incipit vita nova

Fog of Corporate War: Led by a Lady

Ultra-gifted Lucius Shepherd pointed up a UK Independent article noting that the current military actions in Libya spearheaded by the US, UK and France are mysterious and possibly incomprehensible.  I don't think it's controversial to state that the majority of people in the west are uneager for more war and would prefer to reduce, rather than increase, military conflicts.  So the question arises, why is this war taking place, and who benefits from it and all the other conflicts?  It's fair to say that the misery level is pretty high among average people in the US, and I doubt it's a whole lot better in the UK and France.  My study of UK salaries for my type of job, housing prices, food, and petrol prices last year showed me that there are some pretty deep misunderstandings here in the US about "standard of living" and about what people receive in terms of government aid or supplements in the UK.  Simply:  they get less.  UK salaries are lower than US salaries in real terms, and everything costs, on average, considerably more.  Move to the UK?  Not unless I suddenly morph into Madonna.  

So, are arms manufacturers driving these conflicts? The largest arms manufacturer in the world in terms of revenue and earnings isn't Boeing, isn't Northrop-Grumman, and isn't Lockheed, Raytheon or General Dynamics - all companies that were previously major employers in Southern California (Northrop still is - I guess Raytheon is doing OK too). These are all companies I had some familiarity with due to neighbors, friends, and my years of work in corporate development.  No - the largest arms manufacturer in the world is BAE. This nice lady is Linda Hudson, President/CEO of BAE Systems, who late Friday, issued a statement to employees regarding what clearly seemed to her at the time to be a certain shut-down of the US government due to Capitol Hill controversies.

Overall, all of the top 10 weapons manufacturers, all of whom are based in Europe, the UK, or the US, seem to be doing relatively well.  Are they making money because of the ongoing, seemingly endless wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya?  Are they further making money because of ??  Well, Boeing just laid off 1,000 more workers in Southern California, tastefully right after signing a deal worth 4 years of corporate revenue with China.

We do not hear such reports of BAE Systems, which employs nearly half of the parent company BAE's workforce. They have grown by tens of thousands of employees in the past two years. I had not heard of Linda Hudson before this a.m. She was the first female President/CEO of General Dynamics, which is no slouch position.  In 2009, she acceded to being President/CEO of BAE Systems, which, although it is a division of BAE, with revenues of $32.42 billion worldwide, is probably a bit more challenging a position than her previous work at GD.  I am as impressed by her NY Times interview as I've been by any female executive interview I've read in recent years.

As to why I had not heard of her, people sometimes forget that gender bias is not only real, it's pervasive to the point that Linda Hudson has probably 5% of the media coverage of male executives in charge of company divisions a tenth of the size of BAE Systems, men who have literally no influence in comparison to her daily role.  She was ranked only 43 on Fortune's list of the 50 most powerful women in 2009.  Most people would assume that Oprah Winfrey tops this list - but for the past five years, that slot has gone to someone many who don't read Fortune have never heard of:  PepsiCo's CEO Indra Nooyi. 

As to the power differential among multinational corporations making soda pop or nuclear submarines (a major project of BAE), PepsiCo's annual revenue of $60 billion, while still less than the amount cut from the US Government's budget Friday night in an historic agreement between the Republican Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader (I think they got up to $78 billion, but it might actually be zero, the way they account) - oh, where was I? - PepsiCo is twice the size of BAE in revenue.  And it's not the world's largest soda pop maker.  That would be of course, the Coca Cola Company.  If you've ever yearned for Mexican Coke, you know that they truly are world-wide.

It is not, I think, to the advantage of either PepsiCo or the Coca Cola Company to have constant worldwide conflict destroying their customer base.  A dead person can't drink soda.  It's doubtful they would leave a provision in their will mandating soda purchase.  The restaurants or other vendors who comprise the majority of any soda company's business are unlikely to be able to vend the product following a bomb or missile attack.

So, who is benefiting from these wars?  Certainly not the families of those risking their lives in conflict. Families sacrifice so their their loved ones can defend our country.

It should go without saying that, when defending our safety and freedom, most of us would be willing to sacrifice a lot, and our troops put their lives on the line every day.  But is, for example, the Libyan conflict about "our safety and freedom?"  It's hard to picture that.  The air battle seems to have stopped Gadhafi's troops from killing many thousands.  But unfortunately, that does go on every day around the world - usually while those of us in the west never hear of it and go on about our daily lives having no idea someone else's family is being torn apart across the world.

So, are giant corporations encouraging this war for increased profits and control of oil? With the exception of retail giant WalMart, which has recently gone "green" corporate-wide (so maybe we shouldn't "boycott" or bag on WalMart quite so much) although the many-year controversy over WalMart's treatment of female employees had caused the company class action pain right now with the WalMart bias class action suit . . . 

Maybe we could look at the other tier of corporate giants as to who is, if not driving, then benefiting from, these constant conflicts in areas related to oil.  Afghanistan, while a terrible conflict, I think is not directly related to oil.  It was a clear response to the attacks of 9-11, which were, most likely, related to oil.  Many understand Al Qaeda and Islamic fundamentalism as being about "religion," which it must be, for the average person involved in or just sympathetic to, the messages of Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.  But Osama, as many have pointed up, was long-ago jettisoned from his oil-rich family due to his radical views and actions.  It's obvious to just a casual observer that Al Qaeda provides an attractive means to express the frustrations of those who are poor, left-out, and do not share in the oil-based wealth of the Middle East.  To someone like me who doesn't even much follow Middle East politics, it was painfully obvious years ago that the regimes who are now under challenge region-wide, just experienced what happens when people finally get tired of being whipped into an angry frenzy of hatred over an indirect enemy, the United States, or those who are "different," like the Israelis, thus directing attention away from their direct, daily enemy - the whole hidebound, hierarchical, exploitive mess that is so many of the countries in the region, whether led by military dictators or family oligarchies.

But but but . . . back to who is more evil?  Defense contractors or oil companies?  Who's got the muscle?  BAE and GD and Raytheon, Boeing or Northrop (all engineer-led companies - i.e. they "make stuff") or those who "take stuff."  Oil companies "extract" and control.  

So.  Beyond WalMart, the world's highest revenue companies are dominated by the "energy providers" -

In order:

#2 worldwide - Royal Dutch Shell:  $368 billion annual revenue - more than ten times the revenue of any one defense contractor, including BAE.

#3 ExxonMobil: $301 billion - nearly 10 times the revenue of BAE.

#4 British Petroleum: $298 billion revenue

* we have just achieved 1/3 of the US government's annual expenditures and half of its revenue - Federal, of course - they never count state or local when they do combined government revenue, which as percentage of GDP dwarfs that of European nations, which lack things that the US has, like STATES.

#5 Saudi Aramco: $233 billion

#6 Total S.A. (French): $212 billion

We are now up to $1.5 trillion

#8 ConocoPhillips: $198 billion

#9 Sinopec (China): $197 billion

#15 Chevron: $167 billion

#17 PetroChina: $149 billion

Among the others in the top 20 corporations by revenue worldwide are auto manufacturers: Toyota and Volkswagen, and energy production - State Energy Grid of China.  Also in this group are GE ($150 billion) and Dutch company Vitol ($195 billion), the largest privately-held firm on the list.  Vitol is primarily an energy trading company, by the way.  It's an energy conglomerate including oil.

This list from a certain perspective, could be seen as the world's global warming engine.  Literally and figuratively, as it ranges from every extractor and refiner of oil worldwide, to those who finance such ventures, to those who make products that use the energy - autos, trucks, and in the case of GE - everything else.

Viewed in this manner, the arms manufacturers appear to be model citizens. Arms manufacturer BAE, is led by a female engineer who's spent her life learning how to build up companies and make things work.  The others all have roots in aviation, such as Los Angeles County's only Fortune 500 company, Northrop Grumman, which was originally two different companies founded by 1) Jack Northrop (aviation pioneer) and 2) Leroy Grumman (aerospace pioneer). Now, this could be apocryphal, but I have heard that Northrop is currently working on a project that can only be described as "beam me up, Scotty" in the real world - yes, matter transportation.

It's a little more clear when we speak about "war for oil," is it not?  It's a little unsophisticated to "blame George Bush" when the type of economic dominance I just described is brought to the fore.  Can one blame him, or blame any US politician when this type of world-dominating economic muscle is discussed?  There is not one other industry on the planet that, under the pressure of even two or three of the oil giants and one auto manufacturer, wouldn't fold like an empty Coca Cola can when it's stepped on.

It's what we're dealing with.  Review what occurred during the BP Gulf Oil Spill.  How long it took for anything to be done.  What happened later - shutdowns of drilling in the gulf - for the environment?  Or, to help BP recover its profit margin by suppressing the activities of other companies eager to move forward and grab its oil share?  

As to the power of creativity, the Book View Cafe Breaking Waves anthology earned over $550 for the Gulf Oil Spill fund of the New Orleans Community Foundation.

Don't make offensive videos that turn people off and make them sick to their stomachs.  Work to make yourself and others free.  So we won't have to keep dying ourselves and killing other people to make these companies mo' money mo' money mo' money.  You can't legislate it.  You can't elect someone to stop it because they'll get nowhere.  You can only strangle it.  And get the hell off WalMart's back while you're at it.  By "going green" they're doing more to strangle it than any state's population could do.  

Teacher or Teacher's Union Member? Natalie Munroe Case Lessons

I'm not really upset by the Natalie Munroe case - I still think she's somewhat unfairly being singled out, probably just because her school district is a wealthier one, and her ugly blog comments about students got circulated on Facebook sparking a nationwide debate.  But the whole situation coupled with the teacher sick-out protests (including bringing students with them) in Madison, WI, seasoned with the verbal abuse I've personally experienced any time I've suggested that teachers might be able to improve their own performance and *might* be playing a role in poor learning outcomes and drop-out rates, makes me think that the real lesson of these current events isn't that bad teachers are bringing everyone down, as bad teachers have always been with us, or that teachers are worse than ever.  It's that the bad apples are threatening to spoil the whole bunch more than ever before.  I don't know of a time when a number of vocal teachers are comfortable with the following:

• Verbally abusing those they oppose in semi-literate terms (from Natalie Munroe misspelling her trash-talk about students to the "Hilter" posters in Wisconsin) with no self consciousness whatsoever. 
• Active, rage-filled resistance to any type of reform or deviation from the "system" - from vouchers to home-schooling to charter schools to merit pay for good teachers. Auto-tenure or use of part-time teachers to maintain high salary and benefits of full-time teachers who entered in more financially stable times aren't even discussable in most areas.
• Happy to use online forums to trash talk students, parents and anyone else they dislike.
• Seeing no contradiction in telling the public as loudly as possible that getting raises or spending more money in general is the only way that kids will learn in their classroom.  
• Having no dismay whatsoever at the terrible things that happen in some classrooms - teachers who sexually abuse students, teachers who harm students physically and mentally, teachers who are openly discriminatory, teachers who use their position of dominance to get students to do any number of non-classroom related things, such as running personal errands, doing chores at home, etc.  
• Enlisting students to help in their own union campaigns or demonstrations, or - as occurs in Los Angeles, any protest the individual teacher wants to recruit warm bodies for - i.e. the "Undocumented Immigrant" protests of the past 3-4 years.  The last 2 years, almost 100% of the "protesters" were students let out of area high school and middle schools for the day and given t-shirts and posters.

 

Physician, heal thyself.  It seems as though a lot of people in the 35+ age range in the teaching profession are addicted to the deterioration in priorities and basic job skills that has occurred in . . . gosh, I don't know.  I'm willing to guess that as soon as it became socially acceptable for teachers to ungrammatically bag on their students in public, there had probably been a 15-20 year period of downhill classroom and teaching esprit d'corps.  

I'm pretty sure that foul-mouthed "advocates" would tell me that this was all George Bush's fault.  Him and "Hilter."  (I was totally searching for the "Hilter" poster but couldn't find it).

On their own, I'm not seeing angry teachers demanding higher salaries and more more more deciding to enter recovery and change their job priorities from "being a Teacher's Union member" to being a teacher.

This type of teacher isn't the majority.  I'm pretty sure that about 87% of teachers are silently gritting their teeth and looking the other way, while continuing to do their jobs day-in and day-out.

And that's what's so sad.  This whole thing doesn't just feel like a slap in the face to me - big dummy putting up with part-time teacher slave conditions and wages and no benefits - it really hurts me to think that these loud-mouthed, abusive protesters who see no problem with "sickouts" (newsflash: you take a sick day and still get paid, it's not exactly a "strike" showing solidarity) and bringing their students along as stooges - are what's "representing" the great teachers of today and the past.

I'm the one who wrote the book about John Dewey. "Founder of American Liberalism."  If Mr. Dewey read Natalie Munroe's blog comments, and learned that teachers were totally abdicating teaching in favor of taking their students out of the classroom to protest along with them for higher salaries, I'm going to go out on a limb and say he would not approve.  It was one thing to be "Liberal" in a day when there was nothing for people who didn't already have something.  Today, everybody has something.  And what's going on in Natalie Munroe's classroom and the classrooms of others like her, and in these angry, semi-literate protests using students as troops - that's not "liberalism."  It's selfishness.  And it's the last-ditch effort of total losers who want something for nothing.  

Hey - the students in Central Bucks East Schools are protesting today!!!! Go kids, go!  "Students of Central Bucks East are planning a rally today in the school parking lot to show the world they are not the whipping boys and girls for what's wrong with education today."  Let's see.  Today is Sunday of President's Day Weekend.  Guess what?  Those students chose to do this on their own time . . . not during school time.  I wonder if any teachers will go to support them.  I hope so.

Things to do in Denver When You're Dead

I'm heading home from Denver tonight, and it has been a great trip.  But I noticed something.

Compared to Denver, Los Angeles looks like Calcutta.  For all I know, Calcutta offers a better quality of life than LA right now.  It definitely has a fighting chance.

There is no measure that I can think of except, possibly, weather - and that doesn't count in the San Fernando Valley - where Los Angeles does not totally suck rocks compared to Denver.  I'm sure this will be the case in nearly every other urban area outside Southern California - I used to always find things to "like" about LA.  There's nothing to like any more.  We can thank two decades of "Democrat" rule for that.  People are as irrational as hell in LA and will accept just about anything that fits their preconceived "liberal" sensibilities.  Yes, I except our friends in the Valley. 

LA has its awesome, $ multi-billion nonfunctioning "mass transit" system that few people use, of which its most recent highlight is, as John & Ken put it - the "Goat Train" - or the Metro Gold line running from downtown TO Boyle Heights.  Despite the fairly obvious outflux of many "undocumented" individuals that is currently providing slight freeway relief, traffic in areas that lacked heavy "undocumented" populations is as bad as ever or worse.  Despite the hard work of the wonderful people who are revitalizing Downtown, Downtown LA is still slightly suckier than downtown . . . pretty much ANY downtown area in any reasonably-sized city I've ever been in.  You can't bring people in to an artificial situation such as LA Live and expect it to "thrive."  Not when one block away, transvestite prostitutes are running from garbage trucks making their collection runs 2 and 3 days late.

Or, to put it a different way, you can't have a vibrant urban area where the single largest employer is the government.  You can't have a vibrant urban area where middle-class (there ARE no middle class people in the LA Basin any longer - again, thank the Democrat rule for that - chasing every possible small- to mid-sized business out) people don't exist, and where the crappiest imaginable housing starts at $800 a month.  I'm sure there are horrible, crumbling apartments out there in Denver, but I found nice apartments starting at $500 a month (yeah, 2 bedroom).  Which, you can like, be a young couple with normal jobs and handle - right?  I mean so you can save money, afford a few amenities, save for a home, etc.  Right?  Well in LA right now, a young, average couple gets to start out paying around $1,800 a month if they want a two bedroom (think: room with a crib) if they want to live in any remotely decent area.  So that is nearly 4 times the amount of money that people could get by with safely and decently in Denver - which is not a poor, depressed area - not by a long shot.

There aren't any businesses closed here, or very few.  Furniture stores appear to be doing good business, and there are lots of them - lots of active home improvement stores, too.  People do not have the fanciest cars - more American makes and models - obviously more outdoors-capable SUV's, etc.  It looks to be one Beemer per 50 to 60 cars, and maybe one Mercedes to every 100.  I haven't yet seen a Bentley - well there's two at my apartment complex back home RIGHT NOW. 

I don't have to be Stephen Levitt to do a little math to see that overall, Colorado has a less-intrusive government, less taxes, and fewer laws (there doesn't seem to be a helmet law for motorcyclists).  They care about their environment here, and do what is important to ensure continued quality of life.  There's no lack of "open space."  There are plenty of cycling, walking and running, and horseback trails.  There is a well-designed transit system that people use - it goes from where people are to where they want to and need to go.  There are park-and-ride lots far-flung, on all incoming freeways.  There's a vibrant restaurant and food community (more vibrant than LA - or if you think chain steakhouses and Wolfgang Puck clones are great . . .), a music community, an art community, and extremely well-funded - PRIMARILY PRIVATELY FUNDED - I might add - museums and cultural institutions.  The two Universities in Denver are so well-integrated into the community that one almost doesn't know where they end and private residences and businesses begin.

Where I noticed this so strongly was the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  This museum is slightly smaller than the California Science Center, but not by much.

First - let me share that the food choice at the California Science Center, where busloads of schoolchildren arrive daily - is McDonalds, and sub-McDonalds-level cafeteria food.  At the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, their own cafe is situated in a pleasant atrium area, with nutritious kid-friendly choices including an extremely fresh, high quality salad bar, and a make-your-own sandwich bar.  The entire area is very well-designed for families with children.  At the California Science Center, the equivalent area accommodates fewer diners, and, located at the lowest level of the museum, is somewhat reminiscent of Dr. G, Medical Examiner's digs (yes, a morgue).

Is this all about food?  NO.  It's about priorities and care for others.  It should go without saying that Denver is clean.  I've heard for years from European friends how shockingly filthy California is.  American-born nature enthusiasts are not hurling soiled diapers into the foliage 2 miles out on hiking trails along with dumping used Clamato cans . . . this dump in Arizona's Huachaca Mountains makes anything I've seen look like nothing - it's mind-bogglingly huge.  American students and volunteers take "vacation breaks" to try to clean up the devastation. 

As to the rest of the Denver Science and Nature Museum, it has Body Worlds, and the IMAX Hubble film, which the California Science Center also has.  And there, the similarity ends.  The Denver Science and Nature Museum has an enormous, fully-interactive space exhibit.  A brief examination of their donor walls shows much greater numbers and higher levels of individual and corporate philanthropic support.  People have to have something to GIVE TO, you see.  And the California Science Center is nearly worthless as far as that's concerned.  The only interesting exhibits they have are the traveling ones.  The rudimentary nature of their children's interactive areas should be obvious to any, especially repeat, visitors. 

Denver's evolutionary or "building up to the Dinosaurs" exhibit is not only complete and accurate, it isn't presented at a 3rd-grade level.  A person conversant with natural history would find joy and delight in seeing real fossils, presented in their true context, not missing entire periods of prehistory.  The space exhibit is simply amazing.  It's been there quite a while and has recently been updated, but let's put it this way - although not extremely large, it presents the space program up to the present day.  It presents a broad range of missions, and actual, up to date astrophysics.    

Now, the California Science Center has a new exhibit on "ecosystems" and it looks pretty cool.  I don't need to visit to know that every single section will end with "proof" of "GLOBAL WARMING."  Scientifically, this isn't "cutting edge."  They have a big exhibit to show all those busloads of school kids how to be scared of "global warming" and accept the greatly-reduced standards and quality of life that the "global warming" advocates want.  If I look back at the 1950's (when I admittedly was not around), they seemed to be obsessed with nuclear destruction or the horrible effects of nuclear radiation. Today, it's "global warming." What happened to real science?  Real learning?  It's the "Marching Morons" - I've hung out in LA and sat there while the entire city has turned into Marching Morons, over which a few rich elites preside.  And not "Hollywood Elite," either.  Mel Gibson's getting out of Dodge - and for a 5th generation resident, I never thought I'd say this, but so am I.  I'm sure Mayor Reconquista won't mind.  But I don't get how it's fun to go to a ballgame where the stadium's crumbling around you.  I don't get it at all.

In Your Federal Register . . .

I get the Federal Register daily via e-mail.  This is a list of the funding or grant opportunities by date and Catalog of Domestic Federal Assistance (CDFA) number.  Especially if you're one of my friends who considers themselves a hardcore "Democrat" or Liberal, you need to take a few moments to look at this and think about it.

I have participated in Federal earmark projects (also called "pork") that were very beneficial, worthwhile and important.  I do not oppose Federal or any other governmental funding for important, beneficial and responsibly-conducted projects.

I have received the Federal Register daily for the past six years via e-mail, and from 1986 to 1996, I reviewed this document in paper form.  It's fair to say that I'm familiar with the Federal Register, which means I'm familiar with historical U.S. Government funding and programs - from both the Clinton and the George W. Bush administrations.

I have never seen the type of thing I've seen in the last 18 months before.  I thought I had seen "everything," but I was wrong.  The uncovered, hidden issue of this current administration is bizarre Federal spending on a scale, and of a nature, that has never been seen before.  To take this out of the Republican/Democrat arena, during the Clinton administration, one did see Federal programs for international aid - for food, schools, water, infrastructure and education in very needy areas.  The same or similar was seen in good old "Satan" Bush's administration.  Plenty of funds were given for important needs in trouble areas. 

As to now?  Well, you can pretty much kiss your Stimulus pork goodbye.  I can tell you for a fact that the majority of those funds were mis-used or wasted, or have not yet been spent due to incompetency and incapacity.  Let's put it this way - those billions of dollars for "Green Jobs" were given to train people for jobs and industries that do not yet exist.  The "Administration," such as it is, has completely ignored actual green industries that DO exist for the most part.  Well, rest content, you have trained tens of thousands of underemployed or unemployed aid recipients to install solar panels. 

But now?  The jokes are real, to the tune of millions, and likely billions, of dollars.  Think this guy's article is a joke? No.  The U.S. really will pay $2.6 million to this researcher at Wayne State University to train Chinese (yes, as in the People's Republic of China) sex workers to drink responsibly on the job in Guangxi Province.  Oh, I'm making it up.  Oh, you never read anything.  Oh, you drink the poisoned Kool-Aid.  By all means, more taxes now!!  Redistribute that wealth - but not to YOU - friends.  Not to you. Your usefulness has been fulfilled.  You voted the first time and need not have to vote again . . .

Here's your Grants.gov link to State Dept's offerings - they go by date order.  Click and read.  It's all real, all real dollars - and the only limit is the creaky slowness of the bureaucracy.  That's ALL.  Because it sure as HELL is not YOU.  Human rights and civil society initiatives in Syria, anyone?  ($2.5 million - more than one grant!).

All Counting, No Doing

A little two-year old died of an accidental gunshot wound in North Hills recently.  Anti-gun advocates, who are more numerous here in the Los Angeles area than in most other areas, were quick to point up that this was yet another reason to ban handguns, and as of the last time I checked, were taking another opportunity to bag on Charlton Heston.  Very few expressions of sympathy for the family, and just a few people said that the parents were responsible.  One total idiot said that 30,000 children died in this manner each year.

I just spent 30 minutes looking through CDC vital statistics and came up with 78 accidental deaths by firearm of a child ages 0-14 in 2002.  These stats are tough to look through and the reports are tens of thousands of pages long.  They even break down accidental poisonings by type of poison and age group, and accidents by type of vehicle, age group and location, race, etc.

There are many, many crimes where advocates grossly misrepresent crime rates.  For example, many "advocacy" organizations still tell young people that 1 in 3 women will be violently raped during their lifetime.  What really happens is quite bad enough - there are 10,000 unprocessed rape kits in LA County right now.  There are over 155 million women in the US, so if you believe that 1 in 3 will be raped, that's 51 MILLION rapes.  No matter how you cut it, those 10,000 rape kits in LA collected over years, represent less than 3% of the city's population.  If you say 1 woman in a hundred will be the victim of this crime, then you are close to correct.  This figure should be completely unacceptable; however, talk to any average real rape victim and they will tell you the score - their rapist will never be caught, and if caught, stands only a small chance of being prosecuted and actually serving any sentence.  John Albert Gardner who raped and murdered Chelsea King and Amber Dubois (both children) was sentenced to only 5 years for raping and nearly killing another young girl, and was classified as a "low risk" offender.

The leading accidental causes of death for children are a) injury in vehicle, sports or other physical activity-related accidents; b) drowning - as in swimming pools; c) poisoning - like household cleaners and solvents or MEDICATION LEFT OUT UNATTENDED; d)  choking - as in ingesting pieces of dangerous toys, other objects, or food.

Problems will never be solved as long as people listen to, believe, or spew total lies, while real problems go unattended and unsolved.  Over 250,000 children are abducted each year - the vast majority are parental or relative kidnappings, but 10% of these abductions are by people with the intent to harm and kill.  If this were not the case, we would not have heard about Chelsea King, Amber Dubois, and Jaycee Dugard - held prisoner for 20 years by Phillip Garrido.  Apparently, the state will now pay Jaycee $20 million because she said she saw and spoke to parole officers over the years, any of whom could have rescued her, but they didn't even give that much of a damn.

The child who accidentally shot his brother and his family are going through hell right now and this is a terrible thing.  This is probably a preventable accident, as the child probably knew where a gun was kept or hidden and wanted to play with it - something every responsible parent is fearful could happen, and a reason that parents (including myself) often choose not to have a gun, so there is no possibility a child could find it.  A locking gun case is mandatory if a parent has a firearm. 

This case of the child being accidentally shot is not evidence to ban firearms or violate the rights of responsible gun owners.  They're all over the Hermosa Beach open carry day too.  No one was injured on this day and during this event.  The very picture of a gun seems to freak some people out.  But then again - tell that to Hollywood.  They haven't gotten that message . . .

Journalistic Fairness

The Society of Professional Journalists actually has a code of ethics.  It looks very carefully-prepared and well thought-out.  I'm sure it's covered during at least one week of j-school.

It says in its preamble:

Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy. The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty.

So, I have like, these questions.  Much "mainstream" national news coverage is unreliable and suffers from gross errors of omission.  It's often irritating, but more often, useless.  Or let me put this another way.  It has been at least two years, or more, since I uncritically and eagerly read any top "mainstream" news site's information.  Now, I read looking for errors, or to see how long I can go before I snort in derisive laughter.  I could name names. 

But I'm not the only person who regularly consults the Drudge Report.  In other words, I've always kind of had a soft spot for the totally irritating, crazy-seeming Matt Drudge, but none of that matters.  I'm letting Matt Drudge do my picking and choosing for me.  At least 20% of Matt's daily links consist of some embarrassing snafu, gaffe or business downturn for traditional media.  I enjoy it, and cheer it on.

Yes, I, the former intern at the formerly very proud Los Angeles Times.  I'll laugh and cheer the day they finally give up the ghost.

Why?  Because they SO deserve it, and have made such a mockery of that journalistic code of ethics I copied above.  Do I hate individual reporters?  Of course not!  I, the former crummy, cheap short-time reporter, know how it feels to make a dollar an inch or whatever pathetic amount it was (truly forgetting - time is your friend).  I know what it feels like to sit at a WATER BOARD MEETING and have to write it up.  I also know what a car accident that involved a decapitation looks like.  Yes, both parts of the person's body, in both of their separate locations.  Head in the bushes, body in the drivers' seat. I know what a pig that fell off a truck in the middle of the night, in the 2nd freeway lane, looks like after he's been hit by a few passers-by.

Is the Los Angeles Times worse than the Washington Post or the NY Times?  No.  They were worse before, and they are way worse now.  But the LA Times is purposely lying about illegal immigration and spending money it doesn't really have sending idiotic reporters to different states to interview sad, downtrodden "undocumented immigrants" who are "hiding in the shadows."  That means they are deliberately avoiding the true story in their own community and trying to influence public opinion to support a total lie in a town whose main problems are NIMBYISM, NAIVETE, KING KONG SIZED EGO POLITICIANS and Hollywood nimrods.  And - the lack of money.  Lack of money that's closing LA's public libraries left and right, with librarians laid off - as they continue to print articles begging people to have sympathy on the poor illegal immigrant families hiding in the shadows in racist Arizona. 

I'm not entirely sure people in Los Angeles would care if there were nearly a kidnapping a day here, as occurs in Phoenix.  I mean, it might never be covered in the newspaper at all, and if John and Ken didn't get on the story, nobody would know.

Notice I don't mention "television." 

Who watches TV for news unless it's a live helicopter chase, 16-year old girl sailing alone around the world, lost in a storm, or a terrorist attack?

I keep thinking about Watergate, and thinking that it was really the source and fountain of this karma malaise we are all living through.  That was the turning point.  Because journalists weren't wrong to keep President John F. Kennedy's several girlfriends and active lovelife to themselves.  It didn't impact upon the job he was doing as President.  Woodward and Bernstein were heroes to the current crop of j-school grads who are presiding over the end of their journalistic era.  They were really assholes, and reading about "Deep Throat" (Mark Felt) feeding them the entire Watergate story with a big spoon of vitriol makes me think they were probably the most incompetent jerks ever to be called "great" and made into models for others.  It's not that Watergate was right, it was just that, in comparison to really horrible stuff that has happened since (and which surely happened before), it was so totally blown out of proportion.

Every hideous, dysfunctional, staggering old drunk in America turned out to have been an important Congressional committee chair.  These were the weenies I saw on TV when I was a kid.  I sat there and wondered, "What is wrong with that horrible old man?" (Sen. Sam Ervin). 

It's four decades later, and it might as well be the same horrible old man.  Nothing has changed.  It's just been clang-clang-clang-bash-bash-bash ever since.  Democrats got a taste of viciousness with Watergate and went for the jugular.  Then came Robert Bork, and they decided to "Bork" everybody else too.

Republicans decided they'd had enough, and went for the jugular - or shall we say, somewhat lower - trying to impeach President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky scandal.  Most people, thinking logically, would think Watergate wasn't that great, but going after the President over poor Monica - well - again, super-embarrassing for him, our dear Hillary, and especially for Chelsea. 

So, here we are today and the news media is genuinely, truly, covering up for whatever awful clusterfuck has occurred to prevent any type of coherent defense against the Gulf oil spill.  And that is exactly what we get.  We'll never hear the truth or any kind of responsible reporting about "Global Warming," and in fact, we'll have dozens of documentaries produced and aired constantly to prove this ludicrous non-premise.  Honestly, I do not care that Al Gore molested that masseuse (I'm sorry for her, of course) - because his book and Academy-Award-winning documentary are so full of b.s. that has clearly and provably enriched him by tens, and now, hundreds of millions of dollars.  Directly.  And we can't even use plastic grocery bags any more.  For years, I wondered, what exactly are excessive carbon emissions?  I finally looked it up, and there were actually TEN to TWENTY times greater parts-per-million in carbon dioxide at MANY times in the earth's past.  Nobody/nothing died due to the earth becoming a "burning ring of fire" at those times.  The Carboniferous age was the age of big trees, big ferns, and big bugs - now giving us, you guessed it - the fossil fuels that we currently use.

I have a lot of things that I do!  This is mostly because, when I write a story or research for a book, I work and work to find the truth.  I spend a great deal of time looking into original sources, and finding out the best information that I can discover.  This has taken the form of research into genetic therapies for a variety of illnesses, prosthetic devices for those who are blind or quadriplegic, and such arcane matters as potential exceptions to the speed of light, or unusual concepts such as space and time being features of the existence of biological life - not permanent, immutable "laws".

We still have news media that's reporting the U.S. is in an economic recovery, for heaven's sake.  And they expect to be paid for this.  It's no wonder that Congress is working on mechanisms to provide government funding for newspapers and journalists.  It's no wonder whatsoever. 

Lie V. Truth, Rhymes and Reasons

This is a link to a Daily Kos-funded poll of "What Republicans think" from January, 2010.  People noticed there was something wrong with it.  Scan any column - for example, the "not sure" column.  Ignore the moronic questions. See anything, uh, similar there?  Like between categories?  As I said, I don't read this website, and something like this would not make me smile.  I sure as hell wouldn't pay for it or print it.  Or, to put this another way, if I had some preconceived notion that all Republicans were racist, bigoted and stupid, no matter who they were, how old they were, whether they were male or female, or where they lived - I wouldn't pay extra to receive a so-called "poll" that showed me that.  I know not all Democrats are stupid.  I know most of them aren't, as a matter of fact.  If somebody showed me a poll, that by age group, gender and "race," Democrats had little to no knowledge of statistics and math, I'd even question that.

I just completed some brief research today that showed that a large privately-funded, but primarily government-connected nonprofit organization of approximately the same vintage as the nonprofit that I work for, Beyond Shelter, is moving beyond its long-time activity of advocating for community housing for single homeless men and women, primarily those who are mentally-ill, or with other special needs, such as long term disabilities.  This organization is now advocating for "permanent supportive housing" for families - i.e. government-funded rental apartments that are specially-built, and that also include additional services, that usually include a "case manager" and counseling and often on-site food and health services (i.e. - things that cost money, provided by people usually paid by the government).  The organization is now promoting a whole new category for "families" and it specifically included a survey that mentioned families without special needs. These folks would never directly "admit" that the primary reason they want to build this type of housing for parents and children is money, because they are at the same time, conducting many studies to show that the type of "housing" that they advocate for, for singles with special needs - is less expensive in the long run than medical or psychiatric hospitalization, or incarceration in state prison.  This type of cost-benefit analysis is all the rage in the circles of people whose living is derived from deciding what the government should and should not pay for, when, where and how.

Permanent supportive housing isn't less expensive than JAIL in most jurisdictions (that averages about $15,000 a year, per inmate, and yes, it's cheaper in Maricopa County, AZ).  It's not less expensive than ordinary housing subsidies (Section 8 or time-limited, partial financial help, government-funded or otherwise).  However, the next time you want your blood to boil, compare the "Fair Market Rent" charts in your area to what you pay in rent or in a house payment.  Imagine that the maximum amount written there for each size of apartment is exactly what each private owner renting a "Section 8" apartment gets paid each month courtesy of Uncle Sam.  Believe me, there is no such thing as a person renting out a "Section 8" who voluntarily takes LESS than that amount each month.  Plus whatever the resident manages to scrape together, of course. 

Most people will recall the deinstitutionalization of the mentally-ill in the 1970's, said to be a major cause of the single homeless men and women found wandering America's streets in the 1980's to the present day.  Others believe that veterans returning home from conflict are another group that has no stable place to live.  Those who work with families who lack a place to live recognize quickly that the poorest families are those that typically end up evicted and looking for someplace to live.  Poor - as in not enough income to pay for housing on their own - a temporary condition best rectified as quickly as possible as in jobs and affordable, decent places to live.

The sympathy level even for homeless veterans has never been very high.  Most people aren't willing to spend more than a reasonable year's salary that could support a family, just to give a guy that, on his own devices prefers a bush or vacant storage unit, a nice place to live, much less "extra help" paid for by the government that they, themselves, don't receive.  That could be one of the reasons why the majority of the many organizations surveyed by this primarily government-funded and connected organization said they received few, or no donations from the general public, corporations or foundations.  You can convince a few people in Congress and the corresponding bureaucrats of your "case" for elaborate, costly solutions a lot more easily than the general public, private businesses, or most philanthropists.  This isn't a lie, precisely - it's more like inventing and trying to sell a $250 solar-powered can opener with a microchip.  For opening cans.  In this case, the product has been bought by the U.S. Government lock, stock and barrel.  Or, we should say - rotating blade, microchip and external solar panel connected directly to the device.  For opening cans.

Then there is the much, much larger world of "everything else."  Politics - as in elections.  Potential threats to the well-being of the planet itself, such as anthropogenic global warming.  Investments, as in mortgage-backed securities or the insane profit promises of Bernard Madoff. 

Polls, as in the polls that even left-leaning Web 2.0 website the Daily Kos has realized, were not beneficial, were deeply-inaccurate over a long period of time, and now, to the dismay of good-willed supporters, appear to have just plain been made up.  I don't read that website - I sort of "hear about it."  But I give them big credit and kudos for recognizing that there was a problem with their polling information, and for trying to follow up on the problem and determine its cause.  If it turns out to be true that the pollster they hired, a firm called Research 2000, was doing some "freeform" research to meet the expectations they thought the Daily Kos had, rather than collecting and analyzing genuine poll data (even though it might have run counter to the website's expectations), then they definitely deserve a refund.  I hope they are able to recoup at least some of what they paid for stuff that probably "felt great" at the time, but over time, proved more disappointing than any genuine poll that showed something different from advance expectations.

Was that a fair statement?  Because millions of Americans gave up on most news polls years ago.  In my case, after reading in my own newspaper on the eve of the California governor's recall and new elections showed first that a) Gray "Gumby" Davis was ahead; and b) CRUZ BUSTAMANTE was also way ahead - I did quit reading the Los Angeles Times for anything but occasional amusement.

As we move through this summer of increasing economic hardship, one headline that I saw today reflected the fact that 70 days after the initial BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf, the US President is just now agreeing to offers of foreign assistance - offers that reportedly were made within a day or two of the oil rig exploding - so, in other words, well over two months ago.  This headline doesn't make me feel great.  It makes me wonder what took over eight weeks to get to this point.  I can't think of any conceivable "excuse."  No, I was not going to hear about this development in-depth or coherently in the "mainstream media," and neither was anybody else.  It was just a throwaway.

You would think that the media would be interested in covering this terrible environmental disaster, and in helping people to understand what was being done about it on a private, and a government level - local, state and federal.  Well, the internet has been a big help in that regard.  Thanks to a Federal Circuit Court judge, we've been able to see the spewing oil by an online camera feed since early on.  And that's it.  There ya go.  My friends and I have been researching on our own to find a good beneficiary for proceeds from a benefit anthology.  You know - money - to help the animals and people.  Let me put it this way:  the recipient isn't going to be FEMA.

Breitbart is a Web 2.0 site that is doing what I guess most people would call confrontational or investigative journalism with a slant.  Most of my friends who don't deal much with money, getting things done in a broader sense (i.e. something that has to be quantified and reported upon on a regular basis), and who have "liberal" sensibilities think Breitbart is some type of monster.  They think Matt Drudge should be taxed, too.  Well, today Andrew Breitbart put up $100,000 as a reward for someone to roll over and provide the archives of a 400-member email list called "Journolist," which has come to people's attention as an online support group of mostly-"liberal" journalists who apparently support and help each other.  All I'll say is, I'm pretty sure Breitbart has the $100,000.  Many people seem certain that the messages, similarly to the "Climategate" University of East Anglia e-mails, will shortly be revealed.

What I have to say about this is, I could probably find a better, more beneficial use for the $100,000.  I have myself personally been interviewed by journalists and even journ-O-lists dozens of times and I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I've been correctly quoted and attributed over a 2-decade-plus period.  So, what we have here is not just a failure to communicate, it's a failure of many-decades standing, and it long predates the so-called journalistic triumph of Watergate.  (this paean to the Watergate coverage from the WaPo - 2008 - has no comments and no links whatsoever, so I guess I'm the first) I know no one in a position of any type of responsibility in any industry who would ever speak to a reporter in an unguarded manner.  This doesn't mean somebody who was "doing something wrong," this means that - if there's one class of person less-trusted and respected in America than a politician, it's a journ-O-list.  If you are fortunate, you'll be perceived as an entertainer or editorialist or advocate - if unfortunate, then you get to be one of those Journ-O-List reporters - the last of a dying breed of assholes stuck in a time warp with less cachet than "Deep Throat" - I mean, which would you rather be?  Mark Felt, or Marilyn Chambers?  Both of them are gone now, and it seems to me that Marilyn will be the longest and best-remembered.

You know, the funny thing about Watergate is that when I explain the basic facts to people my daughter's age or the age of my students, without any editorializing and just the broad-brush descriptions, no one can understand what all the fuss was about.  I mean, it's not great, but it's hardly earthshattering stuff. Compare and contrast:  Blago, and anointed, saintly "sex poodles."  Possibly "liberals" over age 40 won't get what I'm talking about.  After all, Woodward and Bernstein just brought down Satan.  Satan, I tell you!  Everyone else when presented with the Watergate "scandal":  easy peasy.

Did you know that on the night of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination on April 14, 1864 by John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theater, Secretary of State William Seward and his son were both stabbed and seriously, but not fatally injured by Lewis Powell, one of the other conspirators?  And that Vice-President Andrew Johnson was also targeted, but escaped harm because his attacker lost his nerve and ran off?

Every time I'm tempted to think I live in interesting times, I think of what an intolerably easy, lazy life I have and think I am completely insane to complain.  I could be like, Lumbee or Melungeon.  I could be like one of the women in Iran right now and be mourning my friends and family who just lost their lives in the most recent election controversy.  I could be that massage therapist from Portland, OR who lost her friends because she spoke up about being sexually harassed.  When her identity comes out, she'll be even more miserable.  Or I could be poor Gary Coleman, and that could be my ex-wife, who let me fall, hit my head and die and who pulled the plug on me, then cremated me.  I'd advise all these folks on the Journ-O-list to get back to what their roots were when they first started out.  Every day's a new day, and tomorrow - is a new day starting forward.  None of you can change the past - you can only change what you do going from now, forward.

How's The Recession Affecting eBay? Deader than a Dead Fairy

This is a dead fairy that someone tried to sell last year on eBay.

I never fell prey to eBay, and I only like Etsy because real people make real things and I am always amazed at how reasonably people price the real things they make.

But because of Mr. Dead Fairy, I decided to see how reasonably I might pick goodies up on eBay now.

Well, I can buy an old, empty Moxie drink bottle for $9.99.

Cool, huh?

For $65.99 I can get a "Frog Cemetery Grave Tombstone Saddle." 

This is a molded foam decorative item that comes with silk flowers - and I have now educated myself and this is a "saddle" that straddles the tombstone, providing longer-lasting floral decoration than the typical flowers placed graveside in an urn or vase.

  I can get a custom-made Dreamcatcher for $10. A 3-INCH Dreamcatcher.

I don't think that's a very good deal - I don't think 3 inches is enough space to catch very many dreams.

I can buy a dozen Fart Powder packets for $14.95. However, half a dozen vials of "Fart Stink Bomb" are only $1.95.

A Jumbo-Sized auto band-aid is only $7.95 - for hiding scratches.  I am not kidding.

Ah, but I figured out how to get a better grasp of what's going on economically with eBay.

Now, I'm no eBay expert, but I was not surprised to learn that when searching on categories where bidding was common, like golf equipment, it looked like "sale table at the silent auction."  People were bidding for the lowest possible price on items, and there weren't many bidders on any single item.

So, I looked at areas where I know something about prices.  Fragrances - all those that allow bidding are "fire sale" prices for the most part, with few fragrances inspiring rapid bidding.  As to makeup, it's little surprise that desirable products like Bare Escentuals are attracting bidders, but the bidding is currently for prices of less than half retail! 

Oh.  I think fire sale at Ebay says it all.  And according to the Fool - eBay stock . . . did rally briefly but on its way down again.

 

Put the Race Card at the Bottom of the Deck

I know no "white" "liberals" who have read any amount of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s writing.  I also know that I spoke with many "white" "liberals" who brutally vilified Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas after his nomination to the court - they eagerly called him stupid and a tool of white Republicans, but none of them had ever read any legal material Justice Thomas had ever written.  They wholeheartedly supported what I now believe to be a callous and unsuccessful political sacrifice of a black female legal scholar, Anita Hill, in an attempt to get her to either fabricate or greatly exaggerate Mr. Thomas' "sexual harassment" of her - or whatever it was that she was describing or attempting to describe.  Mr. Thomas endured unbelievable harassment from "white" "liberals" because he was married to a Caucasian woman.  I rarely, if ever, hear any "white" "liberals" giving anything but lip service to people of any other race - they have no time, or interest - in those people's real experiences and wisdom and knowledge.  Just as they have no time for the real writings and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or learning how his thinking connects to Gandhi, Tolstoy and Christian theology, or even learning his principles of nonviolent action and how those were used by others, the typical "white" "liberal" has absolutely no time for someone like Condoleeza Rice, who ought to earn respect from others based on her background, or for former Secretary of State Colin Powell. They just want to play the race card as cheaply and quickly as they can, while moving on to "getting their way" in the thoughtless way that is theirs.

When mostly-white protestors of the health care bill had arrived at the U.S. Capitol three months ago with signs, banners and repeated protestations of "Kill the Bill!" several U.S. Congressional Representatives were quick to state that they were targets of violent, terroristic threats - and some of them played the race card.  Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana, who you would think would be better than this, made sure to say he was "in fear" and heard "the n-word numerous times" while exiting the House of Representatives during the contentious protest period.

Rep. Carson is a first-term Congressman, elected after the death of his grandmother Julia Carson, who died after a battle with heart disease in 2007.  His grandmother was very popular and well-respected, according to all reports about her.

Rep. Carson himself has a law enforcement background and served in local political offices prior to his election to the House of Representatives.

Maybe someone did yell the "n-word" at Rep. Carson - but videos don't show that, and they show anything but a threatening situation.  This, after Rep. Carson's election, might have been the first time he was faced with a large crowd that disagreed with him, but most of the videos show people standing not just feet away from the representative, but YARDS away.  Many people's backs are turned.  It's anything but a threatening, violent and angry mob.

This video basically makes fun of the Congressman's assertions by showing the non-threatening situation over and over, from every conceivable vantage point over his entire walk through the protestors, including down the steps of Capitol Hill and across the street. 

As former law enforcement from a family with a tradition of community service, and a grandmother who made so many strides and was apparently such a well-thought-of lady - I have this to say to Rep. Carson.  Come out and say what you truly experienced during this "walk" from Capitol Hill during the protests against the healthcare bill.  If someone called you the "n-word," it was very quietly, unable to be recorded, and they weren't physically threatening, either, because no one even came close to blocking your way - in fact, it looked like few people were even paying attention to you and your entourage at all. 

It's about time that the race card be played like the gender card should be played - by people bringing their own strengths to the jobs they are doing - the strengths that come from each of us as individuals, and from our own family backgrounds and cultural heritage.  Not the weak, stupid, embarrassing race card, comparing this walk of a man in power through a crowd protesting a law they didn't like to what people went through during the Civil Rights movement and the much more serious and terrible events of the Jim Crow days and pre-Civil War days. 

This is about the same as me saying my former husband beat me when he did not, or - all those females who falsely accuse others of rape, etc. - just to get the benefit of the shock value and momentary sympathy.  It's really self-imposed discrimination and like all false accusations, means that those who really suffer will just suffer more in the end.

One Namesake I Can't Relate To: Amy Bishop

University of Alabama-Huntsville professor Amy Bishop has just been indicted with the 1986 murder of her brother Seth, who was at that time a first-year college student.  All things considered, former Prof. Bishop seems to have had even less self-control than South Carolina Congressman Bob Etheridge.

Seth Bishop in his high school photo is pictured to the left.  The Boston Globe offers a chilling rundown of Bishop's crimes and background.

What appalled me from the first is that this woman was not only allowed in the classroom, she was apparently encouraged and tolerated.  The killings were by no means her only outbursts.  When the mass-shooting at her faculty meeting was announced, people quickly came forward to point up her violent, threatening behavior in other areas.  Apparently, she grabbed a child seat out from under a child that wasn't her own at an IHOP restaurant, striking the child's mother.  This was apparently what led up to her not being chosen for tenure.  With a Ph.D. from Harvard in genetics, her future should have been assured.  But reporting about her background shows a disturbed woman at all ages.  Many were shocked upon learning of her brother's death and the initial perfunctory investigation - because the conclusion is obvious:  if she had been charged and prosecuted, the three dead University of Alabama instructors would be alive today.

The Boston Globe article went into depth about her background, which is not a good one.  In addition to incidents in Alabama preceding the shootings, Dr. Bishop and her husband clashed with neighbors in Ipswich, MA, and she then feuded with Dr. Paul Rosenberg while working at a lab at Children's Hospital in Massachussetts.  Later, Dr. Rosenberg and his wife received a package containing two pipe bombs at their home.

It shouldn't be surprising to reader's here that colleagues reported that Dr. Bishop flew into uncontrollable rages when not receiving "first" author position on scientific papers, that she padded her CV (used to apply for her position at the University of Alabama-Huntsville), and even went so far as to include three of her minor children as co-authors on one paper.  Undergraduate students complained of her unreachable nature and confusing grading and test practices, going so far as to circulate a petition asking for redress from the school.  She also reportedly went through graduate assistants at a rapid pace.

All of these are the hallmarks of an unstable person - one who had many excuses made for her, and who was allowed to get away with many things - ultimately costing the life of three innocent people.  Oh, her motive for shooting her colleagues in a faculty meeting?  She had been denied tenure due to inadequate work, research and publications.