Bill on major issues

Iran's threats to shut off oil recall "lessons" of 1973, 1979 oil shocks

2012-02-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this: “Iran’s saber rattling shows energy crisis is still with us”, p. A12, the Washington Post, Feb. 16, by Steven Mufson, link here. There’s tendency for people to think there is nothing than can do about externalities like this, but codepend on their own families.

Back in 1973, remember, gasoline rationing was actually considered, and mentioned by President Nixon in a November evening address that I remember listening to in a hotel room while on “business travel”. Ration clips were printed, and many communities actually did even-odd rationing. Stations were closed weekends. The supply (and gas lines) problem mysteriously went away suddenly in April 1974 “when they got the price up”.

In 1979, there was talk of it again. I was living in Dallas then, and at an MCC Congregational meeting, moved that we needed a plan in case of rationing or severe shortages kept people at home. It died for lack of second.

This time, it sounds like $6 a gallon gasoline, if Iran can really block the Strait, particularly is Israel attacks. Let’s hope Iran really can’t close the Strait. It's 11000 feet wide at the choke point.

And I don’t have a Hybrid yet. I have noticed that more commuter park-and-rides have all day charging stations, and we need them.

Here's a YouTube video on "Peak Oil Rationing" (2008), with Matthew Simmons.

Authors slam Santorum on views of women, and on "war on religion"

2012-02-15T07:01:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Coontz (author of “A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique and American Women at the Dawn of th 1960s”) has a special to CNN, “Santorum’s stone-age view of women”, link (website url) here.

She mentions a book by Santorum, 2005, that I apparently hadn’t noted, “It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good”. I can pretty well predict what he argues. (It's not exactly like Hilary Clinton's "It Takes a Village".)

From his statements, it appears that Santorum decries not so much just the rise of women in the workplace (and particularly the military, even in combat), but the development of a view that women who remain economically “dependent” in order to spend full time with their children, are no longer “interesting” and will no longer generate passion in men. I have to admit that I even felt that way about things as I grew up.

I recall a women’s magazine (Ladies Home Journal – why did I read that?) back around 1957 that had an article, “who would you rather have the college degree, you or your husband?”

There’s a general fear among social conservatives: when people have “alternative lifestyles” available, traditional heterosexual (and preferably one-earner) marriage (with many kids) becomes less “exciting” and cannot compete.

Coontz makes the interesting point that educated women actually improve the “quality” of time both parents spend with their kids, especially as they grow up. When women (in stable marriages) work, fathers spend more time at home and spend more time with their children at all ages. The “blue family” model works.

As I recall, however, even Santorum has said that his mother worked.

Eugene Robinson has a nice piece on p. A17 of the Feb. 15 Washington Post, “What war on religion?” link here.

Santorum really could get the GOP nomination; then what?

2012-02-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

"Left-wing leaning" AlterNet has an article, referring to another source (link) by “BooMan”, that analyzes the idea that Rick Santorum could beat Romney, and that the Obama campaign is not ready for this more socially confrontational and (for some) charismatic candidate, link here.

There have been comments that Obama would trounced Santorum in a general election handily. The public does not want a candidate that pontificates over “subsidiarity” – translating into moralizing over contraception (let alone abortion) and homosexuality.

One can’t be so sure.

I turned on, by accident, to a “Time of Grace” sermon this Sunday morning on cable as I brought everything back up after a February windstorm (typical sermon) and I certainly got a taste of the spiritual underbelly of social conservatism. Interest comment, the personal challenge for everyone is not to ignore the unworthy (and assume that they have been cast out), but to personal reach out to others with the same mercy and compassion (they are different things) that we have depended on and forgotten about. It seems as though social conservatism has something to do with openness to certain emotions and connections (with certain people who seem to need attention) that otherwise were unwelcome and in the way of more immediate satisfactions (and illusions of superiority). For example, how many of us really want to communicate with a "panhandler"?

Yet, I fear that Santorum, with his actions as president, would drive someone like me back into second-class-citizenship, and expect me to “open up” anyway.

Mortgage settlement may not hope most families cope with the "Darwin Economy"

2012-02-11T07:10:00.000-08:00

MSNBC says that the mortgage settlement leaves most homeowners to fend for themselves (John W. Schoen link) At the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik says it’s great for politicians and banks (link). Holders of Fannie and Freddie notes are out of luck.

The whole mortgage problem is an endpoint of what author Robert Frank talks about in his book “The Darwin Economy” (books blog, Feb. 8). People believe they need bigger houses in better neighborhoods for their kids, to get them into “better” school districts. They borrow more. They bid up the price of housing. On the upper income levels, a certain population that is good at manipulating others into deals puts the packages together, and these huckster-middlemen say they do this for their families. They have to provide for others, whether or not by their own volition. This whole process extends to Wall Street in creating and packaging the derivatives.

People who don’t have kids may have less incentive to get drawn into this behavior. Will they hold the moral high ground? Well, they, “needing” less, could bid wages down. And you can’t sustain a civilization without having and raising kids. But if you do have kids, it’s awfully hard to avoid being drawn into the game of reckless debt, unless you “made yourself” as a young adult first – and most people won’t have the chance to do that in time.

Obama caught in a "neutral equilibrium" on contraception and health care issue

2012-02-10T08:02:00.000-08:00

The latest “word” is that the Obama administration will double-talk on its birth control mandate on employers, as in this New York Times story by Helene Cooper today, link. The insurance companies will foot the bill themselves, so others will, indirectly at least.

Employers had a year to comply anyway.

Where should this "compromise" fall? If you’re going to keep a quasi-private health care system, my instinct is that private employers (and religious ones) should be left to do as they like on “behavior-related” matters. This whole contraception question has become a sideshow, and a convenient political soccerball for the right in its attack against Obamacare -- but it's more like trying to score goals with "heading" instead of kicks.

In my own conventional career (until the end of 2001), this may have been the case, but it didn’t matter much. For example, in the mid 1980s, there were dire predictions from the Right that HIV would bankrupt health insurance; but that did not happen, even though it was usually covered without question. With my own employers, the biggest claims usually came from the usual suspects (cancer, heart disease), with one big incident with a brain aneurysm.

In practice, private employers have not been very interested in making exclusions for smoking, STD’s, or any controversial areas. What they have not covered is “cosmetic” procedures.

Should religious employers compromise by accepting the idea that they could have one set of rules for clergy, and another for “regular” employees? That’s already supposed to be the case for employment discrimination.

Without going into details, it’s well to note there has been controversy over covering abortion, too. For example, look at Carlton Veazey’s article in “Politics” in May 2011, here.

Religious conservatives sometimes seem to conflate abortion and contraception, and have trouble with the wide distinction between the two. Underneath all of this is a belief, strongly advanced in Vatican teachings, that no conspicuous or effective adult should go through life without taking on responsibilities for other generations.

Update:

White House announcement on a "deal" on contraception and preventive care, link.

Obama administration starts granting waivers for No Child Left Behind; VA teachers complain about violence from students

2012-02-09T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ten states are being granted waivers from the “No Child Left Behind” law by the Obama administration. Twenty-eight more have applied. The ten “blessed states” are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. States have to show their own ways of improving accountability and raising teacher effectiveness. CNN's story is here.

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, has a discussion here, emphasizing that students were finding that NCLB “dumbed down” education, and led to “teaching the tests”.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I noticed when subbing a tendency to give more multiple choice tests (even in math) and for exams to be more standardized.

It’s going to be interesting to see if these states can get results with individualized educational online programs like Khan Academy.

AP classes were better, where exams still had more free response. One calculus test had a “calculator-free” portion that had to be turned in first. But even in AP classes, some teachers tended to drill for the SATs and with practice AP placement tests.

In a somewhat related story, a Virginia television station reports that hundreds of teachers in Virginia incur physical attacks from students, and that school districts require silence, link here.

Does "the actions of a few teachers" put the reputations of all teachers at risk?

2012-02-08T07:24:00.000-08:00

All the staff at the Miramonte elementary school was reassigned after two teachers were arrested on abuse charges, resulting in a counter protest, reported now in the Los Angeles Times, link here.

This sounds like “school detention” in reverse, punishing everyone for the sins of a few.

As I look back to my tangential brush with this problem back in 2005 when I was subbing (because of the way a school administrator interpreted some of my online material) , I can see how easily schools (and especially principals and other administrators) are put in bad positions, just because of questionable "appearances" created even by online reputations. Look again at Penn State and Syracuse. This whole thing has exploded.

We have an unhealthful dependence on the "working poor"

2012-02-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

This Monday morning, AlterNet led off with a “single” with an article by Bill Quigley, “Why don’t we pay people enough? 8 Facts about America’s struggling working people, here. Yes, the byline is true, “Millions of people in the U.S. work and are still poor”.

The big eight reasons are pretty familiar, having to do with minimum wage, and also accusing employers of theft, or of classifying workers as independent contractors (for “piecework”). But many of the jobs are in the service industry. You can have this sort of thing because many people don’t have to “pay their dues”. It really is an extension of the problem of depending on products made with almost slave, barracks labor in China and other southeast Asian areas.

The Washington Post has an important story Monday, front page, “Black women in America: Amid downturn, a cracked foundation: For some, economic woes and willingness to aid family members strain personal finances”, by Ylan Q. Mui and Chris L. Jenkins, link here. The article compares black and white women, but doesn’t say much about women compared to men as a whole.

The article depicts African American women as sacrificing not just for their spouses or their own children, but also for siblings or more distant relatives. Some of the women don’t have children of their own. In other communities (in the yuppie world) this would sound like sacrificing to subsidize the sexual intercourse of others. It’s interesting how the notion of personal responsibility, opposed to belonging ti a community or family, plays out, depending probably more on social class and income than just race. But in Europe, immigrants from Muslim countries often send money home to relatives, and there is a lot of social tension over this.

On my forays to the Occupy sites (the latest was Sunday afternoon, right after Church and a pot luck lunch downtown), I’m struck by the variety of experiences there. A few people don’t have to be there but want to be. A few are coming to take pictures and blog – and I wonder if bloggers don’t make the protestors look foolish when their stories are placed alongside other issues in blogs—making the bloggers and photographers seem like gawkers, not interested in having to share the experience and live it personally. In one or two cases, professionals or graduate students whom I know from “the clubs” were there watching. The protestors now will probably wind up leaving unless others put them up or bring them food, since they can’t cook in the parks. The "tourist attraction" will go away. As to some of the people who tried to live there: There are a lot of people who simply can’t negotiate a modern world so predicated on individual competitiveness, when it is conflated inconsistently with the group-oriented culture that raised them (often with families not able to stay intact). Nevertheless, a lot of the “competition” in the past was based on bad impressions. People bought homes they couldn’t afford because they thought they had to in order to remain in the game – and they “believed” the banks. And, true, the bailouts seemed to save the better off (preserving the value of accumulated investments and pensions) rather than younger working people.

And what about “volunteerosity”, a new vocabulary word on one of the protest signs? At First Baptist Church about ten blocks away, the congregation, after First Sunday pot luck, used to make sandwiches (with gloves) for the homeless, and then I understand that was shut down for potential health liabilities. Food and Friends has always been a great charity – but I found (in my recent day delivering for them) that there are some clients who really shouldn’t be on it – so if you volunteer, how much help are you really giving? Very short term efforts don’t seem to mean a lot.

One of the “fundamental theorems of compassionate conservatism” is that government intrudes less when individuals do more to take care of one another, in concentric fashion starting with the family unit. Conservatives maintain that weaker families lead to poverty and government interventionism, so individualism must be mediated somewhat to maintain family and local institutions. Social conservatives like Santorum (more than Romney) preach that poverty results from indifference from individuals, not just from corporate abuse or "class struggle". The same conservatives, however, turn their “family values” into tribal battles, “my family (or tribe) is going to prevail over yours”. Some evangelicals, and especially special denominations like the LDS church are great at consistent volunteering and providing faith-based social services (how about the Vatican, too), but at the “cost” of having the right and duty to proselytize, personally.

McPherson Square in Washington still has some presence from Occupy DC; all is quiet Sunday afternoon

2012-02-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Sunday early afternoon (Feb. 5), all quiet was at McPherson Square with the Occupy DC protest. Police allowed driving down 15^th W (and then closed it), and up 15h E, but not I St. About a third of the tents were still there. Police did not seem to object to foot traffic or cameras. The statue of Maj. Gen. James G. McPherson had been uncovered.

There was little traffic in the area, and there actually were free open parking spaces on the streets a block away. Lights were cylcling properly to keep traffic from loitering.

According to CNN, there were eight arrests on Saturday.

Blade article criticizes frivolous litigation in the US

2012-02-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

David Kaminow has a valuable article from The Washington Blade (Feb. 3), but of very general interest, “Protecting your assets fro lawsuits”, link here.

The writer notes the tendency in the US to allow frivolous litigation, which small fry don’t have the deep pocket so defend themselves against. That’s one of the issues with SOPA and Protect-IP, as that these laws would encourage it.

Frivolous litigation could be a particular problem for bloggers, as I have noted covering Righthaven on my main blog.

To his credit, GOP governor Rick Perry of Texas (whatever his other shortcomings) has supported tort reform in Texas.

John Stossel, a libertarian oriented journalist, has encouraged advancing a “loser pays” system in more situations in the United States, as in Europe.

In the mean time, for some people, formation of trusts and LLC’s may help them protect assets that “they don’t own”.

Washington DC Auto Show: Ford (no bailout) winds hands down with electric vehicles

2012-02-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

The Washington DC auto show was fairly quiet this weekday afternoon. You walk a long distance after buying the ticket, and then have to figure out that the other level is way upstairs, at the Convention Center at Mt. Vernon Place.

Ford, which did not need a bailout in 2009, by far had the best exhibit, on the back of the second level. It displayed both hybrid and all electric vehicles with considerable documentation on the electric batteries, which it says now last six times as long as before. The Focus is now available as a hybrid.

Ford also had a vehicle with unusual opening, lifting of the entire cab for taller passengers.

Chrysler had a “working engine” on display.

In the lower level, there were mostly foreign cars, often high end and even race cars. There was even a test drive track.

Toyota claims to have the best mileage in the business. It's just a claim.

Occupy DC: no confrontation with Park Police yet, and some people comply; protesters fear action at night; UPDATE: Park raided early Sat. AM

2012-01-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Today, I arrived “late” (because of Metro problems) to witness a possible confrontation between Occupy DC and Park Police at McPherson Square, but found nothing going on. The protesters had draped a large "Tent of Dreams" around the central statue (of Gen. McPherson), underneath which were some other little tents, making a kind of synecdoche. A few tents did have the “illegal” sleeping bags.

I spoke to one young man, who said he knew someone sleeping there and who feared the police would come back at night, after the media stations and particularly the bloggers with cameras were gone. The police don’t seem to want videos of their actions to go viral.

One young woman had a laptop and sound equipment to play music.

Other media report that cooking facilities have been removed. Occupants would have to depend on volunteers to bring them food and put them up.

I also walked down to Freedom Plaza, and it seemed more people were still “living there”.

I liked the “Gandhi’s list of sins”, including “wealth without work” and “knowledge without character”, and a couple others, “science without humanity” and “worship without sacrifice”, the later reminding me of the Israelites while Moses was on the mountain.

There was some bad grammar (“Who’s tent?!” should be “whose tent?!”; the symbol “?!” means “dubious move” in chess annotations).

It sounds like things got ugly in Oakland, CA. There is plenty of indignation.

I even saw a new word coined, "volunteeritory".

A federal judged ruled Jan. 31 that protesters have an opportunity to appeal evictions, WJLA story here. On Wednesday Park Police were checking tents to make sure no one was sleeping in them.

Update: Saturday, Feb. 4

US Park Police raided the McPherson Square Occupy encampment before dawn Saturday and removed hardware associated with sleeping and cooking. Many streets around the encampment are closed or barricade. A few people were arrested. Station WJLA has this story. According to NBC Washington, the "tent of dreams" tarp has been removed, story.

Fairfax County VA restores some honors classes for high school humanities

2012-01-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

Fairfax County Public Schools is returning Honors course in some English and social studies classes in 11^th and 12^th classes, with curricula in a middle ground between regular and AP or IB classes.

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

When I was subbing, honors classes were common in ninth and tenth grades. Honors chemistry was taught in tenth grade and the course was quite well conceived. Examinations, while multiple choice, required the student to give a reason for his or her answer. The work I saw was impressive, better than when I was in high school 1958-1961.

"The Sub" winds up in kid's photo sleeping in class, but kid gets suspended

2012-01-27T13:02:00.000-08:00

On AOL-Huffington’s “wake-up call”, there is a video story of a student getting suspended for taking a cell phone picture of a substitute teacher sleeping in class.

The location of the "Wake-Up call" video is here. (It's also called "Morning Rush".) Oddly, it offered embed code but then was blocked from direct viewing on Blogger. I've never seen that before.

The picture wound up on Facebook. The student had violated a policy against using cell phones on school property for non-emergency reasons. (Isn’t a teacher’s sleeping an emergency?)

The school was going to take action to blacklist “The Sub”. They call it “do not send” or “do not use” and maybe, “fired”. (See my main blog, July 25, 2007.)

Many sub assignments the lesson plans just call for classwork. (In ninth grade algebra back in 1958, a “classwork” was a ten-problem quiz, particularly when it came to polynomial factoring. These days, a favorite for English teachers is the “reading quiz” [on the night’s homework on “Lord of the Flies”] or a video worksheet [particularly if they watch “To Kill a Mockingbird”].) Actually, novelists should learn to write reading quizzes on their own work. It’s a good way to check for loose ends. The same goes for screenplay submissions – write a “video worksheet” before submitting it to an agent.

Here's a YouTube video by "ApplePi", "Tips for Substitute Teachers".

Wall Street Journal on Obama's surtax on millionaires -- WSJ makes sense today (as it usually does)

2012-01-26T10:30:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal Thursday takes up President Obama on his proposal that “anyone earning more than $1 million pay at least 30% of that income to Uncle Barack”, in a leading editorial called “The Buffett Ruse”, link here, page A16 in print.

By the way, I’ll add that I found a complimentary WSJ on my lawn this morning at reveille, double wrapped in unwanted plastic bags. I am a digital subscriber to get around the paywall (it’s not that expensive).

Of course, taken literally, “Mr. President” (‘s) words don’t compute. If someone makes exactly $1 million in taxable income, does his rate suddenly jump on the entire amount? Better to make a penny less. What about accumulated assets? What about inherited wealth (which western countries subsidize to promote “family values”)? The “death tax” is still a political football and still inspires ire among conservatives, but it allows quite an exemption on the bottom.

Also, what about the alternative minimum tax, which I thought Congress was going to abolish?

The WSJ makes a good argument about double taxation on investment income, because corporate income taxes have been paid already, and because losses in prior years can’t be subtracted.

“Millionaires” often have family businesses that employ other people. It’s important to keep separate money put back into the economy. Every time I go to a locally owned hardware store (to take care of an old “inherited” house) here in Arlington, I feel reminded of that point. Sometimes people work on projects alone that don’t employ others now but are likely to later. I would like to think that’s my position.

Billionaires, well, Buffett, Soros, Zuckerberg all say they have no problem with paying more taxes on money that is not invested back into the economy. That’s where to draw the line.

I still keep thinking that we equate tax policy to moral debate. When I was growing up (in the 50s), “morality” wasn’t much about personal responsibility accompanying voluntary choices, as it was about socialization and sharing the sacrifices and risks that a community (or family) needs to forge ahead. The male-only draft was a leading moral issue in my day. By the late 60s and 70s (after the publicity following Mao’s Cultural Revolution), “fairness” began to shift from personal and “chore sharing” ares back to economic fairness, with the far Left seeing morality in terms of limiting maximum wealth and expropriation. That gradually changed as individualism grew, however slowly at first. Today we seem to be coming full trigonometric circle. Money alone won't keep our world together after pandemics or supervolcano eruptions.

The "sin" of overlooking local special elections

2012-01-25T05:58:00.000-08:00

Is all politics local? I felt “guilty” yesterday when I checked my messages on my main land line, not used much, and found messages from three local Arlington County VA politicians about an “election” Saturday Jan 21.

I finally tracked down that it was “only” a Democratic Party “caucus” for a County Board special election Tuesday, March 27; and it was hard to find much about it online. Finally I did locate it on the local Sun, (website url) here.

I checked the messages after a brief land-line outage that, as I wrote yesterday, may have been related to the solar storm (the land-line is connected to the cable for digital phone service).

When I get a landline call, I hang up if it is a politician’ recording. I just don’t have time for a two minute speech. And politicians are exempt from “do not call”.

Yet, it’s important to pay attention to local events. Local boards can pass zoning rules, which (as I have documented here right around the end of 2007) can become controversial or onerous to some people’s plans. No, we haven’t had any treehouses cited in Arlington (and there are some).

It’s odd that the caucus was so poorly advertised. I never saw it on social media or email. The only way I would hear about it was to listen to a recorded land-line call.

Coronal Mass Ejection from Sunday solar flare may affect communications on Earth Tuesday

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

NASA is advising that a coronal mass ejection from the Sun occurred Sunday night, and that the “space storm line” (by analogy to thunderstorms) should cross the Earth around 9 AM Tuesday Jan 24, give or take up to seven hours.

Disruption of satellites is possible, and there is at least a remote threat of power outages or grid disruptions, particularly in more northerly or polar latitudes.

The flare was the largest since 2005.

A CME in 1989 caused a huge 24 hour power outage in much of Quebec. A Carrington-sized (1859) event could cause catastrophic, prolonged power failures throughout much of the world.

Here is NASA’s story. The stills and videos are downloadable and in public domain.

The Weather channel and Associated Press have a bigger story with a non-embeddable video here.

Major newspapers and broadcast networks have not emphasized the story.

If will be interesting to see if the president discusses hardening of infrastructure tonight in the State of the Union speech, or if the GOP candidates (besides doomsday-obsessed New Gingrich) predict it. It would be ironic of a solar flare cause power outages that disrupted primaries, debates, or major speeches.

Solar Watcher has this video on YouTube:

Later: Starting about 11 PM last night, Comcast cable dropped very briefly a few times, and the Internet reset itself those times. Then, this morning (around 10 AM), the XFinity digital phone was out even though Internet and cable were working. The problem started when the phone rang and no one was on the other end. In about five minutes, I was able to fix the problem by simply dialing the number from my cell phone and making it ring once (and playing through three unread messages from politicians). I suspect this could all be solar-flare related. I am in the DC area, at just moderate latitude (39 degrees).

WebMD explains the proposed narrowing of "autism" definition

2012-01-22T06:03:00.000-08:00

Here’s a WebMD story explaining the proposed change in the definition of autism, in a update written by the American Psychiatric Association, to the DSM, to be completed by the end of 2012.

The consolidation of several disorders had already started, but most kids with higher functioning and Asperger’s syndrome would not be included, which would mean they would not get services. 75% of those with Asperger’s would no longer be included. I suspect that as a boy, under modern diagnosis, I would have fit within the 75%. It’s not clear how this would affect the gender distribution. Under today’s classification, almost 80% of the autism spectrum disorder diagnoses are for boys.

But certainly there comes a point where Asperger-like traits are not pathological, and merely, even if genetically influenced, are more appropriately viewed as personality traits. At the higher end, some very introverted kids are highly gifted and successful in their specialized areas (like the arts or music, or computer programming), even prodigies, when allowed to be.

The WebMD page is here.

Update: Jan. 30

The Huffington Post has reproduced a Scientific American article by Ferris Jabr that gives more details explaining the pattern change in definitions from DSM-IV to DSM-5. I like the word "kerfuffle". There is some "grandfathering" of previous patients. The link to the story is here.

Here's a long piece in the Los Angeles Times by Alan Zarembo about autistic adults "hiding in plain sight", Dec. 16, 2011, link.

Here's another video I took from Occupy Congress Tuesday:

Earthquakes raise questions about safety of natural gas fracking, at least in Ohio

2012-01-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

Some small earthquakes in eastern Ohio, in the Youngstown area and more or less around the northern extension of the West Virginia panhandle, could raise questions about the expected boom in natural gas drilling in the region. (ABC had a story about the jobs in Stuebenville Oct. 18, 2011 here.) The Dec. 31 4.0 quake was 40 times as powerful as any others in 2011, which could have been pre-shocks.

As a result, some injection wells cannot open now, as in this CNN (website url) story.

The fluid injection wells are supposed to act as a repository for wastes generated by fracking, our hydraulic drilling, to locate deep but plentiful natural gas reserves.

Actually, much of Ohio has long had a natural gas industry. The mother’s side of my family has earned income in the past from owning a natural gas well in the Wellington area. The well-being of a family in retirement can be made much safer by even a relatively modest well on its land, and in a perverse way, higher fuel prices could be desirable. But the discovery of much more natural gas in the US available by fracking may well lead to a drop in price and increase in supply, leading many such as Pickens to suggest that natural gas can be an effective way to deal with oil supply problems and producing much cleaner energy. Natural gas service prices in many areas have dropped during the past year.

This scientist found a quarry next to the site of a 2.5 earthquake on Dec. 29.

Here, citizens around Youngstown, OH talk about the problems cause by fracking:

Youngstown is near the crossover into Ohio from the Pennsylvania Turnpike to the Ohio Turnpike, which as a boy I rode through umpteen times as a boy on family trips. The area has experienced serious economic downturns in the loss of manufacturing, especially autos and auto parts.

My father had business interests (Imperial Glass) in Bellaire, somewhat to the south, where we often stopped. We also used to enter Ohio at East Liverpool in the days before the Ohio Turnpike was built. Even in my IT career, I once worked with a client in Weirton, WVA, the steel company, and I’ve actually driven through the city once.

Yesterday, the president denied immediate approval to the Keystone Pipeline project, saying regulators needed more time for environmental studies. He left open the idea of a revised route. But given the situation in Iran, the president could wind up looking to be on the wrong side of energy policy, given this election year. (See posts Dec. 12 and Nov. 6, 2011).

Wikipedia attribution link for Bellaire Ohio bridge.

Salvation Army, Good Will donation procedures are quick

2012-01-18T09:42:00.000-08:00

I do have a number of warm overcoats from an estate, and today found that giving them away through the Salvation Army was a quick process, at least near Alexandria, VA. You drive through and around the donation site, and clerks empty the car quickly and give you a receipt quickly. No time, no red tape.

The donation center was closed Martin Luther King Day, Monday, however. This was a surprise on a “National Day of Service”.

Good Will had picked up some unwanted furniture. But it would not pick up a group of coats counted one at a time, because it required 8 bags of items tightly packed. And an animal welfare charity picked up an old car that had trouble running.

I’m still not much for joining other people’s “agendas” or “asking for money” for them. I look at these matters pragmatically, one situation at a time. Where can I do the most good? Maybe in the area of Internet reputation.

"Occupy Congress" takes over the Capitol West Lawn

2012-01-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

This afternoon, I visited the Occupy Congress demonstrations on the West Lawn of the Capitol. The weather was breezy and mild, as a warm front had moved through.

Although police were present anywhere, I did not witness anything disorderly. Media however has reported arrests earlier today.

At one point, a leader of the demonstrations had the participants chanting their instructions, but I had a hard time understanding exactly what he was saying. It sounded as though they were having difficulty getting admitted into the buildings, and that their proposals were not very specific. The demonstrators tended to sound like obedient robots.

I saw plenty of “flags”, and variations of the mask worn in the movie “V for Vendetta”, a symbol for th hacker group Anonymous.

One sign read “words are never only words…”

Another sign complained that the “Dems sold us out.”

Still another demonstrator bore a sign reading “defeat Bush”. Wrong election!

To leave the grounds and get to the Capitol South Metro, I “marched” in the crowd to get across Independence Ave. I almost collided physically with a Park policeman.

NBC4 holds Health Fair at Washington DC convention center

2012-01-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Jan 14, I visited the 19th Health and Fitness Expo at the Washington DC Convention Center, sponsored by NBC4 (NBCWashington, Channel 4), link.

There were a lot of companies selling their services, to say the least.

I saw one blood drive, to benefit children, and the qualification signs did not mention the exclusion of MSM.

There was also a station to sign up for marrow donation.

There were “soccer” and tennis courts set up for kids. There was a one mile jogging track (eight laps).

There was a walk-through of the inside of a human leg, with diagrams of bone and joint structures, but there was no mention of deterioration in circulation with age because of atherosclerosis.

There were plenty of testing stations and people walked around with elbow bandages.

There was a fitness contest.

But the most interesting station was a panel discussion of getting kids not to use cell phones while driving, and another simulation of DUI, both sponsored by ATT.

Also, I didn't see it, but there is an Alzheimer's booth. Alzheimer's is now the sixth leading cause of death in the United States (link), the biggest caregiving challenge the country faces. See Booth 1039.

Note: NBC4's link says 2012 (19th Annual event), but the url still has "2011" in it.

Supreme Court rules on discrimination in church-related jobs; EEOC warns on disparate impact in background checks

2012-01-12T09:42:00.000-08:00

The Supreme Court didn’t surprise anyone by ruling that Church employees with religious leadership duties are generally not protected by federal discrimination laws. The case, “Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church v. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission et al”, has a slip opinion at the Court’s website, PDF (website url) here.

The outcome probably sounds “libertarian”. The practical effect of such a decision might occur if more people get vouchers and go to parochial schools. I have known of teachers fired from such schools for “being gay”. There is a tendency in many schools to expect teachers to take on religious duties and profess a calling. The employee in this case may have done so.

Without going into personal details, I know of people who have been caught in "political battles" or social struggles within churches (both mainstream churches and "gay" ones) and lost jobs, after painful and messy investigative processes (sometimes starting with anonymous accusations). Church employment is a world of its own for the "called", but it gets to be like other jobs -- subject to every human jealousy.

There’s also some interest in the problem of denial of employment to people for minor convictions decades ago. The Employers Association of New Jersey has a Jan. 2012 posting warning employers that disparate impact analysis applies with respect to race when using criminal background checks, especially with older records, link here.

Man on DC Metro asks other passengers, as individuals rather than "corporations", to hire him

2012-01-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

I didn’t have my camera with me to record the incident, but today on the Orange Line in Arlington, late morning, going into the City, a man, African American, walked on to the subway care and actually begged to be hired in a job. Only after two or three minutes of talking about a job search did he beg for money for food. No one responded.

It’s a bit interesting to hear pleas to individuals to hire people, rather than to companies. Yes, individuals have become much more “efficient” in creating and distributing content (including composed music) without having to hire people. It raises some questions.

Last night, on CNN, candidate Ron Paul blamed the nation’s economic problems on the Federal Reserve, inflation, and the ability of government to get kids to fight wars being policeman of the world.

Other GOP candidates, especially Mitt Romney, have been blamed for participating in “corporate raiding” leading to job loss. But in many cases, jobs lost to raiders really are redundant and are being done inefficiently.

CNN is reporting on the fact that children of middle class parents are falling below middle class themselves. In 1979, a family of four needed about $33000 to be middle class (I made $26000 but was single, a big difference.) The video on "The New Poor" (a theme that was actually a book in 1974, an earlier recession) from CNN

New York Post story on Irene victim provides warning to homeowners about asbestos, FEMA

2012-01-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

I wanted to pass along a link to a story on p 39 of the Jan. 5 New York Post, about the difficulties a homeowner had in a well-inland area of Rockland County NY recovering from basement flooding after Hurricane Irene in August, link here. The story is "After the Storm" by Don Kaplan.

In an older house, he found that he had a lot of asbestos, which made it very difficult to get repairs done properly. This could happen with a lot of homes built a number of decades ago.

It seems that homes with sump systems can just get overwhelmed by huge amounts of rain per hour. And why keep so many valuables in the basement.

The story of the way FEMA worked is important, recalling the days I volunteered taking calls for Katrina victims in 2005 at the Red Cross in Falls Church, VA. Most were directed to an 800 FEMA number that took 24 hours to get through.

The non-winter of 2011-2012: climate change at an inflection point of no return?

2012-01-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

Has climate change reached an inflection point?

In the DC area, this year’s early winter seems like the warmest ever. Yet, we had the freak one inch (at least in Arlington) the last Saturday in October, the day of the freak Noreaster that clobbered New England.

Recently, the media has reported on release of methane from the permafrost in Siberia and other places. Methane has much more heat retaining capacity that carbon dioxide. Relative small warming in the arctic could conceivably trigger runaway greenhouse effects.

Well, DC had a winter similar to this in 1972-1973, with some freak snow in October, and none for the rest of the winter. In 1997-1998 supposedly there was no recorded snow around DC. I think it was warm enough even in Quebec in January, 1998 to have an ice storm.

And some reports do say that extremely cold air is bottled up in Alaska and Eastern Siberia (where the permafrost is). The reason it doesn’t move south is that the usual high pressure is missing over Greenland. Once it settles in there, low pressure systems tend to track farther south, resulting in much more snow (as in 2009-2010). Curiously, there's been more snow than usual in West Texas, New Mexico, and northern Arizona.

And there have been a few winters where February is colder than January. That sometimes happens in areas with a large exposure to water.

In 1995-1996, the winter started out mild, but five big storms came January to March. In 1977-1978, when I lived in NYC, the winter was mild until Jan. 20, when there were three massive blizzards, one per month.

In 1957, there was one heavy snow and brief cold spell around Dec. 4, and no more winter weather until Feb. 15, when there was a massive blizzard, and then another one on March 20, leading to the only extended power outage in my high school days.

Statistically, the coldest day in DC is Jan. 20. The hottest is July 21.

Still, this winter seems scary. The snow pack is almost at a record minimum, and the lack of snow can accelerate the warming and not allow cold to settle in as the Sun gradually returns to higher positions in the sky, especially after mid February.

There other natural hazards to watch. Sunspot activity is expected to increase 2012-2014, leading increased risk that a massive solar storm could overwhelm the Earth’s magnetic field and power grid, leading to a “Carrington Event” as in 1859, when a solar flare actually started wildfires. Power in some areas could be out for months. Utilities should learn how to protect their transformers and generating equipment with Faraday cages (as shown in the recent film “The Darkest Hour”).

A supervolcano could erupt. There is some concern not only about Yellowstone (due after 600000 years) but also the supervolcano around Vesuvius and Naples, Italy.

Or the Cumbre Vieja volcano could avalanche, sending a 200-foot-tsunami across the Atlantic to the US East Coast.

And are Americans, with weakened social structures, ready to deal with the physical hardships caused by our planet? It might not even be our fault.

But don’t believe the Dec 21, 2012 crowd. It might not take that long.

Washington DC schools now debate whether all students should aim for college; should teens (and tweens) blog?

2012-01-06T11:52:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of educations stories:

Should all high school students in Washington DC (or any city) be forced or expected to take college admission tests and pursue higher education? The story Jan. 3 by Tim Craig and Emma Brown is (website url) here about the DC school system in a post-Michelle-Rhee world. Her legacy remains. (Remember, she didn't care what people other thought; she "knew" she was right!)

I can remember teaching at the University of Kansas as a graduate assistant 1966-1967 when many students had to take “remedial algebra”, the taking of which added to the hours required for graduation. This happened during the years of the Vietnam era draft, for men at least, and student deferments, where going to college could become a matter of survival – and social inequality.

On the other end, there are people who skip college and do very well at something, like acting, or starting businesses. Mark Zuckerberg, after all, dropped out of Harvard at 20 to start Facebook. On the other hand (as shown on a Dr. Phil episode that I recall), people have dropped out of school, had babies and then tried things like flipping real estate to make “a fortune”. Welcome to the crash of 2008.

It’s true, more education (even community college) could mean a more stable economy in the long run.

Here’s another story, in favor of teen blogging, on “mom’s MSN”, link here. The story title says "Boost your teens' self-esteem: let them blog!" In 2006, a Fairfax County English teacher (and college English professor at George Mason University simultaneously) tried a blogging assignment, all “rated G” with her seniors, and made the school administration nervous. But it went very well. Should teens (and tweens) blog in "public mode" (for "everyone")?

Self-defense case in Oklahoma with young mother heightens attention to "Castle Doctrine", and Second Amendment rights

2012-01-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

A young widow caring for her baby in Oklahoma, shot an intruder after calling 9-1-1 and asking “permission” and getting a non-committal answer.

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Oklahoma is one of thirty states with the “Castle Doctrine” (wiki information link) allowing the use of deadly force to protect property from invasion. In other states a person must attempt retreat. It seems unrealistic to expect someone to abandon property. Another term for this situation is "Make My Day" laws.

The incident also makes an argument for recognizing Second Amendment rights as applying to individuals.

In a case in Texas, a man shot a burglar trying to break into a neighbor’s home, and a grand jury refused to indict.

In the Oklahoma incident, a young mother was defending her child. Nothing could get more sympathy from a potential jury.

But in the past some people have actually been sued for defending their homes. In Wisconsin, a man was charged and sued both after setting up a retaliatory device to harm a repeat burglar. But in Florida a store owner was not prosecuted after setting up an electric trap on a roof entrance that electrocuted an intruder.

Recently, CNN's Fisher and Herman have discussed also "Stand your Ground" laws in 17 states. In Florida, a teenager knifed and killed a bully who came after him, and will not be prosecuted.

Sunday, Jan. 8: A burglar was shot trying to break-in to an apartment in Temple Hills, MD. The legal consequences have not yet been reported. (Source: NBC Washington).

Generally, the crimes have been more brazen, perhaps out of existential anger than desperation, than they had been even fifteen years. There has been a real change since 9/11. That increases the argument for the "Castle Doctrine".

Picture: Arbuckle Mts, south of Oklahoma City, recent trip

Iowa caucuses prove that every vote counts; Santorum scary with anti-gay views; the concept of "subsidiarity"

2012-01-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney edged out Rick Santorum in the Republican Iowa caucuses by a mere eight votes, according to the AP and many other stories, such as this report in AOL’s Huffington Post Wednesday morning, link. That means that Romney carries one more delegate than Santorum; it’s not “winner take all”. Ron Paul performed, well, respectfully.

So, don’t think "your" votes don’t count. A few countries, like Australia, I think, require voting. But probably not in primaries.

And Iowa caucuses require real “participation”. People congregate in what sound like Tupperware parties.

The media has made a lot of the Evangelical vote, and it’s not clear why it would prefer a “Catholic” to a “Mormon”, to me at least. Mitt Romney has promised to leave religion out of his policy decisions. (“Nice try” he keeps saying.) Santorum will not. I would be much more concerned that Santorum would not only undo the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell” but would reimpose the old ban on gays in the military with asking.

Wikipedia has an article on Santorum’s anti-gay remarks here.

He seems to echo the Vatican position that engagement of sexuality in any way requires openness to taking the “risk” or procreation. Look at his position even on contraception. He seems to regard homosexuality as unwelcome"competition" or for or detraction from the "natural family". But Scalia's views on the Supreme Court sound similar (his dissent in 2003 Lawrence v. Texas).

On the LA arson incident, it’s interesting that the arrest was made by a “volunteer deputy sheriff” who gets paid $1 a year. How many of us could “volunteer” for domestic law enforcement duty, in a world of influential police unions. As far of the defendant himself, he sounds like a mini-McVeigh. What he did should be prosecuted as terrorism. He should wind up in SuperMax in Pueblo, CO. Same for what happened in Arizona a year ago (with Congresswoman Giffords).

Update: Jan 6:

Michael Gerson has an op-ed in the Washington Post "Rick Santorum and the return of compassionate conservatism", link here. Gerson talks about the idea that people need stable social institutions (the family) which are easily distracted by hyperindividualism, and defines the concept of "subsidiarity" (a Catholic concept here, but intuitive). The problem is that "subsidiarity" will lead to unequal "personal sacrifices" in an environment that otherwise stresses individual autonomy and equality, taken as far in the abstract as possible. This certainly impacts LGBT people.

On the other hand. AlterNet has a piece "Rick Santorum's 10 most outrageous campaign statements" and they sound like "reasoning" drawn into false metaphors, here.

Second zoning case in northern VA goes after another military family's tree-house

2012-01-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

There’s another “treehouse-gate” fiasco in Fairfax County, VA, this time in Springfield, as the county has moved against Airman Philip Blevins after spending two years building a tree-house before deployment. The county moved while he was deployed.

The NBC Washington story by Jane Watrel is here.

Blevins has gotten a court summons saying the tree-house has to be moved farther from the property or removed in 21 days. The zoning rule relates height to distance from property line. Blevins said he checked with the county before building the tree house, and found no objection. The height issue may have been overlooked. Apparently there was an anonymous "complaint".

In another case, an Iraq war veteran got the county to relent on a property near Falls Church. See Nov. 30, 2011.

WUSA (CBS affiliate) has this story:

California makes change to its own electoral college vote count law

2012-01-02T05:44:00.000-08:00

California Governor Jerry Brown (D) has signed a bill that directs all of the state’s 55 electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, should that contradict California’s own vote. A typical story is (link url) here.

California is the ninth such state (with a total of 132 electoral votes) to do this, behind Vermont, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, the District of Columbia and Hawaii.

The intention is to force the candidates to campaign across the country and not just in electoral-vote heavy swing states.

In 2000, George W. Bush finally won the election following the Florida debacle, even after Gore won the popular vote.

This is a story high school government teachers should focus on. It could make a good SOL question in states that have passed it.

Picture: Yosemite, from my parents' vacation in 1940.

GWU student tells me affirmative action for medical school admissions is alive and all too well, everywhere

2012-01-01T09:18:00.000-08:00

I try to report the news that I personally encounter, and last night, riding home from the bars on New Years Eve, I met a George Washington University student, of Vietnamese ancestry, who said he was applying to medical school (an MD-PhD program), wanted to become an oncologist. He also said to have increasing difficulty being admitted because he was Asian. He said that Asians and Whites are lumped together, because university medical schools have to maintain certain quotas of black and Hispanic students and have lowered admission standards for those groups, particularly on the West Coast. He said that technically reverse discrimination was illegal at public schools but everyone did it.

I haven’t kept up with the Affirmative Action issues. The issue, in sum, remains ambiguous and deceptive. There has been a decade-long battle in Michigan, summarized here in a July 1, 2011 article in the New York Times, with some important Supreme Court decisions around 2003 and again recently. Everyone remembers the 1978 Bakke case (and some people called Bakke a “jerk”). I recall a conversation with a retail book store owner in Richmond VA in 1997 when I was placing my book there, as to how much he supported Affirmative Action. I also remember some angry emails on AOL while living in Minneapolis when a debate erupted about the Michigan cases then, with someone saying "You don't realize we don't all start in the same place in line". Some co-workers chuckled at these when I showed them in the office.

I don’t know how accurate this GWU student’s comments are, but they seem to come from the “real world”.

Some months ago, I noticed on the Metro some GWU students wearing a “National Day of Service” T-shirt.

GOP candidate Ron Paul is an MD, actually served as a flight surgeon. That's interesting.

Last Picture: Corocoran Hall at GWU, 21st and G in Washington, where the dreaded Organic Chemistry is taught, or at least was in the 1960s.

MSN gives story on sustainable living communities, and they requirement commitment

2011-12-30T05:57:00.000-08:00

Thursday, MSN gave us a story of places to “live off the grid” or to lead the “unplugged” life. They are around the country, in Virginia, North Carolina, Vermont, Missouri, Oregon, and New Mexico, Arizona, Utah.

Generally, most of them have fewer than 100 residents who have a contractual agreement to share incomes. It’s not clear how “unplugged” they are in their green, sustainable communities, although local production of food and goods is required. Some probably to have satellite or cellular wireless Internet, some may not. Some require an entrance fee, and some require a communal work commitment.

One of them, “Dancing Rabbit”, north of St. Louis, has homes covered with sod on top that look like they came right out of “The Lord of the Rings” as homes for hobbits.

I had some experience with these sorts of communities when I was younger. There was Dan Fry’s (posthumous biographical link) Understanding, on I-10 in Tonopah AZ, 40 miles west of Phoenix, consisting of UFO-shaped buildings (no longer there, now a cotton ranch). It held major conventions twice a year in the 1970s. There was the Lama Foundation (link) on a mountainside (at almost 9000 feet), facing west, north of Taos, NM, which I visited in 1980 and then again in 1984 for Spring Work Camp. The access road can get quite muddy and impassable even in summer. The place had a wildfire in 1996 but I understand is rebuilt.

While living in Dallas in the 1980s, I also learned about Richard Kieninger, author of "The Ultimate Frontier" (and links to the Great White Brotherhood). He held monthly meetings at the Unitarian Church in University Park, Dallas. He did say that spirituality does not make one a "passive vessel". His followers' community in East Texas (about 100 miles from Dallas as I recall) is called Adelphi (link). Back around 1970, his group built a planned community called Stelle near Kankakee, IL, 80 miles S of Chicago. It claimed to be very progressive with underground utilities. At one time, it required that only husbands work in families that live there (that only one-earner families were permitted), and then it dropped that requirement; it's not clear that this followed from Kieninger's teachings.

Since Twin Oaks is near Richmond and accessible to me, I’ll give the link now.

I’ll have to see about a Saturday visit early in 2012, winter weather permitting. It looks like you need appointments. I have already visited the general area after the August earthquake, the epicenter of which was very nearby.

Here is the MSN link.

Picture: Mineral, VA shortly after Aug. 2011 quake, near Twin Oaks.

CT tragedy draws attention to loose home safety habits; what about faulty surge protectors?

2011-12-29T07:18:00.000-08:00

The tragic house fire in Stamford, CT brings up a lot of material regarding home safety.

The most complete story seems to be in the New York Daily News, (website url) here.

My father preached about my learning to do the “chores” as a boy, and about correct form in doing these tasks; but he never made me learn to set a pilot light or to discharge fireplace embers as I remember. I don’t recall his trying to teach me how to start a fireplace, by opening the updraft first.

We used the living room fireplace a lot. The dual basement fireplace was sometimes used (but not during my Science Honor Society “initiation” on home turf December 9, 1960). Logs would take about two hours to burn completely. I used to have to fill the woodshed near the basement steps (using the embers there until the next morning, with the glass cover closed. I think Mother disposed of the ashes the next day (12 hours later, at least). There is flue downstairs.

So it sounds odd that a contractor friend would put the ashes in a mudroom shortly after the fire stopped.

Even so, it surprises me that ashes stay warm enough to ignite a house. It’s scary how easily this can happen.

We used to put a 6-foot Christmas tree in the dining area, around Dec. 21, and always took it down before New Years. Father said “There is no connection between Christmas and New Years”. We had old 1940’s light strings, where individual bulbs could burn out. It probably wasn’t safe. The colors were very “pure”. Some friends had all blue lights, and that fascinated me (years before Facebook). My color vision is normal.

One year we tried to put the tree in a sand bucket and it kept falling down.

How careful were we about turning off lights before leaving for outings or Church? I wonder.

Appliances were not as safe then, in the 50s. We had a Roper gas stove, only recently replaced to have “safer” electronic ignition (so gas can never build up when one is away for a long time and not available to relight a pilot; but even some older apartments have all-gas stoves). The water heater and furnace now all have modern electronic ignition, which makes it power-dependent, but much safer. Bray and Scarf says the manufacturing standards are much “stricter” because of house fires over the years, even if many of the appliances come from China (which I fear they may). Likewise, most electrical outlets have been replaced with three-hole grounded outlets. Funny, the cable box and cable modem doesn’t fail when you have the outlets (even for the surge protector) grounded correctly, in an old house. With the generator came a master electrical control switch panel with modern, stricter fuses. As a result, a couple of light fixtures and switches then tripped and had to be replaced with modern equipment.

There have been other home tragedies around. In May, 2011, a house in Rockville MD exploded after a botched do-it-yourself gas clothes dryer installation (story). So I guess contractors who come and work in homes have a lot of responsibility.

Our parents and grandparents just did not live that safely. They were handier about doing things themselves than today’s yuppies. If you have (buy or inherit) an old house, expect to spend $20000 on safety replacements by professionals. Even if you live in Massachusetts, watching “This Old House” isn’t enough education as to how to “do it”.

Here's another thing: faulty (or worn) surge protectors are said to be fire hazards. This has been reported since the 1990s. Here's a Consumer Watch story. It's a good idea to replace them every few years.

Picture: The "Hot Sticks" were purchased at a 7/11 before a 2010 blizzard, before the generator. The chimney actually had some damage from the earthquake in August, about $3000 in repairs.

What about smoke detectors? Yes -- have them as part of your security system. (I had one in Dallas send false alarms in 1987, though.) Sprinklers? I'd be afraid they would go off on false alarms and do property damage. But I had one in New York City as early as 1974 without problems. It wasn't a choice in a rental.

Corporate executives work with conservative lobbying groups to influence state legislators

2011-12-28T07:23:00.001-08:00

The Washington Post this morning teed off on the title of a famous Summit Entertainment film, “Ghostwriter”, with the concept, at least, in a Metro story, “Ghostwriter at work for Virginia’s assembly? Conservative Group Influential; Corporate interests fuel agenda, critics say”, story by Anita Kumar, link here.

The story concerns seats at the table of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) link here. Generally the group has tended to try to influence legislators into business-friendly and anti-regulation policies, possibly in sensitive areas like climate change or environmental protections and in insurance regulation, especially health care.

The story compares the group to the theoretically non-partisan National Conference of State Legislatures.

On a national level, such groups tend to throw issues into the hands of lobbyists, and reduce the ability of people in business to think independently or speak their minds publicly without creating conflicts of interest.

A good example on the national level could be the way old legacy media corporations (and their lobbying) are lined up against Silicon Valley companies regarding SOPA and how to handle “piracy”. Old style media would have an incentive to try to control the market and limit the opportunities for low cost competition.

But the groups ALEC and NCSL would make good topics for discussion in high school government classes. Teachers could make up test questions asking students to explain (or compare) their influence and to consider the ethics of belonging to such groups. SAT essay questions on the problems they pose could be imagined. Maybe even the SOL's!

Christmas deliveries for Food and Friends

2011-12-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today (Boxing Day, or Christmas Day II), I did a one-day (for now) Holiday volunteer assignment that I used to do more of in the 1990s when I lived here before, deliver for Food and Friends, link here.

In the 1990s, the group had been located in SE DC, near the Waterfront and Navy Yard. Now it is located in a much larger space near the Fort Totten Metro in NE Washington DC. There is major road work at the intersection of Riggs Road and S. Dakota Ave. but that did not cause problems. By the way, there was major police presence watching for speeders on N. Capitol Street, where in some places the speed limit is just 25 mph despite being a divided highway with tunnels under major intersections and limited turn access. (I think speed limits should be reasonable so they will be respected as posted. Washington DC is one of the strictest locations in the nation for traffic law enforcement, including photo enforcement of limits.)

Previously, I had volunteered many Wednesday nights and dealt with donation collections.

Since about 2000, the group has expanded its focus on food for many clients, not just people with AIDS.

On Dec. 10, NBC “American Giving” had honored a similar organization, “Move for Hunger” (link).

I can’t talk about where I went (finding addresses takes time, just as it did with Census), but I can say that in general, the client base is much more varied than it had been fifteen years ago, in many aspects. Insofar as AIDS and HIV is visible in the community at large, it no longer seems to be targeting the gay male community the way official statistics say that it does.

Will I do more? I can say that, given my plans, I am reluctant to commit to another group's schedule. One could pose questions for their own sake. Do I cook? No, I don't. It's hard to do a lot of different things rally well. Some volunteers do work in their large commercial kitchen. I do have friends who are both artists and cooks at the same time. But there is only time to master so much.

Washington Post has Christmas Day op-ed on autism

2011-12-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

Susan Senator, a writer in Massachusetts (blog) and author of “The Autism Mom’s Survival Guide” has a Sunday Christmas Day piece “Tiger mother to an autistic son” online, called “When the autistic child grows up” in print, link here.

For those of us who did not or do not have children, I’m struck by the fact that any family could have a disabled child. Even that observation gets lost when one goes to a typical upper middle class suburban protestant church, where it seems as though 90% of the high school kids are on honor rolls and in AP classes.

It probably does not help that the medical establishment officially treats Asperger’s as part of autism (the practical issues are different).

It’s also noteworthy that some autistic kids overcome (as with the J-mac story on Larry King Live – book reviews March 18, 2008), and some even go to college (as with the case of a young woman depicted a few years ago on CNN’s forty-minute film “Autism Is a World”).

When I became a substitute teacher in 2004 (I would stop in 2007), I was stunned by how much of the school system’s resources were needed by special education. Every sub got these assignment whether profiled or not.

PBS documentary forces FAA's hands in tightening rules for commuter pilots

2011-12-22T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, the major media reported on tougher FAA rules on commuter airlines to deal with pilot fatigue. The rules may not be tough enough, and pilots may still feel intimidated from reporting fatigue and not working.

But the FAA may have felt pressured because PBS recently re-aired its late 2010 Frontline show “Flying Cheap” (motivated by a tragic commuter air crash near Buffalo) and bloggers wrote about it again (about the pilot’s “barracks”). This is a case of popular media forcing a change on public policy, however meager.

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Idaho law prevents women from medicating themselves to end pregnancy, creating controversy

2011-12-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

Recently, the media have reported litigation challenging Idaho’s state fetal pain law, particularly with the case of Jennifer McCormack, as reported Aug. 31 by the Huffington Post here.

At particular issue is a requirement that pregnancy termination be done only by licensed Idaho physicians and in hospitals during second trimester. It is illegal for women to medicate themselves, so the law effectively creates a legal catch-22. Although charges against McCormack (who had medicated herself later in pregnancy than she realized) were dropped, she could be prosecuted again.

McCormack has filed suit in federal court against a state prosecuting attorney.

I still wonder if it is really the life of the unborn that is the only issue in the minds of many in the right to life movement. This seems to be about "control".

Publication of results on H5N1 virus creation: government jawbones scientific journals into restraint on publication; some say experiment should not have been done, leak of virus to public is inevitable

2011-12-20T18:05:00.000-08:00

Recently, major media have reported on the creation in the lab of a “bird flu” virus similar to H5N1 transmissible among ferrets, by a Dutch virologist, as for example reported by New Scientist in a story by Martin Enserlink Nov. 29, here.

As expected, the Obama adminstration is asking scientific publications to withhold details on how to make the virus, as reported tonight on NBC Nightly News by Robert Bazell.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The virus seems to have been invented as a “proof of concept” but it is one of the most dangerous in the world, and it is thought it could have a 60% mortality rate.

There is not a lot reported in the media about development of H5N1 vaccines.

It’s true, however, that material that could be used by terrorist in other areas has been available on the web and even in print in public libraries: how to make various explosives, possibly how to make EMP devices.

So far, the information on the H5N1 experiment seems secure in the hands of a few labs and scientific journals. It might be hard for the government to press ordinary news sites or blogs from such restraint of they got a hold of the details. It would raise free speech questions.

A couple of journals may publish redacted versions of the story soon.

MSNBC tonight also has a story on a boy who recovered from a flesh-eating bacteria, possibly called a miracle.

Update: Dec. 27

The New York Times today has a story (by Denise Grady and Donald G. McNeil, Jr.) on the debate over the experiments having even been done, let alone the idea of publication, because the virus will inevitably "get out". What makes this virus more dangerous is that it is transmissible person-to-person as well as bird-to-person. It says possession of the virus needs to be restricted so that at least it cannot get out as "soon".

Wikipedia attribution link for comparative diagram (H1N1 v H5N1).

Maryland county ordinance raises questions about closing bars because of conduct of patrons once they leave

2011-12-19T19:16:00.000-08:00

Andrea Noble has a long story in the Monday Washington Times about a local Prince Georges County, MD issue that could set examples all over the country. The county recently passed an ordinance making it easier for police to shut down bars, discos and clubs with dancing when violence or crime is associated with patrons of the club, not necessarily limited to what happens on the premises, link (website url) here.

Similar problems have occurred in Washington DC, as with a club on U Street, and more recently a club on Connecticut Ave.

It’s a good question of the extent that owners of a bar should be held responsible for conduct of patrons once they leave the club, although DUI has long been an issue.

But it’s obvious that communities could use these laws to close down establishments they don’t like.

In the DC area, these laws haven’t particularly affected gay clubs, although some of the clubs have run into trouble expanding because of zoning issues in the Dupont Circle area and more recent objections of residents to more night life.

However, back in the 1990s, a club called Tracks in the Navy Yard area, very popular with the gay dances Saturday nights, would have “straight” nights other days of the week (Friday), and more incidents occurred on the “straight” nights.

Scientists report increases in methane releases in Alaska, Siberia; accelerated climate change could result

2011-12-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

Justin Gillis has a disturbing front page article in the New York Times Saturday about the growing appearance of methane gas bubbles from the permafrost in central Alaska.

Methane is formed when plants decay under water, and traps much more heat (as a greenhouse gas) than does carbon dioxide.

The link for the story is here.

This may confirm the “worst fears” of climate change scientists, who warn that quick release of methane (as from hydrates) could escalate to planetary catastrophe. Climate change could become a runaway train, self-generating development. Is that what happened to Venus maybe just a billion years ago?

This YouTube video, about a year old, talks about the East Siberian ice shelf releasing methane.

Wikipedia attribution link for photo of methane hydrate.

There’s a nickname for all this, “farting ice”.

Sarah Palin doesn’t seem to take it seriously.

Marriage rate among adults keeps dropping in US:

2011-12-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

The Pew Research Center is now reporting that barely half of American adults are married, and a similar trend is developing in other western nations and even in some of the developing world. The age of first childbirth is also increasing.

The main link for the report is here.

Accompanying the trend is the rising success of young single women, who in the US tend to out-earn their male counterparts. There may be a reverse sheetrock ceiling developing.

The growth of individualism, and the way personal responsibility is implemented, in past decades being so tied to the decision to have or avoid having children, may account for the changes. It is simply too expensive to have and raise children, for people who think it through that way.

Also, cultural values tend to affect what people see as desirable. Men may not see it as exciting to enter a relationship that seems predicated on long-term dependency on them. They may tend to become more judgmental in how they form attachments. They may believe they will not be able to sustain intensity for the decades raising a family requires.

The increase of eldercare responsibilities, with fewer children, will complicate this change.

The report is based on part on the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS).

Here's a version of the story from NBC Action News.

Class really matters

2011-12-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

Helen Ladd, a Duke Public Policy professor, and Edward Fiske, a former education editor for the New York Times, offer a missive Monday on how much economic and social class matters for student performance, in a piece titled “Class Matters: Why Won’t We Admit It?”

The writers make a comparison between the Occupy Movement’s demand for addressing “undeserved” income inequality, with resolving unwarranted educational opportunity inequality.

Having subbed in northern Virginia school systems myself and frequented various churches in the “mainstream” world, it’s apparent that “upper middle class kids” grow up with much more incentive to do well in school. Furthermore, they are more likely to understand responsible use of the Internet, even as novel as it is for middle aged parents, and avoid the tremendous reputational problems that often occur as a result. And they are more likely to be able to teach themselves modern skills (such as computer programming), and the advent of computers and Internet use has magnified the gap. There is always a question of which kids might misuse them because of lack of maturity.

There is a tendency in an individualistic society to regard people as responsible for their own level of accomplishment, regardless of background or circumstances – among employers, teachers, and in social circumstances.

The authors would perhaps challenge that assumption. Here is the link.

The comments by GOP candidate Newt Gingrich, critical of child labor laws, and suggesting that underprivileged kids could catch up if they worked as janitors or greeters (or maybe in the library, my goodness) have caught a lot of indignation, as on ABC's "The View". A long summary of his comments, called "Duct Cleaning", appears on "Global Post", complete with videos, here.

Visitors might want to check out NYTimes editorial criticism of GOP unemployment benefits policies, possibly drug testing applicants and requiring them to have high school diplomas or at least be in the process of getting them.

Oh, and I have to pass this on. "Truthout" has a brazen piece by David Kristjanson-Gural, "Capitalism is the enemy of democracy". It doesn't get more blunt than that, here. I recall a female member of the People's Party of New Jersey back around 1972 saying, "why do we have to have capitalism?" There are some elements who might want to redistribute wealth by force, and then turn it to accomplished fact. Is that "revolution?" It's hard to believe that attempts to close West Coast ports will get very far.

Shale gas could save America from "peak oil" -- and it has a "Walmart Effect"; film is planned on Keystone Pipeline project

2011-12-12T10:04:00.000-08:00

Daniel Yergin, an energy guru, appeared on the Fareed Zakaria show yesterday, and explained bow shale gas has ballooned as a major energy resource since developments in 2008. He says natural gas production and sales will undergo a “Walmart Effect”.

His comments comport with the Pickens Plan (from T. Boone Pickens), which would envision a long period where the US switches from coal and oil to natural gas.

Marc Gunther has an article about Yergin and his book from Penguin, “The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World”, which Zakaria has recommended. The discussion is on Greebiz, Nov. 9, 2011, here. Zakaria has recommended the book as containing "all you need to know about where we're going with energy".

But the major controversy would be if natural gas, even with as modern an implementation as possible, will be as clean as solar and wind. Yergin is said to favor a carbon tax.

An important process is "fracking" (or "hydraulic fracturing") and it does have its critics, as here.

NPR has a major story dated Sept. 20, here.

Wikipedia attribution link for World Shale Gas Map

Update: Dec. 26, 2011

Leslie Iwerks Productions is making a 40-minute documentary about the Keystone Pipeline Project, posting from IndieGoGo, link here.

Hinckley case reveals what a sham "treatment" for "mental illness" sometimes is (and how intrusive it can be)

2011-12-11T16:02:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post front page today has a story by Del Quentin Wilber which questions just how much we view “mental illness” as such (“nothing to be ashamed of” as they said in the 60s) or a way out of a legal trap.

The story is “Hinckley: Man on the mend, or a danger?” in print, and online “’Flawed’ but improving, but a danger?”, link here.

The story details the psychiatric, court and Secret Service supervision of John W. Hinckley, Jr., now 56, on his “passes” to the “outside” world, visits to his mother, now 86, in Williamsburg, VA. (For me, there is a bit of irony in that city, but that’s another matter.)

The story mentions his “narcissistic personality disorder” and, yes, he is treated with meds, but the therapy is intrusive beyond imagination. The story relates his telling his therapist about the movies “Captain America” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” when actually he “skipped” them when driven to the mall and went to bookstores, where supposedly he looked at books on presidents. Well, maybe he didn’t. The story also talks about his “inappropriate” attempts at socializing with women, which may be understandable for someone living life on a tether.

Back in the 1980s, a forensic clinical psychologist whom I had befriended in Dallas just said, “insanity is a legal term. He is crazy, and he is guilty.”

I also remember, back in 1980, a sense of relief in the Dallas gay community when we learned that the “object of his affections” had indeed been female.

Here's a Time editorial from March 24, 2011. It's titled "Freedom is too good for Hinckley".

Take Back the Capitol merges with Occupy DC in the rain

2011-12-07T17:11:00.000-08:00

In the rain, I did make it to "Take Back the Capitol". I found the tent city on the Mall, almost deserted. A thunderstorm had inudated the Mall just before I got off the Metro.

I walked up to Freedom Plaza, where there were remnants of Occupy, with a makeshift Christmas Tree and even a Zombieland sign.

Then I found one small march on Eye St at 13th. But the big march was across Franklin Square, at 14th and K, near McPherson Square.

A man stepped on my ankle and tried to block me from leaving the March as I crossed the street. I was OK. A lot of tourists and workers were taking video. But the demonstrators are starting to resent the gawkers who don;t share their misery up close and personal.he

I support the idea of challenging the lobbying establishment, because that leads to policy where politicians who get "paid off" with campaign contributions make the rules for everybody, and throw some of us under the bus. I'm still part of the 99%. No, Michael Moore, you're part of the 1%. Wall Street is filled with Democrats. And look at what is going on with SOPA

Here's the best video (20 seconds). More to follow.

"Occupy our Homes" holds "National Day of Action" today

2011-12-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

Tonight, on CNN, Michael Moore discussed with Piers Morgan the “Occupy Our Homes” movement, which would move into foreclosed homes or assist homeowners or tenants, trying to block sheriffs from evicting them.

Moore said that the group can bring legal action showing that the banks, because of the derivatives based on mortgages placed in tranches, cannot prove that they own the particular homes being repossessed.

The group held its National Day of Action today Dec. 6, according to its site here.

The Piers Morgan link for today is here.

Morgan asked about the question of personal responsibility, for the 25% or so of homeowners who really knew they had been buying homes they couldn’t afford.

Occupy DC at McPherson square back to "normal" with signs that ask good questions

2011-12-05T14:27:00.000-08:00

I did follow up with a visit at McPherson Square today. The shed was gone. But the rest of the camp was pretty “normal”. There is actually a book lending library in one tent. Police would not discuss what had happened. There was a big empty area with tire tracks where the shed had stood yesterday.

I ran into a reporter from WUSA (CBS affiliate) and got into a discussion about SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act), covered on my main blog. The local television stations here have not followed it much.

There were three Staunton chess sets on a table toward the 15^th street side, and one game in progress. The two positions left idle were real openings (one was from the Dutch Defense).

There were plenty of bicycles and lots more of the cardboard signs. One sign asks the top 1%, “Where did you get that money? Is it really yours?” Some of the questions and comments are challenging. But others seem to be along the lines that "capitalism is based on slavery." I remember that rhetoric from the Peoples Party of New Jersey (Dr. Spock) in the early 1970s.

There's even a tourist (or voyeurist) information center.

I didn’t make it over to Freedom Plaza for an impromptu "CW" concert by Jackson Browne. But WTOP gave a link to a YouTube video on it:

Also, watch your step!

Park Police dismantle wooden building improvised by Occupy DC carpenters; protest seems in disarray tonight

2011-12-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

WJLA (ABC affiliate in Washington DC/Arlington VA) reports Sunday night that US Park Police have dismantled the wooden “building” that Occupy DC has tried to build earlier near the McPherson Square Metro stop (and a few blocks from the White House). Police did not object to the tents, but media reports are that the park was cleared.

Earlier CNN had shown Park Police (with live coverage) gently removing several protestors from the top of the structure in utility cranes (with ropes), and then arresting them.

I considered taking the Metro in tonight but decided that Police had probably closed off so much of the area that it would be impossible to film myself, especially at night.

It’s not clear how Occupy DC continues now after this incident, particularly as the winter’s first sustained cold wave approaches my mid week.

In New York City Thursday I noticed that Zuccotti Park, near the new 9/11 Memorial, was almost cleared, but a few protestors were carrying signs about pharmaceutical companies. Everyone in the area was very orderly when I visited. (AlterNet has a story on back taxes owed on Zuccotti Park, here.)

Ben Stein was critical of the Occupy movement on CNN today, saying that there are plenty of jobs, just that Americans consider some of them demeaning and leave them to largely illegal immigrants, to do their dirty work. But then Stein backtracked on himself, admitting working conditions in some fields and poultry plants in the south were atrocious.

I had started to report this incident with an update to my Nov. 26 posting, but created a new one as more news came in. I think I will see the site Monday during the day.

Michelle Rhee will hold conference call for "StudentsFirst"

2011-12-03T05:28:00.000-08:00

Michelle Rhee has sent out an email advising subscribers of a “Students First” conference call on Tuesday, Dec. 13, at this link.

The toll call will last 15 minutes (it may be free on land lines with a lot of digital plans) and it “will discuss how we will keep fighting to ensure that every child in America has the education they deserve.” (I think that should read “he or she deserves” – singular).

It seems as though a video would do just as well.

Here’s her Facebook link (it’s one word).

Rhee was the polarizing chancellor of the Washington DC public school system.

Hershey private boarding school refused to admit HIV+ student based on speculation

2011-12-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

A private boarding school in Hershey PA (the Milton Hershey School), connected to the famous company, and dedicated to low students, denied admission to a 13 year old boy who was HIV+.

ABC news carried the biggest story:

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

The AIDS Law Project has filed suit and says that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies, even to private schools and companies.

The school says it knows HIV is not casually transmitted and that it is concerned that the boy might engage in sexual activity in three or four years, putting (it says) other students at risk, even if it concedes there is no risk now (and even though it says it teaches abstinence). It’s rather shocking that a decision like this would be made on the basis of speculation about future behavior.

The school makes a statement on its own website here. It says "we are serving children, and no child can always be assumed to always make responsible decisions which protect the well being of others".

"Heading" in soccer can be harmful to brains of young players

2011-12-01T02:50:00.000-08:00

Here’s the latest little blip in the dangers of competitive sports: “Heading” in soccer, if repeated for years, can lead to brain damage, or at least, changes in cognition. There’s a story on Fox news here and it also aired on NBC Nightly News recently.

A Youth Soccer Association, in the Dallas area, admitted that people under 10 should not engage in this practice of propelling the ball.

Soccer was an important unit in physical education every year in middle school and high school, usually before touch football and before basketball, at least in the 50s when I went to school. You go to Europe and soccer is the sport.

The University of Washington has a constructive link here.

Virginia man faces zoning board over tree house

2011-11-30T06:49:00.000-08:00

If there is anything that shows the absurdity of zoning laws, when carried as far as they are, consider the case of Fairfax County VA resident (in the Falls Church area) Mark Grapin, who now faces the zoning board after an “anonymous” complaint about a tree house on his property, built manually for his sons when he came back from Iraq. The tree house is in the front yard on Marc Drive, near a corner (not too far from Falls Church High School) but it's hard to see how it could create any kind of problem at all.

Here's the story on station WJLA, ABC affiliate in Washington DC.

This "toy building" non-commercial and would be a very minor fixture on a property in the amount of space taken. I’ve never heard of zoning fights over tree-houses before. Would a model railroad outdoors on a property (with trains that run) create a problem? Maybe some kinds of Christmas or Halloween decorations would be banned, too.

Where zoning fights could start to really matter is in cases of home-based businesses, which generally don’t cause controversy unless they result in additional construction, traffic, or parking. A few years ago there was controversy in Arlington as to whether additional real estate tax could be assessed on “commercial use” of residences.

Back in the 1950s, we set up "softball fields" in large backyards, and I even built a small brick "building" near the woodshed in the corner of the back yard once as a boy -- it impressed the babysitter. Would these be "zoning violations" today?

Update: Dec. 29

I revisited the site and the tree house is still up, with Christmas decorations. Good show!

What about a "progressive consumption" tax?

2011-11-29T08:08:00.000-08:00

Steven Pearlstein Sunday, in the Washington Post, revisited a suggestion that I think still deserves airing: a “progressive consumption tax”. He mentions Cornell University economist Robert Frank’s book “The Darwin Economy”, which I should look into; maybe it should be called “The Spencer Economy”, though.

Investment income would be taxed only when it is consumed. This is a “principled” kind of Buffet tax: maybe the rich pay lower rates than their secretaries, but once they live better, they pay.

Is that so different from a VAT, with vouchers for the poor? Or from special taxes on travelers (hotel and car rental taxes levied by most municipalities and states – after all, travelers don’t vote in their areas).

Here’s his link.

Insurance companies still have their secrets; big effect on Obamacare debate?

2011-11-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

MSN has an interesting article this weekend, “Insurers’ 10 dirty little secrets”, by Ed Leefeldt of “insurance.com”, link here.

One of these secrets is another score for car insurance companies, the ISO, which consumers never see. Worse, there is a supplementary FICO risk score which consumers don’t see. Could it be affected by “online reputation”? (Ask Michael Fertik.)

Insurance companies pay attention to the reputation of your attorney (the Mike Slocum Law Firm (link) ads).

The issue of percentage deductibles (for earthquake and flood policies) is well known, I thought.

But the dirtiest trick seems to be that of some Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans of making smaller insurers pay providers more. I’ve worked for the Blues twice in my career (including a stint in Texas), and never heard that mentioned. That sounds like a violation of anti-trust law to me. Big competitors, like United Health Care, aren’t affected, of course.

I’ve been approached at least twice in recent years to become an insurance agent, and I can’t see making a life out of manipulating customers and hiding things from them, or stilting the truth.

Aggressive panhandling occurs near Occupy DC site

2011-11-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

Last night, as I got out of McPherson Square (where a lot of homeless sleep, right in the Metro station), I walked up past Georgia Browns, and took one picture of Occupy DC across 15^th St. The only obvious sign this time was one about not gutting Social Security. As I reached K Street and turned the corner, on foot, to walk left, an African American started chasing me and saying that he had spoken to me and demanded to be answered. He finally stopped after I reached 16^th St. He did rant about my “fear” and presumed cowardice and the possible wrath of God that would come to me for not stopping to “help” him on demand.

DC and Metro Transit Police call this “aggressive panhandling”, which is illegal. Merely to approach someone one is not illegal.

Is it “rude” to photograph the protests and not participate? Is it rude to gawk like an alien anthropologist, keeping personal physical risk and involvement at a distance?

In Dallas, when I visited downtown Monday, it appeared that the Occupy movement had cleared out.

There has also been a movement in Austin.

I could say that reporting about Occupy would seem to foster the political impact of their causes. But it does seem as though most of the protest seems to be demanding handouts, and repudiation of debts and overthrow of the system, with little in the way of constructive proposals.

But, of course, there’s a another way to look at this: Wall Street stole the money (the derivatives, the credit default swaps, even Madoff) and still took its bailouts and severance bonuses. (That seems true.) The victims (especially those who deceptively structured adjustable subprime mortgages) are presented as personally responsible for “falling for it”. That’s hyperindividualism taken to its extreme.

However the game is structured, it’s always possible to blame the people who “lose” for their own personal failings. It’s easy to forget that we don’t start in the same place in line. Remember how student deferments for the draft in the 60s worked? Those without the school grades went to the front lines.

In the mean time, the GOP is still “blaming” the failure of the Supercommittee on Dems who insist on same raising of taxes. And the GOP goes after the individual mandate for health insurance. They’re ideology seems to be, government is not responsible for welfare, only families are. So, in social conservative thought, everyone is tethered to his family, and the mores of sexual morality (marriage) keep everyone from taking undue advantage of things. But it doesn’t work that way.

Update: Dec. 4

The Washington Post reports on a clash with Park Police arresting people trying to occupy a wooden building constructed "illegally" in McPherson Square Park, link (video available, no embed provided).

CNN has a report (Dec 4 6 PM) here.

MSN reports on new H3N2 influenza from pigs, in Iowa; so far, very mild illness

2011-11-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

Here we go again on pandemics. MSNBC is reporting on a case where three children in Iowa came down with a swine-associated H3N2 influenza virus thought spread only among pigs has raised new concerns. The symptoms were mild and not any more prolonged or acute than usual. The story is by Jonel Aleccia, link here.

The panic originating in Mexico in 2009 had concerned H1N1.

The biggest threat (related perhaps to the movie “Contagion”) could come from H5N1 (“bird flu”, a bit of a misnomer as all influenza probably has infected birds), and there are not many major reports on progress toward a vaccine.

Flash mob incident at 7-11 in Maryland caught on YouTube

2011-11-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

As someone who lives in the Washington DC area, the Virginia burbs, I’m outraged at reports of flash mob incidents, even across the river, in Silver Spring, MD (at a 7-11 store), even when I’m playing on the road myself, returning from Texas. The incident occurred Saturday night, Nov. 19.

Here is the police video; the Huffington Post carried it, but so do local TV stations.

If you recognize any perpetrators, call Montgomery County Police (link) at 240-773-TIPS OR 240-773-8477 or text at 274673.

Some reports say that many participants had been to a birthday party at a nearby townhome.

This is certainly an example of misuse of social media.

Montgomery County is considering a teen curfew, but some adults were involved in the mass flash shoplift.

Supercommittee set to announce failure to reach debt deal; a "Thanksgiving Massacre?"

2011-11-21T06:41:00.000-08:00

Well, the Supercommittee’s super breast, as of now, is that it won’t reach an agreement. Failure is to be announced some time Monday.

John Kerry was on CNN Monday morning saying that the GOP wouldn’t back off Bush tax cuts for the very rich. The GOP seems to have it old rhetoric that the Donkey isn’t serious about cutting spending.

Here’s Ezra Klein’s take on it right now. Is this a matter of the GOP's worship of Grover Norquist (whom some people say rules the world right now).

What happens? Yawn. The automatic cuts ($1.2 trillion) don’t start until 2013. Of course, extended unemployment benefits, Medicare provider rates, defense jobs, programs for the poor, all are on the block. So would assistance to city transit systems. Look at the trouble in the Washington DC area over keeping the Metro running on weekends (especially late). Could existing Social Security benefits be at risk? Legally, probably not, but some of the old scenarios could come back.

It’s “taxes vs. entitlements” (to quote Will Cain, moderately conservative CNN commentator, who is cute.) Cain said that the AARP should stay out of the debate, it won’t affect them; it will affect people at his age, young enough to look good when Lady Gaga music plays.

Given our incompetent Congress, it seems as though we need to replace our partisan system with a "parlor timocracy". Or, at least, let Mark Zuckerberg rule the world. Maybe he already does.