Sunday, May 31, 2009
Test Posting
You may ignore this posting. I'm testing my email subscription service.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Future is Now
I went to a high school Senior Honors Assembly the other day. The ceremony was touching in many ways, but the thing that struck me the hardest about things was the makeup of the students receiving the awards. No, not how the girls did their eyeliner, which is often bad enough in high school. I mean the ethnic mix of the students.
Not to sound like Chris Rock (too much) but the Asians really did have a lot of representation. But, and this is more important to what I'm writing about, so did the Latinos, the Phillipinos, the African-Americans (who call themselves black, by the way,) and even a few kids that mom and pop might have called "regular." Las Vegas has no majority ethnic group. We're like Southern California that way, and like the entire country is going to be in twenty years. If you find that vexing, well, there isn't much I can say to make you feel better. And, unfortunately for some theorists, nobody is accusing Ms. Wong or Mr. Aquino of being here illegally.
My students are Sophomores and Freshmen, but the mix is similar. Here are descriptions of a few of them. There is the boy from Central America who's Spanish, English and French are all pretty good. There's the girl from Samoa, who hopes to go back home after graduation (it's still in America, by the way.) I have the kid from Cambodia who is not that hot at English, but who is even worse at Spanish, except for the bad words. I have a Mexican boy who warns me never to trust a Mexican. A real joker, that one. I have the tall blond kid who only wants to study guitar but who will probably pass out of the ninth-grade science course anyway. I have quite a few kids of Mexican heritage who insist that I use their Anglicized names. And I have about a hundred and fifty more just like those, boys and girls alike.
So, to get to the point about politics, maybe you think it odd that a vital looking black dude names Obama beat out a stiff old white guy named McCain, but I don't. The mix of the rising generation is just about the same as the mix of my students. Even the white kids (that's what the students call them, so don't write me about it) prefer a guy like Obama to old gray white dudes. And, unlike the current crop of people moving into middle age, young folks like to vote. For the record, people in my cohort, the older Boomers, like to vote, too. For those younger than me but older than Obama's base, your failure to participate is largely responsible for the sorry state of our government. So screw you, okay?
To give another word of advice to the Republicans, they're going to have to come to grips with a new, multi ethnic America. In fact, one of my black students told me that "Obama isn't black." She's right. He calls himself a "mutt." Well, most of us are, and most of the country is going to come out of the "mutt" closet in the near future. If the Grand Old Party will stop arguing amongst it's few remaining stalwarts and take a look at reality, it may yet regain its strength. If not, somebody else will have to do it, because the old, "white" America just isn't around any more. Sorry about that, old cracker!
Steve
Not to sound like Chris Rock (too much) but the Asians really did have a lot of representation. But, and this is more important to what I'm writing about, so did the Latinos, the Phillipinos, the African-Americans (who call themselves black, by the way,) and even a few kids that mom and pop might have called "regular." Las Vegas has no majority ethnic group. We're like Southern California that way, and like the entire country is going to be in twenty years. If you find that vexing, well, there isn't much I can say to make you feel better. And, unfortunately for some theorists, nobody is accusing Ms. Wong or Mr. Aquino of being here illegally.
My students are Sophomores and Freshmen, but the mix is similar. Here are descriptions of a few of them. There is the boy from Central America who's Spanish, English and French are all pretty good. There's the girl from Samoa, who hopes to go back home after graduation (it's still in America, by the way.) I have the kid from Cambodia who is not that hot at English, but who is even worse at Spanish, except for the bad words. I have a Mexican boy who warns me never to trust a Mexican. A real joker, that one. I have the tall blond kid who only wants to study guitar but who will probably pass out of the ninth-grade science course anyway. I have quite a few kids of Mexican heritage who insist that I use their Anglicized names. And I have about a hundred and fifty more just like those, boys and girls alike.
So, to get to the point about politics, maybe you think it odd that a vital looking black dude names Obama beat out a stiff old white guy named McCain, but I don't. The mix of the rising generation is just about the same as the mix of my students. Even the white kids (that's what the students call them, so don't write me about it) prefer a guy like Obama to old gray white dudes. And, unlike the current crop of people moving into middle age, young folks like to vote. For the record, people in my cohort, the older Boomers, like to vote, too. For those younger than me but older than Obama's base, your failure to participate is largely responsible for the sorry state of our government. So screw you, okay?
To give another word of advice to the Republicans, they're going to have to come to grips with a new, multi ethnic America. In fact, one of my black students told me that "Obama isn't black." She's right. He calls himself a "mutt." Well, most of us are, and most of the country is going to come out of the "mutt" closet in the near future. If the Grand Old Party will stop arguing amongst it's few remaining stalwarts and take a look at reality, it may yet regain its strength. If not, somebody else will have to do it, because the old, "white" America just isn't around any more. Sorry about that, old cracker!
Steve
Labels: Politics, Social Commentary
One Foot In Front Of The Other (Finally!)
What with the stress of starting a new teaching position, and the accompanying recurrent illnesses (which I seem to have under control) I haven't trained in five months. All that changes tomorrow morning. This will be my third Las Vegas Marathon. The Marathon is under new management (hooray for that) and I'm looking forward to good times and great music on race day. Until then, unless I break a leg, I think I'll post every so often just to let my friends know how I'm doing. I volunteered to be a pace leader, going for a time of 5:15, or about 12 minutes per mile. That's five miles per hour, or about six leagues per decade. Hey, it's better than carping all the time, isn't it?
Steve
Steve
Monday, May 25, 2009
The People Have Spoken
It's popular amongst the libertarian whiner crowd in Nevada to point to California and mention the fiscal mess that state is in, and to blame said mess on greed head California politicians, who in their entrenched positions of glory and power have decided to buy support by supplying the citizens of California with every possible "nanny state" endowment, and who now wish to pay for all that largess with heavy taxes. Whew.
It's true that California does a lot of things (on paper) that other states do not attempt. There are special programs for the poor displaced moss lost on the South side of a tree in the forest, or so it seems. But, the thing that the critics in Nevada are missing is that these special programs are all mandated, or nearly all at least, by citizen approved initiative-produced laws. That is, the citizens of the great state of California have, in their wisdom, insisted that California provide extra protection for blue-headed boobies on Alcatraz island (there aren't any, I'm making that example up) but have failed utterly to provide for any means of funding the effort. So when the legislature tries to raise taxes to balance the state budget, they are simply trying to comply with the laws enacted by the people of California in an open example of direct democracy called the initiative process.
Nevada has initiative, too. Special interest groups simply hire a bunch of otherwise apparently unemployable people to accost citizens outside of grocery stores and get them to sign a petition for whatever law the special interest group is trying to get passed. Perhaps the legislature, having as they do to come up with money to fund all these things, might decline to enact one or more laws that some group or other (and that's a "special interest" by definition, incidentally) wants to see enacted. Sending those petition gatherers out circumvents the reluctance of the legislature to "make government serve the people" by making laws without bothering the people elected to do just that. It's an example of democracy in action, and a tribute to the people of America.
Or, as I prefer to call it, it's pure bullshit.
California is in the mess it's in directly as a result of the initiative process. The state of Colorado was in a similar mess a few years back for the same reason. There, the people had mandated ever increasing spending on education, hamstrung the property tax collection process, and forbidden the legislature from doing anything about it, which resulted in the state being unable to function at all. The folks in Colorado suspended their mandates for five years to let the state get back on its feet. Better they should have ditched initiative all together.
The initiative process reflects the will of "the people." Groups that have done a lot of talking about the will of the people include the Bolsheviks, who in nineteen-seventeen overthrew an elected government in Russia because "the people" demanded it. Communists have always talked about the will of "the people," and in fact North Korea is known legally as "The People's Democratic Republic of Korea." Not sure what people that name is talking about, but that's the way it is: "The people" is an easily manipulated idiot. That's why the people who wrote the government of the United States made sure we had a republican form of government, not a democracy. Another guy who appealed very broadly to "the people" was Julius Caesar. You know, the guy who brought down the Republic of Rome? Brought down the republic by appealing to and delivering on the will of the people. Caesar knew where to turn to destroy a country. I imagine it would still work today.
Frankly, the only initiative I'm willing to sign would be one to forbid all future initiative efforts. Of course, to pass the law, you'd have to convince "the people" to agree that it's an idiot, which could be a tough sell. But I think we ought to try. We have nothing to lose, and sane government to gain.
There, the person has spoken!
Steve
It's true that California does a lot of things (on paper) that other states do not attempt. There are special programs for the poor displaced moss lost on the South side of a tree in the forest, or so it seems. But, the thing that the critics in Nevada are missing is that these special programs are all mandated, or nearly all at least, by citizen approved initiative-produced laws. That is, the citizens of the great state of California have, in their wisdom, insisted that California provide extra protection for blue-headed boobies on Alcatraz island (there aren't any, I'm making that example up) but have failed utterly to provide for any means of funding the effort. So when the legislature tries to raise taxes to balance the state budget, they are simply trying to comply with the laws enacted by the people of California in an open example of direct democracy called the initiative process.
Nevada has initiative, too. Special interest groups simply hire a bunch of otherwise apparently unemployable people to accost citizens outside of grocery stores and get them to sign a petition for whatever law the special interest group is trying to get passed. Perhaps the legislature, having as they do to come up with money to fund all these things, might decline to enact one or more laws that some group or other (and that's a "special interest" by definition, incidentally) wants to see enacted. Sending those petition gatherers out circumvents the reluctance of the legislature to "make government serve the people" by making laws without bothering the people elected to do just that. It's an example of democracy in action, and a tribute to the people of America.
Or, as I prefer to call it, it's pure bullshit.
California is in the mess it's in directly as a result of the initiative process. The state of Colorado was in a similar mess a few years back for the same reason. There, the people had mandated ever increasing spending on education, hamstrung the property tax collection process, and forbidden the legislature from doing anything about it, which resulted in the state being unable to function at all. The folks in Colorado suspended their mandates for five years to let the state get back on its feet. Better they should have ditched initiative all together.
The initiative process reflects the will of "the people." Groups that have done a lot of talking about the will of the people include the Bolsheviks, who in nineteen-seventeen overthrew an elected government in Russia because "the people" demanded it. Communists have always talked about the will of "the people," and in fact North Korea is known legally as "The People's Democratic Republic of Korea." Not sure what people that name is talking about, but that's the way it is: "The people" is an easily manipulated idiot. That's why the people who wrote the government of the United States made sure we had a republican form of government, not a democracy. Another guy who appealed very broadly to "the people" was Julius Caesar. You know, the guy who brought down the Republic of Rome? Brought down the republic by appealing to and delivering on the will of the people. Caesar knew where to turn to destroy a country. I imagine it would still work today.
Frankly, the only initiative I'm willing to sign would be one to forbid all future initiative efforts. Of course, to pass the law, you'd have to convince "the people" to agree that it's an idiot, which could be a tough sell. But I think we ought to try. We have nothing to lose, and sane government to gain.
There, the person has spoken!
Steve
Labels: Politics, Social Commentary
Phoenix for the Weekend
Well, it's on Living Las Vegas. See above for my latest rant on this blog. As for Phoenix, click here!
Labels: Reviews
Sunday, May 17, 2009
RIP -- Republican Irrelevant Party?
I'm not a Democrat, whatever it may look like if you follow my posts from the past four years. I just knew before W. Bush got elected that he was dumb as a post, and I was so frustrated that I finally gave in to the urge to badmouth the man. Normally I don't badmouth a sitting President, because it's not a job you could give me. I think I'd move to Nepal before I took it, and I'm not kidding. So forgive me if I've seemed to lean Democrat the last few years. The attraction was that they weren't Bush. I swear, almost anyone would have been better than Kerry, but I voted for him because Bush isn't almost anyone, is he?
So anyhow, I'm amused to see that the Democrats, particularly Pelosi, are getting into hot water so deeply. Yee-haw, it goes on. But I'm more concerned about the Republicans, because there is almost nothing left of them. Idiots like Limbaugh talk about ideological purity or some such claptrap (and regular readers know what I think of high ideals.) Idealogical purity? What happened to the "party of the big tent?" You don't want anyone who disagrees with your little world view? That's pretty much what's wrong with idealism, in a nutshell. Unfortunately for the party, but fortunately for the rest of us, the inevitable destruction that rises from a position of pure idealism has been falling entirely on the Republicans. There are, I believe, two moderate Republicans left in Congress. And the core of the party wishes they'd convert like Specter did, or so they say.
Day was that I always split my ticket. Oh, sure, my first election I went Democrat because my parents were hard-core Republican, but that's no way to decide an election. I voted for Nixon, even, in my first Presidential election. I doubt that Nixon passes the purity test of the Ann Coulter wing either, by the way. Any more, though, I vote for Democrats because I can't stomach the holier than thou attitude of the group that took over, and seemingly destroyed, the Republican party beginning in the seventies. No, that's wrong. Those people are leaving as well, leaving the field to the, er, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, scaredy-cat, elbows who used to like to go to Klan meetings for fun. Maybe still do, even. That, I am sure, is not what the Republican party is all about.
Conservativism in America means liberalism applied in a corporate way. That's the way it's always been, from Hamilton and Adams right up to, and I do mean this, W. Bush. The "base" of the Republicans finally turned on W. because he was, well, being too Republican for them. Liberalism in America means liberalism applied to individuals, as in trying for equality and fairness. Those are the poles that America rotates on. To the rest of the world, we're all a bunch of raving liberals. I'm not kidding, we really are. To most people we are arguing over what it means to be liberal. To ourselves, of course, we are simply arguing.
The former cross-burning Dixiecrats who snuck into the party with the evangelicals now have the place to themselves, apparently. They surely don't like American Liberalism, because it has empowered a guy like Obama to be (gasp!) President. But they don't like traditional Conservativism either because business, and the Republicans, are after all the group that won the Civil War. Ouch, huh? That leaves those benighted souls with themselves. I guess they deserve it.
I hope that the Republican party survives, even thrives again. But honestly this time. It's not illegal to be a racist bigot on your own time, but those people are growing very tiresome and not worth the electricity to listen to.
They're worse than Democrats, and that's saying a whole lot.
Steve
So anyhow, I'm amused to see that the Democrats, particularly Pelosi, are getting into hot water so deeply. Yee-haw, it goes on. But I'm more concerned about the Republicans, because there is almost nothing left of them. Idiots like Limbaugh talk about ideological purity or some such claptrap (and regular readers know what I think of high ideals.) Idealogical purity? What happened to the "party of the big tent?" You don't want anyone who disagrees with your little world view? That's pretty much what's wrong with idealism, in a nutshell. Unfortunately for the party, but fortunately for the rest of us, the inevitable destruction that rises from a position of pure idealism has been falling entirely on the Republicans. There are, I believe, two moderate Republicans left in Congress. And the core of the party wishes they'd convert like Specter did, or so they say.
Day was that I always split my ticket. Oh, sure, my first election I went Democrat because my parents were hard-core Republican, but that's no way to decide an election. I voted for Nixon, even, in my first Presidential election. I doubt that Nixon passes the purity test of the Ann Coulter wing either, by the way. Any more, though, I vote for Democrats because I can't stomach the holier than thou attitude of the group that took over, and seemingly destroyed, the Republican party beginning in the seventies. No, that's wrong. Those people are leaving as well, leaving the field to the, er, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, scaredy-cat, elbows who used to like to go to Klan meetings for fun. Maybe still do, even. That, I am sure, is not what the Republican party is all about.
Conservativism in America means liberalism applied in a corporate way. That's the way it's always been, from Hamilton and Adams right up to, and I do mean this, W. Bush. The "base" of the Republicans finally turned on W. because he was, well, being too Republican for them. Liberalism in America means liberalism applied to individuals, as in trying for equality and fairness. Those are the poles that America rotates on. To the rest of the world, we're all a bunch of raving liberals. I'm not kidding, we really are. To most people we are arguing over what it means to be liberal. To ourselves, of course, we are simply arguing.
The former cross-burning Dixiecrats who snuck into the party with the evangelicals now have the place to themselves, apparently. They surely don't like American Liberalism, because it has empowered a guy like Obama to be (gasp!) President. But they don't like traditional Conservativism either because business, and the Republicans, are after all the group that won the Civil War. Ouch, huh? That leaves those benighted souls with themselves. I guess they deserve it.
I hope that the Republican party survives, even thrives again. But honestly this time. It's not illegal to be a racist bigot on your own time, but those people are growing very tiresome and not worth the electricity to listen to.
They're worse than Democrats, and that's saying a whole lot.
Steve
Labels: Politics, Social Commentary
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Music Man
See my blog at Living Las Vegas for more on this topic. This is just my review. Went to see The Music Man as performed by the Nevada Conservatory Theater on Friday. It's college theater, and it's pretty good. I like musicals, and I especially like The Music Man. The crowd came to see their favorite scenes, and nobody looked disappointed. If you've only seen the movie, then maybe, like me, you've wondered about that song "Shifoofie," near the end. It sort of shows something about the Professor and how he's feeling, but it seems all alone out there. That always bothered me because, unlike most musicals, The Music Man never drags in the middle. It's good from beginning to end. The Shifoofie thing never really hurt it, but I always wondered why, in an other wise tight production, it seemed to be loose.
Seeing the play produced, which I have a couple of times now, I see what it's about. Shortly after that song comes a reprise of the Pick a Little song, only this time the ladies are inviting, nay begging, the librarian to join them, and proclaiming their love for her books, even Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac. So there it is: Shifoofie and the reprise of Pick a Little show how the two main characters are feeling! Aha!
Anyhow, it's still a great musical. If you get a chance to see it in a theater, by all means do. The only negative is that Robert Preston can't play the professor any more.
Steve
Seeing the play produced, which I have a couple of times now, I see what it's about. Shortly after that song comes a reprise of the Pick a Little song, only this time the ladies are inviting, nay begging, the librarian to join them, and proclaiming their love for her books, even Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac. So there it is: Shifoofie and the reprise of Pick a Little show how the two main characters are feeling! Aha!
Anyhow, it's still a great musical. If you get a chance to see it in a theater, by all means do. The only negative is that Robert Preston can't play the professor any more.
Steve
Labels: Reviews
Star Trek
Saw Star Trek yesterday. If you are even a little bit of a fan, and you haven't seen it yet, then finish reading this sentence, turn off your monitor (no Trek fan ever turns off the whole system,) go to the nearest theater and see it. Warning: They change the canon! Not that everything in the canon didn't happen, but they change it. Watch and learn. Best Star Trek I've seen in a very long time.
Labels: Reviews
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
I'm Baaaaaaack!
Didja miss me? In the course of moving to the new house I lost the adapter to plug my PS2 keyboard into my USB port. I did post a review of Wolverine here, but that's all I could stand to type. Sorry for the delay. Assuming the Swine Flu doesn't kill me (ha ha) I'll be back to posting as usual.
Steve
Steve
