Dubya Dismantles the Constitution

I just have to provide this link to a report from the CATO Institute, which lays the groundwork for an effective impeachment case against Dubya for breaking his oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. It's an interesting read.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/powersurge_healy_lynch.pdf

English Only? No Thanks!

Why do I oppose an English-Only Amendment?

• Language is part of culture, and the American culture is enriched by the multiple languages spoken by its citizens.
• The US Constitution is supposed to be a charter of liberties and individual freedom.
• As the ACLU has noted, services in jeopardy include health, education and social welfare services; job training and translation assistance to crime victims and witnesses; voting assistance and ballots; drivers’ licensing exams; AIDS prevention education; road signs; and 911 dispatching services, to name a few.
• Naturalization for U.S. citizenship does not require English literacy for people over 50 and/or who have been in the US for 20 years or more. These people will be denied their rights as citizens.
• There is a false perception that immigrants are resisting learning English. English-Only legislation does not increase funding and resources to meet the needs of those immigrants willing to learn English. According to the ACLU, over 40,000 adults are on the waiting list for adult English classes in Los Angeles, and according to Ted Kennedy, over 16,000 adults are on the waiting list in Boston. There is also an overwhelming percentage of children not granted bi-lingual education programs to become proficient and mainstreamed into English-only classrooms.
• English-Only legislation is really a screen for limiting immigration and giving legal immigrants less rights. The political lobbying organization US English has spent over $30 million dollars to promote English-Only legislation over the years. They spend virtually no money on educating people to speak English even though they are a tax-exempt, charitable organization; instead, they lobby Congress and finance English-Only legislation activities. The group was founded by John Tanton, who also founded the Federation for American Immigration Reform, and both groups are fearful of a non-White majority in the United States. A large contributor to US English is the Pioneer Fund, an organization dedicated to “race betterment” through eugenics (selective breeding). The Arizona Republic printed information from an email Tanton wrote in 1988 that said, in part: “As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night?” and “Will Latin American migrants bring with them the tradition of the mordida (bribe), the lack of involvement in public affairs . . . .” This is the true impetus of English-Only legislation.

The Art of Happiness: Lesson One

I have just started reading The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, written by the Dalai Lama and psychiatrist Howard Cutler. I actually won the book as a prize for saying something nice! In the true spirit of giving to others and practicing the art of happiness, I will share some of the techniques the Dalai Lama teaches. Lesson #1: Life could be worse.

Fill in the blanks and repeat five times:

I am happy that I am not _________________.
I am happy that I am not _________________.
I am happy that I am not _________________.
I am happy that I am not _________________.
I am happy that I am not _________________.

Now, don’t you feel happier than you did five minutes ago?

Culture Shock

I had a dose of liberal education last night and I didn’t like it! Is this the end of the world – the last scene in this play of life? Do tell.

Have you ever stepped into an unknown world, where the culture knocks you and bumps you like a bull in a china shop, and you feel lost, battered, bewildered, small, and unknowing?

I ventured into the world of http://myspace.com/ for the first time last night, and let me tell you – I felt like my great grandmother would have felt if I had tried to explain to her what the internet was. My foray into MySpace was like taking my kids to Chuck E. Cheese, a cacophony of loud noises, intense graphics, personal pictures, personality profiles, and raunchy posts. OK, Chuck E. is not really raunchy, but I still can’t stand that mouse! This rub with a new culture, for me, was like going through a corn maze at Halloween while on an acid trip or sitting through the climax of an opera performance with shrill violins calling me to leave that damn theatre.

I was simply over stimulated, and I felt like shutting down. Maybe, like Shakespeare described, I have reached my exit, the seventh age – “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.” My senses couldn’t take it. Now, Shakespeare - why, that is music to my ears!

All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.
And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow.
Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.
And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.
The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans every thing.

My students and potential "friends" on MySpace might disagree and be culturally shocked by Shakespeare, instead.

Appreciate those damned, I mean delightful, passive aggressives!

I have discovered that I, and others in our world, need to learn more about dealing with passive-aggressive personalities. (I already did a blog entry on sociopaths this week. What can I say? The current times are a psychological maelstrom!) I’ve done some informal research, and here are some suggestions:

Beware of those manipulative passive-aggressive personalities who always create confusion and try to blame others for their mixed messages. (Ken Blackwell will be a perfect example of this as he tries to ditch his association with TEL.)

Beware of the power-seeking passive-aggressive personalities who thrive on adversaries to threaten them so they can hide their feelings of powerlessness. Hmmm . . . who is an example? Too many from which to choose, I think.

Try to make the passive-aggressive personalities feel valued by reminding them of their strengths and achievements. (Oh, this would be a great opportunity for appreciative inquiry!)

What is appreciative inquiry, you ask? I and some of my colleagues were recently “blessed” to learn more about this model at a recent college presentation. According to the online Appreciative Inquiry Commons (http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/whatisai.cfm), “AI involves . . . the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to . . . heighten positive potential” while gaining “insights into deeper corporate spirit or soul.” Wow. So, if we learn how to ask good questions, we will become more spiritual and soulful? Here are some questions I’d like to have answered:

~Why do idiots influence our lives so much? (Oops, I mean, how do competence-challenged individuals just happen to get into positions of power in this world?)

~How can those idiots live with their inability to lead their people? (Oops, I mean, how can our “leaders” not choke, I mean, sleep, knowing how they might affect their little minions, oops, I mean, followers – I mean, drones – I mean obedient little worker bees?)

~How can we show our disdain – I mean displeasure, uh, pleasure, for having such talented, passive-aggressive, I mean go-getters in our lives?

OMG! I have discovered something from all this research: I am living in a passive-aggressive reality, from the outside, from the inside, from all directions. HELP!

I declare today, May 17, as a national waste, uh, I mean, holiday: Appreciate Passive-Aggressive Personalities Day!

Why are there so many "reformed" Catholics?

I received a forwarded email today with the following caption and picture.

The man on the left, below, (wearing a fabulous vintage chiffon-lined Dior gold lame over a silk Vera Wang empire waist tulle cocktail dress, accessorized with a 3-foot beaded peaked House of Whoville hat, and the ruby slippers which Judy Garland wore in the Wizard of Oz) is worried that "The Da Vinci Code" might make the Roman Catholic Church look foolish.

A Challenge from Little Bro

My brother called from his apartment in Manhattan this evening and his last comment to me was, “Post a blog entry on immigration.” First, to those who don’t know my brother, you should know that he thrives on arguing, being right, pretending to know about things even when he doesn’t, and looking at various perspectives on controversial issues (while never admitting he’s uncertain about his own perspectives) just so he can continue to formulate a reasonable conclusion about them. We have the same parents, and so you might say I share many of those same characteristics, save the pretending part. Of course, he can rarely get away with pretending to me as I can quickly detect his curled lip, nervous grin, and raised eyebrows that give his uncertainty away.

So, Bro, I’ll take your challenge and blog on immigration, but I won’t pretend to know how to solve the associated problems with immigration. Similar to issues such as homelessness or crime, there is no easy solution to the problems because there are a number of contributing causes including systems. Take a hypothetical case of homelessness, where a person with an illness, not necessarily a mental illness, loses his or her job. This person, because of this illness, even after being treated with medication for the illness, finds it impossible to get another job. No job means no place to live after a while. No place to live means no job. A vicious cycle. A reality of the system. Take a hypothetical case of crime, where a person gets out of prison for a non-violent crime, and is unable to get a job that can support his or her family. No job and no support means no money and no way to legally support a family. Unlawful jobs and/or prison offer more opportunity for this person and his or her family. A vicious cycle. A reality of the system.

The system that I believe is most responsible for current immigration woes is NAFTA. Touted as providing a free market economy that can help developing countries while benefiting the US, it causes more problems than it solves. My husband, a liberal-minded small business owner in a field run rampant with money mongering capitalists, likes to differentiate between responsible and irresponsible capitalism. I believe NAFTA, as it is embodied today, is irresponsible capitalism at its best. Immigration is an economic issue, and just like any other economic issue in the US, the debate is really about greed and social conscience or lack thereof.

If you make immigration easy, US companies will stop outsourcing because wages in foreign countries will increase as the populations decrease. If you make it difficult for US companies to outsource, then immigration restrictions will probably be reduced. You have two disparate entities: labor and capital. In each of these scenarios, they are moving in opposite directions and creating problems. If you want an effective and fair free market economy, why not allow both labor and capital or restrict both labor and capital? The current system allows for irresponsible capitalism at the expense of hard-working laborers, in my humble opinion.

Some might argue that no one but an immigrant would take certain jobs. Others would argue that immigrants are taking jobs that US citizens would otherwise have. In the irresponsible capitalistic system we have today, some laborers work 12-15 hour days for less than minimum wage, sometimes termed “guest workers” in various legislation, which is more like slavery being practiced by the corporate world. NAFTA has created an empowered US corporate world and has spawned an ever-increasing disempowered working class, both in the US and Mexico.

What are we left with? We have serious environmental issues that have not been addressed in Mexico and border regions of the US. We have corporate giants that outsource to make more money, but only a few in the top ranks are seeing the profits. We have a sinfully low rate for minimum wage that puts many full-time workers below the poverty level. We have Mexican immigrants living in the US, making more money than they could currently make at home, but whose living conditions and working conditions are unfathomable.

We have not effectively enforced immigration policies for some time, and we should take some responsibility for that. I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but I actually agree with part of President Bush’s vision for comprehensive immigration reform that includes securing our borders, creating temporary worker programs, making it easier to verify employment eligibility and requiring accountability of companies to hire legal workers, dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants who are already here, and honoring diversity.

I don’t think sending the National Guard to secure our borders temporarily is a good move, but expanding money, as previously requested (and denied) to address the problem would be necessary if our government truly wants to secure our borders. In other words, we’ll have to see if this is just a quick move by Bush to try to address his faltering approval rating, and whether he will actually put the money where his mouth is. Of course, if we didn’t have that stupid war going on in Iraq, we’d have a few billion dollars more than we do now.

And a temporary work program is a good idea on the surface, but will certain safeguards be put in place that will prohibit US companies from exploiting these workers? I’d like to see in writing wage rules and hour rules.

Maybe I’m a bit paranoid, but using bio-metric technology for identification of immigrants seems a bit like Big Brother keeping his thumb on little nobody. If we truly want to encourage and honor diversity, I’d suggest treating citizens of the US and immigrants the same, so until they make me flash my thumbprint to get money from the bank, no one, including legal immigrants, should have to do so. Holding companies accountable for the legal status of their employees, to me, means that the companies need to make an effort to do this, which is currently often not the case. Rather than couching legislative changes in rhetoric that requires more of the immigrant, perhaps the rhetoric should be aimed at the corporations. (Oh, but BushCo wouldn’t want to piss off any corporate cronies!)

Probably where Bush and I disagree most is on the fourth point of his comprehensive immigration reform – dealing with the millions of illegal immigrants who are already here. He doesn’t support amnesty and doesn’t want to send them all back (wow, I guess he realizes he couldn’t do that). He suggests something punitive before illegal immigrants would be allowed to continue working and get their citizenship. Considering that I believe our government has perpetuated the long history of illegal workers in the US, to benefit corporate pockets, I believe punitive measures are simply ridiculous. We only need to look at our current administration to see the corruption for which they have never been punished.

The sad aspect of Bush’s plan is that he believes honoring the “melting pot” and diversity in America requires us to enforce that immigrants learn to speak English. What a joke! He obviously has no interest in diversity.

So, I have attempted, dear Bro, to talk about immigration, and I am ready for the argument. I just wish I could see your face to watch for the curled lip, nervous grin, and raised eyebrows. (Witness "the look" in pic above!)

Do Americans Trust a Sociopath?

On my way to work today as I listened to Trisha Yearwood belting out her song "Love Will Always Win" . . . "the world will bend, and the fight will end, love will always win" . . . that she sings with Garth Brooks, I thought of Dubya. Yeah, Dubya. You'd think Trisha and Garth would lull me into thoughts of a long-lost love or a passionate moment, but no. I had to think of Dubya and his entourage.

Like a dream (you know how they meander into nonsensical musings), I considered George's motivations for his behavior, whether he has any intelligence whatsoever, and what he and Laura must talk about at dinner.

"Yeah, honey, I'm sending the Guard down to the border. Karl thought that would be a good idea to take some of the attention off him and the NSA mix-up."

"Oh, that's nice. How is Karl today, darling?"

"He's doing well. Always planning, Karl is. He told me the war is the only reason people don't seem to like me right now. So, I just need to keep plugging away, doing what I have to do, ignoring the negativity, and doing my job."

Yes, that's my dream world driving in my car on the way to work. Then I switched the station to progressive talk radio and listened to Stephanie Miller joke about Bush's approval rating. She wondered who those 29% of people are that approve of Bush and why they would remain loyal to someone who so obviously didn't care about most Americans. I thought, George is a sociopath. The politically correct term for that is "antisocial personality disorder" which Medicine.Net describes as "a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others and inability or unwillingness to conform to what are considered to be the norms of society." They go on to say "the disorder is manifested by a pattern of irresponsible and anitsocial behavior indicated by academic failure, poor job performance, illegal activities, recklessness, and impulsive behavior." Sound familiar? Maybe Dubya's whole gang has antisocial personality disorder!

When I turned on my computer at work, I clicked on the DailyKos link, as I do each morning, and found an interesting post by Bob Johnson entitled "Incompetence is simply a biproduct of something far more sinister." http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/5/15/235550/445 He explains that indifference is the actual problem, not simply incompetence. I thought of my students and how apathy or indifference is the one problem that I can't solve and the one problem I hate more than any other. And the president of my country is apathetic and indifferent to the majority of people in this country. And the president's key advisors are also indifferent.

Ten years ago I managed a corporate training and development department, and we used all kinds of touchy-feely activities with groups. I thought of a model we used that dealt with the issue of trust - that trust has many different aspects including competence, reliability, and honesty. Trusting people entirely requires that you trust their competence, their reliability and their honesty. One might trust that a person is honest but not competent, or one might trust that a person is competent but not honest. I think Dubya has three strikes. The approval poll I'd want to administer is the trust rating.

Do you believe that George W. Bush is competent to do the job of the President of the United States of America?

Can you depend on George W. Bush to effectively do the job of the President of the United States of America?

Do you believe that George W. Bush has been honest with the people of the United States of America?

I predict a trust rating in the single digits.

Ibsen's Lessons and Regrets

As I await the announcement about the inquiry into Rove's involvement in Valerie Plame's outing, as well as the call for an investigation into data mining of residential phone calls throughout our country, I was reminded of an Ibsen play I saw this year, A Doll's House, that depicted the conflict between patriarchy and women's empowerment through the casting of male dwarfs in the three lead male roles and full-size women in the lead female roles. Nora, the wife, is treated as a doll by her husband Torvald, and she eventually leaves her husband after realizing his many flaws and discretions.

Power. Size. Domination. The power of large corporations including drug companies, insurance companies, and BushCo and their collusion of corrupt actions is being revealed to the world of people who have been treated as pawns in some big game of greed. My image of them is not one of real power or size or domination. They are small. They are small-minded, self-centered, and grasping for the last remnants of power that might remain for them. And, like Nora, I feel the PEOPLE are feeling a kind of empowerment to release themselves from this world of corruption. Symbolically, the final act of our real-life play, a discussion of values and ethics of sorts, is unfolding now with revelation after revelation of corruption in our goverment at all levels. An indictment of Rove and the impeachment of Bush would be the ending this audience wants to see.

Unfortunately, German theatres would not stage the original Ibsen play without changing the ending to one where Nora gives Torvald another chance. Ibsen regretted providing an alternative ending. Is this the ending we are doomed to experience in our real-life play of corruption? Without steadfast actions and courageous voices, we will live to regret settling for the status quo. Do we heed the lesson or feel regret? Do our leaders heed the lesson or feel regret?