Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Wikipedia in print

I’m not sure if it qualifies as an art project or insanity, but for the past three years Michael Mandiberg has been printing out all the entries in Wikipedia.  It comes to about 7,600 volumes, and it is exhibited at the Denny Gallery on the Lower East Side in New York.

The contributor index alone runs to 36 volumes.  


The entire set will cost about $500,000.  A single volume will be available at Lulu.com for $80.  

Monday, June 29, 2015

Confederate flags

Here’s what John Oliver said about the Confederate flag:  “The Confederate flag is one of those symbols that should really only be seen on T-shirts, belt buckles and bumper stickers to help the rest of us identify the worst people in the world.”

I’ve thought that for years.  When I see a pickup with a confederate flag decal in front of me, my reaction is “leave plenty of room, racist idiot driver ahead.”


On the other hand, when I read that the Gettysburg National Park will stop selling Confederate flags in the gift store, I think that is a mistake.  We did have a Civil War.  It was the bloodiest war in U.S. history.  We ought to be able to acknowledge that the losing side had its flag, just like we ought to acknowledge that the losing side in the American Revolution flew the Union Jack.  I assume that the Brandywine Battlefield visitor center sells both the early version of the American flag along with the Union Jack.  

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Rough week ahead

This past week I made mulberry jelly.  I had to do it twice because the first batch didn’t “set.”  On Friday I picked some raspberries and froze them, but I don’t have enough for jam, so I’ll be picking tomorrow.  My cousin Marla called to say her sour cherries were ripe.  Blueberries are also looking very blue, and my currants are looking very red.  To top it off, the gooseberries are ready to pick.  


It will be a busy week.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Justice Scalia and the threat to democracy

In his dissent to the gay marriage case, according to an AP report, Justice Antonin Scalia said he was not concerned as much about the same-sex marriage decision as he was about “this court’s threat to American democracy.”

This is the same justice who voted with the majority to allow unlimited corporate and personal gifts to candidates, limited workers’ rights to bring cases against wage discrimination, limited the right of women to control their own bodies, and gutted the Voting Rights Act passed in the Sixties.  


I don’t think Scalia has to worry one little bit about the Court being a threat to American democracy.  I think he and his cohorts have already wrecked it.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Justice Kennedy's amazing opinion

The Supreme Court generally does not write moving opinions.  However, today's opinion by Justice Kennedy reaches the level of poetry.  I'm sure it will be quoted in every paper tomorrow, but just in case you can't find it, here's the link. It is wonderful...

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.  In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.  As some of the petitioners in these cases demonstrate, marriage embodies a love that may endure even past death.  It would misunderstand these men and women to say they disrespect the idea of marriage.  Their plea is that they do respect it, respect it so deeply that they seek to find its fulfillment for themselves.  Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions.  They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law.  The Constitution grants them that right.  The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is reversed.  It is so ordered.


Thursday, June 25, 2015

Benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership

President Obama, Majority Leader McConnell, and Speaker Boehner are right–many Americans will benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  The consumers will get slightly lower prices at Wal-Mart.  The C.E.O.s of companies that can move factories overseas should do well.  The stockholders will do ok.  The lawyers who write the agreements and the Congress members who rake in the contributions will do fine.

Beth Macy, who has written about furniture manufacturing in the U.S., points out who won’t do so well.  Today there are more American workers on disability (8.9 million) than on assembly lines (8.6 million).  As for federally-funded job retraining, most retrained workers are in lower paying service industries.  And how about this for a factoid:  63,300 American factories closed between 2001 and 2013.



I suppose I should be writing a celebratory post on the Court’s approval of the Affordable Care Act.  It was a victory, but we still have millions of people with no health care, higher infant mortality rates and lower life expectancies than most industrialized countries, and Republicans committed to ending the law rather than fixing it.  I have a hard time celebrating.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Friends of Beltzville State Park

Tonight I attended an organizational meeting of the “Friends of Beltzville State Park.”  I had actually suggested the formation of such a group years ago.  The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources has been starved for funds, and volunteers need to step forward to help our state parks.  Trails need maintenance, environmental programs should be offered, events ought to be planned, litter needs to be picked up.

I can understand the irritation of land owners whose farms were taken by eminent domain by the Beltzville project in the late 60’s.  The Christman Brothers–Elwood, Marvin, and Leon– lost all but 29 acres of their 460 acre property.  (Elwood was my father.)  All three brothers had to find jobs other than farming, although Marvin found a job in park maintenance.

What I would say to any landowners still around who lost land to the project, it was not DCNR who took your land, it was the Army Corps of Engineers, an arrogant group of “Pork Barrel Soldiers” who cared little for either the environment or farmers. 

The Pennsylvania state park system needs help.  Republicans really don’t like parks, don’t like to fund them, don’t like the lower income people who use them, and don’t think the environment is important.  I think Gov. Wolf would increase the parks budget, but the Republicans control both houses of the state legislature, so I don’t anticipate a large increase in funding.


If you live in the Beltzville Area, I’ll try to post when our next meeting will be held.  We could use your help.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Bob whites

In the Fifties I heard enough bob whites, a quail-like bird, that I was able to do a pretty good imitation.  I can still do it--three whistled notes rising.  If you want to hear one, you should contact me, because after a state-wide search, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced in the most recent issue of the Game News that there are no wild populations of bob whites in Pennsylvania.


It’s the usual culprit--loss of habitat.  The Game Commission will try to reintroduce the species.  Good luck with that.

Monday, June 22, 2015

International Yoga Day

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India wants to declare June 21 “International Yoga Day.”  According to Mr. Modi, yoga can cure diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and drug addiction.  Some followers believe if everyone practiced it, it could usher in world peace.

I must admit, when I first heard of this, I thought, wow, a day set aside to honor Yogi Berra.  

I soon realized my error, but then I reflected that Fairfax in Marin County, where I lived for nine years, has long been celebrating the Summer Solstice with a craft fair, a party in the park, and lots of dope smoking, although I will admit I was never good at crafts.


Anyway, I see no harm in yoga, and I practice it myself.  My favorite position is the Supine Walrus.  It isn’t really that hard.  You need a La-Z-Boy chair and a cold bottle of beer.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Terrorist or CIA?

Whom would you believe?  The CIA or an Al Qaeda terrorist?  Majid Kahn was captured in 2003 and has been held at Guantanamo since 2006.  Shortly after his capture, Mr. Kahn said his interrogators waterboarded him twice.  The CIA denies this.

Mr. Khan told his lawyers that he was moved to CIA “black sites” and beaten repeatedly.  He was hung naked from a wooden beam for three days.  He was taken down to be submerged in an ice bath  His head was held under water.  He received “violent enemas.”  The treatment went on for months.

Mr. Kahn is not a nice man.  He delivered $50,000 to Qaeda operatives who used it to carry out a truck bombing in Indonesia.  We had that information without the torture.

I would point out that we live in a democracy and the CIA is torturing people in our name.

The CIA denies that Mr. Kahn was even waterboarded.  Here’s my question.  Whom do you believe, Mr. Kahn or the CIA?


The basic information for this posting comes from a Times editorial dated June 6, 2015.  The questions are mine.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Far from the Madding Crowd

The Mahoning Cinema books all the mainstream films--San Andreas, Jurassic World, Fast and Furious 7, and other such films.  Occasionally, however, the theater manager is able to snag a film that usually plays only at “art houses.”

As an incentive to increase the number of viewers of those “exceptional films,” a deal has been worked out.  You can get a buck off for every three dollars you spend on refreshments if you are on the exceptional films mailing list.  

Right now the theater is playing Far from the Madding Crowd, based on the Thomas Hardy novel.  I saw it tonight and thought it was excellent--great acting, great cinematography, and an ending most people will love.

To receive a coupon for the money off, just email <lachris@ptd.net> and ask to be put on the mailing list for the exceptional film series.  


I’ve seen San Andreas, Jurassic World, and Fast and Furious 7, but every now and then I like to see a thoughtful movie where nothing blows up.

Friday, June 19, 2015

Lou Barletta, Climate Expert

Most scientists believe global warming is a result, at least in part, of human activity.  The accelerated rise in the world’s temperatures, they are convinced, is caused by pollutants we are introducing into the atmosphere.

A small group of “deniers” believes that global warming is a natural occurrence, part of a cyclical process in which the earth warms and cools.

Then there is Congressman Lou Barletta, who was quoted yesterday in a reaction to the Pope’s call for action on the global warming issue.  Barletta, who represents a portion of Carbon County, says the earth is cooling.  Really, he said that.


I have a friend who always refers to the Congressman as Lou Barlooney.  I see his point.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Humans vs. tigers

When the zoo in Tbilisi, Georgia, was hit with a flood this past weekend, about half of the 600 animals drowned, including almost all the zoo’s predators.  Some escaped, only to be shot later.  One was a white tiger, which mauled one of the volunteers helping to clean up after the flood.  The volunteer later died.

Men with automatic rifles came running and shot the tiger.  

Why?  Tigers are aggressive animals.  I’m sure the tiger prowling in an urban area was confused and frightened.  Why not move back and wait for a tranquilizer gun?

There are about 7 billion humans. 

There are a few hundred white tigers.  


It is obvious to me that a white tiger’s life is far more important than a human life.  

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

PennEast Pipeline awards

Today’s Times published an expose of Walmart giving large amounts to charities in cities in which it hopes to expand.  The nonprofit Walmart Foundation evidently hoped to reduce local opposition in urban areas like Washington, Boston, L.A., and New York by targeting millions of dollars to local charities.

The far right Koch Brothers, who will invest almost a billion dollars in this year’s presidential race, are using the same tactic, donating millions to cancer research and cultural institutions.

Not to be outdone, the PennEast pipeline company is doing the same thing.  Last week the Times News reported that PennEast is donating $70,000 to area groups such as Family Promise of Carbon County, the Lehighton Fire Department, and the Palmerton Ambulance Association.  The reasons the company is doing this are rather transparent.  

I urge these groups take the money.  I also hope they are not fooled by PennEast’s motives.  This would be a good place to paraphrase Jess Unruh, one-time Speaker of the CA Assembly, on taking money from lobbyists:  “If you can’t drink their booze, take their money, fool with their women, and then vote against them, you don’t belong in politics.”  [I cleaned it up a bit.]


I don’t think Walmart, the Koch Brothers, and PennEast are fooling anyone.  My advice--take their money but don’t take the b.s. that goes with it.

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Hunting with Semi-Automatics

A pair of bills before the Pennsylvania House Game and Fisheries Committee would allow semi-automatics to be used in hunting.  One big argument for the bill is that it is allowed by other states.  Using that rationale, I’m sure the House will also soon be holding hearings on taxing natural gas frackers, which is also allowed in other states.

Pennsylvania House members should read Chapter XXII of The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper.  It’s the famous chapter in which the residents of the town engage in an orgy of pigeon shooting.  They use shotguns and at one point load up a cannon with nails and blast a hole in the flocks.  (These are passenger pigeons, now long extinct.)  

Leather-Stocking, the hero of The Pioneers, surveys the scene with complete distaste.  Here are thousands of pigeons, dead and dying, wasted.  One of the townspeople urges him to join in the fun.  Instead he takes his rifle–that’s right, black powder rifle–shoots one bird, and picks it up for his supper.  If I had the money, I’d photocopy that chapter for all of the House members and send it to them.


Do we really need semi-automatics to hunt?  Or do the arms manufacturers need to make more money?

Monday, June 15, 2015

Computer SNAFU

I failed to post last night.  This was not because I didn’t have anything to say.  You may have noticed that I almost always have something to say.  Unfortunately, we had a thundershower, and I couldn’t connect.

After two hours on the phone with a tech in India, Linda fixed the connection, sort of.  It worked intermittently; today a tech support guy came from PTD and found water damage on our cable connection about 20 feet off the ground on a utility pole.

Here’s a history lesson.  SNAFU is a World War II term.  It was short, sort of an early text-speak, for “Situation Normal, All F--ked Up.”  There were a whole bunch of those acronyms, but the only other one I remember is FUBAR, which is F--ked Up Beyond All Repair.”

So here we have this amazing high tech system, and a thundershower knocks it out for days.  I am tired of technology.  Actually, I’m tired of a whole range of things--energy companies that have a right to put pipelines through my farm, a Supreme Court dominated by five conservative white Catholic men, a gerrymandered state legislature that pretends to represent the people of Pennsylvania, a presidential race dominated by people like the Koch Brothers, and a citizenry, that if you took away its right to vote, probably wouldn’t even notice.


Yeah, I’m in a bad mood on this 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which maybe one in a hundred people even know about. 

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Peter, Paul, and Mary

This evening I was clicking the remote to get to the Weather Channel and happened to come across a tribute to Mary Travers of Peter, Paul, and Mary.  I watched it long enough to see John Kerry, George McGovern, Whoopi Goldberg, and Bill Moyers praise her commitment to progressive causes.  Then I watched Peter and Paul, looking very old, sing “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”

It occurred to me how pleased I am to have been on the right side of many of major issues of the last half century;  Pro Civil Rights.  Anti-Vietnam War.  Pro-voting rights.  Pro-choice.  Pro gay rights.  Pro-union.  Pro health care for all Americans.  Anti Iraq war.  Environmentalist.  Johnson, McGovern, Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, Hart, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, and Obama supporter.  


We didn’t win all of those, but if I die tonight, I’ll have very little to regret–at least politically.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Republicans support terrorists

Ok, it may be over the top as a headline, but it is the kind of teaser Fox “News” would do, but I don’t think it is much of a stretch.

Do you remember the 600 school girls that the terrorist Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped last year?  They were rescued and freed this year by the Nigerian army.  Of the girls rescued, at least 214 are pregnant by rapes, many by multiple rapes.

American aid groups are not allowed to perform abortions for those school girls because of an amendment passed in 1973, known as the Helms Act, which says that any group will lose U.S. funding if it performs abortions.


How is that “pro-life?  How is that humane?  What is wrong with so-called pro-life advocates?  Have they no sense of compassion?

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Marcus Brown, top Pennsylvania cop?

Governor Wolf’s appointment to head the Pennsylvania State Police was rejected by the state senate.  Many senators said they voted against Mr. Brown because he wore a state policeman’s uniform although he was not a graduate of the state police academy.

Say what?

You reject someone because he wore a uniform?  

This vote had nothing to do with uniforms.  In his previous position Mr. Brown helped to diversify the Maryland state police.  In Pennsylvania the state police are overwhelmingly white males.  Brown would change that.  The state police like the status quo, so they exercised their considerable political power to get Pennsylvania Republican senators to reject Mr. Brown.


Pennsylvania is the Keystone State.  Fittingly, we have the Keystone Kops.

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Hillary's first big mistake

Howard Dean was the best Democratic Party Chair ever.  His big idea was that the Democratic Party needed to expand its reach.  It should build the party in states like Alabama and Oklahoma.  The strategy of appealing to a small group of “blue states” would be be a disaster in the long run.  The Democrats would be preaching to a smaller and smaller base, leaving the Republicans an open field for congressional candidates and state legislators.

Now the Clinton campaign has decided to concentrate on African Americans, Latinos, women, and progressives in states like Oregon and Vermont.  In other words, the “base.”  

That means that Congress will remain in Republican hands.  I know that with voter suppression and gerrymandering, it probably will remain Republican, but if the Democratic Party doesn’t build support in those states, it will remain Republican into the foreseeable future.  

Here’s my strategy.  Fight for every goddam precinct.  Take the battle to places like Waco and Enid and Helena.  In Carbon County don’t just depend on Summit Hill and Banks Township–look for votes in Towamensing and Weatherly.  Democrats need to broaden their base, not shrink it.

Of all people, conservative commentator David Brooks agrees with me.  Here’s the link to his column in today’s Times

Monday, June 8, 2015

Gov. Scott Walker, front-runner

Scott Walker is the current front-runner for the Republican Presidential nomination.  I have two thoughts about that.  

First, during the recall election, I was phoning voters in Wisconsin to urge them to vote to dump Walker.  It was part of a union effort to bounce him.  One of the women I spoke to was very offended.  She told me that this was a matter for Wisconsin voters, and I had no business trying to interfere.  The anti-recall forces had much more money, and today I read that approximately 2/3rds of that money came from out of state.  I wish I had kept that woman’s number.

Second, the Wisconsin budget is totally out of balance because of Walker’s tax cuts for upper income groups.  Walker is proposing to balance the budget according to a front page article on state budgets in today’s Times, by decreasing funding for public schools, the state’s university system, public workers’ health benefits, and state parks.


This is the man who is currently the Republican front-runner.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Thank you, Edward Snowden

Last week Congress passed a bipartisan bill limiting the N.S.A. with 387 votes in the House and 67 votes in the Senate.  Perhaps for the first time ever Congress voted to limit the powers of the N.S.A. to spy on American citizens.  Earlier a federal court declared much of the N.S.A. snooping and mass collection of phone records unconstitutional.  

In 2001 only one Senator, Russ Feingold, voted against the “Patriot Act.”  Last week 67 Senators voted to limit the act.  


It is time for the President to invite Edward Snowden to come home.  We would not have known what the N.S.A. was doing if he had not gone to the press.  He was correct in his actions.  We need to stop treating him like a criminal and start treating him like the patriot he has been.

Saturday, June 6, 2015

Guns on campus

Last week the Republican dominated Texas legislature passed a bill allowing university students to carry concealed handguns on campus.  The law, which the Governor is expected to sign, will take effect in August 2016.

I was a university professor at San Jose State for 29 years and at East Stroudsburg for five.  I don’t see how such a law benefits learning, public discourse, an academic environment, student-teacher relationships, or campus safety.  It will benefit gun manufacturers.

This law is idiotic.  I predict that some student in Texas will take offense at a grade, a  professor’s comment, or a fellow student, and a tragedy will result.


A few years ago a fairly large number of Texas residents called upon the state to secede from the U.S.  I believe Rick Perry, who is now running for President, supported it.  So do I.  The sooner Texas leaves the United States, the better off the other 49 will be.  And please take Rick Perry and Governor Abbot and Ted Cruz with you.

Friday, June 5, 2015

Two poems in lieu of Scott Walker

Readers turn to this blog for cogent political analysis and hard-hitting analysis.  Right?  Today you are probably expecting a screed against Gov. Walker getting rid of tenure at Wisconsin universities, or a look at Rickie Perry’s presidential bid, or an analysis of Lincoln Chafee’s chances, or a critique of the amount of money Carbon County is spending on an architect for the training facility for emergency personnel.

However, you should know that I have another life besides my interest in left-wing politics, raising hot peppers, and environmental issues.


Attune on-line magazine published two more of my poems.  To read them, go to <http://www.attune-online.com/spring-2015-contributors/>.  Move your curser down to Issue Number Three and click on “The Move” and “Back Here.”  I hope you like them.

Thursday, June 4, 2015

DWB

It is obvious why two plainclothes Lehigh County detectives in an unmarked car followed and stopped Christopher Fitzgerald on MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township last August.  It is also obvious why Mr. Fitzgerald, who was with his girlfriend, showed that he had a gun in the car.  He was scared, and well he might be.  He is a black guy.  

The fact that he was the son of the police chief of Allentown meant nothing.  The fact that he had broken no traffic laws meant nothing.  He was Driving While Black, and that’s reason enough to pull him over.

A jury found Mr. Fitzgerald not guilty of any crime.  He had been offered a deal in which he was to plead guilty for stuff he didn’t do.  The prosecutor probably couldn’t believe a jury in Lehigh County composed mostly of whites (maybe all white, for all I know) would find him not guilty.


But they did.  I think the average white American is starting to see what black people have seen for years.  

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Pipeline lunch at Flagstaff

This is how it works at the informational meeting held by the UGI/PennEast Pipeline representatives at the Flagstaff Restaurant in Jim Thorpe.  First you have to go past Jim Thorpe police who have been hired by the pipeline people to keep out the press or any demonstrators.  One of the policemen has his hand near his gun.  Your friend who early received a letter telling him the pipeline would cross his land but did not get an invitation is escorted from the building.

You sign in at the front desk.  You go to a computer.  Two young guys who have never seen your land, know nothing about your great-grandfather who cleared the land, or your grandfather who farmed it with horses, or your father and his two brothers who made a living from it, or you who moved back from California to live on it and preserve it in perpetuity and get a centennial farm designation for it–those two nice young men show you a Google map with a 400 foot wide corridor where the pipeline will cut across your farm.

You don’t have a choice.  You will be subject to eminent domain.  You will get a one-time payment even if the pipeline company makes money for decades.  You will not be reimbursed for loss of property values.  You will not be given money for higher insurance rates.  Even though this is the first time you have seen a detailed map, the comment period will not be extended.  You may not put a shed or chicken coop on the pipeline.  The pipeline will not be removed if it is no longer used.  

Then you are shown some slides about how benign the pipeline corridor really is.  There’s no danger, you are told, from explosions.  The land will be revegetated, although no trees will be allowed to grow on in the permanent corridor.


Everyone is polite and understanding.  Then you are fed lunch.  I hope the pipeline people understand why I left without eating.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Buying the police

In the past the UGI/Penn East pipeline people have hired some very nasty people to watch over their events.  The “constables” they hired for the meeting at the Firehouse in Lower Towamensing Township last year were positively obnoxious, ordering people around and behaving in a threatening manner.

Consequently, when we learned of the UGI/Penn East meetings with affected landowners on June 3 at the Flagstaff, I decided to visit the Jim Thorpe Police Department to ask for their protection.  You see, we plan to have an informational picket at the meeting site asking UGI/PennEast certain questions, like why do we get a one-time payment instead of a monthly rental fee like people who have cell towers on their land, or why eminent domain is allowed for companies to reap private profit.

It was then I learned that we could not demonstrate in the parking lot because it was private, and, amazingly to me, UGI/PennEast had already hired the Jim Thorpe police to watch over the meetings.

Can private companies hire public police forces?  Must the police be off-duty?  Are they allowed to wear their uniforms?


We’ll be there anyway, on the right-of-way rather than in the parking lot.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Pennsylvania Ballot Access Restriction Struck Down

I subscribe to the Times News and the Morning Call, but neither reported on an important court case involving Pennsylvania election law.  Here’s what they missed.

On March 2, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Steward Daizell, a Bush Sr. appointee, struck down the requirement that each petition signature sheet to gain access to the ballot must be notarized.

The Green and Libertarian Parties challenged this requirement on the basis that it costs a large amount of money for each sheet to be notarized.  The plaintiffs said that their petitions for statewide office, which usually need 30,000 signatures, require the expenditure of thousands of dollars in notary fees.  Since mandatory filing fees are unconstitutional, this would qualify as a filing free.

Judge Daizell agreed.  Unfortunately, the ruling only applies to the Green and Libertarian Parties, and Pennsylvania could still appeal.  Nonetheless, I think this is a great precedent and one more blow against the state’s restrictive ballot access laws.  I would hope the state would not appeal, and I would also hope that this onerous requirement would be eliminated.


Information for this post came from Ballot Access News, Vol. 31, No. 1, June 1, 2015.  If you would like to subscribe, send $16.00 to Ballot Access News, Box 470296, San Francisco, CA 94147.