They hate us for our freedoms…

Just when you think your government can’t make you even more disgusted…

U.S. drones targeting rescuers and mourners
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/u_s_drones_targeting_rescuers_and_mourners/singleton/

So, not only are we in a police state and run by Constitution-shredding oligarchy, our government has taken to committing the worst war crimes imaginable (not that our government committing war crimes is in any way novel, I have mostly focused on local (meaning inside our own country) police state because if we can’t fix that, we certainly can’t fix these war crimes). This, of course, happening under the keen eye of a President elected by promising the most transparent administration ever and who, unbelievably (what the hell were those morons thinking, anyway? A Peace Prize based on a promise? Well, gimme a prize, I promise to end all war!) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and he hadn’t even taken office. I becha they wish they could take that back now!

I am at a loss on ways to express my visceral upset at the above report. I guess what really amazes me (and I suppose shouldn’t, since I rail against the issue all the time) is that our government doesn’t seem to give a damn about this information getting public. I guess they have accurately determined that the sheeple really are as spineless and moronic as they appear. An article like this should ignite a firestorm like that surrounding Komen’s (clearly politically motivated, all protestations to the contrary) rescinded decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood (see here for just one of many examples if you somehow missed that), yet I am quite certain that this article will be the last that anyone hears (at least here in the US, I am sure they get earfuls in most of the rest of the world (heck BBC reports more shit than our own press!)). It is hard to continue with the belief that government need not be evil, wasteful or corrupt (regular readers no doubt see me vacillating all the time), but governments that are evil and corrupt are no doubt also wasteful (at least wasteful in that our tax dollars are used to line the pockets of the oligarchy as opposed to do anything beneficial for the 99%). Of course, as I have mentioned before, I am not sure that there is any way out of the crater we are in without the ‘benefit’ of bloody revolution, so I expect things to get worse before they have the potential to get better. The best case scenario, for me, is the oligarchy backs off a bit on being so damn obvious about their control and allow a few more people to slip over to the dark side before they snap the door shut again (of course, I am hoping to be one of those slipping over to the dark side ;-)).

Is high tech good for education?

Are high-tech classrooms better classrooms?
Despite the hype over Apple’s new iPad textbooks, there’s little proof that gadgets do much to improve education
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/03/are_high_tech_classrooms_better_classrooms/singleton/

A good friend and I started work on an idea for educational games years ago (we have been unable to find investors to take it from the current state to a test-able prototype) and I was quite sure that we were working on a winner and convinced our approach was best for students. Recently I was gung ho over the idea of creating a ‘flip school’ where students would get their lecture at home via the ‘net and do their homework at school where there would be someone who could help (I sometimes have problems understanding what my 2nd grader’s teacher is trying to teach our boy). However, after reading this article I am starting to think that perhaps these approaches are several steps down the slippery slope on the educational industrial complex. Reading about the approaches Finland takes toward education, I think here in the US we are going about things really backwards. If we were to carefully graft technology onto the Finland approach I think that we would probably have the best of all worlds, but I think until we ‘clean house’ and get a stable, functional educational system (which, based on the Finland model, we are far, far away from) adding any sort of technology is just a way to prolong the agony without providing the slightest improvement.

Congress selling us out

Lieberman, Cantor defend Capitol Hill’s inside traders
Wall Street’s favorites resist the effort to ban profiteering on non-public information
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/lieberman_cantor_defend_capitol_hills_inside_traders/singleton/

I hesitated in posting this because it is so boringly predictable it is hardly worth mentioning. However, some people (but probably not my reader(s)) might not realize how corrupt our government is, so I thought I would slide this in. In the overall scheme of our government’s corruption, it is actually quite minor, but, as they say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

Bla, police state, bla

For those of you not yet tired of me babbling on and on and on an on about our police state here is another fascinating look at it:

ACLU sues Obama administration over assassination secrecy
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/aclu_sues_obama_administration_over_assassination_secrecy/singleton/

I like Glenn, but I worry for him. He keeps his home in Brazil because that is where his partner lives, thus he travels in and out of the country all the time. I figure one of these days he will be stopped and either won’t be allowed in or will be disappeared into Guantanamo (or wherever else our government disappears people). If we are really lucky, Salon will find out what happened and those of us critical toward our government (I used to think that was a citizen’s _obligation_) will have a small window to try to flee the country.

Anyway, I strongly encourage anyone who has got this far to read the whole thing. There is at least a 50% chance that this guy is going to get another 4 years to continue (finish?) shredding the constitution (not that I like the favorite on the other side) so anyone who is thinking they should support him should really think about what it means to do so. Even in the exceptionally unlikely event that people like Glenn are NOT rounded up and disappeared by this administration, it is a virtual guarantee that unless these police state changes are reversed (and how, exactly, will that happen when we keep electing people who like things the way they are (go Paul!)) they will be abused. Police state + oligarchy = feudalism, in my mind, and that means that we 99% are serfs and those of you who read about the dark ages will know the serfs didn’t have it very good. If crap like what is described in the article isn’t immediately opposed and reversed, it become set in concrete and becomes orders of magnitude more difficult to reverse in the future, probably requiring bloody revolution.

Really, the Tea Party types should be backing the ACLU fully in this, as, of course, all liberals and independents. Sadly, I expect that no one will care and the concrete will set up and there will be no escape.

I am not sure I buy all of it

The “education crisis” myth
Ignore the media spin. Wages and working conditions — not skills — are the real reasons jobs get outsourced
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/30/the_education_crisis_myth/singleton/

In my experience our educational system is quite dysfunctional and apparently incapable of churning out people with critical thinking skills, but the article makes a very persuasive case that that reality is independent of our jobs being shipped overseas. The author seems a wee bit negative, but I am not being sarcastic, I think it is only a wee bit. Clearly it won’t take a lot for manufacturing to be cheaper in the US again, with our crashed economy, I just hope that doesn’t come at the expense of a living wage (note that in most of the country, you can still live very nicely (if debt free) off of $10 an hour, if you get full benefits) and safe working conditions.

A friend in the IT ‘biz is fond of pointing out that there is no shortage of IT people, there is a ‘shortage’ of IT people willing to work at the pay being offered by the companies complaining that there is an IT shortage.

Health insurance paradigm shift

The End of Health Insurance Companies
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/the-end-of-health-insurance-companies/

I had never heard of the “Accountable Care Organization” before reading this article, but it appears on the surface to be a really good direction for us to go toward. Having said that, somehow I got the feeling that the for-profit element is still going to torpedo the effort. It is a great idea, though: give the group a fixed amount of money per enroll-ee and let them manage themselves to minimize long-term costs. That, alone, would encourage the more efficient use of resources as right now the system is paid on a per-use basis, so has a negative incentive to keep people healthy. As long as it were trivial for people to move between organizations (which will never be the case as long as employers are the gatekeepers, man that was a stupid idea!) there will be pressure for the organizations to provide better service for a lower cost. However, in our screwed-up employer-paid debacle we have now almost guarantees failure from my point of view. If people had to pay for their own health care directly (like their car insurance) then there would be a lot more potential for competition, but not the way things stand now. I am not sure that there is any chance of getting employers to stop the current paradigm absent any government action and with today’s political situation I don’t think government action is possible since the health insurance industry would strongly campaign against it.

More Romney issues

Who in God’s Name Is Mitt Romney?
His greatest passion is something he’s determined to keep secret
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/mitt-romney-2012-2/

For those of us who don’t care for Obama it seems that unless one of the perennial third parties actually makes a name for itself (Americans Elect for instance), which historically is exceptionally unlikely, our other ‘choice’ is likely to be Romney (if it is Gingrich, I will be voting for Obama). I earlier had a post about his Mormonism and talked about conspiracy theories that suggested Romney was part of a long-range plan for the Mormon church to take over our government, but DaWei convinced me that was unlikely outside of a Hollywood script. Still, as the above article describes, we don’t know Jack about Mitt and that is either because there is nothing because he is an android (still conspiracy theories, just wildly different ones) or everything Mitt is has to do with his church, which brings us back to the Mormon takeover conspiracy. Of course it is entirely possible that there is no there, there and the reason why no one knows what Mitt stands for is because he really has no beliefs, which is, of course, almost as bad as the Mormon conspiracy because then we have to worry who will be nodding his head for him, standing in those shadows behind the throne. If I seem a bit melodramatic, I guess it is fear of the unknown. As bad as Obama is (and he is _really_ bad for the 99%) he is a known quantity, meaning we know for certain he will continue to enrich too-large-to-fail banks at taxpayer expense, continue eroding privacy and continue to shred the remnants of the Constitution, but who knows what Mitt will do? While I have no doubts Romney will continue the last several President’s efforts at enriching the oligarchy at tax payer expense, finish destroying privacy and stomp the final bits of the Constitution, what else will he do? How much further will he go? Why is he so reluctant to discuss his religion? It is very easy to believe conspiracy theories in this sort of environment!

Exercise, the miracle cure!

Exercise as Housecleaning for the Body
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/exercise-as-housecleaning-for-the-body/

For those of you still not convinced that exercise is a miracle drug that is not only free of any intellectual property constraints but is basically costless for nearly everyone, here is yet another example. Sure, it is in mice and yes sometime the information gleaned from mice studies doesn’t transfer to humans, but dammit, that isn’t an excuse to simply ignore it because you are too lazy to get up and move around.

So get out there and move your butt around! ANYTHING is better than nothing, but the generally acceptable minimum is 30 minutes a day where the effort you put in means you would have difficulty keeping up a conversation. A brisk walk does that, and if you get to the point where the brisk walk isn’t enough, throw in a slow jog! If your joints give you problems, find a local pool and do some swimming or take up bike riding. As a by the by, don’t put on sunscreen unless you are going to be out in the summer, noon-day sun for longer than 30 minutes, you need that vitamin-D that the sun’s ultraviolet produces and getting it nature’s way is better than through supplements.

Don’t obsess about being a lard-ass and use that as an excuse to avoid exercise. Believe it or not, there is quite a bit of accumulating evidence that you can be a fat-ass and still be healthy in most other respects (meaning you can avoid diabetes, heart disease, etc.). You will probably actually live longer if you are a bit on the heavy side, presuming you exercise like I am telling you, because studies of old people who get sick have shown that people with the pounds packed on tend to survive longer and have better outcomes than their skinny counter parts, so be happy with your Dunlap’s Disease and just get out there and start walking!

If you ain’t a fat-ass like me, you are not off the hook, because unless you are exercising regularly you are still likely to have metabolic syndrome which means you are going to die younger than necessary and likely unhappier.

You don’t have to run a triathlon to get the benefits, so stop making excuses!

Is it really green?

Wind power: Renewable resource, or another corporate scam?
A fascinating new film about one small-town political fight takes on the pseudo-green wind industry
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/01/wind_power_renewable_resource_or_another_corporate_scam/singleton/

I did a lot of research into wind energy a decade or so ago and it has some very serious drawbacks that, in my mind, make it rather impractical for any large-scale source of energy. I have yet to come across anyone who lives near one (I am talking the huge commercial-scale devices) and things they are good things and according to my economic analysis, without government subsidies they can’t make any money competing with current sources of energy (something I see as true for all alternatives, see here if you want more of my analysis). Like so many situations where there is no real competition in the market place, either because there is no profit absent subsidies or because of the nature of the beast (such as electric transmission lines), ‘success’ of the business depends a great deal on having inside information and close contacts with decision makers. Thus, I see the ‘corporate scam’ as the leading issue in situations like this. Scammers, like all confidence men, by their very nature do not have the greatest good for the greatest number in their consideration. Just like power attracts the corruptible, government subsidies attract corporate scammers who are happy to leverage their existing connections to make a profit at tax payer expense (think Citibank, BofA, Goldman Sachs, etc. for recent examples). In my mind, subsidies only make sense when there is a chance of realizing economies of scale (meaning that below a certain point profit is all but impossible, so creating ‘artificial’ demand helps achieve the profit making scale)) or if, as I alluded to in a previous post, it is an industry that is important to the country and/or society in general (on that note, I think that in order for the subsidy to be successful it has to be available to anyone and everyone, so someone like me who gets an idea can take advantage of it (and once again, that is fantasy talking since our oligarchy is all about the transfer of our tax dollars into the pockets of the already wealthy)).

So, to try to wind up a morass of digressions, based on my research the ‘corporate scam’ alluded to in the article is the ‘real deal’ as there is no way for honest, legitimate entrepreneurs to make a buck in the ‘biz.

Yes, but…

UCSF scientists declare war on sugar in food
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/01/BA891N1PQS.DTL

I have read a lot about this topic over the last decade or so (maybe closer to 2 decades now that I think about it) and I am mostly convinced that the processing of our food coupled with the supply of ’empty’ calories is indeed at the root of our ‘epidemic’ of chronic diseases (like diabetes, heart disease, etc.). The idea of metabolic syndrome holds a whole lot of weight for me and it is quite easy to draw correlations with our crappy diet. It is amazing to me that if you want to eat healthy it costs more in money, time and risk of sickness while to eat a crappy diet (one that puts you on the fast track to metabolic syndrome) it is cheaper, faster and much less likely to result in illness. What illness do I say? All the ‘evil’ preservatives and some of the processing our food undergoes is to reduce the chance of spoilage, something that used to kill lots of people in the ‘bad old days’. If we do away with these things then we are perforce bringing back food-born illnesses much like the e.coli outbreaks that get so much attention now a days (so much attention _because_ of its rarity!). People who babble about the evils of pasteurization clearly have never spent a week in the hospital hooked up to IVs in an effort to keep them from dying and that is exactly what happens when the wrong pathogen contaminates your food (the ‘right’ bug ‘contaminating’ your food might result in some wonderful cheeses (not to mention other fantastic foods), so bugs are not all bad!).

So, to get back on topic, the average person has no real choice in which ingredients her food was produced with. It requires wealth, education and effort (as well as the willingness to deal with inevitable spoilage (and, of course, education to recognize it as spoilt)) to eat ‘healthy’ food (note that current processed foods are not unhealthy, if eaten in moderation, it is that most people are not able to choose moderation due to their socioeconomic status). Thus, we, as a society, are actually dooming a huge segment of our population to a slow miserable death by denying them the ability to eat healthier food. Yes, there is a huge element of nanny state in their proposal and yes I have huge personal objections to being prohibited from certain activities, particularly ones that might be detrimental to my health, but I think that if the laws were implemented properly (which, naturally, is impossible in our society, so this is really all a fantasy) then people could still have access to their poisons (just like people can still (though with increasing effort) access their tobacco and alcohol), it would just no longer be the default.