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Sunday, August 30, 2009 - 11:09:36
Insurance companies are laughing at you, Senator Lincoln
Now that the last giant in the Senate has passed on, the Hobbits will be scrambling for leadership roles. One of those who has been mentioned for a chance in surging ahead is Blanche Lambert Lincoln, she of the widely despised Blue Dog Democrats.
Of course, “Miss Blanche” (as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial writers like to refer to her on occasion) honestly hasn’t a clue as to why the Blue Dogs are so reviled. But never let it be said that Lincoln hasn’t buckled on her armor and rushed out to the field of battle to defend the interests of American corporations when called upon.
At a time when a majority of Americans are - to put it mildly - repulsed by the insurance industry - Lincoln wrote a recent letter to President Obama,, in which she courageously defended those who have been screwing over the American public for years.
www.votesmart.org/speech_detail.php?sc_id=484535&keyword=&phrase=&contain=
In a section that will no doubt be remembered alongside the Gettysburg Address for its sheer majesty, she writes:
We have 1,300 insurance companies in America. We don't need yet one more competitor. They sell thousands of different kinds of insurance policies. We don't need yet one more competitor. Honesty is not the issue. We have a highly regulated industry by the States and by the Federal Government. The only reason to have it is to put the private insurers out of business.
She goes on to quote from the Lewin Group, which she claims “ . . . is a highly respected, nonpartisan health care think tank” Dear god in heaven, lady, how dim do you think we are??? The Lewin Group is a subsidiary of an insurance giant, United Health. Does your staff know how to Google anything?
Who doesn’t know that by now?
And actually, Senator, honesty is kinda sorta the issue here. Both for the insurance companies and for members of Congress, who keep repeating the mantra from the Lewin Group, desperately hoping that no one will notice who their paymasters are.
There are so many reasons that a majority of Americans want the insurance companies to have serious competition - reasons you seem blissfully unaware of.
Pre-existing conditions? I had mild skin cancer, and I can’t get most insurance companies to talk to me. Isn’t it funny how that sort of question comes near the end of their questionnaire?
Denying payments for procedures? Talk about the real Death Panels - and you take their money!
Raising rates? Ah, the Free Market system.
Have you ever asked yourself why so many Americans would dance in the streets if the profits of insurance companies were seriously threatened?
The only people in the United States that insurance companies are interested helping, besides themselves, are members of Congress - people like you, Senator Lincoln.
Thanks a bunch.
******
Blanche Lambert Lincoln and Performance Art
The next public appearance Senator Lincoln makes might be at a makeshift poetry slam, where she could read her infamous letter aloud outside the doors of any hospital emergency room, or inside a bankruptcy courtroom, just before people lose their dignity because they can’t pay their medical bills.
No doubt she will find an appreciative audience.
*****
Then again . . .
Of course, with her poll numbers trailing behind her lesser-known possible GOP rivals, don’t expect any Profiles in Courage moments from Lincoln. If anything, she’ll be more conservative than ever.
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Quote of the Day
Even the death of friends will inspire us as much as their lives. Their memories will be encrusted with sublime and pleasing thoughts, as moments of other men are overgrown with moss; for our friends have no place in the graveyard. - Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience
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On the Air - Employee Free Choice Act
Stephen Smith, of AFSCME,. will be my guest this week to discuss the Employee Free Choice Act.
The program, a repeat from earlier in the year, looks at the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, and deals with many of the distortions that have appeared in the public arena concerning it.
Show days and times
Monday - Aug. 31 (7pm)
Tuesday - Sept. 1 (noon)
Saturday - Sept. 5(6pm)
C.A.T. is shown on Channel 18 of the Cox Channel line-up in Fayetteville.
Those outside the Fayetteville viewing area can see the program online at:
http://www.catfayetteville.org/
Programs online are shown in “real time,” meaning that they are shown at the same time as they are shown on C.A.T.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 - 22:42:40
Ted Kennedy Bashing: Tough Guys at Fox News Strike Again!
Interesting to see Bill O’Reilly snickering over what he thought of as the low points in Ted Kennedy’s political career tonight. Yes, it was repulsive, and yes, it was creepy to watch the Bully in the Bar sitting with Dick Morris, talking about Kennedy’s high and low political points, but that’s sort of the idea, isn’t it?
To make sure that no one recalls anything good about Kennedy? Especially right now?
Perhaps a documentary on Chappaquiddick, when the other networks are running his memorial this weekend?
There may be more to it than merely soulless hacks like O’Reilly and Morris taking turns writing graffiti on Kennedy’s coffin. Just as Lyndon Johnson was able to push JFK’s civil rights agenda through (and make it his own, actually) there may be some terror in GOP circles that Democrats will finally get their act together on health care reform, in the wake of Ted Kennedy’s death.
You can’t start bashing the man too early, I suppose. Look for more faint praise followed by damning criticism in the days and weeks ahead by the Fox News Chickenhawks.
******
Quote of the Day
Fox News went on describing a mission accomplished in a place they called Afghanistan, in a country utterly unlike the one in which we lived. One night, as we sat in the dark to save generator power for the TV set, we heard some no-name right-wing think-tank pro-war neocon talking head explain that America could speedily repair any incidental damage to Iraq's infrastructure, just as it had done in Afghanistan. Security, water, electricity - all those things Kabulis had learned to live without - he said had been restored to Kabul "in no time."
Even in the dim glow of the TV, I could see that Helen was weeping. "Please can we go back to the BBC?" she said, and we never watched Fox News again. - Ann Jones, Kabul in Winter: Life without Peace in Afghanistan
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 18:23:47
Of lovely murals and ugly parking lots
Watching a news piece about the mural by the old library, and the efforts to find a new home for it. I wonder if anyone has considered the parking lot formerly known as the future home of Renaissance Tower?
Right now, that god-awful wall adjoining the property looks like the aftermath of a war zone. Surely there might be room on the spot for the mural?
******
Quote of the Day
I wish the government would put a tax on pianos for the incompetent. - Edith Sitwell
The Art of Low-Tech Persuasion
The first page that I usually turn to in most newspapers or magazines (after I read the cover) is the letters page. It’s a great way to start your day. There are some lost souls out there who turn their noses up at reading the opinions of others, but they have no idea what they are missing.
The Art of Low-Tech Persuasion
In the Age of Websites and Blogging, old-fashioned letters columns still carry influence
Written by Richard S. Drake
"When I write letters to the editor, most of the time my impetus involves thinking another letter writer or, in many cases, the newspaper itself has gotten something wrong or somehow misrepresented an issue. I'm not sure whether my letters really sway public opinion or clarify what I think is wrong, but if I'm lucky someone has at least read my opinion on the subject." - C.F. Roberts, Fayetteville
In an age when people turn to websites for news, and television "journalists" turn to bloggers to learn their views on what is going on in the world, it seems almost quaint and rustic to consider that many people still avidly read the Letters to the Editor columns in their local papers.
More than that, there are those who use the letters columns in an effort to persuade others, to support political causes, or just write about whatever strikes their fancy on any particular day.
My own love affair with letters to the editor began overseas as an Air Force brat during the Vietnam War, reading the letters column in the military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes. The hot topics of the day - the war, racism, poverty - were likely to be discussed in the letters columns.
Returning to the states, I discovered that many newspapers in the 1970s allowed writers to hide their identities behind monikers like "A Real American," "A True American," or the ever-popular, "Patriot." Without exception, these letters were written from an extremely conservative position.
"I do think letters are influential, and the reason is that over a dozen people I hardly knew, clerks in stores or at the P.O., neighbors, etc. have commented on my letters (maybe having recognized my name on the check I handed them). The impression I get is that a lot of people have been very uneasy about our government but either afraid to write a letter or thought they didn't know how, and they appreciate somebody doing it." Coralie Koonce, Fayetteville
I began writing letters myself in the 1970s. The 1970s and 1980s were kind of like the glory days for letter writers; newspapers hadn't yet hit upon the notion of limiting writers to one letter a month and a lot of writers were able to engage in heated debates with one another.
A lot of the names that people see in the letters columns now were also prominent in the 1980s. Northwest Arkansas has always had a lot of issues that bring out eloquence in people, whether it be incinerator battles, public access controversies, gay rights, immigration, or the use of tax money on dubious projects.
If there is an issue, people will write about it. And, more to the point, people will read about it, and may even be persuaded by what a writer has to say.
This isn't always the case, of course. Newspapers in many small towns do not even have a letters column. And some small newspapers will not print letters that the publishers deem too far out of the mainstream. Traveling across the country, I have had the misfortune of reading some small-town newspapers that don't have letters columns. They are all too often dreadful, boring little things.
"As a writer and independent journalist who has been involved with the media for quite some time, I feel that letters to the editor are an indispensable tool which potentially, can expose the public to views and information that ordinarily does not make its way into the mainstream. Despite the Internet's growing political clout and its great success at bringing the other side of the story to anyone who searches for it, the televised evening news report and the morning newspaper remain the main sources of information for most Americans. Found on the editorial pages of many newspapers however, are the letters to the editor. This is the people's forum and it is where the great debates often takes place. Within these letters the opinions brought forth from knowledge obtained from the Internet meet those of the mainstream, as well as from other experiences.
"In recent times I have personally used letters to the editor in order to inform the public about potential plans by the Bush Administration to attack Iran, to counter various media blitzes hatched in City Hall, and to describe the horrors of depleted uranium use in recent U.S. military actions. Without a Letters To the Editor section in the newspaper, I tremble to think about how many thousands, or even millions more Americans would never even know that there is another side to the news that we are hearing and reading." - Al Vick, Fayetteville
Sometimes it isn't how well-written the letters are, but how many letters supporters of a various cause can manage to send in to various papers to get their message across. It helps if there are several papers in the area, because many more letters can be sent out.
Oftentimes, those who can get the most letters out, win the day.
One organization in Fayetteville, Community Access Television, has always been adept at having supporters write letters to the editor in support of C.A.T. when its funding has been threatened.
Some groups use a type of form letter, which can be spotted a mile off. As a former newspaper editor, I learned to spot those pretty easily, and consign them to the trash. Surely, if an issue is important to someone, they can take the time to put things into their own words?
"Letters to the editor have helped make people aware of the destructive effects of the National Animal ID System. Opposition to the NAIS is a cause I am currently involved in. NAIS will require all livestock owners, even if they have as little as one chicken, to 1.Register their premises and obtain a 7-digit federal Premise ID Number, a new license required to keep farm animals, totally unnecessary and unjustified. 2. Register every animal with a 15 digit ID number and attach an RFID tag to each animal at a cost of probably minimum $35.
" . . . Letters to the Editor, along with Internet, talk radio and independent publications such as "Acres USA" and "Countryside and Small Stock Journal" have been helpful in informing the public about the true nature of this program, which government and Big Media are doing everything they can to hide through deceptive propaganda and ignoring the issue." - Joe Alexander, Fayetteville
Over the years I have learned to skip over the letters that begin with the words, ‘‘I am outraged . . ." Yeah, right, I always think. I haven't checked this out with any mental health professionals, but I suspect the human body only has room for a certain amount of true outrage - after that it becomes political play-acting.
The Holocaust? Outrage.
The use of children in cheesy political television commercials? Annoyance at the very best. Some folks seem to get outraged at the drop of a hat; I'll bet they're no fun to be around on a regular basis.
"I enjoy reading them, and have written a number. I've written to the national press to challenge examples of sexism (though there's not so much of that around now) and stupid bits of pedantry, and to correct anything I think is just plain wrong, but especially I've written on environmental issues . . . I do it to raise awareness of these issues and of the Green Party to which I belong. Probably more people will read a letter in the press than a leaflet you stick through their door, but who really knows?
"I'd like to think letters made some difference, but it's hard to be sure. I've never been part of a letter-writing group, except insofar as I identify as a member of a political party with known views. I always think that a number of individual letters each with a slightly different slant is better than a collective one." - Jean Hill, Liverpool, England
"The good, the bad, and the ugly can form an interesting daily read on the letters-to-the-editor page, but do they move mountains or change anything? My vote would be "yes" since one way or another almost everything in our culture adds up to a numbers game. If, for instance, an editor ---or a politician---is flooded with letters on an issue (and the handwritten kind are the most impressive considering that most of us no longer bother to fight the pain of taking pen in hand), that recipient can not help but come to the logical conclusion that the issue is a hot one and so he/she begins to pay attention. If the numbers of letters are skewed to a heavy support for one side, it again leads the recipient to ---naturally---assume that "most" people think like the majority of letter writers.
"The truth of these numbers may be entirely opposite from the impression derived from a flood of mail, but first impressions are hard to shake. The mail could have come from an organized, yet small group that focused on a letter-writing effort as a potent weapon." - Fran Alexander, Fayetteville
Across the world, many groups have come together in groups to organize and plan letters. Be they liberal or conservative, they are often very effective at getting their views out to the public.
I've been invited to join such groups in the past, but have always declined the opportunity to join. I've always preferred to write about whatever I wanted to write about, be it politics, evolution, or the latest Superman movie.
But it is undeniable that such groups can be highly effective. One website, 20/20 Vision, offers some invaluable tips for such groups. Their website includes such advice as keeping your letter timely, staying short and simple (why do so many writers have to drone on and on?), and demonstrate how issues effect people locally.
"In my experience, letter writing campaigns have had a sort of 'slow-burn' effect on the causes I'm trying to influence. I've rarely seen any dramatic impact right away, but instead I'll see small changes occur here and there over a period of time. As any firefighter will tell you, slow burns are still extremely dangerous because they continue to generate heat, consume energy, and will weaken a structure to the point of collapse. So if you just keep up a letter writing campaign and continue to throw fuel on the fire, eventually you are guaranteed to see some results. It will be a slow process and sometimes very punishing. It can cause you to be misunderstood and accused of holding a grudge or beating a dead horse. But if you stick with it, in the end you are likely to see real change and long-lasting positive results." - Joey Dutton, Fayetteville
In the early 1990s, I worked for the Grapevine, an alternative newspaper based in Fayetteville. One thing the paper never suffered from was a lack of letters. It was, after all, an especially exciting period in Fayetteville, with all sorts of political battles going on. And yet, with all the spirited debate happening on the letters page, there was one thing that bothered the publisher.
One day, as we were sitting down and talking, she expressed her frustration that so few people were writing letters about the articles that were in the paper. It was a conversation I took to heart when I became editor of the Ozark Gazette some years later, and I noticed that we had the same situation.
Lots of letters about issues, but very few about our content. So I decided to try an experiment; I began running the content-based letters at the beginning of the letters columns, and general issue letters following those. In this way, I hoped to put the idea out that we were encouraging folks to debate not only local politics, but the stories they were reading in the OG.
Did it work? I like to think so. And that's all I'll say on the subject.
"I read letters to editor to gain insight about the community I call home. I may not agree with others's opinions but it's important to see a forum where they are expressed. Paid professional writers (editors and columnists) usually offer up a singular point of view. Letters to editor allows for a diversity of subjects and viewpoints. Minority opinions often find their only expression on the letters pages of newspapers. " Larry Wooddall, Springdale
Every so often one is forced to read a letter in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, read it again, and say, "I can't believe they printed that." Growing up in the military in the 1960s and 1970s, it was easy for us to believe that all sorts of bigotry would be gone by the start of the 21st Century.
And yet, judging by the letters in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, bigotry is very much alive and well. I understand it is the paper's policy to publish pretty much every letter they get, yet I wonder where all these maniacs are coming from?
I have this recurring vision of interns from the Democrat-Gazette driving through the country side, throwing out boxes of crayons, crying out, "You, too, can be a writer!"
"During the last twenty years, I have written many letters to the editor. The bulk of them regarded what I believed to be social injustices. At best, a letter might effectively draw attention to a situation and play a small part in being a catalyst for change. At the least, it gives one an opportunity to purge. And that always helps.
"Brief well written letters on behalf of political candidates can certainly be an enormous asset. If the letter is written by someone held in high regard in the community, you can't get any better publicity." - Nancy Allen, Fayetteville
There are those who take issue with the fact that newspapers impose word limits on letter writers. I am not one of those, however.
Though I write professionally, one of the reasons that I enjoy writing letters to the editor is precisely because of the word limits. Well, that and the fact that I can write about things that I wouldn't write an entire article about.
Word limits force writers to be concise, to make sure that all their arrows hit the target. It doesn't always work, but I prefer them.
"On the subject of letters to the editor in pursuit of a desired goal or for simply bringing a subject to public scrutiny I am less positive than I was years ago. There was a time when numerous letters could persuade an editor or editors to publish an over-quota of them in fairness. Through the years that became over-used to the point of irrelevance.
"However, I have for a long time remembered the answer given to reporters by the famous Casey Stengel when he was asked if he thought arguing with umpires so redundantly actually helped. He responded that complaining to the umps so often made them start thinking about their calls and become a little doubtful of there correctness. It was Casey's view that that would cause them to sort of "make up" for them and give Casey the benefit of the doubt on later close calls. Made sense to me. So perhaps a flood of views on one side of a particular issue would work in a similar manner with editors." - Don Bright, Fayetteville
There are many who turn their noses up at the very thought of reading letters to the editor, dismissing them as somehow beneath them. They couldn't be more wrong.
On any given day, you'll likely find more passion, more wit, more humor, and more persuasive power in the letters section than in most columns written by professional writers. Why deny yourself the very real pleasure hidden in the letters columns? Even better, why not write one yourself?
See you in the letters pages!
Richard S. Drake is the author of a science fiction novel, Freedom Run, and Ozark Mosaic: Adventures in Arkansas Alternative Journalism, 1990-2002.
Little Rock Free Press - December, 2006
Monday, August 24, 2009 - 10:00:30
Joe the Plumber - ever wonder what his eharmony.com profile must look like?
The Artist Known as Joe The Plumber spoke to the RightOnline blogger conference last week, and made the manly claim that in the good old days he would feel free to take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out behind the woodshed and beat the hell out of her.
The audience of conservative bloggers laughed and clapped (“Give us more fish!”) delightedly as the GOP’s answer to feminism strutted his stuff on stage.
Why does Joe (the creature the Republican party likes to pretend represents actual working Americans) feel such wrath towards Pelosi? Because she said this:
These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion...Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.
That was enough to set off the man who likes who evoke images of the good old days, or back in the day, or whatever tripe he is selling at any particular time. Yup, back in the good old days, men like Joe could take an uppity woman like Pelosi out somewhere and give her an old-fashioned attitude adjustment.
Cue wild applause - give us more fish!
When pressed, Joe will retreat into an “Aw shucks, folks, I didn’t really mean it,” stance. But he he really does, doesn’t he? Because he, like any other guy who beats his chest, is a buffoon.
Not only that, but those “good old days” have not existed for a long time - certainly before Joe was ever born. God forbid that any air head TV commentator should ever point this out, though. People have always been free to criticize those in power, and to speak their minds.
And, yes, even to criticize the military, despite the livid rants of Comrade Wurzelbacher.
And though violence against women has always been with us, at least in my lifetime it has generally been considered a shameful thing, and not something to make jokes about to giggling right-wing bloggers.
Isn’t it about time someone stood up and said it to this buffoon’s face?
******
Quote of the Day
"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable." : U.S. historian Howard Zinn
*****
The Time Travel Question - Guy Lancaster
Continuing the Time Travel discussion - where would you go if you travel to any period in history, and what might you change? Also, what was the best depiction of time on film or on Televsion? Today we present Guy Lancaster, who is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture and a Ph.D. candidate in the Heritage Studies program at Arkansas State University. He has published one novel, as well as a variety of short stories, academic articles, personal essays, book reviews, and interviews.
I think I would aim for early ancient Egypt. I think the Egypt of the pharaohs fascinates us and inspires so much science fiction because the mentality seems fairly alien to us--the theocratic governance based upon an elaborate tapestry of myths, the life-long preoccupation with death, the bare existence upon a few miles of fertile Nile Delta.
Of course, "ancient Egypt" covers a broad swath of time, and I don't really know what period of that I would be tempted most toward: perhaps the early dynastic period, to see how the civilization we call "ancient Egypt" arose, or maybe the Middle Kingdom to explore the developments in their increasingly sophisticated religious thought. The thing is that we feel some affinity for ancient Greeks and Romans because we see them as precursors to our own way of thinking, while such labels as "ancient Chinese wisdom" speak of our ongoing fascination with all things Eastern. But very few people feel some sort of kinship with ancient Egypt, and I would like to explore why.
If I might cheat at this: no event. Sure, a lot of our time-travel movies are based upon the idea that there is some greater metanarrative that can be advanced or inhibited by our actions. People either go back in time to make things better (12 Monkeys) or accidentally end up in the past and try not to interfere with developments so as to keep our progressive evolution on track (The Final Countdown).
But that only operates if you accept the idea that there is some grand narrative at work, some cultural and social evolutionary process, a vision to which we are all rising: Manifest Destiny, the Second Coming, etc. I don't accept this idea of linear evolution. Civilizations will rise and fall. Nothing inhibits our trend toward greatness save basic human nature. Sure, I'm supposed to say that I'd go back and kill Hitler, but why Hitler over Stalin, or why Stalin over Mao, or why any of them over Christopher Columbus, who aided in precipitating one of the greatest genocides the world has ever witnessed? I think rather than trying to change the past, I'll work at changing the future, because we are all time travelers, though we do our traveling only in one direction.
Army of Darkness, just because it's silly. As far as TV shows go, nothing but Doctor Who, though I think Quantum Leap deserves a hefty honorable mention.
Sunday, August 23, 2009 - 09:50:31
The Serial Killer's Dilemma
I had to rent a storage unit last week - yet another storage unit in a lifetime, it seems, of renting storage units - and as I surveyed my new kingdom, I realized that yet again I had managed to rent a unit with no electrical outlets, running water, or drain in the floor.
So what’s the big deal? Why am I whining about such a minor detail, when all I really want it for is to store my stuff? I suppose it is the principle of the thing. Every time I catch an episode of Law and Order SVU, Wire in the Blood or Dexter (one of the best shows currently on TV) every serial killer on the planet seems to have a storage unit with all the amenities of home, even to the point of soundproofing, I suppose.
Not that I really want a Killer’s Lair away from home, but how does one even go about finding one? Do you just march into the rental office with a list of requirements?
And wouldn’t the people you rent from remember this kind of stuff?
“Oh, yeah, and I need a drain in the middle of the room. I gotta have a drain!”
Yeah, right.
“Oh, yeah, I remember that guy Drake. He really, really wanted a drain and a soundproofed room. He was a bad one, I could tell. How soon can I auction off his stuff?”
******
Miami is so gonna be wiped out by Swine Flu
Watching an episode of CSI Miami recently, I realized with great sadness that this great city would be one one of the hardest hit by the Swine Flu virus. I mean, this is a totally realistic show, right? Sure it is!
All of these murder suspects who don’t wash their hands, take showers or change their clothes after committing murder? That means these idiots aren’t even washing their hands - ugh - after going to the bathroom.
And who knows how many people these rocket scientists are interacting with between the murder and their ultimate prison cell?
So long, Miami.
http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00206/lo_mt_artillery.htm
*****
Quote of the Day
I'm opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position. - Mark Twain
****
On the Air - Pretty Little Lies
W.R. Mayo will be my guest next week to discuss his book, Pretty Little Lies.
Pretty Little Lies is an unflinching look at the Mayo family, a family which in which much of the familial myth seemed to be based on outright lies and denial of reality. Far from being a fine southern antebellum family, the Mayo family seemed instead to be one in which people fought for dominance over other members of the family, often nursing bitterness over many years.
In facing the truth about his family, W.R. Mayo also reveals the grim truth about the myth of “Southern Nobility.”
W.R. Mayo, an attorney, makes his home in Brazil, but also maintains a residence in Fayetteville.
Show days and times
Monday - Aug. 24 (7pm)
Tuesday - Aug. 25 (noon)
Saturday - Aug. 29 (6pm)
C.A.T. is shown on Channel 18 of the Cox Channel line-up in Fayetteville.
Those outside the Fayetteville viewing area can see the program online at:
http://www.catfayetteville.org/
Programs online are shown in “real time,” meaning that they are shown at the same time as they are shown on C.A.T.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009 - 11:17:12
Employee Free Choice Act Opponents: If we can't persuade you with logic, we'll just threaten you
I have belonged to two unions in my life, the United States Steel Workers Union, and something called the Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butchers Union (or something like that). The first was a great union, the second not so much.
It was when I was with the second union here in Arkansas that I spent time as a union steward at Campbell Soup in Fayetteville, part of my job was as a buffer ebtween management and the workers in the department. It wasn’t actually in the contract, but for a time, I actually had folks in the department that I needed to be present whenever someone from management approached them.
It is through the eyes of someone who has worked both in both unionized plants, and in plants where there is no union that I have been watching the commercials against the Employee Free Choice Act. The campaign has never been long on logic, or reasoned argument, but as the months as passed, the tone has become increasingly frenzied.
Sometime back we had the union guys as New Jersey mobsters type of commercials, and now we have moved directly into the threatening stage.
Vote for the Employee Free Choice Act, and jobs will leave Arkansas!
Which means, I suppose, that if Arkansans dare to think for themselves, and not follow the dictates of corporations, and the editorial writers at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, they will yank our jobs away from us.
And that’s what it is all about, basically. Know your place, and vote accordingly. Don’t think for yourself, and don’t expect to ever stand up for yourself in the workplace. Because if you do, we’ll have no choice but to destroy your state economically.
Putzes.
******
Quote of the Day
You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." ~ Ray Bradbury
*****
The Time Travel Question - C.F. Roberts
In the ongoing effort to get away from pretentious Internet polls, readers were asked their feelings about time travel. Today, C.F. Roberts, a local writer, videographer and visual artist weighs in on the subject.
If you could look at yourself backwards in a mirror, would you? The implications of that seem almost curse-like. I wouldn't be interested in time travel in any way, shape or form, I don't think . . . I'm not a nostalgic person and I'm more interested in the present and the future.
The notion of changing history likewise feels like a Pandora's Box to me...too many factors that could be out of control and hurt people far into the future--- how's that? How's this? I'd take this week's winning lotto number back a few days and cash in on some of that goodness. That's how I'd "change history".
The best time travel flick is Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)--watch it and you'll believe the Japanese have no idea how to write a time travel plot line!- the plot has more holes than Swiss cheese and it doesn't make much sense, but it's ten tons of fun.
Second choice: Time After Time---- Malcolm MacDowell as H.G. Wells and David Warner as Jack the Ripper, trapped in the 70s . . . you do the math!!!!!
rsdrake@nwark.com
Dance of Rebellion
The only reason I might possibly fear Canadian health care
How to circumvent the pitchfork-wielding mobs, and still have a public health forum
It's official: Mike Masterson doesn't read his own nonsense
Conservatives for Patients' Rights? In what alternate universe?
Why is this place so empty?
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