Oil Prices Expected To Remain Stable:

The price for a barrel of crude has remained within the $70 to $83 range for some months now, and experts expect the price to hold for the short term future. Gasoline prices will climb to $3 per gallon during the summer months in the U.S. (See Clifford Krauss's article in today's New York Times.)

Expectations are that these figures are high enough to maintain exploration and continued conservation methods, while remaining affordable for consumers. In the meantime, natural gas prices remain relatively low.


What! I can no longer own a patent on your genes?!!

Stock prices plunged yesterday in the wake of a court decision that determined speculators could no longer claim ownership of nature's creation. Thousands of genes, produced by nature, not artificially, have been patented, allowing some companies to rake in massive profits while patients who couldn't afford medication died. That's free enterprise, right?

Judge Robert W. Sweet rejected the rights of patent holders on two genes yesterday in what should be a landmark decision. Patent holders claim they have invested millions of dollars into research and ought to be rewarded for their efforts, but plaintiffs in the case claimed the companies were reaping massive profits while holding patients hostage and at the same time arguing that nature created genes, not entrepreneurs. (See The New York Times' article.)


Drill, Baby, Drill!

President Obama announced an expansion of off-shore drilling that could include exploration off the Virginia shore, but, relax, there are still no plans to drill in Alaska's Bristol Bay, so, Sarah, you can still complain. (See the Washington Post story.)

Demographics:

T-Party Membership: White, evangelical Christian, poorly educated …

America: 2010 may well be the first year in which most babies born or not white, the majority of people are not evangelical Christians, college enrollments are, in the words of New York Times'Charles Blow columnist , "through the rough" …

The times have changed, while some 20 percent of America is nostalgic for something that never was.


The Cost of Health Care:

Yesterday President Obama announced a new START treaty with Russia that could reduce the number of nuclear weapons deployed by both countries, but the treaty will have to get through a U. S. Senate with a 67-vote approval, and the "party of NO" stands poised to cut off everyone's nose to spite everyone's face. Are there eight Republicans left with the backbone to rise above the pettiness of the lust for power to move the world a step away from a nuclear holocaust?

(See The Washington Post story.)

Rupert Murdoch To Charge OnLine Browsers:

News Corp has announced it will begin charging a fee to browsers who want to read British publications UK Times and Sunday Times newspapers. Murdoch already charges readers of Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal. (See The Washington Post article.)

Murdoch, who owns Fox, which in turn now owns the Republican party in the U.S., has indicated that he will never have enough money until he has all of it. Murdoch, one of the wealthiest men in the world, is known as an extremely right wing business man who has accumulated massive wealth through newspapers and TV, and is sometimes referred to as the world's wealthiest pornographer.

Doobie to the Rescue!

Nirvana is just a toke away! California's love affair with having everything while paying for nothing has finally found its solution in legalized—and taxed—marijuana. Yes, the answer was right there under their noses all along.

The New York Times reports, "On Wednesday, the California secretary of state certified a November vote on a ballot measure that would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, a plan that advocates say could raise $1.4 billion and save precious law enforcement and prison resources."

Note: Legalizing marijuana would violate federal law. Ooopsie.

Podcast of the Day: News of the Great Re-Depression with Stanley Douglas.

Google Offshores Its China Servers:

It's been all over the news today. Google finally took action in response to its issues with Chinese censorship and hacking by moving its site to Hong Kong.

Will We Get the Health Care Bill We Deserve:

Republicans vow to repeal the bill once they regain the majority, while conservative southern governors, like the nincompoop who holds office in Virginia, plan to take the bill to the right wing Supreme Court.

Health Care Passes Despite Republican Attempted Coup:

If you were watching the run up to the vote on CSpan yesterday, you didn't get much of a flavor of the atmosphere in Washington, surrounding the vote and the Republican attempt to frighten legislators into voting against the bill.

Republican demagogues spent much of the day attempting to whip fury up among its racist followers, as reported by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post. The true colors of the so called "tea party" movement were on full display in the nation's capitol.

Note: Considerable concern existed that the margin of victory might be one vote, in which case every representative who voted in favor of the bill could claim that he or she was the margin of victory and entitled to special considerations. However, the bill passed with 219 yes votes, allowing the Democrats to avoid that issue.

Irish Eyes Are Smiling:

Thomas Cahill points out the contribution to literacy that our Irish forefathers made in today's New York Times. The Irish, it seems, provided the shining emerald light that kept western literature from destruction, and they added their sense of humor into the mix while doing so.

The Definition of Irony:

This morning in Ohio, a death row inmate has been determined fit for execution today, having sufficiently recovered from his recent suicide attempt.

No, it's not a joke.

Wise Up!

"If you think you're happy, you are happy," says Jim Holt while reviewing Stephen Hall's Wisdom: From Philosophy to Neuroscience in The New York Times, but "If you think you're wise, you're probably a fool."

"What is wisdom?" It's the judgment we make about the behavior we admire in others and the excuse we provide for ourselves.

Note: Philosophers no longer touch this subject.

What's Wrong with American Education:

The list of problems is long, but one place to start is with the Texas Board of Education. Texas politicians love to pander to right-wing bigots, and the Board has tremendous influence over what appears in textbooks, not only in their state, but also around the country. Textbook publishers and educators have been attempting to fight back, but a recent vote by the Board is making things more difficult. (See today's New York Times.) The Board wants American textbooks to reflect the majority of Texans' belief in white supremacy, Christian fundamentalism, and a "free market" based on "the Chicago School of Economics" that would promote the complete deregulation of business.


Tea Party Rallies Its Support from People Terrified by Debt:

Kate Zernike reports on the Tea Party leadership and its avoidance of all things social in today's New York Times. Unlike the Texas School Board whose conservative majority focus all of their attention on a highly glossed version of history as "the white man's burden," the Tea Party leadership hopes to garner power by appealing to white fears, and ignorance, about the economy.

Political leaders of all stripes make hay out of the fact that almost no one understands how the economy functions. Consider for a moment how many schools of thought are devoted to the subject and how diverse the directions they come from are. Most can be reduced to enhancing the biased views of their proponents, regardless of the political spectrum they emanate from.


Worthy of Note:

Blaine Brownell reflects on the symbolic importance of architecture in today's New York Times. Brownell describes the world's new tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, in historic terms, remarking on the fact that unlike its predecessors, which were devoted to commerce and icons of religiosity, the building in Dubai is primarily a residentual center, and made of reinforced concrete, not steel and glass or stone. Brownell thinks, "If one society worshiped God in stone, and another venerated enterprise in steel, it must say something that we have now been able to reach so high with our most common building material: concrete."


The Conservative Movement's Triumvirate:

Newt (Nuke Getrich) Gingrich, Sarah (I only run in order to quit) Palin, Glenn (I haven't got a clue) Beck. If wooden headed Ronny Rayguns could be prez …. Okay, they may be floating for the moment, but just keep flushing.

It's an Old Story:

The New York Times is running a story in today's edition under the headline: "U.S. Enriches Companies Defying Its Policy on Iran." The Times reveals that over 100 billion dollars in contracts have been let to companies doing business with Iran even as the U.S. government is attempting to convince China to go along with its position that economic dealings with the country should be sorely limited in light of Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

While this hypocrisy may anger some, there is nothing new in the behavior. Some in the west are fond of pointing out that even as Nazi Germany was invading the U.S.S.R. in 1941 the Russians were shipping raw materials into the country; however, the United States was no different. American companies were fulfilling contracts with the Germans leading right up to the war as well, just as they were with the Japanese. When it comes to business, profits trump all else.


War and the Telling of It:

Roman Skaskiw has written as well as anyone about the modern soldier's experience in the two Bush wars, and in today's New York Times he addresses the issue of whether fiction can ever adequately portray the experience of war.

Today is an especially relevant day to address this topic because it's Oscar day. Two movies, The Hurt Locker and The Messenger have received multiple nominations, and the question about whether or not either of these two movies accurately portrays the soldier's experience has been a hot one in the press.

The answer is of course "No." No retelling of any event can ever, with complete accuracy, bring about the re-creation of an original event. While the retelling of it might recapture the experience for one person, it will ring false for another, no matter whether historical or novelistic. If it were otherwise, we would need only one book, one movie, one story, one epic poem, and think how boring that would be.


Obama Supports Teacher Firings:

The teachers unions are outraged that the man they supported for president is in favor of the action taken in Rhode Island where all 93 teachers were fired in a "failing school." Others are happy to see the president's support in a radical action taken in the name of improved education.

The truth is that the firings will change nothing, just as the other radical actions taken in the past decade have amounted to nothing in terms of improving education in the U.S. Until we realize the lesson of the three decades following the Second World War, that the responsibility to learn lies with the student, education will continue to languish. Certainly a good student learns more with (not from) a good teacher rather than a poor one, but a good student learns regardless of the quality of the teacher.

By the way, no one knows how we learn, we only know that it happens. And the most important influences on our processes for doing so occur before we ever enter a classroom.

American Productivity: The Big Lie

Alan Tonelson and Kevin Kearns address the myth of American productivity on today's Op-Ed pages in The New York Times. It seems off-shoring labor accounts for much of what has generally been perceived as increased productivity. Lobar employed overseas is never counted in the analysis. All a business has to do to demonstrate its increased productivity is ship jobs across national lines.

I recently heard the story of an international film company that has shipped much of its technical work to China where labor costs are substantially cheaper, only to discover that the Chinese labor force is technically far less sophisticated than its American and European counterparts, forcing the company to go to considerable cost in an effort to train their Chinese workers. Perhaps if they were just stamping out plastic buttons, this would not be an issue, but the more highly technical matters appear to be a different matter.

My guess is, though, that the stock price for the company went up, because "productivity" rates were increased as a result of the off-shoring of labor, even though real productivity declined dramatically. Of course the company's productivity might also be increased by simply not meeting payroll and begging its employees to keep working even while they're not being paid.

What happens when you devote your energies to minimum standards rather than striving towards excellence?

You end up with an Interstate highway system riddled with potholes and bridges that collapse, not an Autobahn.

Sam Dillon reports in today's New York Times on the dramatic change of heart that former Bush official Diane Ravitch has undergone in the wake of the mediocrity (an understatement if ever there was one) that the educational policies she once advocated have helped to produce. No Student Left Behind, charter schools, and many other right-wing notions have proven no more effective than blind indifference in changing the results of the educational success in the U. S.

Ravitch has not only changed her mind about the Bush agenda on education, but she's gone so far as to resign from a number of the conservative organizations that helped promote them.

Some Good News:

The New York Times reports that the White House may be preparing to begin the elimination of some of the thousands of redundant nuclear weapons in the U. S. arsenal. The Obama administration has yet to announce the "how and why" scenario for a use of nuclear weapons, a policy statement that every administration has delivered since the Truman administration.


How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?

During the past four years, the E.P.A., the government's organization that is supposed to be guarding the safety of your drinking water, has lost its teeth. Supreme Court decisions have taken the bite out of clean water laws by not stipulating which water supplies the agency has authority over. The New York Times reports that "117 million Americans get their drinking water from sources fed by waters that are vulnerable to exclusion from the Clean Water Act," citing the E.P.A.