Some Pre Summer Thoughts

I know that I am showing my age, but I was really saddened last week when Bill Moyers announced that he was retiring from his weekly "Bill Moyer's Journal" show on PBS.  So much of our public airway space is now filled with mindless drivel, it is a real tragedy when an intellectually provocative discussion of the issues falls by the way.  Way back at its beginning, cultural philosophers were warning that with all the potential television might offer, the guys in the network marketing departments might one day carry the day.  Sixty years or so later, the great educator has indeed become the very antithesis of the mind expanding instrument it might have been.  Instead we are drowning in one juvenile spoonful of brain pablum after another.  Even the so-called news programs on commercial television are little more than commercially slick productions of info-tainment.  From shouting Tea Baggers to the Balloon Boy, we are left with the illusion of being well-informed.  So what do I do now Bill?  Let me see, I can flip over to a stimulating match of professional wrestling, jump into yet another version of hunk and hot babe super cops foiling the criminal machinations of stereotypical minority bad guys, or dive into the self-absorbed whining of shallow post adolescents stabbing each other in the back on yet another reality show.  Say it ain't so Bill, say it aint' so!

Speaking of Moyers, sometime in the winter of 2008, Ralph Nader was on "The Journal" and he was asked why he was running for president again.  Didn't he know, queried Moyers, that he was stealing votes from the Democratic candidate and making it easier for a Republican to win?  Without missing a beat Nader fired back that there was so little that was actually different about Democrats and Republicans that his was the only campaign that held out the hope of any real reform.  So, wind ahead to 2010 and listen to the Washington talking heads blather on about financial reforms.  First there is our boy wonder Treasury Secretary, Tim Geitner, who was delivering a blistering attack against the big banks and the SEC for not effectively regulating them prior to the 2008 financial tsunami.  Problem is that Geitner, as the past director of the NYC branch of the Fed enthusiastically supported reducing the role of the SEC while the economy was getting ready to explode.  And now in his incarnation as super-regulator, who does Big Ted choose as his top aide to help him do the job?  Are you ready?  The number two man at the Treasury Department came to government as one of the top executives from Lehman Brothers.  Oh yeah, this week while Goldman-Sachs posted both record profits and record executive bonuses, it was revealed that they were actually betting against their investment recommendations because they knew the economy was about to tank.  Why you might ask were they being so bold?  During the election campaign of 2008, it turns out that their number one most popular campaign to contribute to was. . . Barrack Obama's!  How's that for change you can believe in.

Then of course there are the cries of outrage from the Senate and House Republicans about the Democrats being in the pocket of Wall Street Bankers.  Oops, turns out that the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and his counterpart in the House, perpetual tan-boy, John Boener led all of the rest of the 535 members of Congress in dipping into the money well at Goldmann.  Last week one of my bright AP Government students pointed out that we might be better off if we follow one rule for the upcoming elections of 2010.  His suggestion, vote for anyone who is not a Democrat or a Republican.  Might not be a bad idea.

Finally, on the new immigration law in Arizona.  First, something upon which we can all agree: we cannot, as a nation, move toward extending healthcare and social security benefits for our citizens if these programs become open to the entire world.  Even the richest country cannot pay for that. Thus we need a comprehensive federal immigration law.  The Constitution empowers the national government, not the states to set American policy vis a vis our international borders.  If the Arizona law demonstrates anything, beyond a white backlash in a state that is rapidly moving toward non-white majority status, it is a cry for a sound and workable national policy.  Too bad the demagogues like Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs keep getting in the way.  George Bush actually had a workable plan for immigration before the right wing nuts in his party trashed it.  As for Arizona, perhaps a quick look at the 4th Amendment to the Constitution might be in order.  But then it might just be that for many right wing Republicans  in the Grand Canyon state, a law preventing "driving while Mexican" is just what they were looking for.  Anyone heard from the Arizona "Maverick" on this one?

This and That Redux

I cannot think of anything worthy of a full rant, so I am going to run a series of mini-rants instead.  please be advised that the following comments are not in any descending order of importance. Some of these are truly trivial and some quite serious.

With all the hype about Butler Basketball, I was really pulling for Cornell.  Before Cornell played Kentucky it was revealed that the Wildcats coach made more in annual salary than Cornell spent on its entire basketball program!  Oh how nice it would have been for a real college program that recruits real student athletes to have made it to the final four.  Instead we got yet another preview of NBA talent auditioning for their next paying gig.

It sure made me feel great to know that while I am using Facebook, and thus supporting its highly profitable social network, so were the sub-human high school thugs in Massachusetts who bullied that little girl into committing suicide.  Hey Facebook, how about a little moderation of the content?  I cannot see how the media provider is relieved of all responsibility for the content it allows to be published.

While watching the recent child abuse scandals unfolding in the Catholic Church, I find it interesting that the Church's response is to close ranks around the institution, rather than aggressively pursue justice for those who have been victimized.  There is a lesson here for all of us who live among large and often old institutions.  Large bureaucracies rarely purge themselves of corruption and wrong doing, but instead try to insulate their hierarchy from criticism.  Perhaps we Catholics are on the verge of another Reformation. After all, it has been more than 500 years.

Attention all Republicans!  Enough already:  Barack Obama is NOT a liberal.  Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dennis Kucinich, and I are liberals.  If you are going to criticize the President, then at least be accurate.  Obama is continuing the Bush tax cuts for everyone making less than $250,000.  He has been even more aggressive than Bush was in pursuing the War in Afghanistan.  He NEVER was in favor of a public option in the Health Care Bill. He is the one who ordered the Navy to shoot and kill Somali pirates (the Bush strategy was to allow private shipping companies to pay ransoms).  He is continuing and expanding on Bush's education reform program.  He is aggressively pursuing a policy of off shore drilling and building nuclear power plants.  None of these are even close to being liberal!  Hey why not tell the truth, you don't like him because he is black, has a Middle East sounding name, and was born in Hawaii.  Go ahead say it, you will feel better about yourselves and the rest of us will respect your honesty, if not your sanity.  By the way, I am still waiting for your moral outrage about the members of the Republican National Committee hosting a fund raising event at an LA private strip club.  Not a peep from the usual nuts at Fox News.

Speaking of being liberal, is it radical to suggest that we ought to get our troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible?  Our latest strategy is to protect the people who grow opium so they will like us better than they like the Taliban.  And the latest from our ally, President Karzai. . . he now says that most of his problems are because of foreign troops being stationed in his country and if we don't stop telling him to root out the corruption in his government he might become a Taliban himself.  This guy makes all those stooges we propped-up in South Vietnam look like mini-Lincolns.  How many American lives need to be lost in support of a government that will fall as soon as we leave?  Just take a look at Iraq today as the sectarian violence and corruption are on the rise as American forces are preparing to leave.  Hmm, I think Saigon is still called Ho Chi Minh city today. Oh well, we sure can build cool monuments to our wars, whether they were worth fighting or not.

My fellow California citizens, to all of you who took advantage of a tax payer subsidized college education (as I did) then why are you now OK with your kids and grandkids paying ten times as much for the same privilege?  With all that our UC and CSU educations did for us, why can't we do as our parents did and support tax increases for higher education?  Maybe there is a reason our parents' generation has been called "The Greatest Generation."  What does that make us. . . The Entitled Generation?  Shame on us.  By the way, for every tax dollar spent on higher education, the state gets back four dollars in productivity and revenue.  Maybe a few less stops at Starbucks and few more dollars for education?

So what do you think?  Are my current students spending this Easter Break studying and preparing for their AP  and Final Exams?  Nah, me neither!