, stood up and told the two men who were yelling at Linda to “Let the lady speak.”  They told him to shut up, he said “Make me,” and he was escorted out of the town hall by the Lansford police.  Linda, at that point, sat down.  
Today, April 27, the New York Times published an article (“Voters Attack Republicans on Medicare”) in which Barletta is quoted, “My town halls are being disrupted by Democrats.  They are apparently being sent to do just that.  I am not sensing the general public is angered over Medicare reform [sic].  When I explain that people over 55 are not affected there is almost a sigh of relief.  He added, “I am not going to do anything different.”
Ok, here are a number of points:
  1. He should have said “differently.”  It’s an adverb.  (Sorry, I can’t help myself).
  2. Linda’s point was that she has a daughter, a grandson, and nieces, and they will be affected by the Ryan budget, even if she isn’t.
  3. Speaking in a calm and reasonable manner is not being disruptive.
  4. Linda was not part of an organized group.  She knew one other person in the audience, and he did not speak.
  5.   If Barletta thinks she was part of an organized group, he is stupid.  If he knows she wasn’t and is trying to divert attention to public opposition to his vote, he is a liar.  You make the call.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Kafkaesque

“Guilt is always without doubt.”
--Franz Kafka, “The Penal Colony”
People who have never read Franz Kafka, and I’m one of them except for two short stories, have an almost instinctive understanding of the adjective “Kafkaesque.” It’s a world of menace, of bureaucratic cruelties, a surreal universe in which events happen without reason, but with malice.
On Monday, April 25, the New York Times published three pages of selected documents relating to Guantanamo.  Guantanamo is Kafkaesque.  Prisoners are held for the flimsiest of reasons, Prisoners were tortured at whim, prisoners are kept for years without trial.  Who gets released and who remains seems to be determined more by chance than any rational reason. 
President Obama promised to end this mess, but Congress has passed legislation forbidding the detainees from being brought to trial in the U.S.  Military tribunals will be starting, but much of the evidence is inadmissible because it was obtained after torture.  
I am hoping that at some point in our history we will look back on Guantanamo the way we look at the Trail of Tears or the Japanese internment camps.  The very fact that the U.S. controls a piece of Cuba is a remnant of an imperial past.  The way we have handled the prisoners at Guantanamo is a stain on the United States.  The way Congress has handled it makes the stain larger.  What a travesty.  Guantanamo flies in the face of everything this country is supposed to stand for.  I am ashamed of it.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Collective Goods and Natural Gas

One function of government is to provide “collective goods.”  These are goods that individuals or individual corporations cannot provide by themselves, either because they require a long-term investment with little possibility of payoff (the space program), or the risk is too great (the Tennessee Valley Authority), or the initial investment is too massive (the Interstate Highway System).  
Another kind of collective good is when the government decides to enforce a standard or rule which individuals or individual companies might support, but they need the government’s help to see that everybody else follows the same standard.  The minimum wage is an example.  Let’s say one company’s board of directors wishes to pay its employees a minimum of $10 an hour, but its competitor is paying $5.00 an hour.  Obviously the “good” company can’t compete.
Today the Pocono Record, in an article entitled “Drillers Change Their Tune,” explained how a leading natural gas industry group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, is now pushing for regulations to stop using riverside treatment plants to treat fracking residue.
John Hager, DEP head under Gov. Rendell, said he had been approached by two drillers, Range Resources of Texas and Atlas Energy, which stated that Pennsylvania’s lax rules on fracking put the state’s rivers and streams at risk.  Note the problem--two drilling companies will not be competitive if they are being environmentally responsible and other companies are not.
Last week the Corbett administration called on the drillers to stop using riverside treatment plants, and the drillers said they would comply by May 19.  Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said “More than being a public health issue, it is a public trust issue.”  This is great P.R. for the drillers, but it may also benefit the environment, although one alternative to riverside treatment is to inject the toxic waste into deep wells in Ohio.  
There are at least two lessons to draw from this.  Individual companies can’t do this alone.   They need a collective decision to enforce the regulations on all the companies.  Secondly, when suggestions to help the environment are coming from natural gas drilling companies, what does that say about the Corbett administration?
She’s bad, she’s nationwide:  Tonight the lead story on MSNBC’s “Hardball” featured Linda’s critique of Congressman Barletta and his vote to destroy Medicare.  She made the point that Barletta did not campaign on that issue.  Chris Matthews praised how good she was.  He’s right.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Milk

Occasionally I find myself in agreement with people complaining about too much government regulation.  According to Lancaster Farming, Rural Vermont, an advocacy group, was teaching people how to turn raw milk into butter, yogurt, and cheese.  In February the Vermont Agency of Agriculture said Rural Vermont violated state law by holding classes in which raw milk was processed and served.  Evidently it is illegal in Vermont to use raw milk for anything other than drinking.  
I was raised on raw milk.  In fact, I milked the cow whose milk I drank.  I sometimes poured milk on my cereal without stirring it, which meant I got all the cream and my parents and sister were left with skim milk.  (When milk is not homogenized, the cream rises to the top.)  
The FDA notes that raw milk can contain such dangers as salmonella and E. coli.  On the other hand, raw milk contains healthy bacteria and enzymes not found in pasteurized milk.  It seems to me that as long as a consumer is aware of the potential dangers that may be found in raw milk, he or she should be allowed to purchase it, drink it, and make cheese from it.
Incidentally, the same Apr. 23 issue of Lancaster Farming that contained the article on raw milk in Vermont had another article with this headline:  “Study: Half of Supermarket Meat May Have Staph Bug.”  That was based on 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork, and turkey purchases in grocery stores in Chicago, L.A., Washington, Flagstaff, and Fort Lauderdale.  
The American Meat Institute said the study was misleading.
I buy my meat from a local butcher in Polk Township.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning is the American soldier accused of providing material to Wikileaks.  He has been held in solitary confinement, required to sleep naked (ostensibly because he was suicidal), and treated much like Dick Cheney would have treated prisoners.
He has now been moved to Leavenworth, and presumably he will be treated in a humane and reasonable way, although Amnesty International will be monitoring his condition.  
President Obama, it is said, is trying to mollify the left, which has been critical of some of the administration policies.  The treatment of Mr. Manning is exhibit A.  That was not what I was expecting when I spent hundreds of hours to get Mr. Obama elected.  I will work for him again, especially in light of his opposition, but it won’t be with the same degree of hope and enthusiasm. 
Note:  Linda, aka “thorn in Barletta’s side,” was featured last night on Rachael Maddow’s show on MSNBC.  

Friday, April 22, 2011

Where was Corbett?

Two days after Gov. Corbett promised “I won’t let them poison our water,” a natural gas well in Bradford County blew, spilling toxic fluid into a local creek.
A crew from Texas, where evidently they have experience in blown wells, did manage to stop the flow.
Note:  So far the “angry senior” (aka Linda) who called out Barletta on the destruction of Medicare, has been quoted in the L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and a whole bunch of other on-line and print sources.  Just Google “Barletta Town Hall.”  Barletta is coming across as a whiner. 

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Loudmouth Democratic Operative

Linda Christman’s challenge to Lou Barletta at his “town hall” at the Amvets in Lansford last night had an impact.  She stood up during Barletta’s defense of ending Medicare and called him out.  She pointed out that while people 55 and over might not be affected, she cared about those under 55 as well.  Two guys wearing chopped-up snake T-shirts yelled at her to sit down and shut up, and another guy told them to shut up, and the place erupted. 
Barletta’s office today said the whole thing was part of a “coordinated effort by Democrats to disrupt the event” (it wasn’t) and said Linda “deliberately set a raucous tone” (I thought she was rather respectful).  One conservative blog called her “a loudmouthed Democratic operative,” which I actually thought nailed it pretty well.
She was interviewed by “Politico.com” and the Wall Street Journal and featured on Channel 13.  Oh, yeah, and on MSNBC.  I can’t wait to hear what Glenn Beck says.
My own feeling about this is that Barletta made his reputation attacking people who really had no way to fight back.  Now a woman stands up and confronts him, and he can’t handle it.
You can read about this (and see Linda’s picture) if you go to <http://www.politicspa.com/barletta>.
At area political events I’m often introduced as “Linda Christman’s husband.”  What an honor.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Meetings

#1
Last night I attended a meeting of the Palmerton Area School Board.  Diane Danielson, director of the Palmerton Area Library, explained that if the School Board limits its aid to the library, the state will cut its subsidy, since the state money is dependent on local contributions.  
Retired Palmerton District teacher Marian Hoffner then told the Board that when she started teaching, the District had five administrators.  It now has ten, each with a secretary.  Ms. Hoffner noted that the student enrollment has not doubled in the interim, and suggested that if cuts have to be made, no part of the budget should be exempt, including the administration.  Her remarks were wildly applauded.
The problem school districts across Pennsylvania are facing can be traced to Governor Corbett.  Many of us saw this coming last November.  We have a governor who has an ideological position, cast in concrete, not to raise taxes.  With the deficit the state is facing, it is inevitable that the cuts will be passed down to municipalities and school districts.  They have two choices:  cut budgets or raise taxes.  The governor, meanwhile, abdicates all responsibility.  What a jerk.
#2
My partner attended a Lou Barletta town hall at the Amvets in Lansford tonight.  Although the people with the T-shirts with the chopped-up snake were there in force and tried to shout her down, she confronted Barletta on his support for the Ryan budget proposal.  That a congressman would even dare to come to Lansford and suggest giving tax breaks for the rich shows that Barletta is living in an alternative reality.
#3
We do need to speak truth to power at these events.  Rep. Heffley is holding an open house from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Lehighton Borough Annex, 2nd floor, 110 N. 3rd St., Thursday April 28.  He is holding another one from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, April 29, at Frosty Mountain Plaza, 2681 State Route 903, Unit 3, Albrightsville.  Be there or be square.
Note:  In an earlier post, I discussed the Arizona legislature’s bill to allow guns on college campuses.  I am pleased to note that Gov. Brewer vetoed not only that bill, but also a second bill to require presidential candidates to provide birth certificates or evidence of circumcision.  Thank you, Gov. Brewer.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

I've Got Your Back

"I will not let them poison the water."
            --Gov. Tom Corbett, Apr. 18, 2011

That was Gov. Corbett in response to a question about Marcellus Shale.  I was so inspired by the Gov. that I wrote a song.  It is entitled "I've Got Your Back," and it is sung to the tune of "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash.  Here it is:

I keep a close watch on Marcellus Shale
I keep the poisons out--I will not fail
I keep a close watch over hill and dale
Because they frack, I’ve got your back.
I find it very very easy to take checks
From all the fracking drillers nicknamed Tex
Yet I will not admit they have effects
Because they frack, I’ve got your back.
As sure as night is dark and day is light
I keep those drillers always in my sight
Their campaign contributions are all right
Because they frack, I’ve got your back.
So you can light a fire in your tap,
And the cost for cleanup has a cap
And I’m a little doggie in their lap
Because they frack, I’ve got your back.

Now what I need is a singer/guitar player.  Rene?  Also the singer should have a black outfit.  We'll film it and put it on YouTube.  If you have ideas, send them along.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Income tax day

Why I don’t mind paying my federal taxes:
Yellowstone National Park
Social Security
The U.S Marines
Pell Grants
The E.P.A.
O.S.H.A.
The F.A.A.
The Center for Disease Control
The Library of Congress
Food Stamps
The Endangered Species Act
Although I could do without these:
Guantanamo
The T.S.A.
Subsidies to wealthy farmers
The S.E.C.
Drones
The I.N.S.
Troops in Iraq

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Severance Tax

The Carbon County Democrats for Change set up a table at the Jim Thorpe Earth Day celebration today to collect signatures on a petition calling for a severance tax on natural gas.  The results were heartening.  Most people had heard of Marcellus Shale, knew something about the issue, and were willing to sign the petition.  Quite a few were angry about Gov. Corbett refusing to consider this source of revenue when the state is in such bad financial shape.
You’re probably saying to yourself, but this was at an Earth Day celebration, what did you expect?   What I learned from talking to people was that most of them were simply tourists attracted by the music and the activities.  The vendors may have met the stereotype of “environmentalist,” but the passersby were a mixed bag.  
The fact that so many people were willing to actually put name and address on a petition should give our elected representatives pause.  Why is Pennsylvania the only state to forego a severance tax on natural gas?  Why is our governor in the pocket of the drilling companies?  This issue is not about to go away.
[I did meet one woman who told me she didn’t vote because the whole system was rigged. How did George W. Bush win two elections?  And as for Obama, he was ruining the country and further evidence of the rigged system.  I told her I agreed with her--the country was better off if she didn’t vote.]

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Who Funds These People?

I put an ad in the Times News on Friday calling attention to an organizing meeting for a Carbon County labor council to be held on Monday night at the Amvets in Lansford.  The ad was two by two and a half inches, black and white.  It cost me 68 bucks.
The 9/12 group. a Glenn Beck-inspired Tea Bagger organization, is sponsoring a candidates’ forum at Penn’s Peak on Monday night.  They have run two quarter-page color ads in the Times News and they rented Penn’s Peak.
I’m a member of a number of local political organizations, and I can tell you that our spaghetti dinners and dues would not pay for that kind of activity.  This brings up a question--who is funding the 9/12 group?  The Koch Brothers?  Some pro-fracking drillers?  Rupert Murdoch?
The Tea Baggers try to give the impression that they are “just folks.”  Maybe they are, but they are also shills for the rich and powerful.  I’d just like to know which rich and powerful donors are funding this particular group.  Open the books.  Let’s see. 

Friday, April 15, 2011

Guns on campus

Years ago at San Jose State a student came up after class and physically threatened me.  He was very angry about some of my comments on his paper.  I’ll admit he scared me.  When I walked into my next class, one of the students saw me shaking and asked, “Dr. Christman, is something wrong?”  I told the class about the student who had threatened me.
One of the students in that second class was a biker who always dressed in leathers.   He raised his hand and growled, “What’s that guy’s name?”  I laughed and felt the tension dissipate.
 I hadn’t thought about that incident for years until today, when I read an essay by Adam Winkler in the New York Times entitled “The Guns of Academe.”  Mr. Winkler notes that Arizona governor Jan Brewer must decide by Monday whether or not to sign a bill passed by the legislature lifting the ban on guns on university campuses.
In my 35+ years as a college professor, I have seen students angry at me and angry at each other.  I’ve had a student whose behavior was so bizarre that I called campus security; that student was later institutionalized for a time.  In every case, however, the issues were resolved, the anger was dissipated, the crisis settled.  (By the way, the student who threatened me apologized profusely in the subsequent class.  I also keep in touch with the biker who was ready to come to my defense.)
Supposedly the Arizona legislation will allow students to protect themselves against fellow students.  I think it will dampen free expression and robust debate.  Students and professors will censor their remarks, wondering if a classmate will take offense and start shooting.  I’m sure the N.R.A. supports this bill, but the N.R.A. has no sense whatsoever.  I hope Governor Brewer does.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Christmas trees

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has requested that the nation’s electrical utilities take action to ensure that falling trees would not disrupt power supplies.  Power has been disrupted when ice storms or high winds caused trees to fall on power lines, resulting in outages.
PPL, in a total lack of good sense, decided to cut every tree beneath its lines, including nursery trees, apple trees in orchards, and Christmas trees grown on farms. PPL’s policy was basically to have bare ground beneath the wires.
FERC then told PPL to use a common sense approach, and it has gone to court to stop PPL’s policy.  The Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers Association will be meeting with PPL representatives in Harrisburg later this month to work out a more reasonable policy, asking that any tree up to 15 feet in height be allowed to stand.  With pressure from above and below, there is a good chance that PPL will be reasonable.
The odd thing is that PPL would even adopt such a bizarre policy.  What kind of people run that company?

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Why don't we just cancel Earth Day?

Item 1:  That late night budget “compromise” cut $1.6 billion from the E.P.A.’s current level of spending.  Regulation of pollution from mining and from power generating plants will be affected, much to the delight of the Republican House members.
Item 2:  For the first time since the Endangered Species Act was passed, Congress has decided, on the basis of politics rather than science, to declare a species no longer endangered.  According to Congress, Rocky Mountain wolves can be removed from the list.  Congress then attached a rider that said courts couldn’t review this law.  (Yes, Congress has that right--the Constitution says that Congress can determine judicial jurisdiction.)
Item 3:  The budget “compromise” cut the entire funding for the program to buy lands for wilderness preservation.

Item 4:   The Pennsylvania Game Commission, an agency charged with the responsibility “for managing all of Pennsylvania’s wild birds and mammals,”  [Penna. Game Commission website] yesterday decided, by a unanimous vote, that porcupines can be killed between September 1 and March 31.  You can shoot up to SIX a day. One commissioner said that this ruling could benefit the species.  
The Commission did this with no studies, no data.  Porcupines are supposedly destructive to trees and even aluminum siding, but there have been only a few reports of damage.  If porcupines are a problems in certain areas, and I doubt they are, why not  divide the state into “management areas” like the Commission does for deer?  If a management area has no problem with porcupines, you would not be allowed to kill them.  In southeast Pennsylvania, for example, there are no porcupines.  Under the current regulations, however, if one did show up, you could kill it with no sanction.
To defend porcupines, write to the Pennsylvania Game Commission and protest this action.  Send your letter to Pennsylvania Game Commission at 2001 Elmerton Ave., Harrisburg, PA 17110-9797.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Intro to Economics

In my college career I took one econ course, and I didn’t do well.  l did get an A in a grad school course entitled the Economic History of Europe (bragging here), but that was more history than economics.
Even though I didn’t shine in my undergraduate course, I did learn a few things.  Keynesian economics was the mainstream philosophy, and it was pretty simple.  In a recession or depression, the government pumps money into the economy.  It can do this by increasing the money supply by lowering interest rates.  That’s monetary policy.  It can also cut taxes or increase spending or both.  That’s fiscal policy.
In the 1970s Keynesian economics was so mainstream that Richard Nixon announced at one point, “We are all Keynesians now.”
Here we are, 40 years later, and the economic laws have not changed.  What has changed is the collective wisdom of the country.  We are in the middle of a fragile recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression.  By cutting spending and laying off workers, this government could very easily throw the nation right back into negative territory.  
I don’t think the Republicans particularly care.  I believe they want the economy to tank.  What I can’t understand is why the Democrats are buying into this narrative.  We are doing exactly the wrong thing.  
If employment goes down, tax revenues go down.  The deficit would be increased because of decreased revenues.  If people are laid off and programs are curtailed, the recession continues.
Why is this so hard to understand?

Monday, April 11, 2011

Government working well

Pennsylvania state law requires townships to update their zoning and subdivision and land development ordinances every ten years.  Lower Towamensing and Towamensing Townships are overdue for an update.  A consulting firm, Hanover Engineering, offered to complete a single update for both townships for thousands of dollars less than if the two townships’ plans were dealt with separately.
Tonight Supervisors and Planning Commissioners from both townships met with Hanover representatives to discuss the work plan.  The people in the room were Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, retirees, business owners, and mechanics.  
After a long discussion about costs, a work plan, and procedures, the group reached a consensus.  If the consulting firm produced a few more desired items, including references from other townships and a more detailed plan, the two townships would work together on a joint ordinance, laying the ground work for future cooperation and saving money besides.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Overload

I have got to take a walk in the woods tomorrow.  I need to calm down.  In the last two days I have read:
1.  An article in the Saturday New York Times detailing how a student was suspended by the NCAA for something his mother did that he didn’t even know about, while the UConn coach, the highest paid government official in Connecticut, was given a lesser punishment (not to take effect until after this year’s playoffs) for major recruitment violations.
2.  An essay in today’s New York Times about a prisoner in Louisiana who was on death row for fourteen years because the prosecution withheld evidence.  The U.S. Supreme Court said he couldn’t collect damages.  The vote was five to four, and of course the five were the Republicans.  The prosecution received no punishment.
3.  A listing of the amount paid to CEOs in today’s Business section, and how much more their salaries rose this past year compared to the rest of us.
4.  An analysis in today’s Morning Call of the Pennsylvania legislature’s excessive staffing and overspending.in the time of a so-called budget crisis.
I suffer from insomnia.  I have high blood pressure.  I feel like I’m about to snap.  Tomorrow I am taking a long walk in Beltzville State Park.  The problem is that I know that when I come back, nothing will have changed.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Something you can do

You’re frustrated, right?  Nothing seems to be going our way.  The government didn’t shut down, but somehow the Republicans have convinced the American public that the thing to do in a recession is to cut spending.  The rebels are losing in Libya.  The conservative appears to have won the judge’s race in Wisconsin.  The five Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are making decisions on a party line.  Life sucks.
Hold on.
If you live in Carbon County, here’s a practical step you can take.   Charlie Getz and Bill O’Gurek are progressive Democrats who now constitute the majority of Carbon County commissioners.  They are running for re-election.  Next week volunteers are walking door-to-door in Jim Thorpe tdo support them, and you can help.  Contact the Carbon County Democratic Chair, Billy O’Gurek at <bog1@ptd.net> for details on where to meet. 

Friday, April 8, 2011

Anti-abortion, anti-women, anti-children

The budget fight was not about money.  It was about the Republican Party and its view of children as the wages of sin.  Children result from a sinful act, and you women deserve the punishment of children.  If you hadn’t had sex, you wouldn’t have this problem in the first place.  In the meantime, Republicans will deny you prenatal care, medical assistance, food stamps, school lunches, early childhood education--any program that might help children.  But you will not have an abortion.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

More lost time

When Bush was elected President in 2000, my first thought was that we had lost four more years to address the issue of global warming.  Then Bush beat Kerry in 2004; four more years of inaction.  It was such a relief when Obama was elected in 2008--at last the issue would be dealt with in a meaningful way.  Obama tried, but as with so many of his policies, the Congress has not been helpful.
Yesterday the Senate did defeat a proposal to block the E.P.A.’s efforts to limit greenhouse gases.  The vote, however, was 50-50.  Not only that, but a measure to impose limits on E.P.A. regulations drew 12 Democratic votes.
As Mitch McConnell noted, “Altogether, more than 60 senators voted in favor of four amendments that, to one degree or another, would restrain the E.P.A.’s power to regulate carbon emissions from farmers, manufacturers and power plants.”  He is optimistic that the E.P.A. will be stopped.
In the House, in the meantime, the debate was on a bill to repeal the E.P.A.’s scientific findings on greenhouse gases.
I thought about Galileo when he had to recant his theory that the earth revolved around the sun.  He is reputed to have muttered under his breath, “But still it moves.” As for the earth, but still it warms.  And now Democrats are joining with Republicans to water down already weak regulations.  I only hope they live long enough to see what they have done.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Upcoming Election

On Saturday, March 26, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada would be holding a national election on Monday, May 2.  Harper attacked the Liberal Party, the largest opposition group, charging that the Liberals had a hidden agenda to form a coalition with the New Democratic Party, an organization backed by organized labor.  The leader of the Liberals, Mr. Ignatieff, criticized the Conservatives for running a “secretive” government.
I certainly don’t have any insight on which party will win on May 2.  I do wish to point out a number of items, however.  
     1.  The campaign period lasts five weeks. 
     2.  Organized labor in Canada has its own party.
     3.  Neither of the two main party leaders is comparable to Palin or Trump or Huckabee or Gingrich or Barbour or Rickie Santorum.   
What a wonderful country.  Plus they have better health care.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Voter Suppression in Pennsylvania

A reader sent along a press release from the group Democracy for America detailing plans by the Pennsylvania House Republicans to require voters to produce an approved picture ID to be able to vote. In 2006 a similar bill was vetoed by Governor Rendell, who called it “a solution in search of a problem.”   
I know there are people who say, “Well, what’s so hard about that?  Doesn’t everybody have picture ID?”
Actually no.  The people least likely to have ID with them--the elderly, racial minorities, people with disabilities--are also the most likely to be voting Democratic.  
I observed a Republican poll watcher at the Rod and Gun Club last November.  He was not there merely to check off the voters.  He was there to intimidate both the poll workers and the voters.  This is what a party does when it has a hard time winning on the merits.  Instead of real reform--making it easier to vote by absentee, insuring a paper trail for voters--the Republicans are doing their best to decrease turnout. 

Monday, April 4, 2011

The Recovery and Those Who Hate It

Last Friday the latest job figures were released, showing that March was the 12th consecutive month of continuous private sector job growth.  This is good news for the country, the President’s reelection campaign, and most importantly, to the 216,000 employees who found jobs.
This recovery is still fragile, however.  The problems in Japan, the speculative rise in oil prices, unrest in the Middle East--all could derail the improvement.  There is another factor, of course.  As Republican governors cut budgets and lay off state workers, as Republican Representatives push for massive federal cuts, as programs to limit foreclosures are killed, as unemployment benefits are curtailed, the economy can very well see a bounce in unemployment and a deepening of the recession.
Only people who would put their election prospects ahead of the good of the nation would hope to see a rise in unemployment and do what they can to ensure it.  To pursue policies that result in increased joblessness, one would have to be either unpatriotic, or stupid, or a moral pygmy--or all three.  

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Teachers

Readers who know me personally know me as a hard tough guy who shows no emotion. OK, I wept at the growing old sequence in the movie “Up,” but you’d have to have a heart of obsidian not to do that.

It is with some trepidation, therefore, that I report getting all teary while reading a wonderful essay by Marie Myung-Ok Lee entitled “What I Learned at School” that appeared in the March 31 New York Times. Ms. Lee, who teaches writing at Brown, details how two English teachers in the Hibbing, Minnesota, high school turned her life around.

Almost every successful person can point to teachers along the way who saw something others didn’t, who took the time to encourage, who allowed an odd-ball student some slack, who made room in class for creativity, who saved us. I can name some myself--Mrs. Brown in elementary school, Mr. Gordos, Mr. Geiger, and Mrs. Kittleberger in high school, Dr. Zucker in college, Dr. Eisenach in grad school.

Across the country teachers like those are now under attack. Consider--how many people’s lives were improved by hedge fund managers, bankers, or Republican legislators in Ohio? Who has Corbett inspired? Gov. Christie? How many kids have they saved?

Here’s how Ms. Lee’s essay ends: “While the love of literature and confidence I gained from Ms. Leibfried’s class shaped my career and my life, after only four short years at Hibbing High School, she was laid off because of budget cuts, and never taught again.”

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Burning the Koran

A new musical by the creators of the Comedy Central show “South Park” recently opened on Broadway. The play, entitled The Book of Mormon, pokes fun at LDS beliefs and missionaries. Mormons who have seen the play have given it, as might be expected, some mixed reviews. The LDS hierarchy, to its credit, has not urged its members to boycott the production.

I have always had problems with authority, religious and otherwise. I probably would answer the old question, “Is there nothing sacred?” with “Not that I can think of.”

If you as an artist want to put a crucifix in urine and call it “Piss Christ,” I think you have that right. While I personally doubt the artistic merit of that installation, I am close to being an absolutist on First Amendment freedoms. It is one of the reasons I am a proud card-carrying member of ACLU, and I carry that card right next to my Pennsylvania license so the TSA guys at the airport see it when I show my ID.

On the other hand, having the right to do something does not mean you should do it. Other considerations apply. One is being polite. I see no reason deliberately to insult people with deep beliefs. There are also practical considerations. For example, you have a right to burn an American flag in protest, but in doing so you will almost always bring disrepute on the cause you are trying to advance.

I’m getting to the point here--bear with me. I don’t think the preacher in Florida should have burned the Koran. It is a book revered by millions, considered to be god’s word, and it was not a polite thing to do. However, there is a fundamental craziness about people in Afghanistan who, in retaliation for that burning, would murder innocent United Nations workers who had nothing to do with the incident in Florida.

When religious adherents are willing to kill for their beliefs--whether it be UN personnel or abortion providers--that kind of fanaticism must be opposed. It cannot be excused. As President Obama noted in a statement on the killings in Afghanistan, it is “an affront to human decency and dignity.”

Friday, April 1, 2011

Household incomes

One of the more irritating themes of Republican legislators is that the government needs to be like a household. They note that citizens have to balance their household budgets, so why shouldn’t the government?

Except that citizens don’t. Almost every home buyer in America takes out a mortgage. Citizens spread out expenses with credit cards, they buy cars with payments, they take out home improvement loans, they borrow from their brothers-in-law. One time I took out a loan to pay for dental work.

Actually, I’ll probably have to do that again. Every time I read of the stupid and irresponsible Republican proposals I grind my teeth. They’ll soon be little nubs.