Time to end a double standard

 Among other things, Jesus was a master of the one-liner. The gospels are full of zingers that cut to the heart of the matter.

One of my favorites is a line he used about the misplaced priorities of some of his opponents: “Blind guides, you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.”

At that time, many religiously observant people would strain the water they drank to avoid swallowing unclean insects. It was Jesus’ way of pointing out that, sometimes, we make a big deal of small things while ignoring major ones.

There are plenty of examples of that today. One of the biggest has to do with different attitudes toward the rich and the poor (come to think of it, Jesus had another camel/needle’s-eye zinger about that).

It’s long been known to public health researchers that high levels of inequality in wealth and income have negative effects on diseases, mortality, longevity, crime, addiction, happiness, social trust and other quality-of-life issues. And, in 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that income inequality was the highest it had ever been since it began tracking it.

COVID-19 made all that worse. Millions of Americans have lost jobs and benefits or have had to cut back on hours of work. Many are in danger of foreclosure or eviction when protections expire.

Meanwhile, the international humanitarian group Oxfam, in a report appropriately titled “The Inequality Virus,” found that, while “Over two million people have died, and hundreds of millions of people are being forced into poverty while many of the richest — individuals and corporations — are thriving. Billionaire fortunes returned to their pre-pandemic highs in just nine months, while recovery for the world’s poorest people could take over a decade.”

According to The Guardian, a Swiss bank recently reported that “billionaires increased their wealth by more than a quarter [27.5%] at the height of the crisis from April to July, just as millions of people around the world lost their jobs or were struggling to get by on government schemes.”

Thanks mostly to the stock market, the wealth of billionaires increased to $10.2 trillion, up from the previous peak of $8.9 trillion in 2017. The number of billionaires also increased, from 2,158 to 2,189, in the same period.

That would be the camel we’re swallowing.

The gnat that’s being strained out is hesitancy to pass a long-overdue measure to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 over several years. The minimum wage has been stuck at $7.25 for nearly a dozen years and is now, obviously, worth less that it was then.

According to economist Dean Baker, if the minimum wage had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968, it would be around $24 an hour today.

It’s an idea supported by a vast majority of Americans. The Pew Research Center has found that over two-thirds of Americans (67%) support the increase to $15. This includes a substantial number of Republicans (43%), including a majority of self-described Republican moderates.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that passing the increase would benefit around 40 million Americans, over 38 million adults, nearly 24 million full-time workers, 23 million women, over 11 million parents, 5.4 million single parents and the parents of 14.4 million children. In 2019, the EPI estimated that this would benefit 255,000 workers in West Virginia.

These are the front-line workers who put their bodies, health and lives on the line to keep the country going in the midst of this crisis. It’s time to do right by them.

Jesus also said, “The laborer deserves to be paid.”

(This appeared as a column in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.)

Latter day Neros

 The old story goes that the mad Roman emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned, a disaster that he blamed on the early Christians, who paid for it with some nasty persecution. 

In fairness to Nero, however, this didn't happen. At least the fiddle part, since these weren't made until the Renaissance era. If he played anything, and I'm not saying he did, it would have been a kithara, a harp-like stringed instrument whose name morphed into guitar.

But that's not important right now. The meaning of the saying is about how some people in power cheerfully ignore the sufferings of others.

A case in point of the latter is congress dithering around rather than passing another round of COVID relief in the face of massive unemployment, hunger and suffering. This post from the Center on Budget and Policy reminds us that as this Thanksgiving approaches, less than half of all American households are confident about their ability to afford food in the days ahead.

In West Virginia, that's 57 percent, with 12 percent reporting having trouble feeding kids now and 9 percent not at all confident about the future. All around West Virginia, people are making heroic efforts to ensure access to food, but that's no substitute for meaningful action related to food security, housing assistance, unemployment, and help with utilities.

It's way past time for action. 

(Meanwhile, speaking of Roman emperors, it seems like Caligula is alive and well in the USA.)

So many bad ideas, so little time

One of my favorite WV legislators has been known to call the state capitol the "bad idea factory." If that's the case, then the White House these days is more like the bad idea Death Star.

 No doubt the Gentle Reader is aware of the disastrous impact of COVID-19 on the economic well-being of millions (make that billions) of people. And, most likely, of the lack of agreement on a meaningful response from Congress to deal with the problem.

What we have instead, so far anyhow, are executive actions from the Trump administration that don't do a lot of what needs to be done and does some things that shouldn't be done. 

As Robert Greenstein of the DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues here, the executive act doesn't adequately address any number of problems, including public health, unemployment, evictions, fiscal aid to states, and food assistance.

As if all that wasn't bad enough, the actions include cutting the payroll tax, which would be a major hit to Social Security and Medicare, which are more needed now than ever.

Here's his conclusion:

To all of these shortcomings and gaps, add the enormous uncertainty that the executive actions will create because they are legally suspect and because of serious questions about whether the Administration actually can implement aspects of them.

There simply is no shortcut to the hard work of crafting a bipartisan economic relief package that meets the needs of a reeling economy, struggling families, and cash-strapped states and localities. And under our constitutional system, the President and Congress together — not the President acting alone — have the power to appropriate funds and decide how to use them. The President cannot substitute executive actions for congressional action and cannot, acting unilaterally, provide the strong help that families and the economy need.

To help a nation suffering through one of its gravest crises in many decades, the White House should withdraw the executive actions, return to the negotiating table, and do what’s needed to reach the deal that our nation so badly needs.

Stating the obvious

It's becoming clear that the COVID outbreak is threatening the economy as well as the health and lives of people all over, with people staying away from work and businesses (although not the local Kroger store!) and cancelling travel plans.

The Trump administration has come up with a "stable genius" plan to boost the economy: cut the payroll taxes that fund things like Social Security and Medicare.

This rivals the brilliance of building a border wall in Colorado or digging a moat and filling it with snakes and gators...

There are some obvious problems with the plan, as Chye-Ching Huang with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out in this blog post. For starters, this wouldn't do a whole heckuva lot for the people who need it most, i.e. the people who miss work and don't get paid.

Another problem is that the economy needs a pretty big jolt sooner rather than later. Getting a few dollars more in a paycheck over a long period of time wouldn't make that much of a difference and it would weaken Social Security, etc.

Huang argues that "Sending stimulus checks to most Americans would put more money in households’ hands much more quickly than a payroll tax cut of the same cost. Also, stimulus checks can be sent both to workers and to people without earnings, including people receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, or VA benefits and people unable to find jobs."

She also stresses the importance of strengthening and reforming unemployment insurance and food assistance programs, as well as enacting and extending paid sick leave.

And, while we're stating the obvious, let's not forget investing in public health and not messing with Medicaid.

One that got away

I've been amusing myself by reading Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. I'm not sure why other than the fact that I like the way those 18th century dudes talk and this book is all about conversation. Back in the day, Johnson was a literary lion, although he is scarcely read today and lives on mostly through his biographer.

Anyhow, old Sam struck a nerve in this morning's reading in a discussion of Italy:

"A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see. The grand object of travelling is to see the shores of the Mediterranean. On these shores were the four great Empires of the world; the Assyrian, the Persian,  the Grecian, and the Roman.--All our religion, almost all our law, almost all our arts, almost all that sets us above savages, has come to us from the shores of the Mediterranean."

I wouldn't go that far, but he has a point. The sad part for me is that I actually did get to go to Italy last summer and ran around quite a bit for the little time I was there. BUT, alas, I didn't get to see the Mediterranean. I was pretty close at Ravenna but we only had a little time and it just didn't work out.

It is my custom when I meet a worthy body of water to touch and bless myself with a few drops of it on my forehead the way observant Roman Catholics use holy water and I REALLY wanted to do that with the Mediterranean.

Maybe next time. If there is one.

I HATE TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO, but the stimulus, aka American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, actually worked.

RUNNING BEHIND. I meant to include this item by Jared Bernstein on the latest Census poverty data last week. Here's the good news: for the first time in ages, the percentage of uninsured Americans actually fell, thanks largely to the Affordable Care Act.

WILL DISNEY SUE? Here's a look at Mickey Mouse on Mercury.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

First put out the fire (and save lives)

The theme here lately is the current economic and political mess the US finds itself in and how we got there.

Installment one is here. Short version: 30 years of bad policy and bad (supply side) economics set up the Great Recession.

Installment two is here. Short version: the policy response to the Great Recession, TARP and the Recovery Act, might have been enough to restore very modest economic growth but weren't enough to end the jobs crisis. They were thus vulnerable to political attack.

Here's installment three. The shortcomings of the Recovery Act, especially continuing anger over high unemployment, helped fuel Republican victories in the 2010 midterm elections, shifting control of the House and weakening the Democratic majority in the Senate. But as soon as the dust of the election had settled, all that supposed concern about jobs disappeared and dealing with debt and deficits became the order of the day.

As someone said, elections matter.

While deficits and debt are important matters, there are several flaws with the right wing take on the issue. One will suffice for today: cutting government spending in the midst of a recession or very weak recovery is likely to make the recession and its related problems--like high unemployment and weak demand--get even worse, which could also make the long term debt problem worse.

After all, fewer people working and more people with reduced incomes means fewer people paying taxes and more people paying less in taxes. And cuts in public spending mean cuts in public sector jobs as well as private sector spin offs at a time when private sector job growth is very weak.

It's a bit like worrying about a new roof on the house when a fire has started in the kitchen. Fixing the roof is fine, but save lives and put out the fire first.

MORE ON DEFICIT LIES here.

MORE ON THE NEGLECTED JOBS CRISIS here.

WANT TO CUT DEBT? Raise revenues.


GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Axles and cusswords

Image by way of wikipedia.

In his book Deer Hunting with Jesus, author Joe Bagaent describes some characteristics of Scotch-Irish Appalachians. He had a great one liner that describes my family pretty well:

Cussing is a form of punctuation to us.

Profanity was regarded as a high art form by my father, although my mother is no slouch herself. I've inherited their genes as has my daughter. My son, for some reason, doesn't seem as disposed to it.

I mention all this because my memory has been jogged recently when I was told that my grandson does good on his spelling tests. Back in the day, I did pretty good at spelling. In fifth grade, I came in second in our school's spelling bee.

The great irony was that I lost on--of all things--a four letter word, which is something I kind of specialize in. It was axle by the way and I ended it with an e-l. Since then I have redoubled my efforts to never again be out done in the four letter word department. And that's no ****.

THE RICH GET RICHER...Robert Reich rants here.

SOMETHING ELSE FOR FLAT WORLDERS TO DENY: rapidly melting Greenland and Antarctic ice.

PUNISHED FOR SUCCESS. Here's James Surowiecki on the politics of the Recovery Act.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: a Montana woman fought off a charging bear with a zucchini.

NOTE. This post was scheduled for publication the night before. If anything really good or bad happens between now and then, please accept appropriate congratulations or condolences.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Operation deer hide

Many of the animals on Goat Rope Farm have endearing and not so endearing habits. Little Edith Ann the boxer goes mad with squeaky toys most days. Honeysuckle the not-so-baby goat jumps all over us like a puppy. Diego the turkey relentlessly courts his mate with an ever changing display of facial and snood colors (the snood is the thing that hangs down from a male's face when he's trying to get lucky). Cat Seamus expresses his dissatisfaction with the world primarily through excretory functions.

And then there's Arpad, the Great Pyrenees. He mostly abides, like the Dude in the Big Lebowski. His presence has been a pretty good deterrent against predators, with the notable exception of his platonic chicken killing girlfriend up the road. Mostly he just hangs around, but every so often he takes a day off and lights out like Huck Finn for the territory.

Some of these excursions are foraging missions from which he returns carrying bits and pieces of deer carcasses left over from the last hunting season. He returned with one such artifact this week, a vintage November deer hide, periodically shaking it and leaving fur all over the yard.

He's such a pretty good boy that I like to indulge him within reason, but this one required an intervention. This consisted in waiting until he was asleep and bagging it. I don't think he minds too much. As far as I can tell, things just appear, disappear and reappear in his consciousness, such as it is.

The Dude abides.

ONE TO WATCH. Methane monitors have been recovered from the Upper Big Branch mine. They may provide more insight into what happened April 5. And here's uber-blogger Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo post on why people are watching this.

NOT SO GOOD. The latest report on joblessness shows an increase in claims.

UNSTIMULATED. According to the Charleston Gazette, West Virginia ranks next to last in stimulus spending.

BACK TO THE FARM. More people are turning to small farming. What are they thinking?

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Ghosts

I let Halloween come and go without picking up on the theme. Until, that is, I saw this article in the Gazette about ghosts and how people reconcile belief in them with more conventional religion.

I take no position on whether such things exist, but it seems that West Virginia has more than its share of if not ghosts then at least stories about them. I guess our history--what with the Civil War and other armed conflicts, feuds, industrial disasters, and other mayhem--is a good climate for generating them.

I think it's interesting that in most ghost stories that I know about, the apparitions don't tend to be free rangers. Rather, they seem to be tied to particular places where certain things happened.

Sometimes I do think that events can leave a mark on places. Some places I've been to seem to be more loaded than others. I'm thinking about places like Harpers Ferry, the old state mental hospital at Weston, the old state prison at Moundsville, and an old family farm in Tazewell, Virginia.

There are, after all, more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in our philosophy.

NOT ENOUGH OF A GOOD THING. It looks like the stimulus helped pull the US economy back from the brink--up to a point. Here's another argument for another one.

SELF DESTRUCTIVE HABITS. Gazette columnist Perry Mann ponders unbridled capitalism here.

SEALING THE DEAL. Here's E.J. Dionne on the future of health care reform legislation.

SPEAKING OF HAUNTED PLACES. Here's an item about a scientist who artificially designed one.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Cockadoodle don't

Stop the presses! Our economic problems are solved!

Just when you thought it was safe to open a newspaper, what should appear on the cover of yesterday's Charleston Gazette than a story about a group that wants to legalize cockfighting in West Virginia and ultimately in all the states.

According to a spokesman for the group, "It's only illegal now because of the puritan sense of a few people who don't find it an appropriate sport."

Earlier this week, a member of the group who identified himself only as "Chicken" dressed in a similar costume and handed out fliers in Charleston.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that bill to pass, although stranger things have certainly happened. However, in the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit that we have several free range roosters on Goat Rope Farm and that they occasionally have a dust-up. Usually it ends with one running off, which is the rooster equivalent of the ju jitsu tap out.

A friend of mine and fellow goat herder sent me a hilarious email yesterday with a number of great potential bumper sticker slogans about the topic, most of which involve a synonym for rooster (hint: think NRA). Since this is a G rated blog, I'll quote a different one from his selection:

My president is Andrew Jackson.

WHAT THEY SAID. I'm down with this NY Times editorial on the need for more stimulus.

PEOPLE POWER kept the public option in health insurance reform alive, says economist Dean Baker.

MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL is the subject of this editorial from USA Today. Thanks to Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo for pointing this out.

"GRAND THEFT JESUS." I wish I would have come up with that phrase to describe the conservative attempt to rewrite the Bible. Here's more on that developing story.

TRAMPS LIKE US, maybe we really were born to run.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Here we go again

It looks like we're going to be in for another coal-fired hissy fit as the EPA takes a more active role in regulating mountaintop removal mining. Here's WV Public Radio on the topic. As I've said more than once here before, it wouldn't surprise me if things get really ugly around here.

This past summer, El Cabrero made the following predictions about coal controversies:

First, the powers that be here will resist any climate change legislation or regulations of mining with the same intensity that those in the south resisted desegregation.

Second, state political leaders will try to outdo each other in positioning themselves as defenders of the status quo--even some of the ones who know better.

Third, it wouldn't surprise me if somebody gets killed. If that happens, it will probably be at the hands of people inflamed by over-heated rhetoric.

Fourth, when it's all over, people will wish they'd done things differently.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED? The stock market may be back from the brink, but unemployment is likely to remain high and do a lot of damage without more action to stimulate the economy, according to Paul Krugman's latest.

LOUDNESS AND LOBBYISTS dominate efforts to block real health care reform, according to this op-ed from the Gazette.

RACISM AND THE RIGHT are discussed here.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST. I guess we can start revising the family tree after the discovery of a hominid who walked upright more than 4 million years ago.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Twice born

Gustave Moreau's "Zeus and Semele." Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Welcome to the latest installment of Goat Rope's Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Greek Tragedy (or not) series. Below you'll find links and comments about current events and the occasional random item.

As mentioned previously, tragedies in Athens were performed during the spring festival of the god Dionysus, who is associated with wine, the vine, growing things, mass frenzy, and other cool stuff.

Dionysus is interesting among the gods. According to some evidence, his cult is ancient and may even go back to the heyday of Cretan civilization. But in the myths, he is generally portrayed as a recent arrival.

As the story goes, he was the product of an affair between Zeus and the human woman Semele, daughter of King Kadmos of Thebes. His jealous wife Hera got wind of the tryst and disguised herself as an old woman who told Semele that she should require her mysterious lover to reveal himself in his true nature and form. When Zeus paid another visit, she begged for this favor and denied him access to her bed with he refused it.

In another example of a Be-Careful-What-You-Ask-For myth, Zeus in anger and frustration appeared as thunder and lightning and burned her to a crisp. With the help of the god Hermes, Zeus sewed the six month old fetus of the future god into his thigh, from whence he was born in three months. This earned him the title of the "twice born."

He thus stands in marked contrast to the wisdom goddess Athena, who was born from Zeus' head. He works on a lower level, but is not without wisdom and power of his own.

More of his story to come.

FIVE TO ONE. That's the number of job seekers for every new job, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

TRICKLING DOWN (FOR REAL). Stimulus money has started flowing to states but only about six percent has been spent so far.

DAY DREAMING OR PROBLEM SOLVING? Maybe both.

DON'T PLAY THEIR GAME. According to Malcolm Gladwell, underdogs can win if they don't play by the big guy's rules.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

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

OK, so I'm a Tolkien dork

J.R.R. himself. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

When El Cabrero was in 8th grade, I believed that J.R.R. Tolkien, Bruce Lee, and Alice Cooper (not necessarily in that order) were gods.

What can I say? I had pretty good taste in 8th grade. All three remain in my pantheon.

I still remember when I first stumbled on Tolkien's work. I had gone with my mother to visit my older brother, who was working as a journalist in Florida and was living with some old college friends. On the bookshelf were several paperbacks with really odd and enticing covers. People old enough to remember those editions will know what I'm talking about.

It took a while to figure out which one came first but I started with The Hobbit and was immediately hooked. I still remember the letdown on finishing The Return of the King. I went into a period of mourning and was convinced I'd never read anything that compelling again.

I'm pleased to say I was wrong about that, but, like the song says, the first cut is the deepest.

I'm not up to answering the question of whether The Lord of the Rings is great literature, but it does fit the Goat Rope definition of a great story as something you can find as well as lose yourself in.

The weird thing is that as I got older and tried to fight against some of the evils of my time, it seemed less and less like a work of fantasy and more like a description of reality. I think it contains some practical insights on organizing and struggling for justice.

About which more tomorrow.

UNEMPLOYMENT. As jobs disappear, demand for unemployment insurance is hitting states hard.

SIGN OF THE TIMES. Here's a look at life in a tent city.

STIMULUS VS BAILOUT. Here's Robert Reich arguing for the former.

ANSWERS to the weekend Bob Dylan lyric quiz can be found here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Fish day!

He's in there somewhere.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to announce that Fish Day officially occurred at Goat Rope Farm on Saturday April 4.

Normally, the creek has a decent amount of minnows and crawdads, but for the last two years it has dried up completely in late summer. It takes several months after the water is flowing again for the fish to show up.

The first customer of the spring showed up this weekend and was unusually large--about five inches. It's not clear at this point whether he (or she) meant to get here or just took a wrong turn.

I'm assuming they come from downstream since we're at the head of the holler and spontaneous generation isn't part of nature's normal operating procedures.

I can already hear a grateful world saying "Thanks for sharing!" Well, yer welcome.

IT'S BAD. The latest unemployment figures, that is. We're now at 8.5 percent nationally.

PASS THE POPULISM PLEASE. Check out the latest in CEO pay here.

A MODEST PROPOSAL to make the most of the federal stimulus package to ease unemployment can be found here.

THIS IS WEIRD. A robot has apparently made a scientific discovery on its own, according to the folks at Wired Science. They don't look like people yet though--unless they've really got us fooled.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Travelin' on down that coal town road

Osage, WV, circa 1910. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

El Cabrero's beloved state of West Virginia is in the midst of another coal controversy. Specifically, our ruling class is winding itself into hissy fit mode over the possibility that the Obama administration may actually regulate the coal industry.

It was the more or less official policy of the Bush administration to let it do whatever it wanted to whomever or whatever it wanted whenever it wanted.

I have no great love for my state's ruling class and even less of an inclination to fight its battles. They're pretty good at looking out for themselves. But I've always felt empathy for the people who mine the coal, and especially for the members and supporters of the United Mine Workers of America, who have written some of the most inspiring pages in labor history, often in their own blood.

One sad feature of today's coal controversies is that they sometimes understandably but tragically pit union members against others working to protect the environment or the health of coalfield communities. Although people here are pretty good at working on issues where there's agreement and parting company on others, I will leave it to the Gentle Reader to guess who the big winner is on such occasions.

It wasn't always that way. In fact, the first big struggle I got involved in as something other than a spectator was the Pittston coal strike of 1989-1990, in which labor and community groups rallied in support of workers and retirees. As such fights go, that was a good one, although there was no lasting happy ending. About which, more to come.

SPEAKING OF COAL, if you want to keep up on the latest developments in all such things, I highly recommend Coal Tattoo, which is written by award-winning Charleston Gazette environmental reporter Ken Ward. And here's an op-ed arguing that greater regulation won't be the end of the world.

SPEAKING OF GOOD FIGHTS, here's an op-ed by yours truly about one going on now. Short version: if WV modernizes its unemployment insurance policies so that more people can be protected during this recession, we can draw down $33 million more in stimulus money.

To get the first 1/3, we need to change the base period for calculating benefits and eligibility. To get the rest, we need to make at least two of the following four changes: include part-time workers, include people who can't work for family-related reasons such as domestic violence; include people in job training programs; and/or provide an allowance for dependents.

There's enough money from the stimulus package to fund these changes for seven years. If, after that period, the state can't afford to continue benefits, it can make changes then.

So what's the problem?

LEGALIZED GAMBLING. Here's Paul Krugman on the international financial crisis.

RELIGION. Here's a controversial article on the future of evangelicalism.

BUDGET PRIORITIES. A number of groups in WV, including AFSC, are supporting the main goals outlined in President Obama's proposed federal budget.

CRABS SAY "OUCH!" Well, maybe not literally, but the latest evidence shows that crustaceans can feel and remember pain. (El Cabrero has long abhorred the unsportsmanlike practice of boiling lobsters alive.)

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

Fudoshin

This pyramid at Teotihuacan has some fudoshin going on. It would be kind of hard to turn it over.

Today is the final day of Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day has looked 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.

Today's word is...fudoshin (rhymes with judo shin), which means "immovable mind."

As you might expect by now, the idea needs some unpacking. It does not mean dogmatism, rigid thinking or fixed ideas. Instead it implies a rooted mental state or level of determination as well as equanimity. Fudoshin in that sense is a necessity for anyone committed to working to improve things over the long haul.

In karate there is a posture called fudo dachi or immovable stance. It looks like a cross between a horse stance and a forward stance and has a low center of gravity. Things and/or people with high centers of gravity are easy to trip, throw or turn over.

Think of the song "We Shall Not be Moved."

I had a fudoshin moment a few years ago when I got summoned to the office of a high state official who was upset about things I'd written in newspaper columns about the shabby way poor people had been treated at the time. I'm not sure what the intent was, other than to "get my mind right" a la Cool Hand Luke. When I got the call, I agreed to go and was very polite, but all the while I was thinking, "Fudoshin, dudes. Deal with it."

In looking around to see what others have written about fudoshin, I found a pretty good summary in wikipedia. I'm not sure whether it's a quotation from another source or one written for the entry, but it works for me:

A spirit of unshakable calm and determination,
courage without recklessness,
rooted stability in both mental and physical realms.
Like a willow tree,
powerful roots deep in the ground
and a soft, yielding resistance against
the winds that blow through it.

WHAT PASSED. Here are some key ingredients of the economic recovery package agreed to by the conference committee. A vote in the House is likely today, with the Senate to follow possibly this weekend. While the bill isn't perfect, as Paul Krugman points out here, there are lots of good things in there and some bad things are taken out.

Some wheeling and dealing continued after the agreement had been reached. Final votes in both houses may occur today.

THE SHOCKING TRUTH. Here's an account of a revisitation of Milgram's famous experiment on obedience to authority.

TO SLEEP, PERCHANCE TO REMEMBER. Science finds a strong link between sleep and memory.

URGENT NEANDERTHAL UPDATE here.

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

Kamae

Kendo practioners in upper and lower kamae positions. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

Welcome to Cool Japanese Words Week at Goat Rope. Each day will include a discussion of a useful but hard to translate concept from the Japanese martial art and Zen tradition, which are kind of intertwined. It is El Cabrero's belief that some of these ideas can be helpful in making the world less violent and more just.

Today's word is kamae, which is sometimes translated as stance, posture or ready position, although there's a lot more to it. In a deeper sense, it refers to a state of calm alertness before action. It doesn't imply a fixed position or attitude or a pre-conceived rigid plan but rather a focused awareness prepared to respond to the moment.

C. W. Nicol, a British martial artist who studied karate in Japan in the early 1960s came close to it with these words describing the katas or forms of advanced students:

In perfect stillness, they exuded strength. I saw it, and I thought of herons, poised above a pool, ready to spear a fish; of high-soaring falcons ready to stoop; of a cat, sitting patiently by a mouse hole...

My own favorite description of it comes from Erich Fromm's discussion of hope:

It is neither passive waiting nor is it unrealistic forcing of circumstances that cannot occur. It is like the crouched tiger, which will jump only when the moment for jumping has come...

Without good kamae, one can miss opportunities for action (and in some cases, get clobbered in the bargain). As Hamlet said, "the readiness is all."

RECOVERING THE RECOVERY? The economic recovery bill cleared a major hurdle in the Senate yesterday, with a final vote expected for today. After that, the bill goes to conference where differences between the House and Senate versions will be reconciled.

The Senate version weakened some key provisions of the House bill that would affect those hardest hit by the recession. For more details of the differences, click here. Some of these defects may be improved in the final version, but that will depend in part on how much noise people make.

The American Friends Service Committee is still making a toll-free number to the Capitol switchboard available for those who want to support the bill. AFSC recommends a passage without delay and without reducing aid to families and states. It also opposes the flawed “E-Verify” measure and the $1 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration. The number is 1-800-473-6711.

THE S WORD is discussed here.

A NOD TO CHUCKIE D. Darwin, that is.

POSSIBLE ALZHEIMER'S BREAKTHROUGH? New research suggests that a naturally occuring protein can stop or reverse cognitive impairment in animals.

NOTE. It's been a long day on the road, so I'm scheduling this post to be published a few hours from this writing. Here's hoping nothing really bad happens between now and then.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED