Green Cheese

The moon is made of green cheese.  I repeat, the moon is made of green cheese.  The chances of convincing a substantial portion of the American public that the moon is made of green cheese are very high if only I can find an extremely wealthy financier to give me enough money to bribe, (Oops, the Supreme Court doesn’t like that word), let me substitute ‘influence ‘ politicians that this Dr. Suess idiom is true.  To do so, I will also need the assistance of Fox TV and a ‘connector’. I would define ‘connector’ as a claim, whether true or not, that President Obama persists in denying that the moon is made of green cheese.  Given these criteria, all the elements will be in place.  Once the idiom is repeated enough times by the blonde news pundits on the various Fox ‘news’ programs, the claim will become an election day issue which will guarantee a large turnout from that group of people (known as Republicans) that, convinced the moon is made of green cheese, will vote, knee-jerk style, against anything Obama stands for.   If the Koch brothers and ALEC through bribery, (Oops, that word again), can get the green cheese issue on election ballots, Republican dominated states will declare, without a hint of shame, but with the usual righteous indignation, that the moon is, indeed,  made of green cheese.  For anyone who thinks this latter statement is too harsh, I invite you to name one thing, anything at all, that any Republican in the country is in agreement with something Obama has done or said in his six years as the president of our country when the contrary position has had the big-money backing of the Koch brother or Sheldon Adelson, a couple of fat-cats exercising their first amendment right to express themselves by letting their money talk for them rather actually saying something intelligent.

Take the ACA, the Affordable Care Act, for instance.  Less than a year after its implementation, the ACA is a demonstrable unqualified success.  This week more than 8 million Americans have already signed up to receive its benefits which include, among others, the right to be insured even if one has a pre-existing illness, the right to keep a child 26 and under on a parent’s insurance policy, and as the current Congressional Budget Office report estimates, the cost of the law will be $100 billion lower than expected and will significantly shrink the deficit over the next 10 years.

Now, take a deep breath and repeat after me; the moon is made of green cheese, the moon is made of green cheese.  The Koch brothers have sponsored this message that will be prominently advertised 400 times a day until election day and Koch-supported congressmen will vote for the 45^th? time to repeal the ACA buttressed by Paul Ryan’s assertion that covering people with pre-existing conditions is too expensive.  (Note to myself: Remember to ask the GOP what do we do for those people).

Oh yeah, and I'm the tooth fairy.  Just saying . . .

Free Legal Advice!!!

I am giving free legal advice in this blog;  Incorporate yourself.

Why do I recommend this?  It is a cozy time for corporations in the United States today. Previously, corporations were considered only as persons for tax purposes, as legal fictions, whose only reason for existence was the making of money,  However, a quantum shift in the status of corporation-persons has taken place recently.  In a gigantic leap of questionable logic, God-given rights secured by the constitution of the United States for us human-persons have been deemed to be applicable to corporation-persons.  As an example, the Republican majority of the Supreme Court has given the right of corporation-persons to give unlimited money to politicians in the exercise of their first amendment rights to freedom of speech; i.e., stated another way, money talks.  The upshot of the recent Citizens United opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, is that unlimited God-given giving to American politicians is not corrupt.  (The same behavior by law is deemed criminally corrupt when companies give money (i.e., bribes) to foreign politicians to obtain favors.)  Somewhere there exists a fine distinction between these acts, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out where it is.   

And the Supreme Court is currently deciding the issue of the religious freedom of corporation-owners to impose their religious beliefs on their employees.  Stay tuned on that one.  Oral arguments were heard this past week and the swing vote of Justice Kennedy is in play.  The gist of the arguments was such that it is clear that the four conservative justices are solidly in favor of granting religious freedoms to corporation-persons.

Further, if you are a human person (as opposed to a corporation-person) and receive a government handout, you are a taker, a member of the 47% crowd that Mitt Romney crowed about in his ‘private’ speech to fat-cat political contributors.  The stated reason why such handouts are so terrible is they are said to reduce the incentive to do real work and just live off our (the rest of us) hard-earned money.  I quote a Republican senator  back a few years ago, who likened the act of  human-persons taking government handouts to ‘sucking the teat’ of society.  Terrible stuff, you takers!   However, corporation-persons, big and small, get government handouts to the tune of 80 billion dollars from local governments nationwide annually with nary a peep.  Owners of private planes and yachts receive special tax breaks.  The top ten big banks receive more than 83 billion dollars a year from the federal government.  Hedge fund and private equity managers' income is treated for tax purposes as capital gains rather than as ordinary income like poor working stiffs.   Senator Tom Corburn has characterized these benefits as 'ludicrous handouts to millionaires."  According to the holy grail, these mega-billion dollar handouts for the benefit of corporation-persons, unlike human persons, does not reduce incentives to work.  These handouts are said to increase the incentive to make money when it is given to corporation-persons.  These huge amounts of tax-payer money are given to these entities, often at the expense of reduced funding of education, reducing food stamps for the unemployed, etc.  The stated purpose of giving corporation-persons this money is to get them to get to do things, like create jobs, which has proven to be of no use or value in the long run.  The trillion-dollars that corporations-persons have stashed off-shore is living testament to this contended folly of job creation. 

Now you understand the reasons for my giving free legal advice.  Incorporate yourself.  Make the transformation from a human-person to a corporation-person because you will be better off.  You can take all the government money you want and nobody will criticize you or call you lazy and shiftless.  Claim what the Republicans and our Supreme Court say are your God-given rights. 

Just saying . . .

Phthalates and Endocrine Disruption

I have simply copied the information below about phthalate exposure and its effects on the human being.

What are some examples of common everyday exposures to phthalates and tips to avoid exposure?

Microwaving food using plastic products.
Tip: Use only “microwave safe” containers and phthalate-free containers and plastic wrap when microwaving food and/or drinks. Phthalates can leach from food storage containers and food wrap into foods (particularly those foods that are oily or that have a high fat content) on contact and when heated.
Sucking or chewing soft plastic/vinyl products.
Tip: Use only plastic/vinyl toys and toothbrushes labeled “phthalate- free.” If unsure, call the manufacturer. In 1998 the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) requested phthalates be removed from soft
rattles, pacifiers, bottle nipples, and teethers.
Personal care products and vinyl clothing.
Tip: Read labels. If unsure, call the manufacturer.
Medical situations.
Tip: PVC is used in a wide range of medical devices, such as intravenous (IV) tubing, blood bags, and catheters. Ask your healthcare provider to use phthalate-free tubing and medical bags especially for procedures such as blood transfusions and dialysis.
What negative health effects have phthalates been shown to have in laboratory animals?
Very few studies have examined the health effects of phthalates on humans. In lab animals, phthalate exposure has been found to be associated with numerous reproductive health and developmental problems such as:

• Early onset of puberty.
  
• Interfering with the male reproductive tract
  development.
  
• Interfering with the natural functioning of the
  hormone system.
  
• Causing reproductive and genital defects.
  
• Lower testosterone levels in adolescent males.
  
• Lower sperm count in adult males.
  Phthalates are weak endocrine disruptors and androgen blocking chemicals. This means that when absorbed into the body phthalates can either mimic or block female hormones, or in males, suppress the hormones involved in male sexual development.
  Phthalates cross the placenta.
  Phthalates

(THAL-ates)
The Everywhere Chemical
What are phthalates?
Phthalates are a family of man-made chemical compounds developed in the last century to be used in the manufacture of plastics, solvents, and personal care products. They are colorless, odorless, oily liquids that do not evaporate easily and do not chemically bind to the material they are added to.
How am I exposed to phthalates?
Ingestion, inhalation, skin absorption, and intravenous injection are all potential pathways of exposure. The ever- present use of phthalates as an additive to PVC (polyvinyl chloride) products to make them flexible and to personal care products to make fragrances last longer in the past 50 years has resulted in widespread general population exposure.
Phthalates are readily absorbed into the human body and are converted quickly to their respective metabolites. Unlike some chemicals, they tend to pass out of the body quickly in urine and feces. Phthalates can interact with each other and increase the exposure effect.
How do phthalates enter the environment?
Phthalates can be released from a product by heat, agitation, and prolonged storage. The release can occur during all the stages of the product lifecycle - from production, through use, to disposal.
Which population of humans is at a greater health risk to phthalate exposure?
Children under the age of three are more at risk from phthalates because of their developing, smaller body size and ever-present exposure to children’s products manufactured using multiple types of phthalate compounds. Young children use their mouths to explore, and consequently, can be exposed to higher levels by sucking on
products made of phthalate-containing plastics.
What can I do to avoid exposure?
Read labels!

There is no easy way to tell if a product has added phthalates. Phthalates can be identified on labels by a three or four letter acronym that defines their chemical structures. Labels rarely state “contains phthalates”.
There are a multitude of phthalate compounds. Which phthalate compound is added to a product depends in
part on their molecular weight (MW). Phthalates with a higher molecular weight (HMW) are very slightly soluble in water; phthalates with a lower molecular weight (LMW) are reasonably soluble in water.
The 8 most widely used phthalate compounds and their metabolites are:

• BBP: butyl benzyl phthalate (LMW) *, **, ***
  MBzP: mono benzyl phthalate
  
• DBP: di-n-butyl phthalate (LMW) *, **, *** MBP: mono-n-butyl phthalate
  MiBP: mono-isobutyl phthalate
  Most common phthalate added to nail polish.
  
• DEHP: di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (HMW) *, **, ***
  MEHP: mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate
  Most widely-added phthalate to polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to make products flexible.
  
• DEP: diethyl phthalate (LMW)
  MEP: monoethyl phthalate
  Most common phthalate added to personal care products to enhance fragrance.
  
• DiDP: di-isodecyl phthalate (HMW) *, **, ***
  
• DiNP: di-isononyll phthalate (HMW) *, **, ***
  Most common phthalate added as a softener in the manufacture of toys and childcare products, such as bath toys, drinking straws, and rubber ducks.
  
• DnHP: di-n- hexyl phthalate *
  
• DnOP: di-n-octyl phthalate (LMW) **, ***
  

* Listed in California’s Proposition 65 as a reproductive and developmental toxicant.
** Listed in California’s AB1108 (Ma and Huffman). The bill, if passed, will ban use in the manufacture of any toy or childcare article intended for use by a child under three years of age.
*** European Union banned as a phthalate softener in the manufacture of toys and childcare articles.

The most common products using phthalate compounds are:
PVC Products
Phthalates are frequently added to PVC (vinyl) products to soften and make more flexible.
If a plastic product is flexible, it probably contains phthalates unless the label
specifically says it does not.
Personal Care Products
Phthalates are often added to personal care products, such as nail polish, perfumes, deodorants, hair gels, shampoos, soaps, hair sprays, and body lotions, to help lubricate other substances in the formula and to carry fragrances. Phthalates
must be listed among the ingredients on product labels, unless they are added as a part of the “fragrance.” Under current law, they can then simply be labeled “fragrance,” even though they may make up 20% or more of the product.
Many companies have voluntarily removed phthalates from their products. A company will usually label its product “phthalate-free.” If unsure, call the company. If you can’t get information from the manufacturer, look for alternatives.
How can I recognize plastic toys and containers containing phthalates?
All plastics are not the same. One easy way to recognize plastic toys, clothing, bottles, food and beverage storage containers, and/or food wrap that may contain phthalate compounds is to look for the number 3 inside the universal recycling symbol usually molded into the plastic on the bottom of the product.
Avoid products with the number 3 within the arrows and the letters “V” or “PVC” below the arrows.
33 V PVC

Choose products with the numbers 1,2, 4 and 5 within the 1245

arrows. 

Emergency Manager of DPS: Unmitigated Disaster

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I have deferred to Dr. Thomas Pedroni in the past for his remarkable insights on what is happening to Michigan, particularly Detroit, schoolchildren.  What follows is an update:

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ANOTHER LOST YEAR: CHILDREN IN STATE-MANAGED DETROIT SCHOOLS LOSE EVEN MORE GROUND TO STATE PEERSWHEN WILL GOVERNOR SNYDER AND HIS IMPOSED SCHOOL MANAGERS BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR HARM TO OUR CHILDREN?

By Dr. Thomas C. Pedroni

March 3, 2014

One year ago this month I watched in disbelief as the Emergency Manager of the moment, Roy Roberts, declared on NBC’s nationally broadcast Education Nation Detroit Summit that Detroit Public Schools had surpassed the Michigan average in 14 of 18 MEAP categories.  At the time I suspected that Snyder's appointee, a former auto executive with no education background, had simply misspoken or just didn’t quite have his facts straight.  What bothered me more was that none of his carefully selected co-panelists—including EAA Chancellor John Covington and Detroit Parent Network President/CEO Sharlonda Buckman—batted as much as an eye over Roberts’ jubilant mispronouncement.  A clearly impressed Chelsea Clinton declared that when the day came she would gladly enroll her own children in the public schools of Detroit.
As I dug through the MEAP results on the Michigan Department of Education’s website that day—confirming that DPS students had scored behind the state average in all 18 tested categories, typically by 20 percentage points or more—I made a discovery I had not anticipated:  in most categories, children in Detroit’s public elementary and middle schools had fallen even farther behind their state peers since 2009. That year (2009) was the year that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared Detroit “ground zero” for education reform, and the State once again took away local democratic control of Detroit’s schools. 
I was particularly troubled that, since 2009, the youngest children taking the test—3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th graders—had declined the most.  Although already so far behind their statewide peers, Detroit's youngest test-takers had somehow lost even more ground.
I wrote my findings in a column submitted to the Detroit Free Press, which the paper accepted for publication.  Hours later the paper changed its mind. In a bizarre sequence of events, the paper’s editorial staff accepted and rejected the column two more times, finally telling me I was free to take it elsewhere.
I published the column here, at the Detroit Data and Democracy Project, instead, and posted a link on Facebook.  While this site typically receives only 2 to 4 hits a day, within a few hours the piece had accumulated thousands of hits.  In the ensuing days I was interviewed on four radio programs, Rachel Maddow tweeted a link to the column, and The Huffington Post, Truthout, and The Michigan Citizen all asked to reprint it.  Apparently there was a hunger for educational fact sharing and analysis beyond what was available at NBC and in the local dailies.
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A year has passed since my original column.  Has state-imposed emergency management now finally turned the corner with Detroit’s public schools?  Five years after the State concluded that the main thing holding Detroit’s schoolchildren back was the ability of their parents to choose their school board, are we finally receiving the long overdue dividends of electoral disenfranchisement?
Sadly, grievously—the new MEAP data, released February 28, reveal the further deepening of a devastating pattern.  In both reading and math, Detroit’s children have fallen even further behind their state peers.  Somehow, in 10 of the 12 grade-level math and reading MEAP tests, Detroit’s children under state control in DPS and the EAA have lost even more ground this past year.
Fourth graders in Detroit's state-managed schools actually progressed marginally in reading relative to their Michigan peers, bringing the proficiency gap down by 0.8 points to 29.5 percentage points.  But in every other tested grade-- third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth-- they fell even further behind in reading.  In math, Detroit’s sixth grade students in state-managed schools gained marginally on their Michigan peers (by 0.3 points) and are now only 27.7 percentage points behind.  But they lost even more ground to their statewide peers in all the other tested grades-- third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth (see Figure I).

Figure I. Proficiency gap between DPS/EAA students and their Michigan peers.

Click to enlarge. 

Cumulatively, since Detroit became ground zero in 2009, students in DPS and EAA schools taken over by the state have declined precipitously relative to their state peers in every tested grade in reading, 3rd through 8th.  In third grade reading, the proficiency gap has widened by 7.3 points to 28.2.  The reading proficiency gap also widened by 2.1 points in fourth grade, 1.7 points in fifth grade, 3.2 points in sixth grade, 3.8 points in seventh grade, and 4.7 in eighth grade.  In math, although students gained marginally on their state peers in sixth through eighth grades (sixth, proficiency gap decreased 0.5 points to 27.7; seventh, 0.5 points to 28.5; and eighth, 0.1 points to 23.2), students plummeted relative to their state peers in third, fourth, and fifth grade.  In third grade, the math proficiency gap increased by 5.2 points to 26.6; in fourth grade it increased by 6.8 points to 29.2; and in 5th grade it increased by 8.0 points to 30.9 (see Figure II).

Figure II. Proficiency Gap, Year by Year, and Comparatively 2009-12, 2012-13, and 2009-13.

Click to enlarge. 

For DPS and EAA students under state control, another year of educational possibility has been stolen.  The long saga of state control of Detroit's public schools, characterized by this unconscionable erosion of our children's educational futures, drags on.  As we saw last week, Snyder's experiment on Black children in Detroit, the EAA, notwithstanding the rosy and self-serving pronouncements of its high-paid leadership, has been an unmitigated disaster.  Now we have an even clearer portrait of the educational failure of state takeover across both state-controlled Detroit education sectors-- the EAA and DPS under emergency management. For Snyder's theft of Detroit's children's future, will a moment of accountability ever come? 

Women: Control Yourselves!

While states throughout the land continue to enact new abortion restrictions that limit decision-making and choices of women who seek to determine the course of their own lives, there are several things that should be kept in mind.  First (and most obvious) is that pregnancy is a status that can be experienced only by women. In states dominated by Republicans. the old guys in charge of that party disregard that fact and continue to inject their so-called values on pregnant women  with the intent of making life decisions for them.  In doing so, their reasoning is based apparently on male locker room-type discussions like “I didn’t forcibly rape her, I just raped her” or “The fact that she got pregnant after I raped her means that she wanted me to get her pregnant.”

Last week, the old guy Republicans started on a new tack.   Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, told the Republican National Committee that Democrats favor universal access to free contraception because they think women “cannot control their libido” without the help of “Uncle Sugar.”  So apparently the Republican Party is heading toward a campaign to recapture the votes of women based on this theme; “Women control yourselves.  Because if you can’t, then we will make sure that you are punished for the results of an unwanted pregnancy.  Also, keep your stinking hands off our right to obtain free Viagra paid for by you-know-who.” 

Just saying . . .

A Lesson in Life

David Brooks in an op-ed writer for the New York Times.  He is one of two so-called conservative presences in the regular cadre of writers who provide a variety of opinions on a weekly basis.  I mention his political leanings only because I happen to disagree with him most of the time.  However, in his January 20, 2014 column he described the experiences of a married couple who lost a daughter in her twenties in April, 2008 after being thrown from a horse.  A second daughter riding a bike to work in 2013 was struck by a car leading to horrible injuries requiring an ongoing and prolonged recovery.  That daughter, Catherine, writes a remarkable blog post inThe Sojourner documenting the ongoing and intense struggle of recovery.  Her mother, Mary, has written in that blog-site about the kinds of things someone on the outside of this type of traumatic experience should or should not do to really be of value to those undergoing the impact.

I quote directly from his article:

“Do be there. Some people think that those who experience trauma need space to sort things through. Assume the opposite. Most people need presence. The [parents] say they were awed after each tragedy by the number of people, many of whom had been mere acquaintances, who showed up and offered love, from across the nation and the continents. They were also disoriented by a number of close friends who simply weren’t there, who were afraid or too busy.

“[The father], Ashley, says he could detect no pattern to help predict who would step up and provide the ministry of presence and who would fumble. Neither age, experience nor personal belief correlated with sensitivity and love.

“Don’t compare, ever. Don’t say, “I understand what it’s like to lose a child. My dog died, and that was hard, too.” Even if the comparison seems more germane, don’t make it. Each trauma should be respected in its uniqueness. Each story should be heard attentively as its own thing. “From the inside,” Catherine writes, comparisons “sting as clueless, careless, or just plain false.”

“Do bring soup. The non-verbal expressions of love are as healing as eloquence. When Mary was living with Catherine during her recovery, some young friend noticed she didn’t have a bathmat. He went to Target and got a bathmat. Mary says she will never forget that.

“Do not say “you’ll get over it.” “There is no such thing as ‘getting over it,’ ” Catherine writes, “A major disruption leaves a new normal in its wake. There is

“Do be a builder. The couple distinguish between firefighters and builders. Firefighters drop everything and arrive at the moment of crisis. Builders are there for years and years, walking alongside as the victims live out in the world. Very few people are capable of performing both roles.

“Don’t say it’s all for the best or try to make sense out of what has happened. Catherine and her parents speak with astonishing gentleness and quiet thoughtfulness, but it’s pretty obvious that these tragedies have stripped away their tolerance for pretense and unrooted optimism.

“Ashley also warned against those who would overinterpret, and try to make sense of the inexplicable. Even devout Christians, as the parents are, should worry about taking theology beyond its limits. Theology is a grounding in ultimate hope, not a formula book to explain away each individual event.

Brook’s sums it up beautifully.  “I’d say that what these experiences call for is a sort of passive activism. We have a tendency, especially in an achievement-oriented culture, to want to solve problems and repair brokenness — to propose, plan, fix, interpret, explain and solve. But what seems to be needed here is the art of presence — to perform tasks without trying to control or alter the elemental situation. Allow nature to take its course. Grant the sufferers the dignity of their own process. Let them define meaning. Sit simply through moments of pain and uncomfortable darkness. Be practical, mundane, simple and direct.”

Just saying  . . .

Numbers In My Life

I tend to keep track of things.  As a youngster I found it helpful to keep track of my workouts as I trained for various running races.  When I entered college, I found it helpful to extend this practice to my studies.  And so on.  What follows are the numbers that were important to me at the end of 2013.

52

          The number of years married to my wonderful wife, Mary Ellen

315

         The number of workouts for the year

74

         The number of books read

142

         The number of rounds of golf played

27

         The number of concerts played (tuba)

21

         The number of days played (trombone) at the Salvation Army red kettle

875

         The number of dollars our Dixieland band received in donations for the red kettle in our two-hour appearance

108,209

         The number of words written to date on the new novel

2414

         The number of strokes taken while playing golf

184

         Number of pages in final draft of Serenity screenplay

30

         The number of blogs written this year

445

         The number of blogs written since 12/12/2006