First Looks category archive

Robert Reich on Fresh Air:

And if most of the American economic gain goes to the top, if the top are taking home almost a quarter of all income that is generated in society, the vast middle class just doesn’t have the purchasing power.

They can’t go deeper and deeper into debt. They can’t work longer hours. They’ve just, they’ve exhausted all of their coping mechanisms. And meanwhile, people at the top are taking home so much that they are almost inevitably going to speculate in stocks or in commodities or in whatever the current speculative vehicles are going to be, which causes the economy to become unstable anyway.

And that combination of a kind of unsustainable debt loads for the middle class, in fact, now the middle class can’t even go back into debt, there’s not nearly enough demand for all the goods and services the American economy could produce and can produce at full employment coupled with a lot of speculation.

Follow the link above to read the whole transcript or listen here.

My friend heard on the telly vision this afternoon that we have had 16 inches of rain so far this week.

And three to five more inches are predicted for tonight. From the sound of things, the prediction is not far off.

The Pew Survey on Religious knowledge has been in the news lately.

Take the quiz.

I got one wrong, confusing two eastern religions with knowlege based on an extensive reading of Kipling when I was young.

One of the aspects of human nature that enables cons to succeed is that persons see what they expect to see. (Actually, without any desire for personal gain, I have taken advantage of this aspect of human nature. It does indeed hold true.)

The Slactivist expands on this principle. A nugget:

Tea partiers tend to revere the U.S. Constitution in much the same way that many American evangelicals revere the Bible, which is to say they read it without comprehension, looking only for ammunition that can be used against their enemies. And since neither text was written for such a purpose, this so-called reverence is an exercise in illiteracy.

Read the whole thing.

In 2006, a real estate columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer said that a pretty good sign that we were in a housing bubble was that persons were starting to ask whether or not we were in a housing bubble. (I mentioned it at the time.)

Similarly, a pretty good sign that we are quagmired in Afghanistan is that persons are now arguing that we must stay in Afghanistan because we are in Afghanistan.

But Tangier Island is determined to try:

But the islanders’ way of life is threatened by erosion that takes up to 30 feet of shoreline per year and has reduced Tangier’s size from 2,200 to 730 acres, according to figures cited in a form letter distributed to residents recently to mail to federal and state officials.

About 275 people showed up at a July meeting on the island where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at the town council’s invitation, presented an overview of the civil works projects process. The letter campaign began in earnest soon after that meeting.

You remember the Army Corps of Engineers. They’re the folks who did such a good job protecting New Orleans.

With pro (and big-time college) sports.

Except for the Phillies, who in what seems to be a tour de force have had no one arrested, no one suspended, and no one called to testify before Congress in recent memory.

Across the Big Pond, discontent also blossoms:

Sportism was a religion. We never questioned that the team which finished top of the old footballing first division was the best that year because in the world of sport everybody got what they deserved. The proof was there for us all to see – Nottingham Forest could win the European Cup, Wimbledon could win the FA Cup, if they tried hard enough.

(snip)

So what happens when those very foundations of your existence are shaken to the core? When you begin to realise that not everybody has been playing by the rules? Trauma, that’s what. We sportists have just experienced a summer of unparalled trauma. First, there were the shocking allegations that Pakistan’s cricketers might not have been playing cricket at all – that they were deliberately bowling no-balls to assist betting syndicates. I have not watched a cricket match since.

The turning point: Sports stopped being “sports” and began to be “entertainment.”

Chores.

From the lead to a story in the most reactionary paper in Virginia, offered without comment (emphasis added):

Five members of the Kansas-based hate group Westboro Baptist Church . . . .

I used to tell my classes, when they decided to go into Philly for the night, where to go, where not to go, and to be sure to park legally, because “Philly’s a tough town on parking.”

Philadelphia police say at around 3:00 a.m. Sunday, two (tow truck–ed.) drivers got into an argument about territory. After heated words, the argument became physical and that’s when police say McDaniel got into his truck and struck the other man who drove for Siani’s towing.

He’s charged with homicide.

Well, maybe not so much:

Beekeepers and honey packers around the country are fuming about products masquerading as real honey, and they hope the state-by-state strategy will secure their ultimate goal: a national rule banning the sale of any product as pure honey if it contains additives.

Americans consume about 350 million pounds of honey per year, but just 150 million pounds are made domestically, creating a booming market for importers and ample temptation to cut pure honey with additives such as corn syrup that are far less expensive to produce.

In memoriam Atlanta Braves.

The Phillies are on a tear.

It’s a September thing.

(To play 21 ball games and lose only three is one hell of a run in baseball, where two out three is excellence.)

Roy Oswalt and a pair of relievers combined on a one-hitter and the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies beat Atlanta 1-0 Wednesday night for their 10th straight win, increasing their bulge over the Braves to six games.

(snip)

The Phillies are 44-15 since July 21, when they trailed the Braves by seven games. They are 18-3 in September.

I’m glad the game was not televised here. My heart probably couldn’t have taken it.

I was out most of the evening to support Andrew. I tried to follow the game on ESPN on my Android G1 (really, first things first), but there was no signal in the auditorium.

I did catch the eighth inning in my truck on the skip from WPHT. (Now that I know I can catch it on the skip, I’ll likely be spending most of my evenings in my truck in the parking lot . . . .)

Couldn’t get it in the condo, but I got to watch the end at the Phillies website.

Most satisfactory.

In the 1800s, free blacks were not free.

In an eerie precursor to Montgomery, black folks were not allowed to ride the street cars in Philadelphia or to otherwise live as free persons. Black folks who tried to ride street cars were subject to beatings, unless they stayed on the platform outside the body of the car.

Radio Times discusses the first American civil rights movement, which included gaining the right to ride street cars in Philly. The movement was news to the authors of the book, news to the interviewer, and news to me, even though my field of study in history was U. S. Southern (yeah, Philly ain’t southern, but even so this was relevant).

From the website:

Philadelphia Inquirer writer MURRAY DUBIN and Philadelphia Inquirer editor and Pulitzer Prize winner DANIEL BIDDLE tell the story of Octavius Valentine Catto, a 19th century, southern-born, ‘free’ black man who moved north. In Philadelphia, he was a teacher at an African American school, a second baseman on Philadelphia’s black baseball team and became a civil rights pioneer who spent his life educating newly freed slaves, long before the modern civil rights era. Dubin and Biddle’s new book is called, “Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America.”

Follow the link to learn more or listen here (MP3).

Afterthought:

It is so much easier to deny rather than to confront or admit bigotry.

Hence the fiction that the Civil War was about anything–anything–other than chattel slavery.

Quip of the day:

“If he holds up 10 fingers, I know there’s really only two. He’s just one of those guys that can’t not embellish a story.”

Read the whole thing.

The power went out this morning. We had to make coffee the old fashioned way.

The local rag finishes up a four-part series on the Blue Ridge Parkway today on the year of the 75th anniversary of the road, reviewing its history and previewing its future.

I have ridden most of the road, not all at once, but in bits and pieces. It would probably take three days to drive the whole thing because of the slow speeds and almost-constant curves

The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Shenandoah Drive combined are easily the most beautiful legacy of the New Deal.

Rather than post the links piecemeal, I decided to wait until the print series was finished; the last piece came out today and is scheduled to hit their website tomorrow.

Read it here.

Two hours earlier than usual to allow persons to attend Virginia Beach City Council Candidates Forum at 7 p. m. at Thalia Trinity Presbyterian Church, 420 Thalia Road, Virginia Beach

• What: Third Thursday Dinner
• When: September 16th, 5:00 PM
• Where: Kelly’s Hilltop Tavern, 1936 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (map)

Show up, order off the menu (separate checks), socialize, and talk politics–or whatever else interests you.

I have attended several of these. They tend to be smaller gatherings, highly informal, and a lot of fun.

For more information, email VaBeachBoy@aol.com

Out and about.

The HTML website upgrade continues on my test machine.

I’m revising the older parts of the website this week.