Gov. Haslam's FAIL in Leadership

Gov. Haslam has a strategy to dodge his lack of leadership - "blame the media".

R. Neal at KnoxViews calls him out:

"Gov. Haslam is not happy with all the media attention on what he calls "crazy" legislation, and wishes they would focus on more important and positive things such as education reform.

If he thinks the legislation is "crazy" why does he keep signing it? He can veto it and make them get on board the crazy train twice. And it would send them a message. As it is, he only encourages them to continue embarrassing our state.

The media is just doing its job, part of which is reporting on state government. If the governor doesn't like the coverage, he should be a leader and encourage better legislation. 

In fact, he should probably be happy that his education "reforms," which are actually the first step in dismantling public education, aren't getting more press. People might wise up. Instead, the media is helping Haslam advance his radical GOP agenda by distracting the public from the more serious damage being done.

Fact check: "We're redefining accountability, and you'd be hard-pressed to find 100 lines of print in any paper of the state," Haslam said. "Now, today in the Legislature there's a conversation about saggy pants and what they should do there." Seriously? In just the last month the KNS alone had approx. 15 articles about teacher evaluations, and only five about "saggy pants." 

A google search for articles about Tennessee teacher evaluations yields hundreds of articles across the state and nationally (including the NYT). Not all of them are supportive, so maybe that's his real problem."

Newscoma calls him out too:

"Now we know that this is what we are dealing with during his time in the governor’s mansion and that we will be the laughing stock of national media. Instead of leading with some common sense, we are told “Blame the Media.”

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I honestly don’t think Haslam is a bad man but he also appears not to have a set of keys to the asylum where there is more talk of sex and perceived debauchery than I’ve ever heard. He is the governor. Leaders just lead.

I would love to see our legislators go out and meet the millions of kind Tennesseans who are just trying to do a hard day’s work and get home to their families. This legislative body appears to think the worst of us at all times. That we are all just a bad lot of people.

We aren’t.

Legacies are important and what I’m seeing is that the legacy of this particular session of the General Assembly will be about treating average Tennesseans with a lack of respect.

Haslam, you do have choices. Quit blaming and start leading because that’s what the people in this state deserve. It’s not hard."

I've called on him to muster some even small amount of courage and lead, rather than use the Blamethrower as his Policy of Non-Leadership.

It's all on you, sir. What will you do?

Schools Reforms: No Science, No Baggy Pants

via The Chattanooga Times Free Press

Gov. Haslam says he'll sign into law a bill about how science is taught in Tennessee ... even though it "changes nothing" about how science is taught in Tennessee.

What??

As reported by Andy Sher:

"Haslam said he has had discussions with State Board of Education officials on “does this affect our curriculum and what we teach regarding evolution in the schools and the answer is no. Does it change the scientific standards that are the ruling criteria for what we teach in schools and the answer is no.”

So what in the heck is this law anyway?

Only one thing is certain - supporters of this law deny it has anything to do with allowing religious and political views to be presented in science classes, even though that is exactly what this law allows:

"These bills misdescribe evolution as scientifically controversial,” the statement says. “ As scientists whose research involves and is based upon evolution, we affirm — along with the nation’s leading scientific organizations ... that evolution is a central, unifying, and accepted area of science. 

“The evidence for evolution is overwhelming,” the statement continues. “There is no scientific evidence for its supposed rivals (‘creation science’ and ‘intelligent design’) and there is no scientific evidence against it.”

Yes, the legislature is deeply concerned with education - at least when it comes to devaluing science and with whether or not students wear baggy pants. That's because a new law about school dress codes apparently was needed even though every school already has dress codes and policies on what is acceptable and what is not. The aim though, is for a State Dress Code:

"The only bit of discussion before the vote last night came from another Memphis Democrat, Rep. Antonio Parkinson, who applauded Towns for bringing the bill, but lamented its narrow scope. He said the prohibition should be statewide and vowed to join Towns in working toward that end next year."

Schools Want Some Words Banned From Tests

Sticks and stones may hurt your bones but words cause permanent damage.

 -- from Talk Radio

The NYC school systems issued a memo to the makers of standardized tests for students in which they urge the banning of some 50 words deemed potentially offensive/distracting to students.

Words and phrases can be both intense and meaningless depending on usage, and surely one could find an enormous amount of variance if the public at large were asked to define the word "education" or to assess the quality of 'standardized testing".

The Staten Island Online notes: "... certain words can elicit unpleasant feelings on the part of students. "Dinosaur," for example, would suggest evolution -- offensive to creationists. even "birthday" doesn't make the cut because Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate them."

The list: 

• Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional, or psychological)
• Alcohol (beer and liquor), tobacco, or drugs
• Birthday celebrations (and birthdays)
• Bodily functions
• Cancer (and other diseases)
• Catastrophes/disasters (tsunamis and hurricanes)
• Celebrities
• Children dealing with serious issues
• Cigarettes (and other smoking paraphernalia)
• Computers in the home (acceptable in a school or library setting)
• Crime
• Death and disease
• Divorce
• Evolution
• Expensive gifts, vacations, and prizes
• Gambling involving money
• Halloween
• Homelessness
• Homes with swimming pools
• Hunting
• Junk food
• In-depth discussions of sports that require prior knowledge
• Loss of employment
• Nuclear weapons
• Occult topics (i.e. fortune-telling)
• Parapsychology
• Politics
• Pornography
• Poverty
• Rap Music
• Religion
• Religious holidays and festivals (including but not limited to Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan)
• Rock-and-Roll music
• Running away
• Sex
• Slavery
• Terrorism
• Television and video games (excessive use)
• Traumatic material (including material that may be particularly upsetting such as animal shelters)
• Vermin (rats and roaches)
• Violence
• War and bloodshed
• Weapons (guns, knives, etc.)
• Witchcraft, sorcery, etc.


Fun Assignment: make a 'test question' using as many of the words on this list as you can!! Share it in the comments section!!

UPDATE: Phantom has the winning entry in  the comments below:

"If a train loaded with weapons, pornography, and a group of Wiccans celebrating Halloween by drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes is going east at 50 mph, and it passes another train loaded with vermin, junk food, and nuclear weapons going west at 65 mph, how many homes with swimming pools will the trains pass before the Jewish engineer and the Baptist brakeman on the first train turn on some rap music and have sex while talking dirty about evolution, and the former NFL Hall of Fame lineman on the second train starts telling fortunes and predicting which passengers on the train are going to die in a natural disaster?

Please show your work."

We The Peeple

 Peep raid on Bin Laden Hideout, image courtesy Washington Post

 A sure sign of a society of immense luxury - a society which creates a huge range of dioramas on political/social themes using the wee marshmellow candies known as Peeps.

The annual Washington Post contest includes RePeeplican Debates and OccuPeep protesters.

Gov. Haslam and the Goldilocks Complex

I'm calling it the Goldilocks Complex - governors are doing too little or too much but precious few are doing their jobs jes' right.
 
I've been trying to be optimistic in puzzling out the nature of Gov. Haslam's politics, glad that he isn't making headlines like, say, Jan Brewer or Rod Blajojevich or Bob McDonnell or Scott Walker or ... well, the list is like a list of Huey Long wannabes. More and more it seems governors are using their office to advance themselves more than advance their individual states.

Sadly, Gov. Haslam seems to be missing-in-action on so many critical issues - like knowing what bills are in the Tennessee legislature as I mentioned yesterday.

Besty Phillips at the Nashville Scene sums it up pretty well:

"It's the end of March. The state legislature is planning to wrap up in April. And the governor hasn't seen or doesn't know how he feels about the bills winding their way through the process? The bills he either has to sign into law or veto?

Either Haslam is incompetent, or someone on his staff is. Say what you want about our legislature, every single bill in all its iterations is available to read and track for free on the General Assembly website. There is simply no excuse for Haslam not to be up to date on what legislation is in the pipeline. "I don't know" and "I haven't seen the bill" at this late stage in the game is just a flabbergasting thing for Tennessee's governor to admit. Why isn't he following these bills?

The man whose set himself the task of completely overhauling how the state works seems not to know how it works to begin with. I find that frightening".

Gov. Haslam Confused About How Laws Are Made

Seems Gov. Bill Haslam does not know how government works.

I sent him a letter encouraging him to not sign the anti-science bill which is on his desk right now. He sent back an email today saying:

"After careful review of your letter, I have determined that the Tennessee Department of Education is the appropriate agency to address this type of inquiry, and therefore have forwarded your letter to Commissioner Kevin Huffman's office for consideration."

No, see, the new law before you, right now, is your responsibility since the legislature stripped away the ideas of debating policy from the state's Dept. of Education.

Now if this response means that Gov. Haslam will not sign Senate Bill 0893 and instead veto it and say "this is a decision best left to the Dept. of Education" then I would be stunned. And will write an apology.

Gov. Haslam does seem to comprehend and understand political games though - check out how he handles the anti-science bill as reported by Tom Humphrey:

"Haslam was asked his views on the bill last week after announcing plans to use federal funds to build three new Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) schools in the state.

"I don't know that I have any great insight there for you on that one," Haslam said, adding that he had heard of the bill but knew little about what was involved. The governor said he plans to ask state Board of Education officials about it.

"I think it is a fair question as to what the General Assembly's role is, I think that's why we have a State Board of Education," he said. "I think the General Assembly, though, does represent people and their votes and thoughts matter there."

Way to say nothing at all, Gov. Haslam.

Rest assured, you will be saying plenty - and none of it good - if you sign the bill and make it a new law. 

UPDATE: The Goldilocks Complex


See Also:

" ... these attempts to rewrite our curriculum by some legislators are not about helping our children become independent, rational thinkers capable of understanding and evaluating alternative theories of life; witting or not, these legislators are stooges for an agenda that would shackle our children to a life of ignorance."

Legislation for Hillbillies

2-Year-Old Rocks The House

Even at the age of 2 years old, he sure knows how to have a rockin' good time. The boy just owns the floor and the entire room. Check out his bow at the end. Thankyou, thankyouverymuch. He can also do some classy ballroom dancing too. Helps if mom and dad run the dance studio I guess.

But when you take in what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart could write and perform at age 11, everyone the planet is a slacker. (And he started younger, age 4.) See how behind you are in your accomplishments?

An Open Letter to Gov. Haslam and the Tennessee Legislature

An Open Letter to Gov. Haslam and the Tennessee Legislature:

As a lifelong resident of the state of Tennessee, educated in public school as well as at a private Baptist college, I am compelled to write and express my deep disappointment and grave concerns over pending legislation, Senate Bill 893, regarding how Science is to be taught and not taught in our state.

Since it was brought forward in 2011, the aims of this law are crystal clear - it seeks to add room in our Science programs for non-scientific information. Our education system - and our young students - requires the strongest support from our Governor, our Legislature, and our communities, but this legislation instead claims that Biology and Science are flawed and mistaken at every level. It assumes controversies exist at their very foundations. It devalues Education itself.

If the state demands we "teach the controversies" regarding Science, then why not demand that the clergy preach about the controversies of their Religion? That would be ridiculous for the state to mandate, wouldn't it? This proposed law is equally ridiculous.

Holding Science accountable to Religious or Social systems will not encourage or nurture Education. 

It's worth noting that educators and scientists or biologists across the state did not propose nor support this legislation. Certainly, all our educational curriculums should - and for the most part already do - encourage critical thinking and respectful debate. Do you, Governor Haslam, believe otherwise or have any such proof of a dire lack in our schools? Or do you work instead to increase the level of skill and understanding demanded today in Science, Math, and Technology?

I understand and accept that political landscapes are constantly changing - allowing the ebb and flow of politics to override our Education system can only create errors in critical thinking.

So I encourage you to defeat this measure and to provide a stronger voice for Education and Science in Tennessee. 

This legislation stands in stark opposition to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Programs your office has been actively supporting. I feel you have to make a choice, sir, as to which educational approach you support.

Sincerely,

Joe Powell

State Pushes Anti-Science Laws To Governor Haslam

Grade school and high school are the academic locations Tennesseee's politicians want to use to determine the value of science and that of religion too. Yep. Science is some dubious scheme to make you doubt Jesus, according to the state legislature.

Nearly one year after this ridiculous idea first shambled into the legislature, the bill to order teachers to say science is a controversial topic is waiting for Gov. Haslam to sign it. Knox Rep. Bill Dunn has allowed Hixson Senator Bo Watson to run the legislation through this time. 

"The idea behind this bill is that students should be encouraged to challenge current scientific thought and theory,” said state Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson."

Yeah, forget education about the value of science or math or biology - let kids decide classroom by classroom if they believe any of it.

So, from last year, this original coverage via your Cup o' Joe post:

"Knoxville Rep. Bill Dunn was very careful in presenting HB 368 so it hides the anti-science goals, but the result is clear - science classes must present science itself as controversial and the bill promotes a deep lack of understanding of what "scientific theory" means. As for who should help create these low standards - not scientists, of course - but administrators. The bill only defines as "controversial" a select set of areas: "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning." And, as noted below, Rep. Dunn's legislation is the creation of evangelical Christians.Rep. Dunn's aim of injecting politics into school science classes is a dangerous act. And his proposed new state law is a part of a nationwide effort to use the schoolroom as a political tool to promote political agendas. These bogus ideas are labeled "Academic Freedom" bills, which sounds nice, but really point to a desire to eliminate critical study and reject the history of scientific investigation, and the legislation is drafted by evangelical organizations:

"... 'academic freedom' bills that are being introduced by state lawmakers around the country instruct educators to teach students about “both sides” of controversial issues—most notably on evolution. The Seattle-based, pro-intelligent design Discovery Institute is behind efforts to introduce many of these bills and has proposed sample legislation for lawmakers to follow.

Since the Louisiana bill was passed (making it the only state to have actually passed an academic freedom bill into law), proposed bills have included global warming and human cloning on the list of “controversial topics,” as they encourage “thinking critically” about the “relationships between explanations and evidence.”

More recently, in Kentucky, a bill was introduced in the Legislature that would encourage teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,” including “evolution, the origins of life, global warming, and human cloning.”

Other troubling aspects of this dumbed-down educational law includes the following confusions for teachers:

"Some teachers may be unsure of the expectations concerning how they should present information on such subjects."

Whose expectations? Those of the uneducated and misinformed? The really loud folks who think science is a colossal hoax?

Schools must also insure " ...respond appropriately and respectfully to differences of opinion about controversial issues."
Respect for the scientific method, peer review, and the actual scientific meaning of the concepts of "theory" and "experimentation" .... well, let's just push that aside. Since new data and observations are made in most scientific fields of study as a result of the work of scientists, then, yes, concepts and theories are often revised. But it's a huge leap in thinking to claim that science is mostly mistaken guesswork and inherently controversial."

----

And Haslam thinks he'll sign the bill unless the school boards of the state (schools is evil, ya know, full of unions and commies) tell him not to sign it. And he may just sign it anyway.

Meanwhile, from the  actual scientific community which works in the fields now labeled controversial ....

Among those expressing opposition to the bill are the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee, the American Institute for Biological Sciences, the Knoxville News Sentinel, the Nashville Tennessean, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the National Earth Science Teachers Association, and the Tennessee Science Teachers Association, whose president Becky Ashe described (PDF) the legislation as "unnecessary, anti-scientific, and very likely unconstitutional."

Best Political Video of the Year

So very much of the talk from our leaders in government from the state to the federal level suffers a debilitating lack of vision. Instead, with the help of media reports aimed at the lowest levels, we are hearing instead about policy debates on personal behaviors and the limp campaigns for elected office.

Government and business are mired in a relentless pursuit of money - we all deserve so much more and we should be demanding it too.

To learn more about how you can join the real Progressives of the world for just one penny, go here.

East TN Legislators Harassing Women?

East Tennessee state legislator David Hawk has been charged with domestic violence against his wife, who is also the head of Greene County's Republican Women organization.

Tom Humphrey has the details:

"Rep. David Hawk returned to the state Legislature on Monday afternoon, just hours after his first court appearance on a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence resulted in an order for the Greeneville Republican to have no contact with his wife.

Hawk accepted handshakes and well wishes from fellow lawmakers at his desk before stepping out of the chamber to meet with reporters.

"Yesterday morning my wife had a gun and told me that she was going to put a bullet in my head while I was holding my baby," Hawk said.

Hawk's account of the incident stands in contrast to the criminal complaint obtained by The Greeneville Sun (http://bit.ly/ws76T2), which describes Cristal Hawk saying her husband grabbed her by the arm, struck her in the face and knocked her to ground in an altercation at their home.

Crystal Hawk said she was holding their 11-month-old daughter at the time. She said her husband then took the child and went to a neighbor's house.

The criminal complaint states that the victim "had bruising and swelling on and around her right eye, an abrasion (to) the upper and lower right side of her lip, and a large bruise on her left upper arm."

Hawk, 43, denied striking his wife and said he didn't know how she had received the bruises"

Meanwhile, since Jonesborough's state legislator Matthew Hill wants massive publication of information about doctors who perform legal abortions, Southern Beale wonders if "harassment of women" is a part of the Republican agenda:

"Really, what is the deal with these white, middle-aged men in the legislature? You guys just got vaginas on the brain or something? Is that all you people can do is sit around and dream up ways to harass women?"

 

Truth: Fictional and Factual

There are several powerful lessons to be learned from the recent retraction of a story reported on the radio program This American Life about working conditions for thousands of electronics workers in China (mentioned here and here).

TAL's report (their most-downloaded story) was based largely on the one-man-show presented theatrically by Mike Daisey, a well-known theatrical writer-actor-producer. Once other reporters began digging into the claims from TAL's story, they found Daisey had "fabricated" information, which so angered and disturbed Ira Glass of TAL that he issued a full retraction of the story, telling listeners he felt he had been lied to, that the report should have never aired.

Daisey admits to creating a "truthful" stage production, Glass says the standards of journalism demand more than "truthiness", that journalism demands a different standard, and he's right about that. However, in challenging Daisey, Glass said he felt Daisey's shows should bear a disclaimer or warning that the show may not be 100% fact.

Ira Glass: I know but I feel like I have the normal worldview. The normal worldview is somebody stands on stage and says ‘this happened to me,’ I think it happened to them, unless it’s clearly labeled as ‘here’s a work of fiction.’

Full transcript is here.

I must challenge that perspective - if a reporter decides a one-man theatrical show demands attention for it's powerful claims and evocations, then it seems clear to me the reporter has the obligation to report on the show as just that, a "show". For thousands of years, writers and performers have forcefully confronted many real-life issues in the guise of fiction, and most all of us know that watching a "show" and reporting are two different forms of communication.

"This American Life", certainly a news show, is made using very dramatic styles and breaks and revelations. That's one of the program's strengths, compelling stories. Daisey's works had previously been hailed as masterfully blurring the lines between fact and fiction - and perhaps that is the real issue which, however clumsily, Ira Glass and "This American Life" is trying to highlight.

It's one thing for Glass to admit he was "fooled" by Daisey's story - but to demand Daisey re-package his show to suit journalistic standards is mistaken. And Daisey was wrong to let journalists report on his show as factual. And certainly, further reports on conditions in these Chinese factories have shown some brutal conditions.

And yet ...

How often do major news outlets - especially television - rely on metaphorical, if not utterly faked, emotions to drive a story? Hours are filled with "opinion" and not "fact", because the passion of opinion will always attract an audience.

If Daisey's work must be clearly "labeled", then so should so-called "news" programs be properly labeled as well -- "This hour of program features opinions about facts, and therefore is not 100% factual."

That won't happen - criticizing writers for creating passionate fictions is too easy. Criticizing journalists/panelists/experts/producers for creating passionate fictions is big business, from "reality" programs to "news" programs. And they see themselves as "too big to fail" or "too big to be criticized".

Much cable news - and especially radio programming like Rush Limbaugh - are dramatic creations, carefully designed to elicit an emotional response, all falling under the sway of attracting an audience.

And it is precisely those creators and writers and performers of "news" who should label their creations for audiences.

Foxconn Update: Report Retracted by This American Life

In January of this year, I ran a post about conflicting reports on working conditions in Chinese factories where Apple (and many other major electronic companies) make their products.

One of the sources I cited in that post was from the radio show This American Life, which today announced they have learned much of their report had been fabricated and as a result, they have retracted the entire episode.

“Daisey lied to me and to This American Life producer Brian Reed during the fact checking we did on the story, before it was broadcast,” the show’s host, Ira Glass, wrote in a blog post on Friday. “That doesn’t excuse the fact that we never should’ve put this on the air. In the end, this was our mistake.”

Pennsylvania - America's First Corporate State?

The news for Americans isn't looking too good in a place where freedom and rights were first celebrated.

"Pennsylvania, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed and where the U.S. coal, oil and nuclear industries began, has adopted what may be the most anti-democratic, anti-environmental law in the country, giving gas companies the right to drill anywhere, overturn local zoning laws, seize private property and muzzle physicians from disclosing specific health impacts from drilling fluids on patients. 

“It’s absolutely crushing of local self-government,” said Ben Price, project director for the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which has helped a handful of local communities—including the city of Pittsburgh—adopt community rights ordinances that elevate the rights of nature and people to block the drilling. “The state has surrendered over 2,000 municipalities to the industry. It’s a complete capitulation of the rights of the people and their right to self-government. They are handing it over to the industry to let them govern us. It is the corporate state. That is how we look at it.”

 

“Now I know what it feels like to live in Nigeria,” said recently retired Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields. “You’re basically a resource colony for multi-national corporations to take your natural resources, take them back to wherever they are at, add value to them, and then sell them back to you.”

This American Life has more on the story and the battle of Liberty being lost.

VW's Corporate Taxation Moved Onto Workers, Residents

What did Roane County have to do to land 45 jobs for a VW warehouse? Simple: remove property taxes on the now-for-free location, throw in a few million dollars more in tax funding (corporate welfare), and rely on the tax rates on workers and residents to compensate for the loss of corporate taxation.

The KnoxNewsSentinel notes:

"There's the 100 percent property tax break for 10 years, the $435,000 worth of local matches of two state grants totaling more than $1 million, and a break-even land purchase deal.

In exchange, the company will invest $40 million in a 400,000-square warehouse that will result in 45 jobs in the Roane Regional Business and Technology Park. The annual payroll is pegged at $3 million. The facility can be expanded to 600,000 square feet, officials said.

The long-term payoff, says Roane County industrial recruiter Leslie Henderson, is the cachet the Volkswagen name will lend to Roane County and the likelihood more industries will locate there because of the prestigious automaker's presence.

"We're going to promote the heck out of this," said Henderson, president and CEO of The Roane Alliance. "This will be a magnet for more projects."

So you'll pay more in taxes on income, more for property taxes - but you'll get something called "cachet".

And some other large companies in the construction biz will get loads of money from VW, and Roane politicos will now have to offer the same kind of freebies to attract another 45 jobs.

Rest assured - someone will make a lot of money (VW). But it won't be you. It isn't personal - it's business.

Unwired: The Final Installment of a Non-LiveBlog

This is the Third and final part of an experiment I made to live and work offline and write about my results via a sort of non LiveBlog.  (Part two is here.)

The final installment is below, and I must say that - unsurprisingly - the overall results are deeply boring and uninteresting to most everyone. The life of a writer is a fairly boring thing. I tend to work all alone, though I have often collaborated with a few folks. But mostly my time would be akin to watching paint dry. Thinking, scratching out notes and ideas, re-writing and re-writing again are dull events to observe. It's a far, far more exciting time within my brain of course, an electric-synaptic-orgy of thoughts and actions.

I wondered if my creation and eventual publication of a life lived offline would draw in readers. It has not. Not only am I a solo writer, I am a solo human - never been married, no girlfriend currently, so no spousal/near-spousal dramas or comedies to share; no children to tote from one life-affirming event to another; no financial chicanery or wizardry to recount; no daring recipes of dazzling foods to share (though I often do make a fine and tasty dish, plus there's always a fine cup of coffee close by); and as a solo writer, while I do have so many fascinating and intelligent friends, I don't always share such conversations here on this blog, though I often write about the results of my thoughts after such conversations.

Me

I do act, write, direct and produce several stage shows thru the year - and all those I shamelessly do self-promote here. And since a few (very few) have asked, this post includes a fairly recent picture of my very handsome, lovable self.

But I shall add today to this blog the final entry of my Three Part account of my Offline Experiment. Because, as any writer does, I hope what I write does get read. But in all honesty, the writing and the publishing tend to be most important to one lone person: Me.

Should you read, enjoy and share all 3 parts, dear reader, I thank you greatly. Now on with the show!!

PART 3

DAY EIGHT (continued)

11:38 a.m.

All the presentations of status, actions, events, stats, tweets, posts, results both googled and binged, all texting, messaging, and all the jabs of communication short and long … online I am aware these things will reach an audience of readers, whether one or ten or one thousand. Absent the Web, I’m back to the Old Ways of the Writer – what I’m saying and writing may never be seen by anyone.

So the basic foundation of writing is as it ever was: who is the writer writing for or to? Himself? Future generations which might find the scribbled notebooks (or in this case a reader who decides to search the memory of my lone computer)? The drive to make these sentences has been greatly fueled in the last eight to ten years by the reality that I can publish what I write on a global scale without being a lowly worker for a large or small publishing company, newspaper or any other media owner – I pay for my access to the web, write and publish as I wish, daily, weekly, hourly, and I publish whatever I wish. And I know what I write gets read (according to my stats counter) not only by readers in the U.S., but in Europe, Asia, South America – anywhere the Web exists.

And while it is true that without a publisher my earnings from my writing is limited, there still exists a large opportunity that a sizable paycheck will arrive in the future – a matter of my efforts to promote it, or perhaps someone else who decides to share it, or my skill or luck at saying something which snags the world’s imagination and wallets.

11:56 a.m.
Boop-bedoop-bah-bah … grrrrrrr.


8:20 p.m.

Televised coverage of the celeb arrivals for Oscars’ red carpet is deeply dull. Essentially, the actors and performers all parade past a crowd of mostly publicists, herded like cattle, yet politely, but the celebs seem to have little of note to say or do, aside from wearing clothes and jewelry. So few improve skills are displayed – even being interesting seems to escape them … though is the problem instead that today’s celebs don’t like this parade, even resent it?

9:15 p.m.

Producer Brian Grazer … how old is he, 60? Crazy scientist/spiky 1980’s pop star/anime hair looks odd on old people.

10:00 p.m.

Cirque du Soleil performs a showcase of … well, what was their show about? As the cast swings around the theater I keep thinking about how the producers of the Spiderman show on Broadway should have used them. I still think the backstage is the place to be these days.

So sad that Crystal doesn’t have Jack Nicholson to make jokes about this time around. He does Clooney jokes instead … but the mirth is oddly muffled.

11:30 p.m.

Let’s see – a French silent film comedy filmed in L.A., Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher, Woody Allen’s script, black actresses playing maids in the 1960s, a song by the Muppets, and efx/tech awards heaped upon Martin Scorcese … the show tonite seemed steeped in nostalgia.


DAY NINE

8:00 a.m.

I’m cranky and unhappy without the ability to seek and read news from the wide range of sources via the Web. There’s such a superficial gloss, an total lack of critical thinking and a loving embrace of the spin from PR men and women on television.

9:00 a.m.

This offline experiment is a drag so I am ending it. However, I will extend it through today so that I might prepare some closing remarks … which hopefully will contain some kind of notable conclusion. Hopefully. Right now, I’m lacking any wisdom here, other than I am suffering a debilitating addiction to the internet. Does that make me pitiable or do I have merely a ‘first world problem’?

I’ve cleared more than a week without it, approaching 10 days. What time period is needed to truly flush my system of digital cyber-toxins? A month? A year? Or is it like alcohol or drug addiction – meaning I am forever an addict forced to live one day at a time with the constant threat that the addiction will return with even the slightest usage, just one email is all it would take and boom! I’m over the edge of the abyss.

How long could you go without the online world, dear reader? An hour? A day? Do you dare even attempt it?

1:00 p.m.

Grim hours ahead as I cling to my experiment in spite of a raging urge to go online …

Perhaps what has been absent is more than just my ability to amuse, entertain or even educate myself via the Web … perhaps the removal of access is also the removal of my one constant avenue of self-expression in our modern world. No access means no voice for me about the world I inhabit? That’s a chilling thought …

DAY ELEVEN

I'm going back online tomorrow .... what have I learned, if anything, trying this offline experiment? That, dear reader, is a question I will have to ponder .... and yet I wonder most -- how long could you go with no online access??

Morristown Gets Slapped With Half-Million Bank Seizure

Resisting court orders is never a risky idea for government, and at the end of February, the city of Morristown had over $570,000 seized in a bank levy over a court case which should have been resolved a long time ago.

Blogger Linda Noe has the details:

"Now that those funds have been seized by the U.S. Marshals, my guess is that Morristown has sobered up and is having some serious discussions with Plaintiffs' lawyers to settle the attorney fees, litigation costs, and/or civil penalties that were assessed against the City in the Stephens, et al. v. City of Morristown case. In this mix may be the dismissal of the City's appeal to U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In a case that was brought only after Morristown refused to acknowledge problems with the Witt sewer line and refused to repair and rehabilitate that line, the City spent thousands in attorney fees for its lawyers, had to pay attorney fees and costs for the Plaintiffs' lawyers, and ended up under a court-order to fix the Witt line. [The Tennessee Municipal League (TML) paid initial attorney fees but that stopped at some point and then Morristown was directly on the hook for paying the City's defense team]

All this money was spent because the City ignored a serious problem with the Witt sewer line that was brought to its attention as soon as Koch Foods hooked up to the Witt line around 2005.

And the City would likely still be ignoring the problem today if several gutsy Witt residents hadn't  hired a lawyer after deciding that they had taken enough of the City's stonewalling and odors and overflows.

During the lawsuit, Judge Greer blistered the City in discussing the City's "malfeasance" in handling its finances, making illegal money transfers, failing to provide critical documents, ignoring recommendations of its experts, etc.

With two consecutive years (2009 and 2010) of the sewer fund being "in the red," you have to wonder if the City's appeal of the attorney fees and other costs was just another in an ongoing series of delaying tactics to avoid acknowledging the financial morass that has been present for years and years."

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?

Rush Limbaugh has been selling and slinging horseshit for decades, called it 'reasonable thinking', 'entertainment' and now calls his work "absurdity".

He's getting closer to reality with that latest comment. As this editorial notes, "Limbaugh puts the vile in juvenile".

Bottom line: unless you are a rich white male who hates our nation's rich heritage of diversity and vision -- Rush hates you too.

So sad that so many local radio stations support his every word, and they have backed his every word for decades. Shame on those radio stations.

via the LA Times

Unwired: Part 2 of a Non-LiveBlog

I decided to do an experiment and shut off the internet for a while, eventually going 12 days with no email, texting, no connection with The Web. I was curious what the changes would be since I've been connected to The Web for about 20 years. And I didn't tell anyone, just wasn't there .. there being here, on The Web. What were the results of the experiment?

I'm awake, up writing on and off The Web daily and early, a longtime habit. So I decided that instead of surfing and reading online, I would keep sort of a non-published Twiter feed to document the effects of being so disconnected. And then publish the results on The Web.

So here is Part Two of a Three Part series of the non-liveblog, for Part One, click here:

DAY FIVE

10:32 a.m.

I have many chores and duties outside of the house today. Will people detect the scent of a non-digital human?

Have my websites been hacked? My email? Are they okay?

11:15 a.m.

Gah! Really starting to hate this exile, this experiment seems akin to trying to quit tobacco or something. I’m getting ill tempered, angry, dislocated from the world.

1:00 p.m.

This afternoon I will be in several locations which offer free Wi-Fi and I fear my experiment will crash and burn faced with such temptation.

So am I addicted to internet access if I should give in? … Time will tell the tale, won’t it? If I do cave, will I confess and admit failure or will I pretend (aka lie about it) by claiming I only used a brief mobile access rather than my more usual use of a home PC?

7:00 p.m.

I’m pretty sure that after reading the preceding, no one will believe me when I say I did not cave in to temptation. How could I avoid the temptation? Simple: I did not take a mobile device with me which could use a WiFi connection.

I did speak with some friends and colleagues about some work projects and we all said we’d use email to flesh out the details. So I will likely be forced to end my experiment within the next 3 to 4 days.

DAY SIX

7:22 a.m.

Reports of tornado warnings are aired via my radio – I’d like to check out local radar online … can’t. Television offers a few glimpses but even the Weather Channel only offers a few minutes each hour of local radar. How much more powerful would my disconnect become should I shut off cable tv? The last time I did go cable-less, one could still pick up channels with rabbit-ear antenna, but that option no longer exists. Even though the cost for a digital reception box is low, our America now makes everyone pay a fee to watch free tv.

More and more, we have bought the narrative that the cost of accessing information shared via public spectrum airwaves is justified, normal and that everyone has access to computers, the internet, television and phones. Everyone has it. All that’s needed, according to this new worldview, is to buy a device or devices and boom! You are on!

I am amazed that I can still, if I wanted, buy a radio and to get programming, all I have to do is switch the radio on. And I could go more high end and get more specific and more diverse programming by buying a satellite radio and paying a fee for service. See – radio has free and pay options, but no other information service offers that option of free and pay services.

9:12 a.m.

Fridays are usually interesting days online – people post tales of events just ahead worth attending, share their joys about the week’s end, and generally take on a tone to lighten the mood. I have access to none of it.

I doubly damned since I work mostly from home – I don’t hear office buzz about what folks have planned for the weekend, or potential gatherings of friends or family. I like being able to scoot into social media sites to learn what friends and family are doing … without it, it adds even more to my outcast status.

Fridays often bring many perceptive essays and commentary on the events of the week and what the events might portend, folks share web discoveries and amusements, like the videos that have entertained them this week, share rumors and memes, link to movies or music shows they plan to attend. One gets a sense of a shared world offering so much.

I got nada going on here without all that access.

And no one can reach out to include me in their on or offline hijinks unless they call me directly on the phone, and since I don’t call others very much, they don’t call me.

1:30 p.m.

Here’s a nagging fact – I cannot say that my days are empty without the internet, I still do most of the things I’ve always done. I do lack a constant connection to everyone who uses the internet … but does that mean I lack human connection? No, not at all. Or am I utterly mistaken?

DAY SEVEN

9:00 a.m.

I am a modern-day Robinson Crusoe, though self-exiled, marooned with a few books and on the verge of trembling madness without any human contact. I never read the book, I read Moll Flanders instead, so I would really need to go to WikiPedia to read a synopsis and see if he did indeed have any books or paper or verged on trembling madness. Extending the metaphor, that would mean the internet is my Man Friday, the creature leaving a trail of footprints indicating potential human contact which I might follow, a lifeform that ends my solitude.

Now I am wondering what exactly Defoe’s tale told about the two – and I don’t have the ability to seek source info without the Web. I do recall with more accuracy ‘Robinson Crusoe on Mars” starring Paul Mantee as a marooned astronaut on Mars, who finds that applying heat to certain rocks produces oxygen so he can stay alive, and who finds a native Martian who is held in slavery by cruel overlords who force him and other native Martians to operate a mine. And Mantee did have a monkey too. I’m positive if I had a monkey, I would not miss the internet as much.

9:40 a.m.

Here’s a simple but vital element to having the Web, which I now lack, that I would dearly love to have right now. Have you ever had a snippet of song stuck forever in your head? My friends and I call these tuneful infestations ‘earwigs’, though I think there is a formal medical term for the condition. Anyway, anytime in the past I get attacked by a relentless tune, usually a tune I wonder how I even know, I can eliminate it by locating the song on the internet, playing and listening to it, and thereby canceling out the constant repetition in my head.

But no internet means I may just go insane now.

10:00 a.m.

I am starting to feel miserable. There are various items I preserved via an internet cloud and now cannot access, items I decided to store somewhere other than my own hard drive or flash drive in case a virus attacked my system. I’m in need of a few addresses and phone numbers I stored. In days long past I had a few address books loaded with such info. Now – I have nothing so simple.

10:22 a.m.

My decision to be Web-less seems most idiotic to me now. Who would chose to do such a thing? Am I just being sadistic to myself? And if I am, why am I doing it?

11:00 a.m.

I may listen to “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me” the humorous news quiz show, and I’m thinking that I won’t do very well trying to answer the quiz questions since I’ve had only some radio and tv news to inform me this week.

A giant FAIL on this test – the episode today is a rerun, so no test of the past week … maybe I’ll listen anyway….

Hey, I knew some things!! All on my own!! I knew that actress Heddy Lamar did research which helped develop cell phone technology and that ventriloquist Paul Winchell invented the first artificial heart. Good for me!

11:20 a.m.

Man oh man am I bored right out of my skull. Sigh.

9:39 p.m.

Let’s talk about Stumbling, the use of a Web app which allows for the random retrieval of web pages for a user to explore. I think it was late 2005 when I started using the app, first selecting a wide range of topics, from Astronomy to Geography to Zoology, and then clicking a button on my browser to go from page to page to page, and anyone who has or uses this app will tell you it becomes a habit to Stumble.

Stumbling through my own computer is a short exercise.

DAY EIGHT

8:44 a.m.

Waiting again, for the time when someone on radio or tv decides to share the current temperature. Meh.

10:00 a.m.

Prior to checking out of the Web, I had signed up for a Web app which allows for viewing several non-broadcast cameras backstage at tonite’s Oscar show. And no real-time commentary tonight on the Oscars either.

I did make use of a few audio books I’ve had stacked up for some time, which creates an illusion of a computer connection to a podcast or something. And I’ve been working on a few other writing projects, but I can’t say I’ve written more on those – my typical daily habits consist of writing as well as prowling the Web. Instead of prowling, I move around the house and get more exercise as I step out for a quick walk (or perhaps a stomping tantrum at the part of my brain which is enforcing this offline experiment).

11:33 a.m.

Bleh. Bored again with the non-Web world.

Tennessee Republicans Seek Theocracy

Tennessee Republicans make it clear in the current presidential primary race with their support for Sen. Rick Santorum - they want Tennessee to be a theocracy. Not that there were many doubts on that score.

The most recent MTSU poll results show the TNGOP supports Santorum by large margin - 40% for Santorum, 19% for Romney. Sen. Santorum is speaking at this moment at a private bible college, Crown College of The Bible. And he's been most plain over the course of his career and this current campaign stating that religion is the best and only guide for government.

So at least they have made clear their only their religious beliefs should determine governmental policy. If you hold a different view, not only are you wrong, you are damned.

Welcome to the new religious government of Tennessee.

Santorum also says if you want to go to college (like he did, for 3 degrees, like his children did) you are a snob. Odd then that today he's at a college. I must assume he means that if you get a college degree outside of a private Christian college, you are a source of evil and snobbery.