Wednesday Reads AM
Posted: January 12, 2011 Filed under: Crime, Elections, Environment, Environmental Protection, Foreign Affairs, just because, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: Arizona shooting, australia, Chromium 6, cuba, cuban americans, EPA, gun control, haiti, hexavalent chromium, political rhetoric 50 Comments
Morning Sky Dancers! Minx here with this mornings interesting reads.
I wanted to post a link to this article written by Larry McMurtry. The man who brought us Hud (Horseman, Pass By), Lonesome Dove and many other novels, stories, and scripts. He has written this post called American Tragedy for the New York Review of Books.
Murderous rampages of the sort that occurred Saturday outside a grocery store here in Tucson may retain some power to shock–twenty people shot down right up the road from where I write–but for me, at least, they have lost all power to surprise. Arizona is after all a state where it’s possible to carry a concealed weapon without a permit, and many do.
[…]
Ours is a culture in which shooting sprees have become almost commonplace. Hearing that the site and surrounding area was entirely sealed off I elected to try to learn about it by watching television. The people who were trapped at site stood around in small clumps, subdued; no doubt they were feeling lucky not to be on stretchers or in ambulances. Probably they were oppressed by the randomness of it all: a deranged kid walks up and blasts twenty people. Hello. The novelist Theodore Dreiser would have known how to handle such a scene.
Learning about a nearby massacre from television requires much channel surfing. Many talking heads brooded about the part our violence-tinged language might be playing in the behavior of our youth. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, elected eight times, spoke with considerable dignity, mentioning that in his view, there had been excessive language used in Arizona, both on radio and television. It may be free speech, he said, but it has consequences. Sheriff Dupnik went on to say that he feared Arizona had become “… a Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” For this, he was roundly criticized, although I don’t see that he was off the mark. Ask the Indians.
McMurtry comes to the same conclusion that many of us have come to in recent days here on Sky Dancing.
Meanwhile, the dead are dead, the wounded are wounded, and except for twenty families, some of them now broken, the violent stream of American life goes on absolutely unchanged. Arizona and indeed America continue to be packed with guns. I own several myself (none of them semi-automatic) and I have no intention of disposing of them, although I don’t feel I should conceal them and walk down urban streets.
And I don’t believe that language drawn from the hunt is likely to vanish from our political speech. Words such as “target” or “bulls eye” are deeply ingrained. We will be polite for a while but once the slugfest resumes–and politics is a slugfest–the old invective will slip back in.
Guns are part of the culture of America, they will not be going away any time soon. Living out in the county these days, and growing up in a very urban part of West Tampa, FL, I have been around guns all my life. I do not think they should be completely wiped out, but I do feel the background checks, and wait periods are all good things. As for the political rhetoric, I think it will all be back in our faces real soon. Hey, the 2012 elections are just around the corner, do you think anyone is going to tone down their language?
On Tuesday the EPA issued this statement about Chromium 6, Hexavalent Chromium:
EPA Issues Guidance for Enhanced Monitoring of Hexavalent Chromium in Drinking Water
Release date: 01/11/2011
Contact Information: CONTACT: Jalil Isa (News Media Only), isa.jalil@epa.gov, 202-564-3226, 202-564-4355
WASHINGTON – Several weeks ago, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson committed to address hexavalent chromium (also known as chromium-6) in drinking water by issuing guidance to all water systems on how to assess the prevalence of the contaminant. Today, the agency is delivering on that promise and has issued guidance recommending how public water systems might enhance monitoring and sampling programs specifically for hexavalent chromium. The recommendations are in response to emerging scientific evidence that chromium-6 could pose health concerns if consumed over long periods of time.
“Protecting public health is EPA’s top priority. As we continue to learn more about the potential risks of exposure to chromium-6, we will work closely with states and local officials to ensure the safety of America’s drinking water supply,” said Administrator Jackson. “This action is another step forward in understanding the problem and working towards a solution that is based on the best available science and the law.”
[…]
EPA’s latest data show that no public water systems are in violation of the standard. However, the science behind chromium-6 is evolving. The agency regularly re-evaluates drinking water standards and, based on new science on chromium-6, has already begun a rigorous and comprehensive review of its health effects. In September 2010, the agency released a draft of the scientific review for public comment. When the human health assessment is finalized in 2011, EPA will carefully review the conclusions and consider all relevant information to determine if a new standard needs to be set. While EPA conducts this important evaluation, the agency believes more information is needed on the presence of chromium-6 in drinking water. For that reason, EPA is providing guidance to all public water systems and encouraging them to consider how they may enhance their monitoring for chromium-6.
More information on the new guidance to drinking water systems: http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/chromium/guidance.cfm
Well, as I have said in my post on the Chrome 6 issue, I think the EPA will come down on the side of protecting not the public, but the one organization that has contributed the most toxic waste throughout the world…the US Department of Defense.
Wow, over in Australia they are having a hell of a time with flooding: Brisbane braces for more flooding as 90 people reported missing
Brisbane awoke Wednesday to sunny, clear skies amid renewed warnings that a wave of water was sweeping through the city’s main river system, threatening to exceed the damage done by the record 1974 floods.
[…]
Ten people have died this week in Queensland and more than 90 were missing, Neil Roberts, Queensland Emergency Services Minister, told Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV.
Seven Australian Defense Force helicopters were dispatched Wednesday to join the eight military choppers already in the state as rescuers searched for survivors and the bodies of people swept away by the floodwater, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Wednesday.
I had no idea so many people were missing in these floods. There is more about this here: Australia floods: 14 killed, dozens missing in Queensland floods – latimes.com This is terrible and is being described as an “inland tsunami.”
And for some more human suffering: Haiti earthquake anniversary highlights faltering aid effort – CSMonitor.com
For more than six weeks last fall, a brand new obstetrics hospital remained empty and closed, its Ikea furniture still wrapped in plastic, a reminder of how far Port-au-Prince had to go to recover from the Haiti earthquake.
Meanwhile across the street, a camp with 1,500 families had no access to medical care beyond occasional visits by the Haitian Red Cross. The hospital, commissioned by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), has since partially opened.
But questions remain about why the project in the neighborhood of Delmas 33 was delayed by the government, a symbol of the bureaucracy that has stood in the way of many of the projects run by the more than 900 NGOs that descended on Haiti after last January’s earthquake, which killed 230,000 people and left 2 million homeless.
[…]
Oxfam, in a report released last week, blamed the lack of progress “on a crippling combination of Haitian government indecision and rich donor countries’ too frequent pursuit of their own aid priorities. In Haiti, power and decision making are concentrated in the hands of very few,” the report said, calling on the government to reduce corruption, especially in view of the ongoing – and contested – presidential election.
Echoing the sentiment of many Haitian citizens, Oxfam was fiercely critical of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (known by its French acronym, CIRH) co-led by Bill Clinton, established in the aftermath of the earthquake to coordinate reconstruction. “The Commission has failed to live up to its mandate,” Oxfam said in a press release.
The L.A. Times has this: Haiti quake anniversary: Haiti still reeling from earthquake – latimes.com
Today, life of a sort has returned to Haiti. The bodies are mostly gone (though on occasion one is unearthed), and the chaos is part of the routine of survival, of scraping out a living. Traffic snarls up and down hillsides. Most children who go to school are back in classrooms, though jittery and traumatized; commerce is haphazardly brisk.
Yet virtually no major reconstruction is evident. Landmarks such as the grand Roman Catholic cathedral and the majestic presidential palace remain misshapen carcasses. Only 5% of the rubble has been cleared, according to one estimate.
The majority of the population remain jobless. And the nearly 1,200 tent encampments scattered across the city, where more than 1 million displaced people sought shelter, have taken on a deliberate permanence, much as aid workers a year ago said they feared would happen.
[…]
A year later, the slow pace of overall recovery and reconstruction is being widely criticized by outside experts and watchdog groups as Haiti’s tragedies merely multiply: A cholera epidemic has infected more than 170,000 people and claimed nearly 4,000 lives, and a political crisis has left the country unable to choose its next president.
“I feel uneasy and sort of uncomfortable about what is still a disaster situation for most of the population,” said Stefano Zannini, head of mission in Haiti for Doctors Without Borders, one of the largest and longest-serving aid groups in the country. “During the last year, I’ve heard a lot of … talking about promises, plans, strategies, money. These three, four words, you know, over and over. Promises.”
In a scathing report last week, the international charity Oxfam cited a “quagmire of indecision and delay” that has paralyzed efforts to provide housing to the more than 1 million homeless and may have contributed to the cholera epidemic.
[…]
Oxfam and other critics blame a historically weak and dysfunctional state beset by coups, military dictatorships and a self-protecting elite; a lack of leadership from a government that also suffered heavily in the earthquake (all major government headquarters were destroyed or damaged, 30% of civil servants were killed, and President Rene Preval essentially went AWOL in the first desperate days after the disaster); and poor coordination among the myriad humanitarian agencies. Some organizations and foreign governments have also been reluctant to release money into the corrupt morass of the Haitian state and business elite.
The highly heralded reconstruction committee chaired by former President Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has also come under criticism. Formed in April to head disaster management, the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission has met only four times, Zannini said.
“Look, nobody’s been more frustrated than I am that we haven’t done more,” Clinton said Tuesday in Port-au-Prince. “But I’m encouraged if you look at how much faster it’s been going in the last four months.”
It is sad to read the aid is slow going in Haiti, and the committee chaired by Bill Clinton is being criticized for its delays. It is disheartening to see the suffering Haitians must deal with, suffering that seems to be never-ending. Here is a post from the State Departments Blog: Haiti: One Year Later | U.S. Department of State Blog And this from the Guardian: Haiti: rocked to its foundations | Art and design | The Guardian
And on another island nation in the Caribbean : Marco Rubio: Obama administration putting out feelers on changes to U.S.-Cuba policy | Naked Politics
Rubio said the Obama administration was already putting out “trial balloons” to feel out new members of Congress on their feelings toward loosening U.S. economic and travel restrictions on Cuba.
But the feelers won’t go anywhere, Rubio said, because he and other like-minded senators and House members will educate their colleagues on the political reality in Cuba, including telling them about political prisoners like American Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned for more than a year.
A lot of elected officials don’t know about the political reality in Cuba, Rubio said, not because they’re Communists but because they come from states where the issue isn’t discussed — or where agricultural interests persuade them to let them sell their goods on the island.
Politico has the interview here: Rubio: Obama quietly seeking Cuba changes POLITICO.com
Cuba was always a big topic in my hometown. So many of the first wave of Cubans that fled that country do not want to see American/Cuban relations to soften. I don’t know if it is a spiteful kind of reaction, because the loss of their property and livelihood. There is some interesting commentary on this from the Institute of Latino Studies at Notre Dame.
My own family on my father’s side came to Florida from Cuba in 1904. They owned a cigar factory in Marti City, near Ocala, FL and another factory in Port Tampa. If you ever have the time, please look into the History of the Cigar Factories in Tampa, FL…very interesting stuff!
So what is on your reading list today? I know there is a lot going on, let’s jump in and discuss it.
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
18″ so far at our house in Connecticut.
Even our Siberian was awestruck when we went out.
Gorgeous.
Wow. Hope you’re tucked in.
Great post and I love the cigar box art minx.
You should see my great-great-grandfather’s seal for the cigar factory he had. The brand of cigar was called Senorita Santana. (The families last name.) It has a picture of a great-aunt on it…she was beautiful. The cigar factory in Port Tampa burned down, the one in Ocala was sold to open the factory in Port Tampa, so the family lost all the money they had.
I just heard 30 inches in CT…take care Zal.
Larry McMurtry (linked above):
Exactly.
And as I pointed out in another thread, each of us draw reference words and metaphors from our own experience. That’s how we express ourselves and convey our point of view. A good way to make people more defensive and recalcitrant, deepen divides and amp up rancor is to say my metaphors are okay and yours are causing murder and mayhem — when it isn’t even supported by any fact.
I guess we’ll have to argue what constitutes fact.
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/29/violent-beck-rhetoric/
There have been threats made in direct coorelation to amped up rhethoric-more than one in the instance of Beck
I don’t see why we have to wait until someone succeeds in killing someone else and then says I got the idea from-so and so before we draw a coorelation.
You want to argue what constitutes fact? There’s a well established definition of what a fact is and as far as I know that’s what we go by here at Sky Dancing. Facts are not something about which two people can agree to disagree. Something either is a fact or it is not. As I quoted Daniel Moynihan to you the other day – you are entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts.
A fact is something that’s real, actually exists, verifiable information.
What you posted at that link about Glenn Beck and Charles Wilson is not a fact. To begin with, it’s hearsay — from unnamed relatives no less. But even aside from that it’s a conclusion that has not been substantiated by any kind of objective authority, and it’s based upon unverified circumstantial evidence presented by unnamed people whose credibility we know nothing about; it’s partisan flummery.
I am concerned that Americans are increasingly vulnerable to being manipulated by charismatic personalities, narcissists, psychopaths, egomaniacs. And I do fear that’s where we’re headed. In that way you and I agree that there’s something bad brewing and good people should be calling it out when they see it. But there is no verifiable evidence Glenn Beck’s TV entertainment rises to the level of mind manipulation you’re claiming is fact. There just isn’t. Not even close.
It is factual that these people are drawing their information from right wing talking points. Byron Williams flat out admitted he used Glenn Beck as his source as information for his plan to attack the Tides foundation. That statement is FACTUAL.
http://mediamatters.org/research/201010110002
When you make the statement that there are no facts to support the position that right wing rhethoric you are twisting things in the exact way people who deny climate change twist the fact that the largest greenhouse gas(water vapor) has absolutely no direct coorelation to human activity.
In short the statement that there are no facts to support the position is not the same thing as saying there is very little evidence to support a direct coorelation. If you want to argue that someone mentally unbalanced might be triggered by anything do so. However, don’t suggest that those of us who believe our environment affects how we act are somehow living in some alternate made up reality because that just isn’t factual.
Beck reporting about Tides and Soros is not the same as Beck inciting people to murder and mayhem.
Information about what people and institutions are doing is not violence or a plan for violence or a call for violence.
Williams’ plan for violence was conjured in his own troubled mind.
I stand by my comment.
I’m in MA and the snow is falling at 2-3 inches per hr and expected to last well into the afternoon.
My concern is the winds that are also expected to exceed 30-40 mph and could cause power outages.
At this point, I am barely able to see across the street and my back door is already blocked with at least a foot of the white stuff.
Yikes!!
In CT 22″ and still snowing.
I worry about power going out, too, so I cranked up the heat to leave wiggle room just in case. Now I’m sitting here in t-shirt and shorts while snow whips around outside.
Looks like central MA is getting that streak that came through my neck of the woods, with more force.
Heh on that Rubio quote. Someone should remind him that people in glass houses shouldn’t hurl stones considering that WE have laws that allow the government to detain people indefinitely uncharged.
Haiti is sad but unsurprising. Our nation is having trouble rebuilding it’s own area, Louisiana, over a year after it’s devastation so it isn’t a surprise that Haiti is struggling as well.
Oh and cue Sarah Palin to lecture us on “irresponsible speech” (rolling my eyes because Sarah is an apparent “expert” on irresponsible speech, one need only listen to her discussing national health care or taxes where she takes advantage of people’s lack of knowledge to paint the landscape with charges of socialism.)
And judging from the prepared video speech she still does not get it!
I liked it better when she was staying out of it, keeping quiet, but some Dems were complaining loudly about her silence and saying it proved something terrible about her.
It’s all just PR, either way.
She missed an opportunity. Her response should/could have been limited to sympathy for the victims and prayers for the family instead, as I have seen happen with increasing frequency, she made this all about her. Poor, poor put upon Sarah Palin being lectured felt it necessary to provide tit for tat to those that feel vitriole and invective coorelate to the increased number of threats being lobbed at government.
Even if I were to believe that placing targets was not irresponsible, I think lying rises to the level of irresponsibile speech so the last thing I want or need is a lecture from someone who seems to use hyperbole as a means of communication.
That’s true but I don’t know why you bothered to listen to her, then. I didn’t. What did you expect? She’s a narcissist and everything will always be about her. Don’t need a crystal ball to predict that future!
Olbermann’s sanctimoniously and hypocritically pontificating, and the bubble over Sarah Palin’s head is: “Me me me la la la me me me $$$.”
What worries me is people pay money to read books by these dim bulbs and they won’t even look at publications that might actually improve their lives and outlook. Drivel in. Drivel out.
Whoa, lots of links to read, so I’m set for the morning. Thanks Minx. WRT Haiti, on the news this am there was an interview with a gentleman who had offered to accept donations – of clothing, non perishable food etc, because that was what he was told – he’s from Haiti. Anyway, he had asked several aid agencies to assist with the distribution and so far no response, other than asking for monetary donations. Don’t know whether he has a valid gripe, however, according to him, he has at least two containers full of food and clothing, but no way to get it to Haiti. Not so funny, when a crisis falls off the 24 hr news cycle, it falls off the edge of our flat earth world.
Housing and Economy: Housing Market Slips Into Depression Territory – CNBC
Dak, have you seen any more information regarding this?
Well that’s odd, I mean with the economy in recovery and all.
/sarcasm
It’s horrendous that we could have almost 1 in 10 people counted, unemployed and be considered a recovery.
even worse when you consider u6 is almost 2 in 10.
But hooray the stock markets are rising and companies are see marked profitability. Rejoice all ye plutocrats!
It’s another item to fight that stupid Republican worry about quantitative easing and inflation. Something like a house price doesn’t fall nationally unless there is serious deflationary pressure. Another reason we really need stimulus which is what I was writing about in the thread back a few months that I can’t seem to find now.
Yes. There’s been some speculation that prices will drop another twenty percent. I put that up a few weeks ago. Let me see if I can find it.
Dak, I absolutely love the fact that whenever I ask a question about some economic/financial thing that has just been mentioned on MSM, you always come back saying, “I put that up a few weeks ago. Let me see if I can find it.” Too cool!
The nice thing about not being the MSM is you’re not a bureaucracy. Story ideas do not have to be approved. Written and researched some times on generous deadlines and then go through editors again. Only the breaking news get the rush jobs.
When McMurty uses the term “DERANGED”, it just gets me to thinking in a heated way. One of the things about people who suffer from mental disabilities is the huge stigma that comes from being diagnosed. The hardest thing is dealing with those labels, which are very hard to cut through.
When Obama used the term DERANGED, I felt then as I do now, that it is a horrible term to describe mental illness. I’ve yet to see doctors or nurses filling out paper work using the term deranged when the mentally disable seek health services.
If you want change, you must become involved, and part of that is to be conscious of unhealty terms being used.
I know that McMurty used the term to point to a dangerous kid, the one that used a gun.
I am ok with his article, but the usage of deranged for the mentally ill, might well be part why those who suffer, and families who deal with mental illness have a hard time communicating their situations.
I’m guilty of that. “Mentally ill” and similar terms are so antiseptic, and there are so many rich words to use for it, writing about it it’s very tempting to use more interesting words. But it probably does feed into the general stigma that makes it hard to go for help.
It’s easier, today, to say I’m depressed or anxious or can’t sleep and am on medication for it. Marketing for pharmaceutical products went a long way in making people feel comfortable with that. But there’s no corporate profit in making it okay to say I’m hallucinating or demons are chasing me, so people remain frightened and ashamed and tend to keep those things a secret.
I agree. For some reason we seem to treat mental health as a personal failing. We wouldn’t blame someone for contracting cancer yet somehow we seem to find it perfectly acceptable to point fingers when it comes to diseases that impact mental function. Like somehow someone who may have a very real chemical imbalance should somehow be able to diagnose and cure themselves without help despite a mental capacity that is impaired.
So true. It seems to be perfectly acceptable to blame when mental illness is involved and that blame extends to the ill person’s family. As mentioned in a previous thread I’m violently allergic to certain drugs – one actually ended my life, however I was obviously revived. My mother was on drugs for years – but in those days they didn’t test for drug allergies. I have them, my daughter has them, and recently my sister was tested and she has them. Not one of us are crazy – just drug resistant and allergic. Makes one wonder.
Big Sur 1969 – little music to go with
This was a feel good story for me about a way of life which is continuing against all odds.
Coastal cattle swim to winter grasslands
http://www.lcra.org/featurestory/2010/coastalcattledrive.html
Just looked in at memeorandum and the political rhetoric showing up is as rancorous as ever. And as disingenuous.
From both sides.
The irony is most of it is about how rancorous political rhetoric is today.
And guess what? Everybody thinks it’s somebody else’s fault.
From Memorandum too: Officers stopped suspect on day of Ariz. shooting – Yahoo! News
Talk about ironic.
The situation in Haiti is beyond frustrating and the election shenanigans is really the icing on the cake. It’s a testament to the people of Haiti that they have dealt with each blow with only a very minimum of violence and a lot of faith and patience.
Stacy, good to see you here!
Indeed. I remember this from a year ago:
Lebanon government toppled.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12170608
What a powder keg. Israel need to grant a Palestinian state quickly and quite building stuff in the occupied territories. I hope SOS Hilton goes over there and talks some sense into our allies before this entire thing blows up. Given that wikileaks cable on israel last week, Israel could invade them again. Hezbullah has all those new syrian and iranian weapons stockpiles. Probably hoping to do this and fend off an Israeli attack. I sure wouldn’t want to live any where near those countries.
Wow, Thanks for letting us know HT! What a hot spot that area is, I think this is going to just escalate things.
Minx, I think it’s not just a hot spot but a powder keg. I am hoping that sane minds prevail. but in the middle of the world that is affected with jihad insanity, who knows.
I wanted to mention that an Australian friend tweeted to me a day ago that she doesn’t think that Americans understand their floods cover an area TWO times the size of TEXAS. That’s pretty huge for that much severe flooding.
Yeah, I felt like such an idiot that I had no idea all that flooding was going on. It is creating huge problems for a lot of people.
Update on floods: Brisbane River Flood Forecast Revised | May Peak Below 1974 Floods
Here’s evidence that the super rich aren’t like us:
Woman Builds French-Style Mansion on Skid Row
Shades of things to come…back to future of feudal castles….but hey where’s the moat?! Call back that god damn designer…they forgot the freaking moat! ….and do the neighbors have to call the owner , ” your highness” or will ” my lady’ do ? …just asking
At this point, midieval feudalism would be a step up.
I’d rather have seen a photo of her dog Zip, than her.
Okay … this IS WEIRD.
If you go to his link you’ll see the video still. Guess politico grabbed it. and this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxgJKNpjSNI Dozens of twitters call for Sarah Palins death
We saw that before. It doesn’t seem to indicate if they were spoofs by Republicans or actual Democrats. We discussed it a few days ago.
http://tinyurl.com/4hn8ake
Congress isn’t interested in bailing out the states as they reveal their plans for a social service budget bloodbath….services to the poor and what’s left of middle class are hacked
at with rusty meat cleavers while the only cuts the rich receive are on their taxes
hmmmmm…
Ah!
so let each state declare they are now a bank!
problem solved! 🙂