Archive for July 13, 2015

Hurrah for Denmark!

This one’s for people who know that wind is not a practical source of power.

Just look at Denmark.  They overdid it with their wind farms, and now they have more power than they need.  Last week their wind farms produced 116% of the power their country needed.  At one point, when there was a drop in energy demand, that figure went up to 140%.

Being neighborly, they shared their excess power with Germany, Norway, and Sweden.

Not a bad showing.  And they don’t have nearly as many blow-hard politicians as we have.

 

 

Something You Can Bank On

If your family makes the average 7 by-mail payments per month, you can save 24 sq. ft. of forest per year by paying all your bills online. Your bank’s Bill-Pay service is easy and safe.  And with the cost of stamps constantly going up….Leaf 6

[For more easy, money-saving, earth-friendly tips, download a FREE copy of Green Riches: Help the Earth & Your Budget. Go to www.Smashwords.com/books/view/7000, choose a format, and download to your computer or e-book device. Or download a free copy from your favorite e-book seller.]

So. Carolina Helps Unite America

This morning, America took an overdue step forward in uniting our people.  The Confederate battle flag came down from the SC state building.

Those Southerners who see the flag as a symbol of their heritage forget that this was not the original Confederate flag under which the Southern states united to preserve their economy.  In fact, it’s a symbol of division rather than unity.  If the Civil War didn’t make it that, SC did in 1961 when they raised it in protest against desegregation, the law that said that everyone, including Blacks, deserves an equal chance at an education and that people should not be divided into groups according to the color of their skin.

I think the crowd witnessing the flag’s retirement summed it up in their massive chant of “USA! USA! USA!”

 

 

Time to Teach? Wow!

President Obama wants to revamp “No Child Left Behind” in part by limiting time spent on standardized testing.  As a teacher who spent untold hours administering those tests, I cry “Hallelujah!”

As new fads and regulations fall upon classrooms, teachers have more and more special-interest slants to add to their curriculum.  Not that most of them aren’t important.  In fact, they often pull in segments of our population that have been ignored or underrepresented in what kids are learning.  But they take time to teach.  The standardized tests steal time from the actual teaching/learning process.

The value of the tests lies in cold, hard numbers that bureaucrats can see on paper, report to the world, and use for decision-making.

However, I question that value.  I remember my students asking, “Will this count on our grade?”  Because the answer was “No,” a portion of the kids didn’t bother trying.  Another portion included those who simply were not good at taking objective tests or who, as immigrants, handled spoken English fine but written English, not so much.  Or they had trouble understanding because their growing-up experiences didn’t match those described on the test. In other words, a significant number of kids had learned a lot more than their standardized test results showed.  Is that valuable data?

Go for it, Prez.  Let’s allow time for teachers to teach and kids to learn.

 

 

Women Soccer Champs Not Worth Much

If your team wins the World’s Cup once–or even three times (more than any other country in the world)–what can you expect to earn?  A lot if you’re a man, not so much if you’re a woman.

Last year, the U.S. men’s soccer team, who lost, earned $9 million; this year’s winning women will get $2 million.  The average salary for these players is $305,000 for men and $14,000 for women.  And the prize for winning the World Cup?  $576 million for men and $15 million for women.

Why the difference?  I think it’s the way the world values women, as summed up by a tweet (now taken down) by England’s Soccer Federation, that their soccer team can now “go back to being mothers, partners and daughters.”

But I’m more concerned about attitudes in my own country, the U.S., including the ones that say that women, no matter how accomplished or hard-working, are worth less than men.

 

Children in Adult Prisons

Kids in adult prisons?  Yes, in 2013 there were 6,000+ in the U.S.  These kids have few appropriate services or support as they experience sexual assault, beatings, and psychological torture.  They are more likely to try suicide than kids detained in non-adult prisons, and once they get out are 77% more likely to commit crimes.  This does NOT sound like a way to rehabilitate them–and they’re at the age when they are very able to change.  Nor is it a way to get them ready for a productive adult life on the outside.

Read more at the Credo website.  While you’re there, sign their petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which simply reads, “The Department of Justice must immediately launch an investigation into the practice of trying and jailing children as adults.”

 

 

Robin Williams as the American Flag

In honor of our nation’s birth, here’s a classic video of Robin Williams in the persona of the Stars and Stripes.  Happy 4th of July, all!

 

 

 

Pay Up and Keep Paying

Ever been tempted to get a payday loan?  It’s so easy…and so dangerous.  As Credo points out, “The dirty secret of the payday lending industry is that there is no money in people repaying their loans on time. The key to the whole profit-making engine that makes lenders’ Wall Street backers rich is tricking people into taking out one loan and then locking them into months or years of debt. Charging hidden fees and demanding sky-high interest rates, payday lenders are little more than legal loan sharks.

Too many people, vulnerable because of low-paying jobs, a sudden medical or auto expense, and a hundred other situations, fall into this trap.  And it’s legal.

Read more about this at Credo Action.  If you think the Consumer Protection Agency should crack down on payday lenders, use Credo’s webpage to send them a strong message telling them just that.

 

 

Despite Law, Kids Can Avoid Vaccinations

My state, California, is mandating that all children be vaccinated before they can attend school.  This means that the 80,000+ kids who have claimed personal exemptions no longer can do so.  At first blush, it seems an infringement on rights.  However, most of the families sought exemptions based on a bogus report written by a now-disgraced “scientist,” saying that vaccines cause autism and other maladies (scientifically proven wrong).

It’s been a clash of rights:  for some families it’s freedom of choice vs., for other families, freedom from spreading disease (especially by unvaccinated children).

The 80,000+ still have ways to pursue their beliefs, however.  They can home-school their kids or put them into off-campus independent studies.

I’m afraid there will be an additional avenue for people so inclined.  Children with medical problems that make vaccinating harmful or impossible to them are still exempt.  Therefore, if parents look hard enough, they’ll find an unscrupulous doctor who, for a price, will give his medical opinion that their child should not be vaccinated.

Can’t happen?  How about all those doctors making a healthy living off of issuing medical marijuana cards to anyone who merely claims a debilitating condition?