Links to things you may wish to consider reading

by: Eric B.

Sat Jan 28, 2012 at 10:18:21 AM EST

One time, I likened winter to the wiping clean of Nature's canvas. Snow falls, covers up the ugly, dead plants left by the cold of autumn, and life goes into a statis waiting for the sun and green of spring. Then, I realized that I was in the middle of running through a snow-covered field and started to think how badly is sucks to run through tall grasses covered in snow. You can count that moment as one when some of the last child-like joy at the world around me was stomped out of existence.

Onward!

*--This two-fer from The Bridge is very insightful. Attorney General Bill Schuette is happy to spend money -- lots and lots and lots of money -- fighting the GOP's Get Tough on Crime war from the 1990s, a sign that Bill Schuette is badly out-of-tune with the second decade of the new millenium. There is, of course, no evidence that spending lots and lots and lots of money locking people up reduces crime, but there is evidence that doing so means that there is less money available for things like educating people. After all, Corrections eats up a larger chunk of the state's General Fund budget than higher education. Meanwhile, the ongoing campaign by the Mackinac Center and the Republican politicians it hired for the state Legislature has measureable costs in service. Again, according to every study available, the more education you have, the greater the disparity between what you get as a public employee and what you can get in the private sector, and work in the public sector tends to demand more in terms of education. In other words, in terms of priorities, those of the Republican Party are to place a premium on imprisoning people where they serve no use to society as a whole, while punishing people until they leave government service. Also, this.

*--America's shoutiest mayor tells people who think a Lansing casino is a bad idea to screw off. Literally.

*--Benevolent overlord Rick Michigan is sad that people don't open themselves up to new ideas. Two thoughts: 1) I know what he means. Has anyone seen polling of Republican voters when it comes to the existence of climate change versus that of the scientific community?; 2) It would be a lot easier to be open to new ideas if they were presented with evidence that suggested that the new ideas might work ... such as cutting taxes to create jobs.

*--Mike Cox smoked weed once, thinks we ought to keep shoveling money towards Prohibition because people might smoke weed and drive. Here's a novel idea? Stop wasting money imprisoning hippies, and figure out a way to arrest people who drive under the influence. This might involve developing mass transit so people have alternatives to driving.

*--Here is an Op-Ed on how clean energy can improve the state's economy. It's also not written by some hippie, but by someone who the Republicans might otherwise refer to as a "job creator." See above item, however, on being open to new ideas and ponder whether this includes new fangled ideas about energy and the party currently in the majority.

*--Last year, I told someone on Facebook that DTE had twice erroneously shut off my gas, and both times their initial response was to call me a deadbeat even after their error was pointed out to them (this includes the time I told them I had an asthmatic baby at home and needed the heat back on). His response was to make public a bunch of stuff from my account and tell me it was the landlord's fault. So, fuck DTE.

*--Remember that whole "People should be open to new ideas" thing from, like, four items ago? Patrick Colbeck says that changes to teacher tenure, for which there exists no supporting evidence for the notion that it will improve education, was a great reform. Tom Watkins pre-emptively responds by saying that if benevolent overlord wants to improve education, he ought to consult with the people expected to do the work. It's a nice idea, and would have been great advice LAST YEAR before the idea of education reform was seized upon by people mostly just interested in busting unions and undermining public education.