October 8, 2012

The Revenge of Big Bird

THE REVENGE OF BIG BIRD (true story)

Decades ago, as a young lass in my early 20s, I was happily employed as a Child Care Worker at a residential treatment center for “emotionally disturbed” children. It was an idyllic job, common sense humanistic values of love, acceptance, compassion, and generosity prevailed at all levels from the Director to the peons like me, the cook, and even the janitors. Each child had a “treatment team” consisting not only of parents, CCWs, family counselor, etc. but also frequently one of the cooks or janitors. Consensus was highly valued, and seldom breached.

This was all fine and good, until some “higher ups” somewhere decided to change everything, without regard to what any “lesser than”s thought about it. The new “cure-all treatment” these "experts" rolled out all over us, had a name: behavior modification. This was the new “big idea” that supposedly produced remarkably consistent “positive” results, by systematically punishing “undesirable behaviors” and rewarding “desired behaviors”. Undesirable or desired by whom? ... and for what reason? These matters were "irrelevant", i.e. not allowed to clutter the mind or soul of behavior modifiers. Their job is only to manipulate the sticks and carrots just so, as to systematically impose (by force if necessary) behaviors deemed by others as “appropriate”, like eye contact, lack of “self-stimulation”, compliance with directions from staff, etc. The use of cattle prods was seriously discussed on at least one occasion as a possible “negative” reinforcement.

I don’t recall the exact moment when I decided to resign in protest. Actually I think it was a more gradual process, of plowing through layers of disbelief, shock, grief, feelings of betrayal, fear of unemployment: in short, kind of like I imagine a factory worker might feel, working in a US manufacturing plant that had just been purchased by Bain Capital. Everything was reduced to a commodity, i.e. tokenism: tokens for eye contact, tokens for compliance, etc. to produce token behavior designed to comply with someone else’s idea of what is “appropriate”.

I didn’t leave quietly, and I was not the only one. We (myself and a close friend and co-worker, John Green, who also was feeling similarly impacted by the invading behaviorists) decided to put on a skit, at that years Christmas party. Our little swan song, as it were. I played Mr. Hooper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Hooper), and John G. played Big Bird.



The story line was quite straight forward. Big Bird was wanting to buy one of his dear friends a gift from Mr. Hooper's store, but he just didn’t have quite enough tokens. There was wrangling and haggling about the price, during which Mr. Cooper delivered a punch line: “It’s a dog-eat dog world Big Bird! Get over it!”. We managed a last-minute conversion by Mr. Cooper “just this once” to achieve a semblence of a “happy ending”. Everyone "got it", including many of the kids I think.

Imagine my surprise and delight, when Big Bird bursts onto the Campaign 2012 scene, during the first debate no less. Now I can’t help but think, that this is Big Bird’s revenge at long last: a devastating blow to the Forces of Evil that only know domination, exploitation, manipulation, degradation, and meanness as their MO.

We love you Big Bird!!!! Your voice is being heard across the nation. "SAVE PBS and BIG BIRD"

You are kicking Rethuglican ass for our planet, our children, and our grandchildren. May you prevail.

October 1, 2012

If anyone has Obama's ear

Would you please suggest that Obama to use this during the debates.

&feature=player_embedded

Of course Obama would tone it down a bit, but still .. Malloy
powerfully juxtaposes the Rmoney/Ryan health care "policy" i.e.
simply referring poor people to the ER, with an equally powerful
story of one woman who tried to do exactly that, and ended up
dead on the floor of a jail cell for "causing trouble".

If Obama did this with feeling, with authority, during debates, I
think it would completely devestate the Rmoney/RAyan / GOP's
ability to recover before the election on the issue of Health Care,
Medicare, et. al.

September 29, 2012

Amazing video of Jewish leaders meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in NYC

Just this last Wednesday. Who knew?

The person who posted this on FB said it was "banned" in the
USA, so I'm not sure how long it will remain on YouTube, so
have a look-see while you can. It's only about 6-7 minutes long,
but is rather mind-blowing.

&feature=share

September 28, 2012

Isn't this kind of a BFD? --> Lakota Nation secedes from the USA

"The Lakota Nation has withdrawn from all treaties with the United States, national leaders said Wednesday. “We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,” Indian leader Russell Means told reporters and a delegation from the Bolivian embassy at a Washington news conference.

A delegation of Lakota leaders delivered a message to the US State Department on Monday, announcing they were unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the federal government of the United States.

They also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, and will continue on their diplomatic mission and take it overseas in the coming weeks and months, they told the news conference.

The Lakota Nation includes parts of the states of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming."

More at: http://www.aztlan.net/lakota_nation_secedes.htm

September 28, 2012

How to Get Arrested Without Really Trying (or) Fuck the War on Drugs

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HOW TO GET ARRESTED WITHOUT REALLY TRYING

September 21, 2012 - J. Bennett Rylah

Being arrested was on my bucket list. I assumed it would be for unpaid parking tickets, but hoped it would be for overturning a cop car at a protest. But I got arrested in a strange way, I suppose. Here’s how you too can go from being a working class professional and wind up a criminal without doing much.

WHEN A SWAT TEAM IS THE ONLY GUEST AT YOUR HOUSEWARMING PARTY

Dear, Penthouse. I was sitting on the couch in a pair of pink panties and a wifebeater. It was the third of May, but also unseasonably warm. My partner, Shawn, and I had recently started a labor-of-love blog about terrible motels called MurderMotels.com. The rule is you have to find a terrible motel using TripAdvisor or some other site and then force yourself to stay in it all night, save a little exploring of the city it’s in. I’d been eyeing one in the small town of Morley (Michigan’s trucking capital based on number of truckers in residence) for a while and tonight, we were going. Having watched too much Dexter, I’d ordered a supply of Luminol and was mixing it up in a small bottle.

It was mid-afternoon on a weekday. I was home because I work as the Managing Editor of a publication that specializes in news about urban revitalization, entrepreneurship and social justice. I’m an independent contractor, so I work from a lot of places that aren’t an office. But today, I was done with work. Shawn was on break from school. So, we were sort of relaxing. I had just moved into his place the night before. We were in love, I think. I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life, perhaps.

Then there was a guy on the lawn. I thought maybe it was this catering company that’d been outside earlier, but it was a police officer in full SWAT gear. I said, “Look. It’s the police!” I think I was excited, maybe.

And then’s when the officer seemed alarmed that we’d seen him, and looked towards our door, where a small group of them had gathered. And just like on TV… Open up. It’s the police.

There were several of them. One guy had a battering ram and was disappointed, maybe, that he didn’t get to use it because we’d opened the door on our own. Cops, usually, are like vampires. I don’t invite them in. But I was convinced they needed help. Perhaps this SWAT team needed a place to hunker down. Maybe a maniac was on the loose. They said they had a warrant. They told Shawn to have everyone in the house come outside. I put on pants and met them on the porch. They must be confused, I decided. So I asked them who they were looking for.

“It’s not who,” the officer with us on the porch said. “It’s what.”

Then he took off his sunglasses and The Who started playing. Wait, no. No, that wasn’t it. I asked him “what” he was looking for, and he said, “Marijuana.”

Well, here’s the thing. I had just moved into Shawn’s house the night before, like I said. Prior to this, I lived by myself in a one-bedroom apartment where no teams of armed, flak-jacketed police officers with battering rams ever came over. Shawn’s roommate before me was a guy who had a card to grow medical marijuana. I knew he had a card, and I knew he grew marijuana in the basement. I knew that medical marijuana was legal in the state of Michigan. That’s all I knew.

http://jbennettrylah.com/how-to-get-arrested-without-really-trying-or-fuck-the-police-or-fuck-the-war-on-drugs/

September 23, 2012

Is anyone else having this trouble logging onto DU?

This started happening about a week ago for me, and has become progressively
worse. Today took me 10-15 minutes, until I was finally able to log-in.

What happens for me is I'll open DU, start cruising, try to post a "rec" or a reply
on a string, and it kicks me to the Log-in page. So I enter password and click
on the box, but instead of taking me to the home page logged in, it creates a
new window of Home Page, but I'm not really logged in there, no matter how
many times I clicked on the Log-in box, it just kept creating a new window (where
I'm still not logged in) for every click.

I thought maybe I'd been banned or something, or the DU had been hacked into
and it was blocking people from logging in.

It COULD just be my computer acting weird. It wouldn't be the first time.

September 21, 2012

Memo to Mitt: Increasingly, w/smart phones, etc. there are no "quiet rooms" anymore. Deal with it.

I just flashed on that ridiculous statement Rmoney made months ago, when asked if
if he thinks it's somehow "inappropriate" that we should be having public discussions
about the disparity of wealth issues in America.

Rmoney's answer: "well, I think that should only happen in quiet rooms".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/mitt-romney-offshore-accounts_b_1647386.html

If you can't stand the heat (and light) Mitt, best get out of the freaking kitchen.

September 21, 2012

Drat! I missed the Warren/Brown debate. Is there a video link yet to watch full debate? ~nt

September 2, 2012

Hhmmm. now let's see. I must choose between a sitting President

who is demonstrably & steadily improving a disastrous economy,
while strengthening and improving our health care crisis,
who offed Osama Bin Laden in his spare time,
and who is smart as a whip, and gracious as a silk glove ...

and (on the other hand) a Vulture Capitalist who has ruined the
lives of millions of Americans for profit, chosen a VP who is a
compulsive liar, and who's a member of a weird religious cult ...

Gee, I wonder which of these I will choose?

September 1, 2012

Mitt's obsession with "Quiet Rooms" needs more voter attention ...

Q: "Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it
being seen as envy, though?"

Willard thereupon dropped a bomb on himself.

A: "You know I think it's fine to talk about those things in QUIET ROOMS...
But the president has made this part of his campaign rally. Everywhere
he goes we hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires and
executives and Wall Street. It's a very envy-oriented, attack-oriented
approach."

-------------

Mitt needs to be asked "So who is invited to these "QUIET ROOMS" of which you speak?
... or maybe more importantly, who is NOT invited to these "quiet rooms" Mitt?

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/mitt-romney-today-show-interview-6638808#ixzz25DJE5ThD