I’m definitely feeling under the weather today. Somebody start a conversation, please. I can’t concentrate to write anything long, but maybe I can muster a comment or two. Any non-Mandela stuff going on that is of interest to you?
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Expectations?
Statements by PM Netanyahu & US Secretary of State Kerry following their meeting
Our emergency 911 just dispatched a winter travel advisory urging everyone to stay off the roads. I haven’t seen much traffic in the village anyway – everyone is delightedly taking a snow day off.
I’m having a snow day, too. It started early this morning in our area of SW Ohio with sleet, then switched over to snow. It’s been coming down steadily for a few hours and we’ve got about three inches on the ground now at 3:00 pm.
Predictions from the NWS range from 4-8 inches total snowfall by later this evening. Fine by me! I love being snowed in! I’ll be cooking a pot roast for dinner and I’ve been working on a hooked rug commission all day. My perfect type of day!
I’m with you, donnah. I decided yesterday, because of the forecast, that I was just going to work from home today. Turns out they closed the office at noon. So I’ve been piddling in the kitchen this afternoon. Got everything ready to make a Thai dish tonight. Have some beans simmering on the stove to make some hummus. Garlic roasting in the oven. The snow is really coming down right now, and there is no better excuse to rattle some pots and pans than a good heavy winter snow. I’m having fun. Only thing left is for the wife to make it home safely, and we’ll spend the night with a fire in the fireplace and some good, homemade food.
Perfect!
roasting garlic!! – do you grow your garlic?
Yes. We grow garlic every year. It is a staple in my kitchen. Used in almost everything.
Wonderful! how much do you grow? – I’m growing some this year for the first time, just about 16 plants [might last a week]
I generally get about 100 heads of garlic. I have done more a couple of years. A portion of that goes in various things that we will can in the fall. I save the largest heads to use as seed for the next crop.
I store the garlic heads on a flat, wire tray in the basement. I’ve had it keep for 6 or 7 months before it starts to sprout. If everything works out, we use pretty much everything we plant.
thanks
Perhaps the most disturbing thing is that humans generally tend to ignore the reality of their existence and most particularly that which separates and binds us to other animals. Specifically i speak of features like self awareness, the ability to determine our species development (potential evolutionary direction) and the inexorable truth that LIFE is its own purpose.
Instead we tend to wallow in our lizard brain (led/dominated by our instincts {read outward manifestations [emotions] rather than our self aware consequential reasoning). Thus we are as blindly opportunistic as the cloven beasts of the fields, ripe for the predators taking, reacting only to immediate wants and only palpable perceived threats.
And when we do venture from our lower brain functions we tend to we let them hobble our pre-frontal cortex abstract reasoning by superimposing a superficial layer of pseudo tangibles or absolutes…. at least as far as we know where none actually has provable (outside its self referential basis) tangible existence. We call them beliefs, gods, race or culture e.g. money/wealth, power, Christianity, Islam, communism, capitalism, Patriotism, paternalism, feminism even Aggressive Atheism et al
But most disturbingly we rarely if ever, go beyond (deeper).We use the above fatally flawed pseudo absolutes to justify further more pseudo absolutes we call them morality. Which in the final analysis are culturally specific e.g. infanticide was the only choice for the Moriori isolated on a remote island (Chatham Islands) as hey were. This can be compared with the fate of the Rapanui (Easter Island). Then consider the absolute immorality of say the exploitation of Westerners at the expense of the others.
Clearly this leaves us back with the Animalistic variations on the theme “law of the Jungle”. Despite what Western cultures assert They are in principal no more advanced than the animals particularly (but not exclusively) those who are generally referred to as the recalcitrant right. Only in their case its variations on the abstract gods. They come in many forms but are essentially all have similar features ….namely they add real earthly hierarchy and they are in effect regarded more important than (other’s) Life(s); (read losers, collateral damage).
It is this superficiality that causes the most misunderstandings and conflict neither of which are NECESSARY to maintain or enjoy life. I suspect that it is this rationale that powered Mandela and repulses his detractors.
Perhaps the most insidious of the morally, sociopathic detractors are those who know better but manipulate the unwary for personal gain.. see shock jocks, myopic businesses, most but clearly not all politicians and yes those who see it as somebody else’s problem (SEP).
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the cure to ‘whatever, man’
Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) is preparing to run against Pat McCrory for governor. Cooper is a very popular statewide incumbent with multiple re-elections and high approvals. This is very good news. Will the state Democratic establishment be open to moving in a populist and progressive direction on Cooper’s coattails to take some House seats and regain the legislature? The backlash to GOP overreach would make this an opportune time.
Today is the 50.5 year anniversary of the death of Zazu Pitts.
I didn’t know that, but I like her. I believe Popeye’s girlfriend Olive Oyl was modeled after her. I remember her as Gale Storm’s comic sidekick. But long before that she was in a lot of movies.
Wow, really interesting. I had never heard of either of them, even though I fancy myself a movie and TV buff, so thanks for the information. I’m going to have to get my hands on some of their work. Apparently Storm was a recording star as well as an actress.
I’m still pondering this excerpt from Henry Giroux’s book, “Zombie Politics and Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism”.
and it has me thinking about a book written by Parker Palmer back in 1984, “The Company of Strangers” . Palmer also talks about this literacy in terms of public (literate) versus private (illiterate).
There is a really strong need for people to realize that they have a civic duty to get involved in the public realm and pay particular attention to the political process (not the melodramatic superficial version pushed by our infotainment industry). It’s a pretty fundamental. We need significantly more civic engagement.
As opposed to know-nothing advice from people like David Brooks.
Brooks’s freedom from hard work is typical of American aristocrats (well “aristo” is not the prefix that fits with Brooks but the sense of privilege is the same).
For folks in my world, work takes 40-60 hours a week, family support of schooling and kids recreation takes a few more, church takes an hour or two, and continuing maintenance of an owned home takes some more. There are condo board meetings, scout activities, church meetings, some environmental and social betterment (for lack of a better term) activities and meetings. What is lacking is the institutional structure that bridges the gap between the neighborhoods and the city and county governments, which are large enough that you already have the temptations and blandishments of developers and other business interests.
My proposal for increasing civic engagement is going to a 20-hour work week with substantial and universal overtime penalties.
And then there’s the matter of the change in political style from the 1950s until now. In the 1950s, politicians would make folks feel like they were important and that civic engagement actually moved what they were doing. Today’s politicians so control the information channels that they neither know exactly what their ordinary constituents think (polling is a poor substitute) nor are they open to other than stereotyped opinions about policy issues. This turns people off and suppresses civic engagement. It also allows them to clearly notice that the system is rigged toward money.
You really nailed on the realities that most people face each day. I like your 20hr/week idea! Regarding people getting civically engaged – even in the society we live in now:
Our little group – Occupy Democracy – Pasadena – chose to tackle “Citizens United” 2 years ago. We moved a congressman and we moved our city council, and while that’s been more positive feedback than most activists get, we have a long road ahead to get a constitutional amendment.
Sometimes the local work can lead to a big national payoff (i.e. the fillibuster being somewhat reformed last month). We hope our work, combined with many others in Southern California, will have an impact some day at the federal level. There is so much more meaning and joy to be found in community with other activists.
This is so spot on. I can still recall watching an interview show at least a decade ago, in which the show host was chastising the various everyday citizens that volunteered to come in to speak about their perspective. They did not vote and he was challenging them about that.
But the show host didn’t listen. He completely missed how much time the average working person with a family has committed to other spheres of life. He also missed how difficult it is to discover useful sources of quality information amid all the fluff and infotainment. But he was a political journalist (yes, actually a relatively good one too) living and working close to sources and seemed somehow to assume that everyone else had that kind of access.
I wonder how much importance public life would have had in the past if there had been entertainment like we have now. Granted you don’t get the whole people v. lions in the arena bit, but still.
James Madison made sure to bring a jug of hard cider on election day. That improved turnout a lot.
A former American election tradition, as I understand it.
Nice to see a reference to Parker Palmer. I’ve got one of his books around here somewhere. I also agree with Giroux: “it is about not knowing how to read the world.” Does Giroux happen to have a plan for overcoming that? Part of the refusal to know is about fairly standard human psychology. To some extent every one of us creates a bubble of familiarity to give us comfort against a mysterious existence called life. Most of us don’t WANT to hear that something is wrong with the way we designed our bubble.
I agree with you completely. But the US does not have the democratic structures to support that civic engagement. Our “free press” was sold off to the highest bidders. Corporations control the national discussions. “Journalists” care more about their own chummy relationships with the people in power than relating to Joe Citizen what is going on. We often take information for granted. But information is too distorted and manipulated now to be really effective.
There are ways to get people to look outside their bubbles and there are ways to rebuild a more credible news/information component of our society. It is not going to be easy.
Definitely some food for thought. I cannot say I ever read Parker Palmer’s book, but that quote you cite is an interesting one – I can say I learned something new. It’s been a little bit, but I read Giroux’s book a while back – am pleased that someone else here apparently finds some of his work of value. Somewhere along the course of my lifetime we got away from teaching people to think critically. I’m many years removed from the educational system at any level at this point, so I am living vicariously through my kids these days. I have not been impressed with what counts as civics training. But I am equally unimpressed with the job our media and our elected officials do.
How much of this is flaws in the insurance company interfaces that the insurance companies have not completely addressed? How much political cover is the Administration providing for the insurance companies just to avoid a pissing contest?
Coverage of the technical problems with these interfaces indicate that they might be rooted in the failure of the Bush administration to properly supervise the rollout of the implementation of HIPAA data transactions across all insurers, allowing some insurers to keep proprietary and incompatible data transaction formats. According to these reports, HHS had to do substantial data standardization work on the data transactions to and from the back-end of the web site. The way that these things should work is that HHS has a single standard communications data format and protocols for this particular form. And each insurance company has a communication counterpart of this. From there, the insurance companies interface the information with the various internal systems they have to service the new account. Some companies likely wanted either more (or less) information about new accounts or wanted more (or fewer) characters in the data fields in order to minimize their own programming costs.
Ooooh. More interesting goodies.
Let me see. Blue Cross/Blue Shield through Wellpoint’s VP-Government Relations wrote the ACA bill. AHIP got left out in the cold because of its hardnosed opposition.
I wonder whose insurance company members are complaining. I’m betting it’s not BC/BS. And it makes me wonder whether the continuing complaints are part of a sabotage campaign using AHIP member companies, some of whom are likely highly dissatisfied with being other than a money collection scheme.
the jamaican food truck at the corner of 3rd and Spring Garden is amazing, huge portions of delicious food.
Food truck lunch – had something amazing and delicious today. I understand from ppl in line today that there’s a program on the food channel about food trucks across the USA?
It is currently zero degrees here in Minnesota, which is also approximately the temperature of Michelle Bachmann’s heart. Once this equilibrium is reached, it is believed that tiny demons fly out of her chest, go shopping at wal-mart, and then return to slumber for another day.
Thanks for the clarification about Bachmann. Somehow I was under the impression that the temperature of her heart was zero degrees Kelvin, not Fahrenheit.
For some reason, I envisioned the demons coming out of some other spot other than her chest.
Not happy with Kos throwing Schwartz under the bus yesterday alongside PCCC. This is going to be Bob Casey all over again…
But, today she willing to co sponsor a bill to expand SS.
She’s already resigning her seat (which I hope will be filled by Daylin Leach, a real progressive) — so nudging her to the left is pointless.
Look, I actually know Allyson Schwartz. (I am not working on her campaign yet because I have a 3 year old at home.) She’s been a great supporter of expanding healthcare and unlike most of our Dems in Pa, is rock solid on choice.
While I am certain she’ll piss me off at some point in her term, she’ll be actually able to govern this state far more progressively than it has been in decades.
I believe the gerrymandering of some states which gave the gop the house majority is a serious problem which can’t be fixed until 2020. I’d like to hear some ideas on how that situation might be alleviated.
The Dems could take back the house but for that gerrymandering.
Otherwise, I think the Dems can dominate the govt for years to come. That would only SCOTUS as an obstacle to rational govt.
ereed
Personally, I don’t think we dominate until we do significantly better at getting people to the polls for non-Prez election contests. I’ve seen SO many elections go for a Republican in relatively liberal areas.
I think the focus needs to be more than GOTV (get out the vote). It needs to be educational. New voters, the young, immigrants, (many who are normally Dem leaning) need to be informed more about how our political institutions work. We need civics lesson materials to pass out. It also needs to draw what is now the clear distinction between Repub and Dem policies. They need to have something more than the ads with the candidates smiling family lined up. If they like our Prez candidate, they need to know they have to support our House and Senate candidates too so that the Prez can lead and not be obstructed so easily.
Nevada, 2012. A lot of new voters thanks to a massive voter registration effort.
The Repub prez candidate received only 7096 more votes than their senate candidate. On the Dem side there were 87,036 more votes for Obama than for the Dem senate candidate.
Obama 531,373
Romney 463,567
Berkley(D) 444,337
Heller(R) 456,471
Yes our candidate had some serious weaknesses. But how do we lose that senate seat if voters understand the differences of the parties and how the prez needs support in Congress to get work done?
Democracy is not just about the president. In fact there is something indecent about progressives, “the party of the people”, not being able to focus on, educate and organize the people better for down ticket contests and off prez-year elections.
There is only so much you can do to educate people when most people aren’t interested in being educated.
Bread and circuses has been extended to McDonalds and Youtube, both of which satiate people’s desire to feel full, without them having to fire off more than a dozen neurons.
It’s more than education or GOTV. It’s parenting your kids to not be fucking idiots and morons.
That, or we unplug TV and the internet.
Yep – empty calories.
In opposition to Obamacare, some doctors are refusing to take insurance payments from ANYONE.
Lol, they won’t really last unless their clientele is quite wealthy. Some can make it work, but they’ll be coming back at some point.
These people really are fucking morons. I swear…
Well, someone has to take care of all the rich people.
I’m using the weekend to pour over the new pension law passed in Illinois. It seems already clear that it won’t stand up in court. But that seems to be Madigan’s strategy for some reason: pass useless, pointless legislation. Yet I don’t understand why he is doing this. The constitutional amendment voted on in the Spring was another example of this idiocy.
On top of it the conservative group of 1 percenters known as the Civic Club of Chicago have succeeded in making “the pension crisis” the meme. Nevermind about the bonds and other forms of excessive borrowing. Illinois has a fiscal crisis and Illinoisans are not getting the full story. And they’re being turned to embrace the demonisation of unions. Yet, revenue collection is in just as much need of overhaul. To that end, Dems and others are pushing for a graduated tax system.
http://www.abetterillinois.org/news/clips/democrats-tax-proposal-sets-stage-for-2014-battle
Is Madigan for graduated income tax? Nothing will happen without his support. He is the real power in Illinois.
I thought this was pretty striking and wonder what it’s all about…
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/business/energy-environment/citing-cost-concerns-shell-will-not-bu
ild-gulf-coast-plant.html?ref=business
Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday that it would not build an immense gas-to-liquids plant on the Gulf Coast because of concerns over its cost. The plant would have cost more than $20 billion, the company said. “With all the projects in the U.S. it would have been very difficult to have enough skilled labor to do it without cost overruns,” said Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer in New York.
I think there is something to this… It echoes some of my recent experience with companies declining to bid 6 figure capital projects claiming they are too busy.
I wonder if that is not enough skilled Labor in the US … or in Louisiana?
Remember, the skilled underclass (non-college laborers with significant construction experience) of New Orleans is no longer in Louisiana.
For big projects like that, the A&E firms / construction managers could get people to make the trip from around the country, but it could be a local problem I suppose. My personal experience says that this lack of skilled labor (welders, electricians, pipe fitters, etc.) that’s needed to build a chemical plant is driving up costs. Lead times for certain equipment are pushing 20 weeks due to the strong demand.
I realize this is all anecdotal, but it tells me that this economy really is humming along despite having high unemployment for unskilled labor. Those folks are just getting left behind and haven’t a clue what we do about it.
Yeah. The skilled trades are a lot more mobile than they were even 40 years ago.
I can remember being offered a job in NY and not being able to take it unless I actually moved to NY. My nephews, on the other hand, have accepted jobs all over the country and keep returning to Missouri after the job is completed. Travel is no longer a barrier, it is now only a consideration.