Inequality Part – 2

May 4, 2014

Well, gentle readers, I last wrote about inequality—at least as a main subject—on February 22. I labeled the post Inequality – Part 1, which signaled a Part 2, at least. I also dropped a footnote about an upcoming post about how we can’t stay focused on anything for long enough to do anything about anything.

Ten weeks have passed. I didn’t get to Part 2 until now, and I certainly haven’t stayed focused on the issue. Yes, much has happened since 2/22. Some of it is spine-tinglingly scary, like the notion that something could trigger a ground war in Europe a la WWI and WWII. And some of it is just nonsense, like the craziness in Nevada and the

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America

May 4, 2014

I’m a sucker for the flag. I love standing up for the Star Spangled Banner at sporting events. I always have my cap off my head, my hand on my heart and my eyes glued to the flag. I just wish I could sing without bothering everyone around me!

However much I enjoy the flag and all of the positive notions it represents, I have very mixed emotions about our country. I love the concept of a “a shining city on a hill,” first described by John Winthrop in 1611 as a simple “city on a hill,” and popularized in more modern times by Ronald Reagan.[1] There is something very cool about being a citizen of the greatest country

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Boring Post!

May 3, 2014

Net neutrality! Heard the words? Wondered about them? Or maybe you’re a master of this particular universe.

I first read about net neutrality a few years ago on Daily Kos, though I must tell it true:  I was clueless, and was nominally pro-net neutrality because it seemed like the position I should be adopting. (Now, please, don’t get all high and mighty “I don’t vote for the party, I vote for the person” on me. We all use identifiers to help align ourselves on many, many issues, for we simply don’t have the time or candlepower to actually learn about and master what confronts us, en toto!)

“Net neutrality is the idea that any network traffic—movies,

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100 Posts!

May 1, 2014

100 posts! A milestone, although not every post has been substantive and I started this blog with some pieces I’d already written and posted elsewhere. Alas, we won’t be too precise!

I don’t know whether you all enjoy my blog or not, but for the few of you who post comments, send me emails, or catch me here or there. I can tell you a few things, though:

First, no one who has “liked” my blog’s Facebook page has “unliked” it. You may be ignoring me, but you haven’t taken affirmative steps—at least not steps I know about—to get rid of me.

Second, readership seems to be up, if Google analytics are accurate and I’m reading them right. Two big

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Big Numbers

April 27, 2014

I’ve been thinking a bit about numbers lately. Big numbers and they grow. It should be no surprise to you that I have some thoughts!

Occasionally I’ll here a reporter reading a story who uses millions for billions, or billions for trillions. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard a larger number where a smaller one was correct; only the other way around.

We live in a world whose scale we cannot always appreciate. More than seven billion people are alive today, and more than 317 million of us live in the United States of America.

The Obama Administration’s 2014FY budget, for October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014, asks for spending of $3.77 trillion, and expects income of $3.03 trillion.

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Cliven

April 26, 2014

The man is everywhere … if that means Fox News and, ever so occasionally, other cable news outlets. If you’re even a minor political junkie, you can’t miss Cliven Bundy.

Mr. Bundy is a cattle rancher. His cows chew on federal grass, drink federal water, and cr*p all over federal land. (At least I think all of these facts are true. I’m a city slicker—and a pretty slick one at that, if I do say so myself—so I know from cows that their milk comes in a plastic container and their flesh is wrapped in paper or cellophane and Styrofoam. Maybe owners whose cattle graze on federal land provide their own water.)

What Mr. Bundy doesn’t do is pay for

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Update on the Rabbi, the Airline, and the Supreme Court

April 22, 2014

The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favor of Northwest and against Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg. The decision relies on pre-emption analysis associated with the Airline Deregulation Act. The opinion is moderately dense. Some analysis can be found at The Rabbi, the Airline, and the Supreme Court (my piece) and for deeper analysis read Ronald Mann’s piece, Opinion analysis: Justices hold “good faith and fair dealing” claim about frequent-flyer program preempted, at SCOTUSblog. Oh, and avoid any unpleasantness with an airline frequent flyer program, especially now, for you can be “excised” from the program.

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Staying Excited!

April 21, 2014

Obama:  Your Question, Ms. Keith? is a lovely, short piece of writing from Tamara Keith, the relatively new White House correspondent for National Public Radio. (Ms. Keith has been a journalist, on and off the air, for many years.) She writes about her day, recently, when for the first time she asked the president a question at a news conference in the White House briefing room.

The story offers lots of details, and even shares Ms. Keith’s stumbling start, albeit without sound, but that’s not why I’m writing about it. No, what makes the story so worthy is the complete absence of pretense or “cool” from Ms. Keith. She’s excited, and getting to ask President Obama a question is

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Hillary Clinton 2016?

April 19, 2014

Chelsea Clinton announced she’s pregnant on April 17, a few days ago. Mazel tov to her, her husband, and their families!

Within hours of the announcement there were at least two pregnancy-truthers, here (Steve Malzberg) and here (Andrew Ross Sorkin). Their comments followed by several days the claims from shoe-truthers—here (Herman Cain and Rush Limbaugh)—that Hillary Clinton or her people staged the thrown shoe event on April 10 in Las Vegas.

So the show—excuse me, the 2016 campaign for President—has begun. We don’t yet know whether Hillary Clinton will run, but the comments from the crazies may provide the best case for nominating and electing her.

For entertainment, nothing will beat four or eight more years of Clinton-phobia from

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Southern Judges/Righteous Gentiles

April 13, 2014

Righteous among the Nations is an honorific of the State of Israel, used to recognize non-Jews whose extraordinary acts during the Holocaust saved Jewish lives. I thought about the Righteous among the Nations, known informally—and with respect—as Righteous Gentiles, as I was reflecting on the coverage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at 50.

President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the bill into law on July 2, 1964. I’m not sure about the reasons for celebrating the 50 year anniversary now, about three months early, but there was a major event at the LBJ Presidential Library this past week to commemorate the law and the events that led to its passage. Presidents Obama, G.W. Bush, Clinton, and Carter all

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