Apparently growing food is not a "21st Century Skill"

Which -- in an era of ecological and economic meltdown -- might mean that eating isn't either.  (This is a headnote -- an idea abstracted from a legal opinion -- much like the one that first caused the corporate personhood zombie to start wreaking havoc on our country.)

78 Civil Rights

78II Employment Practices

78k1199 Age Discrimination

78k1200 k. In General.

In employment discrimination context, phrase "21st Century skills" refers to nationally-recognized skill set, the primary focus of which concerns the integration of modern technologies for research, organization, evaluation, and communication of information.
Marlow v. Chesterfield County Sch. Bd., 749 F. Supp. 2d 417 (E.D. Va. 2010)

Seen near the Capitol, Part Deux

Speaking of insane lobbyist power, there's this sign, a perfect commentary on what Salem and Oregon find worthy of exaltation and glory. This plaque is perhaps in the most prestigious spot imaginable -- dead center in front of the Capitol, just on the other side of the fountain, centered on the Capitol mall greensward, we find

a) a monument to, a hero or heroine from Oregon's storied history?
b) A tribute to the brave fallen from the wars?
c) A gentle encouragement to better citizenship?
d) A plaque glorifying a parking garage for cars?

Of course you knew it was d) all along. Truly, we can know a people by what they honor.

A little reality with the bark off

The acerbic (cranky, dyspeptic, misanthropic, you pick the adjective) James Howard Kunstler is one of the best at describing the period we're entering and perhaps the most-consistent advocate of a sensible policy approach to responding. From this week's blog post:

Which brings me back to the New Urbanist annual meet-up last week in Denver. Given the gathering conditions of what I variously call The Long Emergency or the economic clusterf[log], they have had to shift their focus starkly. For years, their stock-in-trade was the greenfield New Town or Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), a severe reform of conventional suburban development. That sort of reform work was only possible when

1. the continued expansion of suburbia seemed utterly inevitable, requiring heroic mitigation and
   
   
2. when they could team up with the production home-builders to get their TND projects built.

To the group's credit, they realize that these conditions are no more. Suburbia is now cratering, both as a repository of wealth in real estate and as a practical matter of everyday existence. They get that the energy crisis and all its implications are real and that our response to it had better be deft. They understand that the capital resources we thought we had for Big Projects are flying into a black hole at the speed of light. Mostly they see that he time for "cutting edge" fashionista techno-triumphalist grandiosity is over.

To put it bluntly, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) is perhaps the only surviving collective intelligence left in the United States that is producing ideas consistent with the reality. They recognize that our survival depends on down-scaling and re-localization. They recognize the crisis we will soon face in food production, and the desperate need to reactivate the relationship between the way we inhabit the landscape and the way we feed ourselves. They recognize that the solution to the liquid fuels crisis is not cars that can run by other means but on walkable towns and cities connected by public transit.

This is exactly what you will not find in the pages of The New York Times or the political corridors of power. Oh, by the way, the Obama administration contacted one of the leading lights of the New Urbanism in the weeks after the inauguration. He never heard back from the White House. I guess they're not interested.

Something to keep in mind when approached for money for a new bridge in Salem

"$300 million is peanuts in transportation projects."

-- Mark Becktel,
Salem Transportation Services Manager