Wednesday,
October 1, 2013
Wednesday
last
was a perfect fall day: cloudless, sunny, cobalt-blue skies and a
gentle warming sun. A great day to walk the neighborhood, say hello
to those out and about, and look at the changing flowers and those
trees that always begin to change early. This past week metro Denver
got its first frost, traditionally heralding the official beginning
of Indian Summer. On this Monday and Tuesday, the sun shone brightly
and the temperature climbed to 80, giving a bit more life to the
flowers and time on the golf courses for those so inclined.
Shutdown.
Remember 1997? Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, the last
time the government “closed” for business. Robert Costa, editor
of the right-leaning National
Review
comments:
When
you get the members off the talking points you come to a simple
conclusion: They don't face consequences for taking these hardline
positions. When you hear members talk candidly about their biggest
victory, it wasn’t winning the House in 2010. It was winning the
state legislatures in 2010 because they were able to redraw their
districts so they had many more conservative voters. The members get
heat from the press but they don't get heat from back home.
It
would seem the late House Speaker, Tip O'Neill, was right: “all
politics is local” and we are living through one of the
consequences.
CO
flood cleanup
continues apace, putting a strain on both manpower and waste disposal
facilities. As yet there is no accurate report from eastern CO on
the state's damaged oil/gas/fracking sites and facilities. Job
centers are now recruiting for those back-breaking cleanup jobs, $10
- $12 hour – many with unlimited overtime. Reportedly, the state
has become a magnet for those unemployed who can get here with a
“reliable” vehicle.
Gun
control. The
media has duly reported that two members of the Colorado legislature
were recalled, largely because of their support for two modest gun
control measured passed by the legislature here, universal gun
registration and a ban on large capacity magazines. You might be
surprised to learn that “...guns,
as Jonathan Lowy of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence’s
Legal Action Project has said, are 'the only consumer product in
America with no federal safety oversight.' ”
Firearms
haven’t always been a protected class; but as the industry lost
millions in lawsuits over the years, liability protection became the
NRA’s holy grail. In 2005, after a civil lawsuit brought after the
Washington, D.C., sniper killings left the manufacturer Bushmaster
with a $2 million bill, the NRA aggressively and successfully lobbied
for the passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act ,
which offered permanent protection to gun makers. Note the sly title
accorded this bill: no real mention of firearms. In today's perverse
political climate, your child rides in a car seat with consumer
protection, subject to recalls, but not your firearm.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-the-case-for-gun-liability-laws/2013/09/24/e0e8adb4-2457-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html?hpid=z2
America's
possibilities vs. reality. In last Wednesday's column, Thomas
Friedman reminded us that America has tremendous opportunities, but
seems to be wandering about with no national plan for exploiting our
advantages.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/opinion/friedman-the-way-we-were.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
The
rich and the even richer. Jim
Hightower (national
radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author) notes
that Pope Francis is an unlikely ally for those fighting poverty in
America. Then read Paul Krugman's recent column on the squeeze on
the middle class, while the upper 1% – and those even further
above, the top 0.01% – become even wealthier, the middle class
loses ground. Hightower:
http://www.creators.com/opinion/jim-hightower/a-new-voice-of-morality-responds-bluntly-to-right-wing-rants-against-anti-poverty-programs.html
The
handshake that never was. Hopes were dashed that President Obama
and Iran's recently elected supposedly moderate president might “bump
into each other” at the United Nations. We may hope for better,
but Iran continues to spin its centrifuges to produce more enriched
uranium. The phone call between the US and Iranian presidents was a
good sound bite, but the political reality is that Israel will push
for absolute verification that that the part of Iran's nuclear
program capable of producing fissionable material has ended,
something that does not seem possible without closer UN inspections.
Your
tax dollars are work – or maybe not, as Congress dithered over
continued government funding and raising the debt ceiling. It is a
sad state of affairs when the best a citizen can hope for is yet
another paltry continuing resolution on spending and a deferred
judgement on the debt ceiling.
I
remember that as a sophomore member of the high school speech and
debate team I once referred to Great Britain as a “beggar on
America's doorstep.” I had the sinking feeling our team might be
in serious trouble when the judge began his critique with a decidedly
British accent! I fear that now a debater might refer to America as
“the beggar on China's doorstep.”
Not
so long ago, the hue and cry was for Americans to stop living beyond
their means, spend less, reduce credit card debt, yet the government
cannot take its own advice. We seem unable or unwilling to do what
is necessary to create expand the economy, create more jobs, raise
wages, and improve living conditions for the American majority.
A
troubled time to be a Christian.
Last week's Washington
Post
had two pieces of note: one by opinion page columnist Colbert I.
King, the other Sally Quinn's “On Faith” column. King decried
the increasing violence against Christian minorities, especially in
Muslim-majority nations and reminded us that we in the “west”
often have trouble remembering that Christians are not everywhere a
majority – though our actions as professed Christians are visible
and much watched.
Quinn
discussed Pope Francis's latest thoughts as reflected in his extended
interview with the Jesuit magazine, America.
She noted that one respected Catholic, Reverend Tom Reese (the
former editor- in-chief of America)
was
not so long ago fired by then-Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger
(now Pope-Emeritus, Benedict XVI) for publishing much these same
views. Leaving aside the concept of papal infallibility, not all
Roman Catholics will be pleased by Francis's latest pronouncements –
or by what they see as his omissions.
Alas,
organized religion has been, always will be, a source of hope and
comfort for believers, but a cause for dissension, even fear and
hatred, among non-believers.
King:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/colbert-king-attacks-on-christians-are-being-met-with-indifference/2013/09/27/d18e5162-270d-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html
Quinn:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/pope-francis-and-the-churchs-new-attitude/2013/09/27/cde564f0-26e6-11e3-b3e9-d97fb087acd6_story.html?tid=auto_complete
NSA
and the electronic frontier. The link below concerns a lawsuit
filed in 2008 by the Electronic Frontier Foundation during the last
days of the Bush administration. The suit, plus subsequent
revelations from the Snowden files suggest an uncommonly cozy
(inherently unhealthy?) relationship involving the NSA, the FISA
court, and any current executive administration.
High
school and athletics.
The article linked below discusses the cost and relative merits of
high school athletic programs. In the article's subhead line, the
author notes that “the
United States routinely spends more tax dollars per high-school
athlete than per high-school math student—unlike most countries
worldwide. And we wonder why we lag in international education
rankings?” She also points
out that it is devilishly difficult to ascertain what percentage of a
school's budget actually goes to athletics. Associated coaching,
transportation, and other costs are likely “buried” in a school's
budget; she also notes that
“...
at this moment in history, now that more than 20 countries are
pulling off better high-school-graduation rates than we are, with
mostly nominal athletic offerings, using sports to tempt kids into
getting an education feels dangerously old-fashioned. America has not
found a way to dramatically improve its children’s academic
performance over the past 50 years, but other countries have—and
they are starting to reap the economic benefits.”
That
American schools are underperforming is undeniable – shameful given
the wealth that could
be poured into our classrooms.
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