Author: NewMexiKen

Just the facts, part two

NewMexiKen thinks privitization of Social Security is not a good idea, but certainly is willing for a national debate on the matter. What I do not want is for that debate to be framed by the continuing bullshit that the system is in immediate crisis or going bankrupt, or that benefits will not be paid (see below).

NewMexiKen believes in the safety net that Social Security provides — and was intended to provide. For that reason I believe its long term shortfall (beginning in 2052) should be addressed — eventually. Beyond social security, people should be encouraged to plan for the time when they can no longer earn. Tax policy should be among the means considered for encouraging this savings/investment, just as 401k plans do. Those who can save more and those who are able to invest well will ultimately be better off than those who do neither, but — in NewMexiKen’s opinion — no one should be without some resource provided by the common wealth.

Just the facts, ma’am

Social Security is currently taking in more money than it pays out. It will continue this way, everyone agrees, until about 2018.

In 1983, the National Commission on Social Security Reform (the Greenspan Commission) recommended that the OASDI (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) tax be increased to provide a surplus in anticipation of the ?baby boomers? reaching retirement age. Congress agreed and each year since the surplus has been invested in government securities (just as many of us invest in savings bonds or T-bills).

Beginning in 2018 the securities will be redeemed and the surplus will be used, just as intended, to meet the shortfall between OASDI receipts and benefits paid.

If nothing is done the surplus will be gone by 2052 (according to the Congressional Budget Office) and the OASDI tax will only equal 81% of the anticipated benefits each year.

Currently there are three OASDI taxpayers for each person getting benefits — and the system produces a surplus.

Tatanka-Iyotanka …

was killed on this date in 1890. Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota chief and holy man. He was born around 1831 on the Grand River in present-day South Dakota. He became a warrior in a battle with the Crow at age 14, subsequently becoming renowned for his courage in fights with the U.S. Army.

In 1874, an expedition led by George Armstrong Custer confirmed the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, an area that had been declared off-limits to white settlement by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. When efforts by the government to purchase the Black Hills failed, the Fort Laramie Treaty was abrogated. All Lakota not settled on reservations by January 31, 1876, would be considered hostile. Sitting Bull led his people in holding their ground.

As the PBS web site New Perspectives on The West describes it

In March, as three columns of federal troops under General George Crook, General Alfred Terry and Colonel John Gibbon moved into the area, Sitting Bull summoned the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho to his camp on Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory. There he led them in the sun dance ritual, offering prayers to Wakan Tanka, their Great Spirit, and slashing his arms one hundred times as a sign of sacrifice. During this ceremony, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw soldiers falling into the Lakota camp like grasshoppers falling from the sky.

Inspired by this vision, the Oglala Lakota war chief, Crazy Horse, set out for battle with a band of 500 warriors, and on June 17 he surprised Crook’s troops and forced them to retreat at the Battle of the Rosebud. To celebrate this victory, the Lakota moved their camp to the valley of the Little Bighorn River, where they were joined by 3,000 more Indians who had left the reservations to follow Sitting Bull. Here they were attacked on June 25 by the Seventh Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer, whose badly outnumbered troops first rushed the encampment, as if in fulfillment of Sitting Bull’s vision, and then made a stand on a nearby ridge, where they were destroyed.

Public outrage at this military catastrophe brought thousands more cavalrymen to the area, and over the next year they relentlessly pursued the Lakota, who had split up after the Custer fight, forcing chief after chief to surrender. But Sitting Bull remained defiant. In May 1877 he led his band across the border into Canada, beyond the reach of the U.S. Army, and when General Terry traveled north to offer him a pardon in exchange for settling on a reservation, Sitting Bull angrily sent him away.

Four years later, however, finding it impossible to feed his people in a world where the buffalo was almost extinct, Sitting Bull finally came south to surrender. On July 19, 1881, he had his young son hand his rifle to the commanding officer of Fort Buford in Montana….

Though well-known for his appearances with the Buffalo Bill Wild West show, Sitting Bull actually was only with the show for four months in 1885, during which he was paid $50 a week to ride once around the arena.

Returning to Standing Rock, Sitting Bull lived in a cabin on the Grand River, near where he had been born. He refused to give up his old ways as the reservation’s rules required, still living with two wives and rejecting Christianity, though he sent his children to a nearby Christian school in the belief that the next generation of Lakota would need to be able to read and write.

Soon after his return, Sitting Bull had another mystical vision, like the one that had foretold Custer’s defeat. This time he saw a meadowlark alight on a hillock beside him, and heard it say, “Your own people, Lakotas, will kill you.” Nearly five years later, this vision also proved true.

In the fall of 1890, a Miniconjou Lakota named Kicking Bear came to Sitting Bull with news of the Ghost Dance, a ceremony that promised to rid the land of white people and restore the Indians’ way of life. Lakota had already adopted the ceremony at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, and Indian agents there had already called for troops to bring the growing movement under control. At Standing Rock, the authorities feared that Sitting Bull, still revered as a spiritual leader, would join the Ghost Dancers as well, and they sent 43 Lakota policemen to bring him in. Before dawn on December 15, 1890, the policemen burst into Sitting Bull’s cabin and dragged him outside, where his followers were gathering to protect him. In the gunfight that followed, one of the Lakota policemen put a bullet through Sitting Bull’s head.

Tatanka-Iyotanka describes a buffalo (bison) sitting on its haunches.

The Bill of Rights …

was ratified by Virginia on this date in 1791, and thereby became part of the Constitution of the United States as its first ten amendments.

Twelve amendments were proposed to the legislatures of the several States by the First Congress on September 25, 1789. Numbers three through twelve were ratified by New Jersey, November 20, 1789; Maryland, December 19, 1789; North Carolina, December 22, 1789; South Carolina, January 19, 1790; New Hampshire, January 25, 1790; Delaware, January 28, 1790; New York, February 24, 1790; Pennsylvania, March 10, 1790; Rhode Island, June 7, 1790; Vermont, November 3, 1791; and Virginia, December 15, 1791. The amendments were ultimately ratified by the legislatures of Massachusetts, March 2, 1939; Georgia, March 18, 1939; and Connecticut, April 19, 1939.

The draft first amendment concerned the numbers of constituents for each representative. It has never been ratified. The draft second amendment was ratified by the required number of states in 1992. It took effect as Amendment XXVII (“No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.”)

The Bill of Rights

Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Gone With the Wind …

premiered in Atlanta on this date 65 years ago.

Hattie McDaniel, who won a supporting-actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy, was not present in segregated Atlanta.

Martin Luther King, Jr., sang in the “negro boys choir” from his father’s church at the Gone With The Wind Ball the evening before the premiere.

The 2,000 tickets were $10 and up.

When the news of war is announced in the film, the audience in the theater rose to its feet with rebel yells.

Laurence Olivier reportedly proposed to Vivien Leigh on their flight from Atlanta to New York after the premiere. Their marriage lasted 20 years.

The Loew’s Grand Theater, where the premiere was shown, was destroyed by fire in 1978.

The film, however great as a motion picture, forever ruined America’s understanding of what the War of the Rebellion was all about.

Arc of Justice

Tonight NewMexiKen completed reading historian Kevin Boyle’s Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age. The book tells the story of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a grandson of slaves who bought a house in a white neighborhood in Detroit in 1925 and the violence that ensued. There is informative and interesting background on the south during and after Reconstruction, racial politics in Detroit, the evolution of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the trial of Sweet, his family and friends led by the NAACP and Clarence Darrow.

Boyle’s book won the 2004 National Book Award for Nonfiction last month. I recommend it as an important story exceptionally well told.

After Years

Today, from a distance, I saw you
walking away, and without a sound
the glittering face of a glacier
slid into the sea. An ancient oak
fell in the Cumberlands, holding only
a handful of leaves, and an old woman
scattering corn to her chickens looked up
for an instant. At the other side
of the galaxy, a star thirty-five times
the size of our own sun exploded
and vanished, leaving a small green spot
on the astronomer’s retina
as he stood on the great open dome
of my heart with no one to tell.

The above is by Ted Kooser, the current Poet Laureate of the United States (a one-year term designated by the Library of Congress).

Thanks to Jon at Albloggerque for the pointer and this link to several poems.

One more —

Selecting A Reader

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
“For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned.” And she will.

A couple more …

from Sideline Chatter:

Now Kobe Bryant is feuding again, this time with Karl Malone, claiming his former teammate made a pass at Mrs. Bryant during a recent Lakers game.

Veteran NBA watchers professed shock at the allegation. No, not that Karl might have done it — but rather that Kobe knew any definition of the word “pass.”

******

Jim Sweeney, Dennis Erickson’s old college coach and mentor, says Erickson won’t quit as coach of the 2-11 San Francisco 49ers. OK, fine.

But when Sweeney told the San Jose Mercury News that “Dennis doesn’t have a quitting bone in his body; I don’t think he’s quit anything in his life,” well, that struck a nerve with Chris Cluff, The Times copy desk’s resident Cougar.

Reminded Cluff: “But Jim, what about when Dennis quit Wyoming to go to Washington State? And then quit WSU to go to Miami? And then quit Miami to go to the Seahawks? And then quit Oregon State to go to the 49ers?”

Bonding

As reported by Sideline Chatter:

“It turns out Pete Rose has been betting on whether or not Barry Bonds used steroids.”

Jay Leno

Comedian Argus Hamilton, citing legal precedent for possible penalties Bonds could face for using steroids in his state: “He could get four to eight years as governor of California.”

Lady’s man

This Bernard Kerik is quite a guy. NewMexiKen isn’t trying to keep track of it all, but even if some of the stories are correct it seems that though married he was carrying on affairs with two women simultaneously (in the same apartment until one found a note to him from the other). And apparently this marriage and his previous marriage overlap.

And the nanny. So far she seems rather hard to pin down. Josh Marshall is beginning to wonder if she wasn’t more of an excuse (to withdraw from the nomination) than real.

Just get over it

A man in Maryland is suing Wal-Mart for $74,500 because his 13-year-old daughter bought a CD by the rock group Evanescence at the store and the lyrics contain the f-word. (The CD did not have a parental advisory label.)

As Roger Ailes says, “As for young Miss Skeens, I doubt $74,500 will compensate her for the pain and mental suffering resulting from being the daughter of Trevin Skeens.”

OK, now how about the Coors twins

From the Albuquerque Tribune:

Don’t mess with these New Mexicans.

The teens in Rhonda Stanfield’s communication skills class at Robert F. Kennedy Charter School unsettled a bottling company, a distribution company and a marketing plan – all in six weeks.

Billboards put up in the spring as an advertising campaign for Tecate beer featured a bottle at a 45-degree angle surrounded by the words “Finally, a cold Latina.”

The class wanted the billboards removed from their community in the heart of Five Points in Albuquerque’s South Valley.

“I didn’t think we were going to change anything because we are so young,” Lauren Hermosillo, 18, said.

But their success has led them to take on all alcohol advertising in their community.

“We want to do more,” she said.

They’ve already completed research that they say shows there are five times more alcohol advertisements in Hispanic communities than in white communities in New Mexico.
…

Surely, they thought, anyone who worked for the distributor would understand their frustration at stereotypes. But, Hermosillo said, a woman who answered the phone at Labatt USA in Miami – which distributes Tecate – asked him “What’s a Latina?”

Cold Mountain

NewMexiKen watched Cold Mountain twice last evening, first as a movie and secondly with the commentary of director and screenwriter Anthony Minghella and film editor Walter Murch.

Somehow, Renée Zellweger’s Oscar-winning performance had escaped my radar. I remembered she’d been nominated for Best Supporting Actress (and that Nicole Kidman famously had not been nominated for an Oscar), but I did not remember that Zellweger won. And I knew nothing of her performance or the character.

She was superb, saving the film from its own earnestness. Most intriguing talent from UT Austin since Janis Joplin.

And who would think a Civil War film, famous for its love story and its battle scene, would come across as a tale of female bonding?

Alas, the commentary on this film, while not without some interest, is remarkably tedious. These two creative talents believe that a picture requires 1,000 words. Or at least every explanation and elaboration does.

All information is not created equal

From CNN.com:

NEW YORK (AP) — Go to Google, search and scroll results, click and copy.

When students do research online these days, many educators worry, those are often about the only steps they take. If they can avoid a trip to the library at all, many students gladly will.

Young people may know that just because information is plentiful online doesn’t mean it’s reliable, yet their perceptions of what’s trustworthy frequently differ from their elders’ — sparking a larger debate about what constitutes truth in the Internet age.

Georgia Tech professor Amy Bruckman tried to force students to leave their computers by requiring at least one book for a September class project.

She wasn’t prepared for the response: “Someone raised their hand and asked, ‘Excuse me, where would I get a book?'”

Link via dangerousmeta!

Hey Brokaw, the Greatest Generation may get another shot

From The Marion Star:

Dr. John Caulfield thought it had to be a mistake when the Army asked him to return to active duty. After all, he’s 70 years old and had already retired – twice. He left the Army in 1980 and private practice two years ago.

“My first reaction was disbelief,” Caulfield said. “It never occurred to me that they would call a 70-year-old.”

In fact, he was so sure it was an error that he ignored the postcards and telephone messages asking if he would be willing to volunteer for active duty to “backfill” somewhere on the East Coast, Europe or Hawaii. That would be OK, he thought. It would release active duty oral surgeons from those areas to go to combat zones in Iraq or Afghanistan.

But then the orders came for him to go to Afghanistan.

Today, Caulfield, a colonel from Satellite Beach, Fla., is an example of how the continuing demands of keeping ground troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are forcing the military to go to extraordinary measures to keep its ranks filled. He’s attending to patients – U.S. troops, Afghan soldiers and civilians – at the Army’s 325th Field Hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan.

He is one of about 100 over the age of 60 known to be serving. The Department of Defense couldn’t provide exact figures.

Link via TPM.