"In any discussion of the problems in our world today, racism must rank high. Not because we are soft-minded liberals obsessed with countless crimes throughout history induced by colour, religion, tribalism or chauvinism of one kind or another. But because the poison which we hoped and believed had been eradicated in our own time by the knowledge of the ultimate evil- the gas-chamber murders committed by the Nazis--is in fact still present, not in any one area of discrimination or racism, or in a restricted number of specific rulers or governments, but in all humankind. I call it "Inner Racism."-

Gitta Sereny, "The Healing Wound"

Thursday, May 9, 2013

A HABITATION OF DRAGONS

A HABITATION OF DRAGONS

by sam enderby

5/9/13

We are indebted to Zack Beauchamp of THINKPROGRESS (over and over) for bringing the following to our attention:  An article in the NRA's "youth" magazine appearing  about the time of the Newtown, CT shooting which, of course, has meant nothing to this violence promoting lobby nor to their political hacks in congress.
NRA Youth Magazine Recommends Kids Build Indoor Home Shooting Ranges
By Zack Beauchamp on May 8, 2013 at 2:00 pm
"The National Rifle Association (NRA)’s overtures to children have come under fire after its annual conference last week, which advertised weapons for children and advocated storing firearms in kids’ rooms just on the heels of the fatal shooting of a two year old by her five year old brother. A ThinkProgress review of the NRA children’s magazine, InSights, found another piece of disturbing advice:
kids should build target ranges inside their homes. We thought for the horror of it to take the actual article as it appeared in the issue Zack is describing and interpolate another article about the learned impetuousness of kids from another time but illustrating the fun and game quality of being a kid that should inform all children's lives in all times and places. (“BB, It’s Cold Outside,” ran in the January 2013 edition of InSights and was written by Mark Sanders. So its at least two citations for copyright theft and a possible third but we figure he's dead or should be):

Okay. Its winter. The cold, nasty, I-don't-wanna-get-out-of-bed- time of year. Sure, school may be out for a few days at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but we all know what the real drag about this time of year is: It's harder to get out and shoot! We've all been there, friends. You have our sympathies.
How often do we think of our own childhood as we watch children play! After finishing the school work — and sometimes before — it was a pleasure to head outside and let childhood fantasy run free in games like thief or cowboys and Indians. 

But hey, this is no excuse to let the wintertime blues get you down. Quite the contrary-if you want to get an edge on your hunting/shooting buddies(or a family member whose shot is always just a little bit better than yours)-
Sherlock Holmes and Nat Pinkerton were the models for our inventiveness. Buffalo Bill roused us to courageous deeds, which often ended a free-for-all. We devoured the ten-penny novels, which often led us to imitate their tricks and pranks. Karl May’s thick novels did the same, bringing our imagination to a fever pitch.
now is the perfect time of year to get some practice in. While everyone else is in hibernation  mode, you can set up an indoor range in your house and practice with a good old-fashioned BB gun.
Our post-war youth
do not always have it as easy and pleasant as earlier generations. Particularly in big cities, the lack of room to play has particularly noticeable effects on children. The spiritual pressures of the last fourteen years always weighed heavily on children's souls, hardly allowing their natural playfulness to be expressed.

"BB guns?" you sigh. "But I'm shooting a real gun now!" Ask yourself this, though: What good will a higher powered rifle/shotgun/whatever you're shooting do, if you don't want to take it outside? Exactly. Thats why we suggest the humble BB gun.
And the asphalt literati thought that it was bad for children to be interested in military games. Such snobs joked about the little lad with a wooden sword and a paper helmet.
BB guns aren't the flashiest shooters out there but with some simple precautions, they're safe to use on a homemade indoor range. When you're trying to improve accuracy BB guns are the best. If you have a habit of flinching when pulling the trigger BB guns will help you work that out.
In this area, too, much has changed since 5 March . The national revolution also did not leave children's souls untouched. Even the youngest children sing the Horst-Wessel Song with burning enthusiasm and real devotion.
The fact that there's no powder or shells to clean up after is a bonus, too. Don't build the indoor range yourself and tell adults you did it afterwards. Have you ever heard the phrase, " Sometimes it's better to ask forgiveness than permission?" That idea doesn't apply here.
The youth greet S.A. and S.S. men with raised arms and a joyous “Heil Hitler.”

The strong figures in brown shirts earn the respect and quiet admiration of children's hearts, joined with the longing to themselves become such a Hitler soldier.

You want to let the grown-ups know your plans before you put them into action. OK? OK. Remember that even though you're not on a formal range, you still need to follow all of the rules of gun safety.
There is a lot of noise in the courtyard of a large Munich apartment building. The boys have invented a new and lively game. Between them, they have gathered 2.40 marks to buy the necessary equipment. A “Brown House” has been built with cloth and sticks in the center of the courtyard. Inside the tent are a picture of Adolf Hitler, and a postcard with the words of the Horst-Wessel Song.
Wear your eye and ear protection, keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, do not load the BB gun until you are ready to shoot
The five- to twelve-year-old boys have done everything themselves. The happy owner of a drum is the leader. They practice hard, and succeed. They study the songs. Things often get lively, for example when the Karl-Liebknechthaus, made of old trash cans, is stormed. It is then searched, and the communists taken off to a concentration camp.
and keep your finger off the trigger until you are on target.
The littlest S.A. man is so eager that he is often in the courtyard early in the morning to call his comrades together. He is thought to be very brave. His improvised brown shirt is a little tight around the neck. He can hardly breathe when the collar is buttoned. When a grown-up expressed concern, he proudly answered: “An S.A. man has to be able to put up with that!” With a thoughtful wrinkle of his brow, he got back to work.

Zack's article goes on to say that "the online edition of the article links to a previous InSights feature article, which helpfully reminds young children that “The first and most important thing to remember is that with air guns, any projectile that does not hit a proper pellet stop has a very high possibility of a ricochet or bounce back. This is particularly true with a BB gun using round steel projectiles.”
Though BB guns are powered by air rather than gunpowder, they’re still very dangerous. A 2009 study in the journal Pediatrics found that BB guns and similar weapons send roughly 22,000 Americans to the emergency room each year, the overwhelming majority of whom are children aged 5-14. These injuries have, in some cases, been fatal. The American Association of Pediatrics has concluded that these guns “are weapons and should never be characterized as toys,” partly because “the range of muzzle velocities for nonpowder guns overlaps velocities reached by traditional firearms.”


It’s also questionable whether young children can be trusted to accurately carry out all of the NRA’s safety instructions. Not only are young children notoriously clumsy and irresponsible, but it’s unclear whether, say, an eight year old is capable of understanding the difference in lethality and risk between BB guns and real firearms. The Savage Arms .22 “Rascal” .22 rifles, which are frequently advertised in InSights under the banner “One Shot! One Thrill!,” don’t look all that different from some BB gun models."
And if you haven't guessed by now the snarky interpolation is a translation (of course) of a little human interest article that appeared in the Illustrieter Beobachter of April 15, 1933. Its about a new game that the kids in Munich were playing that spring based on the Nazi suppression of the Communist Party. A couple of months before the Nazis had taken over the Communist headquarters called the Liebnechthaus and the kids made a game of it- called it "Concentration Camp" The German article hearthfilled ending portends a rosy future and seems not out of place- in my snarky thinking- as a coda to the NRA's sage advise for its kids:
"In the evening, their mothers call them in for supper. The Sandman then slips into their quiet dreams, drumming and trumpeting, and they sing, attack, and triumph.
The youth once again has a future..."

sam enderby | May 9, 2013 at 6:11 pm | Tags: GUNS FOR KIDS, INSIGHT, NAZI YOUTH, NRA | Categories: american culture, education, NAZIS, NRA, politics | URL: http://wp.me/p2W55H-tY
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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

martha roby, my rock-a-bye baby

martha roby, my rock-a-bye baby.

by sam enderby

5/8/13
Rep. Roby R-Alabama-She's in the middle next to Capt. America and his lovely bride, Ralph.
Back in July, 2012, we babbled something about the Supreme Court's recent decision upholding, that is barely upholding, the Affordable Healthcare Act, derisively referred to as Obamacare, even by President Obama, and its so-called public mandate, lamented that there was even such an act to begin with but it was better than nothing - which seems to be our government's mantra of late- and while a paean to our great insurance companies and republican think-tanks throughout our green and growing land it is rather disgraceful when you think of what might have been and, well, anyway we mentioned at the time an upcoming young Republican congresswoman from Alabama, the Hon. Martha Roby, whose outrageous (to us) comments on the floor of the Congress at the time deserved condemnation and it appears she - true to her DNA and her daddy's love - is once again trying to lift her wings and show the world what a fine example of  southern republican womanhood she intends to be. We find it fitting and proper that at a time of still great hardship for so many of our unemployed and for so many of our lowly-wage workers young Martha is boasting about a new bill she will introduce today that may give our holy job creators just what they need to take away a workers overtime pay and offer instead something called "comp-time", time away from work. This is what's been reported and 'though we have not yet read this tactless document we cannot imagine a more cynical and manipulative and mean-spirited and just down-right rotten piece of legislation directed against the working poor. But coming from the mouth and mind of Martha Roby we are not surprised. It is also ironic that at a time when yet another Black man was to be executed -this time the night before Ms. Roby's noble gesture, we find ourselves confronted with a true daughter of the south. To blow our own horn ( its an old Besson) we wrote then:
"IT IS PRECISELY THIS COLLISION OF IMMORAL POWER WITH POWERLESS MORALITY WHICH CONSTITUTES THE MAJOR CRISIS OF OUR TIME." - Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.




When young and white (yes I know but its for a reason) Martha Roby rose to speak in Congress on behalf of her 2nd Congressional District in Alabama expressing her "Deep" disappointment with the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Affordable HealthCare Act you might have expected that a young woman with a Music Degree from NYU (!!) and a Law Degree from her father's alma mater would be more understanding and at least intellectually inquisitive as to the meaning of what had transpired- perhaps empathetic toward what the Law was at least trying to do-instead of twisting the ruling around to fit her uninformed notions about what is good for Amercia; instead she blurts out the usual scare bites heard from every Republican and Murdoch-paid stooge: "the American people have already weighed in and overwhelmingly rejected the law," (Overwhelmingly?) "It will result in as many as 20 Million Amercians losing their existing health coverage;" "it will Suffocate small businesses"; "overbearing regulations"; "hampering job creation"; "estimates indicate that the law will actually cost 800,000 Amercian jobs"; and she would replace it with some type of "free-market" reform.(The Republicans don't have a plan really ) I guess in Amercia in 2012 with all our freedoms (disassembling) its perfectly proper and fitting to stand up in the House of Representatives and Lie one's ass off for sake of political expediency. By the way the reference here is the Congressional Record of June 29, 2012.  It is not just Rep. Roby's remarks alone of course - there were and will be others just like hers but what I'm trying to get a handle on is how does someone that young - she's a bicentennial baby - and that-seemingly - educated (NYU for goshsakes!) can be so dismissive of facts. Is it because she's now a politician so what do you expect? Is it Republican trope to misrepresent the healthcare law? Why are they so dead set against it anyway? It was their "plan". Now its Obama's ? And therein lies a Mitch McConnell. "From their lips pure puffs of plain crap crowd out the atmosphere-until the mark of authenticity is murk and fetor". But to be that young and unquestioning in her own mendacity.  Raised in Reagan Amercia? Comes of age in the Bush-Clinton era; matures(?) in the Bush-Cheney years where she learns hate is a virtue? Born in Montgomery, Alabama, the First capital of the Confederacy, center of civil rights struggles, her parents' child like everyone else; her father, 
lets see, is currently
Martha's daddy-The Judge
THE Chief Judge down in Alabama, a Reagan nominee and later Bush, who was recently quoted in the L.A. Times of all places, just before the Supreme Court decision,  as so concerned that "If we uphold this are there any limits on the powers of the federal government?" So worried is he that his freedom will be swept away like a bad margaret mitchell novel. This is the very same judge who sat on one of the appeals courts that denied a petition presented on behalf of 
Troy Davis seeking a new hearing. It was rejected 2-1 because according to the ruling it had already been rejected before. Such intellectual gravitas; such human understanding. And I wonder why the daughter turned out the way she has.(I can't help but think of a Tom Lehrer lyric - and yes I'm exposing my prejudice again but nevertheless-" I wanna talk with southern gentlemen and put my white sheet on again.")
Troy Davis. Executed Sept 21, 2011
Why should this country and its poor and indigent have a reasonable healthcare plan, its limitations aside, and why give a reasonable doubt to a condemned man who may have had a decent shot at freedom?

Why do we - at least 95-99% of us - keep sending representatives to Washington that have not an atom of concern and interest into what is really needed to make life better for us and our kids? Why do we elect such abominations?___________________________________ 

Congresswoman Touts Worker Protections That Her Bill Would Weaken
By Bryce Covert on May 7, 2013
Today, the House is set to vote on the Working Families Flexibility Act, legislation that would weaken rules requiring businesses to pay employees overtime wages when they work more than 40 hours in a given week and instead give employers the option of providing their workers with “comp time,” or time off from work. The bill is being touted as a Republican response to the need for today’s working parents to balance work and family by allowing them to accrue unpaid overtime hours.
A big worry of opponents of the bill is that employers will have the power to coerce employees into taking comp time instead of having to pay them overtime wages. When confronted with this possibility, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Martha Roby (R-AL), told the Sirius radio show The Morning Briefing with Tim Farley that employees will be able to turn to existing worker protections against coercion under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):
The employee absolutely can pick up the phone and call the Department of Labor and report their employer because that is not allowed. The anti-coercion and discrimination provisions in this bill are very clear, that an employer cannot not use compensatory time in any way to coerce or discriminate or force an employee to take compensatory time… All of the protections that are currently under the Fair Labor Standards Act exist under this bill as well for the employee to make sure the employer does not take advantage of the employee.
But workers may not be as well protected as Roby indicated. While the bill does give workers the right to sue, George Zornick reports at The Nation that they are denied the use of a faster and cheaper avenue through the Department of Labor. On top of this, it doesn’t give the Department of Labor any extra funds to investigate or enforce the anti-coercion provisions. This means that workers who experience intimidation may have to hire their own lawyer and shell out lots of money to bring a case.
Meanwhile, the balance of power often rests with employers. Workers are fighting wage theft, or employers violating FLSA overtime laws, at huge rates. A 2009 survey reported that two-thirds of low-income employees had experienced a wage law violation in the previous week alone. The problem has been on the rise, with actions filed in federal court alleging wage and hour violations increasing by 400% between 2000 and 2011. Many employers are already failing to follow the FLSA’s rules.
Opponents have other concerns with the legislation. The FLSA requires overtime pay for work over 40 hours a week, which provides a big disincentive to ask employees to work long hours. That could diminish if employers can offer comp time instead. Employers may also be able to deny requests to use the comp time if they can claim it “unduly disrupts the operations of the employer” or that the request didn’t come in “within a reasonable period.”
In the radio interview, Roby also pointed to the fact that public sector workers have had this arrangement since 1985. But as Alex Seitz-Wald reports at Salon, “that move was to cut costs for government, not provide workers with more freedom,” plus government employees generally have a union to help them fight employer violations.
In fact, this is an old idea that has had trouble gaining traction over the years. Seitz-Wald points out that Republicans introduced similar legislation in 1996, 1997, and 2003. If Republicans are looking for policies that can help today’s working families, they could consider paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, and protections for workers who request flexible working conditions.