Poor people suffer from a sense of entitlement

The trouble with poor people? They're so self-indulgent and unreasonable that instead of eating only once a week, they feel themselves entitled to eat every day. Now that's a privilege that in these times of austerity must be strictly reserved for the middle and upper classes! http://www.timesunion.com/news/politics/article/Food-stamp-cuts-kick-in-as-Congress-debates-more-4941355.php

The Bottle

I once drank a bottle of wine every day for two weeks. It was kind of weird, as alcohol was hardly my drug of choice. When I stopped, I felt a bit shaky. But I'm lucky - I got past it. Nowadays, I just don't feel the "need" to consume red wine anymore. Others aren't so lucky. Humans have, since before the dawn of recorded history, sought medicines to alleviate the symptoms of unbearable pain, psychic as well as physical. No kind of prohibition will ever change that. North American society, steeped in punitive, puritanical attitudes, seems unable to compromise when it comes to the brutal criminalization of substance use it has, for whatever supposedly good reasons, stigmatized. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upKsTCKYm4E

Eye in the Sky

Optical Intrusion indeed. The deterrent effect of this kind of massive surveillance may be effective in preventing conscientious, law abiding citizens from jaywalking too brazenly, I suppose. But the people who have nowhere else to go? The people who literally sleep on the sidewalk? The people who lack any income whatsoever, or receive just enough to keep them (perhaps) one step above abject poverty? Who among us really believes desperate people are about to stop and think about Big Brother's ubiquitous cameras before slinging an 8-ball of rock cocaine? Who really thinks the "Eye in the Sky" will stop some poor, uneducated dude from beating someone up in the heat of passion? Oh, right. The real motivation behind installing more and more spycams isn't to PREVENT street crime; it's to utilize the ever-increasing capabilities of the technology, which is now more than ever able to capture images for analysis by facial recognition software, in real time. Not to mention the potential intimidation of political activists alluded to in this article. Our startlingly authoritarian authorities will relish each new opportunity to use the footage obtained against prospective defendants in a court of law. Consider: Dane County's sherriff recently informed the community that he's interested in building a new jail. Consider: Dane County has taken some positive steps toward reducing the incarcerated population here; it's now down to about 800, from a high a few years back of over 1100. Build a new jail? If we do, enough new inmates to overpopulate the place will surely be enthusiastically sought after by local law enforcement. But taking genuine, positive steps to enhance public safety would require more, much more than implementing additional "1984" strategies. Taking into account all that's been done to benefit the privileged Downtown, and how little has been accomplished to help those in true and dire need... I'll simply quote Franklin Delano Roosevelt, speaking at his 1936 inaugural: "... the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/steven_elbow/optical-intrusion-footage-from-surveillance-cameras-downtown-may-end-up/article_cc180d66-1fcc-59cc-a198-4b9f6aa6be01.html?comment_form=true

Hi! from Picnic Point!

Picnic Point protrudes half a mile out into Madison's Lake Mendota. It was always kind of neat - you had to ride, jog or walk a certain distance, and it was worth it. The Point is located only a few miles from downtown - it used to be a surprisingly natural setting. Sadly, "They" really butchered the actual "Point." They being the University of Wisconsin's grounds keepers, landscape architects, whatever they in their supreme vanity call themselves. Oh, they really gouged it - they put a big concrete and stone memorial at the tip of the peninsula, where before there had only been a gravel recreational path, a rustic way that wrapped around a notable promontory, then looped easily back towards Campus. But now, one is rather overcome by that expensive, terribly overbuilt monument to some "important person." (It's actually a small amphitheatre.) Or perhaps it's not so new - I hadn't visited the park for a few years, and was more than a little shocked. There was no need at all to lay down more cement where before existed a really quaint setting. The whole character of the place has been upset - the traditional balance formerly struck between nature and humans has been garishly tilted firmly in the direction of the latter. While it's true that for the last couple decades one experienced heavier bike and pedestrian traffic that changed the character of the place somewhat, the UW's "solution" significantly detracts from the immense charm of earlier times. On the bright side, I should note that nearly all of the of the woodlands flanking the new build-up to the west have been preserved. But the most striking view of all has been crudely curtailed. A unique spot. Pretty much ruined. I know that in general, I complain too much. But "Western Civilization" shows itself to be most uncivilized when it takes a basically natural place left pretty much intact for centuries, and destroys it, explicitly in the name of some weirdly and brutally envisioned destiny. Sadly, nothing really IS sacred. There are two cool aerial view photos at the top of the page I'm posting - they show the Point as it appeared some years back, unscathed by the ravages of UW's hack job: http://lakeshorepreserve.wisc.edu/visit/picnicpoint.htm

Republicans shut down their brains first

And so here we are, a despicable and demented but highly influential Republican minority (within their own pathological party, even!) having shut down the federal government. I'd have to say the down side outweighs the positive, by a substantial margin: 1. EPA has had to furlough pesticide regulators, a possible matter of life and death. 2. Department of Energy had to furlough renewable energy regulators. 3. Department of Transportation had to furlough inspectors who work on automobile recalls, another possible life-and-death issue. 4. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has furloughed inspectors who oversee atomic power plants, who, among other things, helped prevent a potentially catastrophic accident at Ohio's Davis Bessie reactor in 2003. 5. National Parks are closed from coast to coast. 6. Further damage to the already beleaguered Head Start program. One positive development is that the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management has had to temporarily stop issuing permits allowing new oil drilling operations on federal lands. But that hardly seems consolation enough for the damage that's being done to the US economy, or for the hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of a paycheck for the indefinite future. All this to try to harm Barack Obama's lame duck presidency. And to further shred the remaining safety net. The ultimate irony is the Affordable Care Act is being implemented on schedule. It won't even be significantly affected, near as I can determine. I frankly hope that hundreds of thousands of Tea Party idiots are being harmed by this shutdown; they certainly deserve it. But the rest of the country, arguably at least, doesn't. There may exist a decent Republican somewhere; as a group they really are the Scum of the Earth. May the GOP pay heavily at the polls in elections to come!