http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/02/25/open-line Comments On: Open Line by David Ramsey en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Thu, 23 May 2013 10:30:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
In fact, it's worse now than three years ago, when I found myself temporarily billeted in The Rock and discovered this blog.

Of COURSE there are wonderful people there. But my god, are they in the minority.

My constant surprise was the sudden dawning that people I THOUGHT were terrific had this stratum of bigoted ignorance and hate. INEVITABLY tied to their "religion," namely, Christianity.

"I don't mean it THAT way," was their catchphrase when inadvertently caught parroting something unbelievably ugly and uninformed, usually about abortion or same-sex equality or politics. Yada, yada defense boilerplate followed by, "We're not ALL like that."

Except, underneath, turned out they WERE.

Nobody here really brings up their religion in the usual course of conversation. Nobody's EVER asked, "Where do you go to church?" with that supposedly friendly but oh-so-phony unblinking smile that DARES you not to conform.

Arkansas is today indelibly associated with Mike Huckabee. Everybody's forgotten that the Clintons, President and Secretary of State, hail from The Natural State. Their smarts, education and accomplishments have all but erased that portion of their past and, if it ever arises, they merely exemplify the "exception proves the rule" maxim.

News in the media cycles? Every day brings another blast. "Most restrictive anti-choice laws in the nation." "Legislature votes for guns on campuses." "Concealed carry licenses exempt from FOIA." "Religious schools finagle taxpayer funding." On and on. Sound bites with that god-awful accent (which Huckabee, tellingly, turns on and off depending on the venue).

Ever been to Crystal Bridges? Ever seen the taped segment with Alice Walton and Moshe Safdie, the architect she hired? THAT accent. Hers, not his. Thank god her dad made buckets of money, or where would she be.

Apparently, the forces of fundamentalist "faith" have so captured and corrupted everything in Arkansas from business to education to politics that the state doesn't stand a chance. None of your political or financial leaders will stand up and speak out. So how can your population be expected to?

Either they agree with all that "faith" crap hiding a hideous backward "traditional values" mentality, or they'll be fired, shunned, beaten up or killed if they disagree and don't go along.

No wonder the only businesses willing to relocate there are those that "fit in."

But the world changed long ago and the pace of change keeps accelerating. Places like Arkansas--and Tehran and Riyadh--know it. Thus their ever-more-desperate and vicious isolationism in the face of "modernity."

Call it what you will. But Arkansas is fast becoming a cult-run state, like the Scientology Center in L.A., where you're either a member or the enemy. Maybe Arkansas always was.

Difference? Places like L.A. are big enough and diverse enough to contain and bypass multitudes, including circle-the-wagons religious fanatics, who are in the minority. (Prop. 8? The anomaly everybody loves to cite? Bought and paid for by a lying, fear-mongering national Catholic / Mormon coalition to the tune of over $8 million, and soon to be overturned.)

There, in The Natural State, religious fanatics are the majority.

I truly wish you luck. But as I reminded my Razorbabies last evening, God helps those who help themselves.
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:21:49 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by the outlier]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:53:21 -0600 Arkansas Times
When I lived in California it was interesting to me how few people even had an idea where Arkansas was. About all they knew, broadly speaking, was that many people here were poor, uneducated, racist hillbillies living in a state run by Walmart. Since I've moved back here after a quarter-century absence, I'm sad to say that they're right. And there's not much else to say about it.
Posted by GrizLee Blackbear]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:33:26 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by plainjim]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 08:40:28 -0600 Arkansas Times
The ones that have had their legislatures controlled by the GOP prior to last month election after election. We'll just see how the next one does.
Posted by Cindi Cobb]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 07:11:46 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 05:01:36 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/feb/25/letters-20130225/?f=opinion
Posted by eLwood]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 02:48:42 -0600 Arkansas Times
Whatever national rep The Natural State had before last fall's elections (not much, frankly), it's clogging the toilet now.

Meanwhile, today at Santa Monica High, when Westboro Baptist haters arrived to protest, for some reason--most likely to beg attention and provoke a counter-protester into an actionable response so Westboro could sue and make some money--they were vastly outnumbered by high schoolers who weren't having any.

Westboro slinked off fairly quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe…

When Arkansas--even your high schoolers, much less your adults--fights back in large enough numbers against its takeover by Creepy Christian Cretins, the rest of America might revise its estimation of your neck of the woods.

Till then, because of your newsmakers, Arkansas looks to the rest of us like exactly what it is: a hopeless write-off.

God helps those who help themselves.
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:57:02 -0600 Arkansas Times
I think the top half being in the Ozarks really help us stay sane enough to vote blue. It's hard to be a dick looking down upon others with that much pure beauty around. I'll never be unproud of my state because of being from there. Clinton world-liked image brings a lot of pride to an Arkansan's self-identify which helps also.

Some of these critters running all over that beauty, however, are a whole new ballgame. I'm going to haunt the GOP like a specter the best that I can with fingers that type instead of use of a wand. Their hate is out full force. Think it's bad now? If the USSC tosses out state gay marriage bans, they implode.

What they hate being equal to them by law is their very definition of tyranny. And they are well armed.
Posted by Cindi Cobb]]> Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:26:33 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/02/25/huck…
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:11:36 -0600 Arkansas Times
"“Fifty-five million babies. Fifty-five million babies since 1973 have died in what ought to be the safest place in the world, their mother’s womb. It has become one of the most dangerous places for a baby to be. For us, this is not about the politics of Democrat or Republican, winning or losing — it is about our capacity to one day stand before a holy God and give an account for whether we stood between life and death for those who had no voice but ours.”

Yeah. Well, "babies" are actually born. But redefining science and medical facts to appeal to unthinking emotions is what religionists do.

And comparing the attempted extermination of Jews, the Holocaust, to abortion and women's rights is beneath contempt.

If it weren't for hateful Christians, the Holocaust would never have occurred in the first place.

Why is it God never speaks through somebody intelligent and accomplished like Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein? Why always some two-bit ill-educated talentless hick wannabe like Huckabee or Robertson or Graham who couldn't make a decent living in any field other than feeding false hopes and relieving false guilts (for a fee) to the gullible?

For the same reason, one supposes, aliens never land at Harvard or on the White House lawn, preferring instead to abduct lonely fat divorcees from Fresno and toothless rednecks from trailers.
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:05:28 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-…
Posted by Sound Policy]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:44:08 -0600 Arkansas Times
Hiding behind "freedom of religion," Big Business and the Plutocrats (NOT a rock group) are determined to dumb-down middle and lower classes to maintain a malleable workpool at near-subsistence wages serving the elites.

See, "How the religious right is undermining education by pushing school choice and Christian education."

"On the surface, School Choice is purportedly about increasing opportunities for inner city and rural youth. The all-important subtext, however, is that School Choice is really about freeing up dollars for Christian-based education."

Why "Christian-based" education? Because Plutocrats have known for millennia that fear-based religious superstition (and resulting tribal rivalries) are the greatest "divide and conquer" stragegies ever devised.

If enough people are frightened, all the time, about "God's judgment," the masses will obey the Massives (for some reason, those who channel "God" are often fat of body and / or head) and charlatans claiming to possess God's Word.

Problem? They can't have people actually scrutinizing "God's Word" too critically or objectively, nor bucking the "authority" of religious leaders, else the whole fraud falls apart. As, in fact, it's doing worldwide in developed countries.

Here, via Salon, is what Big Business and the Plutocrats have been up to, and what they're determined to achieve--with taxpayer money--unconstitutionally--at the sacrifice of universal public education.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/how_the_re…
Posted by Norma Bates]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:10:47 -0600 Arkansas Times
Even though the act was extended by a
98-0 vote in the Senate and 390-33 vote in the House in '06
Heritage Foundation still wants the Supremes to take a crack at
"pre clearing" requirement imposed on states with clear history
of voter suppression via racial discrimination:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/25/1…
Posted by eLwood]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:44:12 -0600 Arkansas Times I mentioned here some time ago about seeing in the local newspaper that she had filed for divorce from Tim Oelke. and it should be final before long<<

With the amount of time spent servicing the Koch brothers, hard to think Teresa would have time for a marriage. She milked Oelke construction for all its worth but with the Stimulus over there's nothing left to milk.

Oddly, two Arkansas femmes have been hoisted away from Republican marriage by service to Koch brothers, er, 'interests.' Wonder if they report directly to the Kansas head quarters.

Posted by eLwood]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 21:08:41 -0600 Arkansas Times
"When we debate health care policy, we seem to jump right to the issue of who should pay the bills, blowing past what should be the first question: Why exactly are the bills so high?"

This may be a clue:

"According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the pharmaceutical and health-care-product industries, combined with organizations representing doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, health services and HMOs, have spent $5.36 billion since 1998 on lobbying in Washington. That dwarfs the $1.53 billion spent by the defense and aerospace industries and the $1.3 billion spent by oil and gas interests over the same period. That’s right: the health-care-industrial complex spends more than three times what the military-industrial complex spends in Washington."

Seems like there should be a couple of exclamation points in there.

The whole article will take several days to digest, with occasional time-outs for number fatigue.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitt…
Posted by Silverback66]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:54:47 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by mrprincipal07]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:39:27 -0600 Arkansas Times
Wouldn't sustainable strawberries mean growing your own?

When my momma was little there would be oranges at Christmas, a real treat.

Strawberries - of a sort anyway - and oranges (and gmo bananas!) are now available everywhere all year long. Can't say much for the taste of the strawberries though. Or the bananas.

There's something to be said about watching trees grow, though.
Posted by Vanessa]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:11:50 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://hint.fm/wind/
Posted by radical centrist]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:53:33 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by RYD]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:41:44 -0600 Arkansas Times
He's making a lot of enemies here in Fayetteburg...
Posted by GrizLee Blackbear]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:19:57 -0600 Arkansas Times

Arkansas Traveler columnist and grad student, Will Watson, presents a bonafide case of legislators not representing their constituents. One even openly admitted it at the CoC meeting in Fayetteville. Charlie Collins (R-NRA) was noticeably absent from this CoC meeting held in the heart of his district:

"Legislators Are Not Listening"

The crystallizing moment of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce meeting two weeks ago was when State Sen. Jim Hendren of Sulphur Springs told the crowd the opinions of his constituents were only a small part of deciding how to vote on a bill.

Basically, the lawmaker said, “We have to go down there and do what we think is right.”

Hendren was responding to a question about why the legislature was determined to loosen campus gun laws despite the opposition from Chancellor G. David Gearhart.

It’s obvious over these past weeks many legislators are committed to enacting their vision of a future Arkansas that does not necessarily include the opinions of their constituents. Nowhere was this more true than in the campus gun legislation being debated in the Arkansas House.

Despite a scheduled forum at the Chamber of Commerce, State Rep. Charlie Collins — the lead sponsor of legislation that would mandate college campuses to allow faculty and staff with a concealed-carry license to bring their guns on campus — didn’t bother to show.

He was instead at a forum at the University of Central Arkansas, over 100 miles from his district, answering questions from people who weren’t his constituents.

Collins has made a legislative career out of this issue. Despite opposition from UA administrators, and despite the campus police force’s opposition, Collins continues to press for more guns on campus. He fully embraces the fact very few on campus support his ideas, and marches on.

The UA is not a policy laboratory. It’s not a place to try out a policy as dangerous as letting people who took a simple one-day course keep a concealed, deadly weapon on their person in a classroom full of young adults. I trust my teachers. I trust most of my fellow students. But I also trust the police force to do its job in the case of an emergency.
....
http://www.uatrav.com/2013/02/25/legislato…
Posted by eLwood]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:15:54 -0600 Arkansas Times
Burkhalter's in with Beebe's support.
Halter's in with unions and MSNBC crowd.

Where does that leave Ross? Will the lobbyists run to him? Or does Beebe muscle them to Burkhalter?
Posted by Jerry Mander]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:13:40 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by plainjim]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:11:44 -0600 Arkansas Times
This is what Mall-wart did with seafood. They bought the Marine Stewardship Council and got a greenwash pass to keep mining the high seas.

Enjoy your sustainable swordfish while you got it, 'cause it won't last long. And be sure to stock up on all that "farm-raised" salmon--which will soon be GMO fish--'cause it's gonna destroy most of the wild salmon stocks.
Posted by GrizLee Blackbear]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:11:33 -0600 Arkansas Times