The Symphony of Science: "A New Wave of Reason"

Part, the Seventh:


Welcome to the Symphony of Science

NEWS (11/22/2010):
I'm proud to present the latest in the Symphony of Science series, "A Wave of Reason"! It is intended to promote scientific reasoning and skepticism in the face of growing amounts of pseudoscientific pursuits, such as Astrology and Homeopathy, and also to promote the scientific worldview as equally enlightening as religion. The video features Carl Sagan, Bertrand Russell, Sam Harris, Michael Shermer, Lawrence Krauss, Carolyn Porco, Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman, Phil Plait, and James Randi. Enjoy!

The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell, designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form. Here you can watch music videos, download songs, read lyrics and find links relating to the messages conveyed by the music.

The project owes its existence in large measure to the wonderful work of Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steve Soter, of Druyan-Sagan Associates, and their production of the classic PBS Series Cosmos, as well as all the other featured figures and visuals.

Continuation of the videos relies on generous support from fans and followers. You can make a donation if you wish to contribute support to the project. Thanks to everybody who has donated - enjoy what you find!

I am currently available for hire as a composer and / or video producer. If you like what you see and you have a job in mind, contact me at john@symphonyofscience.com !

The Previous Six:

An Anthem For The TSA

Normally, I'd have posted this on WG's Guitar. But given 1) its topicality, and 2) I just put Jim Terr's latest up over there, I'll risk it. It's frisky and funny...

Position Wanted: Local Vicar Near Porthcurno

Times are getting tight for the Official Anglican Church, as recently another cabal of 50 disaffected (presumably unmarried--and there for suspect) 'conservative' Anglican priests deserted Westminster Abbey for the Vatican.

Here's how The Guardian reported it:

Around 50 Anglican priests are expected to defect to the Catholic church, it emerged today, as the first details were disclosed of an unprecedented initiative that will allow Anglicans disaffected over the ordination of women to convert. The clergy have registered their interest in the Vatican scheme and will undergo training for priesthood in the Catholic church.

The initiative, known as a personal ordinariate, is the response by Benedict XVI to the demands of traditionalists who are unhappy with liberal developments in the Church of England and want to convert to Catholicism but retain elements of their Anglican heritage.

A statement from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said five bishops who earlier this month announced their resignation would "enter into full communion" with Rome in early January. The Catholic church is providing £250,000 to set up the ordinariate and said local dioceses will "respond generously" with "regard to housing and looking for ways in the beginning in which they can be sustained financially."

The details were released as the archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Rev Rowan Williams, warned that the departure of clergy could pose practical challenges to the Church of England. But in an interview with Vatican Radio he said there was "no ill feeling" between him and the five bishops who were heading to Rome.

In reply to the current crisis, I today sent Bishop Williams the following missive:

Dear Prelate Williams: I am currently at leisure and would be willing to relocate to some nice, little, sea-side village in Cornwall--with a decent wave nearby--and take up residence there as the local "priest."
I assure you I would faithfully extol the wonders of prayer, God's divine beneficence, Anglicanism, and would pump relentlessly for the new roof for the vestry, for a reasonable emolument and transportation expenses for me and the dogs...
Y'rOb'd'tS'v't
Rev. Woody

The Dreaded Taiwanese Animators Take On TSA

With subtitles: a relatively rare chance to "see ourselves as others see us"; always a salutary objective...

Aerial Operations: "Drop Trou For FREEDOM!"

The "Pirate Party" in Germany gets into the act.

Now, jump over here and enjoy the prankster Penn Jillette as he takes the TSA down a peg or two for messing with his junk (Don't try this at home, unless you are a white celebrity):

Federal V.I.P Penn - 11/13/02
Last Thursday I was flying to LA on the Midnight flight. I went through security my usual sour stuff. I beeped, of course, and was shuttled to the "toss-em" line. A security guy came over. I assumed the position. I had a button up shirt on that was untucked. He reached around while he was behind me and grabbed around my front pocket. I guess he was going for my flashlight, but the area could have loosely been called "crotch." I said, "You have to ask me before you touch me or it's assault."

He said, "Once you cross that line, I can do whatever I want."

I said that wasn't true. I say that I have the option of saying no and not flying. He said, "Are you going to let me search you, or do I just throw you out?"

I said, "Finish up, and then call the police please."

When he was finished with my shoes, he said, "Okay, you can go."

I said, "I'd like to see your supervisor and I'd like LVPD to come here as well. I was assaulted by you."

He said, "You're free to go, there's no problem."

I said, "I have a problem, please send someone over."

They sent a guy over and I said that I'd like to register a complaint. I insisted on his name and badge number. I filled it out with my name. The supervisor, I think trying to intimidate me, asked for my license, and I gave it to him happily as he wrote down information. I kept saying, "Please get the police," and they kept saying, "You're free to go, we don't need the police." I insisted and they got a higher up, female, supervisor. I was polite, cold, and a little funny. "Anyone is welcome to grab my crotch, I don't require dinner and a movie, just ask me. Is that asking too much? You wanna grab my crotch, please ask. Does that seem like a crazy person to you?" I had about 4 of them standing around. Finally Metro PD shows up. It's really interesting. First of all, the cop is a BIG P&T fan and that ain't hurting. Second, I get the vibe that he is WAY sick of these federal leather-sniffers. He has that vibe that real cops have toward renta-cops. This is working WAY to my advantage, so I play it.

The supervisor says to the cop, 'He's free to go. We have no problem, you don't have to be here." Which shows me that the Feds are afraid of local. This is really cool. She says, "We have no trouble and he doesn't want to miss his flight."

I say, "I can take an early morning flight or a private jet. " The cop says, "If I have a citizen who is saying he was assaulted, you can't just send me away."

I tell the cop the story, in a very funny way. The cop, the voice of sanity says, "What's wrong with you people? You can't just grab a guy's crank without his permission." I tell him that my genitals weren't grabbed and the cop says, "I don't care, you can't do that to people. That's assault and battery in my book."

The supervisor says that they'll take care of the security guy. The cop says, "I'm not leaving until Penn tells me to. Now do you want to fill out all the paper work and show up in court, because I'll be right there beside you."

The supervisor says it's an internal matter, and they'll take care of it. "If you want to pursue this, we're going to have to go through the electronic evidence."

I say, "You mean videotape? Yeah, go get it."

She says, "Well, it'll take a long time, and you don't want to miss your flight. We have no problem with you, you're free to go."

The cop says, "Your guy grabbed his crank. That ain't right."

So, I fill out all the paper work and insist on a number to call to register a complaint. She says that I filled out a complaint, and I say, "I want more, give me another number. " She gives me a number that I find out later has been disconnected. I leave. I have a card with the name and number on it and the bad 800 number for the FAA.

My flight is way delayed, so I go to Burger King with Glenn - and all the feds are now off duty and at BK and sneering at us.

The next day the woman in charge of public relations calls me to "do anything to make my McCarran experience more enjoyable." I was a little under the weather with allergies and busy, so I didn't call back until yesterday.

It took some phone tag, but I finally got the woman on the phone. I was very cool and sweet. I explained the problem. "Do you allow your crotch to be grabbed without being asked?" I didn't exaggerate, I said that there was nothing sexual, I wasn't hurt, and it wasn't my genitals. I just said it was wrong. She said "Well, your feedback is really important because most people are afraid of us." She said, "I'd love to meet you so we could clear this up, and everyone wants to meet a celebrity." She said she had watched the videotape and there was no sound, but she saw him reach around. She said she couldn't tell me what was being done to him but . . . and I stopped her and said, she shouldn't do anything wrong.

I said that I had talked to two lawyers and they said it was really a weird case because no one knows if he can be charged with assault and battery while working in that job. But I told her, that some of my lawyer friends really wanted to find out. She said, "Well, we're very new to this job . . ." and I said, "Yeah, so we need these test cases to find out where you stand."

She said, "Well, you know a LOT about this." I said, "Well, it's not really the right word, but freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more of it."

She said, "Well, the airport is very important to all of our incomes and we don't want bad press. It'll hurt everyone, but you have to do what you think is right. But, if you give me your itinerary every time you fly, I'll be at the airport with you and we can make sure it's very pleasant for you."

I have no idea what this means, does it mean that they have a special area where all the friskers are topless showgirls, "We have nothing to hide, do you?" I have no idea. She pushes me for the next time I'm flying. I tell her I'm flying to Chicago around 2 on Sunday, if she wants to get that security guy there to sneer at me. She says, she'll be there, and it'll be very easy for me. I have no idea what this means.

I tell her that I'm still thinking about pressing charges, and I don't just care about me, it's freedom in general. I say the only thing that was good about it, was that while they were dealing with me, maybe they weren't beating up people in wheelchairs. It was amazing. All she was trying to do was make me happy. She said she'd burned a CD ROM of my video and it was being sent all around and they were going to change their training. She said, "We're federal employees, we're working for you, you pay us and we want customer satisfaction. It doesn't matter what the law is, we have to make you very happy so your flying experience is a pleasurable one, and most people don't give us this kind of intelligent feedback."

So, that was it. I'm flying on Sunday, I have no idea what will happen. How crazy is this? Do I really have some sort of mysterious VIP status to shut me up? Should I press charges? She said she was going to talk to the cop. I said he didn't see anything. She said, "Well, he may be able to see the forest for the trees, because he was right there." I quoted his "crank" comment and she laughed and then knew that was a very bad sign. I said, "He'll tell you I was polite, cold, angry, and funny" - that's more than should be expected of me. I still don't know what I'm going to do, but my advice to everyone is complain all you can and call the cops. I think it might make a little difference. Maybe you can become a VIP too.
Penn

And here is just some gratuitous titty, from Ukraine; there is no such thing as too mych pretty titty!

SCROLL DOWN!

Diane Ravitch: The Return of the Prodi-Gal?

It's nigh on 90 minutes, but they'd be well spent. The Obama/Duncan "Education" plan varies in almost NO particulars from the Bushevik plan, NCLB. Prof. Ravitch was an advocate and acolyte of the corpoRat "reform" movement which has fucked up the public schools beyond ALL recognition over the past 30 years since she signed on as one of the 'school-killers' with bibulous Bill Bennett and "Chucker"--the Fucker--Finn in the Raygun camp in the '80s.

REEP, KIPP and TFA Lecture Series from Jon Paul Estrada on Vimeo.

If you actually understood...it doesn't matter anymore

Honest To Crap, I Was Only Kidding...

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, November 10, 2010; 6:42 PM

I miss George W. Bush.

I don't miss him in the sense that I wish he were still president. If he were, we might be at war with Iran and North Korea by now, and perhaps Portugal. Neither do I miss the endless debates over waterboarding and the Iraq war - bad memories that have returned to the news as Bush has re-emerged into public view this week to launch his book.

Rather, I miss him because in the end he was willing to toss aside his ideological orthodoxy when the national interest required it - a trait conspicuously absent among his fellow conservatives these last two years.

It was the final chapter of Bush's presidency, and is correspondingly the final chapter of his memoir, "Decision Points." As Bush describes it, he had just been told by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson that they should spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to buy up mortgage assets, and he approved the plan in full. "If we're really looking at another Great Depression," he recalls saying, "you can be damn sure I'm going to be Roosevelt, not Hoover."

By Tea Party doctrine, that's heresy. But Bush, in "Decision Points," doesn't back off at all from his defense of the auto industry rescue and the federal ownership of financial companies - even though those positions today would make him a pariah in his own party.

"The strategy was a breathtaking intervention in the free market," he writes of the TARP bank-bailout program. "It flew against all my instincts. But it was necessary to pull the country out of the panic. I decided that the only way to preserve the free market in the long run was to intervene in the short run."

In an extended book-launch interview with Bush, NBC anchor Matt Lauer referred to a Pew Research Center poll that found nearly half of Americans hold the false belief that TARP was passed under President Obama, while only 34 percent know it originated under Bush.

"Oh, yeah?" Bush replied. "Fifty percent of the people were wrong." He defended his rationale for supporting TARP: "Do you adhere to your philosophy and say, let them all fail? . . . Or do you take taxpayers' money and inject it into the system in hopes that you prevent a depression? And I chose the latter."

To quote a poster which has had some prominence in the Left-ward protuberances of the Book: Heh, heh. I fucked ya. Thanks for blaming the Negro..."

If The TSA Wants To See You Nude, Flash The Fux

The main reason I am loathe to travel via public conveyance since 9/11, why I no longer cherish even the slightest desire to travel overseas, or to any quite distant locale, is because I deeply resent and utterly detest having to subject myself to the ham-handed, knuckle-dragging, prognathous, slack-jawed, pimply-faced, vile -smelling attentions of the cretins and morons employed by the TSA as 'inspectors.'

They, themselves, mostly have never been further from home than the airport or rail/bus terminal where they make the lives of travellers unbearable. The seem to harbor insane, lumpen-prole jealousies toward the travelling public.

I don't go anywhere anymore that I cannot drive.

The German people are very good at this sort of thing.

The underwear bomber's Christmas Day 'attack' has prompted calls for the increased use of full-body scanners at airports.

So to protest, members of the Pirate Party in Germany organized a fleshmob of people who stripped down to their skivvies last Sunday and converged on the Berlin-Tegal airport.

The protesters marked their bodies with a number of messages such as, Something to hide? and Be a good citizen — drop your pants.

One woman has the word diaper scrawled on her lower back with an arrow pointing to her underwear and the word prosthetic printed on her leg. The word piercing and an arrow point to one of her breasts.

The full-body scanners use high-frequency radio waves to produce an image of a passengers naked body beneath clothes. Anything a passenger is carrying against the body — weapons, drugs or explosives — would be exposed. The scanners would also reveal the presence of prosthetic devices and breast implants.

As such, there have been privacy and legal concerns raised about the invasive equipment, particularly because its unclear if the scanners would be able to detect explosives hidden in body cavities and would therefore likely provide only minimal security.

"Inside Job": The Facts About Wall Street's Massive Larceny

Here's the 'trailer' for "Inside Job," the documentary which presents the plain, unvarnished facts about the late financial melt-down: It was NOT "just one of those things." It was a deliberate act of larceny.

There's a guy in a $10THOUSAND suit who, very archly, declares he doesn't owe us an explanation? What the fuck? I would argue that if you lost a job in consequence of these skeevy fux and their financial fun-and-games, you have the RIGHT to search out one or some of these dirty, vile, evil, vicious fuckers and kick their asses til they whine.

Inside Job: Film Brings Us Face to Face with the People Who Nearly Destroyed Our Economy
Director Ferguson makes the case that the meltdown wasn't just an unfortunate accident, it was totally avoidable.
November 6, 2010 |

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Inside Job, the infuriating and compelling new documentary from Charles Ferguson, tells the story of the global financial crisis of 2008, which led to millions of people around the world losing their homes and jobs.

Critics have been raving about the film's insight and incisiveness. Kenneth Turan from the Los Angeles Times wrote, "After watching Charles Ferguson's powerhouse documentary about the global economic crisis, you will more than understand what went down -- you will be thunderstruck and boiling with rage."

Ferguson makes the case that the meltdown wasn't just an unfortunate accident -- it was totally avoidable. Through interviews with financial experts such as International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, French Minister of Finance Christine Lagarde, and former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, and detailed explanations of credit default swaps and derivatives, Ferguson paints a picture of an unethical industry driven by greed, rampant deregulation and an indifferent government. Ferguson, who also made No End In Sight, about the Iraq war, has a PhD in political science, and worked as a government consultant and a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He is clearly outraged about what happened. "You can't be serious," he tells a former governor of the Federal Reserve who claims they tried to find out who was responsible.

Ferguson sat down with AlterNet in San Francisco to talk about how he felt compelled to make this movie after recognizing the level of criminality to which the financial industry had sunk.

If you see even one of these skeevy, scurvy fux, approach 'em casually, then kick 'em in the nutz, hard! I'll send you a couple of bucks for bail, and so would any other red-blooded Murkin...

Hanging Ten Off A Sailboat! Radical

Via BoingBoing:

This is what luck looks like. Luck, combined with a whole lot of skill. Notice the person at the front. I'm sure they're locked in with a harness, but that would still be a wild ride.

The harbor is Svaneke, a town on an island in the Baltic Sea. According to this thread at the Wooden Boat Forum, local guides say you shouldn't even attempt entering Svaneke harbor during strong onshore winds. I have no idea what prompted this crew to take a shot, but I'm guessing they decided the alternatives were worse.

A 10-Year Ban On The DC Revolving Door? Great Idea, But...

39 Tea Party party candidates will be inaugurated into the House of Representatives come February. It has just become exponentially LESS likely that ANY reforms Cenk urges here will EVER be adopted.

Who is going to vote to FUCK the Owners?

Short Answer: No Fucking Body! If yesterday's results demonstrated one thing, it is that the day of even the faux-independent is OVER. CorpoRats win, where a LOT of money can make a BIG difference, in small district, House races, local and state races, judgeships, etc.

It's All Sahlin, Dahlins...

Roy Zimmerman -- "Vote Republican, 2.0" (You're Getting Sleepy)

Laura Flanders & Bob Scheer on the "Obituary of Hope"

Via ANTEMEDIUS:

Heckuva Job, Mr. Obama...
by Edger,
October 29, 2010 - 10:22am

This past Wednesday, Barack Obama was a guest on The Daily Show, thereby becoming the first sitting president to appear as Jon Stewart's guest. (In July, Obama became the first sitting president ever to appear on The View.) In the half-hour-long interview, Stewart quizzed his grizzled guest about health-care reform, the financial crisis, and the midterm elections."

"Stewart’s most combative query concerned National Economic Council director Larry Summers—in particular, Obama’s hiring thereof. 'We can’t expect different results with the same people,' Stewart said, referring to Summers’s previous stint as treasury secretary under Bill Clinton. He continued, 'Larry Summers ... that seems like the exact same person.' Obama, inadvertently quoting his imminently quotable predecessor, replied, 'Larry Summers did a heckuva job.' Stewart, somewhat shocked, advised him, 'You don’t wanna use that phrase...'"

This morning at GRITtv Laura Flanders talked with journalist and Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer, who reminds that "Summers was the chief architect of Clinton-era policies that created the economic crisis in the first place, and that Obama's appointment of him to get us out of it was never going to result in anything but more money being thrown at Wall Street."

It's no wonder that there is now so much irrepressible enthusiasm among the liberals and independents and progressives who tipped the balance in the democrats favor in 2006 and in 2008 to get out and vote for democrats in the 2010 midterm elections.

Yurtle McConnell Cops: "The GOP Mission Is Make St. Barry A 1-Termer!"

And presumably to thereby return to the Tihadists "their country," Miss Mitchie, you fucking cracker ass-munch?



Imaho*, Obama always has seemed to me to be sort of a 'designated' one-termer.

Imaho, (this is a LONG sentence) he was elected for the sole and only purpose of distracting the seething White, lumpen-middle and lower classes from the finally SEEING the culpability of the WHITE oligarchy in the pains the lumpen-White folks were experiencing with the end of cheap and easy credit--which Raygun and his boys had conspired with the Fed and the Corporats to provide the workers in lieu of (though workers didn't know it) the wages their increased productivity SHOULD have provided them but instead were channeled into the pockets of the Owners as profits. Somebody's gotta pay.

There's a poster around on Facebook which features a foto af the stupidly imperious, smug Prez. GWBush gazing down with open mouth and the legend reads "I want to thank you for blaming the black guy for all my fuck-ups."

The Dims thoughtfully provided two possible candidates, Hillary and St. B. She would not have succeeded any more than he has. The only difference between them ultimately would have been, instead of the wretched recrudescence of racist rhetoric, misogynist fears and stereotypes would have re-arisen from the polite silence of the tomb of "political correctness." Racism, sexism, and classism are the three pillars of oppression in the Murkin partriarchy.

I gotta say, I miss political correctness (P-C). The world was a more civil place when folks felt they had to guard their tongues lest they give offense. Since Obama's election, the hateful, vicious vocabularies of bigotry are once again in the public provenance. It was as if the elevation of a Black person to the "HIGHEST" office re-authorized the use of those slurs which had fallen into at best private conversations.

(Imaho = In my always humble opinion)

(Entlich) Again: Why St. Barry Can't/Won't Prosecute the Busheviks

This a pretty common complaint on the walls of Facebook where I go to read/converse--leftish joints, mostly (I'm 65; I don't need to hear the same cant and boilerplate from the rightards again/anymore, ever): Why won't Obama prosecute the Cheney/Bush cabal, punish them for their crimes--to some of which the alleged malefactors have indeed all but confessed, in jocular tones. To many whose enthusiasm for St. Barry has waned significantly, this is a fundamental complaint.

The following exchange occurred today:
I wrote, as a comment (later additions are in parens):

If St. Barry had had the temerity to pursue ANY of the foremost criminals of the previous regime, he would be under impeachment at this very moments.
There are 4 reasons he didn't pursue 'em:
1) No precedent. Never happened before (that former high, elected, federal officials were prosecuted for crimes committed in office).
2) No case: If the defendants claimed National Security in 'war-time' as a defense, ...NAGAHAPUN, and EVERYBODY knows it.
3) Jury nullification: there's still 25% (extreme partisans) who think Bush/Cheney did no wrong.
4) The long knives of the Right would already be filleting him...(Even worse than now, if you can imagine it; but now they're just trying to frustrate his efforts; they're not REALLY trying to destroy him, yet).

An interlocutor replied

I beg to differ:
1) Precedents are there to be set... if precedents were never set, Nothing would ever get done.
2) No Case? National Security? No, there was and still there is and there will always be a case. When they lie, when they distort, when they subvert and circumvent the Constitution, etc., etc., that is a matter of Nationall Security as far as the treasury and, more importantly, the lives of those who died unknowingly protecting those crimes.
3) 75% is still a higher number in my book
4) I don't think so... a message would have been sent to the right-wing nuts as "DON"T FUCK WITH ME!"

Illustrating several problems with the popular understanding of judicial procee4dings if nothing else. I subsequently replies:

Al. 1) You may have noticed St. Barry isn't much of a precedent-setter.
2) No DA in the country would take a case to a jury wherein the PRESIDENTIAL defendants were claiming to have been 'saving the country.' Unwinnable. No POSSIBILITY of a unanimous verdict.
In the context of which, 3) jury nullification: Even if criminal malfeasance could be proven unambiguously, there are still one in four citizens who would excuse it for strictly partisan reasons. There are 12 jurors. that means THREE would likely resist any effort to achieve unanimity, and would torpedo it.
And 4) you saw what they did to the WHITE guy who pissed 'em off...

Anonymous Cash & Wackloon Candidates: Rachel And Frank Rich Discuss

Generic Political Attack Ad

Big DOTOF to my pal, and Santa Fe's reigning sarcast, Jim Terr.

Bite Back! (A Pretty Good Ad)

It of course neglects the little matter of who (or what) COUNTS the votes which, as Stalin allegedly noted, is MUCH more important than who casts the ballots.

..."The Very Model Of A Modern US President.."

This is soooo smart.

This Is The Very Model Of Comedic Verbal Brilliance
The Reward for Never-Ending Facebook Cruising Dilligence...

Professional Douchebag Bill O'Reilly Acts Out on The View

I was shocked...SHOCKED, I tell you...

The "Precautionary Principle": What's the WORST That Could Happen?

What happens if you take the Precautionary Principle seriously? Possibly, you save the fucking species, civilization, and everything! G'wan! Take the ten fucking minutes!

The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" has over 7,200,000 views, but this sequel makes the better argument.

And now even this 7-hour series has been trumped by the book: "What's the Worst That Could Happen? A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate." Available from Amazon and others through the links at www.gregcraven.org.

Author Bill McKibben said "This book trumps most of our accounts of the global warming crisis," the former Commander-in-Chief of U.S. CENTCOM Gen. Anthony Zinni called it "innovative and intelligent.... superbly crafted.... A must read," and the New Scientist said "If Craven could get everybody who has weighed in on this debate to go through the exercises in the book, Al Gore should share his Nobel peace prize."

Sunday Funny

As a former professor in literacy education, I must concur: Context IS everything.

Obama and the Charter School Sugar Daddies

It is encouraging to me that critical members of the black community are on to these tricks, because the minority communities are the ones being promised spurious accomplishment and achievement which the Charters are neither designed nor intended for.

"As hedge funds spin their financial webs to spur charter school expansion and President Obama bullies states to lift caps on charters, "right-wing foundations are attempting to swallow whole the entire school district of Washington, DC." For a $65 million donation, the Wal-Mart family and other fat cats demand DC schools drop union rules - and threaten to take back the money if the voters change administrations."

Obama and the Charter School Sugar Daddies
A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
"Hedge funds and bankers have become the Sugar Daddies of charter schools."

When it comes to the public schools, the Obama administration is allied with the most rapacious sectors of Wall Street and far-right foundations. That political reality is most evident in the administration's campaign to establish a parallel national network of charter schools, with a heavy emphasis on inner cities. Obama and his education chief, Arne Duncan, have spent their first year and a half in office coercing states to expand charters or lose out on more than $4 billion in federal education moneys. Obama's allies on Wall Street invest heavily in charter schools, tapping into the public money stream to build their own vision of corporate education.

Historically, Wall Street is to Democrats what Big Oil is to Republicans. Hedge funds and bankers have become the Sugar Daddies of charter schools, using their clout with big city Democrats to give charters every advantage over conventional public schools.
Wall Street finds charters especially attractive, since bankers and hedge funds can exercise extraordinary influence on the schools while the public pays most of the tab. And profiteers have found numerous ways to turn charter schools into cash cows, where taxpayers finance private contracts over which the public has no control. Charter schools are a low-risk, fast buck dream, tailor-made for corporate exploitation and political manipulation.

RIch foundations have banded together to amass a mountain of money to ensure that charter schools have sources of funds that most public schools lack, plus a steady income from the taxpayers.

"If the voters get rid of Mayor Fenty, they can kiss the fat cats' money goodbye."
Rightwing foundations have become so emboldened in their privatizing campaigns, they are attempting to swallow whole the entire school district of Washington, DC. Four foundations, led by the Wal-Mart owners' Walton Family Foundation, have offered DC almost $65 million to help fund the public schools - with plenty of strings attached. In addition to dropping important seniority system protections for teachers, the foundations demand that the city and school administration remain intact, or they'll take their money back. That means, if Adrian Fenty, the corporatist Black mayor of DC, fails to win re-election this year, or his union-hating schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, loses her job, the Walton Family and the rest of the foundations think they can pick up their millions and leave DC to find some other way of paying for the schools.

This is blatant rule of the rich, an oligarchy of extortion by the worst elements of the ruling class - all under the guise of helping inner city school kids.
When you think of it, $65 million is a cheap price to pay for the foundations to control, not only the DC public schools, but the entire political process of the nation's capital city. If the voters get rid of Mayor Fenty, they can kiss the fat cats' money goodbye.

Actually, that's no more outrageous than President Obama making states jump through charter school hoops to get a piece of his $4 billion "Race to the Top" prize. Obama is also a bully and an extortionist, in league with the Wal-Mart family's foundation and the bankers and hedge funds on Wall Street.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford. On the web, go to http://www.BlackAgendaReport.com.

Robert Jensen, Ph.D.: The Real Deal

I was reminded again this morning of Robert Jensen, a (full) professor in the UofTexa Journalism School, whose work I have always admired. I have been aware of Jensen for around 20 years. We became acquainted (he wouldn't remember) at a Journalism academic conference in New Orleans in about 1991 or '92, when he was finishing his doctoral work.

In the wake of 9/11, he was one of those of the professoriate who showed enormous courage in pointing to the (unpopular) equivalency of that tragedy with the murders the US carried out i9n even just his own lifetime. Via Wiki :"Jensen drew widespread attention for an opinion piece he wrote for the Houston Chronicle on September 14, 2001, shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks.^[8][9]

In the piece, Jensen wrote that the September 11th terrorist attacks were "reprehensible and indefensible" but "no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism -- the deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes -- that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime." ^[10]

Jensen's piece drew both praise and criticism. Some individuals demanded that The University of Texas fire Jensen. In response, University of Texas President Larry Faulkner wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Houston Chronicle that he was "disgusted by Jensen's article" and called Jensen "a fountain of undiluted foolishness on issues of public policy." ^[11]

I have assembled here a couple of videos and links to a handful of papers and presentations which I believe fairly represent why I am a Jensen partisan. (He's also married to singer Eliza Gilkyson, an older, somewhat closer acquaintance.)

Both of these are longish--around an hour. The first vid is Jensen on home turf, addressing a pro-seminar in qualitative research.

Robert Jensen, PhD from A.J. Avila on Vimeo.

I've posted this before, but being relatively recent, I believe it emblematic of his evolved stance.

Colbert (Hi)Jabs Disney: Mickey Mosqueland

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Introducing: The Tea Party Guide to American History!

This speaks for itself. It is very good.

by Phil N. Molé on Friday, October 1, 2010 at 6:52am

Hi Patriots:

Tired of textbooks written by liberals who wipe their muddy feet on the American flag and won't be happy until all of our children are vegetarian, atheist, and gay? Then order the new 'Tea Party Guide to American History," and save your child from the siren call of socialist homosexuality.

This book will teach your children no more or less than what they need to know to be able to have a defiant, admirably unreflective perspective on their country's history. Things like this:

American Prehistory:

In 6,000 BC, the land containing the present-day United States was created, by God. Large masses of land surrounding the current Unites States were also created, for purposes known only in heaven.

The land containing the United States was designated for a special purpose by God – a future safe haven for the teachings of Jesus, and a place where women shouldn’t be able to get abortions and men should never use condoms. However, God’s plan is marred when pockets of original sin develop in parts of the northeastern and Midwestern states and in present-day California – these will later become “blue” states.

Colonial Days and Witch Trials

Everyone prayed to God at this time and everything was peaceful. There were those witch trials in 1692, but liberals have made too much of that. No one has told the story about how the witches persecuted the other colonists, so that’s obvious liberal bias right there. And many more people were killed in Europe in witchcraft persecutions, so really, the fact that we only killed 20 makes us look pretty good. Honestly, nothing to worry about here.

Indians, aka “Native Americans”

This is as good of a time as any to address the fact that there were people here before the European settlers arrived, namely, Indians. Some people call them “Native Americans,” but that’s a contradiction in terms, because America is a land of immigrants – you selfish, unpatriotic asshole Indians.

Revisionist, America-hating liberals try to make it look like there were lots of Indians here who had a complex, vibrant culture, so we’d feel ashamed of ourselves for taking their land and eliminating them. But there totally weren’t that many. And according to the earliest documented evidence we’ve seen of their culture (a John Ford film made in Hollywood in the 1930s), these Indians really don’t come off well at all.

Plus, haven’t we already paid enough homage to Indian culture? We’ve named subdivisions of retirement communities after them, and little league and professional sports teams, and we like drinking beer when a sports mascot in an Indian costume dances during halftime. What more do these ungrateful people want?

(Insert advertisement for Fly Rite American Flag Detergent, for getting the tough blood and spleen stains out of your American flag. Our motto: “Our colors don’t run!”)

The Revolutionary War and Early Days of the Republic

Series of illustrations: George Washington and the cherry tree, George Washington in battle, and the American flag, flying high against a blue sky background. Take a moment to reflect on these images, and feel warm and good inside. This concludes the lesson on the Revolutionary Era.

The Constitution originally included references to the Virgin Mary and Jesus, but those have been taken out by liberals trying to prove the country is not founded on Christianity. Here’s proof: Go right up to the next liberal you see and ask him what he did with the Virgin Mary, and watch his response. That flustered look says it all, doesn’t it?

Civil War

The War of Yankee Aggression, waged against helpless Southern states who only wanted limited government, states rights, and a nice sip of sweet tea. It wasn’t about slavery, and in fact, so-called slaves were better treated than most white males are – a trend that continues today. Slavery was possibly a little racist, in retrospect. But slavery ended with the Civil War, and so did racism.

World War II

There was a World War before this, and America won it.

We won this one, too, but liberals keep whining about the fact that so many Japanese Americans were interned in camps. But eye witnesses at the time swear that all of the Japanese who were relocated looked A LOT like the perpetrators of the Pearl Harbor attacks. More disturbingly, they were sometimes overheard speaking a language that did not appear to be English. There were no more Pearl Harbor attacks after the internment – think about that. But don’t think about it too long and don’t ask any follow-up questions.

Civil Rights Movement

OK, so there was a little racism that hung around after slavery ended. But this Martin Luther King guy came along and totally ended it for good. It wasn’t through attempts to end legalized discrimination against people of color, like housing discrimination and school segregation, because that was just big government in action, and it was all done wrong. It should’ve all just been done with speeches, like the kind King gave in “I Have a Dream,” which is significant because it influenced Glenn Beck. Also, after white people listened to that speech, they never again gave black people a hard time about anything.

Well, there was the assassination of MLK soon afterward, of course. But since racism ended thanks to MLK, assassin James Earl Ray by definition could NOT have been motivated by racism when he shot MLK. He was just a crazy guy with a gun, and no one else thought remotely like him, anywhere.

And of course, his assassination of King also does NOT show that we need tougher gun control laws in our country. Guns save lives. If King himself had been armed with an AK-47, he’d still be alive today.

Feminism and Women’s Liberation

Paved the way for Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, but otherwise an unmitigated disaster. Across the country, dinners languish uncooked, and undersexed men were forced to cheat or to visit prostitutes, which they never would have done otherwise, because men are awesome. And lots of women begin talking about how they want men to show their “feelings.” We’d been TRYING to show you how we felt, but then you passed sexual harassment laws.

A growing number of men find themselves in need of both food and of safe places to objectify women. To satisfy these needs, the restaurant chain Hooters would eventually be established.

The Reagan Years

For 8 years, all poverty and violence in the United States end. And Reagan says ‘tear down this wall” and the Berlin wall comes down. Millions of sick children are also healed by touching the hem of Reagan’s slacks, and the crumbs from Reagan’s table miraculously feed millions more. And there was this time that a little boy was cornered by a bear, and the bear was really big and mean and was totally going to eat the boy, but then Reagan swooped down out of nowhere and simply smiled, and the bear stopped being mean and licked the little boy and gave him honey instead.

The Clinton Years

George H.W. Bush was president before this, but nothing really happened. Clinton gets a blow job, and this shows the public that this is what is wrong with liberalism. It always, inherently, leads to extra-marital, taxpayer subsidized blow jobs.

Obama’s Presidency

Barack Hussein Obama is elected president, showing yet again that racism in America has ended.

He proceeds to destroy America with his Kenyan anti-imperialist, Islamophilic socialist agenda. The Constitution is ground into a fine powder and snorted up Obama’s nose, and Christ and all of the apostles are punched in the face. In response, the Tea Party movement is born to restore America’s purity. This chapter comprises 80% of the total book.

As a companion to the book, we also offer an “I Want My Country Back!” protest kit that includes a stylish slave costume, a DVD of Obama’s greatest bloopers, and a pitchfork and torch.

As a tie-in with your students science classes, we also offer a book burning experiment kit. Students can mass books such as “Fahrenheit 451,” “Their Eyes Were Watching God,” “Brave New World,” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” on the enclosed scale, and then burn the books in the included oven. Then, they mass the ashes. The difference in mass before and after the burning is the amount of evil the book contained.

History is too important to be left to people who’ve read history books to teach. Take our history back, and our country back, by ordering now!!

Listen, If You Want Clean Water, Buy It In A Bottle!

Joe Bageant on RT (Russian TV--formerly Pravda, IIRC)

It is hilarious, and I enjoy tremendously how the interviewer, Alyona Minkovski, so off-handedly tosses in the 'anti-exceptionalist' bombshells: "For some reason, in this country, there's always been an assumption that the poor, or the underclass, are the non-white people that live in this country, and the fact that there has always been a white underclass has become taboo." Hehehehe--the giftie gie us...

A Dose of Kryptonite Truth for the "School Supermen!"

Readers may know of me that for about 12 years I was a professor of education. I began my studies in the field in the mid-'80s (and took the Ph.D., in 1989), at near the apogee of the Reagan-era attacks on the public schools and the beginning of the aggressive phase of the "home-school/de-schooling/high-stakes testing" revolution. This "revolt" was stimulated by such books as "A Nation At Risk," and was abetted by a variety of (educationally and philosophically) marginal characters, includinig Chester Finn, Bill Bennett, Lamar Alexander and various other minions of the CorpoRat establishment eager to get their fingers into the huge pots of money that the nation and the various states spend on the largely futile (anymore) project of trying to induce cognition, meta-cognition, and reflection from electronically and nutritionally narcotized youth. The centerpiece of the movement was an effort to delegitimize teachers, which effort continues apace under Shamwow & "Lurch" Duncan.

Now, 30 years later, the same crowd of ersatz educators--privatizers, home-schoolers, charterizers, militarizers and corpoRatizers--seem to have infiltrated (or been enthusiastically welcomed by) the Obama/Duncan educational ("Race to the Top") team. Obama knows NOTHING about education--No, really, he's an ignormus on the matter-- and what Duncan knows is the result of his efforts to destroy public education in Chicago during his tenure there. Luckily, this situation has not gone unnoticed, and earlier this week, a piece outlining the till obvious flaws of the enterprise appeared in one of the serious parts of HuffPost. Read the whole thing, but to me, this is the take-away:

So what is this really about?

The kind of school reform that gets significant airtime right now -- a combination of school closures and/or conversions, merit pay, test-based accountability, executive control of schools, and standardization -- is a corporate one, and the corporate interests that created it are also funding the PR campaign to sell it. The Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundations, along with for-profit education organizations and hedge fund managers, have helped fund the creation and promotion of movies like "The Lottery" and "Waiting for 'Superman,' " events like NBCs Education Nation, and "grassroots" activist groups like Stand for Children, Education Reform Now, and Done Waiting. They donate to politicians as well.

Now, some will say, "Who cares? What's wrong with applying business concepts to schools?" Three things, mainly.

One: None of these reforms work. (Note that corporate reformers never subject their own children to these gimmicks.) We're embracing "reform" strategies the rest of civilization is trying to escape! ... Remember, these people are not education experts -- they're businesspeople. It shouldn't surprise us that their reform agenda doesn't systematically improve education, but does present a greater business opportunities.

Two: This very ideology -- "ditch the old regulations, weaken worker protections and let the free market work its magic" -- brought the rest of our economy to its knees. The sacred ideals of the business crowd failed us in the business world, and that's their area of expertise! Do we seriously want to hand them our public schools -- the cornerstone of our democracy -- and just hope the children fare better?

Three: Speaking of democracy... whatever happened to democracy? Corporate elites became unspeakably rich by gaming our democratic and economic systems. They used their money to create legislation favorable to their interests, then gambled away our jobs, our homes, and our financial security. Their plunder eroded the tax base that supports public institutions like schools. Now that schools are starved for resources, some are offering us a portion of our money back in the form of grants and donations -- if we accept their un-proven reforms or un-democratic reformers. (We then have to hope that these new education leaders have good ideas, or that they'll resist the temptation to implement whatever faulty reforms their wealthy patrons offer in the future.)...

Corporate reform strategies created this mess -- they will never solve it. We can have the real reforms championed by actual educators and communities (like resource equity, smaller class sizes, better teacher training, increased teacher collaboration, and so forth) if we resist this corporate reform agenda and stop wasting money on gimmicks. Don't be conned by the "Supermen." Unite with your fellow Americans to demand the kind of equitable, humane educational system we deserve.

Former Reaganaut, right-wing "reformer" Diane Ravitch has apparently undergone the same epiphany.

It would be good if our nation's education leaders recognized that teachers are not solely responsible for student test scores. Other influences matter, including the students' effort, the family's encouragement, the effects of popular culture, and the influence of poverty. A blogger called "Mrs. Mimi" wrote the other day that we fire teachers because "we can't fire poverty." Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers.

This strategy of closing schools and firing the teachers is mean and punitive. And it is ultimately pointless. It solves no problem. It opens up a host of new problems. It satisfies the urge to purge. But it does nothing at all for the students.

Of course, doing anything "for the students," other than sorting and classifying them according to their potential usefulness to the Owners, has LONG been off the table in American education.

What's Wrong With The US/Global Food System?

An erudite and persuasive 11-year-old has a remarkably clear answer.
.

Bravissimo: Steven Colbert Testifies To Congress

This is exactly the audience which needs to hear, and be reminded by, this kind of coruscating sarcasm. Here, as in his gig at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, the targets of his thinly veiled scorn and contempt are right there. When he's this good, it just magnifies how hard to do it even four nights a week must be, and why that so seldom actually approaches this. This is pure BRILLIANCE!

In Two Parts, Michael Moore Interviews Chris Hedges on Kapital, Etc.

Part One:


Part Two:

John Shipe -- "The Pit-bull Blues"

This is going up all OVER Woody-ville, today.

The Killers' Club

Via The Real News:
If these guys go down, it'll be for smoking the hash of their victims.

It's a Left Jab To the Boner

Via Digby:

Left Jab Video Of The Day
by digby

I don't know if you've noticed, but John Boehner is very,very, touchy. He doesn't like being mocked and he doesn't like his nefarious deeds being exposed for all the world to see.

Too bad:

It's Scary, Really!

Eau d'Chthulu

"Ladies, do you look on the threshold of a shuttered room, dreaming in the darkness of a god so terrifying and awe-inspiring that he can drive you insane with his six-pack abs?"

After seeing the success of the Old Spice commercials the mighty and terrible Cthulhu decided to sell his own scented products. A huge thank you to Jace Mills of Mellow Groove Media and Jack Shen (JackShen.com). Remember to read more Gods Playing Poker (GPPCOMIC.com)!

I LOVE This Ad!

Yes, it's an ad. For a fuuking CAR.
And I always mist up.
SAVE THE BEARS, PLEASE!

TDSWJS Unpacks The Fucktard Media's "Lying" Bags

It is this kind of rancor, this kind of ire, this kind of barely contained fury that is the program's most redeeming feature. It has become too rare.

Are You Ready for Some Midterms? - MSNBC's Political Narrative

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Max Keiser, # 75: On Markets, Finance, & Scandal

This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals of "the weather in healthcare", virtual girlfriends and illegal immigrants giving up on the US economy. In the second half of the show, Max talks to independent journalist Mark "Bicyclemark" Fonseca Rendeiro, who is in Kabul to assist with the elections.


Funny, innit, how RT (Russian Television--formerly Pravda) and Al Jazeera (the house-organ of Islam) are better at telling us 'truth' than are our own media?

If You Control The Food, You Control The Mob

I'll bet Cicero, or one of those guys said it first, in Latin, back in the 'bread & circuses' times.

This is one of those issues that shouldn't be ignored, but sounds so extreme that it evokes images of "conspiracy." But tyrants through history have know that if you control the food, you control the mob.

Dr Rima Laibow MD tells how massive public PUSH BACK has held of the forced industrialization of food bill, S.510 in the US Senate, since last November. Now the PUSH BACK must continue or we risk the bill being rushed through in September as a "noncontroversial" unanimous consent bill. Action Item at www.healthfreedomusa.org to educate decision makers.

MRS. Betty Bowers, America's BEST Christian: The CHRISTIAN Sex Tape

"Les Mots et les Choses": Call a thing by its right name

Think about it.

We 'big-brained' humans have been around just a skoche over 250,000 years; a mere geological eye-blink. Given what we've done to the planet, to each other, and to other species in the interim, it just might be that big-brained humans, such as ourselves, are nothing more than just the next evolutionary dead-end.

We're sure acting like it, with America calling the tunes; the tunes of racial supremacy/superiority, patriarchy and predatory capitalism.

The practitioners of those systems, the owners and proprietors, create injury, injustice, and unsustainabilty. It may not be possible to defeat them, ever; but ya gotta try; ya gotta raise your fist. Bob Jensen, whom I've met on occasion and chatted, explains:

Facing Foreclosure? It MIGHT Not Be As Bad As You THink

If yours was one of the securitized mortgages which was bundled and sold as part of the recent wave of Wall Street-led real estate swindles, there is a chance that you might catch a really neat break.

Because, from what I've read for more than a year now, if the bank wants to foreclose, but it cannot deliver your original mortgage to the sheriff/bank, who cannot then present it to you--in exchange for the property you are being forced to vacate--in the original, with your original signature, when they come to evict you, you can refuse to move until they produce it.

Which, as the article I link to below, is not always as easy as you'd think:

Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of MERS, an electronic recording system devised by and for the convenience of the mortgage industry. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this electronic shortcut makes it impossible for banks to establish their ownership of property titles—and therefore to foreclose on mortgaged properties. The logical result could be 62 million homes that are foreclosure-proof.

No, really!

Obama: A Big--And Bad--Gamble in Arizona?

Goddard should be a lock in the Arizona Governor's race. Especially after this (vid, below). He kicks Brewer's ass, and she doesn't seem to see the damage she's doing to her credibility. This should be a death blow to her candidacy.

But that ain't the way it is. She's polling at 65%.

Why?

For one thing, the hundreds of thousands of snowbirds who'll be voting for Brewer in November are still back up in the midwest and elsewhere...they won't have heard about it, and if they did, they'd VALORIZE the behavior" "She didn't let those smart-ass media bullies push her around!"

Another thing is: Throw out logic, rationality and reason. They do not apply. If logic mattered, if rationality were an issue, if reason were in fucking use, Goddard should kick her saggy, satchel ass.

Like he does in the vid below.

But this election is not about, nor is the vocabulary situated in, anything like a reasoned, rational, logical universe. It's about seething class and ethnic resentments, deep antagonisms, racial superiority (and consequent inferiority): about who/what is "American." Those issues are closer to the surface in Arizona this year than anywhere in the last 50 years, since the days of Wallace and Maddox and Thurmond.

To make matters worse, St. Barry seems to have managed to make Arizona a referendum on himself. His posture on the SB 1070 matter could be read, if one were so inclined, as a direct challenge to Gov. Brewer, and to Arizona's (nominal) "sovereignty."

It's one hell of a gamble, and I think it loses...



Hope I'm wrong...Doubt it...

Things We Already Knew, But Mightn't Have Expressed

Irony IS Confusing...

Don't Look Now, But That Rough Beast??? Getting CLOSE!

Reason, logic, rationality: ALL GONE!!!!!!!!!!!! If you still harbor the faintest hope that reason might prevail, that toleerance can prosper yet, and that the people and the country might recognize the dreadful peril at the edge of which we now stand, this should (chillingly, and utterly) dispel them. We Are Soooooooo Fucked

We are so fucking DOOMED!

Motherfuckers on Wall Street LIED AND LIED AND LIED AND LIED

There is no way that these fucking banksters will EVER be punished properly. We need to capture them, imprison them, and pull all their teeth without anesthesia.

Jon Stewart Discovers The Palin Index

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Naomi Klein Tells It Like It Is: What IS the G-20?

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