Richard Myers's Blog
An injury to one is an injury to all.
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Students at Regis University organized Camp Casey on the Quad. It was closed down after an attack with water balloons, but the students are undaunted.
Other events are planned for the coming week to protest the third anniversary of the war in Iraq.
Other events are planned for the coming week to protest the third anniversary of the war in Iraq.
Here are links to two petitions for free speech rights.
Free speech appears to be in danger at Pace University.
www.petitiononline.com/paceuniv/petition.html
And here's a petition supporting Jay Bennish, from folks who are critical of the Bush Administration.
worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1163&Itemid=61#form
Free speech appears to be in danger at Pace University.
www.petitiononline.com/paceuniv/petition.html
And here's a petition supporting Jay Bennish, from folks who are critical of the Bush Administration.
worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1163&Itemid=61#form
Vincent Carroll, editorial page editor for the Rocky Mountain News, has written,
Carroll explains,
The good editor continues,
So, is Ed Swan a mainstream hero who prompted this "public outcry"? Or is he perhaps an ideologue with an agenda? Read More »
[Overland High School teacher Jay] Bennish is the product of a teacher-training enterprise that on some campuses has slipped its moorings...
Carroll explains,
The Chronicle of Higher Education documented this trend in a Dec. 15 article, noting that "some education schools have begun questioning whether students value social justice, acknowledge white privilege, and agree to be change agents in battling sexism, racism and homophobia."
The good editor continues,
Just last month, a public outcry forced Washington State University to revise a politically charged evaluation form for would-be teachers that had been used to identify and punish conservative leanings. One student who had refused to give the expected answers regarding "the complexities of race, power, gender, class, sexual orientation, and privilege in American society" was ordered to take sensitivity training or leave the program. Ed Swan refused to do either...
So, is Ed Swan a mainstream hero who prompted this "public outcry"? Or is he perhaps an ideologue with an agenda? Read More »
A tenth grade teacher dreams of young citizens thinking for themselves. He challenges with provocative examples, yet asks them to form their own opinions.
A student tapes twenty minutes of a lecture, a surreptitious gift to rightwing ideologues. Talk radio assassins target the teacher's character, calling in the white phosphorous on cherry-picked expressions. Brownshirts of the blogosphere explode with shrill indignation, spreading furor against a point of view about the nation, about their leader, that differs from their own. They slam the teacher as a "brainwasher," a "dumbass," an "idiot," a "moonbat," a "communist."
The teacher is suspended, and in danger of expulsion. Where, one might inquire, is freedom of speech? Read More »
A student tapes twenty minutes of a lecture, a surreptitious gift to rightwing ideologues. Talk radio assassins target the teacher's character, calling in the white phosphorous on cherry-picked expressions. Brownshirts of the blogosphere explode with shrill indignation, spreading furor against a point of view about the nation, about their leader, that differs from their own. They slam the teacher as a "brainwasher," a "dumbass," an "idiot," a "moonbat," a "communist."
The teacher is suspended, and in danger of expulsion. Where, one might inquire, is freedom of speech? Read More »
State Senator Deanna Hanna has been attacked for arm-twisting the Colorado Association of Realtors for campaign donations. Specifically, she wrote to them, "There are going to be some very important issues ahead of us. You have a choice. So do I."
The constant need for such arm-twisting is a problem, because it establishes an inter-dependent relationship between legislators and lobbyists, and distracts elected officials from their official business. But in suggesting that there might be a trade-off between what the Realtors want and what the senator wants, she crossed a line.
How ironic that she crossed the line into the territory of full disclosure-- honesty, if you will-- about the true nature of the relationship between legislators and the donors to their election funds. We should all be aghast, not at what Senator Hanna has put into writing, but at the nature of politicking in this age of big money and corporate rule.
The constant need for such arm-twisting is a problem, because it establishes an inter-dependent relationship between legislators and lobbyists, and distracts elected officials from their official business. But in suggesting that there might be a trade-off between what the Realtors want and what the senator wants, she crossed a line.
How ironic that she crossed the line into the territory of full disclosure-- honesty, if you will-- about the true nature of the relationship between legislators and the donors to their election funds. We should all be aghast, not at what Senator Hanna has put into writing, but at the nature of politicking in this age of big money and corporate rule.
What if the super wealthy owned more than half of everything?
What if, by one measure of wealth concentration, the top one percent of wealth holders were on course to own all corporate wealth in just twenty-five years?
Extrapolating from an analysis of wealth accumulation derived from data on the Congressional Budget Office web site, that appears to be happening. The TOPs (Top One Percent) of America's wealthy already do control more than half the nation's corporate wealth, according to the report. In twelve years, from 1991 to 2003, they increased their share of corporate wealth by almost nineteen percent.
By this measure, all other categories (the other ninety-nine percent of us) have been steadily losing our share of corporate wealth. Read More »
What if, by one measure of wealth concentration, the top one percent of wealth holders were on course to own all corporate wealth in just twenty-five years?
Extrapolating from an analysis of wealth accumulation derived from data on the Congressional Budget Office web site, that appears to be happening. The TOPs (Top One Percent) of America's wealthy already do control more than half the nation's corporate wealth, according to the report. In twelve years, from 1991 to 2003, they increased their share of corporate wealth by almost nineteen percent.
By this measure, all other categories (the other ninety-nine percent of us) have been steadily losing our share of corporate wealth. Read More »
Dr. Robert Rupp, a political historian at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, a few miles north of the Sago Mine Disaster site, writes about the research of British historian Oliver MacDonagh, who found that,
Well, i'm outraged. And i've decided to bloganize the outrage of others.
(New word-- weblog + organize = bloganize) Read More »
disasters can trigger innovation and protective legislation. [Oliver MacDonagh] contends that the key ingredients to industrial reform are public outrage and political leadership.
Well, i'm outraged. And i've decided to bloganize the outrage of others.
(New word-- weblog + organize = bloganize) Read More »
Is a Bush administration official offering a phony Colorado excuse?
Or could this little-noted excuse be true, yet reveal something of significance about the administration's values?
The story was reported in the West Virginia Charleston-Gazette:
But what is the real urgency with the West Elk Mine? Read More »
Or could this little-noted excuse be true, yet reveal something of significance about the administration's values?
The story was reported in the West Virginia Charleston-Gazette:
[Senator] Byrd also used the meeting to "dress down" acting MSHA chief David G. Dye for leaving in the middle of a Monday Senate hearing on mine safety, Rockefeller said. [...]
Byrd said Dye's departure was a "gross error" and a "very arrogant thing for him to do," especially after subcommittee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., specifically asked him not to leave.
"They don't want to answer questions -- that's why this man left the hearing," Byrd said. [...]
Dye told senators the hearing had "diverted" him and other MSHA officials. He said they needed to leave in order to, in part, deal with a mine fire in Colorado.
Apparently, Dye was referring to a fire at Arch Coal Inc.'s West Elk Mine. That fire has been burning since November. The mine is temporarily closed, and there were no reports this week of any emergency situations there. [emphasis added]
But what is the real urgency with the West Elk Mine? Read More »
One miner is injured in an explosion and will soon die. Twelve miners walk through the mine without necessary information or direction, their lives also in mortal danger.
The communication system has failed and ventilation controls were damaged during an explosion, allowing the buildup of dangerous gases. The emergency response is deficient, it fails to protect and evacuate miners at risk.
But this was not the Sago Mine in West Virginia. This was Brookwood, in Alabama, September of 2001. There had been a methane explosion, injuring four miners. Three were carried to safety. A second, larger explosion took the lives of the miner immobilized in the first blast, and twelve would-be rescuers. It was one disaster in an endless thread of disasters, a continuing calamity across the ages.
In 1815 a young coal miner transcribed his last thoughts for his mother in the Heaton Main Colliery, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. "Fret not, dear mother, for we were singing while we had time, and praising God."
Today we read a bittersweet note penned by helmet's glow, testimonial to another bitter heartbreak: "Tell all I'll see them on the other side. It wasn't bad. I just went to sleep." To the mothers, the families, the close-knit coal communities, we're two centuries on and nothing's changed. Read More »
The communication system has failed and ventilation controls were damaged during an explosion, allowing the buildup of dangerous gases. The emergency response is deficient, it fails to protect and evacuate miners at risk.
But this was not the Sago Mine in West Virginia. This was Brookwood, in Alabama, September of 2001. There had been a methane explosion, injuring four miners. Three were carried to safety. A second, larger explosion took the lives of the miner immobilized in the first blast, and twelve would-be rescuers. It was one disaster in an endless thread of disasters, a continuing calamity across the ages.
In 1815 a young coal miner transcribed his last thoughts for his mother in the Heaton Main Colliery, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. "Fret not, dear mother, for we were singing while we had time, and praising God."
Today we read a bittersweet note penned by helmet's glow, testimonial to another bitter heartbreak: "Tell all I'll see them on the other side. It wasn't bad. I just went to sleep." To the mothers, the families, the close-knit coal communities, we're two centuries on and nothing's changed. Read More »
The burly fellow next to me asked what my button said. "We're Industrial Workers of the World," i replied.
"Good to see all of you here," he responded. "I'm a Teamster."
I responded in kind, and then observed there was a lone fellow from the Carpenter's Union on the other side. "Everybody's got a right to be confused" said my new Teamster friend.
This was a "Citizens for Immigration Reform" event. They called for it, they organized it. They wanted the confrontation, working people against working people. For once, i am a counter-protester. Not a familiar role for me, but one i'll accept whenever working people go up against other, less-privileged working people. Read More »
"Good to see all of you here," he responded. "I'm a Teamster."
I responded in kind, and then observed there was a lone fellow from the Carpenter's Union on the other side. "Everybody's got a right to be confused" said my new Teamster friend.
This was a "Citizens for Immigration Reform" event. They called for it, they organized it. They wanted the confrontation, working people against working people. For once, i am a counter-protester. Not a familiar role for me, but one i'll accept whenever working people go up against other, less-privileged working people. Read More »
This may seem frivolous:
...but it is symbolic of a simple, very important issue: corporate elites in our society control the law. They use their control of the law to infringe on the ability (not just the right) of working people to convey information to other working people.
And working people accept this! We allow our unions to accept this! That's why we're so exploited, controlled, powerless. Read More »
The inflatable rubber rat, bucktoothed bane of strikebreakers and emblem of union wrath, may be headed for retirement. The National Labor Relations Board is now considering a case that could make it harder to employ one on a picket line.
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/28/nyregion/28rat.html
...but it is symbolic of a simple, very important issue: corporate elites in our society control the law. They use their control of the law to infringe on the ability (not just the right) of working people to convey information to other working people.
And working people accept this! We allow our unions to accept this! That's why we're so exploited, controlled, powerless. Read More »
The "Reserve Army" -- Confirming Karl Marx
Such freedom of speech, now that capital has achieved an unmistakeable domination in the class war!
The work of Karl Marx embodied two major impulses: the study of capital, and a concerted attempt to overthrow same. For a century, mainstream economists have decried Marxist ideology as mistaken, evil, inappropriate. This presumably extended to Marxist terminology, since business advocates have so carefully avoided such useful terms as "proletariat" and "means of production."
Long subjected to ideological purification, the American middle class possesses an aversion to all things Marxist -- and concepts unexamined are concepts unembraced. For many, this extends to a shutting down of the thought process whenever anything that can be identified with Marxism is mentioned. Those of us who accept some of the economic principles described by Marx as confirmed by observation and experience find a curious phenomena when we use Marxist terminology. The Googled word "bourgeois" may appear on the web eight million times, but many Americans tend to stop listening the moment they hear such an expression. Read More »
Such freedom of speech, now that capital has achieved an unmistakeable domination in the class war!
The work of Karl Marx embodied two major impulses: the study of capital, and a concerted attempt to overthrow same. For a century, mainstream economists have decried Marxist ideology as mistaken, evil, inappropriate. This presumably extended to Marxist terminology, since business advocates have so carefully avoided such useful terms as "proletariat" and "means of production."
Long subjected to ideological purification, the American middle class possesses an aversion to all things Marxist -- and concepts unexamined are concepts unembraced. For many, this extends to a shutting down of the thought process whenever anything that can be identified with Marxism is mentioned. Those of us who accept some of the economic principles described by Marx as confirmed by observation and experience find a curious phenomena when we use Marxist terminology. The Googled word "bourgeois" may appear on the web eight million times, but many Americans tend to stop listening the moment they hear such an expression. Read More »
The neocons are not nazis. George W. Bush is not Hitler. Yet i wonder what my dad would say.
A master sargeant in the 20th Armored Division that helped to free the Dachau Concentration Camp during World War II, Dad was frequently asked to speak about his war experiences. He invariably made one point: our country must never let a small group of leaders sieze control of the government.
The founding fathers were mindful of the danger. Thus we have a system with three branches, each acting as a check on the others. Yet someone behind the Bush throne fancies unchecked power. The other two branches are suddenly very uneasy. Read More »
A master sargeant in the 20th Armored Division that helped to free the Dachau Concentration Camp during World War II, Dad was frequently asked to speak about his war experiences. He invariably made one point: our country must never let a small group of leaders sieze control of the government.
The founding fathers were mindful of the danger. Thus we have a system with three branches, each acting as a check on the others. Yet someone behind the Bush throne fancies unchecked power. The other two branches are suddenly very uneasy. Read More »
In my view, the transport union may be using the wrong tactic.
The greatest irony is that this was the perfect time to use the right tactic.
Normally, unions are reluctant to break the law. Well, that may be understandable. But if they are going to break the law as in this case, why don't they use a tactic that is every bit as effective, and that builds incredible support with the public?
If this strike was an IWW action, i expect it would happen like this: Read More »
The greatest irony is that this was the perfect time to use the right tactic.
Normally, unions are reluctant to break the law. Well, that may be understandable. But if they are going to break the law as in this case, why don't they use a tactic that is every bit as effective, and that builds incredible support with the public?
If this strike was an IWW action, i expect it would happen like this: Read More »
The Krieble Foundation is in the news.
www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3309830
Some credit a related entity, the Krieble Institute (now defunct,) with no less than contributing to the fall of the Soviet Empire.
www.wwmr.org/release.htm
The Krieble Foundation still exists, and donates to the Competitive Enterprise Institute . . .
www.cei.org/
and other free trade think tanks. Read More »
www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3309830
Some credit a related entity, the Krieble Institute (now defunct,) with no less than contributing to the fall of the Soviet Empire.
www.wwmr.org/release.htm
The Krieble Foundation still exists, and donates to the Competitive Enterprise Institute . . .
www.cei.org/
and other free trade think tanks. Read More »
I briefly referred to some growing pains that the user-created encyclopedia, Wikipedia has undergone. Now, there is some vindication.
Wikipedia is still receiving some valid criticism. But the British journal Nature has published a study comparing the accuracy of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. According to BBC News, the blind test found few differences in accuracy in a range of scientific entries. Read More »
Wikipedia is still receiving some valid criticism. But the British journal Nature has published a study comparing the accuracy of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. According to BBC News, the blind test found few differences in accuracy in a range of scientific entries. Read More »
The Transport Workers Union in New York City is threatening a strike against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. I comment on that, and the general state of mainstream unionism.
Business unionism is what we (mostly) have today. Each union and each union local is judged on its individual financial success. Thus, unions compete with each other. Unions seek to maximize the benefits to their own members, regardless of the cost to other unions, or to the general cause of all working people.
Business unionism frequently results in union members crossing each others' picket lines. I witnessed that, anguished over it when i was in a business union (33 years.) Read More »
Business unionism is what we (mostly) have today. Each union and each union local is judged on its individual financial success. Thus, unions compete with each other. Unions seek to maximize the benefits to their own members, regardless of the cost to other unions, or to the general cause of all working people.
Business unionism frequently results in union members crossing each others' picket lines. I witnessed that, anguished over it when i was in a business union (33 years.) Read More »
This blogpost dedicated to a song--
"Big Time Corporate Blues"
(Mike Stout)
BIG TIME CORPORATE BLUES
1) War-mongers gettin' crazy, the economy's goin' to trash; System's goin' bankrupt while the big boys are stealin' the cash. Every time I hear the news, I get the big time corporate blues. Read More »
"Big Time Corporate Blues"
(Mike Stout)
BIG TIME CORPORATE BLUES
1) War-mongers gettin' crazy, the economy's goin' to trash; System's goin' bankrupt while the big boys are stealin' the cash. Every time I hear the news, I get the big time corporate blues. Read More »
Wikipedia is under fire.
Wikipedia is the online user-created encyclopedia. It is a wonderful resource, but has some flaws. Hopefully, recent publicity will improve accountability. Read More »
Wikipedia is the online user-created encyclopedia. It is a wonderful resource, but has some flaws. Hopefully, recent publicity will improve accountability. Read More »
Yesterday i happily accepted a "holiday tree" ornament from a good friend and fellow non-believer. (It is a special ornament, it commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Ludlow Massacre...)
Yes, even atheists celebrate the season. I had non-chalantly used the term "Christmas tree" until Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert made it an issue.
I had considered my terminology of no consequence. But accused of "banishing Christ from Christmas," i'll happily accede to what they accuse us of. Read More »
Yes, even atheists celebrate the season. I had non-chalantly used the term "Christmas tree" until Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert made it an issue.
I had considered my terminology of no consequence. But accused of "banishing Christ from Christmas," i'll happily accede to what they accuse us of. Read More »
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