Great News for Job Seekers in Arizona!!!

Arizona Gov. Brewer is expected to announce a multitude of new job openings in Arizona within the state police in order to begin the massive challenging of all non-white, slightly foreign looking residents as well as "passers through" within her state.

Her new anti-immigrant law requires all police force members within the state to stop and check the papers of anyone who doesn't look as white and bottled-blonde as she does for proof of legal residency. Enforcement is expected to require a significant man-power issue. Gov. Brewer plans to make a request for funds from Washington.

Because the law is vague about just who the police should stop, Gov. Brewer has decided to pass out photos of herself to all law enforcement officers so that they can measure how closely anyone they encounter resembles her.


The Story of Water: Chapter Five

• U.S. Vacationers rank going to the beach or a lake as their favorite outdoor activity.
• More Americans fish than play golf or tennis.
• The U.S. recreational boating industry generated $33.6 billion in 2008.
• In Florida, 3,000 gallons are used to water the grass for each golf game played.
• U.S. swimming pools lose 150 billion gallons to evaporation every year.

(See the April National Geographic.)

Follow the Money, Always Follow the Money:

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the company that owned the West Virginia coal mine where 29 miners met their deaths recently and a company that consistently ignored mine safety regulations, earned a whopping $17.8 million last year. The miners who lost their lives making Blankenship rich earned $68 thousand on average. Proving once again that it pays to keep your hands clean. (See the NPR story.) Factually speaking, of course, not metaphorically:

MSHA reported this week that the Upper Big Branch Mine had "repeated significant and substantial [safety] violations" last year at 19 times the national rate. These violations prompted 48 "withdrawal orders" in which miners were immediately pulled from affected portions of the mine until the problems were corrected. MSHA characterized these as violations "the mine operator either knew, or should have known, constituted a hazard."

"Massey failed to address these violations over and over again," MSHA reported.

(NPR)

The Story of Water: Chapter Four

• The weight of China's Three Gorges Reservoir will tilt the earth's axis by nearly an inch.
• The longest water tunnel, supplying New York City, is 85 miles and leaks up to 35 million gallons a day.
• The Itaipú Dam in South America cost $18 billion and took 17 years to build.
• Dam projects have displaced up to 80 million people worldwide.

(See the April 2010 National Geographic.)

Going South:

The party of Lincoln is undergoing a further radical change. My daddy always told me that the Republican party was the party of big business, of the boss, a party meant to keep the working man in his place and poor. My daddy was an FDR Democrat, and, as the saying goes, he always voted his back pocket. He insisted that everybody else did too, no matter what they said. Maybe that's what Charlie Crist is thinking down in Florida. (See today's Washington Post story on the governor's falling star.) Oh, yeah, and the 82-year-old Crist supporter who wishes Crist hadn't hugged Obama. Guess he figures something might have rubbed off.

Republicans Are in Wall Streets' Back Pocket:

Making a huge pretense of being anti big banks and Wall Street, the Republicans signed a letter today demanding the senate take a bipartisan approach to financial reform. Naturally, the Republicans want absolutely nothing to do with a bipartisan approach. They've been bought off by big banking in the latter's efforts to avoid any new regulations. Good ol' boy Mitch McConnell claims the Democrats want a continuous bailout for the banks, but that's all smoke and mirrors. McConnell is big banking's lapdog, sucking up to their lobby's campaign funding.

The Immigrants:

In economics there is only one known truism: Without population growth, there is no economic growth.

Over the past thirty years, without immigrants coming to the United States, population growth would have been nil, non-existent.

America is a country of immigrants. No surprise there, although a good many people in America seem to think otherwise. There are many misconceptions about the phenomenon, and today's New York Times addresses some of them in a story on recent research into who is coming to America, our perceptions of them, and the effects the immigrants have. The results are informative and may be surprising.

For instance, most of us have little objection to wealthy, well educated professional immigrants, while we are often upset by poor and unskilled immigrants. However, without a steady influx of both categories, the economy suffers.


Will Charlie Crist Go Rogue?

Florida governor, Charlie Crist, has bucked his own Republican party to announce a veto of a bill to directly link teacher pay and employment to how well students perform on standardized tests. The speculation now is that he might well declare himself an independent.

Florida is a state dominated by people who hate paying taxes so much that they are perfectly willing to have the children in the state remain illiterate as an alternative to paying a tax increase. Many of these folks are retired and have moved to Florida from other states, living their own children and grandchildren behind. They simply don't want to pay for other people's children to learn.

But there are serious problems with education in all fifty American states. To see just how stupid we really are on this subject, examine the following from The New York Times:

This time, the point of contention was eliminating tenure for Florida public school teachers and tying their pay and job security to how well their students were learning.

I'm sorry, folks, but there is no objective measure for "how well … students" learn. It can't be done. You can only judge product, and students are not products. You can only judge their behavior, and for the most part that's going to be set by the time they are five years old.

Certainly, there are important issues with education, including the fact that many teachers are woefully undereducated themselves, having spent most of their time in higher education's empty "education" courses and very low level "psychology" courses.

If we truly want to improve education in this country, we must develop a culture that actually values it, emphasizing the responsibility of the student for learning. That begins at home. And continues at school, in the work place, in our social lives, and then returns to the home.


The Story of Water: Chapter Three

• One out of eight people lacks access to clean water.
• 3.3 million die from water-related health problems each year.
• Washing hands with soap can reduce diarrheal disease by 45 percent.
• An eradication campaign that includes a simple water filter has cut the number of Guinea worm cases by 99.9 percent since 1986.

(See the April 2010 National Geographic.)

'Tis a Puzzlement:

Michelle Boorstein can't get her head around the fact that the Vatican seems totally lost when it comes to the misdeeds of its priests. Her Washington Post article, "Lack of Vatican communications strategy on scandal baffles pope's U. S. defenders," reflects some of the issues on The See's seemingly witless response to the pedophilia that is starting to feel endemic within the church. It isn't until the end of the article that Boorstein finally begins to address some of the real issues. The church relishes suffering. It's a central part of the philosophy, the tradition. It's all about Adam and that woman.


The Story of Water: Chapter Two

• Americans use about 100 gallons of water at home each day.
• Millions of the world's poorest subsist on fewer than five gallons.
• 46% of people on earth do not have water piped to their homes.
• Women in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles to get water.
• In 15 years, 1.8 billion people will live in regions of severe water scarcity.

(See this month's National Geographic special edition on water.)

Breaking News!!!

President Obama has thrown down the gauntlet: Today the president announced he plans to nominate the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court.

The president noted that the conservatives in America are intent on preventing anyone living or dead from going onto the court as long as a black man is in the white house, so he is determined to provide them with a nominee that anyone would be proud to object to.

The Anti-Defamation League notes that Klan membership has rebounded of late, although it isn't clear if those folks have been counting actual Klan members or confusing them with Tea Party-ers.

Note: A filibuster has only been used once in a Supreme Court nomination fight, but since President Obama is both a Nazi and a Communist, not to mention a middle-of-the-road politician, Republicans have promised to throw caution to the wind, in a very conservative fashion, of course.

(See The Washington Post story.)

29 Miners Dead in W. Va.:

The bodies of the four missing miners were discovered yesterday. Conditions in the mine were so bad that rescue workers had walked right passed them the first day of searching, without seeing the bodies.

Now the questions remain, will the government develop enough muscle to enforce proper mine safety, and where is the union in all of this? We know that Massey Energy, the company that owns the mine, is unscrupulous. Why doesn't the union know this and stand up to them?

(See The Washington Post story.)


Water—Is there enough of it?

• 69.6% is frozen in ice sheets, glaciers, permanent snow cover, and permafrost.
• 30.1% is beneath the ground. This is being drained more quickly than can be recharged.
• Only 0.3% is in lakes, rivers, and wetlands. This amount includes water in plants, animals, and the atmosphere.
• Two-thirds of our water is used to grow food.
• There are 83,000,000 more people on earth each year.

(See the April 2010 National Geographic special edition.)

Quotable Quotes:

"Traditions—especially traditions in the law—are as likely to codify the preferences of those in power as they are to reflect necessity or proven wisdom." — Justice John Paul Stevens, who announced his retirement today. (See The New York Times' article.)

Why Buy a Legislator When You Can Buy a Judge:

Adam Skaggs addresses the new form of influence peddling in a recent New Republic article. Actually, it's not so new, but it's a shift from recent trends: "As an Ohio AFL-CIO official put it, 'We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect one hundred and thirty-two legislators'."

The "trick" here is that the judgeships in question are elected positions rather than appointed ones as is the case for federal judgeships. Many states elect their judges. And elections nowadays cost lots of money. Back in the good old days, no one paid much attention to who was running to wear the black robes. Now, in the days of multi-million dollar tort suits, things are a little different. Corporations want to make sure the right dude is wearing the choir ensemble. And they've got the money to purchase the clout. Look out lady justice, you might be blind, but you've got no trouble seeing green.

It's Coming!

Both The Washington Post and The New York Times are full of news about Justice John Paul Stevens impending retirement announcement. After all, he's about to turn ninety. If you thought the battle over health care was a doozy, just wait for this one.

Justice Stevens is the closest thing to a liberal on the court, and the left will be expecting a judge even further from the right. Obama, as we've seen, is a down the middle of the rode man. In the meantime, the Republicans are still trying to locate Waterloo. This promises to be a battle royal.

How old is Justice Stevens? He was in Wrigley Field the day Babe Ruth hit his "called shot" in 1932.

Book Review: Tony Hoagland's Unincorporated Persons

Warning, I generally report only on books I like.


Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (Graywolf Press 2010) is Hoagland's third book of poetry and the first I've read. (Where have I been?) I read what most people would consider quite a bit of poetry, usually a couple of books per week, so when a book stands out for me, I think it should mean something.

Consider these lines from the poem, "Wild":

The penalty for disobedience will be
bears: large black furry fellows

drinking from your sprinkler system,
rolling your trashcans down your lawn,

bashing through the screen door of the back porch to get their
first real taste of a spaghetti dinner

(64)

Hoagland captures the rhythms of conversational language and the nuances of irony in a way that makes his work a pleasure to read. By the way, somebody should convince Colbert to read the poem on his show.

Obama Is Black and I Am White:

During the 2008 campaign, some people tried to claim that then Senator Barack Obama was not an African American because—and this might be difficult to understand for some Americans—his father was a Black African while his mother was a white American.

It's a matter of heritage. Obama doesn't carry with him a personal heritage of his family members having suffered the same indignities as most African Americans do. Nevertheless, we have recently been told that when he filled his census questionnaire out he marked the racial category as "Black, African Am., or Negro."

Throughout his life—and Stephen Colbert will appreciate this—President Obama has been treated like a Black American.

Humorist Colbert has for several years joked about the fact that he "doesn't see" race or color, that people tell him he's white and he believes them. Like much of Colbert's humor, the joke, while it provokes giggles from his audience, has a sharp point. Race is not a matter of biology, it's a matter of class.

Thus, even though my forefathers are of a diverse ethnicity, including some being members of "races" other than western European, and I have cousins who are African American and some of Mexican descent, I am a "white" person because all of my life people have told me that I'm "white" and they have treated me as if I were "white." That is, I have been accepted as a member of a class. (Although often enough not at its highest levels.)

Note: Beware of those who accuse you of initiating class warfare; they mean "class rebellion." The war has existed for a very long time, and they simply want you to "remain in your place."


Doctors Just Wanna Be Rich:

In Florida, a doctor has posted a sign on his door that states if you voted for Obama he doesn't want to treat you. The good doctor is upset about the new health care law. Evidently he fears that he may not make as much money in the future as he has in the past. According to The New York Times, the doctor claims that he won't actually turn away any patients, but he just wants those who voted for Pres. Obama to seek care elsewhere.

Next up, teachers to post signs on their doors that state, "If one of your parents voted for Obama, seek education elsewhere."


Hey, techies, so you're wondering why Apple's iPad is so restrictive:

The major complaint about Apple's new iPad computing device is that users are severely limited by what they can do with it. Apple is notorious for this practice for marketing reasons, but there's an added consideration.

The iPad is positioned to become an eBook killer device, and the whole eBook business model exists on a slippery slope. It's all about "rights."

The "killer" moment in eBook production will be when textbooks can be marketed as electronic transmissions/files. And that moment appears to be a long way off. Books, especially textbooks, are far more heavily laden with copyright issues than music. And we know what happened with that industry. For one view on the quagmire, see Marc Aronson's op-ed in today's New York Times.

Life Goes On:

The New York Times reports that employers "added 162,000 jobs" in March. In the meantime, unemployment held steady at 9.7 percent. The Times also reports that around one-third of the employment increase is a direct result of federal hiring for the census, which so far has received considerable resistance from many people who ought to be counted. (We can't say "electorate" here because the census is designed to count everyone, including illegal aliens.)


In the meantime:

A Vatican spokesperson compared parishioner's anger and the general criticism of the Catholic hierarchy with the persecution of Jews. (Full Disclosure: I am neither a Jew nor a Catholic, but I wouldn't automatically prevent one from being my friend, if I had any friends.) Uh, we're talking about pedophilia here, folks.

I can hardly wait until Monday night to see Stewart and Cobert's responses to this one!