Of telling Toto that we're not in Kansas anymore

El Cabrero is still taking time off in Italy, which is nice but distinctly un-American. I think Sarah Palin would have a hard time campaigning here.

There have been any number of signs of not being in Freedomland. One of these is the fact that the food and wine are better but there is less obesity. Another sure sign is how some streets are named. I think you'd have to scour the US pretty hard to find a plaza named after a revolutionary Marxist theorist like Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937).

Fox News would have a cow.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Don't bee a stranger

When I was a small child, our family lived next to the kind of people who probably don't exist anymore. They were an elderly couple, the Richmonds, and they were what I can only describe as bedrock Appalachians, real mountain people. They knew all the old ways and skills of survival.

The man, Hinton, knew where to find fish in the river. He hunted for ginseng in the hills. And he claimed--and I believed--that he could follow honeybees to their hives. Hinton attempted to educate me about the benefits of honeybees. I was a hard sell since these creatures seemed to have been designed specifically to sting my feet when I played barefoot outside.

It took me a while to get the memo, but eventually I became a bee fan. I was sad to learn of the recent unprecedented decline in the bee population due to a mysterious syndrome known as colony collapse disorder. This was bad news not just for bee-keepers but for the many plants and crops that the bees pollinate.

Eventually, this hit home. For the past two summers, I don't recall seeing a single honey bee at Goat Rope Farm. I am pleased to announce that they are back and were as welcome to me as the return of a long lost friend. I hope they stick around.

TALKING SENSE. Here is Paul Krugman doing battle with bad economic ideas.

FAUX NEWS. Here's a look at 14 propaganda techniques used by a certain "fair and balanced" news network.

FROM EVIL TO HEROISM. Philip Zimbardo, the Stanford psychologist of prison experiment fame, is trying to see whether heroism can be taught. (Search Goat Rope archives in upper left hand corner for several posts on Zimbardo's work.)

A SENSE OF FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE may be innate in humans. Too bad some people apparently didn't get the memo.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

One Nation

I'm still in the process of unkinking my back and neck--not to mention catching up with sleep, but I'm glad I attended the One Nation Working Together march and rally in Washington this weekend.

There were all kinds of people there, which was nice. If there was an overall theme, aside from the obvious one of gearing up to keep fighting for social justice, it had to be "Hope not hate."

I didn't hear many of the speeches as I decided to act like a dutiful worker for once and help staff an information table for the American Friends Service Committee way out of earshot.

There were all kinds of signs there, but this one was the strangest. I found it in a out of the way place after the rally was over. In case you have trouble reading it, it says, "Yo Hillbilly At $14 an hour you can't run with billionaires."

I kind of wonder if this is some kind of oracular statement directed at me, such as once came from the priestesses of Apollo at Delphi...Probably not, since the likelihood of me having the opportunity or desire to run with billionaires is very small.

GOOD INVESTMENTS. Paul Krugman takes a look at Fox Party candidates here.

NO SURPRISE DEPARTMENT. The gap between those with more and those with less continues to grow.

THINGS PEOPLE IN THE FUTURE WILL HATE US FOR. Here's the beginning of a list.

JUST FOR FUN, here's a right wing guide to American history.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The old, the new

Whatever my political leanings may be, I have a really strong conservative streak--in the old sense of the word conservative, as in respecting the traditions of the past. I tend to value old things that have withstood the tests of time to new innovations.

I suspect more wisdom can be found in places like Greek tragedy, myths and old philosophies than in just about anything on the bestseller list. Science would be the major exception.

I think that's one reason why I like Confucius, whose approach to philosophy has been called (by whom I can't recall) "innovation through transmission."

A saying of his from the Analects that has influenced me is this one:

One who studies the old so as to find the new is worthy to teach others.

This doesn't imply a mindless repetition of old traditions but rather a critical evaluation of them in search of insights that apply to the current situation, a kind of dialogue between past and present. I've always suspected that the best innovators are not people who make up things out of new cloth but rather those who piece together old insights in new ways.

IF ALL GOES ACCORDING TO PLAN, WV Governor Joe Manchin will name the person who will fill the late Robert Byrd's US Senate seat (if not his shoes) today. As soon as that person is sworn in, we can probably expect yet another vote on extending unemployment benefits to the approximately 2 million people who have lost them. Lots of us hope that WV's vote will be the tipping point.

Here are three related items:

FOX NEWS TRASHES UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS. I know that's a shock, but read more about it, including debunking, here.

A DOUBLE IMPACT. To clear the palate, this issue brief from the Economic Policy Institute shows that UI benefits don't just keep jobless workers going but also help create and preserve jobs:

The reasoning is simple. Those who are unemployed are experiencing a major challenge to maintain anything close to their regular standard of living, so any assistance they receive will be spent on necessities, not saved. The spending that results as the unemployed pay their rent, buy groceries, and so on saves and creates jobs throughout the economy.

ASSESSING ARRA. Here's congressional testimony on the Recovery Act and what remains to be done to deal with the impact of the Great Recession.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE CORPORATE SUITES, the Washington Post notes that:

Corporate America is hoarding a massive pile of cash. It just doesn't want to spend it hiring anyone.

Read more here.

CHICKEN HAWKS. The loudest voices on the deficit are opposed to allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire.

ONE FOR THE ROAD. Here's the Washington Post on the passage of landmark financial reform legislation.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED