A failing of the free market

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Michael

The death toll from a factory collapse in Bangladesh has reach 1,127. This is a direct result of workers having little to no power – which is largely the way it has always been when business has been allowed to run amok. Fortunately, the proper combination of the corporate powers that be and government action is forcing needed changes:

everal major Western brands embraced a safety plan that requires retailers to help pay for factory improvements in Bangladesh, where the three-week search for bodies at the site of the world’s worst garment-industry disaster ended Monday with the death toll at 1,127.

The collapse on April 24 of the Rana Plaza factory building focused worldwide attention on the hazardous conditions in Bangladesh’s low-cost garment industry and strengthened pressure for reforms.

Bangladesh’s government also agreed Monday to allow garment workers to form trade unions without permission from factory owners. That decision came a day after it announced a plan to raise the minimum wage for garment workers. Both moves are seen as a direct response to the collapse of the eight-story building, which housed five clothing factories.

Of course, the change from businesses themselves is primarily due to two factors: 1) There is government pressure to do something, so the companies involved want to be active so as to avoid any forced regulations and 2) There is money to be made by quashing negative publicity with the veneer of positive action. Notably, ‘the goodness of their hearts’ and ‘basic ethical considerations’ aren’t really two things that need to be considered here. That’s where government action as supported by a citizenry comes in. Business is rarely interested in it.

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On the Casey Anthony judge

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Michael

Judge Belvin Perry was the presiding judge for the Casey Anthony trial 2 years ago. He recently had this to say:

Judge Belvin Perry told NBC’s “Today” show that he thought there was sufficient evidence for a conviction on a first-degree murder charge, even though much of the evidence was circumstantial.

Anthony was acquitted almost two years ago of killing her daughter, Caylee, following a trial that attracted worldwide attention. She was convicted of making false statements to police and got credit for time served.

When he read the jury’s verdict, Belvin said he felt “surprise, shock, disbelief” and read it twice.

“I just wanted to be sure I was reading what I was reading,” Perry said.

Alright, that sounds fair enough. He has insight into the law and he knows what he’s talking about. At least, that’s what I thought until I read this:

Perry also said he thought prosecutors were better attorneys than Baez, who the judge described as “personable.” All the defense had to do was create reasonable doubt, which they did, he said.

Now, I’m not some fancy lawyer-type, but the last time I checked, if there is reasonable doubt, then, by definition, there was not sufficient evidence for a conviction. I’m pretty sure that’s how this whole criminal justice thing works.

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The trampling of free speech

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Michael

This is utter horseshit:

The case of teenager Cameron Dambrosio might serve as an object lesson to young people everywhere about minding what you say online unless you are prepared to be arrested for terrorism.

The Methuen, Mass., high school student was arrested last week after posting online videos that show him rapping an original song that police say contained “disturbing verbiage” and reportedly mentioned the White House and the Boston Marathon bombing. He is charged with communicating terrorist threats, a state felony, and faces a potential 20 years in prison. Bail is set at $1 million.

1. Fuck the author of the article, Mark Guarino, for writing as if teenagers need a lesson in why they aren’t allowed free speech rights. Seriously, fuck that guy.

2. I can only imagine the doltish law enforcement officials participating in the quashing of Cameron Dambrosio’s First Amendment rights regret never seizing the opportunity to arrest Johnny Cash for shooting a man in Reno.

3. The biggest issue here is the fact that artistic expression, an entirely protected right, is being violated for obviously and offensively unconstitutional reasons. That said, fuck fuck fuck Mark Guarino.

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What results from too little regulation:

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Michael

This is business left to its own devices:

A week after a building containing thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers came crashing down around them, the death toll from the South Asian nation’s deadliest industrial disaster rose above 400.

Workers using heavy machinery are gradually picking apart the huge, splintered slabs of concrete at the scene of the collapse in Savar, a suburb of the national capital, Dhaka. They continue to find and remove bodies, many of them decomposed and difficult to recognize…

There’s confusion about exactly how many people are still unaccounted for in the collapse, Sarwardy said at a news briefing Wednesday. Authorities are still waiting for the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association to provide a list of all the people who were inside the five garment factories in the building when it caved in, he said.

I imagine it will be difficult to procure such a list, what with the need to match the names of human beings up with the cattle-numbers they were likely given. At least Wal-Mart gives name tags to the people it, in reality, considers nothing more than numbers.

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Richard Dawkins #1 on list of world’s top thinkers

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Michael

Prospect Magazine has compiled a list of the 65 top thinkers in the world over the past 12 months. Topping the list is Richard Dawkins:

When Prospect magazine listed Britain’s leading public intellectuals in 2004 and invited readers’ votes, it was Richard Dawkins who emerged as No 1. Nine years on, the biologist, author and campaigner has bettered that by topping its “world thinkers” rankings, beating four Nobel prize winners (and another contender regarded as certain to receive one soon) in a poll based on 65 names chosen by a largely US- and UK-based expert panel.

Joining him in the top 10 are the psychologists Steven Pinker (3) and Daniel Kahneman (10), the economists Paul Krugman (5) and Amartya Sen (7) and the philosopher Slavoj Žižek (6), who all, like him, figured in the magazine’s first list of world-class thinkers in 2005.

A late run by the octogenarian British physicist Peter Higgs (8) secured him a place in an elite squad containing three other scientists, while the remaining slots are taken by academics turned politicians from the Middle East: Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani (2), an economist who served as finance minister after the US-led invasion; Iraq’s Ali Allawi (4), another ex-minister and author of The Occupation of Iraq and The Crisis of Islamic Civilization; and Egypt’s Mohamed ElBaradei (9), prominent in the Arab Spring and now in opposition to Mohamed Morsi.

To qualify for this year’s world thinkers rankings, it was not enough to have written a seminal book, inspired an intellectual movement or won a Nobel prize several years ago (hence the absence from the 65-strong long list of ageing titans such as Noam Chomsky or Edward O Wilson); the selectors’ remit ruthlessly insisted on “influence over the past 12 months” and “significance to the year’s biggest questions”.

Perhaps the most expected name to be nowhere near a list like this? William Lane Craig. This is the difference between a professional debater and people who make a real impact in the world with honestly considered arguments, opinions, and perspectives.

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Terrorists motivated by religion

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Michael

This isn’t a shocker:

The hospitalized Boston Marathon bombing suspect charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction has told investigators that he and his brother were motivated by religion but were not in contact with overseas terrorists or groups, officials said.

Several officials familiar with the initial interrogation of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described his behavior during questioning as cooperative.

A senior government official said Tsarnaev has told investigators — by writing some answers down, and by nodding yes or shaking his head no to others — that he and his brother were not in touch with any overseas terrorists or groups.

Tsarnaev, who has injuries to his tongue preventing him from speaking properly, also indicated that he and his brother conceived the bombing attack on their own, and were motivated by religious fervor.

And what is the key underlying factor in religion? Everyone say it with me: faith. It doesn’t take some overseas organization to motivate a person to effectively random violence on a massive scale. With faith, anything is possible. I mean. It’s fucking random. It isn’t a way of thinking or knowing at all.

Don’t expect to hear too much about religion’s role in this (much less faith’s). The left-wing media is going to bury this key factor and the right-wing media will speak of the motivations here only in terms of “radical Islam”. (Why “radical Christianity” doesn’t appear to be a thing, I don’t know. That religion has more than its fair share of brutes, past and present.)

To digress, I’ve been perplexed by another issue surrounding the surviving terrorist fuck. Apparently people would like to deem him an enemy combatant and strip him of the rights afforded to citizens under the Constitution. It is absolutely beyond me that the nature and magnitude of a crime should make a difference. Once we start walking down that road, we start calling accused murderers “enemy combatants” – guilty or not. And why stop there? Stealing gum from that store undermines the U.S. economy, you economic terrorist. Enemy combatant! Like we need to tip the balance of power any further into the hands of the government.

Filed under: News, Religions | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Why New Yorkers should consider Anthony Weiner for mayor

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Michael

As just about everyone knows, Anthony Weiner went from being a U.S. House member from New York to resigning as a result of a sexual picture he mistakenly Tweeted to a woman who wasn’t his wife. And as just about everyone should know, there were only two problems with what he did (from a public standpoint). One, he wasn’t careful enough about his online actions, thus sending a lewd photo of himself. I consider this to be pretty minor because I wouldn’t be stopped from voting for someone who has nude or lewd photos online, but there is a problem with him sending the picture over a social media feed where people didn’t sign up for that sort of thing. Two, he lied and denied about his affair. That’s pretty much never the way to go with these things.

As I wrote about Gen. Petraeus a few months ago, these sex scandals are hardly even stories. Unless the official involved had his office or political/military decisions compromised as a result of an affair, I do not care. That appears to be the case with Petraeus, so that was a non-story. As for Weiner, the only story was his lying. And now that some time has passed, he’s hoping that he can get by that with a huge political comeback:

Democrat Anthony Weiner, who resigned from Congress in disgrace two years ago, is weighing a bid for New York mayor, but a poll released on Tuesday suggests his political comeback would be an uphill battle.

Only 40 percent of city voters say they would consider voting for him, while 52 percent said they would not, according to the NBC New York-Marist poll.

Among Democrats, his chances were slightly higher, with 46 percent saying they were open to a Weiner candidacy and 50 percent opposed to the idea.

Weiner’s standing with the public has improved in the two years since he admitted to sending lewd messages to women and resigned from his seat in the House representing parts of Queens and Brooklyn.

He had been considered a front-runner to be the city’s next mayor but when he resigned just a quarter of voters polled thought he should run for mayor.

For those New Yorkers who once supported Weiner but no longer do, I think they should reconsider. If their problem with him is the fact that he lied about everything (and for some time, at that), then there’s nothing I can say about that. Not voting for a guy because of his public dishonesty is perfectly valid. However, if people aren’t voting for him because he cheated on his wife, I say boo. That’s an issue for him and his wife, not the citizenry at large. He isn’t a lesser lawmaker and leader because he isn’t a good husband. Infidelity certainly isn’t anything to praise, but it isn’t a federal crime.

I don’t know if Weiner is the right choice for New York City mayor. I live 6 hours away and don’t have an interest in the politics of big cities, much less living in one. However, I do believe that Weiner deserves fair consideration based upon his policy and lawmaking record. Leave his personal life out of it.

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Boston

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Michael

The events in Boston are still fluid, so most any comment would be premature. However, I do find this quote from Mr. Rogers to be appropriate:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’

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People become Republicans because of religion

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Michael

At least for the vast majority, that is. See here:

With no debate, Republicans at the party’s spring meeting here on Friday unanimously approved a number of resolutions, including one that reaffirmed the party’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

“The Republican National Committee affirms its support for marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and as the optimum environment in which to raise healthy children for the future of America,” the resolution read. The 157 RNC members present approved it in a voice vote.

I’ve made the claim in the past that the reason people turn to the GOP is out of their conservative Christianity. To me, this is a very tiny, very obvious claim. Basically dishonest people who aren’t interested in critical thinking (or doing any research, but I digress), such as the odious Michael Hartwell, have tried to spin my statement in a way where in order to prove it I would have to explicitly know the minds of every single Republican. Under his requirements, we could never surmise why anyone becomes anything if the group we’re discussing is sufficiently large. (This is interesting, too, since he has gone the racist route of claiming that blacks vote for Democrats because they benefit from and like handouts.)

At any rate, I think this is all quite obvious: Most people who become Republican are first fundamentally religious, soon recognizing that there is a political party which reflects their religiosity. The re-affirmation of the GOP’s opposite to marriage equality is a perfect example of this because there are no good (or even honest) secular arguments against allowing same-sex couples their constitutionally guaranteed right to marriage. That is, it is the base Christianity that underlies the Republican party that has caused this vote and view; we don’t live in some backwards world where people became bigoted Republicans all on their own, later noticing that a particular cultural religion happens to exactly reflect their positions.

Filed under: News, Religions, Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Why we need better science education

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Michael

Some better science education could have entirely avoided this ridiculous situation:

Florida country radio morning-show hosts Val St. John and Scott Fish are currently serving indefinite suspensions and possibly worse over a successful April Fools’ Day prank. They told their listeners that “dihydrogen monoxide” was coming out of the taps throughout the Fort Myers area. Dihydrogen monoxide is water.

The popular deejays are mainly in all this trouble (potentially of a felony level) because their listeners panicked so much — about the molecular makeup of their drinking water, however unwittingly — that Lee County utility officials had to issue a county-wide statement calming the fears of chemistry challenged Floridians…

Every break we have we’re telling listeners it was a goof, a bad joke,” Tony Renda, general manager at WWGR radio told WTSP-TV. And apparently, the station, the water works, and perhaps the authorities are still trying to figure out if the two hosts could face felony charges for, again, reporting that the scientific name of water was coming out of the pipes. “My understanding is it is a felony to call in a false water quality issue,” Diane Holm, a public information officer for Lee County, told WTSP, while Renda stood firm about his deejays: “They will have to deal with the circumstances.”

Yes, and the rest of us will have to deal with the consequences of a scientifically illiterate society.

Filed under: News, Science | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

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