Annals of hypocrisy: shafting coal miners

If you've been following the news in West Virginia over the last few months, you are no doubt aware of the legislative coup that shook up the state supreme court. Two of the justices appointed to fill....uhhh...vacancies were former legislator and congressman Evan Jenkins and former state house speaker Tim Armstead.

Over the years, both men, especially Jenkins, made much hay about their alleged love for coal miners and their heroic stance against the "war on coal."

Well, their most recent decision will actually make it harder for coal miners to qualify for black lung benefits.

I mean, golly, who could have seen that coming?

Thoughts on WV's supreme court mess

If you live in West Virginia and are in regular contact with people from out of state, there's a pretty good chance someone may have asked you "what the (fill in the blank) is going on with the whole state supreme court goat rope?"

(In case you've been frying other fish, the Republican majority in the WV House of Delegates voted to impeach all remaining members of the court, in effect blowing up an entire branch of state government. This could potentially let Republican Governor Jim Justice stack the deck until 2020.)

If you don't want to recap the whole thing blow by blow, there's a pretty good summary in Slate that doesn't get in the weeds. Of course, there is a lot of great local journalism going on by reporters like the Gazette-Mail's Jack Zuckerman and Lacie Peterson and MetroNews' Brad McIlhenny if you want the whole rundown.

My short take is that while all the remaining justices (one resigned and another retired during the mess) have been lavish in spending, only one really calls out for impeachment, to wit Allen Loughry of $32,000 couchgate fame, who is facing federal charges. The one who resigned, Menis Ketchum, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Here's the lead from the Slate piece:

What the hell is going on in West Virginia? On Monday, the House of Delegates impeached the entire state Supreme Court on charges focusing on the justices’ lavish spending on office refurbishments. Republicans, who led the drive to oust the whole bench, insisted the court was irredeemably corrupt. Many Democrats countered that GOP legislators were staging a coup to seize control of the judiciary. One justice, Robin Davis, resigned rather than allow herself to be removed, proclaiming that the impeachment push was a “disaster for the rule of law” and an attempt by the legislature “to dismantle a separate branch of government.”

While Davis isn’t wrong, the court isn’t wholly blameless either. Republicans are attempting to stack it—but the justices made that task easy by engaging in conduct ranging from questionable to certainly illegal. Republicans are citing the serious allegations against two justices to justify removing all four, and they have timed their attacks to ensure that Republican Gov. Jim Justice, rather than West Virginia voters, will be able to select their replacements, thereby dragging the court far to the right.

At last count, nine people have applied for interim seats on the court. The next stop for impeachment proceedings is the state senate, where the games will presumably begin next month.

All of which is yet another reason to change the state motto from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up."

Through the WV Looking Glass

As if these times weren't trippy enough, I decided to listen to Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Although taken as a whole it didn't seem to hang together as tightly as Alice in Wonderland, it does contain some of my favorites from the master of trippiness, including The Jabberwocky, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the walrus and the carpenter and such.

A little trippiness these days may be necessary in order to follow West Virginia politics, from the impeachment hearings about the WV Supreme Court mess to state senate president Mitch Carmichael's bizarre twitter storm accusing WV teachers of supporting an "Obama-styled socialist agenda. "

Among the items on this alleged pinko agenda were universal health care, child care for working parents and debt-free higher education. More than one commentator has pointed out that Carmichael himself was leading the charge on a free community college bill earlier this year.

I'm not sure what Carmichael was thinking since he didn't gain a whole lot of popularity points during the WV teachers' strike--and then had the gumption to claim credit for the pay raise he tried to squelch.

My friend and twitter warrior Sean O'Leary had this to say about that,

"Just woke up from a terrifying nightmare where all West Virginians had health insurance, could go to college without going into debt, and all children had quality childcare while their parents worked."

All told, things are pretty brillig here and the slithy toves are gyring and gimbling in the wabe.

Is it over yet?

West Virginia's primary election is tomorrow (Tuesday, May 10). I don't know about you, but I'll be kind of glad when it's over. Maybe. Anyhow, here's a bonus section of The Front Porch with a focus on the state supreme court race.

Also, this column by E.J. Dionne has some interesting things to say about empathy and Appalachia. I think it's worth a look.

And speaking of wanting something to be over (in a good way), I'm dreading next week's special session of the legislature to deal with the budget. It promises to be a true goat rope.

The readiness is all

Certain lines from a work like Hamlet are bound to stick in one's head. One that has stuck in mine for years and years is "the readiness is all."

In another lifetime, when I was mired in poverty and stuck in a pretty much dead end job, a friend asked me what I wanted out of life. I answered, "To be ready." I think that's my final answer.

In context, however, those words are really about death rather than life. They appear in the play as things are headed towards the climax. Claudius and Laertes have conspired to poison Hamlet during a fencing match and the challenge has just been delivered.

Hamlet admits to Horatio about misgivings but refuses to cancel the engagement:

...we defy augury: there's a special
providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
readiness is all...

Methinks he has a point.

JUST DO IT. Pass health care reform, that is.

ECONOMIC RECOVERY. Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz warns that cutting public expenditures too soon could make the recession worse.

FORECLOSURES. A new wave could be on the way.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS. The WV Senate Finance Committee advanced a bill that would provide for public funding of state supreme court races, but gutted the provisions which would adequately fund it. This legislation was in part a response to the 2004 fiasco.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

"A jangled symphony of ill"

Clytemnestra emerges after murdering Agamemnon in this 1882 painting by artist John Collier. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Goat Rope's ongoing series on Greek tragedy continues, with the focus at the moment on Aeschylus' Agamemnon. If you like this kind of thing, please click on earlier posts. If you don't, you can scroll down for links and comments about current events.

"There arises from these halls in a single voice
A perpetual choir,
A jangled symphony of ill,
With ill its theme."-Spoken by Cassandra

This play is the first in the only surviving Greek tragic trilogy. Its great theme is the emergence of democracy and the rule of law after a long and horrendous series of crimes and outrages. This play, though, is all about crimes and outrages.

The Agamemnon begins with the complaints of a watchman whose duty it is to gaze from the roof of the palace at Argos for a signal fire that will announce the fall of Troy. The event is expected due to oracles that say this will happen in the tenth year of the war. At last, the flame is spotted.

Meanwhile, a chorus of the old men of Argos ponder past events about the war with a growing sense of foreboding. They recall King Agamemnon sacrificing his own daughter Iphigenia at the command of Artemis to gain fair winds for Troy and appease her wrath as well as the family's long violent history. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, emerges from the palace to announce the event, which is also confirmed by a messenger.

Agamemnon arrives with Cassandra, daughter of Priam of Troy. Cassandra was a prophetess cursed by the god Apollo for refusing his advances. Her punishment is that she will have true knowledge of the future but would not be believed. She was Agamemnon's prize and is now his slave.

Clytemnestra pretends to welcome him and urges him to walk on a fabulously expensive carpet of purple or scarlet. This may have been the original red carpet treatment. He initially refuses because to do so would be an act of hubris, but she harasses him until he does. Cassandra stays outside briefly, speaking incoherently to the chorus of past crimes and impending doom, then she goes within.

The chorus outside hears the dying screams of Agamemnon, who is trapped in a net and murdered by Clytemnestra. Cassandra soon suffers the same fate. When the doors of the place open, Clytemnestra emerges, triumphant in avenging the death of her daughter. She is joined by her illicit lover Aegisthus, whose brothers were killed and served to their unknowing father by Agamemnon's father Atreus. For him too this is an act of vengeance.

The chorus is horrified and makes noise of resistance, but troops loyal to the bloodstained couple disperse the crowd. A new tyranny rules over Argos. So ends the first part of the trilogy.

The violence of a foreign war spills over into violence at home. Golly, it's a good thing that doesn't happen any more...

SUPREME COURT. Here's a Washington Post editorial on the recent US Supreme Court decision about justice for sale in WV. And here is a NY Times article on its legal implications. This is a take from the McClatchy papers. And, while we're at it, this AP article interviews Massey CEO Don Blankenship about the decision.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH, Massey won a different round on the WV Supreme Court in a decision about a controversial coal processing facility near an elementary school. Here's a summary with multiple links from Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo.

NOT COOL. The American Medical Association has come out opposing a public health care option, preferring to allow "the market" to do the job. How's that coming?

RUST BELT BLUES. Here's a postcard from Detroit about work and hard times.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT, in which case we may be in trouble, according to a new film on the food industry.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Bastions of wealth

The Murder of Agamemnon, painting by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Bastions of wealth
are no defence for the man
who treads the grand altar of Justice
down and out of sight.--Spoken by the chorus in Aeschylus' Agamemnon.

Goat Rope’s ongoing series on Greek tragedy continues. You’ll also find links and comments about current events below. Right now we’re on Aeschylus Orestes trilogy. If you like this kind of thing, please click on earlier posts.

According to Paul Roche,

“The Oresteia is the story of an aristocratic house in the process of destroying itself under a hereditary curse, which is both a destiny and a free expression of love and hate. The blood feud can end only by total self-destruction, or by giving way to a divinely established justice which is itself evolving—evolving from primitive concepts of retribution into a higher order of compassion, enlightenment, and peace."

Agamemnon, leader of the Greek expedition to Troy, gives the title to the first part of the trilogy. He was a prominent character in Homer’s Iliad (where he always seemed like a jerk to me) and his ghost appears in the Odyssey.

In the Odyssey, an epic of homecoming, Agamemnon’s return contrasts with that of Odysseus. Like all the Greeks who committed outrages and excesses in their sack of Troy, they are destined to suffer. But while Odysseus lives and is reconciled with the virtuous Penelope after many sorrows and a long and dangerous journey, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife Clytemnestra in revenge for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia for fair winds to Troy ten years earlier at the command of the goddess Artemis.

In Homer, Penelope is the archetypal good wife while Clytemnestra is the archetypal bad wife (although I always thought Agamemnon had it coming).

While Greek tragic writers almost always used mythic themes, they were free to adapt them to current circumstances. Aeschylus went way beyond Homer in his version of the story, even carving out a special place for his hometown of Athens in its resolution.

More tomorrow.

SPEAKING OF BASTIONS OF WEALTH BEING NO DEFENSE, here's a NY Times editorial about the recent US Supreme Court decision regarding hijinks on the WV Supreme Court.

A PLUG FOR PAINE. This item suggests that Thomas Paine is a founder worth another look today.

PLAIN ENGLISH. The language is projected to add its millionth word today. I recommend "glarnox." No definition yet, though some of our best people are working on it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A history of violence

The punishment of Tantalus.

"I know this house's ancestry--
it's pedigree of sin."

Violence seems to run through families, generations, countries and even entire regions of the world, with outrage breeding outrage. Sadly, sometimes those who were its victims become its perpetrators.

Ending that seemingly endless cycle and establishing a higher social order is the theme of the Oresteia by Aeschylus. Although its message is profoundly political, the dramatic trilogy focuses on how violence played out in one family...and what a family it was.

Here's a short summary of the backstory of the drama:

1. Tantalus served up his son Pelops (literally) at a banquet for the gods. They were not amused and he was one of the few ancients to qualify for personalized eternal damnation by being "tantalized" with food and drink but forever unable to get it. The gods reconstructed Pelops physically but not morally.

2. Pelops sabotaged the chariot of his father-in-law to be, which led to his death. Then he double crossed and murdered they guy who helped him do it. The guy not surprisingly cursed the house with his last breath.

3. Pelops sons Atreus and Thyestes set a new standard for nastiness. First, they contested for power. Then Thyestes seduced the wife of Atreus. Then, after a family meeting for "reconciliation," Atreus kills Thyestes children and serves them for dinner to their unknowing father. One, Aegisthus, got away.

Nice guys, huh?

In the play proper, the merry dance goes on:

4. Agamemnon, son of Atreus, sacrifices his own daughter Iphigenia in order to get fair winds to sail for Troy at the beginning of that war.

5. On his return, Clytemnestra with the help of her lover Aegisthus (remember him?) kills Agamemnon.

6. Orestes, son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, kills his own mother at the order of Apollo.

Then it really gets messy.

While all that sounds like an incredible downer, the plays are actually optimistic about the possibility of people, with the help of divine wisdom, to rise above all that and break the endless cycle.

More to come.

GO, SUPREMES! The big news around here is the US Supreme Court's decision regarding Massey Energy and whether a state justice elected with money from CEO Don Blankenship should recuse himself form cases involving the company. The court said he should. Here's the NY Times on it. Here's the Washington Post. And here's the Charleston Gazette.

A "WARRIOR GENE?" Some scientists think they've found one that is associated with violence. Hmmm...maybe that explains the whole Atreus thing.

ON THAT NOTE, global spending on weapons is through the roof.

BULLY FOR YOU. The research is in, and some strategies seem to work in confronting bullying.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The more we get together

St. Florian, patron saint of fire fighters.

In this blog, El Cabrero has often referred to the research of Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam about the importance of social capital for solving all kinds of problems. Social capital can be defined as all the different ways people associate with each other in formal or informal settings.

The era of the Enlightenment was one that saw the blooming of social capital in many settings. Just one example of this is the Junto formed by the young Benjamin Franklin and friends (see yesterday's post). Short version: Franklin and pals would meet regularly to discuss and debate various issues of general interest "on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy."

Sometimes these discussions led to tangible results. Here's a major example taken from Franklin's Autobiography:

About this time I wrote a paper (first to be read in the Junto, but it was afterward publish'd) on the different accidents and carelessnesses by which houses were st on fire, with cautions against them, and means proposed of avoiding them. This was much spoken of as a useful piece, and gave rise to a project, which soon followed it, of forming a company for the more ready extinguishing of fires, and mutual assistance and removing and securing of goods when in danger. Associates in this scheme were presently found, amounting to thirty. Our articles of agreement oblig'd every member to keep always in good order, and fit for use, a certain number of leather buckets, with strong bags and baskets (for packing and transporting of good), which were to be brought to every fire; and we agreed to meet once a month to spend a social evening together, in discoursing and communicating such ideas as occurred to us upon the subject of fires, as might be useful to our conduct on such occasions.

The idea proved its usefulness and let to the formation of many similar companies throughout Philadelphia. Over time, the Union Fire Company procured fire engines, ladders, fire-hooks and other equipment. Writing more than 50 years after the original founding of the fire company, Franklin wrote

...I question whether there is a city in the world better provided with the means of putting a stop to beginning conflagrations; and, in fact, since these institutions, the city has never lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, and the flames have often been extinguished before the house in which they began was half consumed.

THE STATES AND THE RECESSION. Here's a good source for state foreclosure and unemployment information.

RIGHT TO ORGANIZE? Employees fire pro-union workers in one out of four organizing drives, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

THE CHEERFUL GIVER. This item discusses the psychology of giving.

MORE SUPREME FUN. Here's yesterday's NY Times on the Massey Energy/Don Blankenship/WV Supreme Court case that was argued Tuesday before the US Supreme Court and here's the latest from the Charleston Gazette.

EXERCISE IS GOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN, especially as you get older.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The Junto

The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia was an offshoot of Benjamin Franklin's Junto. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Lately Goat Rope is hanging out with founding father and all-round interesting guy, Benjamin Franklin, but you'll also find links and comments about current events. The series started last week with Poor Richard's Almanac if you feel inclined to take a look.

For the next few days, I'll be combing though his autobiography for interesting nuggets.

One of the characteristics of Franklin's era of the Enlightenment in Europe and what would become the United States was the growth of civil society, which can be understood as voluntary associations outside the realm of government and commerce. It's an important example of social capital (search the Goat Rope archives for an earlier series on that).

People, usually men of at least middling means, would gather in clubs, coffee houses, and other locations for fellowship, conversation, self-improvement and social betterment. Such gatherings helped create the public sphere, as the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has noted. They also paved the way for greater democratization.

Franklin was a social capitalist extraordinaire, founding and participating in all kinds of groups. One of these he called the Junto. As he put it,

...I had form'd most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which we called the JUNTO; we met on Friday evenings. The rules that I drew up required that every member, in his turn, should produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss'd by the company; and once in three months produce and read an essay of his own writing, on any subject he pleased. Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute, or desire of victory; and, to prevent warmth, all expressions of positiveness in opinions, or direct contradiction, were after some time made contraband, and prohibited under small pecuniary penalties.

The club endured for several decades and span off several similar groups, including the American Philosophical Society. Franklin and others found that such gatherings polished their thinking and communication skills and were directly or indirectly useful in their business and public affairs.

It was an early illustration of Harvard sociologist Robert Putnam's idea that social capital is the building block of other kinds of success. It's a sad fact that many indicators show that social capital has declined in the US beginning in the second half of the 20th century. And we're paying the price for that.

DEPRESSING NEWS. Here's Dean Baker's latest on the economy.

RETHINKING NATIONAL SECURITY. It's way more than terrorism.

MORE SUPREME FUN. Here's an AP article and something from the Gazette summarizing debate at the US Supreme Court in the Massey/Blankenship/Benjamin saga. I missed this NY Times editorial on the subject that ran Monday. It could be months before the court reaches a decision.

DREAM ON. Messing with sleep patterns messes with your metabolism.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A reasonable creature

They do eat other fish, after all.

There are plenty of amusing interludes in Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, but one of my favorites has to do with his resolution as a young man to become a vegetarian.

He kept to his resolve pretty well for a good stretch, until he was on a boat journey from Boston when people began catching cod.

...Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion I consider'd...the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter.

The problem was, those cod looked and smelled pretty good as they were being cooked. While he considered his vegetarianism as reasonable, there was this little issue:

...I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc'd some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I din'd upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet.

Here's the punchline:

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

Roger that.

HEALTH CARE NOW? Bring it on.

GREEN JOBS, good jobs.

MORE FUN WITH THE SUPREMES. Here's the Washington Post on the Massey Energy/Don Blankenship/Brent Benjamin/WV Supreme Court saga now before the US Supreme Court.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

An American original

Image courtesy of wikipedia.

If there is such a thing as an American archetype, it might be the idea of the nation as a place where one can remake oneself and create one's own destiny. It was never exactly the case for many people, but it did seem to happen often enough.

If that's the case, then the original model for such a person may well have been Benjamin Franklin. Last week, Goat Rope took a look at some nuggets from his Poor Richard's Almanac. It only seems right at this point to give a shout out to his famous and enjoyable Autobiography.

Now every autobiographer is arguably by definition an unreliable narrator, but Franklin's would be worth a look even if it was a work of fiction. It is also an early example of America's long love affair with self-help books, since it is chock full of advice and axioms for self improvement.

Franklin began writing it in 1771 at age 65 while residing in England. He returned to it in 1784 and worked on the later sections in 1788. The work was uncompleted and ends abruptly sometime in the 1750s, well before his role in the American Revolution.

Over the next few days, Goat Rope will serve up a plateful for the Gentle Reader's consideration.

BUBBLE, BUBBLE, TOIL AND TROUBLE. Here are some thoughts on the origin of the economic crisis.

THE DESERVING POOR. Times like these put a different face on poverty.

SUPREMES. Here's the latest on a case now before the US Supreme Court regarding the propriety of a justice elected mostly due to the money from Massey CEO Don Blankenship ruling on cases involving Massey. And here's background.

PORN AGAIN. A study of credit card receipts finds that the states that consume the most pornography tend to be the more conservative and religious.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

A toast to Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Christian penitential season of Lent, which occurs during the 40 days before Easter. Actually, there are 46 days, but the Sundays don't technically count.

The traditional religious ceremonies for this day involve the imposition of ashes on the foreheads while the priest intones "Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return." Some would say it's kind of a downer as religious holidays go, but it works for me. Whenever I have the chance, I try to attend services on that day.

In the old days, Lent was a time of fasting. Even today, many people will either do something extra or give something up for this period.

During my more religiously observant periods, I've actually done crazy things, like giving up all consumption of alcoholic beverages for the whole season. (This was partly for religious reasons, but mostly to make sure I could.)

I found I could do it without much problem--in fact the practice helped me understand why "lento" is a Spanish word for slow--but it had the curious side effect of making me lose all interest in religion.

Since my interest in religious matters is at a scandalously low level at present, I have decided not to imperil my immortal soul by abstention. So tonight, I plan to raise a glass to my old friend Lent.

Cheers!

FIRESIDE CHAT? Here's the text of President Obama's speech and one reaction to it.

THE EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES (OR THE LACK THEREOF). Here's an item on rethinking the meaning of wealth.

BAD JOB. This article discusses the right wing war against unions.

ALMOST THERE. Here's the latest on the Massey Energy/Don Blankenship/Brent Benjamin case now before the US Supreme Court.

COOPERATION WORKS, at least in (game) theory. If you're interested in this topic search "game theory" in this blog's archives for an earlier series.

URGENT LIZARD TAIL UPDATE here. Sneak preview: some can somersault.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: RAISED LIKE A GLASS

Poor Richard, old Ben

You know who. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Many of the founders of the United States were brilliant and colorful people, but few had as interesting and varied a life as Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). Author, revolutionary, entrepreneur, scientist, diplomat, citizen, innovator...the list could go on and on.

Before he was an actor on the world stage, Franklin published the popular Poor Richard's Almanac between 1732 and 1758 under the pseudonym Poor Richard or Richard Saunders. It contained all the usual calendar and weather stuff we associate with almanacs, but is best remembered today for Poor Richard's wit and wisdom, which ranged in subject from religion and politics to marriage, love, money, and lots more.

Along with the usual links and comments about current events, we'll be sampling a little of Poor Richard's fare this week at Goat Rope.

Why don't we start with the subject of foolishness?

The World is full of fools and faint hearts, and yet every one has courage enough to bear the misfortunes and wisdom enough to manage the affairs of his neighbor.

Some things never change. But wait, there's more:

He's a Fool that cannot conceal his Wisdom

That reminds me of what a friend said about a certain politician, to wit "He's usually the smartest person in the room but isn't smart enough not to show it."

Poor Richard particularly enjoyed poking fun at educated fools:

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

The most exquisite Folly is made of Wisdom spun too fine.

It's unlikely that we'll ever be rid of fools or our own foolishness, which leads to a dilemma:

It is Ill-Manners to silence a Fool
and cruelty to let him go on.

BANK ON IT. Paul Krugman discusses nationalization here.

WHITHER CAPITALISM? In this op-ed, Benjamin Barber muses on the future of capitalism.

NICKNAMES, MESSIAHS AND MORE are discussed in the latest edition of the Rev. Jim Lewis' Notes from Under the Fig Tree.

MORE SUPREME FUN. El Cabrero missed this one last week. Here's a cover story from USA Today on the Don Blankenship/Massey Energy/WV Supreme Court saga.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Stayin' alive

Photo by La Cabra. I'm not sure it has anything to do with the topics discussed today.

Every so often, it's kind of fun to read a book about survival in extreme situations. One recent book along those lines that I'd recommend is Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales.

Gonzales came about his interest in the subject honestly. During World War II, his father, a B-17 bomber pilot, miraculously managed to survive a 27,000 foot crash without a parachute, not to mention captivity in a German prisoner of war camp. He's pushed the envelope a time or two on his own as well.

One thing that makes his book a little different from plain narratives is that he attempts to look at the scientific data involved and draw some general conclusions that can be useful in all kinds of situations.

I was pleased, but not surprised, to find his book peppered with mentions of Zen Buddhism, Lao Tzu and the Taoist tradition.

He hit on some of my favorite themes (and pet peeves) in his discussion of the role of planning and how it can sometimes get in the way of dealing with things as they are.

Planning is fine, as long as you don't get stuck in it:

In an environment that has high objective hazards, the longer it takes to dislodge the imagined world in favor of the real one, the greater the risk. In nature, adaptation is important; the plan is not. It's a Zen thing. We must plan. But we must be able to let go of the plan, too.

THE MAIN EVENT. Here's a look at the coming battle over the Employee Free Choice Act.

MORE FUN WITH THE WV SUPREMES. I missed this one Sunday. Here's the NY Times on Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, and the WV Supreme Court, all of which are entwined in a case before the US Supreme Court.

MICROLENDING. In the wake of the recession, interest in this kind of financing is growing.

NEED TO SEE SOME COOL MARINE BIOLOGY VIDEOS? No problem.

ONE OF THE DEADLY SINS is envy.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Caveat emptor

The local paper has a ventline feature whereby people can anonymously call in and rant with a reasonable expectation of said rant appearing in print.

This past Saturday's post included this item, which wound up on the refrigerator at Goat Rope Farm:

To the man that sold me the F-150 in the Wal-Mart parking lot: Stop calling yourself a Christian. You're giving Christ a bad name.

Note to self: henceforth no longer make vehicle purchases from random individuals in the parking lots of big box retail stores, regardless of professed religious affiliation.

THE FUTURE OF COAL doesn't look too bright, according to this NY Times article. Articles like this have been known to cause ruling class hissy fits in El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia. But whatever happens, folks here need to start thinking ahead.

ON A RELATED NOTE, climate change could be nastier than predicted.

FRIENDS? Here's the latest on the ongoing saga of Massey Energy, CEO Don Blankenship, and WV Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin, who was elected in 2004 with millions of dollars of help from Blankenship. A case regarding all this is now pending before the US Supreme Court.

PONZI NATION, or Madoff as metaphor.

BAD FEELINGS. Experiments suggest that expressing them in words makes it easier to control them.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Mushin

Seamus McGoogle spends most of his time in a state of mushin.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day looks at a word or concept from the martial arts and/or Zen tradition that may be of interest to people who want to make the world less nasty. You'll also find news and links about current events.

As I mentioned Monday, most of the words have to do with paying attention. Kamae, the subject of Tuesday's post is all about readiness before taking action. Zanshin, see yesterday's post, was about the state of mind on completing an action.

Today's word is mushin, with the mu being like a cow sounds and the shin being what it looks like.

Here's a paradox. Mushin represents the highest mental state, but it literally means "no-mindedness." Far from being stupid, it means responding spontaneously and appropriately to a situation without having to stop and think about it.

As esoteric as it sounds, most of us have probably had this experience at some point. A good basketball player probably doesn't have to think about a lay up--he or she just does it.

In the martial arts, sometimes if you're lucky you do something without thought and then think "that was cool." As the late great Bruce Lee put it,

...when an opportunity occurs, I don't hit. It hits all by itself.

In the context of Japanese swordsmanship, the Zen master Takuan wrote of that state:

The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing,' for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death. When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man's subconscious that strikes.

The use of the term flow by Takuan fits in well with modern psychology. The researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote an excellent book some years back titled Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience about just that kind of thing.

People in a state of flow, which can be experienced in lots of ways, are so absorbed in what they're doing that they may lack self-consciousness altogether. I think the slang term being "in the zone" refers to the same kind of thing.

Here's another paradox, in martial arts and other traditional disciplines, the way to get to mushin is through drill, drill, drill. You train so you don't have to think.

People who want to work to make the world a better place can approach mushin by getting so competent at pulling things together that you can do it without having to start from scratch every time. That may involve good alliances, media and communications competency, an understanding of strategy, and ready access to good information.

Mushin is a nice place to be, although you usually only become aware of it after it happens.

STIMULUS DEAL. The House and Senate conference committee reached a tentative deal on a scaled-back recovery package which many economists believe is too small to jolt the economy. It now goes back to each house.

CONTRACTING OUT federal jobs to the private sector leaves one out of five such workers in poverty, according to the latest Economic Policy Institute snapshot.

ONE TO WATCH. The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments March 3 in a case that will determine the propriety of WV Justice Brent Benjamin hearing cases regarding Massey Energy. Benjamin, a political unknown, was elected in 2004 with the help of millions of dollars from Massey CEO Don Blankenship.

DARWIN AT 200. Here's another look.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Reversion to mean

Don't try this at home. Or anywhere else. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Sometime back in the 1990s, Jim Carrey was in a Saturday Night Live skit where he played an office worker who once got cheers from co-workers for telling someone "I'll see you in hell!" Because that worked so well one time, he said it over and over for the rest of his life in the most inappropriate situations.

It was a funny skit but that kind of thing happens a lot in real life. Sometimes we keep trying the same thing because it worked once or because it's the only thing we know how to do.

This was another life/strategy lesson that was drummed into my head and other body parts by sparring in the martial arts, which is kind of a theme this week. Here's how...

Senior students in a fighting dojo are a source of inspiration and terror. They provide encouragement and example, but they also routinely and without malice thrash junior students. This is regarded as something like a Christian duty, the theory being that they do it so other people won't be able to.

When I was a lowly green belt or so, one of the terrors of our dojo was a guy named Brooks. He was a nice guy but a fighting demon. Once when we were sparring I got really lucky and managed to throw a fast spinning back kick to his face. I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised. Luckily for me, he was mostly amused.

(It's a totally impractical kick that could get you killed in some situations, but it looks really cool if you can get away with it.)

After that, for a while I was just like the guy in the SNL skit if you substitute spinning back kick to the head for "I'll see you in hell."

As it happened, there was a tournament coming up. I thought I'd breeze through it with the kick. It worked once, right? You can probably predict the outcome. Let's just say that no trophies followed me home that day.

It never worked on Brooks again either...

Lighting does not often strike twice in the same place. And just because you get lucky once, it does not follow that you will again if you do the same thing. In statistics they call this reversion to the mean. A basketball player who routinely scores 20 points a game may sometimes go on a streak of high or low scores, but over time it averages out.

Enjoy life's spinning back kicks when you can get away with them--but don't count on them. It's better to stick to basics anyway.

DESPITE WHAT YOU MAY HAVE HEARD there's strong public support for an economic stimulus package.

REALITY CHECK. With all the noise about economic policy emanating from and about Washington these days, I highly recommend regularly visiting the site of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. I admit to being a policy wonk, but you don't have to be one to go there and look at the impact of existing and proposed legislation on ordinary people.

HEALTH CARE. Many struggling small businesses are cutting health insurance benefits as the economy sours.

ANOTHER CASUALTY OF THE RECESSION is green energy.

THIS SHOULD HAVE GONE IN YESTERDAY. WV Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin has decided to recuse himself from cases involving Massey Energy until the US Supreme Court rules on the situation. Benjamin was elected in 2004 with over $3 million from Massey CEO Don Blankenship. On more than one occasion, he was the deciding vote in cases favorable to Massey.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

What were they thinking?

The theme at Goat Rope these days is the failure of "conservative" economic policy, but you'll also find links and comments about current events. The series started Monday.

If you've ever looked back at economic history, you'll notice that capitalism has the endearing tendency to blow up or melt down every decade or so, a tendency that can be seen as far back as the early 1800s. As the economy became more centralized in the first half of the 1900s, these crises threatened social stability and possibly the survival of capitalism itself.

One thing that has kept the US economy from tanking as deeply as it did during the Great Depression of the 1930s (up to now anyway) has been a degree of government regulation, tax and fiscal policies and the social safety net.

Those reforms, associated in the US with the New Deal, were often hated by those who most benefited from them, i.e. right wing business interests. It was pretty ironic, since those who had the most to gain from a stable capitalist system were the capitalists themselves.

And for several decades, those forces, along with an ideological noise machine, have fought mightily to dismantle some of the structure that held things together. It seems about as rational to me as sawing off the branch you're sitting on.

As I watched this happen over the last few decades, I honestly wondered what they were thinking. Did they believe the economic system had somehow become bubble- or crisis-proof? If they actually did succeed in dismantling all the worker and family friendly gains of the past, how did they think people would react to it? Did they have a plan to contain the popular outrage that would follow sooner or later? If they succeeded in undermining the economic status (and purchasing power) of the middle and working class, did they think the very wealthy alone could keep the economy going?

And most of all, did they really believe this stuff?

It kind of reminds me of someone who stuck their tongue in an electric socket and got shocked really badly, but wanted to try it just one more time...

ARE WE THERE YET on the stimulus? Maybe not.

HEALTH CARE. Krugman says the time is now.

ON THE BRIGHT SIDE, the US Senate voted to expand health care to around 4 million children. The House previously passed a similar bill.

STATE OF THE UNIONS. Union membership increased slightly in 2008 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. There are other interesting trends as well.

MORE FUN WITH THE SUPREMES. Massey Energy sees nothing wrong with a state supreme court justice elected with its CEO's money hearing its cases. Now that's a shocker.

And, while we're at it, here's the latest on the Aracoma mine fire case, which killed two miners in 2006.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Paradigms

The philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn hit a home run in 1962 when he published The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Part of his theory was that in any given period, people make us of dominant models or paradigms to explain the world.

When problems grow with the older paradigm, some innovators develop alternate paradigms to better account for observations. From time to time, the new model triumphs and the old paradigm is put on the shelf--often after a bitter fights and with some people still clinging to the old.

In American economic history, we've seen three paradigms rise and fall (and maybe rise again). One was the classic idea of lassez faire or unregulated capitalism, in which there was little government interference with the economy--although, as I argued in yesterday's post, in reality the government often intervened on behalf of the wealthy.

It wasn't that bad a model in an age of small, independent producers and a truly competitive economy. But as economic power centralized and as economic crises became more and more serious--and even threatened the survival of capitalism itself--another paradigm emerged.

The new model is associated with the great English economist John Maynard Keynes and it recognized that sometimes markets could totally melt down. Keynes advocated a role for regulation, public investments, and transfer payments to promote economic stability and a rising standard of living for all.

This model was dominant from the New Deal era to the Reagan era and it enjoyed considerable success until the oil-related stagflation of the late 1970s. Meanwhile, there were those who were hostile to the Keynesian paradigm from the beginning, even though it may have saved capitalism from an even more serious crisis in the 1930s.

A coalition of right wing politicians and "free market" economists mounted a political and economic assault, promoting a model that is sometimes called "neo-classical." It called for deregulation, tax cuts, reduction or elimination of the social safety net, etc. and has been the dominant model from around 1980 until the latest economic meltdown.

For the life of me, though, I'm amazed that it lasted this long or took so long to crash. At this moment that paradigm is pretty much dead and it's not clear whether the next one will be a revived and updated Keynesianism or something else. Our situation is like that of the old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."

SPEAKING OF KEYNES, here's New Republic writer John B. Judis on the continuing relevance of his ideas.

DEAD ENDERS. Opponents of a the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic stimulus package developed by the House and supported by President Obama, are pulling out the stops and plugging the failed policies of the past.

COUNTRY MATTERS. Here's an interview with writer Wendell Berry on rural life, community and such.

HERE WE GO AGAIN. WV Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin is planning on hearing another case involving Massey Energy. Benjamin, then a political unknown, was elected in 2004 after Massey CEO Don Blankenship spent over $3 million to elect him. The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that questions the propriety of Benjamin participating in cases involving Massey.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, some Mingo County residents are going to sue Massey for polluting their water with coal sludge.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED