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Paw Paw Coming Out Party. Only Tree Fruit Unique To N.A. I've Grown It For Years

September 5, 2014, 2:49 pm
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A Coming-Out Party For The Humble Pawpaw, Native Fruit Darling

by ALLISON AUBREY AND DAN CHARLES
If you've never tasted a pawpaw, now is the moment.
For just a few weeks every year, this native, mangolike fruit falls from trees, everywhere from Virginia to Kansas and many points westward. (We discovered them several years back along the banks of the Potomac River when we ran into some kayakers who were snacking on them.)
A pawpaw ripe for the picking

The Salt

The Pawpaw: Foraging For America's Forgotten Fruit

Remember the old folk tune "Way Down Yonder in the Pawpaw Patch"? In parts of the country, there's no food more local and traditional.
But you still won't find pawpaws in the supermarket. They're fragile, and they go from underripe to overripe very quickly, so they'd be a challenge for the fruit supply chain to manage.
Chris Chmiel is trying to change all that. He's the founder of Integration Acres, an actual pawpaw orchard near Athens, Ohio. Its motto? "Raising consciousness with cuisine."
This is the second in a series of conversations on The Salt where members of NPR's food team chat with intriguing people in the food world.
Chmiel wants people to appreciate and consume this humble fruit. So he's promoting it at farmers markets and processing pawpaws into pulp that can be used in smoothies, baked goods and even beer.
He also helped organize the Ohio Pawpaw Festival, set for Sept. 14-16, which will celebrate this fruit with everything from pawpaw-infused beer to baked goods.
We sat down with Chmiel to talk about why he's devoted his life to promoting the pawpaw.
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Breakthrough In Simultaneous Water Purification And Desalinization

September 5, 2014, 2:54 pm
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Solar sponge: The top layer of graphite soaks up the sun's energy in tiny holes. When drops of liquid fill the holes, the water quickly evaporates. (The beaker looks hot, but the water below the sponge is cool as a cucumber.)
Solar sponge: The top layer of graphite soaks up the sun's energy in tiny holes. When drops of liquid fill the holes, the water quickly evaporates. (The beaker looks hot, but the water below the sponge is cool as a cucumber.)
Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel did it to survive on the Pacific Ocean. Robert Redford used the trick in All Is Lost.
When you're trapped on a boat, you can easily make fresh water, right? Simply let the sun heat up and evaporate salt water. Then trap the steam, condense it on a plastic surface and collect the fresh water. The liquid even gets sterilized in the process.
So why can't people around the world who lack clean drinking water do something similar?
Turns out, desalinating or sterilizing water with solar energy is way harder than Hollywood makes it look. The process is super inefficient and way too slow to be practical.
"The average yield is only about 1 cup per day," says the U.S. Air Force survival guide, even when you've got eight hours of sun and plenty of water.
But engineer Hadi Ghasemi, at the University of Houston, is trying to change that. He and a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a cheap material that desalinates water efficiently and fast using solar energy. And the secret to the new technology was sitting right on their desks: the graphite in pencils.
A simple solar still — and even more expensive versions with mirrors and lenses — heats up the entire water surface before it starts to evaporate, Ghasemi says. That takes time and wastes energy.
The solar still has two layers. The top one contains tiny holes that collect the sun's energy. The bottom layer serves as an insulator that keeps the heat from leaking into the water. The bottom layer also wicks water into the top layer, where it evaporates.i
The solar still has two layers. The top one contains tiny holes that collect the sun's energy. The bottom layer serves as an insulator that keeps the heat from leaking into the water. The bottom layer also wicks water into the top layer, where it evaporates.
Courtesy of the researchers/MIT
"Why do we need to heat the bulk of the liquid to get steam?" Ghasemi says. "Why not concentrate the solar energy at 'hot spots?'" Then all the energy goes into creating steam.
The trick to creating these "hot spots" is having the right material, he says. And that's where the graphite in pencils comes into play.
"We took graphite and put it into the microwave for seven seconds," Ghasemi says. The gases in the mineral cause the outer layer to expand and pop. "It's exactly like a popcorn!"
The result is a thin, porous material that looks like a black sponge. It floats on the surface of water, like a sponge. But instead of soaking up liquid, the pores soak up the sun, Ghasemi and his colleagues reported in the journal Nature Communications back in July.
The graphite has holes in it with just the right shape to concentrate solar energy and create tiny hot spots in the graphite. Water creeps into the holes through capillary action (just as water moves up the stem of a plant to its leaves). The droplets then heat up quickly and evaporate.
"It creates steam at a low concentration of solar energy," Ghasemi says. "So you don't need such expensive optical systems to concentrate the solar energy."
Ghasemi and his team still have many kinks to iron out before they can turn the technology into a useful product. A major one is what to do with all the salt.
"When water desalinates, it leaves behind the salt. Eventually the pores [of the graphite] will be clogged," says Gang Chen of MIT, who led the study. "We need to figure out how to handle that."
All folded up and ready to magnify: The Foldscope weighs less than two nickels, is small enough to fit in your back pocket and offers more than 2,000-fold magnification.

Goats and Soda

A $1 Microscope Folds From Paper With A Drop Of Glue

Although the material is highly efficient at converting solar energy into steam, the material still requires a cheap lens or mirror to concentrate sunlight by about tenfold. (By comparison, other technologies require 1,000-fold concentration of the light, which requires expensive optics.)
"We want to further reduce the concentration of sunlight needed," Chen says. "Then the technology wouldn't need fancy tracking technology to keep the sun focused on it."
Still, though, Chen is excited about developing the sun sponge for a myriad of other applications, such as making steam power and drying up surfaces after floods.
"The raw materials are very cheap compared to those used in other solar power generation now," he says. "The idea is just so simple. I don't know why we didn't think about it earlier."

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"Glenn Gould In Rapture," NPR

September 5, 2014, 2:55 pm
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Brilliant Canadian pianist Glenn Gould as a young man, singing as he plays piano at a Steinway warehouse before choosing one for his recording session at Columbia Recording studios.
Gordon Parks/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
What's going on here, I can only guess, but here's what you're about to see: In the video below, the great musician Glenn Gould, supreme interpreter of Bach, is sitting at his living room piano on a low, low chair, his nose close to the keys. He's at his Canadian country house in his bathrobe.
Through the window, you catch snatches of his back yard. It's a windy day and he's got a coffee cup sitting on the piano top. He's working on a Bach partita, not just playing it, but singing along in his swinging baritone. As he plays, he gets so totally, totally lost in the music that suddenly (1:57 from the top), smack in the middle of a passage, with no warning, for no apparent reason, his left hand flips up, touches his head; he stands up, and walks in what looks like a trance to the window. There's an eerie silence. Then, in the quiet, you hear the Bach leaking out of him. He's still playing it, but in his head, he's scatting the beats. Then he turns, wanders back, sits down, and his fingers pick up right where his voice left off, but now with new energy, like he's found a switch and switched it.
What just happened? I'm not sure. But I think this is a rare vision of what it's like to be so in your head you leave your body, or at least the moving parts of your body, totally behind. There is a name for this, from psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, but first, just watch. And don't miss the walk-to-the-window part ...
YouTube
Glenn Gould was a complicated man. He didn't like to practice; instead he'd prepare for concerts mentally, running the piece over and over, playing with imaginary fingers. When he was a little baby, it was said that instead of crying, he would hum. He had perfect pitch and could read music before he could read words. So perhaps what you see in this video is just — for him — his way of "playing." He could switch seamlessly from fingering the piano to a purely virtual music-making; he could move fluently from real to not. Or maybe what we see him doing is something we all can do — but geniuses get there more often — reach a state of total absorption. Gould in his living room, for some reason, reminds me of Michael Jordan playing basketball or Etta James singing the blues; there's a concentration, a zoning in, that's so deep it feels special, like a kind of ecstasy.
The 'Flow State'
Athletes, of course, call this "being in the zone." Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced MEE-high, CHEECH-sent-mee-high) calls it "the flow state." When you are in it, writes neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, "attention is focused on a limited perceptual field that receives your full concentration and complete investment. Action and awareness merge."
You get so deeply into your head, you lose track of everything except what you're doing. There was a surgeon, Csikszentmihalyi says, who wasn't aware that the roof of his operating room had collapsed until he was done with the surgery. In this state, "what you think becomes what youdo," Levitin writes. We "get wonderfully, blissfully lost in an activity, losing all track of time, of ourselves, our problems."
How one gets there — that's still a mystery. Practice is important. Tenacity matters. Talent helps. When you find your "flow," your brain changes. Dopamine and noradrenaline kick in, GABA neurons get suppressed; sex, hunger, thirst matter less, you are free to play more deeply with stream-of-conscious associations; you are chemically released and can now roam far and wide. Yes, you have no idea where you are or how this is happening; but that it's happening must be one of the most wonderful experiences ever. When I watch Glenn Gould walking back to his piano, carried there by an 18th-century fugue, I see a man transported, a man not lost, but found, a man in a state of grace. If there is a heaven, Glenn Gould at that moment is very close.
Glenn Gould is playing bits and pieces of J.S. Bach's Partita #2. The scene was shot in 1959 when Gould was a young man. It comes from Bruno Monsaingeon's documentary The Art of the Piano, which features short profiles of many great 20th-century pianists. The discussion of flow states comes from Daniel J. Levitin's new book, The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload.
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“The United States of Homosexual Imperialism” by Laura Wood, The Thinking Housewife

September 6, 2014, 8:18 am
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Fox News Endorses Traditional Heterosexual Marriage With Mistaken Photo Of Same Sex Wedding


Dear Fred,

A recent post by Laura Wood is titled “The United States of Homosexual Imperialism.”

Loss of perspective, perhaps?

It is apropos to recall the 19th century practice of advocating slavery from the pulpit – complete with bible-based justifications.

The salient difference between “then” and “now” is that, in the case of slavery, The Bible Belt’s routine pigheadedness finally got its nose rubbed so vigorously in its own ideological crap that it was no longer possible to boast its lack of moral potty training.

I think it safe to say that Laura would argue a categorical difference between supporting abolition and supporting homosexual civil rights. (Or would she?)

Notably, Y’eshua makes NO reference to homosexuality. (Similarly, the Bible makes no reference to abortion. Not a single word.)

It beggars imagination that the “two red button issues” in American conservative politics are homosexuality and abortion.

I suggest that the current generation of Pharisees concentrate their focus on what Y’eshua actually said before screaming the “existential importance” of what he did not say.
Here, for example, is Y’eshua’s categorical declaration on divorce as set forth in the earliest of the four canonical gospels:

1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. 2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 “What did Moses command you?” he replied. 4 They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” 5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

The core contradiction whereby conservative Christians focus what Jesus didn’t say while essentially ignoring what he did say, is set against a backdrop in which Evangelicals, Fundamentalists and Baptists are significantly more likely to divorce than atheists and agnostics – http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/137829/evangelicals_why_do_we_have_the_highest.html

This same Marcan passage expresses Jesus’ belief in  “moral relativism,” casually observing that Moses’ lax moral standard hinged on the circumstance of hard-heartedness.

Moses – the great promulgator of Law – deliberately promotes legal laxity because his fellow Jews were dense. If the people can not live up to a high moral standard, well… hold them to a low one.
And Y’eshua approves!

I venture that Laura and her conservative friends beat up on the presumed “immorality” of “gays and lesbians” because their presumption of self righteousness obliges them to project their own moral shortcomings onto “the other.”

And what better way to beat up on “the other” than to attack the smallest of all social groups.
Hypocritical presumption is so widespread among America’s conservative Christians that – after years of listening to them rant about “the rest of us going to hell” — I would venture that, when they get to “The Pearly Gates,” more unpleasant surprises await “The Saved!” than await prostitutes, wine tipplers and traitorous tax collectors (who were employed by the pagan occupying army, and whose military leaders then used those taxes to destroy The Temple, launching the Jewish diaspora.

If my surmise is correct, a disproportionate number of those “surprises” will be due to the zeal with which American Christians have supported war – and more recently, torture.

If I recall correctly, Laura is a firm believer that “men” should make every “belligerent” decision.
My counsel to “The Saved!” is that they are highly unlikely to be exempted from moral responsibly just because they refused participation in political process.

In fact, I think it likely that their refusal makes them more responsible for the bad decisions made by “men” stupidly deprived of the integral wisdom that would have obtained if everyone — men and women alike — were fully conscious participants in every political process.

The decades-long scenario described by Marine Commandant, Major General Smedley Butler portrays an incalculable collective evil whose moral impact redounds to anyone who — for whatever reason — deliberately refused to participate in decisions of “war and peace.”

To quote the Marine who — during his lifetime — was the most decorated jarhead ever: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especiallyTampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.” U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler, who, following his retirement from the military, ran for the Senate as a Pennsylvania Republican.
Notice that the first 2 evil-doers identified by General Butler are “Big Business” and “Wall Street.”
What has changed… other than the Military-Industrial Complex’s tightened grip? http://www.sonyclassics.com/whywefight/

By my lights, the “Great Refusal” to fully participate in political process imposes an even greater moral burden on those who did not inform themselves sufficiently to actively oppose the moral monstrosities of Vietnam, Iraq etcetera. 

"Time Line Of U.S. Military Interventions"
Wikipedia

Resistance to Uncle Sam’s decerebrate villainy in Iraq did not require but a handful of functioning synapses. I cannot believe that American Christians are as addlepated and/or witless as they (repeatedly) seem – http://www.cjd.org/paper/benedict.html

But back to the issue of homosexuality…

I have long thought that “the apostle whom Jesus loved” reveals a relationship with “a certain connotation” which in recent years has made me ponder the significance of Y’eshua’s remarkable statement, “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” 

If Y’eshua had — in any way — sided with homosexuality, he would have been assassinated at once, and, in consequence, his more central message would have been nipped in the bud.

We are all products of our time and thereby constrained by what we can say fruitfully - and what we must refrain from saying because the time is not ripe for revelation.

It is useful practice to imagine at least one thing that Y’eshua could not have told his apostles (“the cream of the crop”) because they could not “bear it.”

Then, when you have conjured one such “unbearable thing,” recall that Y’eshua had “many more unbearable things” to tell us.

The best is enemy of the good.

The profoundest truths are paradoxical.

The last shall be first.

“The Saved” shall be…

Pax on both houses,

Alan

PS What do you think? Would Laura have the courage to post this on “Thinking Housewife?”

PPS Perhaps Laura does not participate in political process because so many of her partisans are political lunatics. Rather than joining them in a political movement, she hides in her blog, leaving the dirty business of gay derogation and white supremacy to her fellows.


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Tom Toles Cartoon: Islamic States' Self Destruction

September 6, 2014, 8:34 am
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United States Joins Iran In Unannounced Strategy To Trounce ISIS

September 6, 2014, 9:07 am
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America Has an Unannounced ISIS Strategy, And It Involves Iran


Jacob Seigel, The Daily Beast
Obama may say “we don’t have a strategy yet” for beating ISIS. Growing American operations on the ground paint a different picture—one with Iranian hues.
The President hasn’t announced his strategy for dealing with ISIS yet, but there is a clear military approach taking shape in Iraq. On an operational level, the military intervention has shown some early success in using U.S. airpower to support local ground forces and halt ISIS’s advances. But the tension between tactics and strategy, methods and goals, is already starting to show. The battle we won yesterday could make it harder to win a war tomorrow.
And while the American strategy for ISIS is stalled, the air war in Iraq has been expanding steadily.
In early August, when airstrikes were first authorized, the administration articulated a limited set of goals and stressed that it wouldn’t be drawn further into Iraq’s civil war. In its first phase, the air mission focused on humanitarian relief and defending American personnel from an ISIS advance. That lasted about a week. The air strikes seemed to be working and as ISIS was pushed back so were the limits of the mission. A month ago there was a narrow reactive approach to ISIS, now there is an evolving, offensive mission.
Since mid-August, the U.S. has been acting as Iraq’s de facto air force. American aircraft are bombing ISIS targets and supporting offensives by Kurdish forces, the Iraqi military and militia groups that were yesterday’s anti-American jihadists and are today’s anti-ISIS allies.
As The Daily Beast’s Josh Rogin reported, the administration has given Congress four distinct reasons for waging war inIraq: to protect American personnel in Erbil; to save the Yazidi minorities trapped on Mount Sinjar; to protect the Mosul Dam; and to break ISIS’s siege on the Shiite town of Amerli.
And for each objective, there’s a slightly different set of American allies being supported by U.S. air power.
“The ground coalitions we’re supporting with air power are uniquely different in each case,” said Doug Ollivant, a former advisor to Gen. David Petraeus who served in the National Security Council under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. “In Sinjar, it’s largely the PKK [a Kurdish militia] who rescued the Yazidis,” Ollivant said. “In Mosul, it was the Golden Brigades [An elite unit of the Iraqi army] with the Peshmerga in support, and in Amerli it looks like Shia militias with the Iraqi military in support.
Not all of these allies would ordinarily be considered friends of America. The PKK, which by some accounts has been leading the fight against ISIS in northern Iraq, is still listed as a foreign terrorist organization.
War makes strange bedfellows and the U.S. has certainly been promiscuous before choosing its allies in past wars. The question is whether short-term partnerships will undermine longer-term interests. Working with the PKK presents complications, especially in regard to our NATO ally Turkey, but no clear threat to the American people or our goals in Iraq.   
With other emerging allies the calculus is trickier and leaves less margin for error. In Amerli, the U.S. backed operation was spearheaded by Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian backed group known for sectarian violence against Sunnis and attacks on American troops during the last war in Iraq. After American airstrikes helped Asaib Ahl al-Haq take control of Amerli, a spokesman for the group told aNew York Times reporter, “we don’t trust Americans at all” and added “we don’t need them.”
The militia leader’s words could have been taken for loose talk but the photo that leaked online shortly after the battle had the hallmarks of a deliberate message.
The photo reportedly shows the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Qods force, Tehran’s chief military strategist, and the man many American officials consider to be America’s most dangerous foe on the planet. His visit to the site underscores the convergence of U.S. and Iranian interests in Iraq, and Iran’s desire to be seen as orchestrating the efforts.
Amerli was clearly a defeat for ISIS and a relief for the townspeople who had held off the group for six weeks. But it’s less clear what the alliance between U.S. airpower and Iranian-backed militias says about the vision guiding the mission in Iraq. Even leaving aside questions of a grand regional strategy for the Middle East—and how our track record suggests that U.S. led wars in Iraq can benefit Iran—its not clear how the precedent set in Amerli will serve the President’s more immediate goals for resolving the war in Iraq.
The president has been criticized for lacking a larger strategy to deal with ISISbut he’s been consistent on Iraq, stressing that military force can only be effective as the prelude to a political solution. To push ISIS out of Iraq, the thinking goes, Baghdad needs to reintegrate marginalized Sunnis who have supported but are not ideologically aligned with the group. But the difficult task of dislodging ISIS from its Sunni support base will only become harder as Shia sectarian groupsincreases their influence in Baghdad and appear to receive U.S. backing.
“If you’re goal is to cause some level of reconciliation, [Amerli] doesn’t assist it one bit,” said Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland on Shia militant groups. “The fact is this is being promoted by Tehran as an Iranian initiative. It’s them saying we run the show.”
Hassan Hassan, an analyst at the Delma Institute, believes “the appearance of U.S. support for Shia militias and tacit coordination with Iran are a mistake many thought the Obama administration would avoid.” It’s a mistake that “plays into the hands of ISIS and makes it difficult to draw a wedge between extremists and other Sunni forces that have legitimate concerns and demands,” according to Hassan.
One former senior leader in the U.S. intelligence community disputed the interpretation that the campaign in Amerli would undermine American interests in Iraq. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said, “I’m not concerned by the Amerli operation for several reasons: first, the ground force consisted of a mix of Peshmerga, Iraqi forces, and Shia militia, so this wasn’t the US supporting just Shia militia against Sunni Arabs; second, the targets were predominantly ISIS, not just Sunni insurgents who might once again reconcile.”
One instance of U.S. airpower backing a Shia militia may not undermine the chances of political reconciliation in Iraq, but there’s no reason to think Amerli will be an isolated event. Baghdad relies on the militias for its defense, as does the Iraqi military. At this point, any anti-ISIS coalition that aims to take back central Iraq will be forced to rely on the militias. The question is whose air cover they will operate under and whose objectives they will be pursuing on the ground.
Events in Iraq, where an approach to confronting ISIS is being tested, will likely lay a foundation for the president’s coming strategy. It remains to be seen whether the compromises the current approach has required will lead to a political resolution in Iraq or a longer and more open-ended commitment from the military.

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Kansas Independent, Greg Orman, Positioned To Control Senate

September 6, 2014, 9:09 am
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The Kansas Independent Who Could Control the Senate

The 2014 election is all about which party will control the Senate. Kansas independent candidate Greg Orman, the hottest new name in politics, talks exclusively to The Daily Beast.
Republicans never thought they’d have to fight for the safe senate seat in Kansas. 
But now, with control of the senate hanging in the balance, the GOP is facing an unexpected threat — surging independent candidate Greg Orman, who’s won the support of many Democrats after their lackluster nominee suddenly withdrew from the campaign this week. It turns out that registered independent voters outnumber Democrats in the Sunflower State and polls show that the 45-year-old, first-time independent candidate is beating unpopular Republican incumbent Pat Roberts by ten points in a head-to-head race.
“I’m fiscally responsible and socially tolerant,” explains Orman, a businessman and one-time college Republican who counts Ronald Reagan and Kansan Bob Dole among his political heroes. But like many independent centrists, he feels the GOP has moved too far too the right in recent years, while Democrats still don’t sufficiently empathize with bottom line fiscal realities that business-owners deal with everyday. Most of all, Orman reflects a bubbling Main Street frustration with hyper-partisan gridlock.
“We need to get Congress back in the business of solving problems,” Orman says. After starting and selling an energy business, Orman founded the Common Sense Coalition in 2010, which he describes as being “focused on giving a home to Americans who didn’t feel like they had a home in either party.” Things have only gotten worse over the past four years. “People are really turned off by what we’ve seen” in Congress, he says: “A turn to extremism and an unwillingness to solve problems, drawing childish lines in the sand and refusing to cooperate.”
The fact that this message is resonating in red dirt Kansas reflects why reports of a Republican mid-term wave election may be overstated. The local political conditions are the result of what might be called Brownback Backlash. Social conservative governor Sam Brownback has sowed the seeds of a centrist rebellion by indulging ideological obsessions and pursuing purges of moderate Republicans. With a 34 percent approval rating, Brownback is now trailing Democratic gubernatorial nominee Paul Davis. But while Pat Roberts was fighting off a Tea Party primary challenge, the Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor couldn’t gain any traction. With just $1,600 in his campaign coffers, a PPP poll showed the Democrat losing to Roberts, while the same poll showed independent Orman could beat Roberts outright in a head to head race by picking up support from alienated moderate Republicans as well as independents and Democrats. As evidence of Orman’s crossover appeal, 70 local Republican former elected officials from the centrist wing of the GOP have endorsed Orman over Roberts. That’s not subtle — it’s a stampede.
“Voters in Kansas are searching for an alternative to both parties,” says Orman pollster David Beattie. “Greg's support is based on voters across party lines who feel that both parties in Washington are to blame for the gridlock and paralysis.”
If he gets sent to the Senate, Orman’s aim is to restore the strength of the common sense center by working with independent-minded folks on both sides of the aisle. He’d be following the lead of Maine’s independent Senator Angus King in carving out a new coalition that could hold the balance of power in a closely divided Senate.
“I don’t think either Harry Reed or Mitch McConnell has demonstrated enough bipartisanship to earn my vote for majority leader,” says Orman. “I’d encourage both parties to select for majority leader one of the senators who have actually demonstrated a willingness to work in a bipartisan way to solve problems.”
Orman sidesteps mushy moderate stereotypes with a willingness to apply some policy specifics to his “fiscally responsible, socially tolerant” mantra. While his primary campaign focus is on fiscal issues, he doesn’t hide the fact that he’s pro-choice and pro-marriage equality. “As a man, I’m never going have to make the decisions that a woman makes. I trust that the women of Kansas are smart, and that they can make the decision about their own reproductive health. I do believe as it relates to marriage equality that if two adults decide that they want to enter into a lifetime commitment with each other, that the federal government shouldn’t prevent that from happening.”
And while he may be new to campaigns, Orman doesn’t shy away from punching at the incumbent. “Pat Roberts of ten years ago is very different than the Pat Roberts of today. Pat Roberts of ten years ago was much more moderate and, and tended to be viewed more as a problem solver. But over the last ten years, he’s taken a very sharp turn to the right. If you look at his voting record over the last 18 months it’s largely indistinguishable from Ted Cruz,” says Orman, invoking the Tea Party cheerleader of the government shutdown. “He’s clearly more concerned about getting re‑elected than he is about serving the people of Kansas. He voted against the Farm Bill. … He stood on the floor of the senate with Bob Dole and proceeded to vote against the UN Treaty on Disabilities Bill, and maybe worse of all, when the VA Reform Bill came out for a vote in the United States Senate, he didn’t even honor men and women in uniform by voting.”
Orman will take on Roberts in person during their first televised debate Saturday. But Republicans are fighting to keep the Democrat’s name on the ballot, with the GOP Secretary of State denying Taylor’s request to drop out of the race, a move that Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill slammed as “putting his finger on the scales.” Legal challenges are sure to follow with the surreal spectacle of Democrats fighting to make their nominee’s invisible name on Election Day. On the flipside, Republican panic about suddenly having a Kansas in play against an independent is reflected in the national party essentially taking over Pat Roberts’ campaign. They can’t afford to lose a supposedly safe seat.
All this high stakes political poker shouldn’t obscure the larger dynamic. Independent voters — the largest and fastest growing segment of the electorate — are dramatically under-represented in our politics and their ranks have grown at precisely the same time that the two parties have become more polarized. The populist anger at Washington incumbents in this election is directed at the dysfunctional divisions in DC. Candidates who can channel that frustration while offering fresh alternatives to the tired old “either-or “stalemate debates can break through. And the prospect of an independent caucus could change Senate dynamics by creating new coalitions. So if you hate hyper-partisanship and government gridlock, pay close attention to the Kansas Senate race, and hope that this Mr. Smith gets sent to Washington. 
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Tim Wise: America's Best Informed, Most Deeply-Contextualized Commentator On Race

September 6, 2014, 9:49 am
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To "make their case" white racists depend on decontextualization 
and other forms of frank falsehood.

The full context of Tim Wise's comment concerning "endangered white people" is found in the following article whose content -- as Republican Senator Lindsay Graham also points out -- is a prophecy soon to come true.
http://www.timwise.org/2010/11/an-open-letter-to-the-white-right-on-the-occasion-of-your-recent-successful-temper-tantrum/



Alan: This morning, The Car Guys began their weekly NPR show by promising listeners that if they invested in a newly devised money-making instrument, Dave and Ray would guarantee them -- absolutely, positively -- "a 50% return." 

Iron clad. 

No hidden clauses. 

No small print. 

A 50% Return!!! 

Then they offered this clarification. 

They did not guarantee "50% on their money," but "50% of their money." 

And so statistics are routinely massaged and manipulated so that their apparent meaning -- according to the integrity or deviousness of their "champions" - can be as different as a "Guaranteed 50% return On one's money"... or a "Guaranteed 50% return Of one's money." 

If those intent on deceit "bait" the hook properly, the subsequent "switch" -- frequently unstated and typically un-contextualized -- renders a persuasive "semblance of meaning" that is antithetical to substantive Truth.

It is not accidental that fewer than 2% of Americans (a statistic I "made up") do not know the meaning of the word "simulacrum" as it applies to epistemological "bait and switch."

If we gave a flip about the health of The Body Politic - as opposed to the shouting match which conservatives suppose a determinant of "truth by volume - we would insure that all middle school students are introduced to the concept of intrinsically-deceptive "simulacrum" and that all high school students can define, contextualize and give examples of its theoretical and historical meaning before they can graduate.


I discovered Tim Wise when I came across 

"Race, Crime and Statistical Malpractice: 

How the Right Manipulates White Fear With Bogus Data"

 http://www.timwise.org/2013/08/race-crime-and-statistical-malpractice-how-the-right-manipulates-white-fear-with-bogus-data/

Excerpt: "The actual rates of black-on-white crime are lower than random chance would predict."


***


A good way to "meet" Tim Wise is by way of laudatory testimonials by those who consider Wise "the antidote to Rush Limbaugh" and condemnations by neo-Nazi David Duke, reactionary pundit Dinesh D'Souza and conservative media commentator David Horowitz.

Testimonials

Michelle Alexander, author of the best-selling book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, discussing Tim Wise’s work:
“Tim Wise is one of the few people, along with perhaps Frederick Douglass, who has ever really spoken honestly and forcefully to white people about themselves…”
—Charles Ogletree, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
“Tim Wise is one of the most brilliant, articulate and courageous critics of white privilege in the nation. His considerable rhetorical skills, his fluid literary gifts and his relentless search for the truth make him a critical ally in the fight against racism and a true soldier in the war for social justice. His writing and thinking constitute a bulwark of common sense, and uncommon wisdom, on the subject of race, politics and culture. He is a national treasure.”
—Michael Eric Dyson, University Professor, Georgetown University, and best-selling author of nine books, including, Race Rules, Holler if You Hear Me, and Between God and Gangsta Rap
“Tim Wise is a vanilla brother in the tradition of John Brown…”
–Cornel West, author, philosopher, 2/20/13
“The fate of this country depends on whites like yourself speaking the truth to those who don’t want to hear it. In this, you are as one with the Biblical prophets. You are more likely to be condemned than lauded, and yet your words are no less important. So, keep speaking out. At the very least, some future archeologists sifting through the ashes of this civilization may be able to find evidence that there were some who offered truth as a cure for the disease that destroyed us.”
—Derrick Bell, Professor of Law, New York University, and one of the world’s leading scholars on race and the legal system, as well as best-selling author of several books on race, email to Wise, June, 2004
“Tim Wise is one of those rare ‘public intellectuals’ that numerous authors have suggested are becoming extinct in this society. He is evidence that this is not the case…in my judgment, he is the very best of the white anti-racism writers and commentators working in the U.S. media today…”
—Joe Feagin, Graduate Research Professor of Sociology, Texas A&M, and author of over twenty books on race issues
“(Wise’s) work is revolutionary, and those who react negatively are simply afraid of hearing the truth…”
—Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of History, University of Southern California, author of Race Rebels, and Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional!
“One of the brilliant voices of our time.”
—Molefi Kete Asante, Professor of African American Studies, Temple University, author of several dozen books on race, history and culture, and creator of the first doctoral program in African American Studies in the U.S.
“Wise is the nation’s leading antiracist author/activist…”
—David Naguib Pellow, professor of Ethnic Studies, University of Minnesota.
“(His) is the clearest thinking on race I’ve seen in a long while written by a white writer…right up there with the likes of historians Howard Zinn and Herb Aptheker as far as I’m concerned.”
—Dr. Joyce King, Benjamin Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership, Georgia State University
“Thank heavens for your brave white antiracist voice!”
—Dorothy Zellner, former Steering Committee member, Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and civil rights movement legend, letter to Wise, April, 2001
“…a thorn in the side of white supremacists…dedicated whites such as Wise are rare…”
—Dr. Ray Winbush, in his 2001 book from HarperCollins, The Warrior Method: A Program for Rearing Healthy Black Boys
“I have admired your activism and scholarship for years. This spring, I attended a talk you gave at Occidental College…I was co-teaching a course and students were urged to attend. Afterwards, I noticed a transformation in my students’ attitudes…I found them infinitely more receptive, open-minded and critical, and there was a direct correlation between hearing you speak and their progress. I wanted to let you know the impact your work has– thanks for being such a motivating force toward social transformation.”
—Laura Kuo, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies, Pomona College, e-mail to Wise, May, 2002.
“Tim is the answer to Rush Limbaugh…The only difference– Tim does his homework. And when he cuts loose, there’s no way the right can compete…”
—Ted Quandt, Director, Twomey Center for Peace Through Justice, Loyola University, New Orleans
“When I saw a white male get up to speak about racism, I had reservations. But you knocked me over, (and) not just because you are a forceful speaker. What it was, was seeing a young white male picking up the torch and committing himself to the struggle.”
—B. Allan Benson, Director Rocky Mountain Office, National Labor Relations Board, letter to Wise, January, 1999
“Tim challenged and invigorated our students…You could hear a pin drop…Never have I seen a speaker keep 400 high school students so captivated…He was awesome!!”
—Darren Ford, multicultural coordinator, and Allison Hamilton, VP Student Government, The McDonough School, McDonough, Maryland, April 16, 1996
“I am very impressed by your recent writing on white privilege…Your anti-racism is inspiring.”
—Clarence J. Munford, Professor Emeritus of History and Black Studies, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada, e-mail to Wise, 5/2003
“I for one (and I know of others), deeply appreciate your timely commentaries and interventions in the public discourse…thanks for all that you have contributed to the struggle for racial and social justice.”
—Rod Bush, Assistant Professor of Sociology, St. Johns University, e-mail to Wise, July 2003.
“I’ve been reading your essays on ZNet for a few years now and I just wanted to tell you that you are one of the few people whose opinions I’ve never disagreed with. A couple of other people in that category are Salim Muwakil of In These Times, and Noam Chomsky…I enjoy the ideas in your essays, and your clarity, directness, rational logic, the organization of your ideas, and the statistics you use…I’m just a 57 year old dentist, who talks to people about racism when I can, and I do it better now because of you.”
—Dan Turner, D.D.S., Monterey, CA, e-mail to Wise, August, 2003.
“You are to be commended for your brave stance against apartheid. If more young people followed your lead, the world would be a better place…”
—Whoopi Goldberg, letter to Wise during Tulane anti-apartheid hunger strike, 4/90

And a Few Special Compliments

“No, I won’t debate him. He is a leftist extremist…”
—Neo-Nazi, David Duke, explaining to a New Orleans radio station why he wouldn’t debate Wise on-air, 5/91
“(Wise is) my Jewish supremacist detractor…following the old Jewish tactic of divide and conquer…people like Wise actually hate all European ethnic groups. They seek to divide us and weaken us in our quest for our heritage and rights.”
—David Duke, email to a question posed about Wise by a third party, forwarded to Wise, December 30, 2002
“Tim Wise is pretty much the Uncle Tom of whites…”
—Dinesh D’Souza, best-selling conservative author, during debates with Wise at San Francisco State and Evergreen State College, apparently frustrated with losing both, Oct/Nov, 1996
“People like Tim Wise are anti-white hate merchants…carefully selected as a front man by the Jewish deception engineers…He appears to be just another white male…But Tim Wise is a member of that very special nation–the nation/religion/race which owns virtually the entire media of the Western world.”
–From fliers of the neo-Nazi Euro-American Student Union, distributed during Wise speeches in Washington State, 10/98
“Tim Wise is an agent of this (Jewish) subversion of the integrity of the majority (white) group…”
—From flyer of the neo-Nazi National Alliance (Seattle chapter), “The Real Interests of Tim Wise, Anti-White Propagandist,” January, 2003
“It is white race traitor scum such as you who sicken this country. You obviously hate that you are white and are willing to sell your heritage for a piece of the nigger/kike pie…Your time is limited and you know it…the Jews seem to be behind you, lubing you up and you have no problem with it…You’re guilty of all the ungodly characteristics of a Jew.”
—Assorted comments to or about Wise by members of the National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP), on the NAAWP Internet message board, March 1999.
“You are a very destructive individual…racial paranoia is an industry, and its too bad people with your intelligence seem to feel obligated to make it a growth industry as well…your analysis is intellectually paranoid.”
—David Horowitz, leading conservative author, activist, and amateur psychologist, during e-mail exchanges with Wise in which he claimed there were “no racial barriers” still in existence for blacks in America, September, 2000.
“You anarchists know minorities are too dumb to run a business: that’s why you support overthrowing the system…you are full of shit asswipe…you are really a colored-loving commie bastard aren’t you?”
—Andreas Munger, very angry white man, e-mail to Wise, March, 2000
“You may not be a communist, but you’re definitely a Marxist!”
—Babs Minhinette Wilson, former National Information Director, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to Wise during anti-David Duke rally, Louisiana state capitol, Baton Rouge, March, 1989
“You’re pathetic. Maybe someday we will meet and it will be my pleasure to kick your left-wing liberal ass.”
—John Courtney, member, Sons of Confederate Veterans, e-mail to Wise, June, 2000
“He’s viciously anti-white and anti-American. Why doesn’t he speak about the things that are good with America?”
—Acalanes High School (Lafayette, CA) parent, protesting Wise’s speech there, March, 1998
“I don’t think you recognize your power. I think you could stand on a table in the lunchroom, and tell the students to burn the building down, and they might do it.”
—An actual statement to Wise by Harry Brunson, Assistant Principal, Hillsboro High School (Nashville), March, 1985, when Wise, then 16, blasted the school’s dress code in the underground campus paper.
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Weird Enuf Fer Ya? News From Barbaria #147

September 6, 2014, 10:07 am
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"Bob" McDonnell: 1st Virginia Governor To Be Accused And Convicted Of Crime

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Ain't No Racism In America: LA Cop Would "Pull A Ferguson" On "Nigger Chimps"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/aint-no-racism-in-america-la-cop-would.html

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TN pastor vows not to ‘repent’ for homophobia: God says gays ‘must be put to death’

Ohio’s attorney general fights release of video from Walmart shooting: ‘Trust the system’

Child p*orn among hacked celebrity photographs posted online

Illinois GOPer admits $100,000 wine club fee as Dem opponent tries to live on minimum wage

Ex-pastor arrested after woman accidentally uncovers boyfriend’s 10-year history of abuse

Pennsylvania teen in KKK hood arrested for harassing black college students

Sovereign citizens have a wacky new plot to take over the government: their own grand juries

Britain bans American Apparel ads for sexualizing school girls with upskirt shots

Michigan man gets at least 17 years in prison for gunning down black teen on his porch

Mushroom-shaped deep sea creature doesn’t fall into any known classifications

Oklahoma GOP to Christians: Be ‘wary’ of Muslim Americans — they’ll ‘decapitate you’

Ohio police charge ex-Navy SEAL for lying about being shot by three racist black men

Texas cops shoot mentally ill man armed with pellet gun until ‘he had no face’

Fox News panel: Rape victims need to take ‘personal responsibility’ for drinking too much

New study finds 99.999 percent certainty humans are causing global warming

Fox News guest: Medical use of marijuana creates ‘criminal minds’ in poor people

Classmates dump urine, feces, and spit on unwitting autistic teen in ice bucket ‘prank’

Justice Department to investigate entire Ferguson police force

Texas man stabbed roommate for being too loud during threesome, police say

Stephen Colbert mocks Fox pundits for wishing foreigners ruled America

Elizabeth Warren slams Eric Cantor and ‘revolving door’ linking Congress to Wall Street

Jon Stewart rips media scolds: Celebrities should be free to engage in ‘recreational nudity’


Thieves steal tablet computer from Seattle couple with cerebral palsy

Jogging US Marshal kicks man in the crotch, arrests him after he yanked down her shorts

Road-raging Michigan man guns down married dad picking up kids from first day of school

Stephen Colbert: GOP candidate can’t tell Founding Father from Dollywood founder

Mass. woman says comic book store fired her after she revealed alleged ‘rape room’

Facebook turns on breastfeeding mom: She was drinking whiskey when booted from restaurant

Elderly woman killed by driver checking Facebook on her phone at 85 mph

House GOP whip: Obama too busy fighting NFL team owner to find time to fight ISIS

Kentucky man pours gas on Hispanic neighbor’s house: ‘KKK wants you to burn’

Texas school districts militarize campus cops with free surplus weapons, armored vehicles



‘Duck Dynasty’ star urges Christians to convert atheist friends with Nicolas Cage movie

Florida school forces new student to wear ‘shame suit’ after skirt deemed too short

Lawsuit: Teacher fired after being forced to raise grades for college president’s lovers

Ted Nugent uses Facebook to warn of ’4th world allahpuke zombie’ attacks on 9/11/14

Cops detain man 8 days for posting band’s lyrics about school shooting on Facebook

Christian activist calls for holy war: ‘Islam has no place in civilized society’

Day care that duct-taped kids to floor may have withheld water to avoid diaper changes

Colorado GOP: Demon-obsessed ex-Navy chaplain has ‘no business in public office’

Artist intends to display hacked Jennifer Lawrence nudes in Florida art exhibit

Elizabeth Warren: When it counted most, Hillary sided with the vultures

American Univ. professor accused of starting fires and stealing 5,431 prescription pills

Fever, coughing, mouth blisters: Hundreds of Midwest kids hospitalized with mystery virus

What atheists like Bill Maher have in common with Medieval Christian crusaders

Indiana man accused of raping and abusing wife after forcing her to sign ‘slave contract’

The Economist retracts its racist slavery book review

Death penalty sought for Colorado teen, boyfriend in elderly couple’s slaying

Goodbye, Texas! Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant goes home to England

Routine stop in New Orleans turns up two felons driving bizarre van set up for killing spree

Environmentalists jeer as Calif. judge throws out lawsuit against oil company’s rail facility




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Americans Are 8 Times More Likely To Be Killed By A Police Officer Than...

September 6, 2014, 10:10 am
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AT&T Blocks Citizen Broadband To Guarantee Itself An Uneven Playing Field

September 6, 2014, 10:50 am
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Old man on old computer
"Boston's New "Wicked Free Wi-Fi Network"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/bostons-new-wicked-free-wi-fi-network.html

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"Socialism" Works: Credit Unions Are Clearly Better Than Commercial Banks
Time to level the playing field by letting CUs provide all commercial services.
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/about-100-million-americans-now-use.html

***
AT&T Blocks Citizen Broadband

In a filing to the FCC that one can only characterize as f-ing insane:
AT&T appreciates this opportunity to comment on the petitions of the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the City of Wilson, North Carolina, asking the Commission to act pursuant to section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 19962 to preempt portions of Tennessee and North Carolina statutes that they claim restrict their ability to provide broadband services. AT&T shares petitioners’ desire to ensure that all Americans, including, but not limited to, those living in and around Chattanooga and Wilson, have access to world class broadband infrastructure. AT&T is skeptical, however, as to whether government owned networks (GONs) will help advance that goal. Although AT&T does not necessarily oppose the use of GONs in areas where advanced infrastructure has not been, and is not likely to be, reasonably and timely deployed, we believe there are better and more effective ways of spurring broadband deployment in these areas, including through the FCC’s Connect America Fund.
So basically, we think that in some super small area where we have no financial incentive to build broadband, you should be able to build it. Of course:
GONs should not receive any preferential tax treatment. Indeed, any tax incentives or exemptions should be provided, if at all, to private sector firms to induce them to expand broadband deployment to unserved areas.
[bold my emphasis]
Let's get this straight: You should spend taxpayer money to build broadband when we have zero interest in an area because we don't think we will make money, but if we think we can make money (which is supposed to be our incentive as capitalists) you should give us taxpayer money to incentivize us to make more money. Also, no competition please.
The logic is spellbinding.

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Ain't No Racism In America: LA Cop Would "Pull A Ferguson" On "Nigger Chimps"

September 6, 2014, 10:55 am
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"Bad Black People." Why Bill O'Reilly Is Wrong Even When He's Right
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/bad-black-people-why-bill-oreilly-is.html

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"Tim Wise: America's Best Informed, Most Deeply-Contextualized Commentator On Race"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/tim-wise-americas-best-informed-most.html

***
A police officer in Baton Rouge resigned Thursday after a local news channel revealed that he sent text messages in which he wished that fellow officers “would pull a Ferguson” on a “bunch of monkeys,” The Advocate reports.
Fifteen-year-veteran Michael Elsbury resigned on Thursday after text messages he sent to a female friend were brought to the attention of his superiors. In one message, Officer Elsbury — whose patrol included the area around the historically black Southern University — wrote that blacks are “nothing but a bunch of monkeys,” and that the “only reason they have this job is the nigger, nigger in them.” It is unclear what “job” he is referring to.
In another text, he wrote that “I wish someone would pull a Ferguson on them and take them out. I hate looking at those African monkeys at work…I enjoy arresting those thugs with their saggy pants.”
After WBRZ reported on the text messages, the female friend turned her phone over to police, who spent two days combing through it in order to authenticate the messages. At 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday night, the Baton Rouge Police Department had collected enough evidence to place Officer Elsbury on administrative leave.
On Thursday afternoon, he tendered his resignation.
Police Chief Carl Dabadie said that “it was gut-wrenching to believe that someone had that much hate in them, especially a police officer who is out there enforcing the law every day. It made me sick to my stomach.” Chief Dabadie said that he understands how an incident like this could “cast a bad light” on the entire department, but hopes the community can appreciate the alacrity with which the incident was handled.
“I believe this is an isolated incident that occurred between the officer and this girl,” he said. “I do not want this to become a direct reflection on our officers. I have 650 officers, and 649 of them work their butts off every day for the city of Baton Rouge.”
The Reverend Al Sharpton — who was in Baton Rouge Thursday evening for the Rally for Victor White III, the black man who police claim committed suicide in a police cruiser with a handgun while his hands were cuffed behind his back — called the messages “beyond frightening,” and noted that “one or two [bad cops] can make the difference between our kids spending an inordinate amount of time in jail.”
The president of the Louisiana chapter of the NAACP, Ernest Johnson, said that “there’s no place in our community or anywhere in this country for a person upholding the safety of the law to make the kinds of comments that I saw.”
“I don’t want this to end with him resigning,” he added. “I think there’s more to it than that.”
According to police spokesperson Corporal Don Coppola, Officer Elsbury is still currently the subject of a criminal investigation.

["Baton Rouge police" by Billy Metcalf Photography on Flickr, Creative Commons License]
Scott Kaufman
Scott Kaufman
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Woman Kills Three For Last X-Box at Chicago Wal-Mart

September 6, 2014, 11:17 am
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A woman was arrested today for stabbing to death three shoppers at a Chicago-area Wal-Mart in order to secure the store's last X-Box One.
Mary Robbins, a married mother of two, reportedly wrestled her competitors to the ground before fatally wounding them with a sharpened Phillips head screwdriver. 
The victim's names have not yet been released, but are said to include a sociology student at Northwestern University, a chemistry teacher at at local high school and a young pregnant woman buying a system for her brother.
Robbins fled the scene and was apprehended at home hours later after police identified her license plates on the store's surveillance camera. Although many are shocked by the senseless violence, the alleged perpetrator is unrepentant.
"Of course I'd do it all over again," Robbins proclaimed from a Cook County jail cell. "My little Dustin is going to have an X-Box for Christmas this year. No one can take that away from him. Not even the police.
"Shopping isn't a hobby for me, it's a war. So I have to spend a little time behind bars. So what? I didn't punk out. I fought hard for my family, and I'm proud of that."
X-Box Dead
Today's incident of shopping violence comes on the heels of what experts are describing as the deadliest Black Friday weekend ever. All across the country people are dying at an increased pace. This year will drastically exceed last years death totals for this Holiday season.
***

"The US Murder Rate Is On Track To Be Lowest In A Century"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-us-murder-rate-is-on-track-to-be.html

U.S. Murder Rates 

"America's Real Criminal Element: Lead"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/10/americas-real-criminal-element-lead.html

"More Americans Killed By Police Than By Terrorists Even Though Crime Is Down"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/more-americans-killed-by-police-than-by.html

***

“The figures we are looking at this Thanksgiving are incredible unnerving… and this data is just from Thursday night. We only use to have to worry about Friday," said FBI Specialist Harry Carry.
“We had six people trampled to death at the Best buy, four at the Bed Bath Beyond, and two fatal stabbings at Wal-Mart,” said Miami police spokesman Sgt. James Loftus.
Inside a local Target, the crazed shoppers had lost what was rest of their minds. “We came outside and the Quiznos was burnt to the ground by angry shoppers. I think the Target had ran out of some kind of toaster,” said a shopper who wished not to be named because she was supposed to be bailing out her boyfriend who had punched another shopper over a set of soup ladles.
A witness says an old lady beat a kid with her purse in order to get the last toothbrush holder.
“I don’t even have real teeth anymore and have no need for such an item but it was over 35 percent off. I might be old but I’m not dumb, of course I will take advantage of that deal,” says 88-year-old Margaret Robinson.
According to Wal-Mart, America’s largest retailer, the company admits that more than 5,000 shoppers will be killed at their stores this holiday season.
“We include people killed from Thanksgiving to Christmas, so it’s not like they are all dying in one day. Besides, more kids will die making this junk than they do buying it, we see that as a positive,” Wal-Mart spokesman Charlie Hass said.
One shopper, Sami Zayn, described the day as "chaos" and went on to say, "Thanksgiving used to be about fighting with your family, not other shoppers."



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"The Talk" That Black Parents (And Others) Give Their Kids About "The Police"

September 6, 2014, 12:15 pm
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Police Brutality Stats

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"The Talk." How Black Parents Tell Their Sons To Be Safe
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-talk-how-black-parents-tell-their.html

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"D.A.s Help Keep Bad Cops From Being Held Accountable"

Alan: A few years ago, cops fired as many bullets in a single NYC gunfight as the total number of bullets fired by all German police over the course of the earth's entire circuit around the sun. 

Although American violence is "over the top" -- whether perped by criminals or "authorities" -- my own experience with the criminal "justice" system persuades me that "the worst of it" is the determination of American police to lock up black people, regardless the facts and with minimal regard for due process. 


20% of the 300 former convicts exonerated from death row convictions by DNA evidence were pressured to give false confessions. 

Take this in: One out of five innocent people confess to capital crimes they did not commit. 

Don't think so?

Here's how it's done.

"Frontline: A Rape-Murder Case Involving A Daisty Chain Of 4 False Confessions"


In addition to the mendacity and manipulation lavished on wrongful conviction is the ease with which district attorneys and public defenders persuade people-of-color to "cop pleas" -- even if they did not commit the crime. They are told in no uncertain terms -- and I know this from years working as a Spanish language court interpreter in Orange County, North Carolina -- that "asking for a jury trial" will probably result in conviction because, on one hand, they lack resources to mount a good defense and also because most juries will be prejudiced against them, partly because they don't have the wherewithal to pay for good lawyers.

My best friend, Steve Gibson R.N. - requiescat in pace - would have been convicted of armed robbery were it not for his family's considerable wealth and consequent ability to re-enact, in court, his purported crime, right down to prevailing "light conditions" and how they affected the victim's ability to identify the perpetrator through a screen door. If convicted, Steve would have languished in prison, with no opportunity to dedicate his life to nursing. 

Wrongful Conviction
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/05/wrongful-conviction.html


After My Mugging In The Early '70s, The Police Pressured Me To Pin The Rap On Someone I Couldn't Identify

Miscarriage Of Justice, Texas Style

How Criminal Records Make It Impossible To Get Your Life Back

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http://www.npr.org/2014/09/05/346137530/the-talk-how-parents-of-all-backgrounds-tell-kids-about-the-police

'The Talk:' How Parents Of All Backgrounds 

Tell Kids About The Police

In light of events in Ferguson, Mo., African-American parents have been discussing the importance of having "The Talk" about how their children should interact with police. But do other ethnic groups have similar conversations?
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Elizabeth Warren: When It Counted Most, Hillary Sided With The Vultures

September 6, 2014, 12:31 pm
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Moyers and Company host Bill Moyers sparred on Friday after Moyers replayed comments Warren made 10 years ago regarding Hillary Clinton and her policy shift on a bankruptcy bill that Warren opposed.
“Isn’t it time to get real ideologically?” Moyers asked. “The neoliberal movement of the last 30 years has run itself into the ground. And you know as well as I do, it still, nonetheless, has a hold on establishment Democrats. To be frank, Mrs. Clinton, for all the admiration and respect she commands for her years in public life, is the embodiment of that establishment, that movement. Do you think the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party can put the country back on a path away from corporate and plutocratic control?”
“The way I see this is that we change as a people,” Warren replied. “The issues that face us are more visible than they were before the 2008 crash.”

In a 2004 interview, the two discussed a meeting between Warren and Clinton, then First Lady, toward the end of Bill Clinton’s presidency regarding a bill that would have made it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy from credit card debts. Following the meeting, President Clinton killed the bill with a pocket veto, at his wife’s urging.
“Mrs. Clinton took credit for that veto, and she rightly should,” Warren said at the time. “She turned around a whole administration on the subject of bankruptcy.”
But after being elected to the Senate, Hillary Clinton voted for the bill when it was re-introduced.
“As Senator Clinton, the pressures are very different,” Warren told Moyers in the 2004 interview, adding, “She has taken money from the groups, and more to the point, she worries about them as a constituency.”
On Friday, Moyers asked Warren how people can trust their legislators are more likely to “pay more attention to the donors.”
“I think this is one of the hardest questions in democracy, the hardest questions that we face as a country right now,” Warren said. “The government runs for those who can make their voices heard. And they mostly make their voices heard through their lobbyists, through their campaign contributions. And that means over and over and over the tilt is in favor of the rich and the powerful.”
Every rule that gets written just has, you know, just a little more, a little twist, a little opening, a little loophole for those who’ve already made it big. And it’s taken the legs out from underneath our middle class, our working families, it’s taking hope away from our next generation. This is the problem we’ve got to solve and we’ve got to solve it now.
The full interview, as posted online, can be seen below.





Senator Elizabeth Warren quote to the Anarchy Gang When this gov re opens, when our markets are again sage, when our scientists can return to research, when our small businesses can borrow, when our veterans can be respected for their service, when our flu shots resume and our head start programs get back to teaching our kids, we will have rejected your views once again.


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"Is There Any Rational Case For Banning Gay Marriage?" The Atlantic

September 6, 2014, 2:28 pm
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In an exhilarating takedown of Indiana and Wisconsin's prohibitions, Judge Richard Posner rules there isn't. But will he persuade anyone?

GARRETT EPPS is a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He teaches constitutional law and creative writing for law students at the University of Baltimore. His latest book is American Justice 2014: Nine Clashing Visions on the Supreme Court.
Competing with William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor once wrote, is an inevitably losing proposition: “Nobody wants his mule and wagon stalled on the same track the Dixie Limited is roaring down.”

Federal District Judge Martin Feldman may feel like that luckless muleskinner today. His decision affirming a state ban on same-sex marriage appeared Wednesday. On Thursday, the Dixie Limited, in the person of Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, ran over him going the other way.

In an opinion for a unanimous three-judge panel, Posner upheld a district-court ruling that struck down same-sex marriage bans in Indiana and Wisconsin. The opinion is a Posnerian tour de force: clear, clever, thorough, witty, and—well—odd. It replies to most of the arguments Feldman accepted, including the most important one—that the courts should defer to the political process in matters of social policy.


At this point, we know all the arguments against marriage equality: Procreation. Tradition. Morality. Caution about social change. Democratic process. Feldman’s opinion had a kind of listless, get-off-my-lawn tone. You kids and your same-sex marriage, can just count me out, he seems to be saying. Procreation, slippery slope, democratic process, can I go now?

Posner’s tone is not fatigue but Five-Hour Energy. He does not rebut arguments against same-sex marriage, but rather (to paraphrase an old Southern threat) beats them to a pulp, puts the pulp into a sack, and then beats on the sack.

Same-sex marriage bans, he writes, violate the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on “deny[ing] ... the equal protection of the laws.” He chides the state defendants for ignoring the long history of discrimination against LGBT people:
One wouldn’t know, reading Wisconsin’s brief, that there is or ever has been discrimination against homosexuals anywhere in the United States. The state either is oblivious to, or thinks irrelevant, that until quite recently homosexuality was anathematized by the vast majority of heterosexuals (which means, the vast majority of the American people), including by most Americans who were otherwise quite liberal. Homosexuals had, as homosexuals, no rights; homosexual sex was criminal (though rarely prosecuted); homosexuals were formally banned from the armed forces and many other types of government work (though again enforcement was sporadic); and there were no laws prohibiting employment discrimination against homosexuals.
Sexual orientation, he writes, has all the earmarks of what constitutional lawyers call a “suspect classification,” meaning a trait like race, religion, or sex that automatically triggers judicial suspicion when employed in law. Such classifications, he says, are based on “immutable or at least tenacious characteristic of the people discriminated against (biological, such as skin color, or a deep psychological commitment, as religious belief often is, both types being distinct from characteristics that are easy for a person to change, such as the length of his or her fingernails).”

But Posner does not push ahead of the Supreme Court by holding that restrictions on LGBT people should receive “heightened scrutiny” like those based on race, religion, or sex. Instead, he focuses on the reasons the two states gave for discriminating against LGBT people in marriage, which strike him as not just irrational but nonexistent. “The governments of Indiana and Wisconsin have given us no reason to think they have a ‘reasonable basis’ for forbidding same-sex marriage,” he writes.




Posner finds the states’ justifications so irrational that he almost becomes unhinged himself. Is the ban in place to encourage responsible procreation by heterosexuals? “Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure."

Is the ban really about “procreation” at all? Posner dives deep into a truly obscure issue: Why does Indiana permit first cousins to marry, but only if they are too old to have children? Why, for that matter, does the state refuse to recognize out-of-state same-sex marriages, but does grant recognition to out-of-state marriages between cousins? “Indiana has not tried to explain to us the logic of recognizing marriages of fertile first cousins (prohibited in Indiana) that happen to be contracted in states that permit such marriages, but of refusing ... to recognize same-sex marriages (also prohibited in Indiana) contracted in states that permit them.”

Opposite-sex marriage is traditional? “Tradition per se has no positive or negative significance. There are good traditions ... bad traditions that are historical realities such as cannibalism, foot-binding, and suttee, and traditions that from a public-policy standpoint are neither good nor bad (such as trick-or-treating on Halloween). Tradition per se therefore cannot be a lawful ground for discrimination—regardless of the age of the tradition.”

“Caution” in allowing social change? Stubbornness is prejudice, not caution: “At the oral argument the state’s lawyer conceded that he had no knowledge of any study underway to determine the possible effects on heterosexual marriage in Wisconsin of allowing same-sex marriage.”

“Protecting” traditional marriage? “What Wisconsin has not told us is whether any heterosexuals have been harmed by same-sex marriage.”

The democratic process? “Minorities trampled on by the democratic process have recourse to the courts; the recourse is called constitutional law.”

Just as Feldman seemed to tailor his opinion to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court swing vote, Posner's major appeal is to an issue dear to Kennedy's heart: the welfare and dignity not of gays and lesbians but of their children. “Formally these cases are about discrimination against the small homosexual minority in the United States,” Posner writes. “But at a deeper level, as we shall see, they are about the welfare of American children.” Allowing same-sex marriage will allow the adopted children of gay couples equal status with their schoolmates; it will increase their material welfare by allowing benefits and tax deductions; it will increase the number of loving families available to adopt unwanted children; and it will reduce abortion: “The more willing adopters there are, not only the fewer children there will be in foster care or being raised by single mothers but also the fewer abortions there will be.”

It is a roaring steam engine of an opinion, at times exhilarating and at other times puzzling. Is it likely to change minds? No. Its flip dismissal of the political process argument makes it less persuasive than it could have been; Feldman did have a point, even if Posner (and I) think the counterargument is much stronger.
Posner is always the Dixie Limited. Whether Anthony Kennedy is ready to ride remains to be seen.

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"McCain Rips Obama’s Failure To Bomb Stonehenge," The Borowitz Report

September 6, 2014, 4:53 pm
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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) blasted President Obama on Saturday for failing to bomb Stonehenge while in the United Kingdom for the NATO summit.
“This is a time when it’s important to send our enemies the message that the United States is strong,” McCain told Fox News. “I can think of no better way to do that than by blowing Stonehenge off the map.”

McCain said that he was “astounded” by Obama’s reluctance to order airstrikes on the ancient monument. “He had a clean shot at Stonehenge, and he blinked,” he said.
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PBS: Ohio State Scientists Study Runoff To Stop Toxic Algae In The Great Lakes

September 6, 2014, 8:04 pm
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Algal Blooms
Lake Erie

Alan: As the planet heats up - and ever greater amounts of agricultural nutrients flow into nearby bodies of water - the problem of toxic algae is becoming dire. All over the world, regional water supplies are in extreme peril. To date, this problem has proven particularly intractable and is worsening at an alarming rate. It has often been said that "water is life." In recent decades, consistently dependable bodies of fresh water are becoming increasingly noxious.

Video: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/michigan-scientists-study-runoff-stop-toxic-algae-great-lakes/?google_editors_picks=true

TRANSCRIPT

JUDY WOODRUFF: The algae bloom that turned part of Lake Erie toxic just a few weeks ago is bringing a new level of attention to runoff and several other troubles in the Great Lakes.
Yesterday, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced that it will provide $12 million to the region to help address those problems.
Reporter Christy McDonald of Detroit public television has our story.

CHRISTY MCDONALD, Detroit Public Television: Lake Erie has long been considered the canary in the coal mine for the Great Lakes system.
The southernmost, warmest, and shallowest of the five lakes, Erie provides an ideal habitat for an unwelcome summer visitor, algae, particularly the toxic kind that caused drinking water problems for Toledo, Ohio, several weeks ago.
And that makes it an ideal place to look for solutions to that problem. Here at the Stone lab in Put-in-Bay, Ohio, they have been studying algal blooms since the ’70s. At that time, significant improvements were made to sewage treatment plants, ushering in 30 years of improved health for Lake Erie.
But in the early 2000s, large algal blooms started to reappear, with the worst on record occurring in 2011.
For Jeff Reutter, director of the Ohio Sea Grant College and Stone Lab at the Ohio State University, that algae bloom was like nothing he’d seen before.

JEFF REUTTER, Director, Ohio Sea Grant College and Stone Lab, Ohio State University: The bloom in 2011 really got everybody’s attention. That bloom was two-and-a-half times worse than anything we’d ever seen before. And it was really a bloom like I’d never experienced and I have been working on Lake Erie since 1971. And I have seen these before, but I had never seen a bloom that when you hit it with a boat, it actually slowed you down, it was that dense.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: He believes that bloom and others like it are caused by excess potassium, nitrogen and other byproducts of fertilizer run off from the farms and towns that surround Lake Erie.

JEFF REUTTER: The algae are very much like the grass on our lawns. You know, you put fertilizer on it, it’s going to have nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus. It’s going to make your grass grow. We put it in Lake Erie, and we get algae.


CHRISTY MCDONALD: Reutter says those ingredients can be coming from a variety of sources.

JEFF REUTTER: When we look at different places around the country where they’re having harmful algal blooms, some of them are going to be driven by agricultural loading, but some of them are going to be poor sewage treatment plants or a bunch of failing septic tanks, but, in Lake Erie, it’s primarily agriculture.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: And climate change is proving to be an aggravating factor.

JEFF REUTTER: Most of the phosphorus that comes into the lake, probably over 80 percent comes in during storms. Climate change leads to more frequent severe storms.
And if we have most of the phosphorous coming in from agricultural runoff, combined sewer overflows, runoff off our lawns, if most of that’s coming in during storm events, and you have more storm events, you’re simply going to get more phosphorous. It’s that simple.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: And more phosphorous encourages the growth of a form of algae known as cyanobacteria. It produces microcystin, the main toxin of concern on Lake Erie.
And although Toledo’s recent bloom was actually quite small, the densest portion of the harmful algae clustered right over the intake for the city’s water treatment plant, turning the tap water toxic.
Justin Chaffin, research coordinator at the Stone lab, tests samples from surrounding water treatment facilities to monitor whether the water is safe for drinking.

JUSTIN CHAFFIN, Research Coordinator, Stone Lab: If you look at some of your known toxins that you’re familiar with, microcystin is about on par being — toxicity with something like cyanide, or — and it’s just below dioxin, so it’s a really potent toxin.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: The United States has no national standard for these toxins, but Ohio has adopted the standards of the World Health Organization, which recommends one part per billion for drinking water.
On August 2, 2014, the toxin levels in Toledo’s water came in at three parts per billion. Yet the most alarming aspect of that toxic bloom is that it arrived in early August.

JEFF REUTTER: It was much earlier than we had anticipated seeing a really bad bloom. Scary for all of us, because we know that this bloom is going to stay around here until well into October, maybe the end of October, and it probably won’t reach its peak until September. So, the big concerns are, the worst is likely still yet to come.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: Chaffin has also been studying the toxic algae on a molecular level. His findings provide some clues into how we may be able to stop these blooms from spreading.

JUSTIN CHAFFIN: During that summer of 2011, we did a molecular study where we tracked the cyanobacteria, the microcystis bloom, throughout the lake and throughout time. Now, that cyanobacteria bloom that started in Maumee Bay in mid-July was the same microcystis that ended up off of Cleveland in October.
So, with that molecular study, we know that if we stop a bloom in Maumee Bay, we will stop a bloom by Cleveland or by Sandusky. So, if we stop it in Maumee Bay, the rest of the lake, it should be good.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: Currently, the only way to stop a bloom from moving is to stop it from forming in the first place. And the only way to accomplish that is to reduce the amount of phosphorous coming into the lake.

JEFF REUTTER: I don’t think anybody thinks that we’re going to make it colder real soon. So we can’t address climate change to say, well, the solution’s climate change. All we got to do is stop it. The only thing that we control is phosphorus load. And that means we have to change our behavior.
Our goal has to be to reduce the phosphorous by about 40 percent. But that’s not something that I think anybody believes is going to happen real quickly. So the first thing that we have to do is arm our water treatment plants with the right technology, the tools, make sure that the people understand, the people that manage the plants understand how to take the toxins out that come into the plant, because, clearly, toxins will come in.

CHRISTY MCDONALD: We are now entering into prime algal bloom season. Some water treatment facilities are testing for the toxins, but those tests aren’t mandatory. Municipalities can only look to scientific research from places like Stone Lab to understand algal blooms and to prepare for the possible threat to their water supply.


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Water Level At Lake Mead Hits All Time Low (Video)

September 6, 2014, 8:15 pm
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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Drought in the southwestern U.S. will deplete the vast Lake Mead this week to levels not seen since Hoover Dam was completed and the reservoir on the Colorado River was filled in the 1930s, federal water managers said Tuesday.
The projected lake level of about 1,080 feet above sea level will be below the level of about 1,082 feet recorded in November 2010 and the 1,083-foot mark measured in April 1956 during another sustained drought.
But U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regional chief Terry Fulp said water obligations will be met at least through next year without a key shortage declaration. The result will be full deliveries to cities, states, farms and Indian tribes in an area that's home to some 40 million people and the cities of Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
"We continue to closely monitor the projections of declining lake levels and are working with stakeholders throughout the Lower Basin to keep as much water in Lake Mead as we can through various storage and conservation efforts," Fulp said in a statement.
The lake on Tuesday was just under 1,082 feet above sea level, and the reservoir was about 39 percent full, said Rose Davis, a bureau spokeswoman in Boulder City, Nevada.
The dropping level since the reservoir was last full in 1998, at just under 1,296 feet above sea level, has left as much as 130 feet of distinctive white mineral "bathtub ring" on hard rock surfaces surrounding the lake.
Davis said the bureau expects a slight increase in water level to about 1,083 feet by Jan. 1, 2015.
Lake Mead National Recreation Area, 30 miles east of Las Vegas, is among the federal government's top tourist attractions. It drew some 6.3 million visitors in 2013, about the same number as the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Boaters and swimmers have largely ignored the dropping water levels in a place where splashing in cold fresh water on 100-plus-degree summer days is a treat. But they've also dealt with marina closures in recent years. Visitors who used to feed scraps to carp from restaurant deck tables may now need to trek hundreds of yards with sandwiches and beach blankets to enjoy a waterside lunch.
"We projected this was coming," Davis said. "We are basically where we expected to be, given the dry winters in 2012 and 2013."
Lake Mead today stores about 10.2 million acre-feet of water and is managed in conjunction with Lake Powell, the reservoir farther up the Colorado River near the Utah-Arizona state line.
Davis said Lake Powell was at 52 percent capacity, holding about 12.7 million acre-feet of water.
Water officials say an acre-foot is about enough water to supply an average Nevada household for a year.
Fulp compares controlled management of the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado River to pouring tea from one cup to another.
Seven southwestern U.S. states reap the result under a 1928 allocation agreement that also provides shares of Colorado River water to Native American tribes and Mexico.
Las Vegas, with more than 2 million residents and about 40 million tourists a year, is almost completely dependent on Lake Mead for drinking water.
Federal and state water officials have negotiated plans for a shortage declaration triggering delivery cuts to Nevada and Arizona if annual projections for the Lake Mead water level drop below a 1,075 foot elevation. That projection is based on data being compiled by the Bureau of Reclamation.
Davis said the 1,075-foot trigger point is not expected this year or next. But last year, after back-to-back driest years in a century, federal water managers gave Arizona and Nevada a 50-50 chance of having water deliveries cut in 2016.
California, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming wouldn't see direct cuts in their share of river water, but officials have acknowledged there would be ripple effects.


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This American Life: "Super Business Girl"

September 6, 2014, 10:15 pm
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Alan: When I first listened to Super Business Girl, I was taken by her charm and cheerful brashness.

The second time, she was all pitch, no substance.

I felt I was being taken.

As I write this post, I see the same passive voice verb structure in "both" reviews.

"I was taken."

"I was being taken."

Fifteen years ago, I spent a couple days with educator John Taylor Gatto who said something so blindingly obvious that I'd never seen it before. 

"Most of what America sells is junk."

The American Salesman.

The American Saleswoman.

Often their method does not even rise to the level of bait-and-switch.

It's just bait.

A chunk of meat.

Hooker enticement.

Something entirely different than what it seems.


533: It's Not the Product, It's the Person
SEP 5, 2014
Starting a business is not for the self-doubting. Or even usually the self-deprecating. The first thing you have to sell is yourself —like dating, but with a greater chance of landing in debt. We have a new story from Mike Birbiglia, and Alex Blumberg tells the incredible, sweat-stains-and-all saga of a man fumbling through starting a new business, and the man is: himself.

Super Business Girl



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