The Times again:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/travel/20hours-hongkong.html?hpw
See First Known Use: 1921
Is this really what President Obama is - Hitler or Mussolini? Don't think so.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Two-Tiered Society
Many days I am in court, representing indigent children who are wards of the state, foster children. My job is to ensure that they are cared for properly and have a voice in the courtroom. Over the years, I have worked as a prosecutor enforcing domestic violence laws, hate crimes laws as well as white collar cases like Medicaid Fraud. More and more each day, I believe that we have created a two-tiered society. Clearly, the upper tier contains those we have managed to get an education and find a job and maintain some semblance of a family life. Naturally at the upper end of that tier are the very wealthy. At the lower end are those who have scratched and clawed their way into the tier and are hanging on for dear life.
But then, there is the remainder, the other tier, and that is what concerns me. We have created a permanent underclass of our society, our country who costs us millions and billions, for foster care, programs for mental health, addiction, domestic violence, for therapists for these abused and neglected children, for incarceration of parents who engage in the abuse or neglect, or for the children who grow up repeating the cycle. The movies and television shows cannot accurate depict what is truly happening in our court system. Every so often we will hear about a particularly horrific case that captures our attention for a brief moment before Charlie Sheen or Lindsey Lohan comes back in the news. We send money overseas to fix other societies but don't fix our own.
The crazy part to me is that no one really studies this. What works? What doesn't work? What is less expensive and better? Wouldn't long term studies make sense, especially in these economic times. It seems as though we just keep throwing money at the problem without really knowing what works. Birth control - shouldn't there be a requirement if someone is receiving public assistance and so much economic and social support? Don't we need to stop having children when we can't support them physically, emotionally, financially?
I know, I know, what the Supreme Court says. Forcibly sterilizing someone is wrong. Too much big brother is wrong. But somehow we need to rescue our society from this mess. We need to really study this, as did Daniel Patrick Moynihan at various times in his career. Not some presidential commission, but social scientists, sociologists and psychologists, and MPAs and figure out what works, where to put our money, how to stop this freight train of disfunction.
Stop.
But then, there is the remainder, the other tier, and that is what concerns me. We have created a permanent underclass of our society, our country who costs us millions and billions, for foster care, programs for mental health, addiction, domestic violence, for therapists for these abused and neglected children, for incarceration of parents who engage in the abuse or neglect, or for the children who grow up repeating the cycle. The movies and television shows cannot accurate depict what is truly happening in our court system. Every so often we will hear about a particularly horrific case that captures our attention for a brief moment before Charlie Sheen or Lindsey Lohan comes back in the news. We send money overseas to fix other societies but don't fix our own.
The crazy part to me is that no one really studies this. What works? What doesn't work? What is less expensive and better? Wouldn't long term studies make sense, especially in these economic times. It seems as though we just keep throwing money at the problem without really knowing what works. Birth control - shouldn't there be a requirement if someone is receiving public assistance and so much economic and social support? Don't we need to stop having children when we can't support them physically, emotionally, financially?
I know, I know, what the Supreme Court says. Forcibly sterilizing someone is wrong. Too much big brother is wrong. But somehow we need to rescue our society from this mess. We need to really study this, as did Daniel Patrick Moynihan at various times in his career. Not some presidential commission, but social scientists, sociologists and psychologists, and MPAs and figure out what works, where to put our money, how to stop this freight train of disfunction.
Stop.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Social Security Rescue?
Isn't it interesting that no one is discussing, as part of the remedy, having those earning over the current cap, to continue to contribute, and perhaps having no cap on income for contributions? I know there are those out there that want to see it go under Privatizing would certainly tank it. Are we really saying that some millionaires can't space a few thousand more a year? Get over yourselves and be part of our society.
If incomes continue to decline, you will not find good workers for your companies, no one will buy homes, appliances, cars and other goods because they can't.
What a mess.
If incomes continue to decline, you will not find good workers for your companies, no one will buy homes, appliances, cars and other goods because they can't.
What a mess.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Bob Woodward on Rumsfeld's book
Very interesting:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/01/how_rumsfeld_misleads_and_ducks_responsibility_in_his_new_book
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/01/how_rumsfeld_misleads_and_ducks_responsibility_in_his_new_book
Bad Idea to Cut Science Funding
Shows again we have to get our heads, collectively, out of the sand and look at what is going on in the world. What is Congress (i.e. GOP) thinking???? If even a Bushie says this is a bad idea:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/bush-official-raymond-orb_n_829342.html
Duh.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/28/bush-official-raymond-orb_n_829342.html
Duh.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Definitions
Every day we all here words being used but no one really says whether or not they are used correctly - what does it all really mean:
Facism: I will go with the Webster's dictionary definitions:
Definition of FASCISM
1
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralizedautocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition
2
: a tendency toward or actual exercise of strong autocratic or dictatorial control fascism and brutality — J. W. Aldridge>
— fas·cist noun or adjective often capitalized
— fas·cis·tic adjective often capitalized
— fas·cis·ti·cal·ly adverb often capitalized
Examples of FASCISM
- the rise of Fascism in Europe before World War II
- From the first hours of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, the propagandists on both sides of the conflict portrayed the struggle in stark, Manichaean language. The totalitarian nature of both regimes made this inevitable. On one side stood Hitler, fascism, the myth of German supremacy; on the other side stood Stalin, communism, and the international proletarian revolution. —Anne Applebaum, New York Review of Books, 25 Oct. 2007
- [+]more
Origin of FASCISM
Italian fascismo, from fascio bundle, fasces, group, from Latin fascis bundle & fasces fasces
Socialism:
so·cial·ism
noun \ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm\1
: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2
a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property
Again, it is not what the Obama administration is trying to achieve. Let's just get our facts straight.
Instead, we have corporations and extremely wealthy individuals with a political agenda controlling our government, controlling elected officials (isn't that corruption in its purest form?), controlling our media (Fox and Murdoch?) with claims of patriotism, but when the discourse is just the opposite? Even Henry Ford (racist that he was) understood that he had to pay his employees enough so they could afford to buy his cars.
The hostility we see right now toward government employees is horrific. As a former such employee, I can tell you that government work is not easy, and we were regularly underpaid (as I was not in a unionized position) and we all viewed the wonderful benefits like healthcare and a pension, as a payback for earning less than we would in the private sector.
Thus, although I do not condone illegal activity, I can certainly understand what "Anonymous" has done in hacking the website of the Koch brothers' backed organization that is funding truly anti-American activity, by trying to undermine our discourse.