The Profundity of Throw-Away Lines

Looks like the Socialist president may be a Capitalist after all.

Critical thinking is not dead yet, but we're getting close. 

Witness this evening on NPR's flagship news show: while discussing the history of the DJIA (the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of stocks used to inform/dupe the financially interested but illiterate populace), the reporter was clever enough to point out that there are very few Industrial companies listed any more. True--just like the fact that nearly all of the DJIA companies of a century ago have been dropped--but it ain't news.

But then an expert noted that the companies dropped since the onset of the Great Recession were eliminated due to "government takeover." Had the late Presidente Hugo nationalized AIG or GM, I would understand, but that's not even close to what happened. Had the reporter followed up with, "Well, isn't the government part of our economy?" I would have felt like NPR was paying attention. 

Companies from the biggest defense contractors on down owe a good part of their fortunes to the tax code, federal policy, and orders placed with taxpayer dollars; the fact is that a large part of our allegedly capitalist economy would dry up an blow away without the socialism of our government. But if the feds take on a temporary ownership role (implementing a tightened management, in a massive upending of the conventional wisdom that business knows better), GM must be purged? Why? Hogwash,...gulped down eagerly by the allegedly liberal media.

But another throw-away comment ended up being even more informative (and funny, if you are morbid): "Kraft Foods was eliminated in favor of United Healthcare.*" Mac-n-Cheese and High Frustose Corn Syrup had their run, this aside implies, and now it's time for cardiovascular and diabetes treatment to step in. It's a logical progression, and whether or not NPR intended it, I applaud it's profound commentary on our society.


* Or maybe some other corporate name for a health industry company. I don't give enough of a damn about recognizing one corporation to look it up.

One Kid, Two Kid, Red Kid, Blue Kid

Here's one kid. She is punching a snowbank, which insulted her family, or otherwise earned her wrath. She could care less that it is bigger than she is, and is happy to be the center of the shot.

 

Here is two kid (numero uno, in birth order), walking atop a snowbank that she saw as a walkway to another view. She is happy to disappear into its immenseness, and would be unhappy were her face to be recognizable.

I love both of these kids. They are both osum. They have some samenesses, and they have some differences. It would be sad otherwise.

With both of them, there is magic. The combination of complements, or play of opposites, or whatever they are to each other, creates alchemy. The kind that can turn a Northwest mid-winter day cloudless, that can make their dad's stoiclear eyes tear up with happiness. 

The Minimum Wage Wager Looks Worth It

This week, President Obama proposed raising the minimum wage, causing many disdainful harrumph among the plutocracy's elephantine representatives in Congress. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour; in Washington State, it is $9.10, highest in the country. The state's bottom of the barrel, then, is 25.5% higher than it is for the US.
So-called Conservatives would argue that Washington's wage structure is a disincentive to employment, but the data don't bear that out. From 1990 until now, when Washington's minimum wage has risen most every year, the state's rate has gone up and down according to the same macro-economic forces that have affected the federal rate. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the US was 7.8% in December, 2012. For Washington, it was 7.6%. Far from being 25.5% higher, it was lower. 

Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate*

Now, let's compare two states, Washington with it's "high" minimum wage and Georgia, where the minimum wage is a paltry $5.15. This is 44% below Washington's and 35% below the federal minimum wage. Has having the lowest minimum wage led to Georgia businesses offering everyone a job? No, not even close. 

Where's the harm in a higher minimum wage?*

Georgia's unemployment rate is higher, and has exceeded that in Washington throughout the past few years of economic crisis. From 1992 to 2007, to be sure, Georgia's rate was lower (in April, 2003, the WA rate of 7.7% was half again as high as in GA), but there is no evidence to suggest that an increasing Washington minimum wage contributed to this.
In fact, lower unemployment in Washington during the Great Recession shows that a higher minimum wage does not put a halt to hiring. In fact, a minimum wage that approaches a living wage may contribute to resiliency, if you think about it. More income, particularly at the lower end of the income scale, allows more spending, largely local, that keeps the consumer economy running. Georgia's working poor are likely to be pumping 44% less into an ailing economy than Washington's.

* Data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics, charts generated on Google Public Data.

World Radio Day

Ironically (I think that's the right word), I found out about World Radio Day on the internet. 

I love radio, think it is important, and write about it from time to time. But I won't do that again now. Instead, here are some links to radio stations up here in Washington (and one on Kaua'i) that keep me going as I drive from signal to signal.

KAOS Olympia

KPLU Seattle

KUOW Seattle

KBOO Portland

KSER Everett

KSVR Skagit Valley

KYRS Spokane

KKCR Kaua`i
 

 

Their's No Escaping "Irony"

My last post was about Irony. Then later that day I watched Futurama online, and Irony was a subject of dialogue at several points, one character debunking another's labelling something Ironic until finally someone whips out a dictionary and reads the definition.

Such are my super powers. I think about It, and It appears. But only when no chips are down, and when I least expect It. There's no money or glory or even crime-fighting benefit to this power,...and It makes me very happy.*

Which may be Ironic. Or maybe what's Ironic is that I thought about Irony and randomly saw a show about it,...Nah, that's not It. Or maybe it's that I keep writing about Irony with a growing confusion as to it's meaning. Could be, although I suspect the confusion is Karma busting me for picking on Alanis Morissette (did I spell that right?**).

*  Cartoons also make me happy, and I like Futurama a lot, so I looked up the Ironic episode just now (here), and found out that it was the finale of the original series. It's called "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings." Ironic, don't you think, that I was procrastinating both while watching the show and looking it up later.

**  Because mis-spelling it at this point would be like using the wrong "there" their. Totally embarassing.
 

Irony?

There's a song by Alanice Mauricette (did I spell the star's name wrong? how ironic) about irony, a series of scenes, followed by the musical question, "Isn't it ironic?" Mostly, though, the scenaria just seem to suck, and maybe don't reach the threshold my old self requires for Irony. But she was a kid, and the album as a whole was pretty good. Helped me drive 3000 miles during my escape from the East. 

Anyway, I was thinking about the collusion of misfortune and irony, wondering which one held sway, when I got this shot.
 

Flu Cough

Vitamin C magnified, by Rudolf Bauer.

Eventually, even a house to ludditic as to have no cable, satellite or broadcast TV, no twitter account or even an RSS feed, not even a contemporary culturally literate person in residence, even that house learns that there is flu around. Worse than last year, maybe.

But that does not mean that the denizen of said house gets a flu shot. Said householder is not a militant anti-medicator, not a conscientious objector to the vaccine regime. No, he (me) just places his bets with evolution. Having bred already, he could drop off the face of the earth today and not lose the  evolution game. 

But the flu is unlikely to kill me. I don't spend much time swapping germs with the populace, and I feel like a bout of flu might slow me down a bit, but not enough to hospitalize me, much less threaten the survival of me or my genome. 

So I eat garlic, and chomp down on those delicious Vitamin C tabs I have. I wash my hands a lot, and don't lick people. Maybe I'll get the flu anyway, but then again maybe I would even if I took the shot, which is not completely effective and carries a small risk of causing the disease it aims to prevent. 

In evolution I trust.

The Fractal American Moiety

From the Olympia Co-op Blog, a beautifully colored American small-scale moiety.

I'm out of my depth when it comes to anthropological theory, but this is just a blog and on this blog I've thrown around the term "moiety," so much so that it has it's own label. Here I go again, so maybe it's time to explain my loose use of the word.

In old school anthropology (and maybe today for all I know), students were taught about "moiety" in context of kinship. It means a society divided into two--not one or many, but two--kin groups. The US cannot be divided into two kin groups, but if you replace physical procreation with cultural and political affinities, you can see a dichotomous framework that looks like a moiety, right down to the use of identifying symbols. Is your state Red of Blue? Is your totem the Donkey or the Elephant?*

In our moiety system, Americans do allow for a third group of unaffiliated folks like the "independent voters" who may bend one way or the other with the winds of change, but we do not tend to abide true Third Ways. In the political dimension, for example, third parties remain too small to be important and persistent; they don't even hold the coalition-building power that small parties enjoy in some democracies. The American moiety does allow individuals to switch groups, the "convert" is a well-known character--admired by the new group and apostate among the others--but usually a more powerful figure than the iconoclast or would-be leader of a third group.

So why the pie chart depicting a vote within the Olympia Food Co-op? Aren't they Deep Blue, the Donkey's left flank? I'm not insinuating that there is an NRA sleeper cell in this august progressive co-operative, am I?

Nope.

I'm realizing that the American moiety may behave like a fractal. Specifically, it has the quality of self-similarity, meaning that the pattern repeats at any scale. On a national level, we may be red or blue. Washington state replicates that divide (blue has dominated for a while--nothing requires a moiety to be equal), even if our hues differ a little from the national average. Locally, as this graph so beautifully represents, even a liberal community can find itself divided (about evenly, assuming the "medium cost" group does not come down too far one way or another) along a dipole framework with "any cost" at one end and "no cost" at the other.

The national divorce rate suggests that a group of two experiences difficulty maintaining a functioning analog to a moiety, although it does happen. Between a group of two and a nation of 300 million or so, the affinal moiety shows up again and again.

* DISCLAIMER: Of course I don't hold that the moiety is total, or that it is even useful for all anthropological-ish musings. Like many theoretical concepts, it typically dissolves under serious examination, it can be simplistic and absurd. In other words, perfect for a blog.

Another Sign Post

Here are some signs from a trip to Eastern Washington a few months ago. Nothing urgent, obviously, and I don't have much to say. Truth is, I just cannot stand seeing the NRA logo when the blog comes up.

Anyway, you may recognize these signs from the Kettle Falls area. The first one is the sign for that town. I didn't learn who the grouch was, but did find a nice brewpub called Northern Ales. 1641 people may not seem like a lot in Pugetopolis, but it's bigger than some places over there, like Rice, for instance, where cattle lounge in city limits:

This next one worried me a bit, until I remembered that Hunters is the name of a town, and noticed a complete lack of banjo music (but I stuck assiduously to the speed limit, just to be safe):

 

I shouldn't poke fun, but driving for hours and knowing that the trip home was only beginning had me loopy already. Then I saw this sign when I stopped by Lake Roosevelt somewhere to use a fancy federal outhouse:

Literate people see this sign and learn that there must be artifacts nearby. Illiterate people assume it is a warning to educated but senseless people not to try digging in the paved parking lot. Regardless of their reading ability, looters don't slow down because of a sign. Hell, full knowledge of federal penalties barely makes them think twice. If instead of signs, there were sudden ferocious crackdowns (no warnings, no signs) by tribal, state, and federal archaeologists, fighting mad and ready to turn potholes into shallow looter graves, then the problem would stop, but don't look for that to happen anytime soon. 

National RIFLE Association Logo

What's in a logo?

Not just a poorly-drawn eagle. 

The spangled shield and date tell a creation story. Half a dozen years after the Civil War, veteran Union officers founded the NRA to "promote and encourage rifle shooting on a scientific basis," according to the website's history. That's a damn sight better than the organization founded by Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, but then the KKK has stuck to it's crazed cracker roots a bit more than the NRA, which has become lobbyist extradordinaire for the arms and private security industries, an extremely active political actor in the affairs of our nation. 

One of three words on the logo is "RIFLE," and a couple of iconic rifles appear as well. Once, this was the central reason for the NRA's existence. Train people to use rifles properly, accurately, and safely. The NRA still participates in training, but it also lobbies extensively on behalf of handguns and "sports rifles" that bear no resemblance to the clipless bolt-action firearms chosen for the logo.

Were the NRA to get back to its roots, support might erode among it's loudest and most rabid gun-rights membership (and the quieter but richer support of assault weapon manufacturers). But more Americans would support an organization promoting scientific shooting than one which demands absolute fealty from politicians and seems intent on proposing extremism.

An NRA that focused on the RIFLE would be something even a blue-state peacenik could live with. I have no trouble with people owning what are--Civil Wars aside--tools for hunting, maybe shootin' varmints. But the inaccuracy of most handguns and the sprays of high-velocity flesh-insulting bullets from assault weapons renders these tools most useful as fashion accessories, means of intimidation, and in all too many cases, maimers and killers. If the NRA (Not just Rifles Anymore) were really here to protect my right to wield a muzzle loader like in those oft-used pics of Heston, or even the plain old rifles in their logo, I could believe that they love my country.

As it is, the logo is a shameless sham. If the NRA wanted to protect the Constitution, they'd give a whit about the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility," values that the Founding Fathers put right up front. Instead, they focus on an extreme interpretation of a single amendment, and demand that the rest of our law take a back seat. 

It's time to either get in line with your logo, NRA, or change it to reflect your actual mission. Shrink the eagle, form a star with Bushmasters, add a few hundred handguns and thousands of rounds of ammo. Or maybe a modern militia man with an AK-47, firing rounds of rolled-up dollars at the Constitution (the 2nd Amendment remaining unscathed, of course). 

Railing against any restriction at all, suggesting that the only solution to gun violence is more guns makes the NRA more ridiculous every day, and they are on their way to becoming Not Relevant Anymore. Not to worry, though. The NRA is ready for the post-gun world with a back-up plan:

Waiting to Inhale

A Blue State Capitol Takes a Big Ol' Bong-hit.

We the People passed a law legalizing marijuana, and not just for 'medicinal' purposes, but for fun. Like alcohol, or football, or other brain-damaging pursuits. But unlike gun rights (the other cause celebree of NW libertarians), said populace must wait up to a year to satisfy their consumptive urges. That's how long the powers that be have to come up with a way for people to legally buy the demon weed. As if it weren't everywhere already.

Hitched to the Wrong Star

The White House rejected the citizen petition to build a Death Star. Really, look here.

Yep, in a galaxy not far away and right now, petitions against gun violence and poverty languish, while a proposal to build a Death Star capable of wiping out planets got the requisite 25,000 citizen signatures in the blink of an eye. Turns out that Americans know all about Martian Sharia Law, and intend to do something about it. Or, they fear good-hearted freedom fighters. Depends on your point of view.

My point of view is that we will have a Death Star only when Darth Cheney comes back, and he sure as hell won't be doing it on the basis of a citizen petition. Unless said citizens sit on the boards of defense contractors. 

The current adminstration, which is allegedly part of the 'liberal' Democratic Party, is unlikely to go for a Death Star. Dems tend to be Star TREK fans, not Star WARS. Like Captain Kirk and his ilk, they profess to live by a Prime Directive that forbids senseless slaughter, but like Captain Cook, they tend to resort to expediency. Ergo the Revenge of the Drones, if you'll excuse the cross-platform punnery. We already have phasers, and word has it that Obama has green-lighted the photon torpedo project,...I've said too much. 

Personally, I wish we'd ditch the overt Star worship, and pattern our defense contracts after the Planet of the Apes. Think of the money we'd save if instead of Starships and Death Stars, we invested in horses and of courses the Crudely Woven Net.