Pat Robertson argues for decriminalization of marijuana

Who would have ever thought that we'd hear this sort of thing uttered by Pat Robertson:

"We're locking up people that have taken a couple puffs of marijuana and next thing you know they've got 10 years with mandatory sentences," Robertson continued. "These judges just say, they throw up their hands and say nothing we can do with these mandatory sentences. We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes and that's one of 'em. "I'm ... I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it's just, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That's not a good thing."

Continue ReadingPat Robertson argues for decriminalization of marijuana

Ralph Nader and Julian Assange on Wikimania

Ralph Nader has commented about the government witchhunt of Wikileaks:

Secrecy-keeping the people and Congress in the dark-is the cancer eating at the vitals of democracy. What is remarkable about all the official hullabaloo by government officials, who leak plenty themselves, is that there never is any indictment or prosecution of government big wigs who continually suppress facts and knowledge in order to carry out very devastating actions like invading Iraq under false pretenses and covering up corporate contractors abuses. The morbid and corporate-indentured secrecy of government over the years has cost many American lives, sent Americans to illegal wars, bilked consumers of billions of dollars and harmed the safety and economic well-being of workers.

Meanwhile, Julian Assange warned those who work for traditional media outlets that they should not try to dissociate the work of Wikileaks from the work that they do. In fact, he argues that once the U.S. government criminally prosecutes him, that they will be next, and that will be the end of serious government journalism. This link includes a long interview with Assange by Cenk Uygur of MSNBC. Here's what he had to say about the various calls for him to be illegally murdered, coming from several prominent American politicians:

If we are to have a civil society, you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and illegally murder people," he said. "That is incitement to commit murder.

Continue ReadingRalph Nader and Julian Assange on Wikimania

If you didn’t watch the local TV news Wednesday evening, you missed all of this

I have long been disheartened by the offerings that pass for “news” on local TV news shows, but I thought it might be interesting to carefully monitor a newscast, and to log the content, minute by minute. I invited my 10-year old daughter to join me watching a videotape of the local news of Wednesday evening’s news on St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK, Channel 5. I had recorded the 30-minute show ahead of time so we could carefully track the time and content, stopping and starting the tape as necessary to be accurate with our note-taking. We got lucky because there was a mild sleet storm in the forecast, which would give us a chance to see how much the station would play up a bit of weather. It turned out that we weren’t disappointed with the winter storm hyperbole. We were sorely disappointed with what passed as “news,” however. Here is the “news,” minute by minute:

0:00 - Intro: Welcome to the News 0:25 Winter Weather Watch (There might be some sleet and ice tonight). 2:10 Breaking News: the police are investigating a crime-a woman was murdered in Illinois 3:28 More weather - (There might be some sleet and ice tonight). 4:22 Stock videotape of the city salt trucks. The “story” is that these trucks are ready to go if necessary. 4:31 A local organization provides meals for the elderly. The accompanying video features an elderly woman who is for the frozen meals. 6:22 More weather: Take care of your pet when it's cold and icy outside. 7:25 Today, there was a student protest at a radio station run by a University. The police arrested a student who was allegedly unruly. The student blames the police and the police blame the student. No serious injuries. 9:02 Several police officers were laid off in one of the municipalities of in the St. Louis area. 9:22 An ex-police officer who had been arrested for corruption regarding an automobile towing operation goes to prison. 10:19 There was a shooting at a school board meeting in Florida. The story includes security video of the shooter being attacked by a woman who used her purse to smack him. He did not shoot her; he was much bigger than her, and swatted her away. She is interviewed afterward and states she didn't know why she hit the man with her purse. 11:03 A preview of upcoming news. 11:30 Commercials 13:13 A video of a small airplane making an emergency landing (without landing gear) at the Springfield Missouri airport. No injuries. 13:35 A bandit in Las Vegas steals $1.5 million in casino chips. The story includes a video of the disguised robber walking out of the casino. 14:10 A mother sues McDonald's for offering Happy Meals to lure children to the restaurant. McDonald's says is proud of its happy meals. 14:50 A skunk breaks into a warehouse and sprays some toys. Many of these stinky toys can no longer be distributed to children. 15:12 More weather. There might be ice and snow tonight. 15:36 Commercials 18:15 More Weather. There might be ice and snow tonight. 21:30 Promos for the local news. We keep you informed. 22:11 More commercials. 24:30 Merry Christmas message from the station. 24:57 Sports. 28:00 A short story about Twitter. 28:20 More commercials 30:00 End of the “news.”
[Epilogue: Despite all of the attention on the weather, only a few schools closed in St. Louis the following morning and there was only a modest amount of ice on the roads]. Here are a few statistics based upon this news monitoring session: - Total time of commercials: More than 8 minutes. - Total amount of weather: About 7 minutes. - National news: None - Investigative reporting: None. - Speaking truth to power: None. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingIf you didn’t watch the local TV news Wednesday evening, you missed all of this

Major damage to Net Neutrality caused by Obama’s most recent betrayal of campaign promises

Barack Obama has once again invited a compromise of a compromise in order to get a bad deal done, instead of fighting for the principles he announced in his campaign speeches. This time the victim was net neutrality. The FCC's recent decision was discussed by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now and Craig Aaron of Free Press:

There are millions and millions of Americans who have contacted the FCC. Ninety percent of the comments they received were supporting strong net neutrality. Commissioners Copps and Clyburn went across the country, heard from people all across the country about how important net neutrality is. But unfortunately, this is another example where the Obama administration has, you know, put forward a compromise on a compromise on a compromise and asked the American public to swallow it, while the companies really haven’t had to give up very much at all. And that’s where we are today.

AMY GOODMAN: Commissioner Clyburn is the daughter of the House Majority Whip, James Clyburn of South Carolina. And the Republicans are opposed to this, the two Republican appointees?

CRAIG AARON: Well, that’s right. And in the strange politics of Washington these days, the Republicans oppose any kind of regulation whatsoever, so they’re making all sorts of noise that this is some kind of massive overreach, when it couldn’t be further from the truth. But this is the game that the big phone and cable companies are playing. They’ve asked their Republican allies to make a lot of noise, talk about how any kind of regulation is bad, trying to force the FCC chairman and the Democrats on the Commission into this really false middle and trying to portray champions of net neutrality, public interest advocates, as some kind of extremists.

Unfortunately, the only thing we’re left with here is an extremely disappointing order that won’t give the American public the protections they need, that won’t give internet users the protections that they need and, I think, really jeopardizes the internet’s continued growth as an unrivaled source of economic innovation, of democratic participation, of free speech. This is a very big step in the wrong direction by the FCC today and, I think, a very big disappointment to everybody who believed not just President Obama, but Chairman Genachowski, when he, you know, spoke up and said he was going to protect the free and open internet no matter what.

With regard to the Internet, especially the wireless internet, say goodbye to the freedom to use the Internet as you choose. Say hello to an Internet that will increasingly look like cable TV, with its limited choices and price gouging. Today's FCC decision was a despicable decision to curry even more favor with big-money telecoms and to slap down consumer choice. Read the entire article for a description of AT&T's massive power over Obama and Democrats.

Continue ReadingMajor damage to Net Neutrality caused by Obama’s most recent betrayal of campaign promises

More than writing

Several years ago, my neighbor Tony and I were talking about a social issue. Tony is a good thoughtful man, and the conversation turned rather intense. In the middle of the conversation, I blurted out something like "I'm really concerned about that issue." Tony shot back," No, you are not concerned. If you were, you be doing something about it." He caught me flat-footed, and his words have haunted me ever since. I think Tony was right. If we care about something, we should be doing something about it, or at least trying to do something about it. Further, blogging about a problem is quite often not doing too terribly much about that problem. I'm don't mean to disparage writing, because I very much think that written information can change the world by helping people understand it better. But writing about things is a method that too often shows its limits, especially when it turns into ranting. And an especially annoying kind of ranting is when one rants to others who are already sympathetic to the cause. And the worst kind of writing is ranting to sympathetic audiences in ways that are mostly calculated to show off how much one knows or to try to draw attention an ostentatious writing style. So here's my resolution for 2011. Here's to doing more than merely writing, but actually trying to change the world in physical ways. And to the extent that I choose to write, here's to writing in a straight-forward way to audiences that are not quite sympathetic. And here's to writing that aims to get people out of their seats and into the streets. Here's to stepping out from behind my computer more than I have before, and trying to make a tangible difference. I will continue to take my writing seriously next year. I have lots of ideas bubbling in my head, and many of these are ideas inspired by cognitive science ideas that bear upon the fact that human animals so often live dysfunctionally. I will try to keep my concerns in stride better than I have in the past, because being too serious is not effective, and good humor can serve as a sharp blade that often slices through close-mindedness. Here's to the upcoming year, during which I will work harder to make my blogging process more connected and more relevant to the real life concerns I articulate.

Continue ReadingMore than writing