Thursday, February 27, 2014

Plato's Noble Lie (and ours)


In The Republic Plato has a scheme for making people satisfied with their lot in life.  He says they will be told they are born with certain elements from the earth.  People who have gold in them are the rulers, people with silver are the guardians, and people with bronze are the workers or farmers.  There is nothing to be done about their fate.  They must accept their metallic content and be satisfied with it.  Plato, of course, did not believe this.  He makes it clear that this is a myth, a noble lie, which will promote social stability.

In my political theory classes at San Jose State, students were always bothered by Plato’s rationale.  How could Plato advance such a pernicious doctrine, knowing it wasn’t true?  I would challenge the students to come up with some of our own “noble lies,” and after thinking about it, they usually could.  

You want a few.  Any citizen can be elected to congress.  The government can’t listen in on your phone conversations without a warrant.  We have the best medical care of any nation on earth.  

Here is the biggest one.  If you study and work hard, you will get ahead.  In the last few weeks a number of articles have been published pointing out that social mobility in the U.S. lags behind many other European nations, which aren’t doing all that well either. (For a great example, go to <http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2014/03/03/140303ta_talk_surowiecki>.)

If you are born poor in the U.S., you will most likely remain poor.  You won’t go to good schools, won’t go to college, won’t get a good job.  On the other hand, if you are born rich, you will probably die rich.  Nonetheless, the myth provides the same function as it did for Plato.  If you buy into it, the fact that you are poor is your fault.  It isn’t a problem for government or for the 1%.  It is the inevitability of your lot in life. 

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

How to file a lawsuit


Today’s New York Times featured a full page ad paid for by the National Enquirer in which the Enquirer promised to pay a $45,000 annual grant for a new American play.  The authors who receive the grants will be chosen by a committee of leading playwrights. 

What happened was that the Enquirer published an article that purported to be an exclusive interview with David Bar Katz, a close friend of the recently deceased actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  The “interview” featured lurid tales of drug use.  The problem was that the interview was bogus.

Mr. Katz sued the Enquirer, but instead of asking for damages, he asked for the annual award for playwrights, and the Enquirer agreed.  The settlement means that Mr. Katz is vindicated, the Enquirer perhaps learned a lesson, and every year an American author will get $45,000.  Thank you, Mr. Katz.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Why Algebra


Like high school students everywhere, I was forced to take algebra.  Almost all of the college prep kids in my school went on to take a semester of calculus and a semester of trigonometry.  I managed to substitute a course called “Problems of Democracy,” taught by a right-wing Republican, but at least I understood the subject matter.

The college I picked (Ursinus) did not require any kind of math course to graduate, which is, of course, why I picked it.  The requirement was added a few years after I graduated, but I had escaped by that time.

Here’s the thing.  I went through life without ever needing the algebra I never really learned.

Nicholson Baker, in an article entitled “Wrong Answer” that appeared in Harper’s last year noted the despair kids experience trying to master a subject that seems impossible.  Here’s what he wrote:

The reason these kids are upset is that they are required to do something they can’t do.  They are forced, repeatedly, to stare at hairy, square-rooted, polynomialed horseradish clumps of mute symbology that irritate them, that stop them in their tracks, that they can’t understand.  The homework is unrelenting, the algorithms get longer and trickier, the quizzes keep coming.  Sooner or later, many of them hit the wall.  They fail the course and have to take it again.  And then again.  

As a result, they feel angry, dumb, sometimes downright suicidal.  

I have nothing against people who grasp this stuff, who even like this stuff.  I just don’t see why everyone should be forced to deal with it, or why it is in the Common Core, or even what purpose it serves for most of us.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Military cutbacks


Secretary of Defense Hagel announced major cutbacks in America’s armed forces.  We will have fewer soldiers in uniform than at any time since 1940, prior to World War II.  A smaller-sized military means that going to war will require careful thought.

The “Law of the Hammer” says that if you give a small boy a hammer, he will find that everything needs pounding.  There is probably an equivalent law for armies:  If you give a nation a very large armed force, it will find many countries need invading.  

Sen. McCain and his sidekick Lindsay Graham, for example, have in the last few years proposed invading Libya and Syria.  We also had that adventure in Iraq, and we are still messing around in Afghanistan.  A smaller army will make such adventurism less likely, and that’s a good thing.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Rendezvous at Bert's Steakhouse


This afternoon seven volunteers met at Bert’s in Palmerton to have a cup of coffee and pick up our voter lists and petitions to get signatures to put Patti Borger’s name on the ballot.  A state representative candidate needs 300 signatures of registered voters from his or her party.  The advantage of having an official voter list is that you know the signature is good and can’t be challenged.

The main problem was icy sidewalks.  People were invariably nice--even the ones (and there were two) who turned us down.  I did see one person through the window who didn’t open the door, but she may have thought we were proselytizing and wanted to avoid a religious discussion.  

I was most disappointed with the woman whose husband worked nights and was sleeping.  She wasn’t on our list, but I asked her “Are you a Democrat?”  She announced “I don’t vote.”  I didn’t ask why, didn’t criticize.  I’ve learned that it does no good, but I never understand it.

By the way, we should hit the 300 mark tomorrow.  We’ll get three or four hundred more just for good measure. 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Shirt Sleeves in Sochi


Earlier this week we had long heavy icicles hanging from our roof.  I’ve shoveled a path to the chicken coop at least five times, and I had a hard time carrying water up because the snow was so high on the sides of the path.  Our rain gutter lies on the ground twisted and ruined; it came down when the snow slid off the roof.  Now I’m worried that I might not have had enough anti-freeze in the tractor’s radiator.  So where is this global warming?

It’s here.  According to an article in yesterday’s Times entitled “Freezing January for Easterners Was Not Felt Round the World,” this has been the fourth warmest winter on record.  Temperatures in Alaska were 15 degrees above normal, and we have seen the pictures of people walking around Sochi in shorts and tee shirts.  

No state set a record for January cold.  Perhaps one reason we think it’s so cold is because we have been experiencing a series of mild winters.  I can remember as a kid being snowed in for days.  Blizzards with drifts.  Temperatures below zero for days on end.  

Another thing we forget is how we are not the world.  The U.S. makes up less than 2% of the earth’s surface.  We have to look beyond Delaware Avenue or Catawissa Street.  There’s a big world out there, and it is getting warmer, and humans are the cause.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Old farmers


Our farm is only 23 acres, but it is still too much for me to farm.  I have one Farmall-B tractor (c. 1956, and it never runs right), a two-bottom plow, an old disk, a small harrow, and an antique cultipacker.  

As a consequence, I plant about a half-acre garden, and I rent out the rest to a real farmer, a neighbor of ours who farms hundreds of acres and has all kinds of equipment.  Unfortunately, Mr. Rudelitch is even older than I am, and he is having health problems.

We hear about the increase in young farmers, in the farm-to-consumer movement, in an expansion of boutique farms, in free range chickens and pigs grown without gestation crates.  That, however, represents a sliver of American agriculture.

Today the Times News ran an article from the Associated Press entitled “Number of farms declines.”  According to the article, there are 2.1 million farms in the U.S., down over 4% from 2107.  The average age of farmers is 58.3 years, and 1/3 of the farmers are over 65.  Farmland acreage decreased from 922 to 915 million acres, and the average farm grew from 418 to 434 acres in that period.

Family farms disappear, factory farms increase, food becomes more tasteless, and crops use more fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.  None of these trends bode well for the U.S.  We really need a change in agricultural policy.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Petition Party


I returned to Kelly’s Irish Pub in Lansford for the second night in a row--this time for a “petition party.”  All the area Democratic candidates, as well as the candidates for governor, had their nominating petitions on tables for signing.  About 75 Democrats showed up for speeches by Sen. John Yudichak, Patti Borger, and Congressman Matt Cartwright.  

We ate bar food, drank beer, signed petitions, and talked about who’s ahead, who’s behind, and what a lousy job Governor Corbett is doing.  We also wondered why any representative from Carbon County would vote with Corbett’s policies 98% of the time.

I had never been to a petition party before.  In fact, I don’t go to many parties of any kind, but I must say that this one was rather fun.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Katie McGinty


Tonight I met Katie McGinty, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor, at a “meet and greet” at Kelly’s Irish Pub in Lansford.  I had been leaning her way even before tonight; people who attended the issues forum at Lehigh earlier this year raved about her.  

Tonight I made my decision.  We have some great Democratic candidates, but she is the one I’m voting for.  Good on the environment, good on education, good on economic policy, and experienced at running both businesses and government agencies.  Unfortunately she doesn’t have the money that Wolfe and McCord have, but I think she is a better candidate, and she just may win the primary.  I hope so.

By the way, I missed last night.  I was shoveling snow and ice off the roof to prevent a collapse, and I overdid it.  When I finished shoveling, I went straight to bed.  It was a reminder that I am no spring chicken.  

Monday, February 17, 2014

Snake-handling


Here’s a headline from today’s New York Times.  “Snake-Handling Pastor Dies After Bite.” 

LOL.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Americanas--better than that stupid groundhog


We own a variety of chickens, including two Americanas.  Those are the ones that lay eggs of various colors.  Ours lay green eggs, but, unlike leghorns and Rhode Island reds, they shut down during the winter.  They resume production in the spring.  

Last night the temperature was six degrees.  To me that feels like winter.  Nonetheless, today we got our first green egg.  It might not feel like it, but spring is coming.  

Saturday, February 15, 2014

The Volkswagen vote


We were snowed in today, so I didn’t get my New York Times to read about the Tennessee vote on unionizing the VW plant in Chattanooga.  Then my friend Jeremy called and said the UAW lost, and my day was ruined.

Since a majority of workers had signed cards supporting the union, the negative vote resulted from the threats from the Tennessee state government and right-wing groups across the country against the union.

Let me explain something.  When a totalitarian government--fascist like Hitler’s or communist like Mao’s and Stalin’s--takes over, one of the first things they do is eliminate independent unions.  Totalitarian governments can’t tolerate independent organizations of workers.  True, those governments permit “unions,” but they must be organized and controlled by the state.

The amount of pressure brought against the UAW by the state of Tennessee and right-wing groups across the country against the efforts of the UAW and the Volkswagen company, makes me wonder what kind of country we live in. 

Friday, February 14, 2014

Philomena


This was a movie I did not want to see.  I thought it was a dreaded “‘chick flick,” a weepie, and, worst of all, nothing blows up.  Nonetheless, it was showing at the Mahoning Theater, it was Valentine’s Day, and Linda wanted to see it.  Plus, we had convinced the theater’s manager that there was a market for serious movies, and we wanted to support him for booking the film, which has been nominated for four academy awards, including best picture.

So I went.

I am so glad I did.  It has elements of a mystery solved, Judi Dench is absolutely wonderful, and the film exposes an injustice of the Irish Catholic Church actually selling babies for adoption.

Here’s another reason to see the film.  Because of my connections, I am able to offer you a discounted ticket.  Just email <lachris@ptd.net> and you will receive a coupon for a discount.  

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Liberals playing defense


My latest issue of Harper’s arrived today.  It featured an article by Adolph Reed, Jr., a professor  of political science at University of Pennsylvania, criticizing Obama and Bill Clinton for abandoning liberal principles and giving in to the right.

Dr. Reed says the liberals are constantly playing defense, and that every election is cast as an important battle to prevent the right from taking over rather than advancing liberal programs to alter the course of American politics.  What’s more, both Clinton and Obama cater to the right.  The Affordable Care Act, for example, placates the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.  If you look at the economic advisors for both Clinton and Obama, they were Wall Street cronies.  

What Dr. Reed does not discuss is the “Citizens United” decision, the House Republican intransigence, or the fact that President Obama is considered a socialist or an illegitimate president by a large minority of the population.  Of course we are playing defense.  Look at gun control issues, or family planning, or health care, or attacks on unions.  This country is so far to the right that even a moderate liberal like Obama is seen as a Commie by a good portion of the American electorate.  

I, too, wish Obama would rein in NSA snooping and support a single payer health program and tax the 1% and move to the left.  Given the political climate in the U.S., however, I think at this point we need to hunker down and play defense.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Lincoln's birthday


I heard from a reliable source that the Republican leadership in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives told its members that the Republican Party had enough money to challenge the petitions of Democratic opponents, even if the challenges were without merit.

Today is Lincoln’s birthday.  Republicans always note that Lincoln was the first Republican president.  If Lincoln were alive today he would be a Democrat, and he would be appalled at the Republican Party.  It is people like Jefferson Davis and Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan leader Nathaniel Bedford Forrest who would be Republicans.  

Lincoln is one of us.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Better than a cat video


A suicide bomb trainer in Iraq conducting a demonstration on Monday for a class of militants accidentally blew himself up along with 21 of his students.  Another 15 were wounded.   According to an article by Duraid Adnan and Tim Arango in today’s Times, people were laughing and celebrating all over Iraq.  Also a blogger in Carbon County.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Coming into the Watershed


That’s the title of one of Gary Snyder’s books of poetry.  Snyder was a featured speaker at a political conference I attended years ago in Sacramento.  He advocated organizing political jurisdictions by watershed, pointing out that it made much more sense than drawing arbitrary lines on maps.  

For example, we could go from local government (Pohopoco Creek watershed) to regional government (Lehigh River watershed) to a state-sized entity (Delaware River watershed.)

The Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the U.S., is polluted.  Pennsylvania, by the way, is the largest contributor of pollutants.  The other five states with territory in the Bay’s watershed are Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York.  In 2009 the Obama administration issued an executive order to restore the Chesapeake Bay.

Now a suit has been filed against the action by such groups as the Fertilizer Institute, National Pork Producers Council, the National Chicken Council, and 21 states, only one of which is in the Bay’s watershed, but 19 of which voted against Obama in the 2012 election.  The one in the watershed is West Virginia, and we now know how they treat their rivers.

The states are worried that the EPA might next take action against Mississippi River polluters, who have created an immense “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico.  The suit points out that if the executive order is allowed to stand,”other watersheds, including the Mississippi River Basin, could be next.”  We should be so lucky.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Robert Dahl, 1915-2014


When I was in graduate school at Penn State in the Sixties, two schools of thought on governmental power were in conflict.  The elitists, mostly sociologists, asked the question, “Who has power?” and they came up with an elite that ran the city (or the country.)  Their spokesmen were C. Wright Mills, author of The Power Elite, and Floyd Hunter, who studied Atlanta and wrote Community Power Structure.

The pluralists asked a different question:  “Who made the decisions?”  Their main spokesman was political scientist Robert Dahl, who studied New Haven and wrote Who Governs?  Dahl found that different groups were important in different issue areas.  Thus one group might be powerful in educational policy, a second group in public safety issues, and neither of those groups might have anything to do with transportation policy.

It has been suggested that maybe Atlanta was governed by one elite and New Haven by various groups, but I always thought the answer depended on the question, and I also thought Dahl got it right.  I believed that pluralism was a much better explanation for American policy at both the local and national levels than elitism was.  Lobbyists who are concerned about immigration are not the same as lobbyists concerned about the Keystone Pipeline.  I’m with Dahl on that.

On the other hand, the Koch Brothers and PACs of their ilk are exerting more and more influence.  Think about banking rules, or fracking, or voting rights.  Since the “Citizens United” decision the 1% is really exerting more and more power.  I don’t know what Robert Dahl thought about this in the last few years of his life, but knowing what I know about his beliefs, I don’t think he was optimistic.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Guns in the wrong hands


Mr. White, a reader from Illinois, forwarded me an article from the Chicago Tribune about applications to the Cook County Sheriff for licenses to carry concealed weapons.  The Sheriff objected to 240 of the applicants, including 88 who had records for domestic violence, 77 for gun crimes, 52 for battery/assault, and 27 for aggravated battery/assault.

Fourteen of the applicants the sheriff objected to were certified concealed carrier trainers.  

Keep in mind that these applicants ALREADY POSSESSED GUNS.  What they were asking for was permission to carry them concealed. 

Friday, February 7, 2014

Eric Cantor fails reading comprehension


Earlier this week the Congressional Budget Office released a report on the U.S.economic outlook. The report had two appendices on the Affordable Care Act.  

The second of these addressed the fact that many Americans will voluntarily work fewer hours.  Retirements may also occur earlier because people won’t be forced to work just to keep their health insurance.  

The report noted that the number of hours worked will decline between 1.5 to 2%.  It went on to say this reduction in hours “...represents a decline in the number of full-time-equivalent workers of about 2.0 million.”

Eric Cantor then posted this on his Twitter account:  “Under Obamacare, millions of hardworking Americans will lose their jobs and those who keep them will see their hours and wages reduced.”

Huh?

*  I should note that I don’t tweet, but you knew that.  I learned about Cantor’s reading comprehension problem in Paul Krugman’s column entitled “Health, Work, Lies.”  I prefer to be more charitable to Rep. Cantor.  I just think he’s stupid.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The "Paycheck Protection Act"


That is the label given to the Koch Brothers-inspired legislation to take away the right of nurses, corrections officers, Penn State professors, and other public employees to have their union dues automatically deducted from their paychecks.  Supporters of the bill are using the excuse that it costs taxpayer money to deduct the dues, but evidently credit union payments, United Way donations, and state income taxes could still be automatically deducted.

This is, of course, part of the on-going national effort to destroy the right of men and women to negotiate contracts with their employers.  I’m not sure why Governor Corbett’s out-of-state funders are attempting to interfere with the right of Pennsylvania workers to negotiate contracts, but I resent it, and I am hoping that my representative, Doyle Heffley, will put the interests of the public employees in his district ahead of the Koch Brothers.  

I am optimistic that he will.  

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

On the rez


One of the aspects of the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian that I liked (beside the food court, which served American Indian cuisines from various locales) was that it included contemporary Indians.  Most museums exhibit Indian artifacts at the beginning, and then Indians disappear.

They are still here.  The U.S. has 566 recognized tribes.  According to the last census, we have 1.9 million native Americans.  We have 310 reservations. 

And over 500 years after Columbus arrived with slavery and smallpox, we are still screwing them over.  The February issue of Governing features a story on how crime was reduced on four reservations.  It was done by bringing staffing levels up to the national standards.  The Bureau of Indian Affairs previously hadn’t had the funds to do that.

Let me reiterate.  The BIA did not flood the four reservations with cops.  It simply brought the police up to the staffing levels up to national standards.  

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva


Last night I posted a screed about a “politics” forum in Carbon County that permits anonymous posts and is consequently worthless.  Fortunately, the internet can be used for more than porn, anonymous attacks, and cat videos.  Here’s an example.

One in two million people suffers from a disease in which the body grows extra bones.  As new bones grow, sufferers experience less and less flexibility.  As you might expect, if you have a disease that rare, how do you connect with other people who have the same condition? 
Using the internet, Jeanne Peeper, who suffers from fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva, has put together a global network of hundreds of victims of the condition.  She has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide research grants.  She has been in contact with doctors who study the disease. 

There has been progress.  An article in the June 2013 issue of The Atlantic by Carl Zimmer details some of the advances made in fighting the disease.  The article notes that if researchers can discover the trigger that causes extraneous bone development, they might also be able to replicate the process for people with osteoporosis or other bone diseases.  

The point is that none of this--the contacts, the network, the research--would have happened without the internet.  That’s so much more valuable than a bunch of malcontents posting anonymous insults.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Carbon County Politics


Friends have told me that my name has come up on some anonymous forum devoted to Carbon County politics.  They have told me I ought to read it, and some of the material posted is really interesting.  

No thanks.  I will not read material that is posted anonymously.  That is an invitation to scurrilous and defamatory material, and it is one of the things I don’t like about the internet.  I certainly can’t prevent people from posting material about me, but at least I don’t have to read it, and I won’t.  Material posted on this blog is from me, Roy Christman, email <hirmamc@ptd.net>.  On a few occasions I have had a guest, but you can also find out who those are.  Anonymous postings do not deserve to be read, and I, for one, won’t read them.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Superbowl


I’m not watching the Superbowl.  I think pro football is a brutal business, used mainly as a venue for advertising.  The NFL skews collegiate sports, depending on American universities to provide farm teams without compensating the players.  

Also, I kind of lost interest when the Niners were defeated two weeks ago.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

One acre a minute


That is the amount of farmland being lost to development in the U.S., according to Andrew McElwaine of American Farmland Trust.  By 2050, just 36 years from now, the globe will need to double its food production.  Do you see a problem here?

According to an editorial in today’s Lancaster Farming, the state that is doing the best in farmland preservation is (are you ready?) New Jersey.  It leads the nation in percent of its farmland preserved and amount of money spent, close to a billion dollars.

Pennsylvania isn’t too bad compared to other states.  We have spent $853 million on farmland preservation, and this year the state actually increased the amount of money available, although it is still 39% below 2008 levels.  I guess it is still more important to give natural gas companies a tax break than to preserve our farms.