posted by Sam Richards

This is a great video to show the complexity of economic life. When you think “economics,” consider consumption and production. People accumulate resources, manipulate them in some way, and then repackage or resell them at a higher price to someone else–produce and consume. Or they offer some service to fulfill some need of others. Economic exchange never stops–not even in an earthquake or when it appears as though an entire social structure has fallen apart.

When this in mind, check out this video about life in one of the refugee camps in which over a million Haitians now call home. (it might take a minute to load…)

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Posted by Sam Richards

Here’s one of those issues that we rarely ever heard discussed in this part of the United States. In fact, I’m not even sure how would it might come about that anyone would ever consider reading about the history of Hawaii and the people who lived there long before some guy named “Dole” was given the power to make decisions about their fate. In the event that you end up one day visiting those islands to walk their “pristine” beaches, this might be worth having in the back of your mind.

Read the article: “Native Hawaiian Government May Become Reality”

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posted by Sam Richards

I’ve been discussing freedom and determinism in a serious way for about twenty years and I’ve delivered yesterday’s class one hundred times if I’ve done it once. And Tuesday…for some strange reason I was in the zone in a way that I’ve never been with that particular class. I’d like to think that I stirred some things up in people with regards to how they…you…see the world of causality. I know that I rocked my own world in those 75 minutes and I suppose that that is all that really matters.

So why don’t you watch the video below just to jog your thinking and then kick out some thoughts. Perhaps now is a good time to consider reading the ideas of some other people and respond to them and not directly to the class. I’m quite curious about how you manage other people’s interpretations of the ideas.

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posted by Sam Richards

Here’s an interesting event — an elected official referring to welfare recipients as animals. That would be “animals” and not, you know, “the human animal.” This is one of those rather unfortunate things that people sometimes think but can never, ever say in public. In fact, frankly speaking, I’d guess that lots of people have referred to poor people who may or may not be on welfare as “animals.” “They’re just like animals!” or “They act like animals.” or “Put ‘em all in a cage like the animals that they are.” The difference is that people on welfare are, in fact, human beings who happen to be represented by politicians. Oh yes, and do I need to say that most poor people on welfare are children? What decisions did THEY make to merit calling them “animals”?

And do I also need to say that everyone collects welfare subsidies of some sort, and that the vast majority of subsidies go to the very wealthy? I do, of course, because like most people, you probably don’t think of welfare subsidies that are given away to anybody but the poor.

Let me help you here. Think Obama’s “welfare queens” who live lavish lifestyles as they come begging to the distributors of public tax dollars. Actually, I just mispoke here because they don’t come begging; they send their puppets from “K Street” (that would be lobbyists, for those not familiar with inside the beltway jargon). Why don’t you take a moment and think about how many negative thoughts you’ve had about poor welfare recipients as compared to those you’ve formulated about rich ones…if you’ve ever actually had any of the latter.

So while some guy sipping a shot of JD and pounding down Miller Lites at the corner bar might call food stamp collectors “animals,” elected officials ought to keep their thoughts to themselves…or they might show their hand and reveal whose side they’re actually on.

“Sanford’s lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer, likens government assistance to feeding stray animals”

By Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER  — Tuesday, January 26th 2010

A South Carolina politician is making very a public apology – and this time it’s not Governor Mark Sanford.  After likening welfare recepients to stray animals, Andre Bauer, the embattled Republican’s lieutenant governor, is hastily back-pedalling from remarks his rivals have called “immoral.”

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” he said during a Town Hall meeting on Thursday.

“You know why? Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply.  They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that.”

Bauer hopes to ascend to the state’s highest seat in November’s election, where he would succeed the sex-scandal scarred Mark Sanford, who’s affair with an Argentine mistress made him the butt of late-night talk.

The 40-year-old was quickly targeted by Democratic rivals for the remarks.  “I am disgusted by these comments,” said state Sen. Vincent Sheheen. “His comments were immoral and out of line.”  South Carolina schools Superintendent Jim Rex labeled them “reprehensible.”

No stranger to firing off intemperate remarks, Bauer has offered something of an apology.  “Do I wish I’d used a different metaphor? Of course,” he said. “I didn’t intend to offend anyone.”

Despite his choice of words, Bauer noted he feels welfare recipients should be required to submit to drug tests and attend parent-teacher conferences if they have kids in school.

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posted by the Gremlin

After watching this short video of a recent incident of racism in a high school where kids were being openly racist, it seems as though I have discovered why it is that we are all just a little bit racist…. still. Race is an open topic in many places here in America and racism must be seeping into our psyches.

In the video students were openly hating black students and there was literally nothing being done about it This is what made me think “WTF?” the most. I certainly remember there being strict rules about racism back when I was in school. But why not this school, how can these kids run wild degrading everyone that looks a little different than them into rubble? Who is to say that we don’t do the same behind our own eyes?

So why are we all racist…. still? Because parents aren’t educating their kids, or choose not to? The schools aren’t doing much to prevent this behavior either. One administrator admitted that their staff wasn’t properly trained in this area. But how much training do you need to undergo to spot such blatant racism and then to speak up?

If you were among this group of so called “administrators,” what would you do? Would you dial up your own little way to report things to the staff? Or something a more extreme?

And then I encounter this video. Another “WTF?” How about these administrators? What are they thinking. The woman won a case in court, afterall, and so her story, which sounds entirely far-fetched, must be true. How can it be? I guess the inmates really do sometimes take over and run the asylum.

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posted by Sam Richards

Clearly slavery is one of those touchy subjects for people in the United States. White people don’t fully understand it’s lasting legacy and often have the idea that after the Civil War ended in 1865, slaves were free to climb on up the mobility ladder as far as they wanted to go. People of color, African Americans in particular, are generally more cognizant of how white supremacy has continued to affect the life paths of the descendants of former slaves. They are much more likely to understand the ways in which black Americans were rarely offered the opportunity to compete fairly for the “prizes” that awaited white Americans at the finish line of the race to embrace the American Dream.

The problem is that with all of this talk of the legacy of slavery we forget that the institution has never ended for nearly thirty million people around the world. And we forget that all of us help to keep these “modern day slaves” in bondage when we purchase goods that they have manufactured. And by “all of us” I do mean to include the living descendants of slaves.

In keeping with my iconoclastic image, I just want to put this out there for people to chew on…

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