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Zero Tolerance for Curiosity

Grandma Bates — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:30:47 GMT

Parents of a five year old boy obtained a rifle for their child. The product's name is "My first rifle," and the company that markets it has a part of their website called "Kids Corner." From the news descriptions this particular rifle is a single shot rifle with a child safety.

More details of this tragedy can be found here:
5-year-old shoots 2-year-old sister in Kentucky with rifle he got as a gift - The Washington Post

Presumably the parents left a rifle with a chambered round in a location that was easily accessible by a five year old, and they had a two year old walking around the house as well. Even if the five year old was given adequate instruction about the proper respect to give to firearms and was capable of understanding it they also had a two year old in the house. This was a tragedy in waiting.

Now, their daughter is dead. She was dead before she could receive proper medical attention. The parents failed in their most basic duties as parents. Apparently the authorities have decided that the parents have suffered enough and will not be pressing charges.

One week prior to this tragedy another, easily avoidable event unfolded:
The effects of unchecked criminalization: Teen charged with felony for science experiment

A curious teenager is facing felony charges for taking part in an unwise experiment in which nobody was harmed. It was a silly mistake but was done under circumstances, outside, that reduced the scale of the potential danger. In this instance nobody was hurt, the teen has recognized that she should not have done this, and school administrators readily admit that their was no malicious intent.

In the zeal for zero tolerance in urban environments a bright teenager with vast potential will be given a huge and undeserved penalty. Being curious is not a crime. Making a silly mistake that does not hurt anybody as a teenager should not bring shame that will be carried with her and burden her for the rest of her life.

It is difficult not to try and speculate what would have happened if this person was a white male in an affluent school district. The differences between the event in Kentucky where gross negligence resulted in the death of a child and the endangerment of a whole family brings out these differences in stark relief. That family gets to carry on and try to deal with their grief. At the same time a teenager whose actions had far less potential for mayhem will have to figure out how to obtain her education and has had her higher educational options for her future greatly reduced.

Agreeing to be disagreeable

Grandma Bates — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:24:42 GMT

Earlier today, in Illinois, a man broke into the home of a mother and shot and killed five people. The suspect in the crime was later killed by police. I do not know what the answer is to stop this madness, and I realize that a total ban on firearms is neither realistic nor appropriate, but something has to change.

Simply requiring background checks for people purchasing high velocity, small calibre weapons is controversial. Such weapons have no other purpose than to maim. Requiring background checks is something the NRA once backed but now says it is against it due to fears of the government.

The NRA has become an organization that only cares about itself. They are not even working for the firearms industry, and firearms companies live in fear of the NRA. They are even working against the long term interests of their own members creating an atmosphere of polarization and anger.

Furthermore, the NRA has boycotted anybody in the industry that does not kowtow to them :
Major Gun Show Postponed After Boycott Led By NRA, Gun Groups
How Close Are The NRA And Gunmakers, Really? : NPR

The vast majority of firearms owners are responsible and are not doing anything wrong. At the same time, I have a small child living in my house right now and do not want to have a firearm in the house. According to the NRA I am just a victim in waiting, and I should be spending the little free time I have preparing to defend myself. No thank you, I would rather live in a civilized world free from the fear of assault in my own home.

There was a time when fully automatic weapons were available to everybody. During the carnage of the Dillinger era they were made illegal. People said that outlawing them would have no effect since they were ubiquitous and easily obtainable.

Things turned out differently, and we are slowly approaching a situation that echoes those violent times.

We have a media that glorifies violence, and they are a bigger problem in my opinion. The US is wallowing in a culture that glorifies violence. It is time to turn off the media that portrays violence as anything other than ugly, brutal, and destructive. It is time to demand more from our representatives. It is time to vote at the ballot box and at the cashier.

The politicians in Washington DC have agreed to do nothing. We cannot accept that:

Cartoonists Demand Action - YouTube

From Tom The Dancing Bug Blog

Positive Government Roles

Grandma Bates — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:31:16 GMT

The Washington Post recently posted an opinion by Peter Wehner . Mr. Wehner was a special assistant to the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under Pres. Geoge H.W. Bush and is now a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

The EPPC defines itself here. The EPPC is a thinly veiled partisan think tank that pretends to support compassion and ethical conduct. Instead it spreads tripe like this.

Mr. Wehner's recent opinion piece focuses on the drug prohibition laws in the United States. His basic thesis is that the Republican party should take a strong stand against drug use, and that is a way for the party to regain its moral bearings.

Once again we see so-called conservatives aggressively promoting policies that negatively impact the most vulnerable people for the purpose of political gain. He even pulls out the tried and true, standard trope of doing so as a way to save innocent children.

He ends his piece with the following plea:

Quote:

... The law is a moral teacher, for well or ill, and self-government depends on certain dispositions and civic habits. The shaping of human character is preeminently � overwhelmingly � the task of parents, schools, religious institutions and civic groups. But government can play a role. Republicans should prefer that it be a constructive one, which is why they should speak out forcefully and intelligently against drug legalization.

Mr. Wehner has nothing to say about rehabilitation. There is nothing mentioned on the role of government to provide help to those who fall prey to the evils that he is eager to discuss. The only thing he can offer for the role of government is prohibition and stronger laws. Without the addition of services to help people the implicit message is that the only constructive role of government is to remove undesirable people from society, revoke their rights as human beings and participation in society, and offer little to no help to them to overcome the evils that befall them.

Senior fellow in ethics indeed.

The political parties in the US are quite adept at creating and promoting these so called "think-tanks." They pay huge sums of money to people whose sole job is to start with the goals of their respective movements and twist new arguments using language that is completely at odds with the goals they profess. In this case we have a group of people who use the guise of ethics as a way to marginalize a group of people and support an immoral system that destroys human lives. This does not even begin to describe the immoral impact of the war on drugs on other countries.

The worst part is that the regular media continues to support this system. The Washington Post published this and provides these people with a tall soapbox to shout from as well as a veneer of respectability. They are part of the problem.

-------------------------------------------

On a side note it looks like spring is almost here in the north country. Two weeks ago my backyard looked like this:

This weekend this was in our front yard:

By today most of the snow is gone, and the rabbits have returned:

In a short time Spring will be here in full force, and life will return to what is important:

Outright Lies Pay

Grandma Bates — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 22:38:17 GMT

In 2009 James O'Keefe published a video of an ACORN worker who appeared to be aiding efforts to smuggle under-age girls into the United States from Mexico to act as sex-workers in the United States. In the videos Mr. O'Keefe is shown dressed in the worst stereotypical manner possible for a would-be "pimp." The videos show the person at ACORN actively working to help Mr. O'Keefe in his smuggling operation.

The truth of the matter was entirely different. While Mr. O'Keefe was in the ACORN office he was in fact wearing a regular suit, and his so-called "pimp-suit" was edited into the video later. Moreover, the person he spoke to in the ACORN office immediately notified a police officer to let him know what happened in the office.

How do we know this? The California attorney general said that Mr. O'Keefe was given immunity so that he could provide the original videos. He also gets to keep the proceeds that he received for the use of the videos. For his punishment he has had to pay $100,000 to the person whose reputation has been completely ruined.

Juan Carlos Vera, the person he spoke to in the ACORN office, was fired. His name is mud, and he is known as the person who wanted to help James O'Keefe smuggle under-age prostitutes into the United States. Better yet, the video is still on O'Keefe's website and is still available for viewing.

This is justice in America.

To add insult to injury nothing has been learned in this episode by the larger media. The decision has received minimal attention and only appears in opinion sections and blogs:

Wonket Sexclusive: Totally Blameless Crime-Stopper James O�Keefe To Pay $100,000 To ACORN Criminal

Conservative activist James O'Keefe 'regrets any pain' to ACORN worker - latimes.com

Andrew Breitbart and James O'Keefe Ruined Him, and Now He Gets $100,000 - Conor Friedersdorf - The Atlantic

Sadly, little to no introspection by the larger media is taking place. This is the same media that is more than happy to talk about the attention they themselves are giving to politicians during the elections. Now when the full magnitude of their failure to actually report and do their job is on full display they are silent.

Apparently the news media has moved on. They have the attention span of a gnat, and this took place over three years ago. The damage done still lingers. Just ask Juan Carlos Vera while we wait for the next victim.

That Forgotten Spark

Grandma Bates — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:35:28 GMT

I recently stumbled upon an advertisement for Google's Art Project:

Art Project - Teaser - YouTube

To my surprise, as I watched the video that long lost idea of what SecondLife could be was rekindled. I remembered that spark that draw me in world. It seemed so easy to imagine these ideas translated into SecondlLife and shared in an interactive adventure. The potential to move and share in unexpected ways is one of the things that makes SecondLife so special.

The potential to explore a different aspect of an idea and express it in a new way was the thing that kept me in world, and there have been times that I have pursued that potential. The ability to walk around the backside and see a whole new aspect is the thing that makes SecondLife different.

Compared to my first tentative steps in that virtual world we have so much more power available to us now. In terms of scripting power I can animate whole linksets now and do things with one script that used to require a script in every prim. I can also create builds that are provide me with the right base orientations to do incredible things.

The power has come at a cost, though. Organizing and creating those scripts requires a fair amount of software engineering and planning which is something that requires training and patience. These same arguments can be said of mesh, 3D modeling, and texturing. The paradox is the aforementioned spark seems so much more allusive now. The days of working alone on something and making a niche seems to have been lost, as it now requires a group of specialized people working closely together to make it all fit together.

Bringing those teams together and keeping them working towards a goal is a huge chore in itself. That brings us to another paradox. One thing that Secondlife excels at is communication, yet keeping teams together from across the globe is so difficult as to seem to daunting a task to keep teams together for long term endeavors. The long march forward has yielded incredible progress, but it requires a degree of organization that calls for a layer of management to keep things organized and moving ahead.

Therein lies a fundamental tension within this virtual world. The individualistic nature of self expression and artistic exploration must be tempered by the limits of group and process. This is both a time of trial and a time of opportunity which leaves us to the final paradox.

This world was created to bring people together and to break down borders and barriers. The technical advances that have helped make it better in so many ways demand the formation of groups and tribes and can create barriers. SecondLife is maturing, but is there room for an Art Project? I sincerely hope that there is, because this is the kind of expression that provides the spark that makes SecondLife special and brings it to life.

Not News: Tropical Cyclone Haruna

Grandma Bates — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:17:55 GMT

On 22 February 2013 Cyclone Haruna hit Madagascar. More details can be found here:
IRIN Africa | Tropical Cyclone Haruna hits southwestern Madagascar | Madagascar | Natural Disasters

Madagascar is a poor country. Some of the basic statistics can be found here:
UNICEF - Madagascar - Statistics

Watching the African continent is a depressing activity especially sub-Saharan Africa. It seems that every step forward is followed by two steps backward. The US news organizations provide little attention even by American standards leaving some weary of the situation on the continent.

Madagascar sits off the coast of the continent and lies in a shadow nearly devoid of the attention of western eyes with the exception of cute cartoons focused on the indigenous lemur population. The impact of the most recent cyclone though is a horrible blow to the island that already is a victim of its own poverty.

There is no excuse, though, for the American media to ignore the situation in Madagascar. Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.

Malagasy Red Cross Society - IFRC

Is the Pope an Old Man?

Grandma Bates — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:28:19 GMT

For the first time in a couple centuries a Pope is stepping aside while still standing. It has been so long that even most Cardinals can barely remember the last time this has happened. One part of this story that is amazing is how quiet the church kept this.

The church took unprecedented steps to take care of one old man in his retirement. They even moved a whole cloister of nuns out of the Vatican so that he can rest in solitude in his retirement. As time has passed since the announcement a number of people are stepping forward to talk about the preparations and considerations that have been going on prior to the announcement.

Yet, no word came out until the actual announcement. This in itself is an amazing accomplishment. People like to talk about Papal conspiracy and chuckle about them, but this was clearly a large conspiracy, and they managed to pull it off. It makes me wonder why I have been so quick to scoff at some of the other outrageous conspiracy claims. Sadly it also demonstrates how easily the Church is able to hide monstrous abuses.

Fortunately the Internet is now on the case and are already making light of this development One of my favorites is from Ex-Benedict � Bits and Pieces :

Part of the reason the Vatican can keep secrets is the large number of people in the hierarchy born in Europe before Germany regained its status as a super-power in the late 1930's, and their idea of technical innovation is the adoption of the radio over the telegraph. The advantage of surrounding yourself with people who think that a telephone is a modern marvel is that they have no one to talk to and brag about their inside knowledge.

The demographics of the people who are going to decide on the next Pope is fascinating. The Cardinal Electors can be found here:
Cardinal Electors [Catholic-Hierarchy]

One of the things that makes this list interesting is that this is a partial list of the Cardinals. Any Cardinal over the age of 80 is not allowed to take part in the election, so this list is skewed to the youngest members of the hierarchy. (!)

I made a copy of this data that is computer readable and put it at College of Cardinals Electors - Pastebin.com

First, a little overview of the world's demographics courtesy of the CIA, https://www.cia.gov/library/publicat...k/geos/xx.html

World Age Structure:
0-14 years: 26.2% (male 950,474,013/female 887,057,234)
15-24 years: 17.1% (male 615,201,010/female 581,500,831)
25-54 years: 40.5% (male 1,434,672,361/female 1,407,874,923)
55-64 years: 8.2% (male 282,837,253/female 295,889,006)
65 years and over: 8% (male 249,318,537/female 312,187,796) (2012 est.)

According to the CIA almost half of the world's population is under the age of 25 and a large portion are from a group some call "female."

What about the Electer Cardinals? Here is a summary of the data for their ages:
Min. 53.66
1st Qu. 68.39
Median 73.15
Mean 71.97
3rd Qu. 76.81
Max. 79.97

Note that the gender distribution is also easily listed above. A histogram for the ages can be found below:

To compare with the world population the same plot is given below only scaled to show ages from 0 to 80, and the 25 year mark is shown in red:

I quickly ran through the data and tried to identify where these people are from. This was done quickly and likely includes errors, but here is what I found:
Africa 11
Australia 1
Caribbean 3
East Asia 2
Europe 62
Middle East 2
North America 16
Pacific 1
South America 13
South Asia 7

Note this is a bit misleading since some of the African delegation comes from North Africa and in some ways has more in common with the Middle East category. (The Middle East category includes one Israeli.) If this data is not startling enough for you here is a bar plot to show the frequencies:

We have been reading that the fasted growth in the Catholic Church is south of the equator. How are the ages of the Elector Cardinals distributed? A frequency table can be found below:
locations
levs A C E EA ME NA Oz P S. Asia SA
[50,55) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
[55,60) 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
[60,65) 1 0 5 0 0 5 0 0 0 1
[65,70) 4 0 13 0 0 3 0 0 3 3
[70,75) 3 1 16 1 2 2 1 0 1 2
[75,80) 3 2 25 1 0 6 0 0 2 7

(A=Africa,C=Cari-bean,E=Europe,EA=East Asia,ME=Middle East,NA=North America, OZ=Australia, P=Pacific, S. Asia = South Asia (duh), SA=South America).

(Sorry - I do not know how to make this forum software paste this nicely. :( )

These numbers are so strongly skewed toward older Europeans I could not make a good plot of them. I will copy my best attempt at a mosaic plot below, but be warned that it will probably make Edward Tufte die a little bit on the inside even though he will never see it:

One of these people will likely be the next Pope, and they are also the same people who will elect the next Pope. The Pope holds incredible power over the spiritual direction of the Catholic Church. He will pick the people who will pick his successor. His legacy will impact people for decades, and he will help steer the spiritual beliefs of people across the globe.

I pray that it is not too late to impart wisdom on these men.

Large Groups as an Excuse to Lose Self Awareness

Grandma Bates — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:37:34 GMT

Listening to NPR this morning they had a segment on the impending vote by the Boy Scouts Of America (BSOA) to drop their total ban on homosexuals. The piece they ran included an interview by someone who supports the ban and wants to keep it. His rationale was that "large corporations should not be pressuring a private organization to change."

I nearly had an aneurysm.

This simple statement encompasses the full stereotype of the self indulgent entitlement mentality. He was upset that private corporations who have absolutely no duty to support the BSOA in any way are wrong to withhold their support because of differences in policies. Ignoring the moral dimension of banning people from your organization while at the same time claiming that your organization is important, the idea that a corporation has no business in deciding where they send their money while at the same time pulling the private organization card is mind boggling. (One wonders if he also considers corporations as having equal footing as a human being, but that is pure speculation on my part.)

This is a clear example that the dialog in the US is an emotionally charged mess with little to no principle. If the BSOA decides to keep their ban in place then that is their decision. They are a private organization and have that right. It is also an organization that is supposed to stress fundamental principles and leadership. If they keep their ban then it is their burden to accept the consequences. If that means that they continue to lose members then that is one less dinosaur to worry about in the world.

Finally, on a more humorous note, they also included a quote by the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry. His take on the situation is that there is no need to make any changes. He does not think that there is any room in the BSOA to be discussing matters of sexuality. Once again Gov. Perry is explicitly saying that he cannot even imagine being next to a homosexual man without having to get into details about sexual conduct.

He really needs to take a little trip on a "gay cruise" and get this out of his system. For all of our sakes.

Children as Political Play Toys

Grandma Bates — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:33:19 GMT

Politicians in the state of Missouri are debating about whether or not to require first grade students to take part in mandatory firearm safety classes. This is part of a thread here on SLU, and once my own response grew past five paragraphs realized it was time to take it private.

I have been thinking a bit about this firearms safety thing. On the surface there are some good points to the program. Teaching children to understand and respect firearms can likely save lives. On the other hand it also means state wide unfunded mandates on already overburdened local school districts.

I have not been able to find details on the NRA grant but there is no indication of a long term promise to support this. It also requires additional training for teachers with estimates of a 16 million dollar price tag and no state support. That means less support for teacher training in the teacher's core educational activities. Not only that but a good bit of that firearm training monies is likely to end up right back in the NRA's coffers.

The NRA has a vested interest in this, and the organization itself has become a highly organized political machine as much as anything else, and they have managed to get legislation introduced for debate that will directly benefit them. A controversial private organization is manipulating a state government to get funds channeled to them in the name of public safety.

All this does is reinforce my personal view that the primary difference between the two major American political parties is which big government solution they prefer. The Republican party's libertarian rhetoric is not much more than an excuse used to bash the other side and has little basis in reality.

As an example look at the discussions going on about the "fiscal cliff" and the resulting sequestration. It is unpopular on both sides of the aisle. Not because of the cuts in general but because they are across the board. Both sides are more interested in preserving their own views on which programs should suffer more cuts.

Going back to the state of Missouri, politicians are trying to find new ways to use small children to advance a political agenda, and it is happening in the shadow of the slayings in Connecticut. This in itself is not surprising, but once again the unfortunate part is so many are addressing this in terms of the bill itself with little discussion about the broader actions of government officials and their duty to properly serve the people who elected them.

We Need More French Food. Much More.

Grandma Bates — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 16:18:16 GMT

Edward Tufte tweeted a link to a new report, U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health, which includes a link to an interactive graph:
International Health Data
(Click on the different options to the right of the bar chart to get death rates for different causes and more options.)

It is a surprising mix of results with respect to the United States. In some categories the US does quite well and is even the best in the group of 16 peers in some cases. Unfortunately, in those categories that the US does not perform well in are the cases that impact a lot of people, and the overall mortality rate for the causes examined in the report for the US is quite poor.

The post-tramautic stress disorder comparison is particularly shocking, and the mortality rates for injuries also stands out. The most shocking results from the US perspective, though, are those associated with neonatal care.

The mortality rates associated with maternal and pregnancy related conditions are the highest in the peer group by far. The mortality rates for perinatal related conditions are also the highest amongst industrialized countries. In the last few years politicians in the US have focused on cutting funding for agencies that are associated with providing abortions. This has occurred while women and children are literally dieing at the highest rate amongst this peer group.

Once again I am left looking at this data and wondering where is the outrage? The people who are amongst the most vulnerable in our society have become political play toys for the political parties. They generate outrage in ways to get support for the political class, but the support for the people who need it the most is missing.

To end this rather depressing set of results on a "lighter note" (if high mortality rates can be considered light fare) it is fascinating to note that the country with the highest mortality rate for conditions associated with nutritional deficiencies is France. Irony never rests.

Things Mitt Romney Does Not Really Want

Grandma Bates — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 02:08:26 GMT

A recent interview with Taggert "Yes that is my name" Romney included a quote that has been getting quite a bit of attention. The younger Romney stated that of all his acquaintances his father wants the job of president the least. My first thought was, "I want to party with this guy." He must hang out with some real maniacs if his father is the one with the humblest political ambitions.

The quote itself is interesting given that his father, his party, and other allies spent nearly one billion dollars for his campaign, worked nearly a decade, managed to drag every other candidate in the primaries through the mud as the party's members tried desperately to find someone else including Herman Cain (which shows us just how desperate people were). Taggert Romney went on to say that his father would have been happy to let someone else go in his place.

Some more cynical observers have noted that this might not really be the case. Personally, I found the idea a bit intriguing. For example, today a large part of the Romney clan went to the chapel, and if young Taggert's claim is true then Grandpa Mitt was the person in the congregation who wanted to be the president the least. It is easy to imagine the stake bishop making a subtle joke during the service as to why he should be president rather than Brother Mitt. Sister Ann would probably be visibly agitated along with the rest of the congregation.

Once the clan made it home they would gather around a fire and exchange gifts. Everybody in the family would be trying to make their case as to why they would make a better president while each person jockeys to open their presents last to insure that they appear humble yet presidential. I have to say, though, that the idea that the very young grandchildren bent on becoming president and voicing strident opinions on their ambitions is more than a little creepy.

At any rate, as people begin to explore this fascinating premise we can soon expect the Mitt Romney Top Ten List of Things He Does Not Really Want To Do:

10) Listen to that pinhead who says things that he does not agree with.

9) Describe what he will do.

8) Tell his wife he really did not want it anyways.

7) Drink it off.

6) Take a clear, consistent stand.

5) Have to refer to his signature health care plan that was lifted up as a model for America as "Obamacare" while sneering in disdain.

4) Listen to the 47% and consider their point of view.

3) Save the Salt Lake Olympic games.

2) Marry a self entitled, narcissistic trophy wife.

1) Admit defeat

Speaking of Hatred

Grandma Bates — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:19:58 GMT

I started a response to a message in a thread here and once it passed the third paragraph I realized it best to bring it to my pulpit here. This thread started off on a complaint about the Westboro Baptist Church and their plans to cause a disruption at the burials for the people killed in the slayings in the elementary school in Connecticut. The discussion soon turned to the general issue of hate speech in America.

I have had to cross a Westboro picket line. These people are farcical and are a bad parody of themselves. I understand that some people are angered by them, but I personally found them quite easy to ignore.

This past weekend I had to sit down with a nine year old child and explain to her what happened in Connecticut and tell her that a grown man shot his way into a school and massacred small children and the people they were entrusted to. At the same time numerous people are using this event to push forward their political agendas of making weapons more easily attainable or further forcing specific religious practices on children. This is the most visible and grotesque example of the problems we have, but there is also on average about 50 firearm related deaths a day in this country.

We cannot turn on a television in the US during the evening without having to navigate around multiple grizzly deaths. At the same time politicians pretend to be offended if we take a moment of silence on the news and state the names of soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. [1] Additionally, if any woman dare to show part of a nipple, people slip into hysterics at the mere hint of nudity [2], and they go absolutely apoplectic at the mere idea of the intimacy of any sort of sexual activity. [3]

The US is mired in a culture of violence and dehumanization. People are deeply divided on almost every issue, and a common activity is to find new, ever more creative ways to demonize the other people that we do not happen to completely agree with. People with whom we have relatively minor disagreements with are labeled as being against our "way of life" and are marked as being an evil menace that will destroy us and bring the country down.

As an example of the impact of the lack of honest debate, discussion, and respect a recent poll indicated that 80% of Americans now believe that there is an issue with global warming. [4] The additional results in this poll paint a complicated picture, and the poll itself has not received wide spread attention. Another poll shows the extent of the bizarre debate that surrounds this issue. In the other poll 36% of those who believe in climate change believed it is part of the biblical prophecy for the end times. [5]

As an aside, on Saturday we were in Ottawa to visit the Canadian War Museum's exhibit on the War of 1812. While playing around in an activity that was set up at the end of the exhibit we listened to one of the attendants explain how proud she was of the Canadian military's reputation as being fierce fighters who do not give up. When discussing the exhibit itself she told us how glad she was that Canada prevailed in the War of 1812 and glad to be distinct from the United States.

We later went to visit the regular museum exhibits and walked through the exhibits on the war in South Africa and then to the First World War. I was able to make it through most of the exhibit remaining relatively detached emotionally, but the section on Vimy was too moving. Our ability to make distinctions between fellow humans is not something unique to the United States.

We have many problems as a species. The extremes of the family at the Westboro Baptist Church are one example, but they are certainly not the best example of the troubles that we face.

[1] 'Nightline' war dead list causes uproar - Entertainment - Television - TODAY.com
[2] Let me google that for you
[3] Seriously, do you really need a citation for this?
[4] AP-GfK Poll: Belief in global warming rises with thermometers, even among US science doubters | Associated Press GfK Poll
[5] Biblical 'end times' and climate cited in survey of severe weather - U.S. News

One Percent of What?

Grandma Bates — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 01:55:00 GMT

It has been unseasonably warm here the last two days. The ice has just about melted from the river, and I was able to ride my bicycle home this evening. The great thing about being on a bicycle is it gives you a very different view of things when you are standing in the street waiting on a light to change.

At one particular light I stood behind a car with two rather interesting bumper stickers. The first was an old standard, "Think Globally, Act Locally." The second was a new one inspired by the Occupy Wall Street crowd, "Proud Member of the 99%."

Somebody out there driving a late model car in the US needs to take that first bumper sticker a little more seriously or at least do a little math. The world is a big place.

Dividing the Profits of Division

Grandma Bates — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:08:06 GMT

The dissection of the previous election cycle has begun, and the evolution of the analysis has already started. The partisans complain about the changing electorate. The technicians pick apart the failings of Project Orca. The advocates complain about the role of money.

The question of money is most interesting. A staggering amount of money was spent to keep the status quo in place. The "traditional" media benefits from this arrangement. A great deal of money is spent on television and other traditional media outlets. Having a closely divided electorate insures that a small difference in voting yields a big difference in results.

Big media has a conflict of interest when it comes to reporting on elections. Not only is it easier to discuss the so-called "horse race" but the media is guaranteed to rake in more money, quickly, easily, and directly, when large numbers of people are motivated to give that little extra to give their party any small advantage.

One effective response to the conservative media onslaught is satire and humour. This is demonstrated most effectively by the Daily Show. This show is like a sledgehammer that continuously outs the lies of the politicians. Its demographic is young people in exactly the age range that the media outlets die for.

This is the same media that relentlessly copies each other. The so-called "prime-time" is filled with clones of each of the others' successes. One of the most successful programs whose demographics hits the sweet spot that all the media companies desparately want adamantly refuses to copy is also a liberal strong hold. It is also one of the few media spectacles in which the people involved are free to explore actual truth rather than simply truthiness.

One bright spot is that despite the vast sums of money being spent the new media that is available is able to also reach large numbers of people in simple effective ways. As soon as Gov. Romney proclaims that he is ready to take out Big Bird an army of basement dwelling Photoshop users are on hand to set the tone of the discussion. Humor and Satire used in rapid response with tiny budgets allows individuals to make a big impact.

This last election cycle was deeply disturbing on so many levels. One of the few bright spots is that despite the active role of big money individuals made a difference and were able to share their message. Communication matters and even a political genius like Karl Rove can forget about the importance of small, personal interactions.

Out of the Birth Canal of Democrazy - the War on Reality

Grandma Bates — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:07:12 GMT

Every round the election cycle gets longer and stupider. The crescendo of stupid somehow manages to get louder and louder well beyond any level that I would have ever thought possible. In one more day this round will finally be over, and we will have given birth to a bouncing baby new election cycle as the losing side starts its machinations to demonize and label the next Muslim Terrorist/Morman Fatcat administration.

The only respite is that the system is more robust than even the Founders may have imagined. While I do not personally like Gov. Romney and suspect that his policies will hurt many people, it will not signal the end of the USA, and we will not spiral into Republican Armageddon.

I have looked back at these posts here and realized that I spent a lot of time focused on him. The thing is that I find Gov Romney an oddly compelling figure. He seems to be a living Markov process, that is he has no memory of the past and only moves forward with only one concern which is where he is now and no concern about how he got here.

We complain about people's lack of memory with respect to the economic free fall that marked the end of the GW Bush years, but we also forget the shifting sands of the Clinton years. President Clinton also had a penchant to shift his views. His notorious shift to the right after his first two years in office seem to have fallen off the radar.

The bigger question is what will the next Congress be like? This is a Congress filled with the Tea Partiers who vowed to never change and bring new views to Washington DC. These people will now have been in Washington for over 4 years. They will have gone through two or three election cycles, and they are now in the rhythm of raising and focusing on campaign loot. They are now creatures of Washington, and they are now beholden to a new group of anti-tax hawks. The Koch brothers and others have joined Grover Norquist in demanding absolute fealty to them.

Their impact on politics and the money they command will be the new center ring act as we see the logical conclusion to their impact beyond just election money. Politics in Washington is about power. Money is merely a means to an end, and now the real payment comes due. These people who have poured their toxic cash and divided Americans into two tribes will demand what is due to them. The ultimate self contradiction is about to be realized. The people elected in gerrymandered districts who claim to be beyond "politics as usual" are now completely beholden to a few special interests who keep them in power.

There are times when I want to say "to heck with it" and let it happen. At some level I want the people who vote against their own best interests to fully realize and understand what this means. It seems like that may be the only way to open eyes.

Sadly, the impact will be a lot of people hurt who are our most vulnerable. Moreover, this election cycle has made it clear that the impact of easy news available of the internet age is that it is now easier than ever to not just ignore reality but declare a War on Reality. Information has an expiration date, and apparently that date is only about three days in the future.

I will see you all on Thursday when the next round of reality begins.