Was peace or justice served?

Making a living selling anything is rough these days. Even store owners are forced sometimes to go out into the street to hawk their wares.  I think an individual should be allowed to sell anything he owns anywhere he wants with the exception of hard drugs, alcohol and weapons. Cigarettes, well maybe to consenting adults, or not. But should a man die for doing it! Absolutely not. The streets where Eric Garner frequented were not served by his death. And Eric Garner's family's peace was forever obliterated. And ultimately justice in America was served yet another hateful blow.

passage from Panapsida: the Great Dragon Fight

As long as there are concentrations of elements, as long as there are predictable loci for resources, there will be conflict and competition for sustenance and pleasure.
I begin to wonder too whether academia suffices only to prolong an elitism in regards to sustenance of the "good life"; that pleasure and leisure are a privilege for a special class of humans that have been fated to preserve and fence in the supposed beneficial resources... and this being akin to the maiming of the village potter in primitive times now forebodes the coming of a more violent era.
I write this thinking that Jung would be aghast in these times, that he would suggest a great Dragon fight is at hand.

America Awakens?!

Do we want creative, innovative thinkers and doers for the greater or individual good?... are we trying to rebuild a productive workforce and a stabile economy, or nurture generally happy unique individuals.
       Isn't all the above what we should aspire to?  Shouldn't we want a corporate sponsor to thrive if we want job security?  Shouldn't we want our parents to be tigers too if we want our children to be successful adults in competition for that sole first chair in life?  And shouldn't a child have an opportunity to explore all life's possibilities, to discover for themselves their interests and strengths? Why can't we have both?
      Well, I don't believe it is the teachers standing in their way... not by choice anyway.  But it does appear true that too much corporate influence is exerted, but perhaps worse is the disenfranchisement of the parent; many parents are just not available when they need to be, whether because of divorce, work hours, defeatism, fatigue, chronic addictions or out-right neglect.
       So, we could say the balance is tipped toward efficacy for a limited number of individuals and their corporations while a great majority of citizens have experienced a decline in moral or living standards. It is an era of downward mobility for far too many Americans and they are becoming more vocal about it.
       I don't see an easy solution for all. Likely we will see more student protest before we will see any changes in morale or conditions. Since the balance has tipped un-checked over time and now more aggressively in favor of the already very powerful few, violent change is ever more likely too; for the powerful now ensconce themselves behind an ambience of fear and resort to police state tactics in response to civil disobedience.  America has slept long enough and now awakens to a resounding alarum.

     

The Wind versus the Blower!

Driving at midday today I was startled by leaves scattering in the wake of mine and other vehicles in front of me -- and it hit me how much I had missed this natural event. Of course I instantly envisioned just what real damage those leaf blowers do... not only do they deny the city's soils there just natural nutrients, these blowers supplant nature's display with a false and sterile order. I say let's get rid of these blowers once and for all. They do not help to beautify America. They only broadcast to the world someone does not have a clue what beauty is! At least let our communities organize neighborhood and storm drain cleanups. And let the businesses downtown breathe in the fumes from blowing the clutter from their doorsteps.

a letter to a school districts superintendent and board members

 "Greetings,

As a concerned parent, public school servant and recent employee I've grown greatly alarmed over the last decade at the excessive use of herbicides on school grounds, especially in areas where there is a concentration of students, the playground and tracks, that is. 

There has been some discussion in public forums as well as indications from peer journals that environmental poisons such as these as well as fertilizers may be responsible for increased incidents of jeopardized health, such as breathing disorders, but autism in particular. I strongly believe we are foolish to label such disorders as genetic or allergic reactions when in fact we are skirting the issue; and the issue is our neglecting to challenge our accustomed ways of thinking as evident in our trying to control nature by spreading contaminants --- poisons that in most cases are the cause of our health problems which we mistaken as human weaknesses. 

All these incidents should immediately flag any use of poison where children congregate for periods of time as a flagrant violation of precautionary principles as well as a serious misallocation of expenditure. 

So, to be fair, I am informing you that this is not just my concern but that of many other parents and community members, and that I look forward to presenting you, the district and state government with a petition to discontinue use of herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers during the academic year.

Thank you for your time,

sincerely, Van A. Huebner"

make a commitment

The difficulties presented by the competing interests of the group versus the individual, corporate personhood verses natural persons, benefit to society versus family --- these represent the difficulties of trying to find parity between considerations representing a step in logical type as Gregory Bateson might put it, or fair distribution of effort v benefit between the individual and the group as Rawls or Bentham might put it.
This difficulty is present actually in a great number of human endeavors. Not just in finance or law but in the sciences and all other pursuits there is present a continual paradigm struggle between the good for me v the good for us.  Every common laborer for example at one time or another finds him or herself choosing between doing something for oneself and family or for the employer. This conflict rose to predominance with the rise of global market/employment based society.  For more and more families felt the absence of parents for the sake of being/working elsewhere compared to agrarian society, primarily, where whole families worked together on the farm and thus were in continual contact with each other. Urban life is predominantly in a fixed state alienation for the extended lack or permanent loss of family cohesion and shared purpose.  A mother and/or father often find themselves asking the other to choose between work or children and family and just what the definition of work is. What sort of duty is it, what calling does it answer to or what benefits or goals exactly fall within that category?
Thus, too, we so easily move across borders and exist out of touch with each other in state of defensive individualism.

How many of us can relate to some version of the following conversations:

"Oh gosh, pop, I missed your birthday? Where'd the time go!?"
"That's fine... just don't forget your mother on Mother's Day!"

or:

"Where are you going?"
"I'm on call remember?"
"What about your child Henry!?"
"I'm doing this for us Margaret. We talked about this already; we need the money!"
"Well Johnny needs you too!"

Sadly, until we learn to see that this conflict is the emotional price we pay for contemporary, corporatized urban --- yet very mobile --- and now highly device-oriented society, by default we will remain at odds with ourselves and less committal with each other.

I just want the night sky back

I just want the night sky back... without city light interference---just stars, planets and the moon every night forever. 

i wanna walk under a starry canopy, navigate by ages old memories of the constellations... I want to have ancient narratives entertain me from sea to forest and back again...while all along only the diurnal path coincides with the alimentary trail.  I want to know the creatures and rooting things primarily by their sounds, scents and tactile surfaces rather than their uttered names. I want to erase all post selenial history, all empires, trade and the pernicious self. I want out of the human race---for we have failed to learn anything at all from self consciousness only that by deceit and intrigue we can claim more and more pleasure and power until some day we find we never have to move but raise our hands to our lips or lower them to our hind quarters. We might as well be a tree sucking away at the biosphere, just let the sun and rain cart our sustenance for us... so let the being here be enough to satisfy my wearied soul, let the tree be the only dilatant being.

if this doesn't scare you you're still sleeping

This has been a tragic month. First the suicide of Robin Williams and the world wide response; and now the killing of a teenager, Michael Brown, by a police officer and the worldwide response to that as well. Both incidents have gotten much attention on the major as well as social media.

Surrounding these tragedies too is the awareness of on-going rebellions and slaughter of civilians in several countries right now: the Gaza Strip, eastern Ukraine, Syria and northern Iraq as well as civil and genocidal violence on the African continent and the recent ,"the vastly underestimate[d... ] magnitude of the outbreak" of Ebola as confirmed by the CDC.
Certainly it must be acknowledged then that times are in the least very unstable, and America as a nation has recklessly managed it's relationships with other nations and in fact has foolishly engaged in the violence by taking sides with those that have been characterized as the aggressors and oppressive forces that are razing civilian urban and rural areas, killing countless children and destroying life preserving infrastructure.  Some even claim the US is now involved in a third World War.
Preceding all of this and through out is the financial corruption and the blind eye to it of governments here in America and abroad.  Time is running out for our leisurely economy, for liquidity has already been quietly drained out by the ultra-rich.  And all the while we continue to ruin our ecological chances for nurturing any future for life on earth.

So if these overwhelming conditions don't scare you to action then you have yet to scrape the sleep from your eyes!

The tragic death of Michael Brown

This event in Missouri is just tragic in every way and as I've said before the violence may prove both that the temperament of the general public is on edge already and particularly responsive to violence perpetrated by police.  Yes, okay, so it is clear that many citizens abhor both individual encounters with reluctant to comply citizens much less mobilized police responses to any organized public protest, destructive or peaceful. One has only to refer to social media responses to the "militarization" of police departments and the arming of other government agencies even before Michael's killing and the following rioting in Ferguson.  

Now before you accuse me of being dispassionate, hear me out a moment. I also have to say that more recently than in past decades I've had several encounters with teenagers walking in the middle of a street (that had sidewalks, btw) knowingly blocking my progress as a driver and that each of these incidents felt confrontational; that is, these kids were tempting fate by risking injury through me, a perfect stranger and were brazenly saying by their deliberate slow pace they play by their own rules and one better not mess with them or else. (Well if that doesn't sound like my own 16 year old...?! ) 

In light of this I think it is completely appropriate for a law enforcement officer to approach anyone even our youth who are blocking vehicular traffic on a public road and insist that they cease and use the sidewalks or curb themselves for traffic. But this should not lead to the killing of the jaywalker much less an uncooperative teen.  I just can't see how such an encounter could lead to death ---one might unwisely be tempted to say: unless the individual challenged the officer in some way, as was claimed early on... so, to some extent, I am suspending opinion on this killing in Missouri until we hear a better description of the physical contact between the boy and the officer.

I'll say this too that while race has too often been the context for rebellion against law enforcement and destruction of community relations and property, it must not be assumed that the officer simply shot the boy because he was black. Nor can it be asserted yet that the officer believed he was defending himself against imminent harm, or that he "accidentally shot him" several times. Either way this is a tragedy for both Michael's family and the officer's as well. 

So I ask, Does anyone stand to gain anything at all from this?  I think the protesters (not the looters) have learned something very significant.  All the raised arms and voices shouting "don't shoot!" is a remarkable step forward for American justice.  This should be the cry hence forward at every encounter with the police under similar circumstances, but more so for all organized protest against the growing militarization of domestic life.

Lastly, but above all, Michael Brown was just out of high school and hadn't even had the opportunity to vote or sustain a decent living on his own, a boy whose alleged provocation could only be described as lingering adolescence---which does not justify assassination, much less arrest or incarceration. This event then should remind us how the prison pipeline has stolen passengers for a train to hellish conditions by raiding the street. And while a young man may tragically believe he will have to face opposition all the way to his dreams with an upturned lower jaw, it should not follow that he truly had nowhere to go).

I agree with Anthony Gray, attorney for the Brown family, that this was a child who died and that this tragedy should spark for a need for nationwide questions raised rather than looting and more violence.

an attempt to answer my daughter's question regarding the response to Javier and Penelope letter re bombing of Gaza strip

For several reasons:

partly because of a fear of the violence that fanatical muslims promise to inflict upon the Jews and all other so-called nonbelievers in the Islamic faith, a promise which is dictated by the Qur'an;

partly due to the oversensitivity to anything sounding like anti-Semitism (many who are alive today and their families still have memories of the Holocaust deeply embedded in their lives and thus Jewish culture perhaps has taken on this defensive nature); 

also partly because, while orthodox Jewish communities often stay(ed) densely to themselves within other nations, today Israelites in particular have become very protective of their newly acquired nation;

yet not all Jews by any count favor this unconscionable obliteration of innocent civilians.

Read Joan Rivers recent response on this. sadly there are those that favor this bombing because they believe that Hamas must be destroyed at all costs, and innocent non-combatants are merely collateral damage.

Sadly, the US feels compelled to side with Israel in order to keep the US's foot perhaps in the MiddleEast. 

Note that the US also sides with the Ukraine government which is bombarding citizens in eastern Ukraine that are rebelling against fracking and the theft of their land for this and other resources. this has put us at odds with Russia; and what we are doing in Israel puts us at odds with all the Arab nations and muslim people's around the globe---not to forget those who are sensitive to the domestic abuses which we have recklessly ignored. 

We should encourage and applaud those like Javier and Penelope being especially in the limelight (and potentially therefore with much to lose) who stand up to such defensive reactions--- which reminds me of McCarthyism and the blacklisting of film industry figures in the 50s.  

Times are very unstable dear and now with the threat of the ebola virus out of control on the African continent things are getting really scary. Don't fall prey however to those who cry out "end of times" nonsense.  (side note: just recently I saw a guy with a portable microphone and speaker standing on the corner of 56th and Tyler spouting out such nonsense about getting saved and fighting evil and sin---homophobic crap). It may just be one more sign that one has to choose a side now on any given issue and do something about it, including religious fanaticism. And sadly in the case of Israel's relentless bombing of the Gaza strip, one can see that even Jews can become fanatical.

the real impetus for the world"s declining economy

I still say it was the building industry that pushed for faster home sales in the late nineties and early 2000s that profited from demolishing the economy (the burning house that Hank cashed in on earlier in 2006).  Wall Street and the financial institutions caught with the empty bags certainly didn't help, but those that wanted greater profits from natural resources (especially wood) are the ones who ultimately pressured banks to woo low income buyers in the first place into signing for mortgages they couldn't really afford. The selling of these later as toxic assets was the final stroke.

A Time to Kill, one of my favorite film versions of a book and, like To Kill a Mockingbird, explores one of the most important subjects still yet to be reckoned with on this planet: racist hatred vs Love of all humanity. And this is one main reason why I say the arts must be thoroughly maintained in our educational curriculums along with debate and controversial issues: it's because where all else fails the arts remain a standard bearer and can work in tandem with judicial systems on behalf of our common humanity! Reform in education should mean a return to such high standards as this, emotive discovery and the deflation of logical fallacy. 

Cryptococcus and crypto-currencies, 6/12/2014

Cryptococcus may no longer be our main fungal foe and crypto-currencies may be the new advantage...  perhaps it is a time for developing innovative strategies for survival!

logos, 6/7/2014

Business Logos are the new Family Crests.

from a conspiracy thread post, 6/3/2014

Fair enough... 

Anyway, I'm not exactly a conspiracy theorist --- nor a sheep. My own eyes and ears have long told me the WTC bldgs were brought down by demolition. 

All the occult stuff at the end of this video is ludicrous; and I have to admit the quality of this video doesn't help make a sound statement, and that it originated in 2012 it misleads the viewer to think it's fresh off the press, so I apologize for that ... BTW there was a release just recently of some new statements by independent researchers on this from Canada 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/world-trade-center-building-7s-controlled-demolition-new-evidence-from-witness-testimonies-and-architectural-drawings/5384860

I do firmly believe however that greed and poisonous power are responsible for the tragic event ( how they can corrupt one's moral foundation ) --- power that gradually was taken through our democratic trust and too was manipulated into a "lawful theft" of the average citizens' wealth, well-being and cognitive acumen... and, finally such that murder was witnessed by an entire nation which is now catatonic, incapable of seeking justice much less knowing how individually to respond!

Yes, this video very shabbily regurgitates much footage already published elsewhere, but reminds us that organized professionals in engineering, architecture and demolition testify that NIST's claim that the airplanes were responsible for bringing the twin towers down the way they collapsed is false, and that too much evidence exists that together define an early attempt to, in the least, allow the "attacks". We are also reminded that the claim that a hijacked plane crashed into the pentagon is also not defendable. Our own government sought to deceive the public and we can only guess what their motives were. And that's where the "conspiracy" theories begin to run amuck.  The hundreds of families involved --- I can't fathom how they must struggle with the scenarios, the possible treachery of their own government!...

Two key issues referred to in the video I hadn't heard before was that secured work was being done on the elevator shafts prior to 9/11 --- privately secured by a Bush family member's company --- and that a professional weakening of these shafts would have been necessary to accommodate a free fall demolition. Witnesses have stated they heard the loud work being done, and in unoccupied areas as well. The other is quality of the thermite used --- it couldn't have been produced under supposed underground conditions of terrorists. Thermite has already been claimed by many experts to have been responsible for the molten steel present at the site. A photograph of a diagonally cut beam as well exists, and many believable witnesses are on tape from that horrible day claiming explosions prior to the impacts on floors other than the crash levels and in the basement.

All the facts surrounding Silverstein's intentions with regard to the Towers are circumstantial but very suspicious too.  http://presstv.com/detail/2013/07/15/313839/911-incident-insurance-fraud/

letter to an editor, Columbus Dispatch, 5/25/2014

from your recent Columbus Dispatch mobile article: "[....]Affluent kids are far more likely to get a good preschool education and have parents who read to them and nurseries full of educational toys. And the gap only widens from there[....]"

This is a little shy of the full cultural/ economic truth, don't you think? Don't see how you can avoid that monumental logical hurdle we've gradually set ourselves up for over the years. Otherwise your just making an incomplete statement of the case in point. Take it all the way.

Many families these days require both partners work; and worse there are too many single parent families. In other words: who is staying home to care for, or has energy for motivating the kids?  Yes, affluent families have this great advantage---but never mind the money spent on expensive day care or private schools and colleges. Frankly I think the Tiger Moms have got their game on at home when it comes to educating children and preparing them for the increasingly competitive world. They quite simply have both the money and more importantly the time. 

Anyway, it's not PC to demand either gender be the dedicated stay at home parent. But somebody must! Yet without an equitable minimum income level the proposition is meaningless. So until we solve the minimum wage problem, or rather recognize family incomes must all be well above expenses---but further allow time with our children---we will continue to see a widening opportunity gap. 

Further, I don't envision that will happen... in other words we will more likely see more class violence in response to this increasingly oppressive condition.  Without time for our children, they will invest less and less time on thinking about our conditions and more time initiating reactionary nihilistic solutions. 

personhood, 5/18/2014

GOP definition of personhood: from the fetus all the way up to the corporation. Gee, why not just go all the way with it and say god is a person too. Hey, you might as well say a tree or the earth is a person for that matter...

The last frontier, 5/11/2014

The last frontier to be tamed and exploited is your privacy, your leisure, your mind... never-mind pining for paradise. It has long since been replaced by a clanking foul smelling voracious treadmill over a parched, bare and concrete covered horizon only to find a precipice at the end of it.

employer, 5/10/2014

an employer must be thought of as a middleman... in the sense that he merely directs the labors of the so-called employee towards those consumers of products and services.  payment therefore is not so much a determination for the employer to so-called employees labors, and should not be determined by an employer's contract with the so-called employee but rather by a just remuneration for the laborers time  which allows them to continue to provide the labor.

Bundy, 4/25/2014

I'm fed up with this debate about Bundy and his character and such whether he's a racist or his supposed abuse of the turtle and environmental " law". Racism, while not to be taken lightly, & the possibility of ecological crimes is also a distraction from another issue... that is: if the Government's issue with him is an "environmental" issue then why does industry at large get away with despoiling the earth and even the oceans, endangering thousands of species, not just turtles, and humans?!  I suggest the issue is one of perverted "law" not justice. The issue is about the legitimacy of ownership of land and control of the so-called masses, the earth as haven. Truthfully your captured government doesn't want you to be able to "escape" the injustice, find sanctuary in the "protected" wilderness (including hunt, forage, or plant for harvest where you want to) should there be great societal conflict or rebellion. They want to enclose you in the confines of bank owned, landlord owned pens (housing associations & apartment buildings) where they can keep you in debt, consuming and dependent upon the real masters. All Civilized peoples are the slaves now. This is not to belittle the experience of those who were stolen from their families and homes on the open terrain in Africa to cross the oceans packed smothering in the hull of the slave ships---but, rather this is to say that while what all of us experience now does not compare we are buried in an expansion of that nightmare. It's time to wake up and recognize your enemy, the contemporary masters who have packed you by injustices into a tight contemporary ship. Never mind giving it a name...

scarcer mass transit due to budget cuts, 4/22/2014

I live in an area where sadly there is scarcer mass transit due to budget cuts, where there is less money to pay for fuel, nor space enough indoors for a traditional bicycle because of downward mobility. Ironically perhaps I drive a school bus to eek out a living and have less time with my own children because of the demanding split shift. At 58 years old I finally envision an urban revolution that might aspire to not only accommodate bicyclists but embrace them with a infrastructure somewhat like in Copenhagen where commuting by bicycle is so prevalent it is the car that appears as the nuisance and further bane of humanity that it truly is. So, who wouldn't want to display indoors such an icon of transformation. This bicycle is inspirational not only for its functionality and innovation, but to my mind rises to the top as easily as I might carry it to my upper floor apartment... and ultimately it shines for it is an access to the future.

DSM in a thread post, 4/8/2014

really? you don't see how incrementally the methodical extremes have become available for the taming, oppression of the masses by those in power?

The DSM is an institutional nod.

phantoms of love, 4/5/2014

when I hear the phrase, "love life" I think of all those I ever loved in any way whatsoever.  I still love all those I ever loved, however distant in time or acceptability --- and I may fear the animal nature in humanity or doubt the capacity in us to discern what love is, but I am also still human, and while I love this wavering humanity, I too know to fear what the animal in us will do to outlive, outshine a neighboring tribe... so, you might ask how does one continue to love all those one ever loved in any way!?  That is quite simple... you just never shut your heart to the need of love and all at once you realize that what ever love you gave was not in vain. It served its purpose at that time. But now your task is to widen your aim, spread your love more indiscriminately... if you expect to be loved in the general sense of humanity, you must love all yourself.

scrubs, 4/2/2014

we scrub data like we scrub nature; we hurry our children like we hurry the earth --- so much good is overlooked, so much bad unheaded.

House of Cards to Gilgamesh, 3/27/2014

If you have but one flaw, like me, a secret love of architecture, watch the title sequence of House of Cards and you will likely swoon for what humankind has built... it's a love/hate relationship I suppose, and I imagine whoever wrote the Epic of Gilgamesh (and Enkido) tried to warn us what would eventually become of us --- over and over again...

"God's plan"? 3/27/2014

If "God's plan" was for us to be stewards of the earth we have failed him; if it was to lord it over the earth we have gone too far. Either way we we will have discovered hell!

You financiers and your cohorts, 3/27/2014

You financiers and your cohorts in the wood and homebuilders industries colluded in courting low income families to increase your sales and then quietly dumped the bundled failure via the banks into toxic securities, "losses" for which you even got billions worth of  bailout money after crying about how the economy will crumble without you... and then you have gall to continue hawking adjustable rate mortgages while you garnish funds from already financially preyed upon families and consumers that you seduced and destroyed!  You all are evil!  By the way these same industries are closely wed with the text book (Pearson), student testing (CCSS: cloaking the harm through indoctrinating ignorance) and personality testing (earmarking the potentially uncooperative job seekers through employment data clearinghouse), and financial and credit rating ( S&P ! ) industries through McGraw Hill just to name one of the big ones that profits from all this fraud and fiat money paper making.  The banks could even be described as decoys!

distinguishing races, a reluctance, 3/25/2014

i am reluctant to distinguish races of peoples by differing moral trajectories as if we were distinguishing between dog breeds; but rather claim that any distinguishable culture can be said to express a pattern of differing temperaments, and further that there can be at any time overlapping layers of even conflicting temperaments, loyalties and basic affinities within the natural or man-scribed boundaries of any territory.

coming together, 3/15/2014 note

No organization of humans has any justification for coming together if their fundamental reason for being together is not conducive with sustaining all life on earth. This can and must be the first principle of all specialized mission statements.

a curiosity, 3/15/2014

a curiosity: I have tinnitus (ringing in the ears) which intensifies when I clench my jaw. The question which occurs to me is: is this a result in a change in blood flow or neural firing? Ie: am I hearing my blood coursing in my veins, or can I actually hear other impulses? Literally outside of these possibilities is the question what other invasive waves or particles might our brain interpret as "hearing" something like a ringing?

unemployed "blamed" for their predicament, 3/14/2014

Im really tired of how the unemployed get "blamed" for their predicament. It effects so many families and especially the men and women of color who are characterized by conservatives as unworthy of assistance while middle class white families are "merely suffering a set back"... when will the media and government just come right out and admit it's indefinitely f'd up for anybody who lost their job or home... while the jackals of the finance industry are having the liars and criminals over for a campaign feast!

phrases that make me cringe, 3/9/2014

I cringe every time I read variations of the phrase "the world's economy suffered a severe crisis this past decade" --- I cringe because the real crisis lies deeper than GDP figures. Literally! The crisis begins with our complete avoidance of the critical issue of sustainability. No amount of democratic distribution of labor and decision making will suffice until we recognize that earth itself is threatened by humanity's attitude toward it, that "yield and profit" cloud our vision. Until land is respected not as private property but rather like the sun, the soil and water are the very fundamental basis for life. No aggregate of power should be allowed to "possess" it; but rather this species must disperse and care for it bio-regionally. All concentrations endanger sustainability and that includes how closely we are tucked into dense housing associations combined with the devotion of too much contiguous land to a single crop! I insist that aggregation of "wealth" (the surplus value of labor or yield beyond a community's seasonal need) leads to concentrations of "preservative" toxins and residual pollutants in the soil, air and the water. Development, like democratic freedom, is its own enemy but worse still the undermining of all life on earth. Therefore, we must seek to spread out in every sense. It is time for a serious agrarian revolution!

Congresses, "Workers' Self-Directed Enterprises",  labor unions, even community gardens... these might seem benevolent enough but by themselves they are not enough to extend sustainability for all life. There are no partitions in the air but the evanescent walls we hide within. Again, when devising a way to exist together as a functioning unit we must include all existing life in our habitat. To do less than that is to fail to co-exist. You must not ask simply which one of you represents earth at your table, but rather that all must be stewards of earth.

relativity, 3/5/2014

Tell me how fast the clouds are moving... relative to the rotation of the earth.... and relative to the earth's revolving around the sun... and the sun's moving away from any other given solar system... and the movement of our Galaxy relative to any other given Galaxy...

profiting from what ails us, 3/1/2014

the banks' collectors are like the herpes virus... they keep coming back right when your stressing out already...

if only Justice dept went after banksters the way banks pursue debtors! but justice is like the pharma indust: they profit from the herpes!

The family of humankind's head, 2/28/2014

The family of humankind's head...

first of all let's talk briefly about family: we'll start with the family doctor. I remember when the family doctor was practically a part of the extended family. I say this because we often saw that doctor as often as we saw our aunts and uncles and their families and these doctors often had the same kinds of questions, the same kind of concern for our well-being. And in those days gone by we we even let the family doctor swab our mucous, and keep our personal medical record right there in the office. Nowadays they might peek in your orifices and those medical records are stored in "the cloud" just to ease as our minds so they to can drift with the clouds.

Today too you are lucky if you see the same doctor twice in a row or that he or she can even pronounce your name. It would seem we have left our health to strangers and forfeited our vital data to some grand floating benevolent server called "the cloud".  Presumably we have nothing better to do... then throw caution to the wind.

But truthfully it is as though our heads were only buried in the sand while all our capacities for maintaining our lives are lost. 

One day perhaps centuries in the future we might be required to know how to navigate by the stars, or how to start a fire or feed our children by foraging for wild foods. This is not to say we should all become survivalists but we should not ignore the worst case scenarios of natural or man-made disasters. 

So I ask how does relinquishing all control of all our vital information serve us?  And what just does this say about our educational system?

now back to our original topic of the family, the family of humankind. 

Supreme Court opinion quote, 2/28/2014

"[...] technical doctrine of standing. Under this principle a plaintiff cannot sue based on mere speculation of harm" ---

yet the NSA [& DOJ] can violate citizens' privacy based on same speculation of harm. Per the usual the victim bears the burden and the assault.

2/27/2014 note

You may recall Lincoln was assassinated only days after the surrender by the south to end the American civil war. You might also be convinced that Kennedy was assassinated because he thwarted American interests in subduing Cuba for profit. I submit to you that the plunderers, the greedy oppressors, continued to plunder and oppress... and wield this mighty power to this day unchecked by a mesmerized, placated public!...

The poor are forced to accept a less than living wage.. this is in effect servitude, slavery and beneath the the promise of a free society!

a possible history of aggregate wealth, 2/25/2014

A) Any given individual's thought processes can be deceived or even conspire to construct untruths or conceal facts --- and this refutes the claim that systems of thought seek truth, for self-interest and preservation underlie all thought processes and therefore preemptively distort any supposedly logical "system";

B) nor can any society avoid conflicts of interest or maintain a just, equitable system of governing, or assure sustenance, well-being and faithful partnership for all members if the above statement A is true.

C) by this reckoning, the aggregation of prosperity would be an expected occurrence in a just or democratic society however gradually it might be concentrated, 

D) eventually it is this sort of monumental economic disparity that brings about war and revolt

E) It would be wise then to accept the notion that any given society is an organic entity, that it can evolve as a species or it can fail to thrive in the surrounding logos-sphere.

F) Seek beyond the personal interest then what would be truly just or unjust laws and institutions; a healthy society has a goodly amount of GIVE to balance out the TAKE.

Is the philanthropy of Bill Gates, or Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" just a lot of smoke and mirror?!?

opinion, 2/18/2014

in my opinion, housing association, and even community gardens appease and deflate the social myth of the organized community while maintaining subjugation to federal governance which is really subservient to corporate wealth. 

If a people truly wished to be independent they have to realize that the "state" will use violence when faced with a peoples movement of any kind.  

I believe if one can become less dependent upon agribusiness that's a start and gradually weakens that arm of the "state" (state, being all the institutional groups as one entity,)

thread post, 2/17/2014

I thought I responded on this already... no?  Okay, so somewhat like sectionalism or consiliarism it says that a centralized power (like the pope) should have no control over sub groups (councils). Subsidiarity sounds to me a little like community centered living as opposed to a nationalistic subjugation.  Bioregionalism and community gardening, local currencies, communes and such all seem to indicate a temperament that seeks separation (including states rights) from a central government. This inclination is fearful to those with the aggregate wealth and power and their perspective will characterize these views as secessionist, non-conformist, unpatriotic, even communist or  threats to the nation's security. Subsidiarity also leans toward feudalism which already seems to have taken hold in some areas of the world especially where there is genocide, civil war or unchecked gang activity.

2/18/2014 note

When reaching for the stars becomes that sinking feeling you've realized that your zenith has become a nadir: Time to adjust your sextant, the modulation of your tack, or perhaps you've forgotten to take account of your declination...

visualize your slippery slope before the unthinkable happens.

Elaine Bernhard, quote 2/14/2014

"deregulation, free trade, privatization ... as another enclosure,... a private taking of the commons" (Elaine Bernhard, Harvard University featured comment in film, The Corporation)

from 2/14/2014 note

Cancers and birth defects are the natural deserters due to the concentrations of poisonous chemicals. So why wouldn't rebellion be the natural outcome of the unhealthy aggregation of wealth?!

from: the corrupt of the 1%, 2/14/2014

I choose to focus on the corrupt of the 1%, not the petty fraud of the downtrodden. The potential for thieving and deception of the lower and middle  income families draws far less from your tax dollars in comparison to the hundreds of billions in bailouts and subsidies to those corporations and the financial industry that are the real thieving protagonists. That's the failure of our governing systems. Entailment is not the cause of our societal problem. Letting greed become so big over time that it is impossible to curtail rationally is! Continuing to cut food assistance while subsidies and tax loop holes and outright confiscation of the public's savings then will bring trouble greater than we had in the great depression... far greater and this is likely what your government already expects. 

Say you are a school bus driver, 2/13/2014

Our society is skewered sideways. Say you are a school bus driver very --- often here are asked to pass on the care of your own children to someone else so that you too can care for someone else's kids. just seems so ironic, especially if you're missing time for homework with your children for the sake of bringing home some kids from after school study programs. Is it worth it?! And why am I so unhappy now that this is exactly what I must do... 

Can't sleep now even though I'm exhausted.

One of our drivers just passed away.

Now it truly feels like the last stop for  me...

The Hydra, from a 2/1/2014 note

Intelligence/Military Industrial complex, Infrastructure developers, natural resource distributers (such as wood, oil and gas), Wall Street, from gamblers to commodification, the drug cartels --- this is the hydra,  the beast that is "too big to fail." We the people are no match for this demon. unless we sync-up, however subconsciously or incidentally, as one mass mobilization of individuals who are too big of heart to continue to propagate this shit!  Especially since most of us rely on them, they are the family provider!

Side with the assassinated or the martyred dead otherwise you're no better than the Germans that averted their eyes during the Holocaust!

What if all the unemployed --- with nothing better to do than participate in something ethical --- could be hired by those who wish to sponsor continued resistance, to thwart The Beast with concentrated protest?!?! The only skill they would need is determination under water-cannon fire and a determination to hold their ground under threat of incarceration... is that any worse than debtors prison!?!

TPP is the Military-Industrial-Corrupt and Covert Empire's final victory, the final shovel-full burying of Kennedy's legacy, his death, and all the others who knew or know what had been spawned by Democracy-shielded Free Enterprise! 

for the graphically inclined, 1/31/2014

can you visualize a sports trading card? note the open gaze of the featured player. do they look specifically at the ball that they control,  the soccer ball, the basketball? no they do not. their field of view is open to all their surroundings. and it is this same gaze that the artist uses to apprehend a first analysis of a subject. disperse your attention to the entire field. do not focus pointedly on any one feature but gather loosely the relationships of all shapes and proportions.  this is especially useful when preparing for longer works. it is typically called gesture drawing.  be not afraid of first impressions!

Frontline episode commentary, 1/25/2014

frankly, Frontline didn't go deep enough. It was Weyerhauser and builders like Quadrant who demanded higher profits and thus pressured for faster sales and the "fund [them]" tactic of the mortgage industry which aggressively sought low income buyers who could not truly afford them (the fogged mirror), and many of those houses are now flipped by investors into rentals. Also the effects of this pervasive scam continue to unravel the stability of the world's economies --- it's not just a historic news event.

Now I'm not saying the finance industry is just the fall guy. I think they're the front. It's the builders and contractors that are the fiery engine fueled by the commodification and processing of the fundamental resources---wood, petroleum, coal and natural gas---which muscle the public to buy, buy, buy the story, by the product buy the image of association regulated homeownership. Frontline could have followed the money to these giants... but failure and fronts are apparently contagious.

thread post, poverty line and prosperity, 1/23/2014

I'll go a step further and say I think that the poverty line needs to be redrawn based on a fair assessment of current costs of a healthy lifestyle before we talk about fair taxation. Also, I think citizens should determine more directly where the revenue goes; and the incomes of all elected officials and representatives of government should be revised and determined by the citizens as well. None shall be appointed from corporate interests; and all funds taken from lobbyists or PACs shall be defined as corruption. Corporate "personhood" needs to be rescinded. The "too large to fail" banks and corporations need to be broken up.  The majority of Supreme Court Justices need to be unseated. 

I believe that large scale and pervasive changes must occur in all our endeavors and communities before the issue of human suffering will be significantly reduced, much less save the biosphere from our myopic actions.  To say that the tax code or the constitution needs emendation barely scratches the surface of our challenges today. We must also be careful when calling out the conspicuously wealthy, and ask first who will "cast the first stone" if you will? Aren't many of wasteful still, in proportion to our gains? It is our thinking and our understanding of what prosperity and happiness can be that needs reVISION!

thread post, 1/21/2014

Suppose an individual or group with surplus sustenance or means to that end claim there is no such right as a "right to work" given that no one is hiring; and that same entity opposes higher taxation for the otherwise subsidized corporations and the extremely wealthy, also opposes financial and health care assistance for low income families and the otherwise underemployed, under-privileged citizens...  Would you derive from that stance that these oppositional entities support a die-off of citizens to maintain their conspicuously high standard of living? Would you define this as a cultural act of genocide, or a class warfare crime?

Victoria Boutenko quote re GMOs and omega-6 & -3, 1/21/2014 quote

Another proof Genetic Modification is about distribution and profit rather than nutritional value: "In recent years, genetic engineers have been manipulating seeds trying to develop strains with higher omega 6 and lower omega-3 content in order to even further prolong the storage life of seeds and the oils made from them." (Victoria Boutenko) Unfortunately the omega-6 oils are not so good for us whereas the omega-3 are more beneficial.

1/18/2014 note

...too many of us are entrenched in the logical fallacies propagated by elitist memes.

thread post, 1/18/2014

Really? You don't think workers have a right to strike? --- average workers who even with two jobs can't make enough to pay for basic needs? (living wage). I don't think it's a question of willingness to work hard or be courteous in the service industry. Customer service, after all, is a required skill for most income levels. Anyway, you make a good point that such jobs can be good temporary employment... so is the military's basic training, but I wouldn't want to be a grunt all my life.

Choice, yeah, we all would like to believe that at any moment we could just alter circumstances for the better when life is challenging. Truth be acknowledged, some of us make choices which limit us to insufficient means to sustenance; while others may make choices which count on these former others getting stuck in that very unfortunate limitation. That is sad; but I don't look down my nose at all who make bad choices, only those whose conspicuously gainful choices by nature oppress others. And requiring charitable assistance, by the way, from a third party like the church, family or government (remember, our taxes pay subsidies to businesses too, not just food stamp money) should not be the solution nor sanctify the oppression by forfeiture of basic human rights. 

You mention legality as a justification for striking. I think maybe we have a different sense of this standard. I believe justice requires an ethical commitment to fairness not just between individuals, or equals by any contractual definition, but above all between powerful entities and the meek.  This is where democracy and free enterprise fail --- shamefully, yes, even Our Supreme Court has failed recently by equating corporations with individual natural persons ( see Citizens United v. the FEC ).

Anyway, hope you can look past the personal take on this and see where I'm coming from.

your routine, 1/16/2014 note

How often do you stop to question  your actions, your "routine"? To live purely, naturally on earth --- to be truly nestled in the ecosystem, berthed immediately in the web of life --- would require you to step outside your comfortable home, never to return again; for otherwise your days would be hammered by a  staccato barrage of memes, of the lies of those who pillage and concentrate the toxins, who aggregate the fruits of the tree of life. The "homeless" and the "primitive" peoples, then, are the true inheritors of earth.

european social bond vs America, 1/7/2014 note

Perhaps you could say that after what Europeans have been subjected to these past centuries it's natural that they would have developed little tolerance for abuses of power. Americans on the other hand, in spite of the social network, or rather because of it, we've disconnected from each other while keeping the appearance of relationships. The social bond has become no more meaningful than the byte. And the rift is likely to widen before it is sutured back together.

What will be left but corn soy and wheat!? 1/2/2014 note

I wonder sometimes what good would a vegan diet do in a world where we've allowed monstrous corporations to lessen the diversity of plant species through patenting and genetic engineering for the sake of higher yield for profit rather than preserving a variety of nutrient rich natural foods for the sake of a vibrant web of life on earth...? What will be left but corn soy and wheat!?...

unattributable media quote, 12/30/2013

"[American economy and products] being shunned [abroad] because of NSA [spying .... combined with quantitative easing [...now] the only game left in town is predatory lending and war"

role model Lennon, 12/29/2013

All teachers should watch the US vs John Lennon as a reminder that even and perhaps not just the quiet ones but especially the students that are difficult and get into trouble often may have plenty of words worth listening to or wondrous gifts yet to be developed; but further a voice willful enough to stand up with stamina to injustice!

banking on imperialism, 12/29/2013

Why do we always appear to be the one dissenting vote in the U N? It's because we're still literally banking on colonialist imperialism!

Go back and consider that Robert McNamara called himself a war criminal. Im certain he implied the broader criminality behind the American empire (Kennedy's assassination was really a coup... if you recall he was against escalating conflict in VietNam and Cuba) in the film Fog of War.  Go back further if you want and ask what might have been the powerful interests that Wilson said were surreptitiously taking over in America.

"How much evil must we do in order to do good" R McNamara

Justifying killing to "save a nation" exposes a fallacious logic and sadly even gives credence to violent rebellion for the patriotic sake of a nation!

dirty money, 12/28/2013

if somebody says they put their money where their mouth is but their head's up their ass doesnt that make it dirty money.

pre-"occupied", 12/28/2013

Ot hit me while reading Applebaum's book that I sometimes feel like Im living in an occupied country. What I mean is, what else would inspire individuals to associate with any of the "Occupy" movements but a sense that we as a nation need to take back from an another broader invasion --- in other words, it's not really so much about fenced borders anymore.  The real occupied domain ranges along a line that defines power, how many persons can be successfully controlled by one person or a group. The occupied territory I speak of is the will of, and the information available to, the short-lived masses who bare the real physical burden of "productivity"! And this gives rise to a temperament often described with "[...]words like vacuum, emptiness[...]". Does not the destruction of our economy yield the sense of a failed defensive system?! Are we not compelled to kneel before this insidious enemy which has extorted the sanctity of even our supposed patriotism!? I say we do comprehend fully the danger already within or "borders!

12/19/2013 note

The answer to the Orwellian riddle  of two plus two make five (according to big brother):  Add one for the four persons being also one corporate person.

12/18/2013 note

You will think this pretentious but I begin my days with a special sense of having a cosmic mission to complete...  but it is readily dampened by terrestrial complications.

12/13/2013 note

Art can be a mirror!... that's why the banksters & their drone despoilers of earth can't look at it --- they know they'll be turned to stone, as in busts of infamous humans.

12/8/2013

These private interests have managed to source, treat, distribute and monitor what your child is allowed to learn in the manner they've privatized our water and other natural resources... The privatization of the third most profitable resource, water, is only less profitable than oil and electricity. Why is that? Because its palpable. How do ideas become protected... they are made palpable through industry and publication... how can we fight the "intellectual property" barrier that is so often the tool of greedy men?! Through open oral debate. And now you see why Socrates was condemned to consume hemlock.

12/8/2013 note

Our so-called federal and state leaders along with the private interests that designed our educational programs perhaps do not even realize that what they are doing with our children is creating another generation of status quo ignorance about what the most vital issues are. Perhaps out of fear for their aggregations of family wealth or their cash-bought seat in government or their soul-forfeited position in the corporate hierarchy, they don't want our children to react swiftly and rationally to the fundamental environmental crises --- rather it would appear they want our children single-mindedly to focus on productivity and making the US a profitable nation again. They do this through logical fallacy. And this is why I insist that debate and controversial topics be at the forefront of public education and all policy for that matter. Otherwise we can look forward to decades of tabulating test data till oblivion finally makes it clear as pure water to us we didn't know what real prosperity was!

12/7/2013 note

Speaking of knowledge, why does it seem that our leaders are concerned more with educating motivated students when we should be trying to figure out what motivates the rest of our students. Shouldn't we be asking the question why are they not motivated? Or perhaps we are looking in the wrong direction when we ask about motivation. perhaps motivation is not really the problem. Perhaps the conceptual sustenance we offer is only sustenance from our perspective. what might be sustenance to their minds might be something entirely different than what we placed before them or how we place it before them. The child's mind is not a blank slate when it enters the classroom. It is awash already with a temperament, with likes and dislikes, with perceptions of what is good or bad --- and these presets don't necessarily sync up with what our national agenda mandates as "curriculum" or our methods. what is it we are trying to forge here? Their minds aren't lumps of raw clay but rather armatures already formed in a unique fashion waiting like our neurons wait to build more synapses

frail prosperity, 11/28/2013

...how do we get americans to indeed be proud of themselves when their corporatized empire relied upon the impoverishment of other peoples to induce this frail prosperity?

a thread post, 11/7/2013

I'm sorry but the shrillness of some of the comments here are proof of  the overall temperament, that at-least our web-savy FB public is already primed for lashing out violently. In other words, we all seem to be shallowly fathoming the situation and the causes of our plight. we have all participated in setting the stage for this; we sat in our leisure while it slowly crept up on us.  While the value of our labors have been seriously squeezed out by increasing debt on one side, the falsity of promissory currency drove us back on the other.  And it's this pressure that is heightening the propensity for looking someone to blame and to scapegoat!

11/7/2013 note

Has all of American business lost its mind!?  To avoid any responsibility for the health of the employee we've veritably split the worker into unsyncable part-time pieces---for how does one find employers now that will happily adjust hourly schedules to accommodate the workers' other employers' shift schedules!  Add the stress of this to the situation and you have a weakened labor force with an even greater need for health care! I don't see how this can last much longer...

11/8/2013

Currency and debt are both false promises these days.  Together they have sucked the value out of our production and income. Soon enough hell will be calling it back.

11/3/2013 note

Perhaps reflection, consciousness, ego---these are not advancements for any species but are rather more like conceptual embolic extensions of the skull entrapped brain. There is as yet however no escaping the boundary of being for a biped except through the advancement of the ability to deceive the other. Error and deception express themselves grandly in the homo sapiens more so than mutation. Dawkins selfish gene comes to mind for a moment...  But what we are in for is a rude reawakening of the collective subconscious as our mistakes and natural catastrophic events begin to prove to be insurmountable.

maimed, 8/15/2013 note

No wonder since primitive times we've maimed (claimed ownership of) the creative craftsmen and visionaries to keep their creations for ourselves; and we have silenced as well the voices that exposed the maiming, imprisoning and extortion --- haven't we?!

what is: church, 8/10/2013

i don't know, I'm not just critical of Christianity these days, but it just seems so circuitous:  church members advance money (tithes) which support the church and members in need. these donators then get tax compensation for their charity. the church itself as well is subsidized.  maybe our tax dollars could just go straight to those in need instead of filtering it through an elitist, judgmental organization, such as are many religious groups.  Or call it what it is, triage for ills and needs not covered by real family or insurance, right?!

Detroit's 100% unemployed neighborhoods, 2/23/2013 note

as far as Im concerned there is an obvious correlation between the enrichment of the Nation's top percent and the poverty of localities, like Detroit, wherein whole neighborhoods are 100% unemployed.

sequestration, 2/23/2013 note

sequestration? how about firing the incompetent representatives and administrators!!!!   How is it the fault of the unemployed when its the employed (by the people) "leaders" who are jamming up the process of job creation by cowtowing to the billionaire profiteers!?!

common core / affirmative action, 2/23/2013 note

Is "common core" the socioeconomic factor designed to make Affirmative Action unnecessary?  

       I recently made an appeal for diversity as a state to maintain in a nation... a diversity of histories, beliefs, and including educational curriculum and methods, and such. It occurs to me there is a slight problem with that. That inevitably there are confrontations with what some will define as discrimination or even "evil". Two cases in point would be neo-nazism within a presumed democratic society and then the horrendous mistreatment of women in some cultures where it has been the norm. Can we in fact live peacefully with these facts. Could it be that certain cultural developments exist to more to deny diversity or opportunity and therefore must be forcibly dealt with in order to preserve the continuity of diversity and opportunity for all. But wait, what does opportunity have do with diversity?

Indeed if beliefs and conditions were the same for everyone perhaps we might find it difficult to define or even recognize opportunity... or worse opportunity would only seem like the dissolution of stability. Therein I believe is the crux of the problem for extremist groups such as racists and misogynists. Diversity and opportunity threaten their already weakened sense of stability from outside their point of view, but threaten to deny them their self-preserving absolutist beliefs from inside their point of view.

The test it would seem then is to ask just how much dialogue will it take to persuade these groups that their own belief is their only true undoing, before the rest of the "free" world feels obliged to, as I said, intervene. Do we jeopardize our claim to democracy when we intervene in other nations to fight such extremisms and inhumane events, or is this proof a provision is required? How many of "us" will it require to justify such "police actions"? What is the critical mass for such exceptions to our general rule of equal freedom? 55%, 75%, 99% ? How do we compare fruit with the tree?

And speaking of allowing for diversity, and not merely as a side note, this very problem is exposed in the Supreme Court's 2002 (no. 02-241) oral argument Grutter v. Bollinger, wherein the problem of maintaining a proper diversity of students butts up against the individual rights of given excluded students through a "cloud[y]" (Justice Scalia) definition of what is a proper ratio for accepting applicants without it becoming a quota and therefore racial discrimination.

So I guess the question I beg here is just how much commoness do we aspire to in any endeavor and when does it become coercive, unjust and contrary to the individual pursuits of our children and the unique talents of our teachers. Or perhaps I am asking isn't "common core" just a disguise for simply trying to increase the numbers of graduates without any real concern for what the students are gaining from their education. Does common core promote at all a diversity of critical thinking methods and resultant ideas?

Standards promote token numbers, not real excellence or innovation. As Justice Scalia puts it, we're "into quota land!" (The above "cloud" reference BTW was from the more recent Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin wherein Justice Scalia off-handedly (?) suggests the use of "cloud" to supplant the use of "critical mass"; and "quotaland" is from Grutter...)

...so, are we merely stigmatizing, marginalizing individual excellence for the sake of the appearance that all is well and fair for the previously marginalized in American education. Does flattening the curve by reducing the depth of education help anybody excel, or merely feel at one with the rest of mediocrity? Is common core the socioeconomic factor designed to make Affirmative Action unnecessary? If so it does all a disservice.

But more importantly, shackling primary school teachers to standardization will not at all guarantee advance opportunities after enrollment in college later on. So in the mean time, until we do address shallow primary education, the aspirations for and definitions of "diversity" and opportunity will continue to pose an ethical, much less a constitutional problem.

God's light as blinding snow, from 2/13/2013 note

At the end of Ignazio Silone's Bread and Wine a woman protagonist attempts to trace the steps of an imposter-priest up into snow covered hills... she finds only wolves.

I find myself today feeling like this woman, twice betrayed and cold, I am face to face now with capitulation far from any place I might call home but still no closer to "God"... unless I can equate God's light with the blinding snow.

class distinction bandaid, 2/4/2013

we cant eliminate class distinction by providing the lowest simplification of content to account for the scapegoated factor, the parent/guardian preoccupied with making barely a minimal income with which to feed house and clothe their children.

diversity rewritten as a Letter to Obama, 2/4/2013

Van A. Huebner from post at Teachers' Letters to Obama

Why is diversity such a difficult state to maintain much less define?...

I recently made an appeal for diversity as a state to maintain in a nation... a diversity of histories, beliefs, and including educational curriculum and methods, and such. It occurs to me there is a slight problem with that. That inevitably there confrontations with what some will define as "evil". Two cases in point would be neo-nazism within a presumed democratic society and then the horrendous mistreatment of women in some cultures where it has been the norm. Can we in fact live peacefully with these facts. Could it be that certain cultural developments in fact exist to deny diversity or opportunity and therefore must be forcibly dealt with in order to preserve the continuity of diversity and opportunity for all. But wait, what does opportunity have do with diversity?

     Indeed if beliefs and conditions were the same for everyone perhaps we might find it difficult to define or even recognize opportunity... or worse opportunity would only seem like the dissolution of stability. Therein I believe is the crux of the problem for extremist groups such as racists and misogynists. Diversity and opportunity threaten their already weakened sense of stability, threaten to deny them their self-preserving absolutist beliefs.

     The test it would seem then is to ask how much dialogue will it take to persuade these groups that their own belief is their only true undoing, before the rest of the "free" world feels obliged to, as I said, intervene. Don't we jeopardize our claim to democracy when we intervene in other nations to fight such extremisms and inhumane events, or does this require a provision? How many of "us" will it require to justify such "police actions"? What is the critical mass for such exceptions to our general rule of freedom? 55%, 75%, 99% ? 

     And speaking of allowing for diversity, as a side note I mean, this very problem is exposed in the Supreme Court's 2002 (no. 02-241) oral argument Grutter v. Bollinger, wherein the problem of maintaining a proper diversity of students butts up against the individual rights of given excluded students through a "cloud[y]" (Justice Scalia) definition of what is a proper ratio for accepting applicants without it becoming a quota and therefore racial discrimination.

     So I guess the question I beg here is just how much commoness do we aspire to, and when does it become coercive, unjust and contrary to the individual pursuits of our children and the unique talents of our teachers.  Or perhaps I am asking isn't common core just a disguise for simply trying to increase the numbers of graduates without any real concern for what the students are gaining from their education. Does common core promote at all a diversity of thinking and ideas?

     Standards promote token numbers not real excellence or innovation.  As Justice Scalia puts it, we're "into quota land!"  (The above "cloud" reference BTW was from Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin wherein he off-handedly (?) suggests the use of cloud to supplant the use of "critical mass"; and "quotaland" is from Grutter...)

     ...so, are we merely stigmatizing, marginalizing individual excellence for the sake of the appearance that all is well and fair for the previously marginalized in American education. Does flattening the curve by reducing the depth of education help anybody excel, or merely feel at one with the rest of mediocrity?  Is common core the socioeconomic factor designed to make Affirmative Action unnecessary? If so it does all a disservice.

     But more importantly, shackling primary school teachers will not at all advance opportunities for enrollment in college later on. So in the mean time, until we do address shallow primary education, the aspirations for and definitions of "diversity" and opportunity will continue to pose an ethical, much less a constitutional problem.

diversity, 2/4/2013 note

"diversity"

I recently made an appeal for diversity as a state to maintain in a nation... a diversity of histories, beliefs and such. It occurs to me there is a slight problem with that. That inevitably there confrontations with what some will define as "evil".  Two cases in point would be neo-nazism within a presumed democratic society and then the horrendous mistreatment of women in some cultures where it has been the norm. Can we in fact live peacefully with these facts. Could it be that certain cultural developments in fact exist to deny diversity or opportunity and therefore must be forcibly dealt with in order to preserve the continuity of diversity and opportunity for all.  But wait, what does opportunity have do with diversity?

     indeed if beliefs and conditions were the same for everyone perhaps we might find it difficult to define or even recognize opportunity... or worse opportunity would only seem like the dissolution of stability. Therein I believe is the crux of the problem for extremist groups such as racists and misogynists. Diversity and opportunity threaten their already weakened sense of stability, threaten to deny them their self-preserving absolutist beliefs.

     The test it would seem then is to ask how much dialogue will it take to persuade these groups that their own belief is their only true undoing, before the rest of the "free" world feels obliged to, as I said, intervene. Don't we jeopardize our claim to democracy when we intervene in other nations to fight such extremisms and inhumane events, or does this require a provision?  How many of "us" will it require to justify such "police actions"? What is the critical mass for such exceptions to our general rule of freedom?  55%, 75%, 99% ?  

     And speaking of allowing for diversity, and not merely as a side note, this very problem is exposed in the Supreme Court's 2002 (no. 02-241) oral argument Grutter v. Bollinger, wherein the problem of maintaining a proper diversity of students butts up against the individual rights of given excluded students through a "cloud[y]" (Justice Scalia) definition of what is a proper ratio for accepting applicants without it becoming a quota and therefore racial discrimination.

thread excerpt re Fascism, 1/31/2013 note

I don't want to create dissent for its own sake or upset anyone's sense of security...  anyway, I think I said a "form of fascism"---but perhaps I should have said "brings to mind the intimidation-to-conform-to-a-community-aesthetic by a self appointed body  and the pitting of neighbor against neighbor for that result that amongst other developments it characterizes fascism.

Fascism, it should be made clear, is not tantamount to genocide---in the least if anything, it is a middle-class temperament to finding social stability through forceful regimental and oppressive means; while at its worst it can become a hateful or murderous aggression towards non-conformists. In the case of NAZI Germany this was directed towards more than just the millions of Jews that were targeted, it was unleashed upon all those that were outside of the image of aryan magnificence: Gypsies, homosexuals, the infirm or mentally underdeveloped and anyone that challenged the temperament of uniformity and national sovereignty.  And one did not have to belong to a marginalized group to be amongst the resistance either.

Feb 2, 2013:   

in brief response to a concern that the use of the term "fascist" is distasteful in that it brings to mind the Holocaust.

     Firstly, racial hatred fueled NAZISM. A fundamental greed for power fuels fascism.  NAZISM was a nationalist movement which sought the literal extermination of the Jews. While Fascism is a violent means to gaining and maintaining control of a populace for private gain; it is not equivalent to genocide.

    Orderly Nazi Germany rallies, for example, heralded beautiful and athletic bodies--- while at the same time the city streets saw real chaos as physical violence was unleashed on those who did not conform to the "Aryan" image of beauty, and also competed for earnings in a seriously damaged consumer economy.

Fascism utilizes what ever moves a people, whatever works most effectively and stealthily to symbolize a general dissatisfaction or desire--- Fascism gives its colluding mass of perpetrators the illusion of stability through a focus on the appearance of order and its associative promise of prosperity; while beneath its facade of collective action is only the greed for more power for those few who already wield it through hidden intimidation and "legal" enforcement.

It is in this sense that I claim that Housing Associations are a "form of fascism." I do not make the claim that HAs are necessarily comprised of racists nor genocidal murderers. It can, however, appear to perpetuate class differentiation.

sheer survival, 1/21/2013 note

let days like this be days when we do not ask that another do for us what we can conceivably do for ourselves; yet let us offer up without hesitation or accept assistance humbly when it is greatly needed for sheer survival.

rotting flesh 1/07/2013 note

the rest of Panapsida is hidden in the highlighted quotes I have yet to pull out and comment on from Rorty, Dewey, Heidegger, Dawkins, and others...   every time I lie down my chest gets real tight and hurts so this might be it... my work will be left unfinished... what a waste... should have just given it up long ago, and maybe I would have never agreed to buying a house, might have told the ex- to suck it up or sure go ahead and just try to divorce over not getting her house. should have listened to dad... man my sense of smell is rotten... literally, nothing but the smell of rotting flesh...

tree logos 1/05/2013 note

Everytime I see an industrial logo utilizing a tree to symbolize durability and such I think of how ironic this is; and yet revealing---as civilization got its start through the destruction of the forests for the sake of construction, maritime trade and warfare, and this continued depletion contributes to our final end.

charity 1/04/2013 note

My point was that the donor's effort appears insincere and certainly no longer anonymous if it is  "claimed" on a tax form ... but as far as "social" relief goes, this is one of the major reasons why we already "employ" government, like a safety net under the high wire and it's there for everybody that crosses it. Granted, some of us commit to recklessness while doing so, but many simply fail midway. I think sometimes we forget that government works for the people as a whole, not just for those who are indignant that their payment might fund dishonest applications for help for needy families. BTW, we've already been cheated in a bigger way by subsidizations to dishonest corporations and a corrupted financial sector, losses we failed to prevent which far outweigh the cost of social justice. 

     Our employees (government officials) now seek to neglect by subcontracting (privatize) what we hired them to do: manage prisons, for example.  So, it is as if we've given ip our position of "employer" of these officials. The only thing that's official now is our enfeeblement as a democracy.

     So anyway It would appear we are headed for disastrous consequences should we fail ultimately to act on our indignation either way, much less seek to pay ourselves for otherwise charitable acts.

12/29/2012 Rees quote

"Think of humanity as a rogue species" william rees