Russian Spies- what's really scary...

I'm baffled by this new story about Russian spies in the US. What could they possibly want to know? how long have they been here?   Is this a test to determine how much authority the FBI has? What am I talking about? Check this out, one of the 'spies' is a reporter from Peru who contacted a Russian official in 2000, and that was the pretext for her arrest this week. This is from today's AP story about it:   Pelaez was a reporter and editor for a prominent Spanish-language newspaper videotaped by the FBI contacting a Russian official in 2000 in Latin America, prosecutors said... Pelaez is a Peruvian-born reporter and editor and worked for several years for El Diario/La Prensa, one of the country's best-known Spanish-language newspapers. She is best known for her opinion columns, which often criticize the U.S. government. Is that IT?! Is that all the evidence we need to arrest people now? A REPORTER in a foreign country talks to an official from another government, and doesn't like the way you run things so that makes her a suspect...? I guess the good news is that Limbaugh, Beck, et al. will STFU for fear of being arrested as Russian spies, sent to subvert American politics... I hear Sarah Palin could see Russia from Alaska- I think she needs a few weeks in a small cell, answering pointed questions about why she was looking at Russia. What did she find out? What did they ask her to do? how much are they paying her to do it? Someone should look into that. FBI, I know you read the Constant Contrarian- just go ahead and copy your report into the comments box.

speaks for itself

Another from Slate (yeah, it's been a while, I was on vacation last week):   Texas Judge Nixes Master's Degree in Creationism Thanks to a federal judge in Austin, anybody looking to pursue a master's degree in Bible-based science won't be able to do it in Texas. Two years ago, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board shot down a proposal that would have allowed the Dallas-based Institute of Creation Research to grant master's degrees "that critique … evolution and champion … a literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation." (The institute's tagline is "Biblical. Accurate. Certain.") The group appealed the decision, arguing that it violated their First Amendment rights, but this didn't fly with Judge Sam Sacks. In his ruling, Sacks tore the institute a new one, noting that it was "entirely unable to file a complaint which is not overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering, and full of irrelevant information." Luckily for those whose academic ambitions involve an M.A. from the institute, there's hope yet: It has regulatory approval in California. Houston Press | Thursday, June 24, 2010

follow up to "fail for Democracy"

The follow up also comes from Slate:   Who is Alvin Greene? Is he a Republican plant? Does he have a criminal record? These are some of the questions swirling around mystery candidate Alvin Greene, a man who very unexpectedly came out on top in this week's South Carolina Democratic primary despite not campaigning at all.  Greene won more than 60 percent of the vote and beat out party-backed challenger Vic Rawl, who has promised to look into "election day irregularities." The best theories about Greene's victory suggest that voters picked him because he was listed first alphabetically, and that Republicans took advantage of the state's open primary system and came out en masse to vote for him. What is known about Greene is that he's 32, doesn't have a phone, and lives with his 81-year-old father in a rural part of the state. He's also facing felony obscenity charges for allegedly showing pornography to a 19-year-old University of South Carolina student last fall, the AP reported this week, and is a military veteran. While the Pentagon confirmed to the Washington Post that Greene served in the Army and Air Force national guards—and was awarded a handful of medals for his service—how he left the army is just as mysterious as the man himself. Greene told the Post that he "was honorably discharged from the Army, but it was involuntary. Things weren't working out. . . . Same thing happened in the Air Force. It's a long story in both services." The Washington Post | Friday, June 11, 2010

And a fail for democracy...

Well it's an interesting social experiement, even if it's a fail for Democracy. Again from Slate:     Candidate Who Didn't Campaign Wins Democratic Primary in South Carolina Attention, congressional candidates in small elections that haven't attracted much attention or money: Don't waste your campaign cash on yard signs. In fact, don't spend campaign cash. Just change your last name so you're at the top of the ballot. South Carolina Democrats think an alphabetical advantage is what propelled an unemployed veteran to victory in the Democratic senatorial primary. Alvin Greene didn't raise a single dollar or shake a single hand during the campaign, but he still beat Vic Rawl, a longtime South Carolina lawmaker, who had raised $186,000 and mounted an actual campaign. The local Democratic Party chairwoman said she thought "voters unfamiliar with either candidate may have voted alphabetically" for Greene over Rawl. Rawl said his opponent is "something of a mystery." "I never saw him," said the disappointed (and surprised) Rawl, who had to cancel a general-election fundraiser he'd already scheduled for later this week. Greene may be a mystery, but he's not a ghost. The AP has spoken with him, and Greene says he's still in the race. But he'll start the race flat broke, while $3.5 million jingles in incumbent Sen. Jim DeMint's pockets. The State | Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Just wow...

Another from Slate, source appears to be Gawker. I'm flabbergasted and don't have the synapses for witty commentary... emphasis in original.   Should We Euthanize Oil-Soaked Birds? Is there anything that can be done for the oil-coated birds lining the Gulf shore? The natural impulse may be to scrub them off and sign them up for some serious avian physical therapy, but Gawker's Maureen O'Connor says that's not such a good idea. Scientists say the survival rate of oil-covered birds is less than 1 percent. Even those that are caught and cleaned (an expensive, labor-intensive process) face a median lifespan of "seven days of traumatized, liver- and kidney-damaged suffering." And if we don't want to leave oil-trapped birds staggering around on beaches until they die, our only option is to kill them. Even the World Wildlife Fund says mass euthanasia is the kindest option. "And there you have it," O'Connor sighs. "We have finally messed up our planet so severely that, for some animals, extinction would be a blessing. Gawker | Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The headline says it all

From Slate via The Oreonian: Cop Kicked Out of Vegan Cafe The owner of a vegan cafe in Portland would probably be shocked, horrified, and appalled by any manifestation of racial discrimination in his eatery, but he has no problem with a little professional discrimination. Several weeks ago, John Langley, a co-owner of the Red & Black cafe, approached a police officer who had just bought a coffee and asked him to leave, "saying he felt uncomfortable having a uniformed officer in the vegan cafe." Portland police Officer James Crooker had stepped into the Red & Black to grab a coffee during a patrol and was "heading out when a customer approached him, saying she appreciates the hard job that police officers do every day in Portland." It was during this heart-warming conversation that Langley asked the cop to leave. Crooker says he was surprised by the incident ("The places that I've been kicked out of before have been places like the methadone clinic. I've never been kicked out of a regular cafe") but not offended ("It was not personal. He was being hostile to my uniform"). But plenty of other people are offended on his behalf. Since the woman who had approached Crooker to thank him blogged about the situation, the cafe has been deluged with angry, even threatening, phone calls. But Langley is unrepentant. He says his cafe's clients, which tend to include vegans, animal-rights activists, environmentalists, and the homeless, "have been targets of police abuse and harassment." "I never expected a police officer to come into the space," Langley said. "If it happened again, I wouldn't serve him."  The Oregonian | Friday, June 4, 2010 But I bet he won't hesitate to call that cop back when one of those homeless guys has "a bad day."

need proof that for-profit college= evil? Here you go:

Fucking WalMart is trying to make working at WalMart eligible for credit at some for-profit colleges.  Clearly, there is evil afoot. From Slate, source appears to be NYT: Wal-Mart estimates that half of its 1.4 million U.S. employees don't have a college degree, and in an event this morning, company officials announced measures to help send its workforce back to school, or at least, give them academic credit for working at Wal-Mart. Under a new partnership with a for-profit online university, Wal-Mart will offer a 15 percent tuition reduction for employees who choose to pursue an online degree, and pledge an additional $50 million to help employees pay for school. Employees will be able to earn up to 45 percent of their credits while on the job, and by 2012, Wal-Mart expects that 70 percent of all U.S. jobs will have been reviewed by the university. Whatever you think of Wal-Mart U., given the size of the company's workforce, the program could have a major impact on the number of people with college degrees.  "If 10 to 15 percent of employees take advantage of this, that's like graduating three Ohio State Universities," a former under secretary of education (and current Wal-Mart board member) remarked. "It's a lot of Americans getting a college degree at a time when it's becoming less affordable."

no sympathy...

Link to article from NYT about an undergard who has just shy of $100K in student loan debt: http://finance.yahoo.com/college-education/article/109701/placing-the-blame-as-students-are-buried-in-debt?mod=edu-collegeprep   Today, however, Ms. Munna, a 26-year-old graduate of New York University, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt from her four years in college, and affording the full monthly payments would be a struggle   The author goes on to say: no one forced the family to take the loans (true); the lenders acted in a somewhat predatory fashion (debatable, and when it comes to student financial aid, drug addicts look reasonable by way of comparison); and the burden of counseling each student about the validity of their educational choices lies with the financial aid department- who should have counseled her to find a less expensive school. What. The. Fuck?! Ok that's wrong on a couple of points. First, given the volume of students seeking financial aid there's no way those folks can make every student fully understand how long it will take to pay off student loans and how expensive that's going to be (I have about $130 per month in student loan payments that I've been paying off since 1999). Second, it's not even reasonable to expect that a school is going to suggest that a student find another school because of tuition costs. Those people want to keep their jobs. Those students worked hard to get into those programs at thsoe schools- it's entirely possible that there's not another school with a particular program anywhere else. So there's blame to go around, but it likely rests with society and the expectation that degree=real world success. But here's the kicker:   She recently received a raise and now makes $22 an hour working for a photographer. It's the highest salary she's earned since graduating with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies [CC: and insists on living in San Francisco, per the article]   See? There's your problem. Somewhere around sophomore year mom should have said "Hey, what am I cosigning for? Religious and Women's Studies? Why? Nope, you're gonna get a business degree and if you wanna come back for this program you can do it on your own dime" And I say that as a humanities major with history minor. These are the beds we make. If she can't defend her choice of major, then it's her own damned fault (i.e. What can you even DO with that degree?) I spend most of my time explaining why I chose my degree- I wanted history, this was as close as I could get through WSU's distance degree program and I plan to complete a Master's in public history so I can blend my education with my love of blacksmithing. Plus I completed a professional writing certificate, so I can sell myself as a tech writer (or writing for video games if the offer I've received pans out).  See? It may not be a path to riches, but at least I know what I want to do.   When all is said and done, she has no one to blame but herself (well, maybe mom for not asking WTF). This is more a cautionary tale about bad choices and being stubborn than it is about the evils of student lending.   AlchemyForge dot Net The Alchemy Forge Blog