Az Re-enacts The Alien and Sedition Acts

(cross posted from HA)

This law was not written to deal with the very real problems of illegal immigration. As written, it is unenforceable if only because Az will not be able to pay the costs of imprisoning the illegals.

Oh yeh .. tell me bubbelah, when a citizen hiking in Az is stopped because someone thinks the hiker is a vagrant and the citizen does not want to show his driver’s license or maybe is not carrying it … Az will do what?
The authors of this law no doubt also foresaw its inevitable outcome, Az as a civil rights target makes good PR for the Tea bag suckers and disrupts efforts by the responsible folks in Congress to set priorities. Now imagine a few thousand civil rightsies jaywalking as a form of protest while carrying Mexican flags. The cops will do what about this? Imagine the contributions to the Palinistas when Beck does his Az is Oz show.
The real intent is provocation … more of the same effort by radical right to create chaos.
The sadness is that we do need real reform. The obvious way to do this is to have a national ID. Ideally this would be a biometric card that could be required at time of employment. No card, no job. A card law would also help with airline security, simplify border crossings with CAN and MEX, and greatly facilitates health care.
Interestingly the Dem’s draft of an immigration bill already includes a national ID card! I wonder if the script for Beck’s show is already written?
Cross Posted at SJ

Cornyn Warns Crist: You Can Never Come Back To The GOP

Cornyn Warns Crist: You Can Never Come Back To The GOP: "'Once you leave the party, you can't come back,' Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) told the Huffington Post. 'And if he has other aspirations, it's hard to see how that works out.'

Speaking moments earlier at a breakfast briefing organized by the Christian Science Monitor, Cornyn relayed that he had urged Crist to abandon his plans to bolt the party and, instead, wait until the 2012 election to launch another bid for the Senate -- in this case, taking on incumbent Bill Nelson.

'I know that message has been communicated both by my staff and other people close to the governor,' Cornyn said. 'I think that is one of his alternatives which, frankly, I would prefer to his switching to an Independent. Either stay in the primary and let the Republican primary voters make their choice, or drop out of the primary, endorse Rubio, and use the next two years to sort of recover... and challenge Senator Nelson.'

'Staying in the primary and dropping out and running in 2012 are much more preferable to running as an Independent,' Cornyn added, 'because I think his future electoral prospects are irreparably damaged by his deciding to run as an Independent.'"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Sarah Palin: Glenn Beck 'An Inspiring Patriot' (TIME 100)

Sarah Palin: Glenn Beck 'An Inspiring Patriot' (TIME 100): "TIME has named Glenn Beck one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

And they commissioned another member of their TIME 100, Sarah Palin, to write the article praising Beck.

'Who'd have thought a history buff with a quirky sense of humor and a chalkboard could make for such riveting television?' Palin wrote of Beck, who she compared to the high school government teacher so many wish they'd had, charting and connecting ideas with chalk-dusted fingers -- kicking it old school -- instead of becoming just another talking-heads show host.'"

Corporate China vs America Incorporate?

Yesterday I read an email from Goldman Sacks. The author claimed that his "product" justified his salary.  What was that product?  I think he called it "liquidity."  I call it money.

Remember ec 101?  The central dogma of capitalism is that increased productivity generates capital making the capitalist richer and providing a motivation for the owners to pay more to the workers so the latter can buy more.  This increased buying power increases the vlaue of the capital. 

Seems like a perpetual motion machine?  Very quickly, however, capitalism ran into a need for someone to act as a referee of the money supply.  Without national banks, capitalism would run out of "money" to accommodate all this growth.

So, for the last two centuries or so we have had the odd couple .. Capitalism building capital while the banks controlled the money supply so that there was enough money (no deflation)  but not too much (aka inflation).

OOOPS.  Along comes modern Wall Street.  One estimate I have read says that Wall Street now accounts for FORTY PERCENT of America's GDP. Of course Wall Street describes itself as the "Financial Industry."   So this 40% must mean there is a product?  Wall Street's products are "instruments" ... not cars or songs or computer programs but "instruments."

What is an "instrument?"  Like pins, corn, soy beans, or software these products must have some substance to have value.  That substance is MONEY.  In effect Wall Street now competes with the Federal Reserve by creating MONEY!

Of course corporate states, CHINA, Unltd in particular, understand that.  That is why they have sovereign banks that both print money and invest it.  Rather l;ike bundling Goldman Sachs with the Fed Reserve?

Now are you scared?

Who Represents Me?

Obama's science advisory council  list was recently published.  I posted it on the SLU blog if anyone wishes to see the full list.

A couple of points relevant to the UW may be worth noting.

First, the list includes a number of VC and technology types, suggesting that Obama sees science as important to economic growth.  The people that caught my eye were

--Craig Mundie, Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corp

--Ed Penhoet, a director of Alta Partners, and chairman of the Board for Immune Design and Metabolex
--Maxine Savitz, retired general manager of Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, Inc

--Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google Inc. and (former) member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc.

--David E. Shaw, chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research and founder of D. E. Shaw & Co., an investment and technology development firm
--Richard Levin, president of Yale University

These are all very different from past corporate appointments of business administrative or financial types who, I suspect, have a poor understanding of the synergy
 between humanities and the communicative and creative processes involved in in science.  Two of the three co-chairs of the Council, Harold Varmus and Eric Lander,
 both began their careers outside science and have both made strong statements about the need for humanities and social science education in the education of scientists.

Second, except for Craig Mundie, Seattle and the UW are not directly represented on the Council .  While this Council is not a fit place for geographic affirmative action,
is it worth wondering if the lack of UW faculty in this panel reflects the dearth of representation of scientists in high level administrative roles at the UW? 

I am curious about who amongst our colleagues here does have the national status to serve on the Council? Within our own institution,
what leadership role do scientists take?  Going further,  the same question, I would guess, may apply to the humanities and social sciences. 

Are the academics of the UW becoming employees of career administrators?   Who sets policy here?  What academic "face" represents the  UW to the loacl business community or in Olympia?

--
Stephen M. Schwartz
Pathology

POWER WENCH

POWER WENCH: "POWER WENCH - $125 (Tacoma)
Date: 2010-04-25, 10:53AM PDT
Reply to: sale-p6j4k-1709497677@craigslist.org [Errors when replying to ads?]

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* Location: Tacoma
* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests



PostingID: 1709497677"

My Next Car!

Gmail - The Civil War: Reality was different - stephenm.schwartz@gmail.com

Gmail - The Civil War: Reality was different - stephenm.schwartz@gmail.com: "The Civil War: Reality was different

<em>The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War</em>
Dear Fellow Conservative:

The politically correct history that dominates our schools and universities today insists that Jefferson Davis was another Hitler, Robert E. Lee was another Rommel, and the Confederate States of America were our own version of the Third Reich -- a blot on American history.

But reality was different: the Old South, as H. W. Crocker III explains in The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War, had slavery, but also immense charm, grace, and merit -- not to mention a very strong Constitutional case.

Now, for a limited time, Human Events is making The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War available to you absolutely FREE in a limited-edition hardcover.

In your FREE hardcover copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War, you'll find among many intriguing items:

* That secession was legal


* That the Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave


* That leading Northern generals -- like McLellan and Sherman -- hated abolitionists


* That bombing people 'back to the Stone Age' got its start with the Federal siege of Vicksburg


* That Stonewall Jackson founded a Sunday school for slaves where he taught them how to read


* That General James Longstreet fought the Battle of Sharpsburg in his carpet slippers


* That if the South had won, we might be able to enjoy holidays in the sunny Southern state of Cuba


CLICK HERE to get your FREE hardcover copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War today.

Sincerely,

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Editor in Chief, Human Events

P.S. Here is how to tick off a liberal... just subscribe to Human Events today! (And you'll receive a FREE copy of The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to the Civil War -- a $27.95 value.)

P.P.S. Make a liberal even madder by subscribing for 70-weeks and also get bestselling book The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to American History -- absolutely free.

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No need to comment.

Street People

EFFin’ Unsound » Blog Archive » Panhandling Law: "There is an irony in your comments.

Carl Ballard at Effin Unsound talks about his opposition to the City Council's efforts to pass a new pan handling law.

I responded:

Once upon a time, long ago, there was quite a different influx of young folk into Seattle.

Before condos filled Denny Regrade with singles, there was a “gallery” movement toward Pioneer Square. The movement was also comprised of young people .. artists, crafts people, photographers and wannabees along with the moderately wealthy art buying community focussed on the gallery scene.

The gallery scene, however, was added on to an existing scene of street people, pan handlers, alcoholics, vagrants. The odd thing is that “we” got along. The gallery owners, even Foster-White, valued the ambiance and even sponsored community activities with the indigent indigenes. The pick up basket ball games between gallery folk and street folk were something to remember.

Some of the more outre art community even began moving into lofts in Pioneer Square. I had one friend whose elegant bathroom was even featured in Sunset!

One small story may show how far we have come in modern Seattle.

I was an active part of a gallery called Infinity, owned and managed by Letcher Ross. Infinity was a photography gallery with about a dozen or so youngish photographers grateful to and supportive of Letcher’s efforts.

Street people would often attend shows and inside the gallery certainly did not panhandle, pee on the cleaned brick walls, or even (that I noticed) smell bad.

One fellow, however, was nuisance. This guy would pee on the front windows of Infinity. This was distracting. Mostly it meant Letcher shoo-ing the guy away. Unfortunately the peeing was aggressive. The guy was marking territory like a male dog. He began coming to openings, even threatening customers. Letcher had to throw the guy out.

Oh well, eventually the guy went away, victim of booze and someone else’s knife. That was the worst of it. The gallery scene prospered and relations between the street folk and the galleries were pretty good. Rents rose. Soon modest groups like ours were outpriced. Developers began talking about condo-izing some of the old buildings.

What killed the gallery scene? Infinity and its successors (some of whom are still there) did not leave because of the street people. Then came the KingDome."

A memoire of the time on another blog.

Ultimate Foods

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: "KFC's Double Down Sandwich, an in-your-face collection of bacon, cheese and something called Colonel's Sauce betwixt two fried chicken 'buns', is making waves for its unapologetic gluttony, compelling reviews out of everyone from the New York Times's Sam Sifton to the Onion's Nathan Rabin. But is it really the caloric monstrosity that it appears?

To get this out of the way: I haven't eaten a Double Down. I probably will. And I'll probably like it. But there are so many much tastier ways to clog your arteries here in New York that it's not high on the priority list.

So instead, let's start with the Double Down's calorie count: 540 calories for the crispy 'Original Recipe' version and 460 for a grilled variant. Those seem like big numbers, but by fast food standards, they're pretty mild: the Burger King Chicken Tendercrisp weighs in at 800 calories, for instance, and Jack-in-the-Box's Ranch Chicken Club will set you back 700. Calorie counts for burgers are even higher: 1,320 for a Hardee's Monster Thickburger, and 1,350 for a Wendy's Triple Baconator. Even the humble Big Mac, a lightweight by modern standards, contains 540 calories, exactly the same number as the Double Down."

so the academic cookie crumbles

Who Really Failed?
April 15, 2010

Dominique G. Homberger won't apologize for setting high expectations for her students.

The biology professor at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge gives brief quizzes at the beginning of every class, to assure attendance and to make sure students are doing the reading. On her tests, she doesn't use a curve, as she believes that students must achieve mastery of the subject matter, not just achieve more mastery than the worst students in the course. For multiple choice questions, she gives 10 possible answers, not the expected 4, as she doesn't want students to get very far with guessing.

Students in introductory biology don't need to worry about meeting her standards anymore. LSU removed her from teaching, mid-semester, and raised the grades of students in the class. In so doing, the university's administration has set off a debate about grade inflation, due process and a professor's right to set standards in her own course.
To Homberger and her supporters, the university's action has violated principles of academic freedom and weakened the faculty.

"This is terrible. It undercuts all of what we do," said Brooks Ellwood, president of the LSU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and the Robey H. Clark Distinguished Professor of Geology. "If you are a non-tenured professor at this university, you have to think very seriously about whether you are going to fail too many students for the administration to tolerate."

Even for those who, like Homberger, are tenured, there is a risk of losing the ability to stick to your standards, he said. Teaching geology, he said, he has found that there are students who get upset when he talks about the actual age of the earth and about evolution. "Now students can complain to a dean" and have him removed, Ellwood said. "I worry that my ability to teach in the classroom has been diminished."

For the rest of this story: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/04/15/lsu

Amy J. Kinsel, Ph.D.
Professor of History
Shoreline Community College
16101 Greenwood Avenue North
Shoreline, WA  98133-5696
(206) 546-4679
akinsel@shoreline.edu

Hillary Can Relax!

DRUDGE REPORT 2010®: "Taxpayers foot State Department's stiff liquor bill..."

When Good Liberals Show Self Inerest

HorsesAss.Org » Blog Archive » I’ve raised my mother well: "Goldy and his Ma are wrong on this issue.

Goldy's mom writes to the Philadephia Inquirer:

Who benefits from charter schools?

My friend, a dedicated, enthusiastic, and highly regarded Guidance Counselor for 15 years in the Philadelphia School District, has decided to look for a new job. Her school, which she loves, is becoming a charter school. Why in the midst of revelations of mismanagement and fraud is the city establishing at least nine more charter schools and displacing up to 200 teachers, and why does my friend want no part of it? Charter school staff earn less than comparable staff in public schools, they have no pension (what a savings for the city and state!), and no union representation. Could these be the real reasons that the government is pushing charter schools? Yes, charter schools have the ability to exclude troublesome students and to insist on parental participation. If traditional public schools could exclude students and mandate parent involvement then they too might see improved standardized test scores as some charter schools report.

As we funnel money away from traditional public schools to charter schools, we leave our most vulnerable students behind, and see quality teachers fleeing. I ask, who is really benefitting?

Sylvia Goldstein Salvat

Merion, Pa*

*For those who do not know Merion is a very affluent suburb of Philadelphia. The suburb is best known for its fight to prevent the moving of the the incredible Barnes' Art Collection from its cloistered home, four miles from downtown, to a more public location. The argument was over Dr. Barnes' will that restricted access to students at the Barnes Foundation or a small number of visitors each week. The neighbors did not want all the traffic that a public museum meant but did want to keep this treasure in Merion.

Are charter schools a problem for teachers as workers? Yes! Unions are important. But, that does not mean our current Unions are good for the kids. The model of the teacher's unions is a trade union, a monopoly. These unions do poorly in organizing the fragmented world of private schools too. But, the right to organize still exists. The only difference is that unions can not impose work rules or curriculum on a District wide basis.

In the system Goldy's Mom eschews, those who want choice and can afford it exercise THEIR choice by taking their kids to private school, moving to a different district controlled by like-minded people, or by using their money and talents to tae over the Seattle District.

The children of the less affluent,less educated, less political parents get left behind because the drive, the money, the sheer power of parents moves their kids out of the public schools, leaving a system that more and more resembles a charity.

Goldy himself is evidence of this. His Mom was a teacher but his family did not live in the District where she taught. Goldy's daughter? She attends school on Mercer island!

Noblesse oblige?

Tea baggers in Hungary

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten: "'Hungary has Turned into a Grubby Hive of Nationalism'

Media commentators in Germany are alarmed at the emergence of the far-right Jobbik party as the third-strongest force in the Hungarian parliament. Europe should pay more attention to the vicious xenophobia and political polarization wracking the country 20 years after it gained its freedom, editorials say. more..."

Another Name on President Obama's Supreme Court Short List - Political Punch

Another Name on President Obama's Supreme Court Short List - Political Punch: "Sears, who will turn 55 in June, was the first female African-American chief justice in US history, and when nominated for the state supreme court by then-Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, she became the first woman and the youngest person to ever sit on the court.‬‪

... she is also a friend of conservative Justice Clarence Thomas"

Shelley on God

“If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him?

If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning out future?

If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers?

If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him?

If he is infinitely just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses?

If he is infinitely reasonable, how can he be angry at the willfully blind, to whom he he has given the liberty of being unreasonable?

If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him at all?

If he has spoken, why is the world still not convinced?”

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, (1792-1822)

The Chihuly Casino?

More on the Chihuly Gallery

Once upon a time the uber wealthy ENDOWED museums to glorify their taste in art. Some of these remain today as tributes to the artists and the patrons .. think Medicis, MOMA, the Fullers and SAM, ....

Now the idea seems to be to invest the minimum you can . Worse, the generous skin flint patron then claims the right to control what is shown in the museum!

In this case the Wright family is generous enough to donate 16 million dollars to build a gallery cum catering hall next to the Space needle. The gallery will show the work of Dale Chihuly .. an entrepreneur in his own right who has made glass a widely recognized object of art. He runs what might be called an atelier, a workshop where employees turn out works under his supervision.

Neither Chihuly or the Wrights plan to donate anything to the new museum. The Chihuly works will be chosen and loaned to the site by Chihuly. After five years he can sell them for whatever they will then be worth. In the meantime, the Wrights expect to recoup their tax deduction by using the Chihuly museum as a private catering hall and by selling Chihuly-esque trinkets to the tourists.

Even that might not be bad if the Wrights had great taste. Do the Wrights have great taste? Read the devastating review by the Stranger' of their Chihuly decorated Space Needle restaurant.

Is that gut hole in the sky the Wrights' idea of "success?"

I have a better idea. Casinos make money! If the Wrights want to push the Center as a tourist trap, why not cut a deal with the Duwamish folk to build the Chief Seattle Casino at Seattle Center?

The Wrights can cater the buffet and big winners can choose Chihuly stuff as their ultimate reward and a unique way of remembering their visit to this wonderful city.

Crossing Cultures in Economic Bad Times .. the Pot Index

Egyptian cannabis smokers are up in arms over a hashish shortage in the north African country, according to local newspaper Al Masry Al Youm.

According to official reports, hashish is used by about 7 million people in Egypt including 12 percent of school and university students.

Total spendings of Egyptians on hashish purchased from smugglers amounts up to more than eight billion Egyptian pounds; about 5% of Egypt’s public revenue.

So, the Economist has its BigMac index. Maybe we need a "Joint Economic Index?"

Girls go Wild in Space

Home - Arab News: "Russian spacecraft docks at orbiting station

MOSCOW: A US-Russian space team sent their Easter greetings down to Earth Sunday after their Soyuz spacecraft docked flawlessly at the International Space Station.

Spacewoman power: Four women in orbit at same time"

Henry VIII to get revenge on Rome?

Home - Arab News: "Pope’s immunity could be challenged in Britain

LONDON: Protests are growing against Pope Benedict XVI’s planned trip to Britain, where some lawyers question whether the Vatican’s implicit statehood status should shield the pope from prosecution over sex crimes by pedophile priests.

Cardinal defends pope, denounces 'petty gossip'"