Twain v. Cooper

I have been laboriously attempting to read reading James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers for a report. Ugh, what a snoozer wonderful piece of classic literature, yes.

Truthfully, the book is a drudgery to read. I'd heard much of Cooper's works and was eager to read one of them. I admit I am disappointed. The Deerslayer is no better. I like the descriptions of the Mohawk Valley, and there is a thrill in picturing Cooperstown as the frontier l'enfant. But the romance ends there. Dry, dull, aimless, and long-winded. Zzzzzzz.

I discovered that Mark Twain felt similarly. I am only devoting a mere blog entry to my disdain; Twain wrote an entire essay describing his angst over Cooper's writing.

There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction -- some say twenty-two. In "Deerslayer," Cooper violated eighteen of them. These eighteen require:

1. That a tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.

2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.

3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

The list contines. Twain's conclusion?

I may be mistaken, but it does seem to me that "Deerslayer" is not a work of art in any sense; it does seem to me that it is destitute of every detail that goes to the making of a work of art; in truth, it seems to me that "Deerslayer" is just simply a literary delirium tremens.

A work of art? It has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.

I shall punish the reader no further.

I have always wondered why schools never prescribed Cooper's books for Literature class. Now I know. Drop-out rates would escalate to dangerous levels. But then again, schools have no problem assigning banal and depressing works like Death of a Salesman and The Pearl. Zzzzzz.

I love Mark Twain books. I remember reading Tom Sawyer in middle school, but Twain has much better books. I heartily enjoyed Roughing It and Innocents Abroad. These are some of the best American books I have ever read.

I doubt I will completely read The Pioneers, and I doubt I will continue my plan for The Deerslayer. Oh well, there goes my venture into fiction reading. Back to non-fiction. I am enjoying reading Phillip Johnson's Reason in the Balance, a book Theophobe is also reading. Hopefully, we will jointly blog about it when we complete it.

The "North American"

Here's the latest news in the takeover of the United States as we know it:

The state of Arizona will join Vermont and Washington state in creating a secure state identification document which can be used for travel within Canada and Mexico and will also likely meet the requirements of the REAL ID Act.

The so-called “3 in 1″ driver license will satisfy the requirements of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires citizens to carry a passport or alternative document approved by the government when re-entering the country from abroad, as well as the requirements of REAL ID and as proof of employment eligibility, according to a statement (PDF) from Gov. Janet Napolitano’s office.

Whoa whoa whoa! A "3-in-1" state driver's license? The "Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative"? What happened to the United States, our sovereignty, our Bill of Rights as a free nation under God?

These leaders should be impeached for treason. I am stunned not only at their actions, but their arrogance and shamelessness. This is treason.

So for all those liberals who complained how evil the U.S. is-- don't worry, soon there will be no U.S.! Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. will soon be morphed into the "North American Union" where we will all sing Kum-bay-Ya (in Spanish, of course) and drink margaritas together. Ah, peace and unity at last, right?

Just you wait.

The Private Parts

I was listening to the Clark Howard radio program this week. He had an interesting story to tell. He talked about an unusual consumer reporter, David Lazarus, who reads all those Terms of Service documents-- every word.

What he discovered is that Time Warner reserves the right to track the Internet habits of its high-speed customers. This info includes what websites you visit, how long you spend on them and what e-commerce purchases you make. They can also read your personal e-mails, according to the terms of service.

Time Warner is also allowed to disclose personally identifiable info about its customers to advertisers, direct mail operations and telemarketers for a price. A company spokesperson claims they're not doing all this just yet, but Clark wonders why Time Warner is even allowed to reserve the right to totally invade your privacy.

And it's not only Time Warner that has these kinds of policies -- AT&T tracks very similar info on its customers and records their TV viewings habits. While it's never good to look reflexively to Washington for a solution, Clark believes in this case we need an ironclad privacy policy from Congress to protect the privacy of your viewing and surfing. After all, would the CEOs of Time Warner and AT&T -- or those on Capitol Hill -- like it if the public saw every one of their e-mails?

Clark, man, I hate to tell you, but.... the government is implicit with this stuff. Even though the Feds shut down their "Carnivore" surveillance system, don't be fooled-- they are using ISPs to collect the information. Essentially, the government (and it's bureaucracy KGBs) is forcing companies to spy on us and keep records. It's all part of being a "patriot" these days. Plus, the ISPs get to use our information, too, by pimping us off to advertisers and marketers. We're just slabs of meat to them.

It's called fascism-- a governmental system regulating industry, business, commerce-- all those things in America that we think are running under those hard-bought liberties and freedoms.

Corn Follies

Ethanol is a crock.

It is not cost-effective. It costs more to produce it. And because ethanol cannot be transported in pipelines, as with gasoline, ethanol must be transported via trucks (which take gasoline).

It is not efficient. The United States does not have the infrastructure to efficiently produce and use ethanol. American cars are not designed to take large quantities of ethanol (yet).

One group says ethanol can reduce carbon monoxide emissions by as much as 30%. I challenge that with a study done by Cornell University's David Pimental, for one:

David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people. Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make one gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTUS. Thus, 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in it. Every time you make one gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTUs.

Mr. Pimentel concluded that "abusing our precious croplands to grow corn for an energy-inefficient process that yields low-grade automobile fuels amounts to unsustainable subsidized food burning."

Neither increases in government subsidies to corn-based ethanol fuel nor hikes in the price of petroleum can overcome what Cornell University agricultural scientist, David Pimentel, calls a fundamental input-yield problem: It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces.

Some of his findings are interesting:

• The average U.S. automobile, traveling 10,000 miles a year on pure ethanol (not a gasoline-ethanol mix) would need about 852 gallons of the corn-based fuel. This would take 11 acres to grow, based on net ethanol production. This is the same amount of cropland required to feed seven Americans.
• If all the automobiles in the United States were fueled with 100 percent ethanol, a total of about 97 percent of U.S. land area would be needed to grow the corn feedstock. Corn would cover nearly the total land area of the United States.
• An acre of U.S. corn yields about 7,110 pounds of corn for processing into 328 gallons of ethanol. But planting, growing and harvesting that much corn requires about 140 gallons of fossil fuels and costs $347 per acre, according to Pimentel’s analysis. Thus, even before corn is converted to ethanol, the feedstock costs $1.05 per gallon of ethanol.

Here's an interesting "multimedia" presentation of how ethanol is made. Notice that for every step energy is used to process the corn, gasoline is used (this is not mentioned in the "multimedia" presentation, however).

Business Week shatters the presupposition that ethanol lowers prices at the pumps:

Surprise, surprise, it isn't. The move this spring by more regions to use ethanol means that demand has spiked, driving up prices. On Monday, the New York harbor price was around $3 per gallon compared with about $2.28 for gasoline (before being mixed with ethanol). In other words, for now ethanol is helping to increase prices at the pump, not to push them down.

Some people are calling ethanol a scam. I don't think that is a harsh enough word.

So what does ethanol do for America?

Well, one result that we are seeing from ethanol is that food prices are rising and rising! You may save $10 a month on your gasoline expenses in a year from now, but expect to pay $40 more on your grocery bill now, and rising!

Ethanol uses up precious water supplies (some good pdf files about it from the Energy Justice Network here). Always wanted to go to the Southwest? Well, with ethanol, the Southwest will come to you! Plus, water prices will go up and up. Here in New York State, we see that everytime the Water Authority commissioner burps, let alone when the supply is low.

Another result is the continued subsidies for corporations, who have made it an art finding ways to shaft taxpayers while padding corporations' pockets. The government is only too happy to help. (By the way, the government and these businesses hide the subsidy cost from the ethanol/gas savings equation).

Because Americans cannot (read: will not) conserve, and because the government cannot (read: will not) control spending and eliminate corruption, we are forced to turn to "alternative" fuels that will destroy other established infrastructures in the country. Like the food supply, for one.

P.S. Is it illegal for a citizen to produce his/her own fuel? I've heard of guys producing fuel from vegetable oil, but then I've also heard of the Feds coming to get him.

They Say It's Only Natural

My first day in Biology 101, our professor started out like this: “Biology - the study of life. Well, if we're going to study life, we ought to know what it is. Who in here can give me a defintion of life?" A few brave students raised their hands. What transpired over the next few minutes was interesting. In our attempts to define life, we were only able to relate characteristics of life (metabolism, growth, reproduction, etc.), but effectively unable to give anything resembling a definition. The professor eventually conceded that that was the point of her question. That made quite an impression on me, an aspiring biology major. It must have - because I still remember it 25 years later.

I am currently reading a book that has helped me put that day in persective. It's called "Reason in the Balance: The Case Against Naturalism in Science, Law & Education," by Philip E. Johnson. Naturalism is a philosophy that basically rules out the supernatural. It states that all reality is ultimately only matter and energy. It is therefore, uh, ... 'naturally' atheistic. I've come to the conclusion that the reason we could not answer the professor's question that day is because we had never been taught to consider God in any of our science education. We had been taught a naturalistic science. And I have since realized that it is impossible to define life apart the source of life - God.

I Pledge Allegiance to the Union...

The president of Mexico has some nerve.

PUERTO PENASCO, Mexico — The president of Mexico vigorously defended the right of his countrymen to migrate to the United States and to be treated with dignity, no matter whether they arrive legally or not.

In a speech Thursday, Felipe Calderon told the governors of both U.S. and Mexican border states that immigration is a “natural phenomenon (that is) socially and economically unavoidable.”

“I would also say it is advantageous for the United States’ economy,” Calderon said at the opening ceremonies of the annual Border Governors Conference. He said the two countries have “complementary economies.”

He talks as if he has some authority to throw around here in the U.S. of A.

Maybe he does. Or will.

Jerome Corsi has been all over the news-- well, the real news-- about the treasonous activities of the three amigos: the presidente de Mejico, the Prime Minister of Canada, and the President of the U.S. Corsi has been warning us for a long time about this.

Without announcing his intentions to do so, President Bush has decided to support the creation of a North American Union through a process of governmental regulations, never having to bring the issue before the American people for a clear referendum or vote.

The Bush Administration has decided to "back-door" the creation of a North American Union political entity that would effectively erase our borders with Mexico and Canada and create several super-regional governing bodies that would have jurisdiction over the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court.

It's called the "North American Union," brought about by the "Security and Prosperity Partnership." The Intellectual Conservative has an excellent summary of the North American Union traitory.

So far, no one has asked the citizens of these three nations whether they want to do this. It is not up for a vote in Congress and, indeed, Congress has no supervision over the gnomes in the U.S. Department of Commerce who are busily “harmonizing” the laws under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

This, we’re told, is not a treaty so Congress has no constitutional oversight obligation. I guess it’s more like a nice big handshake between the presidents and prime minister of these three nations who, let’s face it, just know better than the rest of us.

...This is not the way America, Canada, and presumably, Mexico, is supposed to be governed. The public outcry against the proposed immigration reform bill was enough to kill it in its present form.

In his book, The Late Great U.S.A. ($25.95, WND Books), Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D., warns that, “There are movements afoot in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, similar to those in Europe that led to the formation of the European Union that, if left unchecked, will erode U.S. sovereignty and lead to a North American Union.”

Back to the President. Uh, the Mexican president. What gives him such boldness of speech to demand that his people be allowed to migrate to the U.S., and to command Americans to let Mexicans migrate "with dignity"?

“The U.S. economy is capital intensive,” the president said, while the economy of Mexico is labor intensive.

To prove that point, he said it will be only a few years until there are 70 million retired U.S. citizens. At the same time, Calderon continued, most Mexicans are younger than 30. He also rejected arguments that Mexican nationals are taking jobs from U.S. citizens.

Ah, yes. The abortion/Social Security problem. Since we killed off most of our younger workers, we need slave labor to feed our aging present generation with vacation perks, and support the ravenous government with taxes. Touche. Rather, impacto.

Now at the chopping block: the Constitution and our sovereign form of government. That is called treason.

Update- I can't believe it, but a school in Colorado is having their students recite a revised version of the Pledge. They've changed it to pledging to "diversity."

Greed for Water, Water, Everywhere

New York State has not had much rain this year. Since the state was inundated with heavy rains and flooding last year, and heavy rain in previous years, lack of water is something relatively recent. We've had periods of "drought" before. This summer could hardly be considered a drought, however. Rainfall has been below average, but there has been periodic rainfall.

Oneida County's sudden problem with Hinckley Lake (the main supplier of water for the Mohawk Valley area) smells "fishy." This from Utica's local paper:

Hinckley Reservoir is responsible for powering electric plants, feeding the West Canada Creek and the state canal system - as well as supplying 100 percent of the water for Mohawk Valley Water Authority users.

It's dropped nearly 11 feet to 1,188 above sea level in the past month in the absence of rain locally and in much of the canal system area.

Because of a misunderstanding between the Canal Corp. and the water authority, state officials thought it could drop another 23 feet to 1,165 feet above sea level before the drinking supply was threatened.

But because water authority pipes were blocked at the bottom of the reservoir, the margin was really only 3 feet, the state said.

...Actions weren't taken earlier because Canal Corp. officials didn't think drinking water was in danger of being affected, canal hydrologist Howard Goebel said.

The water authority's intake structure includes pipes at various levels. When renovations were done in the 1980s, a decision was made to block off the lowest pipes, said Patrick Becher, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Water Authority. Canal Corp. officials said they thought the pipes were still available.

So this whole thing is a clerical error? C'mon!

The Rome Sentinel has a little more information that the OD is loathe to clearly state:

MVWA Executive Director Patrick J. Becher places much of the blame for the situation on the Canal Corp.

"In recent months the New York State Canal Corp. has demanded releases of water from Hinckley well in excess of the operating diagram and established protocol," he said in a statement this morning. He claims that the Canal Corp.’s "abnormally high water use and refusal to reduce outflows during a time of drought" has resulted in Hinckley being about seven feet lower than it would been "absent these over releases."

The water authority and Canal Corp. are engaged in a long-standing dispute whether the authority should be allowed to expand its service territory and, as a result, draw additional water from Hinckley. The matter is being litigated.

As it is with so many things of Oneida County, the resources of the lake are a political grabbag. Everybody seems to have a piece of the pie, and all want more of it.

Assemblyman Mark Butler made a revealing statement when he said, in an August meeting about the future of the reservoir at the lake, "Pure water will be the lure for future economic development in our region."

Fault Lines Blog calls it "playing chicken with our water supply." That is the perfect summary for this situation, it seems. There seems to be more to this than lack of rainfall. It seems more like a godfatherish power play between state groups. County Executive Anthony Picente accused the Canal Corp. of being underhanded. The Observer-Dispatch has since removed the story that quoted Picente yesterday, interestingly.

Now that the Canal Corp. is taking water from Lake Delta, Hinckley's level has stabilized. What was Canal Corp. doing to make Hinckley so low, so suddenly?

Amongst the political bickering over the water, I'll throw in another looming threat: ethanol. The Wall Street Journal had a great article about the threat this new "energy" policy mandate will have on communities' water resources. Corn is a terribly thirsty plant.

Everywhere farmers grow corn, water is becoming a major concern as ethanol plants ramp up production at a startling rate and the threat of drought is ever-present. Rushing to help meet President Bush's call to cut gasoline use by 20% over the next 10 years, the ethanol industry has projects under way that would nearly double capacity from the current 6.8 billion gallons of ethanol a year. A 50-million gallon ethanol plant might use about 150 million gallons of water to make fuel.

Upstate New York is plentiful in fertile land and water. It is also dirt poor, and therefore ripe for picking by greedy government-sponsored businesses and politicians. This present water situation might just have been the result of "misunderstandings" and I may be making a moutain out of a molehill. Nonetheless, Upstate, especially Oneida County, just might be stretching itself too thin, and this current state of affairs may be serving as a warning.

But whatever the case may be, we cannot take our valuable resources for granted, nor can we continue to allow them to be pimped off to corporations. Don't we have any self-respect around here?

HT Volokh Conspiracy for WSJ link.

Til Death Do Us Part

NYCO's Blog has an uncanny knack of putting the finger on the pulse of the problem of Upstate New York. While I don't always agree with the ideas on solving the problems, it looks like this blog (and others like it) usually have a pretty good idea of what's wrong. It's a start.

In a good (but older) post, NYCO's Blog compares Upstate NY's woes with that of a middle-aged married woman. This woman is experiencing the typical plight of a middle-aged marriage: she's no longer a hottie and her jerk of a hubby has found another one.

Her dilemma is similar to that of an older person who loses their spouse (through death or divorce), and suddenly after a lifetime of really not having contacts outside of their spouse or immediate family, she (or he) is at a loss as to who to ask for help. If she was a homemaker all her life, and didn’t work outside the home, then there’s job training, maybe going back to school. If she just didn’t make any circle of supportive friends during the marriage, fortunately, there are social services, church groups, and other social networks for this person to plug into.

But geopolitics and economics are not so kind, not even on a micro or state-internal level. A region that has not cultivated any contacts “outside the family” — in upstate New York’s case, that family would be the two major parties in Albany, plus all the minor parties who are just consigliere-wannabees — is going to find itself at a real loss the day it finally wakes up and detects a problem in its current arrangement. Everything that was supposed to provide for the region in its post-industrial maturity is falling apart, and the partnership doesn’t seem to work any more. The partner (in this case, downstate) doesn’t find her sexy any more, and he’s in love with a slim new hottie who’s in real estate (who is actually, in disguise, a fat sheik from Dubai). And the family (Da Family, in Albany) doesn’t care about her loss of dignity, loss of business contacts and the general waste of her and her talents and resources.

The thing this woman really needs is a man who will commit to her so she can commit to him. She sounds like a woman who could bring a lot into a marriage: she's loyal, she loving, she's obsessive. NYCO's Blog disagrees:

Upstate New York: If she can’t get ever get a divorce, then she should at least have herself an affair to remember. Without anyone’s permission.

Upstate has had its affairs. They don't last long, and the other party almost always gets custody of the children. Maybe she'll get a judge who will understand her plight and give her that divorce she's been waiting for so long. If nothing else, the woman can always stand up for herself and boot the jerk out permanently. One thing's for sure- she should stop putting out for the guy.

But the post is one of NYCO's Blog's best, that I have seen, anyway. Not that my opinion matters. I notice that this blog is still not on its very diverse link list. Talk about the cold shoulder.

A Cup of Tea and a Smoke

Amazing.

NASHVILLE — Starting today, state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars.

I don't smoke, I can't stand being around people who smoke, but this is insanely tyrannical.

The idea is for the monitoring agent to spot a person buying cigarettes in volume at an out-of-state market, then departing in a vehicle with Tennessee license tags. Starting today, monitoring agents spotting such a suspect will call an arresting agent who will stop the car when it enters Tennessee, he said.

...Under state law, bringing more than two cartons of cigarettes into the state without paying Tennessee taxes is a “Class B” misdemeanor, carrying punishment of up to six months in jail and/or a $500 fine. Bringing 25 or more cartons is a “Class E” felony, with minimum penalty of one year in prison and a maximum of six years plus a fine of up to $3,000.

In addition, the specific state statute dealing with untaxed cigarettes provides that vehicles used to transport more than two cartons “are considered contraband and are subject to seizure,” says a Department of Revenue statement.

To add insult to injury, the state claims this is:

...is partly an “education initiative” to make people aware of tobacco tax provisions in state law and a response to complaints from Tennessee tobacco retailers about “streams of Tennessee license plates crossing the border” from out-of-state retailers.

So the state is going to "educate" (such an overused, brainwashing word) cigarette buyers to only buy cigarettes in Tennessee? Penalties are a little harsher than "I will not buy smokes" 100 times on the blackboard.

Under state law, bringing more than two cartons of cigarettes into the state without paying Tennessee taxes is a “Class B” misdemeanor, carrying punishment of up to six months in jail and/or a $500 fine. Bringing 25 or more cartons is a “Class E” felony, with minimum penalty of one year in prison and a maximum of six years plus a fine of up to $3,000.

This smacks of the Dutch East India Company fiasco, when the British Parliament deemed we Americans could only buy our tea from their most favored company, and had to pay their taxes to boot. Stocks in Maxwell House soared through the roof the next day, right?

Of course, the state has no problem allowing scads of illegal immigrants, obscene pornography, and bags of cocaine across the border.

Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, said he sees inconsistency in the enforcement program.

“This administration has been very willing to turn a blind eye to illegal aliens pouring into our state, yet, when a natural Tennessean brings a couple of cartons of smokes across the state line, they want to arrest them,” Campfield said.

The nerve of Tennessee! Who do they think they are, New York?

Social "Security"

I am in favor of a Social Security litmus test. There should be some restrictions made concerning it, especially since, in a matter of a few years, there will no longer be enough workers of Generation X age to support the Baby Boomers. After all, weren't 40 million Generation Xers killed off so they wouldn't inconvenience their Boomer parents?

The only two questions that need to be asked a person requesting Social Security benefits should be:

Did you ever have an abortion or have a baby aborted? Are you in favor of abortion?

If the answer is "yes," to even one of these questions, then no SS for him!

What's In Your Kid's Textbooks?

I peruse McGraw-Hill's education plan online from time to time. I remember a few years ago they had an incredibly candid and crazy plan for "multicultural" studies on their Multicultural Supersite. I looked for it again, but they have since removed it from the link I'd had. It does remain on the Multicultural Pavilion for teachers, verbatim.

The plan is pretty powerful. Get ready for your child's next step in public school social engineering. Textbook editors aren't playing Mr. Nice Guy any more. They complain that teachers, administrators, and schools are not unified enough. Unified for what purpose? Unified for the takeover of the United States as we know it, and unified into global socialism/communism.

Since its earliest conceptualizations in the 1960s, multicultural education has been transformed, refocused, reconceptualized, and in a constant state of evolution both in theory and in practice. It is rare that any two classroom teachers or education scholars will have the same definition for multicultural education. As with any dialogue on education, individuals tend to mold concepts to fit their particular focus.

Some discuss multicultural education as a shift in curriculum, perhaps as simple as adding new and diverse materials and perspectives to be more inclusive of traditionally underrepresented groups. Others talk about classroom climate issues or teaching styles that serve certain groups while presenting barriers for others. Still others focus on institutional and systemic issues such as tracking, standardized testing, or funding discrepancies. Some go farther still, insisting on education change as part of a larger societal transformation in which we more closely explore and criticize the oppressive foundations of society and how education serves to maintain the status quo -- foundations such as white supremacy, capitalism, global socioeconomic situations, and exploitation.

So are they out there, out of the goodness of their hearts, to educate American children and train them to function in a literate world? Hell, no!

The underlying goal of multicultural education is to affect social change. The pathway toward this goal incorporates three strands of transformation:

1. the transformation of self;
2. the transformation of schools and schooling; and
3. the transformation of society.

The "transformation of society" is especially ominous:

Ultimately, the goal of multicultural education is to contribute progressively and proactively to the transformation of society and to the application and maintenance of social justice and equity. This stands to reason, as the transformation of schools necessarily transforms a society that puts so much stock in educational attainment, degrees, and test scores. In fact, it is particularly this competitive, capitalistic framing of the dominant mentality of the United States (and increasingly, with the "help" of the United States, the world) that multicultural education aims to challenge, shake, expose, and critique.

In a sense, multicultural education uses the transformation of self and school as a metaphor and starting place for the transformation of society. Ultimately, social justice and equity in schools can, and should, mean social justice and equity in society. Only then will the purpose of multicultural education be fully achieved.

Morality is Just a Four-Letter Word

I think Gallup polls Americans nearly every year on the changing "moral climate" in this country. I reviewed the numbers for the past six years and found only slight changes. Overall, Gallup Poll says that a very large percentage of Americans are troubled by the "moral climate" in our country. That is a very interesting statement, mostly because Americans are such hypocrites when it comes to what they approve versus what they practice.

According to Gallup, doctor-assisted suicide, homosexual marriage, and abortion were near 50/50. Overwhelmingly acceptable practices include divorce, gambling, fornication, and the death penalty. Suicide, cloning humans, polygamy, and adultery were frowned on by most. Of course, "religious" people were more likely (ugh that phrase "more likely") to favor tradition and reject these listed practices.

The questions begs to be asked: Who is setting any kind of standard, anyway? It used to be the universal Church. Now, it is the public school system (a completely secular humanist institution) and television. Not that this matters anymore. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em is the title of the new hymn! Even "Christians" post porno ladies' undergarments with the Ten Commandments on them, saying we should always have those Commandments "front and center" in our lives.

Consider the following statistics, which are far more revealing:

• 37.4% of the abortions performed each year are on protestant women – nearly one-half of those (18%) on women who profess to being “born-again.”
• Christians are MORE likely to divorce than non-Christians. In fact, the national average for divorce is 24% while in the church that average is 27% and even higher in some prominent denominations.
• 19% of Christians (almost 1 in 5) said that whether or not it is acceptable to see pornographic videos or pictures is a matter of taste, not morality.
• 35% of Christians vs. 57% non-Christians said that to get by in life these days, sometimes you have to bend the rules for your own benefit.
• Only 50% of Christians vs. 25% of non-Christians said that there are moral truths, which are unchanging, that truth is not relative to the circumstances.
• About one out of four (26%) born again Christians believe that it doesn’t matter what faith you follow because they all teach the same lessons; a belief held by 56% of non-Christians. (2000)

Then there are the sticky issues of doctrine-- basic Biblical teaching is in the toilet, according to the Barna Research Group. According to Newsweek:

91% of American adults say they believe in God and almost as many (87%) say they identify with a specific religion. Christians far outnumber members of any other faith in the country, with 82% of the poll’s respondents identifying themselves as such.

Eighty-two percent claim they are Christians! Yet in that same poll, nearly half believe in evolution!

Where on earth is the salt and light? Why are so "many" religious Americans troubled yet so many are living their lives completely irreligiously? With Christians like that, who needs the devil?

Overkill

Today at Syracuse Online:

LYONS, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a man is dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after a nine-hour standoff at a home in Wayne County.

Sheriff Richard Piscotti says the standoff began Wednesday evening after someone called 911 because a male relative was loading a gun at a home in Lyons, 30 miles east of Rochester.

A SWAT team and members of several police agencies surrounded the house. When officers entered a first-floor apartment at 3:15 a.m., they found the man had shot himself. No one else was in the apartment.

The man's name has not been released. Authorities say they'll release more information on the incident later Thursday morning.

Am I the only one who thinks this is a bad case of overkill? The SWAT team was sent to surround the man's apartment?

Of course, the story is very brief and more information is pending. But the SWAT team was sent because a man was loading a gun? Who was this guy, Osama Bin Laden?

I am more and more amazed how accepted it is becoming for the government to send its own military (and military offshoots) against American citizens. And also how easily such tyrannical actions are purged from our brainwashing history lessons. It's as if the end-- and the end is usually a perverted rendition of someone's agenda-- justifies the means. Then, all is whitewashed and bleached, like refined sugar, and the medicine goes so easily down. This is frightfully alarming.

SmokeStax

I've been thinking.

You know, companies are going to pollute. It's a given. There is really nothing we can do, but to gently guide these companies-- educate them and give them the tools to make polluting safer. And actually, such profligate polluting is perfectly natural, especially for those young, adolescent male companies. We can't stop them, anyway. They are going to find ways to do it. Abstinence programs like carbon-offsets and tax incentives just won't work; and besides, such programs were only based on outdated ideologies and unfairly misinforming companies.

I say we help these companies. Of course, education plays a major role here. But education requires that we, as responsible adults, equip these companies with the tools to perform their polluting right. The companies are going to find ways to do it anyway. We might as well keep them in a controlled environment so they can practice:

safe stax for smokestax.

I am in favor of providing these companies smokestack condoms. This will help these companies control their... uh, emissions... in a proper and responsible way. Mother Earth will shine down beneficent favors of happy sunshine for such global-conscious mavericks.

I also propose that a government entity be established to provide funding, that every company be provided with these condoms and be shown how to use them.

Uncle Jay Explains the News

Uncle Jay is the nicest man. Smart, too. He recently uploaded an educational video about "how Congress works." This is just one of his brilliant "Uncle Jay Explains the News" videos. A must-see for any intellectual.

Sit back on your beanbag and enjoy!

HT Northview Diary

Breaking the Law

There's an interesting story at MSNBC.com, Biblical Living: Following Every Rule For One Year. It's about a guy who tried a yearlong experiment to live the Bible, completely.

After A. J. Jacobs spent a year reading the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica for his book “The Know-It-All,” he figured he had the yearlong experiment thing down. How much harder could it be to follow every rule in the Bible? Much, much harder, he soon discovered, as he found himself growing his beard, struggling not to curse and asking strangers for permission to stone them for adultery.

I think by "Bible" they mean "Old Testament." Because nothing in the story reflects what Jesus has done and what He made evident. Just the same, A.J. Jacobs is honest and sincere in describing his foibles.

I guess I was never sin free. I was able to cut down on my coveting maybe 40 percent, but I was still a coveter. Flat-screen TVs, the front yard of my friend in the suburbs, a better cell phone, higher Amazon rankings. And that's not to mention coveting my neighbor's wife. I live in New York, I work in publishing, so there’s a lot of coveting, lying and gossiping.

It's funny, because the New Testament reveals a man who, like Mr. Jacobs, tried to live his life according to the Law-- and not just for a year and for a lucrative book contract. Luke chapter 18:

Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “... You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”

So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

I have always wondered if this rich young ruler was Paul the Apostle as a very zealous young man. Paul wrote of himself that he was:

...circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; ...concerning the righteousness which is in the Law, faultless.

Yet that got him nowhere with God or himself. Paul continued:

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. I... count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith..."

In the letter to the Romans (chapter 8), Paul wrote:

For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

So what good is the Law? Why did God even establish it?

Paul's letter to the Galatians explains it all.

HT to In the Agora.

Monkey Business

And you thought the teenage-boy problem was bad in your neighborhood.

A gang of baboons is being blamed for a series of break-ins.

The chacma baboons, which live wild in the Cape peninsula, have been raiding people's homes for food and causing thousands of pounds in damage.

"People here are getting very angry," Dr Peter Kirsh said, as a baboon strutted along the street beneath his balcony. They get into the kitchens, they know where the fridge is, they open it and take everything, and then they defecate everywhere."

"I put these bars on my windows," John Lourens says, gripping the metal. "But still, the next thing I knew I had a baboon in my living room."

The residents say the "invasions" happen almost daily and claim the baboons are aggressive as they search for food.

Some folks are resorting to violent measures to rid themselves of these pests. And of course, the treehuggers come out of the woodwork to defend the baboons.

"Tammy lost her leg because her femur was shattered by a bullet," Jenni Trethowan told me, pointing out a three legged female hopping through the Cape scrub with her tiny baby.

"Tammy"? Someone named the burglarizing baboon? And now it looks like the bootlegging baboons have a whole business built around their thievery. What's next, a tax credit and advertising campaign: "Feed the Children"?

Ms Trethowan runs an organisation called Baboon Matters, which aims to educate people about the animals and reduce conflict.

She employs a team of monitors who try to herd the baboon troops out of the villages and into the mountains, where instead of dining on supermarket food they eat a more natural diet of berries and leaves.

She admits it doesn't always work but says that the residents should enjoy their visitors rather than harming them. "As humans we are privileged to be living alongside these animals," she said.

Educate people. Reduce conflict. Uh huh. I can't help but wonder if Ms. Trethowan has been visited by the baboons for a spot of tea and afternoon chat. I doubt it. Maybe she needs a little more... education.

It's Just a Matter of Time...

...until they stamp our foreheads with their stinking advertisements. Hey, maybe that's part of that "mark of the beast"-- a WalMart "roll back prices" ad for deodorant, or bananas!

Anyway, would you be willing to have your telephone conversations monitored in exchange for a discounted or free calling plan?

Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose, Calif., is introducing an Internet phone service today that will be supported by advertising related to what people are talking about in their calls...

The trade-off is that Pudding Media is eavesdropping on phone calls in order to display ads on the screen that are related to the conversation. Voice recognition software monitors the calls, selects ads based on what it hears and pushes the ads to the subscriber’s computer screen while he or she is still talking.

A conversation about movies, for example, will elicit movie reviews and ads for new films that the caller will see during the conversation. Pudding Media is working on a way to e-mail the ads and other content to the person on the other end of the call, or to show it on that person’s cellphone screen.

What I find most disconcerting is that, to big business, we Americans are just slabs of consumeristic flesh, ready to pimp ourselves off to save a buck.

I am terrified by the sudden thought that this may be accurate.

“We can never obtain too much information from the targets, and I would love to get my hands on that information,” said Jonathan Sackett, chief digital officer for Arnold Worldwide, a unit of the advertising company Havas. “Still, it makes me caution myself and caution all of us as marketers. We really have to look at the situation, because we’re getting more intrusive with each passing technology.”

Targets? Did he just call us "targets"?

Well, at least this is one Internet phone service that offers you something in return for eavesdropping on you. The government already does it for nothing.

Thou Shalt

The new sin.

"I think smoking in a car with a child has a more lasting effect than giving a child a slap in the face," said Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette, D-Queens. "They're both horrible things, but one is going to kill the child ... I know that's a hard comparison, but that's the reality of it."

Lafayette has introduced — and reintroduced — a bill that would ban smoking in cars with minors younger than 16. The measure has been kicking around unsuccessfully for nearly 10 years.

THOU SHALT NOT SMOKE. Lest, thou shalt provoke the smouldering wrath of the Great and Almighty STATE. Sinners, repent ye!

I am being facetous. A little. But no one stops to ask the question: doesn't sending a parent to jail or wresting the child from his parent have more "lasting effect" than either face-slapping or smoking?

Of course, to the State, when it comes to fornicating like dogs, what the hell is stopping ya? In New York, abstinence programs are only for abstaining from smoking. When it comes to sex, go at it, kids! We'll make sure you know how to perform it and perform it right!

New York is rejecting millions of dollars in federal grants for abstinence-only sex education, the state health commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, announced yesterday...

In a statement posted on the Health Department’s Web site, Dr. Daines said, “The Bush administration’s abstinence-only program is an example of a failed national healthcare policy directive.” He added that the policy was “based on ideology rather than on sound scientific-based evidence that must be the cornerstone of good public healthcare policy.”

The state had also spent $2.6 million annually to fund the same programs over the last decade. That money will now be spent on other existing programs for sex education, Dr. Daines said in an interview...

“We think it is a good thing that they are making efforts to close programs that were misinforming adolescents,” said Galen Sherwin, the director of the Reproduction Rights Project for the New York Civil Liberties Union... “But there is still a long way to go before you get to comprehensive, medically sound sex education.”

"Misinforming" adolescents? Abstinence works every time it's tried! It's safe, it's secure, it's inexpensive. And abstinence for unmarried persons is medically sound. You can't get any more medically sound than waiting until marriage!

These policies reek with agenda, and it ain't a healthy agenda. And this must be a landmark first for New York: rejecting money from the federal government.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20

Greek Freaks

It has been taught-- and I had been taught it, ad nauseum, when I was in public school-- that our great form of government was patterned after the Greek city-states of ancient times.

This is an absolute lie.

Now that I am out of school, I study on my own. I took Mark Twain's advice to heart, one might say: I never let my schooling interfere with my education. So I have been reading (for years now) the actual writings of the men who actually founded our government and society (an activity that would never be allowed in public schools today as it might threaten world peace and the global consciousness and pinwheel planting).

Here's a gem I recently read from a speech that Alexander Hamilton gave in 1788, when he spoke in defense of the Constitution:

It has been observed that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved, that no position in politics is more false than this.

The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity. When they assembled, the field of debate presented an ungovernable mob, not only incapable of deliberation, but prepared for every enormity.

In these assemblies the enemies of the people brought forward their plans of ambition systematically. They were opposed by their enemies of another party; and it became a matter of contingency, whether the people subjected themselves to be led blindly by one tyrant or by another.

And that last sentence, doesn't that sound just like what is happening today? It is merely a matter of contingency for the people to be subjected to the tyrant of one party or the other? "Power to the people" yeah!

Evolution is Expensive

Sacre bleu. Oops, scratch the sacre part. The French, overwhelmingly (according to statistics), do not believe in divine control or the need of prayer. The French are avowed humanists and evolutionists. They believe they are rational, reasonable, scientific, if you will.

Evolution can be expensive. Check out this YouTube video of a Frenchman on France's version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." He lost a ton of francs because he couldn't answer the question "What revolves around the Earth?"

More than half the audience didn't know either (or they were holding out).

Hattip to Evolution News at the Discovery Institute, which said:

What does this say about scientific literacy in France? Bear in mind that Eugenie Scott’s survey in Science found that in France, “80% or more of adults accepted the concept of evolution.” Her supplementary data also boasted that French adults were among “the least likely to believe in divine control and to pray frequently.” If those numbers are true, this video suggests that accepting evolution and rejecting religion does not necessarily mean you are scientifically literate.

Ah, but accepting evolution does necessarily mean that you are scientifically illiterate. There is far too much evidence against evolution and far too much for creation to deny the truth.

The most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. --Isaac Newton

A Double-Edged TASER

New York State, in a "landmark victory" for illegal immigrants, has eliminated proof of citizenship to obtain a driver's license.

New York has between 500,000 and 1 million undocumented immigrants, many of whom are driving without a license and car insurance or with fake driver's licenses, Spitzer said at a news conference announcing the executive order.

"They no longer need to hide and pretend they are not here," said Spitzer. "We will not become part of what is propagated on the federal level that if we don't admit they are here then we can somehow not provide services. That is bad policy."

At first glance, this is truly a victory for illegal immigrants. The state has made it easier to be illegal. Yet what about us New York citizens? At second glance, this could be a victory for citizens. Isn't it good to restrict the use of our Social Security number? Then, at third glance, reality hits: our Social Security numbers are still used for many, many things-- you can't get a bank account, a job, or enter college without one-- so this small restriction means very little to us citizens. Yet, for illegals, they are getting a completely free pass. Again.

Michael Balboni, New York's homeland security head, said that the new system actually improves security because it creates public records that can be accessed by law enforcement and others to ensure true identities.

"What we are driving towards is the crucial concept in security: One person, one license," Balboni said.

Uh huh.

In case you hadn't heard, illegals are now protected from TASER use, while police are quite free to use it on American citizens. There is no small outcry about this policy, but I guess if you are an American, your voice doesn't count so much anymore.

Then, to complicate things, this one question begs an answer: since police are not allowed to investigate if a person is in the country illegally, how do you know to whom the TASER/non-TASER rule applies?

Talk about arbitrary law. Things are really getting out of hand.

Judy at Consent of the Governed has some wise advice for town hall attendees: don't resist, even if your rights are being denied. They may cause you bodily harm, and nothing is stopping them from doing it.

It is contemptible that it has come to this.