Update from the
Heartland
No.708
6.7.15 – 12.7.15
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- On Tuesday, as Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas continues
his obfuscation [707] in the wake of
the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges [576 U.S. ___ (2015)][706] decision, our esteemed governor (he said sarcastically) issued
Executive Order 15-05, titled: “Preservation and Protection of Religious
Freedom,” protecting the religious freedom of Kansas clergy and religious
organizations. I suspect our good
ol’ buddy Sam may well move the bar far higher in the hypocrisy and cynicism
departments. In contrast to his
executive order this week, I will remind readers of his actions five months
ago, when he issued Executive Order 15-01 [687],
which rescinded Executive Order 07-24 and removed state legal protections for
citizens based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. He eagerly extended protections based
on religion (a hypothetical discrimination) while he denied protections based
on sexual orientation (a very real, palpable, persistent discrimination). This governor has no qualms whatsoever
and certainly no discernible constitutional scruples when it comes to pandering
to the religious right and social conservatives. He shall not prevail.
We shall overcome.
Since I
voiced my counter-opinion to Cal Thomas in last week’s Update [707], it is only fair that I
acknowledge that I agree with Cal in this week’s opinion.
“‘Culture wars’ well-intentioned but a mistake”
by Cal Thomas – Tribune
Wichita Eagle
Published: JULY 7, 2015
Cal’s opening two sentences, “The ‘culture wars,’ while
well-intentioned, were a mistake from the beginning. Evangelical Christians, whose Leader said, ‘My Kingdom is not
of this world,’ thought they could organize people of like mind and like faith
and create a voting bloc to elect people who would impose something resembling
that other kingdom on people who do not see themselves as members of that
kingdom.” The key word in those
two sentences is the word “impose.”
As the reader will note in the Comment section below, the political and
social clash between religion and freedom persists and will remain a part of
our social intercourse until we reach the day when we respect the freedom of
choice of all citizens, and reject the temptation of projecting our moral
values on other citizens and denying their freedom of choice. While I do not share Cal’s perspective
or rationale for his opinion, the conclusion is the same – fundamentalist
Christians (or any other fundamentalist religious persuasion) were and are
wrong in their attempt to impose their moral values on the private choices of
other citizens.
A friend and frequent contributor sent along the article
below in furtherance of our on-going debate surrounding the Greece debt
situation:
“Radical austerity’s brutal lies: How Krugman and Chomsky
saw through dehumanizing neoliberal spin – The battle in Greece is identical to
the one we need to be waging right here for fairness over markets and banks”
by Patrick L. Smith
salon.com
Published: WEDNESDAY, JUL 8, 2015; 06:00 PM CDT
As I read Smith’s words, I wanted to just ignore the
message. I felt anger. There is no debate that austerity in
Greece is hurting those Greek citizens who can least afford to endure austerity
measures. Yet, Smith focuses
solely on the “suffering” under austerity measures, while ignoring the reality
that Greece sucked down €317B in a matter of a few years. I doubt all that money went to the poor,
or even a fraction of that amount.
Now, they have added audacity to their boldness as the Greek government
has now requested another €59B in additional bailout funding. The balls! If there is a flaw in the EU’s approach to dealing with
the Greek debt situation, it is in not investigating and prosecuting those who
absorbed (stole) all that money. Poor
Greeks are NOT the problem. In
that, Smith, Krugman and Chomsky are NOT the problem either; they are simply
chroniclers of reality.
Comments and contributions from Update no.707:
“Thank you Cap, very interesting travels and I'll be replying.
“Congratulations, you reached your Update No. 707--what a
wonderful airliner, and an achievement on your part of compiling news items and
commenting, for 707 times!!!! That is great!”
My reply:
Thank
you. The B-707 was indeed a
wonderful aircraft. The Updates
are my pleasure. It has been a
bonus that anyone else finds them useful.
Another comment:
“MiG-21, F-4, F-84 and I think a F-11 Tiger….or perhaps a Swedish
Saab.”
My response:
Excellent,
my friend. All correct on your
first answer. I really did not
think anyone would get the F-84 Starstreak. Correct answers (left to right):
F-4 Phantom II, MiG-21 Fishbed, F-11 Tiger, and F-84 Starstreak.
Another contribution:
“Great to read about another aeronautical themed museum—my
favorite of museums. Glad you enjoyed it. Taking a stab at your pop quiz I have to say there is an F-4
Phantom II to the left, a MiG-21 in the center, and an F-104 Starfighter to the
right of the MiG-21. I can’t place
the plane immediately to the right in the photo, the one with the red &
white striped mid horizontal. Without doing some research, it’s got me stumped. But to make a wild guess I’m going to
speculate that it could be an F-84, not a particularly aesthetically pleasing
design of a plane, and one with a relatively short-lived career.
“Speaking of museums, my road trip over the weekend took me to
Steamtown National Historical Site in Scranton, PA, a great museum for the
train enthusiast.
“The Grexit. No
surprise they voted ‘No.’ Who are
we to think they would vote intelligently, when we, as a general populace do
not—witness the majority of Americans that vote for more ‘free stuff’ when they
get the opportunity to do so, thus taking us further down the road to great
civilization extinction.”
My reply:
Yep,
my choice as well.
Well
done on the pop quiz I must say.
Correct answers (left to right): F-4 Phantom II, MiG-21 Fishbed, F-11
Tiger, and F-84 Starstreak.
Not
to be critical, since the clues were not overwhelming, there is no shock cone
on that right inlet, so it could not be an F-104 Starfighter. I didn’t think anyone would get the
F-84.
Steamtown
. . . I’ll have to put that on my list.
Thx.
Yeah,
the Greek referendum vote was not surprising but still disappointing. I’ll leave the American voter comment
be for now. The EU (and NATO)
faces quite the conundrum. Part of
me says, fine, cut ‘em lose. Stalin
wanted Greece at the end of WW2 and nearly succeeded. With Putin’s Stalin-esque actions of late, I imagine he
would eagerly use his petro-dollars to seduce Greece into his lair and out of
NATO . . . counter-point to the Ukraine.
We shall see.
. . . a follow-up comment:
“Ah, yes, now when I go back and look at the picture I see that
the wings are not long enough to be those of the Starfighter. Now, I am
upset that I missed that one. I had forgotten about the F-11, and I
believe they have one down at the Pima Air Museum in Blue Angel livery.”
. . . my follow-up reply:
No
need to be upset, my friend. I’m
still amazed you got the F-84 on the first pass. BTW, the display F-11 in Topeka is in Blue Angels livery as
well. They were flying F-11’s in
my very first airshow at Moffett Field back in the 50’s . . . wow’d me then,
still wow me today.
. . . and the last word:
“Pretty good quiz. Until I missed the F-11 I would have said
I excel at airplane identification. Something was telling me it wasn’t
right, but I rushed my F-104 answer to move on to the F-84, which was puzzling
me more.”
An inserted
contribution to further debate:
“I guess with Cap everything is wide open for ‘choice.’
“A line has to be drawn somewhere, and who determines that?
“For decades sodomy was a crime, and as I understand it, it is
still a crime in places around America.
“Why? Because
it's long been recognized that homosexual behavior is a detriment to society.
“Don't give me this crap about it being freedom of choice.
Anything can be excused using that fuzzy logic.
WARNING! EXPLICIT AND SICKENING, BUT SHOWS THE
MINDSET WE'RE UP AGAINST
My
response:
Thank
you for forwarding [the] comment.
A
couple of points to further the discussion:
1. Morality is
what we do when no one is watching, i.e., morality is between the individual
and God (whatever god that may be meaningful to them). Morality cannot be enforced; it can
only be taught.
2. There are
limits to freedom of choice – an individual’s choice cannot cause injury to
another person or damage another’s property. Short of that boundary, we should protect the freedom of
others to protect our own freedom.
3. Homophobia
is a taught & learned phenomenon.
Like all taught fears, they are predicated upon assumptions. It is in those assumptions where this
debate lays.
I
would like to hear (expose) how “homosexual behavior is a detriment to
society”? Perhaps, there is
something I am no familiar with in this discussion.
P.S.: I can only surmise the contributor could not provide
any detrimental effects on society produced or induced by homosexual
behavior. The image essay was intended
to shock us. Perhaps it did. The location city chose to allow such
public conduct, which is their choice entirely. If any of us are offended or think we might be offended by
such behavior, then our choice is to not look or not attend such events. The individuals in that essay were
exercising their freedom of choice and injured no one. We must not forget that freedom is
precious. To constrain another
citizen’s freedom is to restrict our freedom. Freedom has no requirement that we must approve of the
choices of others.
Further,
I chose to retain the explicit link offered by the contributor. The associated, proffered warning
should have been sufficient. If
not, I will offer my apologies and regret if the image essay contained in that
link offended anyone. My intent
was not to offend anyone’s sensitivities.
Comment to the Blog:
“I did not receive an email advising me of this week's update. I
found it this morning (Thursday). Then I wrote a great response, saving often,
but somehow lost it. Losing a text document is new to me.
“Your writing on your motorcycle rides continues to excel. My
quibble this week is that you give too much detail on the sprinkler; it
distracts from the riding. You clearly enjoyed the museum as well.
“I was glad, but not surprised, at the solar flight across the
Pacific. The figure of one ton of batteries startled me, though. Apparently the
weight capacity of solar flight has improved.
“The situation of the Greeks (people, not necessarily government)
today resembles those of the USA in the Great Depression and of postwar Germany
in the early 1950s. Both of those were resolved by Keynesian economics after
attempts at austerity. Austerity, always imposed on others and not on those in
charge, is a moral value that has proven flawed as policy. Severe austerity
results in suffering (real suffering, not merely economizing) and eventual
revolt.
“Cal Thomas may be dismissed as a thinker. He is merely one of the
opportunists who profit by stirring up the fears of the less educated and more
fearful. Cap, please remember that every American is allowed to express
opinions, but that does not mean that every opinion is of equal value.
“Governor Brownback and others who object to carrying out
Constitutional law probably need to find jobs where that will not be an issue,
if such jobs exist. Therapy might help, too.
“The F-35 exemplifies President Eisenhower's concern with the
military-industrial complex. The job could have been done better and cheaper
but was not. Underlying that is the question of whether fighter planes are
still a good investment in general. The nature of warfare is changing.
“Two notes on unemployment: (a) the U.S. unemployment rate is a
limited resource. It fails to account for people no longer looking for work.
Thus, the unemployment rate does not reflect the true state of employment but
only the rate of change. (b) Many U.S. jobs have not moved to other nations but
have been replaced by technology. We must somehow adapt to that.
“BP will not suffer financially from their $18.7 billion fine for
the Deepwater Horizon disaster. They have 18 years to invest money and pay the
fines from their returns. On top of that, they will get a tax break on those
payments. That, of course, only applies if BP's lawyers do not get them out of
the fine. Ordinary people have to pay for their destructive mistakes.
Corporations are not people.”
My response to the
Blog:
I
checked my Sent file, and you are on the addy line for the notice, as
always. Not sure what the problem
was this week, but I’m glad you checked and contributed.
Just
trying to be sufficiently descriptive.
Criticism noted. Glad you
continue to enjoy my little travelogues.
Re:
Solar Impulse 2. Indeed, the
battery weight surprised me. They
clearly have engineered the aircraft well. They’re not quite across the Pacific . . . only to Hawaii,
over half way, but not quite all the way.
Re:
Greece. OK. Agreed. The Greek politicians and bosses are not likely suffering,
and workin’ folk are suffering. The
austerity imposed on Greece is not austerity for austerity’s sake; it is meant
to be an inducement to reform and restructure Greek society so that they can
live within their means. An
expectation that Greeks should live like Germans is not realistic or
viable. I still have not seen a
solution from you. Should we just
write-off the entire massive debt [€317B, 177% Greek GDP, OMG] that enabled
“important” people to become more wealthy and less fortunate folks to enjoy a
nice cushy retirement with a generous pension and no work? If all the past largesse is not pared
down to fit within their revenue stream, how do you think they can ever attain
stability? Should German and
France simple bite the bullet an pay for Greece’s obscene largesse? Writing off the debt will not solve the
problem(s).
Re:
Cal Thomas. I read and respond to
socially conservative voices as I do liberal opinions. It is important to have contrast.
Re:
Brownback & his cronies. They
are another kettle of fish that stinks.
I will be grateful when he is unemployed.
Re:
F-35. This is an interesting issue
. . . not so easily dismissed. The
F-35 is not corporate welfare. It
was perhaps an overly ambitious technical objective, but it is necessary.
Re:
unemployment. OK. Agreed, again. So, then, how do we separate those
willing to work and not looking, from those who are simply unwilling to work,
period? In metrics such as these,
we need to draw the line somewhere and remain consistent. Yes, absolutely; we just adjust to
advancing technology.
Re:
BP. Got that right. Spot on!
. . . follow-up comment:
“Either your sources are failing you or you are just not paying
attention. We are not, today, discussing Greeks retiring without working or
living ‘like Germans’ (telling phrase). We're talking about starvation, unpaid
rents, complete lack of transportation, and other serious issues resulting from
austerity. The term ‘inducement to reform’ translates directly to punishment,
and that is the attitude underlying most of our disagreements. Punishment fails
as an inducement in most cases, and that moralistic attitude blinds its user to
the reality of its results. That makes the EU resemble the United States. Both
want others to remain allied to us while we dish out suffering. Not gonna
happen in the long run. The Greek government has caved in this time, but the
issue will not go away.
“My central point about the F-35 is that, necessary or not, vast
sums of money have been poured into it amounting to overpayment. The
development of this particular plane has been grossly inefficient and slow, but
the money has flowed as if the corporations involved were performing
efficiently and effectively. How is that not corporate welfare? From my
viewpoint, the necessity is also debatable in the light of current trends in
warfare, including small-scale fighting and drones.
“Cal Thomas and his kind are not due equal consideration. They
cannot support their moralistic opinions with sound information. Science, other
carefully derived quantitative studies, and even history carry no meaning to
them. I want my ideas to be based on reality, not on what makes a nice living
for people with a knack for criticizing others. I will disregard the lunatics
on Fox News, talk radio, etc., unless a day comes when they can support their
blathering with verifiable facts. Let's remember that my degree is in
communication; I know the potential for abuse of those skills.
“That judgmental attitude comes up again in the discussion of
unemployment. I think I know why that approach is so common. It is a very
successful tool for Republicans from Reagan to Ryan in getting people to vote
against their own interests. I have seen that in person. People who need Social
Security or food assistance for their physical survival vote for politicians
they know will cut those programs in order to get back at the fellow down the
road that the politicians say is abusing the system. The numbers do not support
that, of course. Nobody would live on assistance if they could work, because
work pays so much more. Even the minimum wage pays a good bit more in cash,
even though that wage is so low that most minimum-wage workers still qualify
for assistance. (Contrary to Jeb Bush's assumption, most minimum-wage employers
never allow overtime pay.) The perception that someone else is taking advantage
of society has been very convenient, but is basically false and not supported
by fact. If a person does not pursue work, there is some reason for that other
than laziness.”
. . . my follow-up response:
Re:
Greece. I make no claim to
expansive, exhaustive sources or sufficient expenditure of my available
attention. What we are discussing
is perspective. Each of us chooses
to see events as we wish to see them.
The implication I derive from your words is what is happening in Greece
is somehow a sadistic punitive exercise for suffering’s sake. NO ONE did this to Greece; Greece did
this to themselves. Greece has
chosen to implement deeply socialist practices, which is perfectly fine by me;
that is their choice entirely.
What they DO NOT have any right to do is expect the rest of Europe to pay
for their largesse. They chose to
borrow money to pay for their extravagances far beyond their capacity to pay
for the ‘benefits’ spread among their people and the corruption and complacency
they chose to allow. I am terribly
sorry that anyone in Greece is suffering.
Nonetheless, the boil must be lanced to enable healing.
Re:
F-35. Being somewhat familiar with
defense development, the problem is ambitious objectives. While I cannot refute claims of
wasteful or inefficient spending, I do not see it as corporate welfare. There is plenty to be critical of in
that program, but corporate welfare is not one of those items.
Re:
Cal Thomas. Diversity of opinion
is important to all of us.
Contrast enables reconciliation of our opinions.
Re:
unemployment. Well, interesting
perspective. You know, as I read
your words, if taken to a logical conclusion, if true, there would be no
crime. If everyone wanted to work,
they would. But, more than a few
choose to steal money rather than earn it. The reasons for not seeking work are most likely many,
complex and individually unique, so impossible to generalize. Yet, we cannot eliminate laziness as
one of those reasons.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
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