In case you needed some more depressing news...

...here's something about the assault on labor unions.

WHAT WAS HIS FIRST CLUE? It seems that economist and Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson may have gotten the memo that some people may not be all that happy with the current state of the economy.

ONE WV BRIGHT SPOT is progress on child nutrition, especially in schools. This article features my friend Rick Goff, director of the state Office of Child Nutrition. The good news is that breakfast participation is going up in the wake of the passage of the 2013 innovative Feed to Achieve Act.

SPEAKING OF FRIENDS, another pal, the Rev. Jim Lewis, was featured in a nice spot on WV Public Radio yesterday. It's worth a look.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Three for the road

An interesting study from Ohio State suggests that the decline of union strength is a major driver of inequality. Meanwhile, here are some suggestions from the SEIU health care union about how to counter that. Finally, this item suggests that the interests of low income and middle class people are lining up. Would that it were so. And that we could get somewhere.

An injury to one...

According to a poll taken in January, around 61 percent of West Virginians oppose discrimination in employment based on sexual orientation. The nationwide number is even higher. Each year, groups like Fairness WV tries to nudge the legislature into passing anti discriminatory measures.

Such efforts got a boost today when both the state AFLCIO and the United Mine Workers of America publicly supported anti discriminatory legislation, claiming that this was a basic matter of workplace fairness. In places where discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation isn't forbidden by law, a union contract is often the only protection such workers enjoy.

Congratulations to the labor movement for standing on the principles that a worker is a worker is a worker and an injury to one is an injury to all.

Loud silence

Compared to happenings in other places, the Occupy movement in West Virginia so far has been pretty tame. Not that I'm complaining. In case you missed it, here's a news story plus two videos from Occupy UC Davis. The first video shows sitting protesters being pepper sprayed point blank a by campus police officer.

The second video is even more dramatic. It features the silent protest of UC Davis chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi as she walked by students after defending the spraying. As a friend of mine put it in an email, this would be an example of "nonviolence done right."

UNLIKELY MESSENGER DEPARTMENT. Here's an item from Business Week, a periodical not generally known for its Marxist leanings, about how inequality hurts the economy.

MORE ON "creative protest" here.

A WOMAN'S PLACE is in the union. Another friend who sent me this link observed that "Among the most progressive union leaders I have worked with over the years, the women, by in large, have held out a great deal of hope for the future."

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Something's happening

I'm not sure what's causing it, but some things are starting to change. First there was the Occupy Wall Street movement, an ad hoc event that kept on happening. Then similar actions spread around the country.

Occupy Huntington in WV has been going on for nearly a week. Related events are planned for Saturday in Charleston and other WV towns, in addition to dozens and maybe hundreds around the nation and world.

Labor unions have not only expressed support for the Occupy movement but have also initiated numerous actions of their own around the country, including a jobs rally last night in Charleston.

Another ad hoc crew assembled in Charleston Thursday on a rainy lunch our to hold signs calling for job creation. Among those who attended were members of the Laborers union, MoveOn supporters, and representatives of the National Association of Social Workers, WV Citizen Action, the American Friends Service Committee and other labor friendly organizations. Mary Hill and Diane Parker, both members of the Laborers International Union of North America, took the lead in organizing the event.

I'm still not sure whether this is a flash in the pan or the start of something big, but it would be nice to think that people were losing the inclination for servility and the habit of groveling at the feet of a plutocracy.

ANOTHER TAKE. Here's economist Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University's Earth Institute on the Occupy Wall Street protests and the issues driving them.

CORPORATIONS AND PEOPLE. Sorry, Mitt, but not everyone is convinced they are one and the same.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Who knew?

Image by way of wikipedia.

We interrupt Goat Rope's regularly scheduled programming due to a major news development reported this weekend on NPR which has forced El Cabrero to remake his cognitive map of the world.

According to someone who should probably know,

"Alligator wrestling is not a thinking man's sport."

And to think that all these years I was convinced you had to be really good at math to do it...

One other point to ponder about that statement...it was made to people who paid $100 to learn how to wrestle alligators. Could there be some intended or unintended irony or something there?

MASS DISTRACTION. Here's Krugman talking sense on jobs and deficits. Again.

TWO FROM LABOR. Here are two good Labor Day op-eds from the Charleston Gazette. The first is by Teamster leader Ken Hall and the second by state AFLCIO secretary treasurer Larry Matheney.

SPEAKING OF WORKERS, a new report (the easiest part of which was written by yours truly) looks at the state of working West Virginians. Here's a link to press coverage from the Gazette and the West Virginia News Service and here's a link to the report itself.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Goats versus picnic tables

Don't bet on the picnic tables.

WHERE'S THE BEEF? Krugman takes the president to task again here.

TALKING SENSE. This op-ed by some friends of mine talks sense about taxes, budgets and deficits.

JAWING AROUND. A Kentucky coal miner found the jawbone of a 300 million year old shark 700 feet underground.

AUTHOR CHRIS HEDGES spoke in Charleston WV this weekend about the decline of liberal institutions.

UNION SUPPORTERS rallied at the state capitol Sunday as well. El Cabrero was on the way when the fan belt died in my old car.

BOUNCE BACK from stress if you want to live to be 100

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Empty handed

My years spent (some might say wasted) in practicing karate have left me with certain prejudices in favor of minimalism. I think it's cooler to accomplish things with relatively empty hands than with a whole bunch of gear.

Of course, I realize that we (along with crows, monkeys and several other animals) are tool users and we couldn't survive in the manner to which we've become accustomed without them. Still, I think there's more honor in limping through a distance run than tooling around all day in a four wheeler.

Relying on external aids isn't the same as doing something yourself. You can bulk up with steroids or have visions with hallucinogenic drugs, but that's the chemicals, not you. Anyone can go fast in a motor vehicle or do a lot of damage with firearms, but that's only due to the machines used. It's one thing to paddle a mile on a lake in a canoe, but something else to be able to swim it, however slowly.

That's one thing I like about Beowulf. In his approaching conflict with the man eating monster Grendel, he vows to use no weapon at all. This turns out to be a good thing, since we later learn that no weapon would work against him. As he puts in in Seamus Heaney's translation:

"When it comes to fighting, I count myself
as dangerous any day as Grendel.
So it won't be a cutting edge I'll wield
to mow him down, easily as I might.
He has no idea of the arts of war,
of shield or sword-play, although he does possess
a wild strength. No weapons, therefore
for either this night: unarmed he shall face me
if face me he dares. And my the Divine Lord
in His wisdom grant the glory of victory
to whichever side He sees fit."

As Odysseus put it in Homer's epic of homecoming,

There is no greater glory for a man as long as he lives than that which he wins with his own hands and feet.

THE FEDERAL BUDGET struggle is going to heat up as the House and Senate joust over competing visions.

THE POLITICS OF PLAYING CHICKEN is discussed here.

THE MISSING PIECE in the debate is the revenue side.

DEGREES ALONE won't get us to a more equitable society, according to this column by Krugman. It will also take union organizing.

URGENT ZOMBIE ANT UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

In the spirit of fair play

I've spent a good bit of time here taking swipes at right wing Whackadoodleism. In an effort to transcend the bitter polarization of our time, the spirit of fair play prompts me to state for the record that Whackadoodleism is not the monopoly of any political tendency (although these days it seems to tilt more in one direction).

Here's one example of Whackadoodlery on the left that is pertinent to the sporadic series of posts here about human evolution and social life. The great biologist E. O. Wilson is widely admired today for his scientific work on topics ranging from ants to ecology to biophilia as well as his advocacy for dealing with climate change.

It wasn't always that way. In the mid 1970s, Wilson wrote a book titled Sociobiology: the New Synthesis which discussed genetically inherited behavior patterns of various animals. None of that was particularly controversial for people who were paying attention. But Wilson had the temerity to extend his analysis to humans and to suggest that we had some evolutionary baggage of our own.

Left wing ideologues somehow took this to mean that Wilson was suggesting that war, racism, imperialism, etc. were biologically inevitable. (He wasn't, by the way.) At a meeting of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, activists chanted "Racist Wilson you can't hide, we charge you with genocide" and poured ice water on his head as he prepared to give a speech.

(Genocide for writing a book? Really? And Sociobiology didn't discuss the issues of race.)

He gave the speech anyway.

For the record, I'm not endorsing all of his ideas on human evolution and our genetic legacy. Wilson himself has long accepted as valid some critiques of that formulation. But it there is a growing sense in the biological and social sciences that we are animals after all. Biology isn't destiny, but it is...well, biology.

(Plus, living around roosters has taught me a lot about human males.)

That doesn't spell the end of efforts to work for greater social justice, but it might be time to retire a cherished radical myth that human nature is a blank slate or some kind of silly putty that can be moulded into any shape we want.

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON? Labor Day has come and gone, but labor woes are still with us.

WHAT HE SAID. This op-ed by a friend of mine suggests ways West Virginia can strengthen its unemployment insurance program.

THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS. Here is a review of several recent books on the politically pivotal decade of the 1970s.

LOOSE WITH THE TRUTH. Here's another look at misinformation on health care reform. We're probably going to see a lot more of that.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

An antic disposition

(This blog is taking a leisurely stroll through Hamlet at the moment. If you like this kind of thing, please click on earlier posts. You'll also find links and comments about current events.)

The scene where Hamlet meets the ghost of his father pretty much seals the deal for the rest of the tragedy. The ghost told him something he had been wondering about anyway--"O my prophetic soul!" He promises revenge.

There's just one problem: Hamlet is Hamlet, meaning that he won't just run down from the battlements and whack Claudius. He'll agonize, doubt himself, doubt the veracity of the vision, and doubt his own sanity.

But he'll start by feigning madness. As he tells his friends,

Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself—
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on—
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus, or this head-shake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As “Well, well, we know,” or “We could, an if we would,”
Or “If we list to speak” or “There be, an if they might,”
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me; this is not to do,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you,
Swear.

Horatio, Bernardo and Marcellus swear, as the old mole of a ghost himself commands, and receive this thanks from Hamlet:

With all my love I do commend me to you;
And what so poor a man as Hamlet is
May do to express his love and friending to you,
God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together;
And still your fingers on your lips, I pray.
The time is out of joint. O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

One wonders, however, how much of the madness was feigned. Aside from murder and family messes, he was already depressed to start with and would become moreso after Ophelia withdraws her affection and other events unfold.

That would probably be enough to give lots of folks an antic disposition.

LABOR. This past year should have been way better for labor unions than it was.

IF YOU CAN STOMACH IT, here's a little more health care hypocrisy.

AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT, health care profits have jumped through the roof.

THE WEIRDNESS OF WV COAL POLITICS made the NY Times again.

COULD CHICKEN MANURE save the world? If so, El Cabrero can hook y'all up.

LOVE, SEX, AND/OR MARRIAGE are all discussed in the latest edition of the Rev. Jim Lewis' Notes from Under the Fig Tree. Hamlet, of course, would say "get thee to a nunnery."

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

This is what it's going to take

There was an old fashioned labor rally yesterday at the capitol of El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia, complete with speeches, music and the obligatory hot dogs. Several hundred people attended. Speakers included state labor officials, WV governor Joe Manchin and AFLCIO Secretary Treasurer Rich Trumka. Trumka, former president of the United Mine Workers, is currently running for president of the national AFLCIO.

The aim of the rally was to highlight a progressive agenda which includes health care reform, the Employee Free Choice Act and trade reform, all of which are among the American Friends Service Committees economic policy priorities. Health care got top billing for obvious reasons.

As the NY Times reports, that fight is now taking place outside of Washington as Congress adjourns for the summer recess. Opponents of reform are loud and shrill, even though 47 million or so Americans lack health care and more are losing it every day.

If you want to do something about that, the time to make noise is now.

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT from opponents of reform.

SILVER LINING. This item looks at the positive aspects of being unemployed.

URGENT ANIMAL UPDATE. It is our pleasure to introduce Edith, a rescue puppy and new addition to the Goat Rope staff.




GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

"...even more than in the past"

WV workers rally at state capitol for the Employee Free Choice Act. I think this picture is about three years old.

It is one of my rituals after returning from a trip to comb through newspapers and other sources to catch up and see what I might have missed.

One story that I found to be particularly interesting was the release of Pope Benedict's encyclical, CARITAS IN VERITATE.

The encyclical is a very strong statement in support of economic justice and a strong critique of "unleashed" capitalism. Among other things, it contains a strong endorsement of labor unions and strongly supports the rights of workers to organize:

Through the combination of social and economic change, trade union organizations experience greater difficulty in carrying out their task of representing the interests of workers, partly because Governments, for reasons of economic utility, often limit the freedom or the negotiating capacity of labor unions. Hence traditional networks of solidarity have more and more obstacles to overcome. The repeated calls issued within the Church’s social doctrine, beginning with Rerum Novarum, for the promotion of workers’ associations that can defend their rights must therefore be honored today even more than in the past, as a prompt and far-sighted response to the urgent need for new forms of cooperation at the international level, as well as the local level.

And that's not all. In the words of Thomas Reese, S.J., writing for the Washington Post,

Although Benedict's emphasis in the encyclical is on the theological foundations of Catholic social teaching, amid the dense prose there are indications, as shown above, that he is to the left of almost every politician in America. What politician would casually refer to "redistribution of wealth" or talk of international governing bodies to regulate the economy? Who would call for increasing the percentage of GDP devoted to foreign aid? Who would call for the adoption of "new life-styles 'in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments'"?

What would Joe the Plumber say?

Some other items that struck my eye included:

*this overview of health care systems in different countries;

*this piece that reminds us that even people with health insurance can go broke in a medical crisis; and

*this news story that reports lower rates of bankruptcies in states that don't seize wages.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: CELESTIAL

What is concealed and what is revealed

Albert Greiner as Oedipus in an 1896 version. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

A few years back, El Cabrero went on a jag of reading bizarre works of literary theory. One little volume that was kind of fun was Mythologies by Roland Barthes. In it, the author attempted to explain the inner semiotic meaning of things like fast cars, professional wrestling and even strip tease.

He argued that what gave the latter its power (at the time anyhow) was what was concealed rather than what was revealed. I guess I'll take his word for it.

It does often seem to be the case that things left to the imagination have greater power than things explicitly shown. In Greek tragedy, for example, all kinds of nasty things happen. Oedipus gouges out his own eyes, Agamemnon is butchered in a bath tub, Pentheus is torn to pieces by a group of frenzied women led by his mother.

But one difference between ancient tragedy and modern gory movies is that this kind of action takes place offstage. But this doesn't diminish the effect; if anything, it increases it.

Aristotle believed that tragedy should produce a powerful and cleansing emotional reaction in the viewer (it works for the reader too) by producing both pity and fear. But it wasn't necessary to show everything to do this:

Fear and pity may be aroused by spectacular means; but they may also result from the inner structure of the piece, which is the better way, and indicates a superior poet. For the plot ought to be so constructed that, even without the aid of the eye, he who hears the tale told will thrill with horror and melt to pity at what takes place. This is the impression we should receive from hearing the story of the Oedipus. But to produce this effect by the mere spectacle is a less artistic method, and dependent on extraneous aids.

Some things are perhaps best left to the imagination. It occurs to El Cabrero that the makers of slasher movies have neglected their Aristotle.

THE STATES AND THE STIMULUS. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research warns that spending cuts at the state and local level could blunt the stimulus impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

WORKERS OF THE US, REUNITE? Here's an article on the possible re-unification of the AFLCIO and Change to Win labor federations.

FIGHTING THE NEW DEAL. Here's a book review of Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Master of those who know

The dude abides. A statue of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, courtesy of wikipedia.

In Dante's Divine Comedy, the Greek philosopher Aristotle is referred to as "master of those who know." In the 14th century, when Dante wrote his masterpiece, Aristotle's long lost teachings had been rediscovered fairly recently and seemed to many to be the last word on subjects of science, art, ethics, metaphysics and politics.

You could say that this says more about the state of human knowledge in the late medieval period than about Aristotle. It is kind of sad that knowledge, philosophy and science in Europe had fairly stagnated for centuries.

Part of the reason for that can probably be explained by what has been called "the terror of history," i.e. the massive disruptions caused by the fall of the western Roman empire, massive invasions and migrations, and all that. And it's hard to deny that the Christian religion in its first several centuries was singularly uninterested in the advance of earthly knowledge and that it held a commanding place in the lives of most people.

Having said all that, Aristotle was no slouch and much of his writing can be profitably read today, particularly his Ethics, Politics, and Poetics. (El Cabrero must admit that his acquaintance with his works on metaphysics and logic is second and third handed.)

My recently reinvigorated interest in Greek tragedy inspired me to take another look at his Poetics, which still has a vast influence over how people look at literature and the nature of poetry, drama and plot.

More on that to come.

ONE BIG UNION of unions may be on the way.

A PLANETARY SHIFT in American politics?

HATE GROUPS are ramping up again.

DIONYSUS is still here. He was all about people getting together and acting as one.

JUST FOR FUN, this article asks which movie bad guy does a certain vice president more closely resemble.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

The Tao of Ben

The late great Benjamin Franklin had considerable diplomatic skills whether he was pursing his many interests or that of his country. One insight that greatly contributed to his success was an early insight that arguments and forcible assertions seldom convince other people and may even have the opposite effect.

It's the old fact that if you push people, they usually push back.

In his early years, Franklin admitted to a fondness for argumentation. After reading about the life of Socrates, he even experimented with the Socratic method:

I was charm'd with it, adopted it and dropt my abrupt contradiction and positive argumentation, and put on the humble inquirer and doubter...I found this method safest for myself and very embarrassing to those against whom I used it; therefore I took a delight in it, practis'd it continually, and grew very artful and expert in drawing people, even of superior knowledge into concessions, the consequences of which they did not foresee, entangling them in difficulties out of which they could not extricate themselves, and so obtaining victories that neither myself nor my cause observed.

After a while, however, he gave up the practice,

retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced anything that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion; but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so; it appears to me , or I should think it so and so for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so; or it is so, if I am not mistaken.

And that made all the difference:

This habit, I believe, has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinions, and persuade me into measures that I have been from time to time engag'ed in promoting...I wish well-meaning, sensible men would not lessen their power of doing good by a positive, assuming manner, that seldom fails to disgust, tends to create opposition, and to defeat every one of those purposes for which speech was given to us, to wit, giving or receiving information and pleasure.

NOT GOOD NEWS. The unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent in February. Here's an analysis of the numbers by Dean Baker.

WAS IT ENOUGH? In light of that and other bad news, recent efforts to jump start the economy may not have been bold enough.

REUNITED. Efforts are in progress to reunite labor unions into a single, large umbrella organization.

EITC. Here's an op-ed by yours truly on the effort to enact a state Earned Income Tax Credit for families with low and moderate incomes in WV.

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

Fish and visitors

This week El Cabrero is combing through Ben Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac in search of wisdom, wit and entertainment. As is the case with the work of many of the founders, quite a bit of his work holds up pretty well. Enjoy. And for less witty links and comments about current events, scroll on down.

Here's one for anybody who has had company overstay their welcome:

Fish and visitors stink in three days.

(I'm not sure that's always the case, but sometimes it doesn't take three days for either.)

But Poor Richard often pointed out that our biggest problems weren't caused by others but by ourselves:

He that composes himself
is wiser than he that composes books.

Who has deceiv'd thee as oft as thy self?

He that won't be counsell'd, can't be help'd.

TRUTH SQUAD. Media Matters is exposing misinformation about unions, workers, and the Employee Free Choice Act.

INDULGENCES (of the religious variety) are making a comeback.

HEALTH CARE COSTS now exceed $8,100 per person in the US.

DON'T FORGET RECESS. Play and nature time is important for children's learning.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

States of mind

Random picture.

El Cabrero has been giving a shout out this week to Laurence Gonzales' book, Deep Survival: Who Live, Who Dies, and Why, which looks at how people do (or don't) make it through extreme situations.

It seems to me that some of what he has to say applies to ordinary situations as well. Here's today's sample:

Al Siebert, a psychologist, writes in The Survivor Personality that the survivor (a category including people who avoid accidents) "does not impose pre-existing patterns on new information, but rather allows new information to reshape [his mental models]. The person who has the best chance of handling a situation well is usually the one with the best...mental pictures or images of what is occurring outside of the body."

The map really doesn't necessarily correspond to the territory.

IF IT'S ANY CONSOLATION, IT AIN'T JUST US. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that the economies of the world's major developed countries will shrink in 2009.

THE UNION PREMIUM. Unions provide better wages and conditions for workers in every state. Check out your own state data here.

FORECLOSURES. Here's a first look at President Obama's proposal to deal with the housing crisis.

PENTAGON CUTS? Maybe.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED