Reagan years: A contrarian’s view

June 4, 2009

California abandoned the memory of the guy who worked tirelessly to keep California in the Union during the Civil War, Unitarian Universalist preacher Starr King, replacing his statue in the U.S. Capitol’s pantheon of state heroes (two to a state) with a statue of Ronald Reagan.  June 4 marks the fifth anniversary of Reagan’s passing.

Statute of Thomas Starr King of California, then in National Statuary Hall (U.S. Capitol)

Statute of Thomas Starr King of California, then in National Statuary Hall (U.S. Capitol)

Older son Kenny sent a note today, saying he now understands why I was so troubled by the Reagan years.  Some guy at The Free Speech Zone added it up — it has what AP history classes call a “point of view,” but calculate the serious factual error to fact ratio:

1) Treason: As a private citizen, and BEFORE the election, in contravention of both law and tradition, Reagan’s minions and handlers illegally negotiated with the Iranians to induce them hold the American Embassy hostages until after the elections,to embarrass President Carer and to prevent his successful negotiation of an “October Surprise.” Sent future VP George Bush, Sr., and future CIA chief William Casey to Paris to negotiate the deal.

2) Sent arms, including chemical weapons, to both Iraq and Iran during the decade-long Iran-Iraq war, making those two countries the two biggest US arms trading partners at precisely the time when it was illegal to trade with either due to both US and UN laws.

3) Iran/Contra: Used drug traffickers to transport illegal arms to Nicaragua, ignoring the contraband which was brought back on the return trip, creating  a massive and immediate increase in cocaine trade in urban California. Illegally used the CIA to mine harbors and ferry Contra troops in Nicaragua. Eventually, several administration staffers were convicted of crimes ranging from lying to Congress to conspiracy  to defraud the U.S. The scandal involved the administration selling arms  to  Iran and using proceeds from the sales to fund a guerrilla insurgent group in Nicaragua

4) Created alQaeda in Afghanistan to oppose the Soviet puppet/occupation there

5) Sponsored right-wing, State terrorism in El Salvador,  Honduras, Haiti, and Guatemala against indigenous insurgents who were fighting the dictatorial, hereditary regimes there. Illegally invaded  and occupied Grenada, overthrowing the democratically elected President

6) Lied about ALL of this activity before Congress, and suborned his Secretary of Defense to perjury, as well.

7) Rescinded Carter policy that all US international financial support be based upon valid human rights records.

8) Took the world to the brink of nuclear war, putting nuclear weapons into Europe, violating the very provision that was the settlement to the Cuban missile crisis.

9) Instituted the so-called “Mexico City” doctrine, effectively barring recipients of U.S. foreign aid from promoting abortion as a  method of family planning.

10) Instigated trickle-down/voodoo economics, which was the beginning of what has recently culminated in the crash of the bubbles. Here is a subset of his regime’s economic sins:

a) Within the first year of the policy, we were in a depression caused in large measure by the policy. The “historic” 27% tax-cut was skewed two to one in favor of those making over $200,000 per year, in percentages, and far more in real dollars. By the end of the second year, increases in state and local taxes more than replaced the cuts for the middle class. b) Wages throughout Reagan/Bush remained stagnant in real dollars for the next 12 years, the longest and worst growth performance in middle class wages in US history. Average national growth was the lowest since the early 30s.

c) Conspired with corpoRat and congressional allies to sustain spending by loosening credit, to replace the wages they were  not going to increase.

d) Named Ayn Rand acolyte and free-market apostle Alan Greenspan as Chief of the Federal Reserve.

11) The HUD/DoI Scandals: Samuel Pierce and his associates were found to have rewarded wealthy  contributors to the administration’s campaign with funding for low  income housing development without the customary background checks, and lobbyists, such as former Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt, were rewarded with huge lobbying  fees for assisting campaign contributors with receiving government loans and  guarantees. Sixteen  convictions were eventually handed down, including several members of the Reagan  administration.

12) Appointed some of the “worst” Federalist Society/strict constructionists to the federal bench, including Scalia, Kennedy, and O’Connor, ALL of whose votes were crucial in (illegally) installing GW Bush in the presidency in 2000, and named Rehnquist Chief Justice.

13) Ordered the revocation of the FCC regulation called “the Fairness Doctrine,” and opened up the Press to the rash of consolidations which has led, now, to a compromised, toothless, stenographic, lap-dog “Fourth Estate.”

14) Initiated the attack on labor unions by attacking PATCO, the Air Traffic Controllers union, creating a crisis in airport control towers nation-wide, and importantly, started the slow erosion of US worker wages and benefits.

15) Through the appointment of James Watt, who claimed that the environment was “expendable” since the “second coming of Christ was at hand,”, Reagan reduced clean water and air standards, reduced labor, mine, and industrial safety standards,and cut funding to supervisory and regulatory agencies charged with monitoring those industries.

16) Increased the defense budget to 240% previous levels.

17)  Systematically ignored the beginning of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, blaming the victims publically.

18)The S&L collapse: Reagan’s “elimination of loopholes” in the tax code included the elimination of  the “passive loss” provisions that subsidized rental housing. Because this was  removed retroactively, it bankrupted many real estate developments made with  this tax break as a premise. This with some other “deregulation” policies  ultimately led to the largest political and financial scandal in U.S. history:  The  Savings and Loan crisis. The ultimate cost of the crisis is estimated to have totaled around USD $150 billion, about $125 billion of which was consequently and directly subsidized by the U.S.  government, which contributed to the large  budget deficits of the  early 1990s.

19) Called ketchup a vegetable for the purposes of school-lunch funding and reduced early education and head-start funding.

20) Symbolically ripped the solar panels, installed by Pres. Carter, from the White House,and blamed trees for causing air pollution.

I had thought the savings and loan crisis more the result of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Jake Garn’s doing, but the dates are right.  Nobel Economics Memorial Prize winner Paul Krugman offered some insight there, don’t miss Krugman’s column on our current economic woes.

He didn’t mention the killing of the program to wipe out measles, in the 1981 Budget Reconciliation.  Paltry program cost $3 million a year, should have been done by 1985.  Savings of about $12 million.  Without the program, measles roared back.  I could come up with a half dozen similar stories.

History teachers, got enough for a POV question on Reagan?

Scared yet?

9 Comments | Accuracy, Advanced Placement, Cold War, Dissent, History, History Revisionism, Iran, Iraq, Politics, Poverty, Presidents, Rampant stupidity, Reason, Scandals | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Life is like the Brooklyn Bridge: David McCullough at the University of Utah

June 1, 2009

Because there have been public libraries everywhere for so long, free to all, does not mean they will therefore go on without our appreciation and support. There are, it may surprise you to know, more public libraries in America than there are McDonalds. But their infinite value should never be underestimated just because they are so familiar.

Nor does the fact that we have so long believed in education for all mean that quality public education will quite naturally continue without our constant attention, or that good teachers will just come along, because they always have. There is no more important work than that of our teachers, or more important people in our society. In Utah alone there are presently some 23,000 teachers, true builders.

Because we believe we must be, as John Adams insisted, a government of laws and not of men, does not mean we should ever take it for granted that everyone understands that bedrock premise and will thus make certain there’s no straying off in less acceptable directions.

David McCullough, author of great histories like Mornings on Horseback and 1776, delivered the key commencement address to graduates of the University of Utah this spring.

His comments from which the excerpt above was taken, ripped off completely from news center at Utah, below.

Historian David McCullough, photo by William B. McCullough

Historian David McCullough, photo by William B. McCullough

“President Young, members of the Board of Trustees, distinguished faculty, fellow honorees, friends of the University, proud parents, and you who graduate today, May 8, 2009.

I deeply appreciate the high tribute of an honorary degree and the singular privilege of addressing this spectacular gathering. What an important, joyous occasion it is with so many assembled of all ages, all walks of life, from all parts of the country and of the world, all here to celebrate hard-earned, worthy accomplishment in so many fields of learning. I thank you and congratulate you one and all.

* * *

In the long ago year of 1869, with the opening of the Suez Canal and the completion of the transcontinental railroad, just to the north from here at Promontory, Utah, the world became appreciably smaller — in theory. It was the theory that led the celebrated French author, Jules Verne, to postulate that as of 1869 one could go “Around the World in 80 Days.”

The population of the United States stood at what seemed an unimaginable high of 39,000,000. Salt Lake City, which 25 years before was not to be found on any map, had grown to a thriving community of 12,000.

And that same year, 1869, at New York, the eastern-most terminus of the transcontinental railroad, work began on what was to be the greatest bridge in America, indeed one of the most famous American achievements in history.

If it seems odd that I begin my remarks at that distant time and distant place, it is because I see the Brooklyn Bridge as emblematic of the call I wish to make to you of the graduating Class of 2009 to give serious thought to what you wish to accomplish in your turn in your time, and how you wish to be remembered by history.

And because the Brooklyn Bridge, a surpassing symbol of affirmation, rose up out of an era as infamous for wretched corruption and absurd extravagance as, alas, our own has become.

The Gilded Age, as Mark Twain called it, seemed the ultimate show of just how rotten things could get, the very antithesis of what the founding generation of Washington, Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson had in mind.

And yet — and yet — out of that time, let us be aware, came a truly noble work that still stands today more than a century later.

It was the moon shot of its time — a brilliant, unprecedented technical achievement — and more, a great work of art intended, yes, to fill a utilitarian need, but also to enhance and enlarge the way of life of the communities it served, and to give justifiable pride to those who did the work.

For millions of immigrants arriving at New York by sea, including a great many who were bound for Utah, it was the first man-made wonder they beheld in America, the New World, where anything was possible.

With its enormous towers of granite, then the tallest structures on the continent, and its use of steel cables, the Brooklyn Bridge combined the architecture of past and future. It was the start of the high rise city in America, but also in its way very like the ancient cathedrals of Europe, in that, rising above all else within sight, it was intended, as said, to stand as a testament to the aspirations of the civilization that built it.

So what will we build in the years ahead? What will you build, you of the new generation upon whom so many high hopes are riding?

How will history regard you in years to come – you who are part of this over-ripe, shadowed, uncertain time which has understandably given rise to so many grave forebodings about the future?

Will you help navigate the troubled waters? Will you rise above avarice and indifference and self-pity? Will you be a generation of builders, not more mere spectators who leave creativity and performance and responsibility to others?

Will you take what you have learned here as inspiration to still greater learning?

Will you make your lives count?

The easy answer is time will tell. The better answer, I think, is it’s up to you.

We are a diverse lot, we Americans, and we have a lot of work to do, and thus it has been from the beginning and therein is our great advantage.

There is wondrous strength in our variety and a clear, powerful sense of direction in the fact that the American ideal in which we believe has still to be reached.

We have always been a people of many peoples and the high ideals professed by the Founders, though never fully attainable, have remained our stars to steer by. We strive on to reach those ideals — full equality, as one glowing example — and the desire to strive, the combined faith in what we stand for as a self-governing people, is what has helped us in the right course most, if not all, of the time.

Had the American dream been handed to us all in tidy order, all done up with everything set to operate perfectly in perpetuity, we would hardly be the people we are.

And this same, very American story is mirrored in the story of the Brooklyn Bridge. The great work was conceived in the mind of the brilliant engineer John A. Roebling, its Founding Father. But numerous flaws and problems in his design had still to be resolved when he met an untimely death at the very start of the work. Thus it was left to his son to address those problems and build the great work of his father’s dream, just as it was left to still others in succeeding generations to solve still further problems unforeseen at the start — the advent of automobile traffic, for example — and maintain proper upkeep and repairs.

So it has been with our American way of life and so it will continue. There must be no deferred maintenance, no dispensing with the old verities of individual conduct, no dodging responsibilities, no leaving national policy entirely to those in power — not that is if the structure is to endure.

Just because certain basic, familiar elements have been part of our way of life for so long does not mean they can be taken for granted. They must never be taken for granted.

Because there have been public libraries everywhere for so long, free to all, does not mean they will therefore go on without our appreciation and support. There are, it may surprise you to know, more public libraries in America than there are McDonalds. But their infinite value should never be underestimated just because they are so familiar.

Nor does the fact that we have so long believed in education for all mean that quality public education will quite naturally continue without our constant attention, or that good teachers will just come along, because they always have. There is no more important work than that of our teachers, or more important people in our society. In Utah alone there are presently some 23,000 teachers, true builders.

Because we believe we must be, as John Adams insisted, a government of laws and not of men, does not mean we should ever take it for granted that everyone understands that bedrock premise and will thus make certain there’s no straying off in less acceptable directions.

Remember please, you who are to carry the torch in your turn, that indifference to the plain duties of citizenship can prove perilous. Remember that common sense is by no means common.

Harry Truman, a man of very great common sense, whose birthday is today, once observed wisely that the only new thing in the world is the history you don’t know.

Many of the new American citizens I have spoken to have expressed puzzlement that so many native-born Americans know so little of their own history. How interesting — and disconcerting — that the American history exam required for citizenship now is one many Americans born and raised here could not pass.

How appropriate that John A. Roebling, an immigrant, named his son Washington, and at the onset of the Civil War insisted that that son answer Lincoln’s call to serve.

In the fourteen years it took to build the Brooklyn Bridge, there were terrible setbacks — fires in the caissons below the river, failure of equipment, the discovery of gross political corruption — again as in the larger American story. Men suffered dreadfully from caisson disease, or the bends. Twenty or more were killed in accidents.

Washington Roebling, a gifted leader who never asked anyone to do what he himself would not do, suffered such agonies from the bends that he spent years directing operations from the window of his sickroom overlooking the work, while his courageous wife, Emily Warren Roebling, became his all-important second-in-command in a day when women were not supposed ever to assume such responsibility.

Such was the determination and character of so many who took part that the work went heroically forward. Thousands were involved in the effort before it was finished, including many hundreds of immigrant laborers, and yes, every race and nationality took part.

President Young has said that this university was built upon “the principles of hard work, dedication, and a stubborn will to succeed,” no matter the obstacles. That, too, is exactly the story of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The grand opening, and the greatest public celebration ever seen in New York until then, took place just this time of year, in May, 1883.

* * *

I am here today due in part to a set of circumstances that led to a friendship with the remarkable Larry Miller. Larry was a builder who loved his family, his church, his hometown, his work, and his country. He believed fervently in the transforming miracle of education, and in the last years of his life took a leading role in helping to improve the teaching of teachers. I thank my lucky stars that our paths crossed and we had the chance to work together. It is one of my great regrets that I never had the chance to take him on a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. He loved history.

History can be a great source of inspiration. History, as a wise teacher said, is an inexhaustible storehouse of ideas.

History encourages sympathies and a sense of humor and serves as a ready antidote to the hubris of the present.

So read more history, you who are about to commence to the next part of the journey. Read all you can in all fields. Never stop reading and especially books that have stood the test of time.

And make it your practice to ask people about themselves and what they’ve learned from experience. Don’t ever forget that there isn’t a man or woman, no matter their appearance or station in life, who doesn’t know something, or how to do something, that you don’t.

Try not to make the mistake of equating ease or possessions with happiness. Find that in your work if possible. Bear in mind that hard work and joy are not mutually exclusive.

By all means set your sights high.

I believe that as difficult and unsettling as so many of our large problems are today, that we will, by working together and using our heads, succeed in resolving most if not all of them. I have long been and remain an optimist at heart.

Still, a great civilization must have more in mind than solving problems. A great civilization must be one that thinks and works creatively, that is inspired to express itself in creative accomplishment of enduring value.

“The shapes arise!” wrote Brooklyn’s own immortal poet Walt Whitman, celebrating the era of the Brooklyn Bridge. What will be the shapes you cause to rise?

Whatever you build — figuratively or literally — build it to last.

By almost any measure ours is a vastly changed time from that of 1869. The record setting trip around the world made by jet plane a few years ago was not 80 days but 67 hours, 1 minute, and 10 seconds. But the old human urge, the need to express the best that is in us goes on as always it has, thank heaven.

In closing I urge each and all of you to make it a point some time to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge. You will never forget it. Go with a friend, a fellow spirit, and on a beautiful day like this one. The view is spectacular, the breezes blow free, the bridge itself is a masterpiece.

And wherever you go in your travels to come, and I’m sure you will go far, before checking out of a hotel or motel, be sure to tip the maid.”

3 Comments | Education, Education quality, History, Libraries | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Obama fans, Democrats: Political stuff clearance sale!

May 31, 2009

Great idea.  Really.  There’s a lot of campaign stuff left over.  Rather than dump it, they’re selling it cheap.

Image from the Obama campaign site, June 2009

Image from the Obama campaign site, June 2009

Government and politics teachers can stock up on the stuff to decorate the room.  AP Government teacher Mrs. Richie, at Duncanville High School had a collection of bumperstickers that went back 30 years before she retired (where did that collection go?)

Or, maybe you just need tote bags to replace the plastic and paper choices the grocery store gives you.  Green up, cheap, at the Obama site!

Over at Republican National Headquarters, they’re having a sale on politicians, I hear. Entire Congressional committee minorities, cheap.  Izzat so?  Not really.  Really?

1 Comment | Campaigns, Capitalism, History, History and art, History images, Humor, Politics, Propaganda | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

Quote of the moment: Mr. Mike’s everlasting humility

May 30, 2009

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, oil on canvas painting by Aaron Shikler, 1978 - Wikimedia image

Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, oil on canvas painting by Aaron Shikler, 1978 - Wikimedia image

Beginning in March 1974 I had the great pleasure and high honor of interning with the Secretary of the Senate, Francis R. Valeo.  Valeo served because of his close relationship with the Majority Leader, Mike Mansfield, and working in Valeo’s office put one on the Mansfield team.  In an era before serious security with magnetometers in Washington’s public buildings — we didn’t even have photo identification cards then — Mike Mansfield’s signature on my staff card got me anywhere I wanted to go in Washington, including the White House.

People who knew Mansfield held him in very high regard.  I often tell people he was the best politician to work for, but in reality, he’s probably the best leader I ever worked with in any enterprise.  He respected every senator as a representative of the people of one of the 50 states, and that respect was returned.

In his office one afternoon he met with the a couple of members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the big bigwigs from the Pentagon.  Mansfield was a former sailor, marine and soldier — he had served in the Navy, Army and Marines.   He lied about his age the first time.  He had served in China and the Philippines, producing a life-long interest and deep expertise in U.S. affairs in the Pacific and Far East.

But this was 1974.  Mansfield had turned against supporting corrupt Vietnamese politicians early in the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.  Originally a supporter of Nixon’s policies, by 1974 his opposition to the war was the chief part of their relationship.  Still the military guys loved him.  An Army Colonel accompanying the group was anxious to explain to the young intern part of the mystique.

“You should see Mansfield in the formal meetings.  Everybody is always introduced, and their full rank is laid on the table.  ‘General Muckamuck.  West Point ’33, Columbia Law.  Admiral Bigship.  General Soandso, who recently got his third star.'”

“And then they get to Mansfield.  He’s the Senate Majority Leader.  And he introduces himself as ‘Mike Mansfield, Private First Class.'”

I asked Mansfield about it later.  He smiled, and said he might have done that a time or two.  He said that the big brass in the military need to remember as every senator does that they work for the American people.  Rank doesn’t make you right, he said.

Looking up a minor fact on Mansfield this morning I ran into this statement, which I’d never heard [quoting now from Wikipedia]:

This gentleman went from snuffy to national and international prominence. And when he died in 2001, he was rightly buried in Arlington. If you want to visit his grave, don’t look for him near the “Kennedy Eternal Flame”, where so many politicians are laid to rest. Look for a small, common marker shared by the majority of our heroes. Look for the marker that says “Michael J. Mansfield, Pfc. U.S. Marine Corps.”

Remarks by Col. James Michael Lowe, USMC, October 20, 2004.

The burial plot of Senator and Mrs. Mansfield can be found in section 2, marker 49-69F of Arlington National Cemetery.

For the sake of accuracy, I would like to know the occasion of Col. Lowe’s remarks, and who Col. Lowe is.  The link at Wikipedia is dead.  Does anyone know?

Resources:

Know a marine?  Honor a Marine hero and share this story:

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15 Comments | A Good Story, Good Quotes, Heroes, History, History and art, History images, Leadership, Military History, Quotes, U.S. Marines, U.S. Senate | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

HippoCampus: Technology’s promise shows

May 28, 2009

Teachers, are you using HippoCampus?  (Tell us about it in comments if you are.)

Topics with lesson plans and great support material:

Algebra
Algebra (Spanish)
American Government
Biology
Calculus
Calculus (Spanish)
Environmental Science
Physics
Psychology
Religion
Statistics
USHistory

HippoCampus is a product of the Monterey Institute, a part of the University of California system.



1 Comment | Advanced Placement, Curricula, DBQ sources, Education, History, Lesson plans, Teaching, Technology, Technology in the classroom | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

When earmarks were good Congressional policy

May 28, 2009

Once  upon a time earmarks on legislation promoted the best inventions, and consequently, the economic success of the United States.  Below is the image of a vote count made by Samuel F. B. Morse on the bill to provide money to develop the telegraph.  Image and the text of explanation both come from the Morse Collection at the  American Memory Project at the Library of Congress.

Member list of the U.S. House of Representatives, with notations by Samuel Morse on vote of February 23, 1843

Member list of the U.S. House of Representatives, with notations by Samuel Morse on vote of February 23, 1843

By 1842, funding from the U.S. Congress was essential if the now-impoverished Morse was to be able to build and prove his telegraph system. On February 23, 1843, his bill for appropriated funding passed in the House of Representatives by a slim majority of 89 to 83 (with 70 not voting), but obviously every vote was crucial. This annotated member list of the twenty-six states may have been used by Morse before, during, or after the vote. The symbol “O” is thought to indicate an assenting vote, “-” a dissenting vote, and “>” no vote.

11 Comments | Business Ethics, Ethics, History, History images, Invention, Politics, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell

10 things about Judge Sonia Sotomayor

May 27, 2009

Those people over at MoveOn.org move quickly:

Ten Things To Know About Judge Sonia Sotomayor

  1. Judge Sotomayor would bring more federal judicial experience to the bench than any Supreme Court justice in 100 years. Over her three-decade career, she has served in a wide variety of legal roles, including as a prosecutor, litigator, and judge.
  2. Judge Sotomayor is a trailblazer. She was the first Latina to serve on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and was the youngest member of the court when appointed to the District Court for the Southern District of New York. If confirmed, she will be the first Hispanic to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.
  3. While on the bench, Judge Sotomayor has consistently protected the rights of working Americans, ruling in favor of health benefits and fair wages for workers in several cases.
  4. Judge Sotomayor has shown strong support for First Amendment rights, including in cases of religious expression and the rights to assembly and free speech.
  5. Judge Sotomayor has a strong record on civil rights cases, ruling for plaintiffs who had been discriminated against based on disability, sex and race.
  6. Judge Sotomayor embodies the American dream. Born to Puerto Rican parents, she grew up in a South Bronx housing project and was raised from age nine by a single mother, excelling in school and working her way to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and to become an editor of the Law Journal at Yale Law School.
  7. In 1995, Judge Sotomayor “saved baseball” when she stopped the owners from illegally changing their bargaining agreement with the players, thereby ending the longest professional sports walk-out in history.
  8. Judge Sotomayor ruled in favor of the environment in a case of protecting aquatic life in the vicinity of power plants in 2007, a decision that was overturned by the Roberts Supreme Court.
  9. In 1992, Judge Sotomayor was confirmed by the Senate without opposition after being appointed to the bench by George H.W. Bush.
  10. Judge Sotomayor is a widely respected legal figure, having been described as “…an outstanding colleague with a keen legal mind,” “highly qualified for any position in which wisdom, intelligence, collegiality and good character would be assets,” and “a role model of aspiration, discipline, commitment, intellectual prowess and integrity.”

Sources for each of the 10 things:

1. White House Statement, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51451&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=1

2. White House Statement, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51451&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=2

3. Cases: Archie v. Grand Cent. Partnership, 997 F. Supp. 504 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) and Marcella v. Capital Dist. Physicians’ Health Plan, Inc., 293 F.3d 42 (2d Cir. 2002).

4. Cases: Flamer v. White Plains, 841 F. Supp. 1365 (S.D.N.Y. 1993), Ford v. McGinnis, 352 F.3d 382 (2d Cir. 2003), and Campos v. Coughlin, 854 F. Supp. 194 (S.D.N.Y. 1994).

5a. “Sotomayor’s Notable Court Opinions and Articles,” The New York Times, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51454&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=3

5b. Cases: Bartlett v. N.Y. State Board, 970 F. Supp. 1094 (S.D.N.Y. 1997), Greenbaum v. Svenska Hendelsbanken, 67 F.Supp.2d 228 (S.D.N.Y. 1999), Raniola v. Bratton, 243 F.3d 610 (2d Cir. 2001), and Gant v. Wallingford Board of Education, 195 F.3d 134 (2d Cir. 1999).

6. “Sonia Sotomayor: 10 Things You Should Know,” The Huffington Post, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51452&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=4

7. “How Sotomayor ‘Saved’ Baseball,” Time, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51455&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=5

8. “Sotomayor’s resume, record on notable cases,” CNN, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51453&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=6

9. “Sotomayor’s resume, record on notable cases,” CNN, May 26, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51453&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=7

10a. Judge Richard C. Wesley, a George W. Bush appointee to the Second Circuit.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51451&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=8

10b. “Sotomayor is Highly Qualified,” The Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51456&id=16226-5763840-nrcJckx&t=9

10c. Honorary Degree Citation, Pace University School of Law, 2003 Commencement.

  • Judge Sotomayor is a widely respected legal figure, having been described as “…an outstanding colleague with a keen legal mind,” “highly qualified for any position in which wisdom, intelligence, collegiality and good character would be assets,” and “a role model of aspiration, discipline, commitment, intellectual prowess and integrity.”ere are the sources for the ten statements:

    • 4 Comments | Government, History, Politics, President Obama, Supreme Court cases, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Insanity at Texas state school board – economics, geography and history

    May 27, 2009

    Tim Ritz cartoon, for Americans United

    Tim Ritz cartoon, for Americans United

    Texas Freedom Network’s Insider blog reports that embattled chairman Don McLeroy is working to create a panel of experts to review studies curricula.  The experts he has proposed so far are all well-known cranks in academia, people who bring their axes to grind on the minds of innocent children.

    This panel is a bold insult to Texas’s community of economists, historians, and other practitioners of fields of social studies, not to mention educators.  A more qualified panel of experts could be assembled in the coffee break rooms of the history departments at most of Texas’s lesser known state colleges and universities.

    Why does Don McLeroy hate Texas so?

    I’ve been buried in teaching, grading, planning and the other affairs of the life of a teacher, and had not paid much attention to the movement on this issue (“movement” because I cannot call it “progress”).  My students passed the state tests by comfortable margins, more than 90% of them; this news from SBOE makes me despair even  in the face of the news that our achievements are substantial in all categories.

    The panel lacks knowledge and experience in economics, geography and history.  The panel is grotesquely unbalanced — at least two of the panel members remind me of Ezra Taft Benson, who was Secretary of Agriculture for Dwight Eisenhower.  When he resigned from that post, he complained that Eisenhower was too cozy with communism.  Barton and Quist lean well to the right  of Ezra Taft Benson.  Quist has complained of socialist and Marxist leanings of Reagan administration education policy and policy makers.

    Samuel Morse sent the first telegraphic message on May 24, 1844:  “What hath God wrought?”

    Sitting here on the morning of May 27, 2009, I wonder what rot hath Don.

    Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Bogus history, Curricula, Economics, Education, Education assessment, Education quality, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Hoaxes, Politics, Social Studies, State school boards, TAKS, TEKS, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Voodoo history, War on Education, War on the Constitution | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Congratulations, graduates! You got hired! (Want to think about joining the union?)

    May 25, 2009

    No more comment necessary.

    Tip of the old scrub brush to  . . . ramblings of the last American jedi . . .

    1 Comment | Business, Business Ethics, Economics, Government, History, Labor and unions, unions | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Maj. Gen. John Logan, one inventor of Memorial Day

    May 25, 2009

    Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Union Army, inventor of Memorial Day; Library of Congress photo, Brady National Photographic Art Gallery, between 1860 and 1865

    Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, Grand Army of the Republic (Union Army), inventor of Memorial Day; Library of Congress photo, Brady National Photographic Art Gallery, between 1860 and 1865

    From American Memory, at the Library of Congress:

    In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”

    The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade.

    Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War’s end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day. Songs in the Duke University collection Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920 include hymns published in the South such as these two from 1867: “Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping,” dedicated to “The Ladies of the South Who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead ” and “Memorial Flowers,” dedicated “To the Memory of Our Dead Heroes.”

    Leave a Comment » | 1861-1865, Heroes, History, History images, Holidays, veterans, War | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Bed nets save lives, fighting malaria without DDT

    May 25, 2009

    Infant in Nigeria sleeps beneath an insecticide-treated bednet that prevents the transmission of malaria, a disease that kills thousands of children in Africa annually. Nothing But Nets press release

    Infant in Nigeria sleeps beneath an insecticide-treated bednet that prevents the transmission of malaria, a disease that kills thousands of children in Africa annually. Nothing But Nets press release

    According to Nothing But Nets:

    Studies show that use of insecticide-treated bed nets can reduce transmission as much as 90% in areas with high coverage rates. Bed nets prevent malaria transmission by creating a protective barrier against mosquitoes at night, when the vast majority of transmissions occur. The African malaria mosquitoes generally bite late at night or early morning, between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. A bed net is usually hung above the center of a bed or sleeping space so that it completely covers the sleeping person. A net treated with insecticide offers about twice the protection of an untreated net and can reduce the number of mosquitoes that enter the house and the overall number of mosquitoes in the area.

    1 Comment | Africa, Cost of Green, DDT, Disease, Health care, History, Malaria, Public health, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Soldiers’ Memorial Day, 1870

    May 25, 2009

    Cover to Soldiers Memorial Day, sheet music from 1870 - Library of Congress image from Duke University Library Special Collections (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/a/a22/a2221/)

    Cover to "Soldiers' Memorial Day," sheet music from 1870 - Library of Congress image from Duke University Library Special Collections (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/sheetmusic/a/a22/a2221/)

    From the Library of Congress description:

    Soldier’s memorial day. 1870

    Perkins, W. O. (William Oscar), 1831-1902

    OTHER TITLES
    First line: When flow’ry summer is at hand
    Chorus: Gentle birds above are sweetly singing

    CREATED/PUBLISHED
    Boston, Massachusetts, Oliver Ditson & Co., 1870

    Leave a Comment » | Heroes, Historic documents, History, Holidays, veterans, War | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    Memorial Day 2009 – Fly your flag today

    May 25, 2009

    Please fly your flag today. Flag at half-staff, from Veterans Affairs Dept

    Memorial Day, traditionally observed on May 30, now observed the last Monday in May, honors fallen veterans of wars. Traditionally, family members visit the cemetery where loved ones are interred and leave flowers on the grave.

    On Memorial Day itself, flags on poles or masts should be flown at half-staff from sunrise to noon. At noon, flags should be raised to full-staff position.

    When posting a flag at half-staff, the flag should be raised to the full-staff position first, with vigor, then slowly lowered to half-staff; when retiring a flag posted at half-staff, it should be raised to the full staff position first, with vigor, and then be slowly lowered. Some people attach black streamers to stationary flags, though this is not officially recognized by the U.S. Flag Code.

    Got another week of school? Here’s a quiz about the history of Memorial Day that might make a warm-up, provided by Carolyn Abell writing in the Tifton (Georgia) Gazette:

    1. Memorial Day was first officially proclaimed by a general officer. His name was: A. Robert E. Lee; B. John A. Logan; C. Douglas MacArthur D. George Washington.

    2. The first state to officially recognize Memorial Day was A. Virginia; B. Rhode Island; C. New York; D. Georgia.

    3. The use of poppies to commemorate Memorial Day started in A. 1870 B. 1915 C. 1948; D. 1967.

    4. The original date of Memorial Day was A. May 30; B. July 4; C. May 28; D. Nov 11.

    5. Which U.S. Senator has tried repeatedly to pass legislation that would restore the traditional day of Memorial Day observance? A. John McCain B. Ted Kennedy C. Saxby Chambliss D. Daniel Inouye.

    The answers, again provided by the Tifton Gazette:

    OK, now for the answers. General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, proclaimed May 30, 1968 as Memorial Day in his General Order Number 11, issued on May 5, 1868. The purpose was to honor the dead from both sides in the War Between the States. Subsequently flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers in Arlington National Cemetery on May 30 of that year.

    New York was the first state to officially recognize the Memorial Day, in 1873. Southern states, though paying tribute to their dead on separate dates, refused to use May 30 as the official date until after World War I, when the holiday was broadened to honor those who died in any war.

    In 1915 a woman named Moina Michael, inspired by the poem, “In Flanders Fields,” (by Canadian Colonel John McRae) began wearing red poppies on Memorial Day to honor our nation’s war dead. The tradition grew and even spread to other countries. In 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to sell the poppies made by disabled veterans as a national effort to raise funds in support of programs for veterans and their dependents. In 1948 the US Post Office issued a red 3-cent stamp honoring Michael for her role in founding the national poppy movement.

    As stated above, May 30 was the original Memorial Day. In 1971, with the passage of the national Holiday Act, Congress changed it so that Memorial Day would be celebrated on the last Monday of May. Some citizens feel that turning it into a “three-day weekend” has devalued the importance and significance of this special holiday. In fact, every time a new Congress has convened since 1989, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii has introduced a bill to the Senate calling for the restoration of May 30th as the day to celebrate Memorial Day.

    In his 1999 introductory remarks to the bill, Senator Inouye declared:

    “Mr. President, in our effort to accommodate many Americans by making the last Monday in May, Memorial Day, we have lost sight of the significance of this day to our nation. Instead of using Memorial Day as a time to honor and reflect on the sacrifices made by Americans in combat, many Americans use the day as a celebration of the beginning of summer. My bill would restore Memorial Day to May 30 and authorize the flag to fly at half mast on that day.

    In addition, this legislation would authorize the President to issue a proclamation designating Memorial Day and Veterans Day as days for prayer and ceremonies honoring American veterans. This legislation would help restore the recognition our veterans deserve for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of our nation.” (from the 1999 U.S. Congressional Record).

    Flat at half-staff, U.S.Capitol in background - from Flag Bay

    Other sources:

    Image of flag and U.S. Capitol from Flags Bay.

    3 Comments | Citizenship, Flag ceremony, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, Heroes, History, Holidays, Patriotism, veterans, War | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    War on malaria: Wall Street Journal and bloggers side with malaria

    May 24, 2009

    It’s spring.  Each of the past four years, spring has been the time that the anti-Rachel Carson, anti-environmental protection, anti-environmentalist, pro-DDT groups throttle up their campaigns to impugn Carson and environmentalists, and argue that all we need to do is poison Africa to make the world safe from malaria.

    Here’s where Col. Renault joins us from Casablanca to say “Round up the usual suspects.”  It’s spring 2009.  Henry I. Miller of the Hoover Institution could be along any moment to say we need DDT to fight West Nile Virus, though DDT is not the pesticide of choice even among pesticide professionals.

    The Wall Street Journal has become a favorite venue for these poison-the-Earthers as it has left rational policy decisions behind, at least in the editorial and op-ed pages. Steven Milloy’s got a book out slandering environmentalists, Green Hell, and a new blog to promote the book.  No doubt someone will trot out Gordon Edwards’ Lyndon-Larouche-tainted claims against Rachel Carson, though none of them check out.

    Right on cue:  “Malaria, Politics and DDT – The U.N. bows to the anti-insecticide lobby” from the Wall Street Journal! It appeared in the Saturday edition, May 23.

    Sure enough, Green Hell blog picks it up repeating the old canard about how a day without DDT is like a day of genocide. You can’t teach a stupid dog new tricks, you know.  In a post title that drips with calumny, Milloy says “Greens re-boot African genocide.”  They have no case; smears must do the work.

    Let’s dissect the WSJ piece, eh?

    In 2006, after 25 years and 50 million preventable deaths, the World Health Organization reversed course and endorsed widespread use of the insecticide DDT to combat malaria. So much for that. Earlier this month, the U.N. agency quietly reverted to promoting less effective methods for attacking the disease. The result is a victory for politics over public health, and millions of the world’s poor will suffer as a result.

    So much error in so little space!  The error-to-word ratio may be a new land speed record.

    Were there 2 million deaths per year from malaria, we could say malaria killed 50 million people in the last 25 years.  But for many, or most of the past 35 years, the death rate has hovered around 1 million, sometimes lower.  That’s still too high for those of us who think malaria should be beaten, but it’s not 2 million a year.  WSJ exaggerates the death figures — what else do they exaggerate?  If they have a case, why do they need to exaggerate?

    WHO never abandoned DDT for specific uses.  There was no policy for WHO to reverse in 2006.  WHO made it clear that they would continue to use DDT where appropriate, and where local governments would allow.  WSJ, new to the business of caring about Africans afflicted by malaria, doesn’t know the history.

    DDT’s effectiveness against malaria-carrying mosquitoes began to wane by 1950.  By the mid-1960s, many populations of mosquitoes had developed resistance and even immunity to DDT.  That was why the World Health Organization (WHO) abandoned its campaign to eradicate malaria.  Overuse of DDT, especially in agriculture, led to rapid evolution of resistance among mosquitoes.  Without a weapon that worked as DDT had worked before resistance, the campaign could not succeed.

    The Journal is simply wrong when it says only less-effective methods are left. DDT’s greatly reduced effectiveness is part of the reason; but research over the past five years, in tests run broadly in several African nations, shows that bednets reduce malaria infections by between 50% and 85%.  That is much more effective than DDT in broadcast spraying.

    One of the things WSJ fails to mention — maybe they don’t know, there is much demonstration of ignorance in the editorial — is that DDT is not used in broadcast spraying to fight malaria.  Such campaigns proved disastrous because they killed off the predators of mosquitoes more effectively than they killed the mosquitoes, and because they often produced harmful results in other ways.  Along some African rivers, the spraying campaigns killed off a lot of fish local people used for food.  The dangers of DDT have been demonstrated in Africa.

    WHO had championed a campaign in the late 1950s and 1960s to eradicate malaria.  The strategy was to use DDT to knock down local mosquito populations for six months or a year, and in that time treat humans infected with the malaria parasites so that, when the mosquitoes came back, there would be no pool of malaria infection among humans from which to draw malaria to spread.

    Alas, the overuse of DDT caused mosquitoes to develop resistance before the malaria-fighters could get into the field in some places and get the health care components of the campaign to work.

    Because of the worldwide resistance to DDT among insects, DDT cannot be counted on as a panacea against malaria in any case.  While it was never the panacea, never the sole tool to beat the disease, its role has been dramatically reduced by the rise of resistance to the chemical.

    The U.N. now plans to advocate for drastic reductions in the use of DDT, which kills or repels the mosquitoes that spread malaria. The aim “is to achieve a 30% cut in the application of DDT worldwide by 2014 and its total phase-out by the early 2020s, if not sooner,” said WHO and the U.N. Environment Program in a statement on May 6.

    Citing a five-year pilot program that reduced malaria cases in Mexico and South America by distributing antimalaria chloroquine pills to uninfected people, U.N. officials are ready to push for a “zero DDT world.” Sounds nice, except for the facts. It’s true that chloroquine has proven effective when used therapeutically, as in Brazil. But it’s also true that scientists have questioned the safety of the drug as an oral prophylactic because it is toxic and has been shown to cause heart problems.

    Where was the Wall Street Journal when these studies were proposed, when they were run, and when they were reported?  WHO and health care agencies in affected countries carefully worked to find non-DDT solutions to malaria.  All programs to fight malaria require good health care systems, to diagnose malaria in victims, accurately as to the form of parasite affecting the victim, and to treat the disease to restore health to the victim and remove that person from the pool of people from whom mosquitoes can draw new malaria to infect others.  The results are in.  The treatment works.  Now comes WSJ to pose questions that have already been answered?  They are too late, and wrong.

    Most malarial deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where chloroquine once worked but started failing in the 1970s as the parasite developed resistance.

    Fascinating.  In discussions with the pro-DDTers, resistance of mosquitoes to DDT is generally denied.  But here the WSJ cites similar resistance by the parasite.  Remember, dear reader, that the DDTers are selective in their use of evidence.

    Even if the drugs were still effective in Africa, they’re expensive and thus impractical for one of the world’s poorest regions. That’s not an argument against chloroquine, bed nets or other interventions. But it is an argument for continuing to make DDT spraying a key part of any effort to eradicate malaria, which kills about a million people — mainly children — every year. Nearly all of this spraying is done indoors, by the way, to block mosquito nesting at night. It is not sprayed willy-nilly in jungle habitat.

    DDT is more expensive than bednets.  DDT is used now only for indoor residual spraying (IRS).  Hut walls are treated with DDT to kill or repel mosquitoes after they have already bitten a victim; this prevents the spread of some parasites, at least in the bodies of the mosquitoes killed.  IRS requires some expensive work, however.  First, analysis of the mosquitoes must be done to be sure DDT is effective; annd second, a professional or highly-trained person must apply the stuff.  DDT applications have to be repeated about every six months.  They cost about $12.00 each time.  IRS may decrease malaria infection by as much as 35% (I’m being liberal).

    In contrast, bednets decrease malaria infection by 50% to 85%.  They cost about $10.00 for the expensive ones, and they last five years.  In tests and in practice in Africa over the past five years, bednets have proven to be a necessary and very effective method to fight malaria.  Bednets work without DDT (there are alternative chemicals available for IRS); DDT can’t work without bednets.

    There is strong opposition to use of DDT even for IRS, in Uganda, for example, where cotton and tobacco farmers have sued to stop the use.  In other areas, local people still fear fish kills.  DDT is controversial because of local opposition to it, not because of any environmental group’s action.

    And the net result is that DDT is not the cheapest nor most effective method to fight malaria.  It is an increasingly expensive, controversial, and decreasingly effective tool.

    But here is the bottom line:  Unless malaria is wiped out in human hosts, there will always be mosquitoes ready to spread the disease from one infected human to a dozen uninfected humans.  The key to eliminating malaria is not killing every mosquito on Earth, as quixotic a goal as that may be; the key is to develop methods of curing humans quickly and well and interrupting the life cycle of the parasite.  Drugs are expensive?  DDT cannot substitute for drugs, regardless how cheap it is.

    WHO is not saying that DDT shouldn’t be used. But by revoking its stamp of approval, it sends a clear message to donors and afflicted countries that it prefers more politically correct interventions, even if they don’t work as well. In recent years, countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia have started or expanded DDT spraying, often with the help of outside aid groups. But these governments are also eager to remain in the U.N.’s good graces, and donors typically are less interested in funding interventions that WHO discourages.

    These campaigns have provided little success against malaria — nothing on the scale of success of bednets.

    Oddly, one of the greatest roadblocks to the use of DDT in Africa since 2000 was the Bush administration, which refused to allow any U.S. dollars for the purchase of DDT or treatment.  There are foggy signs the Bush policies eased in 2008.  But again, it may simply be that the opportunity to use DDT is gone.  It’s time to move on to fight malaria, and quit tilting at the DDT windmill.

    “Sadly, WHO’s about-face has nothing to do with science or health and everything to do with bending to the will of well-placed environmentalists,” says Roger Bate of Africa Fighting Malaria. “Bed net manufacturers and sellers of less-effective insecticides also don’t benefit when DDT is employed and therefore oppose it, often behind the scenes.”

    Roger Bate acts as a shill for malaria over recent years.  Despite the name of his organization, he stands opposed to any effective means of fighting malaria, and he always stands for poisoning Africa.  His claims here are directly contradicted by the results of campaigns run by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a group which has dedicated its time and an astounding amount of money to beating malaria.  Bill Gates has no axe to grind on the issue — the foundation encourages bednets and medical care, and is relatively silent about DDT.  The Foundation’s work has saved more lives in the past three years than Roger Bate has in more than a decade of promoting DDT.  The Gates Foundation clearly is more credible.

    All other serious experts tend to agree with the Gates Foundation path as well.

    It’s no coincidence that WHO officials were joined by the head of the U.N. Environment Program to announce the new policy. There’s no evidence that spraying DDT in the amounts necessary to kill dangerous mosquitoes imperils crops, animals or human health. But that didn’t stop green groups like the Pesticide Action Network from urging the public to celebrate World Malaria Day last month by telling “the U.S. to protect children and families from malaria without spraying pesticides like DDT inside people’s homes.”

    Pesticide Action Network is probably the only so-called green organization as crazy against DDT as Roger Bate is crazy for DDT.   Ignore what they say.  Pay attention to what’s really going on. (See comments on PAN.)  DDT is dangerous — PAN, for any inaccuracies they may have, are more accurate than the pro-p0ison side.

    The National Academy of Sciences did a serious study of DDT in the late 1970s, and in a publication on the future of such chemicals in 1980, NAS said that while DDT was at one time a near-miracle working chemical, it is more dangerous than its benefits justify, and it needs to be eliminated from use.  The entire world has been working to protect people from dangerous man-made chemicals.  The Persistent Organic Pesticides Treaty of 2001 (POPs) calls for an end to use of dangerous chemicals, and singles out a dozen of the most dangerous. DDT is among the dozen most dangerous.  POPs includes a waiver to allow DDT use for fighting disease, so even it does not ban the stuff.  History shows that DDT decreases in effectiveness, and we discover new dangers from the stuff almost every year.  Since we have effective alternatives, and since DDT use has been hamstrung by litigation in Africa and ineffectiveness in the field, now is a great opportunity to end DDT use with very little harmful effect.

    “We must take a position based on the science and the data,” said WHO’s malaria chief, Arata Kochi, in 2006. “One of the best tools we have against malaria is indoor residual spraying. Of the dozen or so insecticides WHO has approved as safe for house spraying, the most effective is DDT.” Mr. Kochi was right then, even if other WHO officials are now bowing to pressure to pretend otherwise.

    Kochi was right to call for IRS then — and since we now have effective alternatives to DDT to use in IRS, WHO is right again to call for a reduction in DDT use in 2009.  We must take a position based on the science and the data, after all.

    DDT is less effective than alternatives, and more expensive.  DDT is a killer once released in the wild.  DDT is unnecessarily controversial where it might do the most good, and therefore even less effective than it might be.  How can the Wall Street Journal come to any different conclusion, if they’re looking at the economics and science?  Who would have suspected political string-pulling at WSJ?

    Rachel Carson was right.  47 years after Silent Spring is not too soon to eliminate DDT use.

    ___________

    Here’s one indicator of the silly and bizarre exaggerations pro-DDT people tend to use:  This guy claims DDT had eliminated polio. In an otherwise over-the-top claim that Rachel Carson is a mass murderer — a claim that is false in all respects — the author goes even farther, claiming DDT effectiveness as a pharmaceutical against a disease like polio where there is no record for DDT’s ever having been used.

    ____________

    Even more flight from reality: Climate Change Fraud blog, a site that appears to be a haven for anti-science, reprinted the WSJ editorial and added a bogus history introduction.  And another addition to the Wall of Shame:  Black and Right.

    7 Comments | Africa, Biology, Cost of Green, DDT, Disease, Green Politics, Health care, History, Malaria, Politics, Science | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

    May 22, 1906: Patent to Wright Bros. for “flying machine”

    May 23, 2009

    In a drawer in a file box in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., is a study in black ink on white paper, lines that resemble those images most of us have of the first Wright Bros. flyer, usually dubbed “Kittyhawk” after the place it first took to the air.

    Drawing 1 from patent granted to Orville Wright for a flying machine

    Drawing 1 from patent granted to Orville Wright for a flying machine

    The patent was issued on May 22, 1906, to Orville Wright, Patent No. 821393, for a “flying machine.”

    It makes more sense if you turn the drawing on its side.

    Wright Bros. flying machine, from patent drawing

    Wright Bros. flying machine, from patent drawing

    Why did it take three years to get the patent issued?

    Below the fold, the rest of the patent.

    Read the rest of this entry »

    1 Comment | Airplanes, DBQ sources, Historic documents, History, History images, Images, Invention, Patents, Science, Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
    Posted by Ed Darrell

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