To All,
Please note our new domain name is http://flowersforsocrates.com when sharing it with new readers. Our old temporary domain name will point to this new address, so there is no need to update your bookmarks. Thanks for bearing with us as Flowers for Socrates grows!
Gene Howington, Editor-in-Chief
By GENE HOWINGTON
One of the common complaints about the Federal Reserve Bank is that it is a private institution with too much power and too little actual responsibility to the public because of that. The reason this causes a problem is that the Fed has demonstrated that they will ignore the systemic health of the economy in favor of the profits of financial institutions. They seem to be set to do so again. This time the issue is physical commodities trading. The winners will be the usual suspects: JPMorgan/Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, et al. The losers will be the business community (including some very large businesses indeed) and you, the American public. But is it a foregone conclusion this time?
By GENE HOWINGTON
If you haven’t been living under a rock, and maybe if you have, you’ve heard the song “Royals” by Kiwi sensation Lorde. It’s a catchy lil’ pop ditty. For the pop genre, it’s better than average by a long shot. However, you know you’ve really made it when your song isn’t just remade, but parodied.
Enjoy. Especially if you’re over 30.
By ELAINE MAGLIARO
(NOTE: I posted the following article on Res ipsa loquitor on October 6, 2013.)
In the past couple of years, we’ve heard many reports from the mainstream media about how the pension funds of public sector workers are experiencing shortfalls and how they are bankrupting states and municipalities that may be unable to fulfill their pension obligations. All of the blame for this problem has been laid at the feet of public sector workers and their unions. Have the mainstream media presented the public with a true picture of the “pension crisis”—or have they just been repeating the talking points fed to them by certain politicians, organizations, and think tanks? Are “greedy” public sector workers and their unions truly responsible for the “pension crisis”—or are there other causes that are at the root of the problem?
David Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and book author who is a specialist in economics and tax issues, wrote about the issue of public employee contributions to their pension funds in the state of Wisconsin in March of 2011:
When it comes to improving public understanding of tax policy, nothing has been more troubling than the deeply flawed coverage of the Wisconsin state employees’ fight over collective bargaining.
Economic nonsense is being reported as fact in most of the news reports on the Wisconsin dispute, the product of a breakdown of skepticism among journalists multiplied by their lack of understanding of basic economic principles.
Gov. Scott Walker says he wants state workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to “contribute more” to their pension and health insurance plans.
Accepting Walker’s assertions as fact, and failing to check, created the impression that somehow the workers are getting something extra, a gift from taxpayers. They are not.
Out of every dollar that funds Wisconsin’s pension and health insurance plans for state workers, 100 cents comes from the state workers.
How can that be? Because the “contributions” consist of money that employees chose to take as deferred wages — as pensions when they retire — rather than take immediately in cash. The same is true with the health care plan. If this were not so a serious crime would be taking place, the gift of public funds rather than payment for services.
By ELAINE MAGLIARO
For my first post at Flowers for Socrates, I thought I’d share “Out, Out—”, a poem written by Robert Frost, and a video from the Favorite Poem Project. In the video, Frost’s poem is read by Elizabeth Wojtusik, a teaching artist. Wojtusik also explains why the poem has relevance to her life.
In Americans’ Favorite Poems, the first anthology compiled by the Favorite Poem Project, Wojtusik provides her reasons for choosing Frost’s poem as her favorite:
Even just look at the title of the poem and consider the content. This boy’s life is over. He is out—of—here. Why do I want to read this poem? Because I was transfixed by it from the start. The stage is set so well. I clearly see the boy, his sister, the busy mill. There is so uch action in the poem’s onset; then it is reduced to a weakening heartbeat and a few slow breaths. But it’s the end line that I so often repeat to myself when I am reminded of the frequent apathy of a world calloused to the misfortune of others. Life goes on…
By GENE HOWINGTON
The BBC has published an interesting opinion piece that goes straight to the heart of one of the key problems in society today, from media to politics to interpersonal relationships. That problem is willful ignorance. It is an interesting read.
Excerpt: “We’d like to think the financial crisis is safely in the past. The events of 2007-2008, when the world’s banking system was on the brink of collapse, seemed like a once-in-a-century upheaval, and it’s natural to imagine we’ve returned to some kind of normalcy. Disaster has been averted, and there may be some signs of recovery in the economy. But have we emerged onto a sunny upland of stability, or are we fooling ourselves? History suggests an upheaval on this scale isn’t left behind so easily. Could it be that we know the crisis hasn’t been resolved, but prefer not to think about the fact?
Former US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld’s distinction between known unknowns and unknown unknowns has passed into everyday speech. It’s not the things of which we know we’re ignorant that we should worry about, he pointed out. It’s the things we’re unaware of not knowing that can really cause trouble. It’s a useful reminder of the vastness of human ignorance. But might there not be another kind of unknown, which Rumsfeld didn’t mention – one that consists of things we choose not to know?”
Read the rest here: “A Point of View: See no evil” at BBC News.
Sirgiorgiro Clardy
By GENE HOWINGTON
Not to be confused with the British trip-hop band Sneaker Pimps, Portland based Sirgiorgiro Clardy is a singularly different kind of sneaker pimp. In June of 2012, Clardy beat a john so badly with his Nike Air Jordans (via stomping on his face) that it required stitches and plastic surgery to repair the damage. In addition to that beating, he was also convicted for robbing the john in question and beating the woman he had forced into prostitution until her ears bled. This nets the 26 year old Oregon pimp a 100 year prison sentence that won’t see him eligible for parole for 36 years. The crime in itself is horrible enough. The man himself is horrible enough. A psychologist who interviewed Clardy incident to the trial, Frank Colistro, said Clardy was in “the 100th percentile of narcissistic criminals and he’s 100 percent likely to commit violent crimes again in the next seven years” according to The Oregonian. Noting a three decade career in evaluating criminals, Colistro said, ”I’ve evaluated serial murders, serial rapists, and I’m going to tell you very few of those people reach the elevations (scores) we’re going to talk about here. People like Mr. Clardy are born bad. It’s not something we can fix. …That’s why we have prisons.” Colistro also told the paper that Clardy was the kind of criminal that “thinks of himself as smarter, more attractive and superior than everyone else.” But maybe that explains what happened next. Clardy is now suing Nike.
By GENE HOWINGTON
As mentioned in the last installment of this series, silence in various forms can be just as potent a propaganda tool as words or images proper. Variations of this tactic were presented as were examples of successful and unsuccessful attempts at its utilization. This last week a news story appeared that illustrates one of the major types of failure associated with this tactic and it is one that is every more likely and hard to avoid in the Information Age. This type of failure is known colloquially as the Streisand Effect; whereby an attempt to hide or remove a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.
“Don’t look at this!”
Named for singer Barbara Streisand, it is a modern term for an old phenomena. Similar to the meme of “Banned in Boston”, it revolves around the idea that forbidden fruit is the most tempting and that banning or censoring something often makes that item or information more desirable. Babs got her name attached to this propaganda phenomena when in 2003 she attempted to suppress photographs of her residence and inadvertently generated further publicity. This publicity was notably “improved” – although if you’re Babs you might say “exacerbated” – by the World Wide Web.
This story involves the GOP attempting to suppress a non-partisan tax study that debunked their entire Ayn Rand/neoconservative taxation mythology that catering to the wealthy creates jobs. It provides an interesting case study in the Streisand Effect. It also raises some interesting questions about political culpability and consequences.
(c) zcool.com.cn
By GENE HOWINGTON
Throughout the ages, tools have been limited by two factors: skill of the user and design. But what happens when the design decreases the skill required of the user? Usually there is an increase in efficiency. For example, consider that some with a pneumatic nail gun can frame, lay decking or put down shingles ten time faster than a skilled carpenter with the best hammer. Sometimes a design improvement makes a tool more difficult to use but has some other efficiency trade-off. For example, an automobile is more difficult to operate than a bicycle, but it gets you to your destination orders of magnitude faster and allows you to carry more cargo. This same logic applies to tools of war, especially with projectile weapons. Throwing is a complex action and not everyone is good at it. However, once man started using machines to aid in throwing, it has been a steady progression of design improvements that have decreased the required skill of the operator. An atlatl is easier than throwing a rock. A short bow is easier to use than an atlatl. A longbow is harder to use than a short bow, but it has greater range and stronger impact. A composite bow is easier to use than a longbow but has some of the same benefits. A composite bow is easier to use still. But tool design is like all endeavors of applied science. Just because we can do something doesn’t always equate to doing it being a good and/or wise idea. Which brings us to the smart rifle.
I’d like to welcome Mike Appleton to the Flowers for Socrates family! He doesn’t write as many columns as some of us, but when he does, he speaks volumes. Erudite and knowledgeable, Mike always makes his case clearly and to the point. He’s also one of the most reasonable people I have the pleasure of knowing which, if you know that I like to argue for sport, can be quite exasperating when you’re spoiling for a good argument and in strolls Mike being all perfectly reasonable. I hope you all enjoy and look forward to his future contributions here as much as I do! He’s another fine addition to our rapidly growing family.
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