Posts from — September 2009

Via Sarah at Corrente, an informative little piece in the Washington Post about the mercury in the ubiquitous high fructose corn syrup [HFCS] that has replaced real sugar in almost everything you buy that is sweet.

The mercury is introduced in the processing: “The use of mercury-contaminated caustic soda in the production of HFCS is common. The contamination occurs when mercury cells are used to produce caustic soda.”

The caustic soda and a powerful acid are used to balance the pH level in the HFCS.

The trade group of the people who make HFCS claim that they no longer use the contaminated caustic soda, but people supposedly no longer use lead paint on toys and would never consider using ethyl glycol instead of glycerin, or adding melamine to pet food.

Anyone want to guess where they are probably getting the caustic soda?

Just like the buzzards return to Hinckley, Ohio, when the weather starts cooling off people start showing up down here. Unfortunately some are people who, if they had any long term memory, should know better.

I was tied up with “Real Life” over the weekend dealing with one of them. He is a good worker when he’s sober enough to work, but given his history you have no guarantees, and everyone who might have a little work down here knows better than to depend on him.

If you know anyone who works in construction and was planning to head South, tell them to forget about finding work – there isn’t any. There should be work rebuilding the damage from the mid-decades hurricanes, but the money isn’t here to do it. The Federal money isn’t being distributed fast enough, or in quantities large enough to help out, thanks to greed, incompetence, and Republican state governments, and there are no building loans available.

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Like Jimmy Carter, and Fallenmonk, I grew up in the South. I saw the “White” and “Colored” signs on drinking fountains, rest rooms, etc. and I learned the things that weren’t said, and what they meant.

As Fallenmonk noted, when Saxby Chambliss tells Obama to show humility “don’t be so uppity, boy” comes through loud and clear.

When Rep. “Joe” Wilson yelled out “You lie!”, I understood the rest, he didn’t have to say it. The fact that he yelled it over a provision concerning undocumented immigrants should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that he’s a through and through member of the Sons of the Confederacy who wants the flag of the Army of Tennessee flying from every public building to remind people “of their place”.

The whole immigration issue is overtly racist. You don’t hear any calls to build a wall/fence between North Dakota and Canada, hell, most of that border isn’t even marked.

DCap notes that the White House is trying to ignore the situation. They seem to think that if you ignore the signs, the birthers, the whackos, they will all, eventually come to an agreement in the best interests of the country. This has the same level of reality as the Republicans bargaining in good faith to produce bi-partisan legislation.

After LBJ got the Civil Rights laws passed, I had high hopes that during my lifetime I would see an end to racism. It is a whole lot better than it was, but it is nowhere near over. When times get tough the haters come out of the woodwork. A lot of people want someone to blame, and the haters are happy to oblige, as they specialize in scapegoats.

It’ll be double rations of grog all around in the galley as ye throw the pasta and pesto down your gullet for the final day of Pasta Week, on Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Arr…
Belay that! ‘T’would be better done by swilling lambrusco directly from the flask!
Arr…

Given that many things associated with the political system require that those involved are citizens, and given the apparently high level of proof required by the wingnuts and GOP, if corporations are “persons”, how do they prove their citizenship?

If they can’t prove their citizenship with a “long form birth certificate”, which they obviously can’t, they certainly can’t be allowed to participate in political activities. Candidates aren’t allowed to accept money from foreign contributors.

Just a thought, a nasty, subversive thought, but just a thought.

Via Cookie Jill at skippy’s, an Oklahoma City TV station reports: 75 Percent of Oklahoma High School Students Can’t Name the First President of the U.S.

The survey was commissioned by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs in observance of Constitution Day on Thursday.

Brandon Dutcher is with the conservative think tank and said the group wanted to find out how much civic knowledge Oklahoma high school students know.

The Oklahoma City-based think tank enlisted national research firm, Strategic Vision, to access students’ basic civic knowledge.

“They’re questions taken from the actual exam that you have to take to become a U.S. citizen,” Dutcher said.

A thousand students were given 10 questions drawn from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services item bank. Candidates for U.S. citizenship must answer six questions correctly in order to become citizens.

About 92 percent of the people who take the citizenship test pass on their first try, according to immigration service data. However, Oklahoma students did not fare as well. Only about 3 percent of the students surveyed would have passed the citizenship test.

Dutcher said this is not just a problem in Oklahoma. He said Arizona had similar results, which left him concerned for the entire country.

The questions are below the fold, but I won’t include the answers because if you stop by here and are an American citizen you know the answers.

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Happy 5770!

At sunset this afternoon Rosh Hashanah begins, so get your honey, challah, and apples ready.

Adolph

Get lost!

[Editor: This is Lucrezia’s other litter mate whose face you hadn’t seen, with his charming little black nose. No, he hasn’t killed Lucrezia, he is merely using her as a convenient pillow.]

Friday Ark

Koan at Corrente noted that Justice Sotomayor questions the basis of corporate personhood. She has a long history of doing extensive research on any case that she will rule on, and the cases involved in corporate personhood are weak, to say the least.

This concept goes back to Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886). If you read the opinion in the case you won’t see personhood mentioned, because it wasn’t decided in the case, as it wasn’t actually used as an argument by either side.

The issue rests on an aside by a Justice before the case is argued that the issue won’t be considered as a valid point. That comment is recorded and is the basis for all that follows. There is no basis given for the view, simply that the Justices seem to agree that the issue isn’t up for argument. There is no actual record of the thinking of the Justices, or their reasoning, just a comment that was reported as part of the proceedings.

Dday at Digby’s notes that The Colbert Report looked at the issue, the initial case on which all of this is based.

Given everything that has happened, and is happening because corporations are considered persons, it might be nice if the issue were actually brought before the court and resolved on its own merits.

On September 17^th, 1787 in Independence Hall in Philadelphia the original group of American politicians finalized the bill that was the Constitution of the United States.

While it did not take effect until March 4^th, 1789, this was the framework of a new type of government that has existed since that time.

The Preamble makes it plain what we are supposed to be all about:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It might be a good idea if annually we had a joint session of Congress with the President in attendance and someone read the Constitution to them, because they sound really unclear on their job descriptions lately.

It’s via Atrios, but this is from the Wall Street Journal: Tea Party Protesters Protest D.C. Metro Service

Rep. Kevin Brady called for a government investigation into whether the government-run subway system adequately prepared for this weekend’s rally to protest government spending and government services.

I checked and Kevin Brady is listed as (R TX 08).

He complained that because the government funded subway system didn’t put on extra trains on the weekend to accommodate this anti-government protest some people had to use the taxicabs that are owned and operated by private enterprise.

I think my mind just went into a logic lock. These people are totally FUBAR.

I wasted my time and money on political science courses – I should have gone with abnormal psychology.

Update: as noted by Fallenmonk in comments, Rep. Brady was one of those who voted against the stimulus money to enable DC Metro to replace aging cars and improve service.

On MSNBC a report on an upcoming study: Teen birth rates highest in most religious states

… Mississippi topped the list for conservative religious beliefs and teen birth rates, according to the study results, which will be detailed in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health.

It is an amazing coincidence how many of the states that are at the top of this list are also at the top of my Welfare States post.

Gee, you would have thought that all of the Federally funded “Abstinence Only” education in these states would have been more successful than it apparently was. 😈

Moi at Bloggg is a little annoyed because President Obama has endorsed Arlen Specter in the race to be the Democratic candidate for the Pennsylvania Senate race.

Everyone had to see this coming, given that Obama backed LIEberman in Connecticut. They are his kind of politicians – in it for themselves.