Earth Hour

This is how I celebrated “Earth Hour.”  Hope you got your Viking helmet and mayonnaise.

 

NUMMI

For a fascinating look at the NUMMI plant be sure to tune into This American Life today. If you're in the Stockton-Modesto area, it can be heard on 91.3 FM (KUOP, Capital Public Radio) at 6 pm. It's a whole hour.  I think every American and in particular, every Californian should hear the story. It's both inspiring and damning; about how the workers and leadership failed, then succeeded, and failed.   But mostly failed.

We Are What We Watch by Karen Kwiatkowski

…Avatar’s militaristic state corporatism drew an angry response from some Marine Corps defenders, and The Hurt Locker simultaneously dehumanized and minimized occupied Iraqis even as it failed to address why Americans are in Iraq getting blown up in the first place.

We are concerned about the odd bacteria on a leaf of lettuce transported in record time across the country in refrigerated trucks, but not so much about the tons of depleted uranium dust we’ve blown into Iraq’s air, ground and water. We worry that there are deficiencies or dangerous additives in the pet food we purchase, but after seven years, we don’t mind that we still haven’t fixed the urban sewage systems in Iraq we had crushed…

We Are What We Watch by Karen Kwiatkowski

Sometimes it's just the little things

They changed the painting I “complained” about.  Here.  Someone must be reading.  To refresh your memory, this is what it looked like when I called it ah… a prison camp:

From Manteca Live!

And here is the new improved version:

As for why it’s adorning the school board men’s room I’m not sure.  But it is right across from the public meeting room so that’s something.

Symphony of Science - The Poetry of Reality

Kids, stay in school and learn science! I thought this was an inspiring video/song/whatever it is.

"The world looks very different to you. And that understanding empowers you."

Featured Article - WSJ.com

This is one of the last interviews with Milton and Rose Friedman together.  Milton died in 06 and Rose just last year.     

That last part, about the war of aggression I found interesting.  And I wonder if he’d lived the last few years, he would have even further realized the futility of “winning.”

Also he settles the issues with Keynes, and with why the deficits were “under control” in the ‘90s (it wasn’t Clinton!) and what really killed the Republican party. 

Featured Article - WSJ.com

Questions? What questions? What ordinance?

Just for the record.  I sent a letter to the city council with a list of questions about the new “code enforcement” ordinance.  You know, the one that turns Manteca into a giant homeowners association.  There was no response from any council member.  That was over two weeks ago.

At the meeting I asked if any had received my questions.  The City Clerk verified that “her staff sent a copy to each member.” 

I also asked if any of the council members had read the law they were voting on.  None of them, as best I recall, said anything definite about having read the text of the proposed ordinance.  In other words, they were voting on something they had not read.

After I left the podium the mayor was kind enough to acknowledge that he remembers getting my thoughtful letter but that “I didn’t read it.”  I’m sorry for wasting His Honor’s valuable time.  I’ll include pictures next time.