Post-Constitutional America

Well, we've finally cleared up any doubt about whether or not mass-murdering Bin-Ladin succeeded: he did, beyond his wildest fantasies.

Not only did he lure the Bush-Cheney Junta into the meatgrinders of Afghanistan and Iraq, but he destroyed America at the same time. So complete has been the cowardly and craven surrender of spineless elected officials been, that even a supposedly liberal (really center-right) administration is delighted to happily junk the Bill of Rights and, among them, the central rationale for the Declaration of Independence, the idea that people had inalienable rights, first among them individual liberty and freedom from detention and imprisonment at the say-so of an autocrat.

"Your Freedom" in Salem, Jan. 23

The Occupy Salem Education Committee presents Willamette Law Professor Susan Smith speaking on the civil liberties implications of the recently-passed National Defense Authorization Act.

This piece of legislation, which recently passed the U.S. Congress overwhelmingly and was subsequently signed by President Obama, despite his earlier vow to veto it, suspends some of our most cherished civil liberties. Learn how it could affect you!

Monday, January 23, 7 p.m. in the Paulus Lecture Hall at Willamette University's Law School (Room E 201). No charge.

This Thursday: Taking on the American uber-fantasy (endless growth)

 Another outstanding offering from the good folks behind the Salem Progressive Film Series.

Thursday, Jan 12, 2012     7 p.m.
How do we become a sustainable civilization? We are addicted to unending growth in a world that has limits.  Individual and public policy decisions today are formed by a powerful, pro-growth cultural bias.  We worship at the Church of Growth Everlasting. Undeterred by the facts, we’re on a collision course powered by denial and the myth that growth brings prosperity.  This film examines the cultural barriers that prevent us from reacting rationally to the evidence that current levels of population and consumption are unsustainable.

Location Grand Theater, 191 High Street NE
Hours Doors open at 6:15p Films begin at 7p
Admission Adults $4 Students $3

Shameless commerce division on a sweet Groupon deal: Up to 53% Off Frozen Pies

These are really, really good pies from a local Salem company that uses locally grown fruit. Just got my five-pie punchcard for $28. Hard to top that.

If you sign up and buy it these by clicking through the link below, you might earn me some Groupon credit, which will earn you my undying appreciation, or maybe a slice of pie.

Punch Card for Two or Five Frozen Pies at Willamette Valley Fruit Company (Up to 53% Off)

http://www.groupon.com/deals/willamette-valley-fruit-company-1?utm_campaign=UserReferral&utm_medium=email&utm_source=uu3531303

The Growth of Degrowth Economics

Image by Lights In The Dark via FlickrLong overdue: sensible thinking about growth on a finite planet.

Related articles

• Goodbye 'Shop Til You Drop' Mentality: Renegade Band of Economists Call for 'Degrowth' Economy (alternet.org)

Another Cognitive Benefit for Musicians, Athletes - Miller-McCune

As Salem-Keizer Schools continues to sacrifice the things that make schools work on the altar of standardized tests:    

. . . The researchers speculate that musicians learn to think in terms of spatial relationships “because notes are coded in terms of their spatial positions.” This makes intuitive sense.  A musician, like an athlete, instinctively learns to navigate through space: one reads notes on a staff, while another masters the parameters of a tennis court or football field.

While this one small study is hardly conclusive, it provides more evidence of the drawbacks of a basics-only approach to education. Such an approach ignores the ways important mental processes are enhanced by learning that occurs outside the core curriculum.  This research suggests, in the words of Pietsch and Jansen, that “playing an instrument or a sport for many years has an enhancing effect on a specific cognitive task” — one that confers real-world benefits.

Question: Since When Is It a Crime to Be Poor?

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/08/nickel-and-dimed-afterword

. . . How have the already-poor attempted to cope with their worsening economic situation? One obvious way is to cut back on health care. The New York Times reported in 2009 that one-third of Americans could no longer afford to comply with their prescriptions and that there had been a sizable drop in the use of medical care. Others, including members of my extended family, have given up their health insurance.

Food is another expenditure that has proved vulnerable to hard times, with the rural poor turning increasingly to "food auctions," which offer items that may be past their sell-by dates. And for those who like their meat fresh, there's the option of urban hunting. In Racine, Wisconsin, a 51-year-old laid-off mechanic told me he was supplementing his diet by "shooting squirrels and rabbits and eating them stewed, baked, and grilled." In Detroit, where the wildlife population has mounted as the human population ebbs, a retired truck driver was doing a brisk business in raccoon carcasses, which he recommends marinating with vinegar and spices.

The most common coping strategy, though, is simply to increase the number of paying people per square foot of dwelling space—by doubling up or renting to couch-surfers.
It's hard to get firm numbers on overcrowding, because no one likes to acknowledge it to census-takers, journalists, or anyone else who might be remotely connected to the authorities.

In Los Angeles, housing expert Peter Dreier says that "people who've lost their jobs, or at least their second jobs, cope by doubling or tripling up in overcrowded apartments, or by paying 50 or 60 or even 70 percent of their incomes in rent." According to a community organizer in Alexandria, Virginia, the standard apartment in a complex occupied largely by day laborers has two bedrooms, each containing an entire family of up to five people, plus an additional person laying claim to the couch.

No one could call suicide a "coping strategy," but it is one way some people have responded to job loss and debt. There are no national statistics linking suicide to economic hard times, but the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline reported more than a four-fold increase in call volume between 2007 and 2009, and regions with particularly high unemployment, like Elkhart, Indiana, have seen troubling spikes in their suicide rates. Foreclosure is often the trigger for suicide—or, worse, murder-suicides that destroy entire families. . . .