Two Posts in One

Some book I didn't get for Xmas (Because there's a war on Christmas)

You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, by Annabelle Gurwich

The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math from One to Infinity, by Steven Strogatz

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, by Jeanette Winterson

The Clothes Have No Emperor, by Paul Slansky (1989 book about Reagan)

Not So Sweet Mystery of Life in Brasil

One of the mysteries of Brasil for me has to do with firecrackers. Loud explosions are the way everything is celebrated here. Your favorite team just scored a goal? Set off a 30-second string of firecrackers. You just had a shot of cachaça? The light turned green? Blow something up.  The virgin Mary just went into labor? It's Monday? A little more noise seems appropriate. You happen to be across the street from a hospital? Who gives a shit?

The sound of mini bombs going off  is so ubiquitous that our two cats, who used to run and hide, don´t even move anymore. And please remember the way in which the concrete canyons of a city can exaggerate the sound effects.

Okay, the mystery I mentioned. To the best of my knowledge, I have never in four years been in a store where I saw fireworks or firecrackers for sale. I've asked Heitor where people purchase these things and he says he has no idea; he's never bought firecrackers in his life. Needless to say, he is my kind of Brazilian.

Any other Brasileiros know? And, yes, if you're reading this, you are also my kind of Brazilian.

Guns Don´t Kill People

I remember a sarcasm from the 1960s or 1970s: "Guns don´t kill people; Bullets kill people." This was in reaction to the gun lobby´s slogan of the time: "Guns don´t kill people; People kill people."  We´ll see  your absurdity and raise you one.

Now I do believe the best way to approach the issue of our out-of-control gun culture is to recognize the truth of that sarcasm. Even if the sale of guns were outlawed tomorrow, the country and culture are permeated with guns that would still be there. There have been some successful buy-back programs, but that is never going to really go anywhere.

I think there are a number of promising things we can do in the realm of controlling access to ammunition. As things are now you can go on line and purchase any ammo, any type of clip with nothing more than a credit card. I saw that you (or your teenager using your credit card) can buy a clip  with 30 rounds for $8.99.  Don´t ask me what calibre etc.  It´s not germane. That needs to stop; ammunition should be difficult to buy. And it should be expensive as hell.

Supposedly there are gun clubs and places where gun owners can practice. These places could have access to ammunition at today´s cheap prices for sale to their members/customers. BUT these organizations would be responsible, with very severe penalties, for ensuring that all of the ammo they sell is used on their premises. In other words, gun owners can practice or shoot for sport at a minimum cost.

Gun owners say they believe guns make their lives and property more safe and secure. I don´t believe it, but let it be. If they want to have weapons on hand for defense of their castle and person, they shouldn´t mind paying an extremely high price for the bullets that make that possible.

I understand that bullets, as opposed to guns, actually have a shelf life, so castle defenders would periodically have to buy new ammunition. Perhaps we could let them have it at a lesser price as long as they turned in their unused, but out-of-date rounds.

Perhaps we could even require that manufacturers make shell casings be identifiable and traceable. Without a doubt, it is possible. How much it would add to the cost, I have no idea.

At any rate, I think the future of gun control is really ammunition control, because the guns themselves are already out of control and there is nothing much we can do about it.

The sarcastic hipsters had it right. It´s bullets that kill people and we can do something about that.

All I Want for Christmas....

Again, Just Saying

 

This may be a little hard to read, but the numbers on the vertical axis are in increments of 10. The U.S. has 90 guns for every 100 people. Considering that some of those people are minors, that is more than one gun per adult.

Just Saying

The Tipping Point

In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of suicides in the Micronesian island group. 

In the early 1960s, suicide on the islands of Micronesia was almost unknown. But for reasons no one quite understands, it then began to rise, steeply and dramatically, by leaps and bounds every year, until by the end of the 1980s there were more suicides per capita in Micronesia than anywhere else in the world. For males between fifteen and twenty four, the suicide rate in the United States is about 22 per 100,000. In the islands of Micronesia the rate is about 160 per 100,000—more than seven times higher.

 For some reason not understood, suicide among young boys has become trivialized. One teenager committed suicide because his parents had refused to buy him a graduation gown. Another because his older brother had rebuked him for making too much noise. And dozens and dozens of similarly illogical reasons.

Thus as suicide grows more frequent in these communities the idea itself acquires a certain familiarity if not fascination to young men, and the lethality of the act seems to be trivialized. Especially among some younger boys, the suicide acts appear to have acquired an experimental almost recreational element.

The reason for this may not be understood, but it fits the pattern that Gladwell describes as a tipping point, in which something rare becomes commonplace.  

Looked at in this light, the rash of school shootings is even more frightening, if that is possible.

A Rational Brazilean Perspective

Ever since the school shooting on Friday, it has been the lead story for the NY Times on line as well as the LA Times.

Heitor's reaction this morning was something along the lines of "either do something about the gun violence in the U.S. or quit featuring the story.  If you're serious about regretting these tragedies, then do something about your gun laws. As it is, I think Americans just like mourning."

And of course he's right. It's true neither of these newspapers can do anything about the gun laws except editorialize. Still, to the extent that newspapers reflect the culture, one has to conclude we just like beating our breasts and lamenting.

McConnell Filibusters Himself

Perhaps, stuck out here away from the 24-hour news cycle, I'm the last person to hear about this story, because I had to read it.

You may remember that during the last crisis over the raising the debt ceiling, Mitch McConnell introduced a bill allowing the president to raise the debt ceiling on his own. Never mind that there were many people arguing that the president already has that authority, McConnell's idea was to embarrass the president by making him alone responsible for the inevitable raising of the ceiling. Obama had already indicated that he would not raise the debt ceiling on his own.

Last Thursday, McConnell tried to introduce this same bill as an amendment to another totally unrelated bill, and Harry Reid did not allow it.

But there is a difference this time around, because Obama has said he wants the authority to raise the debt ceiling on his own when the issue comes back again in a few weeks. I don't know if he is claiming to have that authority already, as some constitutional scholars insist he does, or if he wants congressional authority,but I am assuming the latter. Reid, after rejecting McConnell's amendment attempt, did a headcount and realized he had 51 votes to pass the measure, so he brought it back up as a separate bill.

And McConnell filibustered it. His attempt at gamesmanship failed and he filibustered his  own bill....for the 385th+ filibuster of the current Senate.

There is another story here because the Republicans are constantly complaining that the Democratic majority will not allow amendments to bills. As if that were something new. I recall that Democrats had the same complaint when the House was controlled by Dick Armey and Tom DeLay.

And then there is the need for filibuster reform. Since majorities today will be minorities tomorrow, one has to be careful what changes one makes. But one thing that seems basic to me is that filibusters should require Senators to actually get on the floor and talk...and talk and talk, as opposed to the procedure nowadays where they just have to "announce" it. It would be used a lot less regularly, to state the obvious, if they not only had to speak, but tie up all other Senate business in the process.

Just saying.

Just To Be Fair

While I do not retract a single thing I ever said or wrote about the Trayvon Martin case, I think the defendant, George Zimmerman, has a very good case in a lawsuit he has filed against NBC News for defamation, at least based on a story in the NY Times.

NBC, on three separate occasions and on three separate shows between March 20 and March 27, aired a 911 tape in which Zimmerman is quoted as saying, in his first words to the operator:

This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. He looks black.

 In fact, Zimmerman told the operator: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.” When the dispatcher said, “O.K., and this guy — is he white, black or Hispanic?” Zimmerman then said, “He looks black.”

Alternative Holiday Gifts

Sometimes I wonder if I´m truly a hermit, as for example just  happened when I read Nicholas Kristof´s column today and was reminded that Christmas really is almost upon us. But I know it´s not that I´m physically isolated; it is just that I have become so adept at  tuning out all of that xmas bullshit/noise over these many years that when it suddenly does register in my mind, it seems like a revelation. Sometimes I am amazed at my own powers.

I think Kristof is one of the most truly altruistic people who I don´t know but would like to. If you´re tired of the usual commercial xmas routine, here are some good alternative ideas.

And now I´m  going back into my cocoon.

When It Rains....

When it rains in São Paulo, it seems like the water all runs down our street.  A couple of months ago, the city finished putting in huge new storm sewers on both sides of the street. It was a noisy project that disrupted our lives in a minor way for 3-4 months.  And at the first big rain, this is what we get. Actually today´s rain wasn´t that heavy. Heitor was getting ready to leave the house and he had just said "I guess I´d better take an umbrella," and then he opened the door and saw this. I guess this qualifies as my first flash flood.

Unfortunately, I don´t know how to stop shooting a video with our camera, so it ends awkwardly.

Meanwhile, on the street in the back of the house, all was very serene and normal.

Opening Our Aperture

An article on the Military Times website yesterday appears to be saying that children are now legitimate military targets in Afghanistan.


Where is the moral high ground if our justification for targeting children is that the Taliban is using and hiding behind them? They started it!

  “It kind of opens our aperture,” said Army Lt. Col. Marion “Ced” Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent.”

It's a complicated and dangerous situation that highlights for me the fact that we're out of our league. George W. Bush, the candidate, was correct when he said we shouldn't get into the business of nation building.

I don't know what Obama's timetable is for getting us out of Afghanistan, but it isn't soon enough. As scholars of the region and historians said at the time of the original invasion, Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires (or some such phrase). We're just one more.

Eisenhower, Part 2

One of the thoughts that occurred to me from reading the Eisenhower book by Jim Newton is that the conservative wing of the Republican party has, at its foundation, been reactive ever since FDR. Robert Taft, who possibly would have been the Republican nominee had Eisenhower chosen not to run, and who was the head of the Republican right wing, made a career, in large part, by being in opposition to New Deal programs. Even his most enduring legacy, the Taft-Hartley act of 1947 was a reaction to the Wagner Act of 1935.

I think there is a zig zag line that runs through Taft, Goldwater, Reagan and today's Republican party that would still love to privatize social security and eviscerate Medicare and Medicaid.  It isn't a straight line, primarily because of the shifting positions on foreign policy. Taft was an isolationist who distrusted international involvements, and we've now reached a position where the only acceptable Republican stance is hawkishness.

An interesting alternative history assignment could center around what would have happened in 1952 if Eisenhower had chosen not to run. If Taft had won the nomination and the presidency, his vice-presidential selection would have been all-important, because Taft died in July 1952, just months after Ike's inauguration.. 

Some other tidbits I picked up:

The Republicans chose Douglas MacArthur as their keynote speaker for their 1952 convention. This was a year and a half after Truman asserted his constitutional authority and fired MacArthur for making public statements at variance with administration policy. It was an arrogant choice, it seems to me.  Apparently Mac went over about as well as Clint Eastwood talking to an empty chair. "The Democratic Party has become captive......to set the national course unerringly toward the socialist regimentation of a totalitarian state."

Apparently this Republican penchant for slinging the S word is a venerable old tradition. Eisenhower's two older brothers both accused Ike of following socialistic policies. One of his brothers was quoted as saying he, Edgar, was "the only real Republican in the family."

Eisenhower, in addition to having a considerable temper, also had a bit of a sense of humor. At the time of MacArthur's firing in 1951, Eisenhower was not yet an official candidate for the nomination, but Lucius Clay, busy trying to organize support for a presidential run, advised him to keep quiet. Ike supposedly replied, "I am going to maintain silence in every language known to man."

Writing of the Senate Republican leader, William Knowland, Ike said "In his case, there seems to be no final answer to the question 'How stupid can you get?'"

When meeting his bald headed Secretary of the Treasury for the first time, Ike said "I see you part your hair the same way I do."

Finally, Churchill's comment about Eisenhower's Secretary of State: "Dull, Duller, Dulles"