I’m Talking About You, Governor Perry, Chuck Norris, et. al.

Complain about President Obama all you like. Push for your point of view and give your ideas. Tell your Representatives how you want them to vote (of course, you might get shot down).

Demonstrate all you want. Of course, you will be mocked and ridiculed (correctly so).

But enough with this secession crap, ok?

Current Politics and Articles (25 April)

President Obama’s weekly address to us:

Politics and Elections:

Nate Silver discusses race and the 2008 election with statistics

Science Secretary Chu discusses clean energy and its importance:

We’ll see more of Dr. Chu later.

World Events Has the Taliban overreached in Pakistan?

“The Taliban finally made a grave error,” said Javed Siddiq, editor of the influential Urdu language daily Nawa-e-Waqt. “Once they challenged Pakistan’s constitution as un-Islamic, Islamic scholars and the Pakistani people no longer saw them as the self-styled defenders of Islam against western infidels – but infidels themselves who want to dismantle the Pakistani state.” Siddiq said that challenging the constitution was a wrong step and believes it has backfired. Pakistan’s constitution was carefully forged by a board of Islamic scholars in 1973 – every tenet was crafted to make sure it conformed to the principals of Islam. “Now, all the different sects of the Sunni and Shiite, the religious scholars, the army, the politicians and every Pakistani is against the Taliban,” Siddiq said. “They have lost.” The Taliban were quick to sense their blunder and the resulting sea change in the country. “The expansion into Buner was the turning point,” said Siddiq.

Economy/Health Care

Paul Krugman has been a vocal critic of President Obama’s economic recovery plan. He likes what he is seeing in President Obama’s efforts on health care though.

Republicans Leonard Pitts discusses the tendency for those who are on the losing end of a political battle to want to “take their marbles and go home”; the difference this time is that it is Republicans in leadership positions who are saying such nonsense.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you gazed across and did not recognize your fellow Americans?

I find myself in the middle of one. Not that there is anything new or novel about the sensation. [...]

I felt it last week, that jolt of unrecognition, that instant of worry for the state — and future — of the Union. Not because of the so-called ”teabag” protests on April 15. No, it was Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaking after one such demonstration, who made the moment surreal.

”When we came into the Union in 1845,” he told reporters, “one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that. My hope is that America, and Washington in particular, pay attention. We’ve got a great Union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that?”

You may read it twice if you wish, but it does not improve upon repetition. To the contrary, it becomes all the more incredible. That is, indeed the Republican governor of Texas — not a yahoo from some group of gun-toting goobers that meets in the woods, but the honorable James Richard Perry himself — saying Texas doesn’t like the way things are going in this country and suggesting that if we don’t get our act together, his state might take its mountains and rivers and go home.

For the record, Texas last tried that in 1861. It didn’t work out so well.

That it is borderline traitorous for Perry to obliquely threaten it might be tried again goes without saying. That it is dangerously irresponsible in a nation where there are, in fact, goobers in the woods with guns, is likewise obvious. And no, I am not unaware of the legal theses which hold that any state has the right to leave the Union, though I tend to agree with Abraham Lincoln that the nation that would stand passively by and watch itself disintegrate is unworthy of the name.

For all that, though, I am not here to debate the feasibility of secession, which is not, after all, a clear and pressing danger. No, I just find myself wondering what it says about us that secession even enters the discussion.

I suppose Perry is just the conservative analog to all those dispirited Democrats who threatened to relocate to Canada four years ago when George W. was reelected. But isn’t it telling that leaving the Union or sundering it has now been floated as a possibility by the losers in two consecutive elections? In a sense, it feels as if secession has already occurred, except that it’s not geographical but, rather, what columnist Michael Gerson has dubbed, a ”spiritual secession,” a nation of extremes pulling away from the center, rejecting the very idea of common cause.

Perry’s words have made him a hero out on the angry fringes of conservatism. Those of us who do not live on that fringe can only mourn this new reality in which ideology supersedes country. Country, after all, is supposed to be that which pulls us back together after everything else — politics, race, religion — has conspired to pull us apart.

Yes, I remember these rants and these maps

from 2004. But remember that these rants were coming from isolated members of the rank and file and NOT from the podium.

Republican Ignorance

Here, Secretary Chu (Nobel Laureate in Physics) patiently attempts to answer a very ignorant member of Congress:

You know, if we kicked Texas out of the union, we wouldn’t have imbeciles such as Joe Barton in Congress.

Here, Rep. Michelle Bachmann claims that CO2 isn’t dangerous because it is “natural”:

In this clip you can enjoy assorted wingnuts and their ignorance:

Media Matters
Here is a handy list of right wing lies and distortions about President Obama’s first 100 days. I’ll highlight a few of these:

MYTH: Obama will raise your taxes and cap your paycheck

Media figures have advanced several other myths and falsehoods about Obama’s economic recovery package and his budget proposal, including that Obama has sought to eliminate charitable deductions, that Obama’s budget would increase taxes on a large percentage of small businesses, that Obama has proposed broad compensation restrictions throughout the private sector, and that the estate tax affects many small businesses.

* Media figures have advanced the false claim that, in the words of Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), Obama’s FY 2010 budget proposal “will remove the ability to make charitable contributions deductible.” In fact, beginning in FY 2011, the provision in Obama’s budget would reduce the rate at which families earning over $250,000 could take itemized deductions from the current rates of 33 percent and 35 percent to 28 percent.

* Many media figures and outlets, including CNBC host Joe Kernen, CNBC host Maria Bartiromo, ABC News’ Jake Tapper, CNN’s Dana Bash, Fox News’ Sean Hannity, CNN’s David Gergen, Politico, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and The New York Times, have advanced, uncritically repeated, or failed to challenge the debunked Republican falsehood that Obama’s income tax proposals would increase taxes on a large percentage of small businesses. For example, Kernen didn’t challenge Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) when Gregg referred to Obama’s proposal as a “tax policy that basically is focused on raising taxes on small businesses especially.” In fact, according to the Tax Policy Center’s table of 2007 tax returns that reported small-business income, 481,000 of those returns — about 2 percent — are in the top two income tax brackets, which include all filers with taxable incomes that would be affected by Obama’s proposals to let portions of the Bush tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers expire and to reduce the tax rate at which families making more than $250,000 could take itemized deductions.

* Fox News repeatedly advanced the false claim that the proposed Pay for Performance Act would regulate compensation for all workers. In fact, the bill would regulate compensation only for employees of financial institutions that have received federal assistance.

* Media have uncritically advanced the claim that the estate tax affects “many” small businesses and family farms. However, the Tax Policy Center estimated that in 2009, “about 90 percent of the 700 small farm and business estates that will have to file estate tax returns will not owe any estate tax.”

And here, Media Matters exposes Republican hypocrisy on reconciliation (fast tracking legislation to make it filibuster proof)

In April 24 and April 25 articles reporting that congressional Democrats have agreed to use the budget reconciliation process to advance health-care reform and education initiatives, print media have uncritically quoted Republican senators criticizing the decision as overly partisan, without noting that congressional Republicans — including the senators quoted — voted to allow the use of the budget reconciliation process to pass major Bush administration initiatives.

Examples include:

* An April 25 Washington Post article reported that “Republicans and some influential Democrats have opposed using reconciliation, especially for health care, saying it flies in the face of Obama’s pledge of bipartisanship and would poison efforts to produce a health care plan that could win broad support,” and quoted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) assertion that the process “would make it absolutely clear they intend to carry out their plans on a purely partisan basis.”
[...]

As Media Matters has noted, Republicans used the reconciliation process to pass the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, and the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005, among others. In a March 28 article, The New York Times reported: “[T]here are a couple of problems for Republicans as they push back furiously against the idea, chief of which is the fact that they used the process themselves on several occasions, notably when enacting more than $1 trillion in tax cuts in 2001.” The article continued:

That means critics can have a field day lampooning Republicans and asking them — as Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, did repeatedly the other day — why reconciliation was such a good idea when it came to giving tax cuts to millionaires but such a bad one when it comes to trying to provide health care to average Americans.

McConnell and Hatch were among 51 senators — all 50 Republicans and Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) — who voted in favor of a 2001 amendment to the fiscal year 2002 budget resolution that allowed for the consideration of President Bush’s 2001 tax cuts — the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 — through the reconciliation process. McConnell and Hatch subsequently voted for the tax cut bill itself.

When you hear the Republicans howl, remember that no one howls more than a former bully who is getting the stuffing kicked out of them.

Wildlife Prairie Park 5K run

Today, Mat Timm (mathematics department), Tracy Harris (Foreign Languages) and I got together and went to the Wildlife Prairie Park 5K run.

The course was a mix of grass, dirt, gravel and small stretches of crumbly park road; I’d say that it had some rolling hills.

I’ve rarely done well in this race; twice this was because it came 2 weeks after my finishing the McNaughton Park 100 miler. This year it was more of the same.

Short verion: 26:30; each mile was 8:30 and the last .1 mile took one minute.

I saw many people that I know and I talked a good deal with the rest of the crowd. We lined up on a park road and were off; there was gentle rain that was to go away very quickly.

I mostly weaved in and out of traffic; I was following Larry Jeffries and Mat was following me. The congestion slowed me down a little but that was a good thing. The first mile came at 8:30.

I attempted to pick it up. No dice; I stayed steady.

The course was damp and soggy in spots but there was little real mud.

Mile 2 came in 17:00 and I mostly held on. In the last half mile (800 meters) a group of about a dozen people passed me, including Mat. He joked that he didn’t want to let an “old fart” like myself beat him (Mat is a couple of years older than I).

Mat had started at 9 minutes for the first mile and then sped up.

I managed to maintain and get to the finish with a little bit of dignity; I then socialized and went with Mat to cheer Tracy in.

Observation Many people mentioned McNaughton to me. Some thought that I was trying to racewalk this course. I still don’t look like I am running when I attempt to run.

Absurdity I There were some solid performances overall. But few showed up in my age group; it was probably the weakest age group there. So, I “won” a 2nd place medal though this is one of my worst performances. Go figure.

Absurdity II Just call me “Mr. Consistent”. Yes, this is the same course in 2007. Scroll down to 79′th place. This was my report.

Susan Jacoby’s Book: Age of American Unreason

I recently finished Susan Jacoby’s book Age of American Unreason. You can read a good review of the book here ; you can see a video of Bill Moyers’ here (20 minutes). Here website is here.

I agree with much of the book’s message (and not the irony that I am writing about this on the internet).

I agree that the internet can be something that makes our brains lazy and agree that entertainment and news that makes no intellectual demands on us can make us intellectually lazy.

Also I agree with her when she takes the media to task for the “dumb objectivity” of the media (reporting “both sides” when there is only one side).

I certainly agree with her when she slams “junk academia” (my phrase) and that much of the junk academia is the fault of some on the left.

What I find annoying is her frumpity attention to things like language (“folks” versus “people”; “troops” vs. “soldiers”; note that “soldier” usually refers to Army and “troops” can include Marines and Army people) and the type of things people read for pleasure.

Frankly, there are more lethal problems (which she does discuss). People failing to understand the announced result of a scientific study or members of Congress not understanding the basics of science have nothing to do with people (folks? ) say, watching a film rather than seeing an opera.

I can live with members of Congress not having read Homer. I can not abide idiots deciding the issues based on patent nonsense.

Forget the opera (unless you like such things). Learn some science.