tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28191646739187379192024-02-18T21:02:39.700-06:00Capitol Punishment"If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell." ~Philip Sheridan, 1866Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-46916150101258943502012-08-15T21:10:00.000-05:002012-08-16T13:47:23.169-05:00Voter-manderingLet me apologize in advance for even broaching this “played out” subject—mainly because I hate to even dignify this non-argument with a response—but I simply cannot, in good conscience, let this pass without saying a word about it.<br />
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I think we’re all familiar enough here with the general premises involved in the pseudo-debate of late concerning the new voter ID laws cropping up around the country that I can skip the lengthy/thorough recap bit. Even if you aren’t familiar, all one need do is think about it for 5 seconds and the opposing positions become readily apparent: <i>anti-voter fraud </i>vs. <i>demographical discrimination</i>. That’s about all there is to it.<br />
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While a number of colleagues have taken to this latter interpretation, the verdict is by no means unanimous. And though she is certainly not alone in her line of reasoning, there is one dissenter in particular that has caught my attention this evening. Rather than merely voicing her opinion in isolation, she has instead chosen to do so in the form of a rebuttal to one of our peers, offering what I feel to be a rather thoughtless criticism—and a harsh one at that. You can find the original post by Mr. Kyle Pina <a href="http://kylepina.blogspot.com/2012/07/voter-id-law.html#comment-form" target="_blank">here</a>, along with Serena's rebuttal <a href="http://serenahudson29.blogspot.com/2012/08/commentary-on-voter-id-laws.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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The primary problem I have with Serena's reply isn’t so much the argument itself, per se, but the somewhat patronizing tone with which it is delivered. She makes it a point to explicitly state not once but twice, along with several other comments that suggest the same theme, that Kyle doesn't have an ID himself. Why she would draw this conclusion I'm not exactly sure, but she more of less uses this as justification for dismissing the previous argument: <i>"I understand why Pina would oppose this, especially because he does not have a valid Texas ID, but. . ."</i><br />
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Perhaps I’ve missed something somewhere, and I do hope either she or he will correct me if I’m wrong here, but I don't believe he ever said that he didn't have an ID himself, only that he hadn't previously considered the concept of requiring one for voting purposes. And even if he had said what she claims he said, I see no reason that this would justify being totally dismissive of his position. If anything, it would only offer further support. It seems to me she has inadvertently illustrated the very essence of the counterargument by blatantly disregarding the subset of potential voters who would inevitably be adversely affected by such a law. But again, I don't think he ever said that. He's a student; he clearly has a valid photo ID of some sort, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to enroll in the first place. <br />
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As for this Fund chap she references to back up her claims: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fund" target="_blank">John Fund</a> basically wrote one of Rush Limbaugh's books for him. . . . Need I say more? Perhaps this is just the "<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/crime/2012/03/14/a-slut-by-any-other-name-rush-limbaugh-and-the-fluke-affair/" target="_blank">slut</a>" in me talking, but as far as I'm concerned, this fact alone effectively invalidates anything that has ever or will ever come out of the man's mouth. This is not to say that every argument made by Fund is necessarily and automatically bad, but surely there are countless <i>credible </i>resources available.<br />
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Now, as for the argument itself: Since we're apparently allowing overtly biased opinion to count as credible evidence and because he can state this far better than I, I'm going to let Jon Stewart make this argument for me, complete with an appearance from our man John Fund: <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/wed-august-8-2012-chris-rock?xrs=share_copy" target="_blank">The Wizards of ID and Leashes for Unicorns</a>. (Sorry for not participating in the bootlegging culture and including embedded clip here; trust me, I'm not above that, I just couldn't find a version that included the parts I wanted. I blame YouTube.) The part you'll want to see starts about 30 seconds in. (Also, please enjoy the mandatory previewing Jack-in-the-box promo. You're welcome.)<br />
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In sum, I do have somewhat mixed feelings about the whole voter ID issue. That being said, though, I am inclined to think that this ultimately amounts to the voter's-box equivalent of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering" target="_blank">Gerrymandering</a>. Now, considering this unseemly and questionable practice has apparently gained the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt_v._Cromartie" target="_blank">Supreme Court stamp of approval</a>, it does indeed seem reasonable that we could perhaps have a debate about whether or not enacting voting laws can or should be used to achieve the same political purposes. But that isn't the conversation we're having. Before we can even begin to fairly assess the situation in its entirety, we must first call it what it actually is: votermandering. Or something like that. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-64908130626463729092012-08-03T23:59:00.000-05:002012-08-13T15:37:58.100-05:00The Ramifications of Fiscal Fallacy<div style="text-align: justify;">
Dear Team America~ </div>
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Listen up! This is an important announcement brought to you by the (semi-)public broadcasting crew here at Capitol Punishment. Red Alert. This is not a test. I repeat, this is <b>NOT</b> a test. . .</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhARyj5z-dwAL7jlwY2ArvFkUsOhBQbs66-v7TmimrZ9WtWENZB80RBOpHNb2leJxnux-agg9SMaq9pGa0xr1htVEvymbMDokYzxvfo9_hL2cC4jcCxIWcHR9MfJv2jVYcJduQOmL74CmEd/s1600/pacificgarbage650x433.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhARyj5z-dwAL7jlwY2ArvFkUsOhBQbs66-v7TmimrZ9WtWENZB80RBOpHNb2leJxnux-agg9SMaq9pGa0xr1htVEvymbMDokYzxvfo9_hL2cC4jcCxIWcHR9MfJv2jVYcJduQOmL74CmEd/s320/pacificgarbage650x433.jpg" width="320" /></a>Yet many people seem to think it's a test, don't they? As if Mother Earth is nothing more than an understudy filling in for our collective dress rehearsal, with the real starlet waiting somewhere in the wings, ready to dive in at a moment's notice and switch out with our ill-equipped amateur once her modest talents have been thoroughly exhausted. . . Aaaaaaand SCENE. That's a wrap, folks. <i> </i><br />
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<i>Plastic</i> <i>wrap</i> to be exact...</div>
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Blogging over at <a href="http://texaspolitics2012.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Texas Politics 2012</a>, writer Shashank Desai offered <a href="http://texaspolitics2012.blogspot.com/2012/07/say-no-to-ban-of-plastic-bags.html" target="_blank">his take</a> this week on Austin's upcoming implementation of a new citywide ordinance, set to be in full effect by March 2013, which will ban the use of certain types of disposable shopping bags by retailers and customers alike. Though he misstates a few small details, it would seem he is correct in the general premise of the ordinance:</div>
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<i>"<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Austin would be the first large city to enact such a ban. Millions plastic bags are used by the residents of Austin every year. These bags have to be cleaned up as litter and put in landfills by the city which costs lots of money to the city." </span></i> </blockquote>
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(Note: Cited by Desai as a ban solely on plastic bags, the Austin City Council, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/business/energy-environment/should-plastic-bags-be-banned.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all" target="_blank">NYT</a> and <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/morning_call/2012/03/austin-passes-plastic-bag-ban.html" target="_blank">multiple</a> <a href="http://www.dailytexanonline.com/city/2012/03/06/austin-plastic-bag-ban-passed-stores-and-customers-must-accommodate" target="_blank">local</a> <a href="http://www.wfaa.com/green/news/Project-Green-Austin-bans-plastic-baags-141288793.html" target="_blank">news</a> <a href="http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/cityhall/entries/2012/03/02/austin_passes_bag_ban_1.html" target="_blank">affiliates</a> report the ordinance will include restriction of single-use paper bags as well.) </div>
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He then goes on to challenge the environmentally conscious motivations that inspired this proposal, and raises the possibility that this is perhaps not a wise move for Austin, with economic justification forming the basis of his argument.</div>
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While I do believe that Desai was genuinely sincere and perfectly justified in offering his criticisms that follow—indeed, all good citizens ought to look to public policy with a critical eye; for it is this type of inquiry that facilitates a functional, efficient democracy—I am also of the opinion that the particular criticisms offered are quite misguided. </div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">"Although the decision is taken towards the environmental issues, we should consider that there are many people involved in producing, recycling and transporting the bags though out the city. So, they would be unemployed since there would be no plastic bags in Austin." </span></i></blockquote>
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And here we have our first logical leap. Though this isn't attributable only to Desai; he is merely restating<a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-council-moves-ahead-on-plastic-bag-ban-1697135.html" target="_blank"> the same argument</a> presented to the Austin City Council by Mark Daniels, VP of <a href="http://www.hilexpoly.com/about-us" target="_blank">Hilex</a>, your friendly neighborhood plastic mogul. <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-council-moves-ahead-on-plastic-bag-ban-1697135.html" target="_blank">A loss of 9,000 jobs</a> would surely be worthy of consideration, provided that it were true, but I've been unable to locate a single reference to back up any of his claims as presented. As a matter of fact, I found innumerable sources that seem to refute Daniels' claims at every stop. </div>
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First of all, this isn't a complete ban; it does carry exemptions. Among those excluded are all dry cleaners, meat markets, fresh produce suppliers, restaurants, and newspapers. These alone make up a sizable share of potential plastic revenues in Austin, so to say that the ordinance would lead to <b>no </b>bags is factually incorrect.</div>
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Second of all, this company, Hilex, that desperately plead their case to the Council—it's not even <i>in </i>Austin; Hell, it's not even in <i>Texas... </i>It's based out of South Carolina with 9 locations spread out across 7 states, one of which is in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Yet, losing little ol' Austin is enough to "potentially bankrupt" these people? What they apparently fail to realize is that they're square in the center of a Catch-22: the harder they lobby and the more desperately they portray their dependence on <i>our</i> city's trash production, the bigger it seems our problem must actually be for them to need us that much, and the stronger the argument thus becomes for making necessary changes, whatever the costs. </div>
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It is also worth noting here <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/local/city-council-moves-ahead-on-plastic-bag-ban-1697135.html" target="_blank">two other claims Mr. Daniels made</a> to the City Council:</div>
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<i>"[T]he bags pose no environmental threat because they are fully reusable and recyclable. </i></blockquote>
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<i>"There is also no evidence that plastic bags kill wildlife or are an exceptionally large source of litter."</i></blockquote>
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One need not be an ecologist nor rocket scientist to easily see the absurdity of these claims, thus discrediting any and <i>all </i>other statements he might've made. But enough about this guy.<br />
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Back to Mr. Desai.</div>
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Again, you can read his piece in full <a href="http://texaspolitics2012.blogspot.com/2012/07/say-no-to-ban-of-plastic-bags.html" target="_blank">here</a>, but in the interest of brevity (if I can still call it that) let me try to break it down here with a hybrid of quotes and paraphrasing so I can get to the point: </div>
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<li>Paper is more difficult and costly to produce and transport than plastic, so retailers overhead will increase. </li>
<li>Plastic bags are more convenient to grocery store cashiers, and taking them away can only result in decreased productivity. </li>
<li>Given loss of productivity and higher overhead, retailers will inevitably hike prices to offset losses, thus resulting in a two-fold expense incurred by the citizen consumers in the form of both money and time (due to to decreased cashier efficiency).</li>
<li>It is inconvenient for people to have to remember to bring their reusable bags with them to the store. </li>
<li>So, yes, it's better for the environment, but it's costly, inconvenient and only creates more problems, and should therefore be reconsidered. </li>
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Hopefully that's a fair representation. I trust Mr. Desai will correct me if I'm too far off there. Now, the problems with this are many. For starters, paper disposable bags are getting the kaibash, too, so that hardly seems relevant. We are talking about a switch to reusable bags, presumably paid for by the customer directly—but only <i>once. </i>Not the continual recurring costs under our current model. I see no way that works out to anything but net savings across the board.</div>
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And while cashiers are undoubtedly hard workers, ringing someone up <i>slightly</i> more slowly hardly constitutes "decreased productivity." But even if it did, what does that amount to? An extra minute or two in line? Is that not worth the <i>million dollars </i>we'll ultimately save—minimum—every year on litter control and landfill costs? </div>
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Which brings me now to the most glaringly obvious problem with this entire argument, that you might've noticed I have so far skirted around. The primary reason this argument fails to hold water, I think, isn't so much what it <i>says </i>as what it <i>doesn't say. </i>And I don't mean to pick on Mr. Desai here because he is by no means alone in making this type of argument; but it turns out there is no correlation between frequency of use and quality of content. In virtually every economy-based model I see used to perform such cost-benefit analyses as this, time and time and time again I find that <i>by</i><b> </b><i>far</i><b> </b>the most valuable, irreplaceable, precious commodity in the entire schema has been all but forgotten: <b style="color: black;">OUR PLANET. </b></div>
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<b>WE ONLY GET <span style="color: red;">ONE</span>, PEOPLE. </b></div>
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If we were to all wake up tomorrow and suddenly find ourselves in a life-or-death situation in which we had to <i>literally </i>bankrupt <b>each</b> and <b>every</b> country on the face of the Earth in order to rectify a dangerously unsustainable problem of our own creation immediately so that we may survive as a species, I somehow believe that Americans would <i>still </i>find a way to turn it into some sort of knock-down, drag-out, ridiculous partisan warfare with roughly half of the population arguing vehemently in favor of the "conservative" position, declaring that we just can't afford it. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy??</div>
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We simply CANNOT continue this irrational compartmentalization of separating economy from environment as if they are mutually exclusive concepts; as if they are nothing more than separate line items on a budget which we have the luxury of choosing one or the other as the most important item of the day. The day that we poison the last living plankton is the day that we run out of oxygen to breathe and water to drink and that's a FACT. If and when we finally destroy this planet beyond repair—and believe me, we are well on our way—no amount of praying or politicking or pontificating is going to fix it. They are called "finite resources" for a reason, and the operative word there is "finite." And the day we run out of air to breathe or water to drink, it isn't going to make a DAMN bit of difference whether the DOW is up or down or what our unemployment rate happens to be.</div>
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So when I hear people say we can't afford to do x, y, or z for the good of the environment because we have P, Q, and R economic issues that are more pressing at the moment, I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT.</div>
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Contrary to popular belief,<i><b> fiscal responsibility </b></i>entails a great deal more than finances and monetary policy alone—or at least it ought to ... because the buying and selling of such insidious fiscal fallacy carries grave ramifications we best hope we never see.</div>
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So please forgive me for feeling painfully underwhelmed and, frankly, somewhat infuriated when I read something like, <i> </i><br />
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<i>"</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i>Most people in Austin would prefer using plastic bags over reusable bags. Yes, we are saving the environment and expenses . . . but . . . [it's] really inconvenient." </i> </span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u><b><span style="color: red;">News flash</span></b></u>:</span> <i>A planet with <b>no oxygen</b> is pretty <b><span style="color: red;">DAMN</span></b> inconvenient, too. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">If you aren't sure why I keep talking about oxygen, have you ever wondered where all that plastic ends up? </span></div>
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Though the next clip isn't about plastic, this is exactly what I had in mind when I suggested we expand our definition of "fiscal responsibility." Here is one way we can do that.</div>
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Last but certainly not least, I full realize that very few will, through sheer laziness, lack of interest, or impatience due to length, but should you ever find yourself with a little free time, <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7387_supp/full/483S17a.html" target="_blank">read this</a>. It is perhaps the single greatest explanation of how the oceanic ecosystem impacts absolutely <b>everything</b>, and it also happens to be my favorite article of all time - on <i>any </i>subject. It's definitely worth the read. To pique your curiosity a bit to further entice you to check it out, a riddle:<span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;"> </span></i></span><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="color: #0b5394;">Ev<span style="color: #3d85c6;">er <span style="color: #3d85c6;">w</span><span style="color: #45818e;">o</span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">n</span><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">de</span></span>r</span> w</span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">hy the oce</span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">an app<span style="color: #3d85c6;">ea</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">rs t<span style="color: #0b5394;">o</span> <span style="color: #0b5394;">be</span></span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> <span style="color: #3d85c6;">so <span style="color: #3d85c6;">m</span>a</span>ny</span> <span style="color: #6fa8dc;">diff</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">ere<span style="color: #3d85c6;">n</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">t and b</span><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">ea</span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">ut</span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">if</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">u<span style="color: #3d85c6;">l s</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">h<span style="color: #6fa8dc;">ade</span>s of</span> <span style="color: #3d85c6;">b<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">l</span></span><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">u</span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">e fr</span><span style="color: #0b5394;">o<span style="color: #3d85c6;">m s</span></span><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">pac</span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">e<span style="color: #0b5394;">?</span></span></i></span></b></blockquote>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIqPm3FBPYz-mAz-Vs8dhZP-FNlE6lUfVWpXv5R6yaGZp85eF957r5vVGko83azcrHy9hT-kZT2IMueb-ilIUU6jVuFwRBGXSRwMWQvhyOaSvJL1Wt64nrla8DhHmTwPvHeTR_-p0cJBuw/s1600/Earth+%7C+Aerial+%7C+Nature" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIqPm3FBPYz-mAz-Vs8dhZP-FNlE6lUfVWpXv5R6yaGZp85eF957r5vVGko83azcrHy9hT-kZT2IMueb-ilIUU6jVuFwRBGXSRwMWQvhyOaSvJL1Wt64nrla8DhHmTwPvHeTR_-p0cJBuw/s400/Earth+%7C+Aerial+%7C+Nature" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Here's a hint:<b> <span style="color: red;">It isn't trash!</span> </b><span style="font-size: x-small;">. . . . (<span style="color: black;">yet</span>)</span></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br />
</b></span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br />
</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="color: blue;">~ </span><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7387_supp/full/483S17a.html" target="_blank">Click here to find out!</a><span style="color: blue;"> ~</span></b></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><i> </i></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-52596112602599791912012-07-27T23:57:00.000-05:002012-08-13T15:48:44.711-05:00SBOE=SOL | An Education System in Crisis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ35pY1vdwPRQhnaqkAAjLznrgixMC9efrmPC5RewscZcwXwe31mTMbzX7By1SHENHV0q0PYh6W5yzlB5489GaX6mUe5f5Sk9UXxm0aM6Dde66tVspi0e43kI_aFvmb53HeiJBovp7yvcq/s1600/Don+McLeroy+%7C+Revisionaries+Trailer+Screen+Shot.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ35pY1vdwPRQhnaqkAAjLznrgixMC9efrmPC5RewscZcwXwe31mTMbzX7By1SHENHV0q0PYh6W5yzlB5489GaX6mUe5f5Sk9UXxm0aM6Dde66tVspi0e43kI_aFvmb53HeiJBovp7yvcq/s320/Don+McLeroy+%7C+Revisionaries+Trailer+Screen+Shot.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is an utter disgrace not only to our state but to our country. Every Texas citizen — indeed, every <i>American</i> citizen ought to be nothing short of <i>furious</i> with the currently abysmal state of affairs in which our public school system finds itself. We are desperately in need of a MAJOR overhaul in structure, organization and composition of the relevant governing bodies responsible for putting us where we are today. At the risk of sounding alarmist, we are on a collision course with disaster—some might say we're already there—and the longer we allow this broken runaway ship to continue forging full-speed ahead in the direction of the dark ages, the worse off we will all be as a result and the more difficult it will be to repair the damage. I don't feel it unreasonable to argue that education is easily the most pressing problem we face in Texas today, and our track record in recent decades for finding, funding and successfully implementing workable solutions is, at best, thoroughly disappointing and downright depressing. If this does not have you deeply, <i>deeply</i> concerned, well—it should. Our collective future depends on it. . . </div>
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My father used to tell me growing up, "You are allowed to complain if—<i>and only if</i>—<b>both</b><i> </i>of the following conditions are met: (a) you can articulate the problem, <i>and</i><b> </b>(b) you have solutions to offer." I always found these requirements terribly stifling, particularly in those teen years when one loves to complain about everything, but it turns out that was pretty good advice. So in honor of him, that's exactly what I plan to do here today.</div>
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The Problem </h3>
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There are so very many problems with education in Texas, it is difficult to know where to begin. Just the size of it alone is pretty overwhelming. While the saying that everything is bigger here is clearly untrue, to which the intellectual capacity of our Governor will surely attest, it does seem to be the case with respect to our public school system. We house more schools than many small countries. But, perhaps surprisingly, size doesn't make my short list of contributing factors; even if it were a major factor, I see no realistic solution to unalterable geography, thus violating rule (b) above. Solutions. We're focused on solutions here. Besides, I do not have the time nor the patience nor the inclination to torture helpless readers by attempting to discuss <i>every</i> problematic feature here. So, I am going to discuss only one.<br />
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The biggest one. . . .<br />
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<b>The SBOE</b></h3>
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No, it's not teachers or standards or parents or funding or testing or students. It's not even Rick Perry (though he certainly isn't helping). In my estimation, <i>easily </i>the single biggest obstacle to improving our public school system is, ironically, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). . . . (<—and yes, I realize it isn't proper to capitalize the "O" in an acronym when it stands for "of," but this is how they do it and I haven't a clue why. My best guess would be either another agency called the SBE, or yet another point to add to my argument. But we'll get to that in a minute.) In case you're unfamiliar, don't worry—you aren't alone. It sometimes seems to be the best kept secret in Texas. Aside from the intermittent rounds of headlines that sweep the nation about them every decade or so when new textbook purchases are on the horizon, you don't often hear much about them — which I always find absolutely shocking given the substantial degree of power and influence they have over our schools. </div>
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But again, in case you're unfamiliar, here's a quick rundown: The SBOE consists of 15-member board elected on a district-wide basis to terms of four years; they meet a few times each year to discuss and decide upon public school matters concerning textbooks, curriculum, teaching standards, and oversight of the Permanent School Fund. You can find more about them on their website <a href="http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=4214" target="_blank">here</a>. If you think that sounds like a mighty big job for 15 people, not to mention in only a few days each year, I agree; but that's a topic for another day. </div>
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One would expect, or at least I do, that to be elected to a board that makes such crucial education decisions affecting nearly 5 million public school children, there would be some sort of criteria for candidates. Like a college education, for instance. However, one would be wrong. The sole criterion is simply this: get votes. Period. </div>
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In sum, the SBOE consists of an overwhelming majority of radically conservative evangelical Christians, young-earth Creationists who are almost ALL <i>devoutly</i> anti-science, anti-sex-ed, anti-equality, and apparently, even anti-public education. <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=626" target="_blank">Seriously</a>. Which would all be well and good by me so long as they weren't proselytizing to my children and yours via public school textbooks. And so long as they weren't MANDATING that Texas teachers tell our children flat out <i>lies </i>and present them as "fact." </div>
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But that is <b>exactly</b> what they are doing. </div>
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One writer puts it quite concisely <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/155515/is_texas_waging_war_on_history" target="_blank">here</a>:</div>
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Don McLeroy, chairman of the <a href="http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index3.aspx?id=1156">Texas State Board of Education </a> from 2007 to 2009, is a “young earth” creationist. He believes the earth is 6,000 years old, that human beings walked with dinosaurs, and that Noah’s Ark had a unique, multi-level construction that allowed it to house every species of animal, including the dinosaurs. </blockquote>
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He has a right to his beliefs, but it’s his views on <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/history">history </a>that are problematic. McLeroy is part of a large and powerful movement determined to impose a thoroughly distorted, ultra-partisan, Christian nationalist version of US history on America’s public school students. And he has scored stunning successes. </blockquote>
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If you missed what many have humorously (and sadly) dubbed the latest "casualties" in the "<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/02/1088346/--The-Revisionaries-or-The-Texas-Textbook-Massacre" target="_blank">Texas Textbook Massacre</a>" circa 2009-10, here's a quick review. Unlike most states who leave book selection up to individual districts, the SBOE requires that schools choose from a "board-approved" list; should a district decide to choose a book not on the list, they are entirely on their own in paying for them, and as we all know too well, those things aren't cheap.</div>
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So the textbook writers and publishers, well aware of our weirdly backward Texas system, know they have no choice but to write the books pandering to a very specific (and radical) subset of people in the first place. And that still is never good enough. A list of candidate books are first compiled in draft, and the board members put together what they call "a panel of experts" who make revisions, deletions and amendments however they see fit, then return the drafts to the board for final review and a vote, and publisher approval. Sounds legit, right? I wish it were. </div>
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About this panel of "experts". . . Just last week the board considered the following three amendments, proposed by both Republicans and Democrats, and reported <a href="http://tfninsider.org/2012/07/23/texas-state-board-of-education-creationists-reject-expertise-again/#.UA2OpLY6lww.twitter" target="_blank">here</a> by TFN, which outlines the bulk of the problem here: </div>
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<li>Reformers proposed that experts appointed to help them revise curriculum standards have at least a bachelor’s degree in a field related to the curriculum standards being revised. The current rule is that an expert need only have a bachelor’s degree in any field. A master’s or doctorate would be a better indicator of expertise, but surely it seems reasonable to expect that an “expert” in, for example, science have at least a bachelor’s degree in that field. But that was too much for the board’s creationists. “I don’t know why we’d want to limit ourselves,” said board member and evolution denier Terri Leo, R-Spring. The proposal failed on a tie vote. </li>
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<li>Reformers then proposed that appointments to “expert” panels require at least a majority vote by the board. Board creationists, however, argued that the current rule — that appointment to an “expert” panel requires the consent of just two board members — “protects the rights of the minority.” “I don’t think we need to be in the business of vetting other people’s experts,” said board member David Bradley, R-<del>Beaumont</del> Buna. “It’s an uncomfortable situation.” Gail Lowe, R-Lampasas, even argued that requiring two board members to agree on a nominee was a sufficient check to stop “crazy people” from being appointed: “I can’t pick a crazy person because I’ve got to get another (board member) to agree.” The proposal for a majority vote for “experts” lost by one vote. </li>
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<li>Reformers also wanted to rein in the board’s habit of making sometimes hundreds of amendments to proposed drafts of new curriculum standards late in the revision process without formal guidance from teachers, scholars or anyone else. But the board’s creationists defeated a motion requiring that proposed amendments to draft standards be filed at least 24 hours in advance so that all members would have a chance to study them and consult with scholars and other experts. Lowe and other creationists argued that such a requirement would “hamper” their work.</li>
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Is it just me or is this not, pardon my French, BAT-SHIT CRAZY?! We have a very tiny group of people, many of whom have prestigious credentials such as 'part-time copy editor' and 'college dropout' not just electing non-expert experts to panels, but actively <i>editing, deleting, and amending textbooks unilaterally however they please. </i>Excuse me for being "Elitist" (which is no doubt what they would call me), but I happen to think that a college dropout who calls evolution "hooey," says that pollution and global warming are "junk science," and who thinks all public schools are "evil" is maybe, just <i>maybe,</i> not the best guy we can find to take a red pen, sharpie and white-out to my child's <i>biology</i> textbook, which was originally written by a TEAM of <i>actual biologists</i>. . . or any other textbook for that matter, considering <a href="http://teachthemscience.org/texas/sboe" target="_blank">this</a> kind of behavior:</div>
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His most dramatic rejection, however, was of an algebra textbook that he criticized for pictures, recipes (!), and references to women’s suffrage, biology and the Vietnam War. By law, the state board can reject textbooks only if they fail to cover established state curriculum standards, contain factual errors or do not meet manufacturing specifications. Knowing that his ideological bias was not a legally sufficient reason to reject the math textbook, Bradley tore the cover off (with some effort), stating, “Ladies and gentlemen, worthless binding. I reject this book.”<span class="fn_top">(11)</span> </div>
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To better illustrate the types of "amendments" and "revisions" we're talking about here, when reviewing social studies curriculum in 2010, the board voted to make changes such as removing Thomas Jefferson from the list of Enlightenment thinkers, removing any added emphasis on Mexican-American history, slavery and the separation of church and state, meanwhile "beefing up" the ideas that we were born a Christian nation, Ronald Reagan was a god, and the NRA has been a leading voice of reason working "solely for the public good." One board member suggested removing references to Martin Luther King, Jr., for Christ's sake... </div>
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As Gail Collins notes in her witty yet quietly disheartening book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/As-Texas-Goes-Hijacked-American/dp/0871404079" target="_blank">As Texas Goes...</a> "</i>Approval of textbooks was once held up over board concern that they were teaching children to be more loyal to their planet than to their country." Again, <i>seriously</i>. I couldn't make this up if I tried. <i>(</i>By the way, this book has an entire chapter devoted to the insider 4-1-1 on this issue, aptly titled "The Textbook Wars," in case anyone is interested. She's hilarious and it's a quick read, easily worth the purchase if only for this chapter.) </div>
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And now, I'll let some of the past and present Board members speak for themselves and make my argument for me, also courtesy of Gail Collins: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“One of the first real breaches of limited government was public education.” — Don McLeroy, R-College Station, (BurkaBlog, <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/?p=626" target="_blank">Texas Monthly</a>)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book? So you really don't want Chinese books with a bunch of crazy Chinese words in them." — Don McLeroy</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Sending children to public schools is like throwing them into the enemy's flames, even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch." — Cynthia Dunbar</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Unfortunately, I could go on for days about this, but I think that's quite enough. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
The Solutions</h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
</h3>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Solution #1. </b> For starters, in a state where everything from firefighter uniforms to fire hydrant color is decided upon by popular vote, <b>why </b>are we letting the SBOE members vote upon referendums aimed at regulating their wildly damaging, radically irrational behavior themselves? Is this not like rounding up all the bankers and asking them to vote on whether or not we should have fair banking regulation? These types of safeguards <b>must</b> come from <i>outside</i> of the SBOE. It's absurd to submit it directly to them<i> </i>for consideration. Let it be a matter for the Texas House or Senate or <i>anyone </i>besides the people it's meant to reign in. If that violates our Constitution, then let's amend it. We do that about twice a week anyway.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Solution #2. </b>Either change the term limits to two years rather than four, or keep them at four but stop staggering them so that they always coincide with presidential elections, since that is apparently the only time Texans get off their couches and into a voting booth.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Solution #3. </b><u>New Rule</u>: If you do not have a <i>degree </i>in education, you cannot be elected to the Curriculum Committee.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Solution #4. </b><u>New Rule</u>: If you do not have a <i>degree </i>in finance, you cannot be elected to the Education Finance Committee.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Solution #5. </b><u>New Rule</u>: If you have ever said anything even <i>remotely </i>akin to "Public institutions of education are subtle tools of perversion implemented by the Devil to poison the minds of our children" (more awesomeness from former SBOE Chair Cynthia Dunbar) then you are <b>not</b> — I repeat <b>NOT</b> —allowed to serve on the State Board of [Public] <i>Education</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here's what the <a href="http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CN/pdf/CN.7.pdf" target="_blank">Texas Constitution</a> has to say about it: </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
"A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it <b>shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State</b> to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient <b>system of public free schools</b>." </div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Particularly in reference to the reasoning offered for Solution #5, the SBOE, as it stands, is in direct violation of the Constitution and not living up to its duties.<br />
<br />
They do, however, align perfectly with their respective political base. Though many of us have known this for years, the Republican Party of Texas has recently taken the unusual step of formally and publicly announcing their continued commitment to irrationality and the decimation of our public school system by calling for the<i> eradication of critical thought</i> from public education. Again, <i>SERIOUSLY. </i>If you are in a state of disbelief that they would do such a thing, trust me —<i>I am with you. </i>But allow me to share with you a direct quote taken from the official <a href="http://www.texasgop.org/about-the-party" target="_blank">2012 GOP platform</a> declaration in the section addressing education: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority. </i></blockquote>
So, in case there were any prior misconceptions that the argument I've presented here is merely the product of "liberal bias" or "political spin," or that I have somehow misrepresented the reality of the situation in the interest of serving some personal, political or social agenda, I hope we can now safely put that false presumption to bed. The parallels drawn between the Republican base, their friends at the SBOE, and the <i>deliberate denigration and degradation </i>of the very institution of public education in Texas are <b>not</b> imagined and they have<i> </i><i>nothing whatsoever</i><b> </b>to do with partisan conjecture. These relationships are<b><i> </i></b>real, they are dangerous, and they must be acknowledged. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
As I said before, if you do not find all of this deeply, <i>deeply </i>troubling—so much so that you are willing to actually <b>do something</b> about it—then, as far as I'm concerned, (a) you effectively forfeit your right to complain about it, or anything else that requires active citizen participation; and (b) you are part of the problem. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Incidentally, we have a very unique opportunity coming up in November. Because of last year's Census and subsequent redistricting to adjust for population changes, all 15 seats on the Board are up for grabs. And since it's a presidential election year, we'll at least have a better shot at getting something resembling a balance... It is still Texas, though, so it will undoubtedly have an artificial but heavy lean to the right (waaaaaay right), but I guess that's better than nothing. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To those of you that are maybe just hearing about this for the first time and would like to keep up with what's happening, the Texas Freedom Network, started by ex-Gov. Ann Richards daughter specifically to combat the "crazy," does an amazing job of keeping up with SBOE happenings. They also have a tool to sign-up for e-mail reminders when Board elections are coming up, among other relevant and helpful things. You can find it <a href="http://www.tfn.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_sboe_pledge" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The nonprofit group Teach Them Science has by far the best breakdown of current Board members that I've found to date, listing detailed background info, beliefs, quotes, stats, pics, voting histories and various interesting tidbits about all 15 of the members, along with a neat little tool at the top of the page to type in your zip to see whose district you're in. Check it out <a href="http://teachthemscience.org/texas/sboe" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Whether of not you care to hear anymore about the SBOE anytime soon, I promise, you will. There is a blockbuster expose-style documentary about them coming soon to a theater near you. Here's a clip from that film below, followed by a pretty fantastic interview with Don McLeroy on the Colbert Report last month, in case you missed my inaugural post. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But before I go, let me reiterate that unlike this year, most SBOE elections happen in off-years and with little to no press coverage. They have the lowest voter turnout of any state-wide office — which means that if absolutely nowhere else, even a handful of votes <b>matters.</b> If you are reading my post now, odds are you are a fellow student; which tells me that even if you loathe politics and government, there is likely some part of you that <i>does </i>value a quality education. <span style="font-size: large;"><b style="color: red;">VOTE.</b></span> <b>It</b> <b>matters.</b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a class="floatbox" data-fb-options="width:618 height:max scrolling:yes" href="https://register.rockthevote.com/?partner=14347&source=embed-rtv468x60v3"><br />
<img src="http://register.rockthevote.com/images/widget/rtv-468x60-v3.gif" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<script src="https://register.rockthevote.com/widget_loader.js" type="text/javascript">
</script></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EBatyL7JjJo" width="560"></iframe></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: black; text-align: justify; width: 520px;">
<div style="padding: 4px;">
<iframe frameborder="0" height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:413074" width="512"></iframe><br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 4px; padding: 4px;">
<b>The Colbert Report</b> <br />
Get More: <a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/">Colbert Report Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.indecisionforever.com/">Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/video">Video Archive</a></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-21669905515527998872012-07-24T23:37:00.000-05:002012-08-13T15:43:43.814-05:00The Conservative Conundrum<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;">Greetings, you lucky devil, you! You're just in time. The moment everyone's been waiting for has finally arrived. Reporting live from the studios of Merriam-Webster <i>et al</i>. I now bring you the next exciting edition of . . . .(drum roll, please). . . . K's Word of the Day! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Times;">co·nun·drum</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></b><b> </b><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";">/kə-ˈnən-drəm/ <i> (noun.)</i></span><b><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">1.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">A confusing and difficult problem or question.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">2.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">A paradoxical, insoluble, or puzzling situation; a dilemma. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">3.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">An issue or problem having only a <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conjectural">conjectural</a> answer.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Synonyms</b>: riddle – enigma – paradox – mystery – the conservative position . . . </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Perhaps you noticed something unusual there at the end. I noticed that too, but let’s be real here—who am <i>I</i> to question <i>THE</i> Merriam-Webster? Before we delve any deeper, I should perhaps also clarify number (3) from above with a follow-up definition, just in case any of my Jersey-Shore-watching friends happen to be reading along with us today and are in need of a “refresher”: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i><span style="font-family: Times;">con·jec·ture </span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"> /kən-ˈjək-chər<i>/</i> <i> (noun.)</i></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Times;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">1.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Times;">An inference from defective or presumptive logic.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times;">2.<span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span>An opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information.<span style="font-family: Times;"></span><b><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<b> <span style="font-size: small;"> Synonyms</span></b><span style="font-size: small;">: guess – supposition – speculation – the conservative position.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Unusual again, you say? Odd, everything looks right to me… Fine, fine, I confess. I have taken the liberty (liberty!) of making a few minor adjustments. It’s true, the Merriam-Webster original didn’t say <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exactly </i>every word as stated above; however, they would’ve been fully justified in doing so, as we will soon see. Let me explain . . . . </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Issue </span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">As I’m sure you are all well aware, there has been much media fuss of late and certainly no short supply of heated headlines concerning Gov. Rick Perry’s controversial decision to reject all federal funds being offered to the states for expansion of Medicaid and a handful of other services as provisioned by the newly-Supreme-Court-approved PPACA legislation typically referred to, be it hatefully of affectionately, as "Obamacare."(Dun-dun-dun...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">As someone who has worked in health care for many more years than I care to admit, with experience in both the private and public sectors, and a substantial portion of that time spent in the most underfunded area of medicine, mental health, it is reasonably safe to say that, naturally, I bring to this particular debate quite a bit of “baggage.” I’ve put in my <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz4hPbHIZ6Y" target="_blank">10,000 hours</a> fully immersed in the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of health care. That being said, while I do feel that my experience affords me a great deal of insight into the situation, and lends credibility to whatever opinions I’ve come to hold, I am also rational and self-aware enough to understand that this might prove to be a double-edged sword, with my frame of reference potentially eliciting an emotional rather than reasoned evaluation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">So, I did what I always do when issues like this come up—an approach that is apparently unthinkable to the vast majority of the American public. Grit my teeth, grind my heels into the ground, and scream, “LOOK, PEOPLE - I KNOW WHAT’S BEST HERE BECAUSE I’M AN EXPERT, SO YOU ALL SHUTUP AND LISTEN TO ME!”…? In a word, NO. Absolutely not. That <i>would</i> be the American Way, but I like to think that my way is better. First, I begin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actively seeking</i> the very best arguments I can find <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">against </b>my position. I make a concerted effort to find any and all cases that oppose, contradict or refute<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>my beliefs in any way; I read them, genuinely consider them, and weigh them carefully and honestly against whatever preconceived notions I might’ve held. Then—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and only<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>then</i>—do I decide whether my original position is a valid one, worthy of defending, or if it would be wisest to instead amend or even completely abandon that view in light of new or better information. (Yo, Jersey, are you still here? You and a few others might want to back up and take notes here. You know who you are.) Anyway, in this spirit of challenging my beliefs and ongoing critical analysis, my search for conflicting views continues -- which now brings us to today’s topic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">TexasFred lost his head.</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">In what can only be described as a Fox News pundit’s wet dream – and a sane individual’s worst nightmare – conservative political blogger TexasFred has weighed in on the health care debate, enlightening readers everywhere with his seemingly infinite wisdom. And to your great fortune (torture?), I will now share <a href="http://texasfred.net/archives/17192">his argument</a> with you. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">He begins with a lengthy quote from an LA Times article, republished <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018646692_texascare10.html">here</a> in a Seattle newspaper, which details Gov. Perry’s announcement that Texas will “opt out” of Medicaid expansion and the proposed state-run insurance exchange, along with a quote from Perry explaining his reasoning:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>If anyone was in doubt, we in Texas have no intention to implement so-called state exchanges or to expand Medicaid under Obamacare,” stated Perry, whose bid for the GOP presidential nomination fell flat this year. “I will not be party to socializing health care and bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our constitution and our founding principles of limited government.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">TexasFred then begins, “I realize Rick Perry shot himself in the foot during the Presidential debates recently, but I have to say, Rick Perry is a good Governor.” He then goes on to offer the following argument in support of this de— oops… Sorry, no he doesn’t. He then proceeds with the following rant: </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span><i>Last month the libber Justices handed Barack Hussein Obama what many on the left consider to be a huge VICTORY. Last month, a once well respected and largely believed to be conservative Justice, John Roberts, outed himself as an Obama lackey when HE cast the deciding vote in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or, as most of us call it, ObamaCare.</i></blockquote>
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<i>A while back I was listening to that jug-eared Kenyan talking about ObamaCare and he said he really liked that name. Do you know WHY? He said he likes it because ‘<i>Obama DOES care</i>’, and you know, I’m sure he does, but about WHAT? </i></blockquote>
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<i>Obama cares about Palestine, he cares about Islam and its practitioners, he cares about the socialization of America, he cares about GUN CONTROL and we ALL know he cares about his narcissist self, so, all things considered, yeah, Obama cares … about everything Conservatives stand against!</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Okay… So… <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem">Ad hominem</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man">straw man</a>, appeals to fear, appeals to authority, and the stray conspiracy theories just for good measure? Check, check, check, check, check. Fabulous! You've now effectively demonstrated your amazing ability to cram more logical fallacies than there are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">words </i>into each of your sentences. That is indeed a feat worth noting, but… um… Weren’t we discussing health care here, Fred? I could’ve sworn that was the subject line of your post. Perhaps we’re just not there yet. Let us continue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">After continued ranting about the Supreme Court and being “stuck” with that commie turncoat Chief Justice Roberts, he does (eventually) find his way back to the topic of health care, diving right into another news snippet – quoting from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">same </i>LA Times article, might I add: </span></div>
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<i>In rejecting the two pillars of the health-care law, Perry argued that adding millions of Texans to the Medicaid program would create a financial burden. According to state figures, about 2 million people would be added to Texas’ Medicaid rolls in the first two years. According to the state, the expansion would cost $27 billion over 10 years — numbers disputed by Democrats.</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Cambria;">Alright, now we’re getting somewhere! Math, numbers, evidence, projections; this is closer to what we want to see. Let’s see some more, TexasFred, and then I’ll have a triple helping of your best rock-our-socks-off argument, please. You just got my attention and I am listening. Your move, sir. Time to play those pocket aces… </span></div>
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<i>Of course the Democrats dispute the numbers, they are not Dem numbers. That is the hypocrisy of the Dems, no one is correct except them, and that’s that!</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Please tell me that’s not it… It can’t be... As much trash as he talks there simply <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">must</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">be</b> an Obamacare <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">suh-mashing </i>argument buried here somewhere. {{*fidgets impatiently*}} I shall continue to give him the benefit of the doubt and forge ahead…</span></div>
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<i><i><span style="font-family: Times;">Most</span></i> Dems are basically stupid. <i><span style="font-family: Times;">Most</span></i> Dems believe that money really does grow on trees or can just be printed and distributed at will, and hey, the Feds are paying for this big old debacle called ObamaCare, so why should all of us EVIL Conservatives be concerned?</i></blockquote>
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<i>It’s FREE … right?</i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">I am SO glad my folks didn’t live to see what the Democratic Party has become; they would have BOTH become HARD CORE Conservatives in less time than it takes to type this missive.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Oh. My. God. “Most Dems are basically stupid.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THIS is your argument?!?! </i>YOU CANNOT <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">POSSIBLY</b> BE SERIOUS. Ashton Kutcher, come out, come out, wherever you are! The jig is up. That prankster TexasFred has clearly done it again. Good one, old man. You really had me going there for a minute…</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In conclusion; Barack Hussein Obama has got to go!</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">No. Really? Absolutely not meant to be a joke? Are you sure? <i>Really??</i> Well, how sure are you? Okay… And when you say 100% you do mean, like, out of 100%, correct?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">*sigh* </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Please, you’ll all have to excuse me for a moment while I collect my fury and fight the urge to, as my husband calls it, “let my Waco out” (yes, that Waco) right here for all the world to see… (Just to clarify, that phrase, as used here in jest, would refer to something along the lines of a super trashy, redneck, obscenity-ridden rant telling our boy TexasFred <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">exactly </i>what I think of him, and perhaps a recommendation or two as to where he might consider <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">putting </i>this ignorant, abhorrent, racist, appalling rhetoric… Thought I best spell that out, considering the other topics typically associated with Waco. Yikes, that could’ve sounded really creepy. Anyway.) Fight the urge, Krista. Fight the urge…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Okay, my “Waco” has officially been contained. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">About his argument… or, more appropriately, TOTAL lack thereof. At least the gentleman from <a href="http://kristagollihar.blogspot.com/2012/07/self-made-man.html#.UBGi_HDaipc" target="_blank">last week</a> put forth an effort to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sound </i>like he was making one. There really are no words with which I can properly articulate my thoughts on this because it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isn’t even coherent</i>, much less deserving of a reply. I hate myself a tiny bit at the moment for even clicking on his site in the first place, and just a little more for any free publicity that might be generated because I have no choice but to link his post on my page. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">You might be now be thinking, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Okay, smooth move there. Liberal democrat chic found some fringe froot-loop conservative radical skulking about in the darkest, loneliest corners of the web to provide a ridiculously easy target whose (non-)argument could be destroyed effortlessly, thus making a mockery of the actual *legitimate* argument that belongs here, and making her own uber-liberal agenda all the more easily swallowed. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">First of all, that’s certainly a fair question to ask. I admit, given the degree of quality and depth </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (appalling and nada, respectively) </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">found in TexasFred's post, that does indeed appear to be the case. Buuuut, guess what? It’s trivia time! Anyone care to wager any guesses as to how many visitors this man’s blog has received? Anyone? 300? Higher. 700? Getting warmer. 4,000? Warmer still, but not even remotely close. 40,000? Negative. According to the third-party traffic-counter displayed on his page, The TexasFred Blog has had 875,578 page views... Yes, the disturbing, empty noise on his site has apparently been read by almost a <i>million people. . . .</i> It pains me to say this, but it would seem to be the case that maybe his type of mindset isn't very “fringe” at all. In fact, flip the channel to Fox News, for example; it might rightly be said that our new friend TexasFred has more in common with the mainstream conservative stance than one ought be comfortable with. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">But in the interest of actually having a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaningful </i>(or at least coherent) conversation about health care reform as planned, I have no choice but to improvise. I am now going to play devil’s advocate and present to you the argument(s) that TxFred could've -- and <i>should’ve -- </i>been making. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Conservative Position</span></h2>
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I think this can be sufficiently summarized rather quickly, <span style="font-size: 10pt;">so let me give it a go. The primary points of contention concerning Obamacare, as I understand them, are as follows:</span> </div>
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<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Projected costs of expanding coverage are in the neighborhood of $1.2 trillion between now and 2022.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It will drastically increase the national debt.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It will dramatically increase federal spending on health care.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It will artificially inflate health care costs because the federal government will be interfering with the self-regulating free-market.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Rick Perry & Co., as the LA Times article noted, argues that it will “bankrupt the states” and that “socialized medicine” goes against the wishes of our founding fathers.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Perry also claims that about 2 million people would be added to Texas’ Medicaid rolls in the first two years.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Expanding Medicaid and other social programs is only going to propagate dependency by the poor on the government and increase the tax burden on “the rest of us.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Again from Perry, “We don’t need the federal government to come in and do for us what we can do just fine by ourselves. We can do it better.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It’s going to force everyone to foot the bill for abortions.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Lest we forget the great Death Panel scare spurned on mostly by the Tea Party.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The true long-term costs can not be accurately or completely forecasted, and it will likely end up costing more than any of the projections show.</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">We just can’t afford it. </span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">How’s that for everyone? Fair assessment? I realize several of these seem redundant, but I often hear them presented separately within the same argument as if they are two separate points, so in the interest of addressing everyone’s concerns I have included them all here. If I’ve missed anything major, please let me know and let’s discuss. And for the record, “discuss” does not involve loosely associated belief statements, derogatory or insulting claims, nor does it involve cherry-picking bits of information, data or statistics randomly from here and there, then compiling them to suit our individual motives. A “discussion” involves <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">listening;</i> it involves <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">facts</i>; and it involves an honest evaluation of said facts… <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ALL</i> of them. Those are the rules, take it or leave it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Just The Facts </span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I will now address each of the above points one-by-one to be sure we’re all on the same page. Once we're done, we can then mull it over and perhaps make a more informed decision together about where we stand on the issue. Are you ready? I'm not sure you ready... Very well then, off we go.</span></div>
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1. Projected costs of expanding coverage are in the neighborhood of $1.2 trillion between now and 2022.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></b></h4>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">True. According to both the initial comprehensive evaluation in 2010, as well as the report released today by the <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/budget-office-health-care-law-reduces-deficit-2421758.html">Congressional Budget Office</a> (CBO), this is roughly the correct projection; however, the point I rarely see mentioned is made <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="_blank">here</a> by Douglas Elmendorf, an American economist and current director of the CBO. As the AP phrased it <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">yesterday</a>, “T<span class="entry-content">he law's mix of spending cuts and tax increases would more than offset new spending to cover uninsured people, Elmendorf explained.” And keep in mind that while the CBO is, in theory, intended to be a nonpartisan entity, it is technically functioning under the leadership of a Republican majority in Congress. Elmendorf reports directly to </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_of_the_United_States_House_of_Representatives" title="Speaker of the United States House of Representatives">Speaker of the House of Representatives</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boehner" title="John Boehner">John Boehner</a>, a conservative Republican from Ohio. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It will drastically increase the national debt.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">False. Neither of the major comprehensive reports released have shown this. Not by a long shot. As a matter of fact, all reports published by the CBO have consistently shown that <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Obama’s health care legislation will <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">reduce </i>the deficit by at least $143 billion</a> from 2010 to 2019 – and this is taking into account the delayed time-frame for which several of the cost-saving measures would gradually be put into effect. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Most interestingly, I think, is one point in particular that you will almost certainly not see making headlines over at Fox News, but that is <i>highly </i>relevant--<i>crucial </i>even--to the overall strength of the typical conservative argument. That point is this: While the CBO report does indeed project <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decreases </i>in the national deficit as a direct result of Obama’s health care legislation, they do also predict a significant simultaneous increase to the deficit from a single source: <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="_blank">Republican legislative efforts</a> to repeal the health care laws. Legislative processes are not free; they require time, energy, paperwork, scores of legal and formal proceedings, not to mention some of the highest paid government employees in the nation to address it all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The CBO put the expected costs incurred by the <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">Republican</a> push for repeal of Obamacare to add at least $109 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">billion</i> to the national deficit over the next 8 years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Contrast this with Obama’s deficit <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">reduction </b>of ~$143 billion. And Obama’s efforts are made in the interest of (a) reducing costs, and (b) giving millions more Americans access to basic health care services. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/budget-office-health-care-law-reduces-deficit-2421758.html" target="_blank">Republican efforts torepeal</a> will be <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">costing</b> us nearly every dollar that Obamacare is set to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">save</b>. And for what? To have their way? If you think that they are doing it purely out of concern for Republican “conservative” values of diminishing frivolous spending, I ask you: Viewed in this light, which side of this debate sounds more reasonable and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">conservative </b>to you?</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It will dramatically increase federal spending on health care.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">This was largely addressed above, but I’ll add one thing. In the words of the <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_CARE_OVERHAUL_COSTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>: </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Democrats hailed Tuesday's estimates as vindication for the president. "This confirms what we've been saying all along: the Affordable Care Act saves lots of money," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Actually, the government will spend more. It just won't go onto the national credit card because the health care law will be paid for with a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I think it is of the utmost importance, particularly in this conversation, that we keep in mind one very simple but often forgotten fact: virtually every statistic we ever come across has the potential to be grossly misinterpreted, and perhaps more ominously, an even greater potential to be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">willfully misrepresented </i>by those who have an agenda. And unless you are the scientist, economist, or mathematician collecting and running those numbers yourself, one ought put little to no faith in random stats without a GIANT dose of skepticism and inquiry to go along. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Take spending for example. Granted, this is a very silly example, but I think it will adequately illustrate my point. Let's say I have this friend, whom for the past 3 years or so has been spending ~$3600/mo. But then, for the next three years that follow, he's suddenly dropping anywhere from $6 to $18k/mo. What's your instinctual reaction to that sharp change in spending at a glance? What would be your long-term projections for my friend in terms of his financial stability? It shouldn’t be at all promising. But what if that friend’s change in spending came as a result of his little garage-based jumpstart business taking off, well on its way to becoming the next Microsoft or Apple? It changes the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaning </i>of those stats quite considerably, don’t you think? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I am not saying the government should be the next Bill Gates in terms of revenues. All I am saying is that context matters. Particularly when we are talking about government spending, we absolutely cannot take into account <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only </i>the value spent. Our deficit is not a product of spending in and of itself; it is a product of our spending <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in relation to </i>the amount coming in. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It will artificially inflate health care costs because the federal government will be interfering with the self-regulating free-market.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">One cannot say definitively true or false, but this is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">highly unlikely. </i>Countless examples throughout history and throughout the world have repeatedly demonstrated the opposite to be true. Contrary to popular belief, the free market is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not </b>self-regulating in all cases, and it is most certainly <a href="http://www.flora.org/flora/archive/mai-info/fallacy.htm" target="_blank">not self-regulating</a> in a linear, even, across-the-board sort of way. Financial and consumer markets, much like everything else in life, exist along a spectrum. Yes, it is true that many avenues of the “consumer-driven marketplace” provide a circumstance in which the consumer has power relatively equal to that of those offering goods or services. To put it bluntly, UrbanDictionary-style, if the product or service sucks, people won’t buy it, thus exerting a great deal of influence on the makers/providers to hit the drawing board and modify in some way so that they may again appeal to and please the customer. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">*Please note: This free-market model, however,<b> </b><i>does not apply </i>to the class of goods or services that cannot readily or reasonably be dropped altogether at a moment's notice. We live in a modern, technologically advanced, civilized society. If energy providers in our area are collectively charging exorbitant rates and raking in obscene profits, can we as consumers simply decide to due without their services in order to induce better prices? Realistically, no. Of course not. This is why the energy industry has been regulated for decades. The same is true for all other utilities, oil and fuel, telephone services, the banking industry, and virtually every other product or service that fits into this category. <a href="http://www.flora.org/flora/archive/mai-info/fallacy.htm" target="_blank">History has shown</a> it to be the case more often than not that some degree of government regulation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">improves </i>the overall stability and fairness of standard business practices.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Rick Perry & Co., as the LA Times article noted, argues that it will “bankrupt the states” and that “socialized medicine” goes against the wishes of our founding fathers.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">First of all, bankrupt the states is not a legitimate claim. Perry is actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">turning down </i>approximately <a href="http://www.austinchronicle.com/blogs/news/2012-07-09/perry-rejects-health-care-for-texas/" target="_blank">$13 billion</a> dollars offered by the federal government to fully fund the entire Medicaid expansion. This isn’t about fiscal or social responsibility, and it is clearly not about what is truly in the best interest of Texas citizens. What is it about then? I wish I knew. My best guess would be to keep his image consistent with one he’s been presenting to the public for years and years, an image that is apparently in line with the majority of the Texas voting population since we keep reelecting him over and over and over again. Maybe he thinks it’s what most of us want. And perhaps it is. But <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">why </i>is it what we want? Because we’ve carefully evaluated the situation from all angles? Or is because we tend to go along with whatever our chosen party endorses as best because we naively think that our values align across the board with those representatives and that they have our best interests at heart? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I think it is also worth noting here that our Freedom-&-Liberty-endorsing, gun-toting, ridiculously conservative and apparently die-hard Libertarian Governor . . . . started out his political career as a centrist Democrat. <a href="http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2081596,00.html">As Time explains in this article</a>, calling it Rick Perry’s “inconvenient political truth,” Perry was the “1988 Campaign chairman for then US Senator Al Gore’s first run at the presidency.” At the time, both men were comparably democratic. My how far we’ve come… </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">As for his branding of “socialized medicine” as a dirty, nasty, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">evil</i> little word, let the record also show that <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/10/v-print/155557/perrys-medicaid-plan-would-pass.html">Perry both VOTED FOR and PARTICIPATES IN</a> a federal program through which he obtains <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">own</i> health insurance through exactly the kind of insurance exchange that he has rebuked and rejected repeatedly in the media. He wasn’t quite so opposed to the idea when it was his own health and well-being at stake…</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">6.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Perry also claims that about 2 million people would be added to Texas’ Medicaid rolls in the first two years.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Granted, numbers-wise, this seems like a <a href="http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2018646692_texascare10.html" target="_blank">reasonableestimate</a>. I have not seen these specific data that Perry cites every other day in the media, but I would indeed expect that in comparison to other states, Texas would have drastically higher number of initial enrollment in an expansion of Medicaid for one simple reason: We are very near the bottom of the list when measuring (a) the percent of residents at or below the poverty line, (b) the number of presently uninsured Texans per capita, and (c) the ease of access to assistance such as programs like Medicaid to its poorest citizens. All things considered, it makes perfect sense that we would have a seemingly massive swell of initial enrollment; because there are so very many of us currently struggling to survive without it. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">7.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Expanding Medicaid and other social programs is only going to propagate dependency by the poor on the government and increase the tax burden on “the rest of us.”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Please see <a href="http://kristagollihar.blogspot.com/2012/07/self-made-man.html#.UBBe-HDajIw">my previous post</a>, On the Fallacy of the Self-Made Man. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">8.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Again from Perry, “We don’t need the federal government to come in and do for us what we can do just fine by ourselves. We can do it better.”</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">If that were true we wouldn’t rank 50<sup>th</sup> out of 50 states in terms of citizens with health insurance. And as is abundantly clear in this Fox News interview, Perry has absolutely NO alternative plan to improve the current situation. He gets to enjoy his fully-funded socialized health care package, so to Hell with the rest of us. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">9.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">It’s going to force everyone to foot the bill for abortions. </span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This is simply just not true. </span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Great pains have actually been taken by the Obama administration to implement a very complex additional system here that safeguards against the possibility that ANY federal or tax payer monies will potentially go toward funding an abortion, unless and until said tax payer has given their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">express consent </i>by opting <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">into</i> an entirely separate exchange for an additional monthly cost, in which only the addition fee designated specifically for this elective coverage of women’s health services is never pooled with or funded by general public funds.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">10.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Lest we forget the great Death Panel scare spurned on by the Tea Party? </span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I lied. I am not going to address every single point. As a healthcare provider myself, I refuse to even dignify this idiotic statement with a response. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">11.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> The true long-term costs cannot be accurately or completely forecasted, and it will likely end up costing more than any of the projections show. </span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Finally, a perfectly valid point and reasonable point. Because of a multitude of factors, we cannot, under any circumstances, claim to predict the future, and it is undoubtedly the case that when our estimations are off, we are more likely to be over-budget than under. Case in point: Medicare. This has proven to be substantially and increasingly more expensive than any early projections had anticipated. There are undoubtedly a multitude of reasons for this, but among the most suspect of reasons, one might argue, had/has much to do with previously unforeseen <b>skyrocketing</b> of healthcare costs in this country. Which brings us to our last, and in my view most important point. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">12.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> We just can’t afford it. </span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">If you’re still with me this far, I applaud you for both your patience and dedication, if absolutely nothing else. I apologize for the incredible length, which I suddenly find exhaustive myself, so I can only imagine where you’re at right about now… (Watching Jersey Shore perhaps, long gone from my seemingly endless rant? I kid.) But in all seriousness, it’s almost over, I swear. Bear with me here just a few moments longer and I’ll attempt to explain what I view as among the most important points worthy of consideration. They are also among the talking points that I hear mentioned <i>least </i>in the media, which just seems crazy to me because they are serious potential game-changers in the tone and direction of the health care debate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">First and foremost, regardless of what you might think of the Obama administration, and regardless of whether you oppose or support the new health care legislation, the fact remains and it cannot be denied that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">already have </i>“socialized medicine” -- and this is NOT a new development! Believe it or not, we’ve been doing it for years--decades even; I submit that the only truly new element in all this seems to be the rebranding of the term "social-" anything as the most evil, awful thing on Earth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">It doesn’t matter if you have a dime to your name; if you walk into an emergency room with an injury or illness that is clearly in need of medical attention, there is not a hospital in the country that will turn you away. You are treated first and billed later, and this is a simple fact that no one can deny. And what do you suppose happens to all of those outrageously expensive emergency room visits for which many patients can never hope to afford to pay? Is it written off as charity by the hospital? If it were, we wouldn’t have a hospital left in the country because if they weren’t already bankrupt, they soon would be. One ABC News report recently detailed a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">single non-profit hospital </i>in Midland, Texas, that had <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/texas-emergency-rooms-levy-fees-care/story?id=15751970#.UBBpXnDajIw">over $14 million in unpaid ER visit bills</a> – in 2008 <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">alone. </b>Can you imagine the staggering value that must exist on a state-wide basis? And an estimated 75% of these bills consisted of non-emergent care that would ordinarily be delivered by a Primary Care Provider (PCP); however, the uninsured among us rely overwhelmingly on the ER to serve this function.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">So how do they recover these costs? Well, fewer than half of Texas’ hospitals are for-profit, privately owned organizations; the majority are non-profit, public hospitals. When a local hospital is operating with substantial consistent losses, what typically happens is that these costs become <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">socialized </i>throughout the entire community in the form of property taxes – which helps explain why, despite being the low-tax/no-tax haven Perry brags about, we still collectively pay among the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/texas-emergency-rooms-levy-fees-care/story?id=15751970#.UBBpXnDajIw">highest property taxes</a> in the country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Now, if we’re going to end up all paying for it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">together </i>anyway, one way or another, the question really becomes whether we choose to pay it “forward” in the form of preventative care, or whether we pay for it on the other end, where it assumes the role of “crisis management.” As noted above in the ABC article, among many other places, preventative care payed “forward” by way of regular access to a PCP not only happens for a fraction of the cost no matter how you look at it, but in all likelihood the total cost of health care services spread over a lifetime is also substantially less because of improved ongoing management of chronic and/or life-threatening diseases. For example, compare the total sum of treatment costs for an individual to see a PCP perhaps once or twice a year, and, say, 30 years worth of hypertension and/or cholesterol-lowering medications; then, compare this total with the sum of all costs if that same individual were to receive none of the comparatively cheap on-going care throughout his life, but instead racked up 7 intermittent ER visits and maybe an ambulance ride or two for chest pain, along with two emergent open-heart surgeries, one of which required a triple bypass. The average cost of an ER visit is around $2k, and a single open-heart surgery costs no less than $200k… As opposed to a $10 or $15 prescription each month. You do the math.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The truth is, like it or not, our health care costs in this country are undeniably <i>already "socialized."</i> When our neighbor's can't or don't pay for their own medical care, we all foot the bill, whether it be via Medicare, Medicaid, sales tax, property tax, etc. etc. etc. I'm sorry if you hadn't realized and/or find this news upsetting. But to that I say: <br /><br /><b>GET OVER IT.</b> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The dilemma we are presented with today is<b><i> </i>not</b>, contrary to popular belief, <i>should we or shouldn't we socialize medicine</i>? No, the only real dilemma concerns <i>the way in which we choose to go about it. </i>Now, all things considered -- particularly this last bit of rather damning evidence -- I wish someone could <i>pleasepleaseplease </i>explain to me how it is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOT </b>the position of <i>each</i> and <i>every</i> intelligent and informed "conservative" in America that the absolute best move we can make as a country with respect to health care is to <i>immediately</i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b><b>STOP</b> going about it in the most fiscally irresponsible way possible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">So often I hear it asked, <i>Can we really afford to pay for health care in this country?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Perhaps the question ought to be: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Can we really afford not to?</i></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-67098779348042847392012-07-20T23:11:00.000-05:002012-08-13T15:45:20.738-05:00On the Fallacy of the Self-Made Man<div style="color: black;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">t often seems as if the Texas State Seal ought to be emblazoned with the byline, “Proud Home of the Self-Made Man.” Indeed, according to many, Rick Perry is the walking, talking embodiment of this concept. <a href="http://blog.chron.com/rickperry/2011/08/perrys-rugged-texan-image-can-send-conflicting-message/" target="_blank">As the Houston Chronicle puts it</a>, “</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">In many ways, Gov. Rick Perry<i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> is</span></i> the iconic Texan, a self-made man whose rugged individualism has come to define his public life, for better or worse.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">But what does it mean, really, to be “self-made”? This term the Chronicle has coupled with it, “rugged individualism,” seems to fit the stereotype quite nicely. I am inclined to think that the mental image that springs to my mind when I hear phrases like this is not terribly different from what most people envision—particularly my fellow Texans: A salt-of-the-earth, grassroots, tough-as-nails type of man; a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and through nothing but hard work and individual merit, made something great of himself, in the face of considerable odds. A truly self-reliant, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">rugged</i> individual, who never took a dime from anyone and doesn’t owe the world a dime. Perhaps even a pair of boots named Freedom and Liberty….</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">At least this is what I picture. And it does seem to be the very essence of the Great American Dream. If absolutely nothing else, it’s damn sure the Texan Dream, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to draw parallels between this ideal and the staunchly conservative position that typifies Texas politics, along with a substantial portion of the nation. And anyone that dares to challenge this glorious Texan/American Dream, may the Good Lord have mercy on their soul… </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">But challenge it he did, our beloved President, and the conservative talking heads roiled with unchecked rage. <a href="http://m.dallasnews.com/tdmn/db_283471/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=8sAgKdg6&full=true#display">In a scathing article published</a> in the Dallas Morning News yesterday, staff editorial writer Mike Hashimoto effectively attempts to crucify Obama for comments made last week to a crowd in Roanoke, Virginia; comments which Mr. Hashimoto apparently equates with sacrilegious desecration of the Great American Way. But I shall now let Mr. Hashimoto speak for himself: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">“<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia">[Obama] slapped aside the efforts of business builders and owners in what’s supposed to be a free-enterprise system</a>, was it a mistake or a mistaken revelation? As the news business goes, the quote has been reduced to this: “If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My answer<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2819164673918737919" name="display"> </a>would be to track back through his government-vs.-private-sector comments and his policy prescriptions over time. I think it’s pretty clear that this is a president — <i><span style="font-family: Calibri;">of the United States</span></i> — who has little appreciation for the American way and certainly the American Dream. To his mind, if government doesn’t provide it, it’s not worth having.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He goes on to argue against what he seems to view as the liberal apologist default position, attempting to invalidate various arguments made in defense of Obama’s comments. To better illustrate his own opinion of such arguments, he quotes Reason.com’s Tim Cavanaugh, <a href="http://reason.com/blog/2012/07/18/how-you-didnt-build-that-became-he-didnt">who says the following</a>: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The president’s supporters have a multipronged counterargument: Either he didn’t make those comments or they were taken out of context or even if they are in context they don’t matter because we should be reading between the lines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As an example of the former type, he offers up a Tweet posted by Texas State Rep. Eric Johnson, a democrat from Dallas, who apparently posted on Twitter: “U know #POTUS comment is being taken completely out of context, so why perpetuate a lie? Integrity, bro.” To which Hashimoto replies, “Yeah, OK, bro. Clown question.” Um, seriously? Granted, Johnson’s comments weren’t the most eloquent the world has ever seen, but that was on Twitter… What’s Hashimoto’s excuse? Is this seriously a mainstream news Editorial, or are we reading a random Facebook rant? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Anyway. It isn’t until the end that he</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> finally recounts the President’s actual statements in full: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The article author then closes with the following gem: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So, please, spare me the “roads and bridges” defense. You can wish he didn’t say what he said, but to pretend his words don’t mean exactly what they appear to mean falls far short of reasonable. “Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.” In Obama’s mind, obviously, that somebody is the government. And I think most Americans would reject the notion that this is a country where we are “allowed” to thrive by government.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Now, I’m going to refrain from taking cheap shots at the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">grossly</i> substandard quality of writing offered here because, frankly, he did a mighty fine job of that himself. And why add insult to injury? Instead, let’s just focus on the disassembly of this appalling excuse for an argument—if one can even call it that. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Actually, despite his overt claims that he’s actually making one here, I cannot, in good conscious, even classify this as an argument. An argument requires, at a minimum, two things: Propositions/statements/evidence and a conclusion, which do all seem present here, but there’s a catch: to be an argument, the propositions have to actually offer support in some way to one’s conclusion, and inversely, the conclusion has to be supported in some way by the propositions offered. This is why they’re typically called “supporting statements.” All I see here is a conclusion: Obama is the Devil. I kid. But that isn’t too far from the truth. Hashimoto more or less tries to convince his readers that Obama has opened up a good ol’ fashioned can of Texas whoop-ass on our beloved “self-made” man; however, despite his painstaking efforts to present it as such, this rant amounts to nothing more than a randomly asserted belief—which, contrary to popular belief, is NOT an argument. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But considering how many people in our state and country would wholeheartedly buy into this random assertion, let’s play along and pretend that it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> an argument for a moment, in the interest of exposing its inherent incoherency. If we were to break it down into formal logical structure, it might go something like this: </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Obama said “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that.”</span></div>
<div style="color: black; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most Americans <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do </i>believe they build their own businesses. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Building one’s own business is the American way. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt 'Times New Roman';"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Therefore, Obama must be wrong, because we believe in the American Way.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; margin-left: 0.5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">For starters, this pseudo-argument’s only offering of anything even resembling supportive evidence is that most Americans “believe” something. To use his words, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Yeah, OK, bro…</i> 47% of Americans don’t even know <a href="http://www.science20.com/news_releases/science_literacy_american_adults_flunk_basic_science_says_survey" target="_blank">how long it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun</a>... Hell, 29% think that <a href="http://science.drvinson.net/polls" target="_blank">the Sun revolves around us</a>. Forgive me for being cynical (realistic?) here, but I would be more than a little hesitant to trust <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i> the general public “believes,” simply because they believe it. And even if it were true, it’s a circular argument. Non-argument. Whatever. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">So what did we learn from all this? Absolutely nothing—which is kind of the point. The vast majority of arguments waged in this vein contain little to no worthwhile <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">substance</i>, and no matter how many times they might work in the term “argument,” that does not make it such. If you’re going to claim that you’re making an argument, then MAKE ONE. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Convince me. </i>Show me some <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">evidence</i> that refutes Obama’s claim that we effectively couldn’t do what we do or make what we make or become what we will become entirely independent of all external factors, namely, the federal government. I’ll give anybody a shot to convince me that’s not true; I’ll listen to whatever coherent case might be made, and I am not so stubborn or arrogant or pretentious that I’m incapable of changing my mind. But you may as well give up the empty noise and tired hand waving, because that is never going to cut it. And as it turns out, Obama happens to be in very good company on this one—with his strongest support coming from the last places one might expect….</span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A dear friend of mine, Lovelace Soirez, sent me a letter on this subject a while back titled “Taxes and the Myth of the Self-Made Man.” Because I feel that he states this position much more eloquently than I can, I’m going to quote a bit of what he wrote here, and I do hope that he won’t mind. </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">We can debate all day about whether or not our current form of government is the best way to address the myth of the self-made man, but what follows is the bare-minimum of what needs to be acknowledged when having this debate. In my opinion, intellectual honesty demands that we acknowledge the role that society plays in shaping who we are. It's the starting point. The commenter (at the very bottom) sums up nicely why this is so. We all benefit significantly from public goods... much more so than libertarians are willing to admit. Sorry there's so much here, but it's worth the read.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He goes on to cite numerous references that collectively serve to decimate this notion of the “self-made man" to the point of virtually irrefutable. I’ll admit I feel a bit guilty for piggy-backing off of his sources here, but I do so only because they are among the best I’ve yet to find. Time and space will not allow me to share them all with you (believe me, I am tempted), but I’ll try to hit the highlights. And like he did, I will apologize for length, along with wholehearted agreement that it’s certainly worth a read.</span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first comes from <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201006/the-myths-the-self-made-man-and-meritocracy">this 2010 publication</a>: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in North America say there is no such thing as the "self-made man." With more millionaires making, rather than inheriting, their wealth, there is a false belief that they made it on their own without help, a new report published by the Boston-based non-profit <b>United For a Fair Economy</b>, states. The group has signed more than 2,200 millionaires and billionaires to a petition to reform and keep the U.S. inheritance tax. The report says the myth of "self-made wealth is potentially destructive to the very infrastructure that enables wealth creation.”</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The individuals profiled in the report believed they prospered in large part to things beyond their control and because of the support of others. Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world said, "<i>I personally think that society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned."</i> Erick Schmidt, CEO of Google says, "<i>Lots of people who are smart and work hard and play by the rules don't have a fraction of what I have. I realize that I don't have my wealth because I'm so brilliant."</i></span><i><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yes, you read that correctly. That was a few of those so-called self-made men—among the wealthiest, most successful businessmen in America—<i>supporting</i> precisely what Obama suggested and <i>refuting </i>the generally conservative counter-position. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-08-31-column31_ST_N.htm">And here is another</a> obscenely wealthy media-empire heiress, Abigal Disney, discussing the many ways in which Disney could never have been possible for her grandfather in absence of . . . Guess who! </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">[M]y grandfather vowed never to let himself be taken advantage of again. He soon registered a copyright on a new character named Mickey Mouse. It was 1928, and it was neither the first nor the last time the Walt Disney Co. benefited from a federal system of protections, laws and taxes that created fertile ground for building a business empire.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In addition to the copyright protections for Mickey, the Federal Communications Commission regulated the airwaves that carried the Disneyland television series and, of course, the Mickey Mouse Club. The transportation and federal highway system built in the wake of World War II took millions of visitors to Disneyland. The Marshall Plan helped rebuild devastated European markets into which Disney poured its products, turning a quaint American company into a global brand.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Let’s read more, this time from <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/04/taxing_rich">The Economist</a>: </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">DANA MILBANK wrote a snark-suffused <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/06/AR2010040603743.html">piece</a> in yesterday's <i>Washington Post</i> on a conference call by a group of millionaires who'd like to see their own taxes raised. The group is affiliated with <a href="http://www.faireconomy.org/">United for a Fair Economy</a>, which pushes for a more progressive tax code. The thrust of the meeting was that Barack Obama's plans to cancel an extension of the Bush tax cuts for people earning more than $250,000 a year are a good first step, but don't go far enough. Mr Milbank quotes fifth-generation paper mill heir Mike Lapham, who thinks he pays "obscenely low tax rates", and notes that the group has pledged to donate the money it saves under the Bush tax cuts to groups pushing for higher marginal taxes on the rich. . . . </span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> ….Here's the thing: taxes are not charity. It would be a bad idea for wealthy people who feel they should be paying more taxes to instead contribute large amounts of money voluntarily to reduce the national debt. The first, less important reason for this is that any individual's contributions would be meaninglessly small; they can make far more difference by using the same amount of money to advocate for higher taxes, as these millionaires are doing. But the second, more important reason is that even if a million millionaires got together and voluntarily donated money in such quantities that it made a measurable dent in the deficit, <i>it would be even worse</i>, because they would be giving license to other people to continue pay less than their fair share of taxes. It's an invitation to free-riding, with the public-minded rich subsidising the irresponsible and selfish.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">If America did not have a severe and potentially catastrophic national debt problem, one could have a legitimate argument in which some people argued for higher taxes and more defense, health care, transportation, etc, while others argued for lower taxes and less defense, health care, transportation, etc. That is not the situation in which America finds itself. For 30 years, we have systematically collected much less in taxes than our government spends; the structural deficit used to be around 3% of GDP, but over the past two years it's leapt up due to the recession. Over the long term, we need to make painful choices to bring expenses and revenues back into line. There are two legitimate arguments one can make here. One is "I think we should raise taxes in the following ways." The other is "I think we should make the following massive cuts in defense, health care, transportation etc." It is not legitimate to say: "Hey, if you feel like paying more to reduce the debts we all incurred together, go ahead; as for me, I'll pass."</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">And I swear <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/04/taxing_rich?page=2">this is the last one</a>, but these are just too great (and important) not to share: </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Heimdall wrote:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Apr 9th 2010 3:02 GMT</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I rarely see this point brought up, so I'll give it a shot.</span> <br />
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A couple of things that you can say about people who are extremely wealthy are pretty non-controversial:</span> <br />
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">1) They have a lot of wealth.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">2) They accumulated that wealth through some mechanism.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here we get to the controversial part.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most people who are wealthy credit their situation solely to their hard work, talent, etc. And they credit the situation of the poor solely to their lack of work ethic, talent, etc. Ergo, the wealthy are -- by definition -- deserving of whatever they desire and the poor are equally deserving of their squalor. I think of this as "the Ayn Rand" position.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I'd like to point out that a critical component in wealth accumulation -- possibly even greater than work ethic or talent -- is the infrastructure that the government provides to enable such accumulation: rule of law, the justice system, transportation infrastructure, education, national defense, etc.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Without this infrastructure our wealthy magnate is but a warlord in Afghanistan or Somalia. With them he is Bill Gates or she is Meg Whitman. This infrastructure is a lever by which people can magnify their work ethic and talent.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The wealthy have demonstrably used this lever to a much greater degree than the poor. The poor may get a pittance in food stamps, social security, etc. The wealthy accumulate millions if not billions of dollars by skillfully manipulating this lever.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Shouldn't people who use a thing pay more for that thing?</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I submit that an objective measure of utilization of the lever of governmental infrastructure is the wealth that a person is able to accumulate. Thus, the percent of the tax "burden" shouldered by the wealthy should be proportional to the wealth they have accumulated.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Which is not to say that we should have a single "wealth tax". But it is to say that we should recalibrate a diversified revenue stream on occasion such that the top n% as measured by wealth pay approximately n% of taxes.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color: black;">
<div style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is not "confiscation" as some like to say. It is payment for services received in direct proportion to the degree a person uses those services. </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In case your typical frame of reference includes a combination of hand-waving pundits and the uneducated powers that be, what you’ve just seen above: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">these </b>are what arguments are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">supposed </i>to look like. And unless and until I see something at least comparable from the other side, I will remain of the position that if the “American Way” is synonymous with the “self-made man,” then the American Way is nothing more than a delusion of grandeur. </span></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unfortunately for those of us in Texas, it is this very myth that fuels the Perry & Co. fire and largely propagates this anti-tax/pro-business culture that the majority of our closest neighbors embrace. We have effectively arranged our state according to a business model based on principles that, so far as I can tell, do not exist. The educated, informed perspective seems to suggest that Rick Perry has it perfectly backwards when he argues that a low-tax/no-tax economic environment is the best recipe for future success. As former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously put it, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” And when it comes to civilized society, most unfortunately for those of us in Texas, we do get exactly what we pay for—with our education system being the prime example. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt;">So when Mr. Hashimoto said “I think most Americans would reject the notion that this is a country where we are ‘allowed’ to thrive by government,” I suspect he was likely correct; however, unlike Mr. Hashimoto, I also happen to think that most Americans have it <b>wrong</b>. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="color: black; text-align: justify;">
<br />
And, again, to Lovelace: Thank you<span style="font-family: Calibri;">—</span>not just for allowing me to shamelessly restate your argument here, but mainly for your friendship and the wisdom that it brings. I am grateful.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-3711316951862938392012-07-17T23:41:00.000-05:002012-08-13T15:49:13.996-05:00Gay Bashing and Bad Science: The Sequel<style>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">After quite a bit of further thought I’ve realized that, while it may seem painfully obvious to me, I should perhaps clarify for some of my readers just what exactly <a href="http://www.austincc.edu/kseago/summer2012/2306-072blogs.html">my previous post</a> has to do with Texas politics. More importantly, I also feel the need to better explain and emphasize explicitly why this issue ought to matter—and matter <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">greatly—</i>to all of you, regardless of which side of the debate you happen to be on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Before we begin, if you’re just joining in this conversation and missed the post referenced above, I would recommend that you <a href="http://kristagollihar.blogspot.com/2012/07/gay-bashing-and-bad-science-sequel.html">start there</a> to catch up since I don’t plan to repeat it all here, but I’ll try to give you the quickest-ever recap in history: As reported last week in the <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/local/ut-investigates-professors-study-on-children-with-gay-2415276.html">Statesman</a>, UT Professor of Sociology Mark Regnerus is currently under international fire for a recently published study in which he essentially claims to have found conclusive evidence that the children of gays and lesbians fare significantly worse than the children of heterosexual couples. Astonishingly poor experimental design coupled with serious conflicts of interest in both funding sources as well as Regnerus’s biased personal ideologies have led to open demands for retraction by <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/open-letter-to-university-of-texas-regarding-professor-mark-regneruss-alleged-unethical-anti-gay-study/civil-rights/2012/06/24/41977">hundreds of well-respected scholars</a> along with countless civil rights advocacy groups around the world. The publishing journal’s parent company, publishing giant Elsevier, has subsequently referred the publication to the Committee on Publication Ethics and Regnerus is now <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/bombshell-letter-scores-of-ph-d-s-ask-for-retraction-of-regnerus-study/legal-issues/2012/06/29/42413">under investigation</a> by the University of Texas for scientific misconduct. Extensive coverage of the case can be found <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/university-of-texas-opens-investigation-of-regnerus-study-ncrm-reporting-plays-central-role/legal-issues/2012/07/01/42495">here</a> from outspoken civil rights activist and writer Scott Rose, whose series of investigate reports has been a leading catalyst for the inquiries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Well, I’m not sure about the “quickest-ever” part, but there you have it. Now, where were we? Ah, yes. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The Politics</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/mark-regnerus-and-noms-anti-gay-rights-expert-witness-project/politics/2012/07/02/42580" target="_blank">Many have speculated</a>, and quite rightly I presume, that the Regnerus study will be both used and abused by those championing the anti-gay rights side of the political spectrum, politicians whom are typically pandering to the conservative/Republican/evangelical Christian voting block. One of the central and frequently heard rallying cries that comes from this anti-gay demographic is something along the lines of </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><i>"But what about the children!?" </i>with their very appalled-shock-and-horror faces. However, the growing body of scientific research conducted over the past decade has, by and large, steadily chipped away at the myth that same-sex orientation of a parent is inherently tragically detrimental to a child. Science had all but debunked this baseless claim being used as a weapon to serve political and social agendas. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Now enter the Family Structures Study, courtesy of <a href="http://www.markregnerus.com/" target="_blank">UTs Mark Regnerus</a> and his team of conservative backers. You might be inclined to ask: "If all of this is true, can a single erroneous study at odds with a massive body of literature actually do that much damage? Won't people simply see it for what it is and move on?" To this I would reply with only one question: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Do you think vaccines are safe? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Chances are, even in a tiny sample size of 36, at least a handful of you answered "I'm not so sure." Would you like to know from where this equally baseless and equally damaging idea came? <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=" target="_blank">From a single erroneous study</a> published in 1998 in which British doctor Andrew Wakefield claimed to have found evidence that childhood vaccinations were "the cause of autism," and the worldwide media frenzy and public hysteria inevitably ensued. However, it gradually came to light</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">—albeit painstakingly slowly</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">—</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">that the Wakefield study was nothing more than <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=" target="_blank">egregiously flawed experimental design</a> coupled with <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=" target="_blank">radically unsubstantiated conclusions</a>, not the least bit supported by even his <i>own </i>evidence, and <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=" target="_blank">severe conflicts of interest concerning funding sources</a>. (Sound familiar? <a href="http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/bombshell-letter-scores-of-ph-d-s-ask-for-retraction-of-regnerus-study/legal-issues/2012/06/29/42413" target="_blank">It should.</a>) Despite being abruptly denounced by hundreds of thousands of academics and the entire medical community; and despite the publication's initial partial retraction, followed later (much later, unfortunately) by a <a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673697110960/fulltext" target="_blank">full retraction</a>; and despite the fact that numerous ethical and scientific review investigations later found Wakefield guilty of dozens of legal and ethical violations, ruling that he had "failed in his duties as a responsible consultant and researcher, acting both against the best interests of his patients, and irresponsibly and dishonestly misrepresenting data in his published research; and despite the fact that he ultimately had his medical license revoked</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">—yes, despite all this, the myth lived on. Or, I should say, "<a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=" target="_blank">lives on</a>." </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">We now find ourselves, <i>nearly 15 years later,</i> somehow still living at the mercy of this one stray, bunk study</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> and the incomprehensible groundswell of widespread fear, irrationality and mistrust that it ushered in. We watch in helplessly awestricken horror as </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">childhood vaccination rates<i> continue</i> to decline</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, bringing with it the inevitable resurgence of many very dangerous, sometimes deadly, childhood diseases, that prior to the decades-long "Wakefield Massacre," as I like to call it, had been all but eradicated in the Western world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Yes, nearly 15 years later,</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jun/06-why-does-vaccine-autism-controversy-live-on/article_view?b_start:int=1&-C=" target="_blank">this one stray, bunk study lives on</a></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">—at the peril of <i>not only</i> the millions of children who now remain unvaccinated, but also at the peril of those whose parents <i>have </i>been wise enough to immunize because they may very well be running around on the playground with many children who aren't. Increased disease prevalence means increased opportunity for random mutation, which means an increased likelihood that one of these diseases will essentially morph into a version (strain) for which our current vaccines are useless. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> So, again, if you are inclined to ask if one bogus study can really do much damage, even if a few politicians and/or the media latch on with their paranoid, fearmongering fingers? <b>YES. </b>Absolutely and unequivocally <b>YES.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><b>What Does This Have to Do With Texas?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Despite his recent open endorsement of equal rights for gay and lesbian citizens, President Obama has stopped short of pushing federal legislation and has instead left it in the hands of the states. As I’m sure you are no doubt aware, our shared state of residence happens to be among the most conservative in the country. And as I am sure you are also aware, civil rights is not merely a social issue; it is a legal one. As with all things legal and political and nature (and everything else on the planet for that matter) there is no such thing as a “final word.” So even though we have already written a ban on same-sex marriage into the Texas Constitution, this debate is <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">far</b> from over, it entails much more than simply marriage, and it will continue to be a central issue in state and local politics well into the foreseeable future. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Why It Matters</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I’ve read that many of my classmates consider themselves largely apathetic towards politics, which leads me to believe that there are also at least a few here who would say that their personal opinions on this (or any other) matter makes no difference whatsoever one way or the other in terms of public policy. I am here to tell you that you are wrong. The relationship between public policy and social attitudes is not unidirectional; it is a perpetual feedback loop where each continually feeds off the other. Even if you have never cast a vote in your life, the general ways in which we speak or act towards one another, even the ways we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think </i>about things, has this very weird way of becoming a sort of collective dialogue that eventually manifests itself into public policy. So I care not only how you might vote on something like gay rights legislation, but also—and perhaps more—I care how you actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">think</i> about it, too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Nearly every argument I’ve ever heard waged against equal rights for the gay and lesbian community has ultimately come down to religious beliefs. Come to think of it, EVERY argument I’ve ever heard waged against equal rights for the gay and lesbian community has ultimately come down to religious beliefs. If anyone anywhere has different motivations for holding that position, I would invite you to please share that with me. Does such an argument exist? Whatever you believe, put it aside for a moment and play along in a little thought experiment: Come up with a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">convincing</i> argument for the anti-gay position that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with tradition or religious dogma. And NO, the Regnerus study <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">does not</b> <b>count</b>. We’ve been through this. </span><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">But I will now pause and give you a moment to think.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Nothing yet? Sure, I’ll wait. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Really, it’s fine. Take your time. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Still waiting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Alright, I give up. I can’t wait all day here. And I’m fairly convinced I would be waiting much longer than that, because so far as I can tell, in absence of religion, no such defensible argument exists. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Which leads me to the million dollar question: Should religious motivations ever be our primary source of inspiration when considering matters of public policy? Public or social policy <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does not mean</i> general social dynamic, mind you; it means LAW. If, when and to what extent is it reasonable, appropriate or wise for religious convictions to dictate law? Before anyone answers that question, I would like you all to quickly pause once more and first consider this: If we were to have looked <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">only</b> to the Good Book, “American tradition,” and “Christian values” rather than reason and civility when making ALL of our social policy decisions throughout history, at this particular moment in time each and every one of you reading would, in all likelihood, be one of two things: either (a) slave-owner, or (b) slave.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Let that one marinate. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">What Are We Doing?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">We are writing discrimination <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">into </i>our Constitution rather that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">out</i>. Instead of focusing our efforts on ensuring fairness and equality for all, we are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">banning </i>it. Whatever your personal beliefs about it may or may not be, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is this really the direction in which we want to be going as state? As a nation? </i>As we have seen with countless other demonized groups of people all throughout history, in a country that prides itself immensely on principles of freedom and fairness with “liberty and justice for all,” it seems inevitable that hateful Prejudice and Discrimination will eventually be trounced by our greatest friend, dear Equality. So why must we continue to cling to our irrational, insidious “traditions” and force each and every single grouping of people that we’ve arbitrarily labeled as "different" to fight and struggle for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">decades on end </i>to gain access to the those very principles and liberties that this country was supposedly founded on? </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Where Are We Going?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Considering his presidential bid can only be described as a complete and utter <i>miserable</i> failure, and considering that we seem intent on keeping him in charge of Texas <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forever, </i>let’s see how Governor Rick Perry weighs in on the issue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A New York Times article, tellingly titled “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/us/politics/perrys-anti-gay-rights-focus-is-divisive-even-to-staff.html">Perry’s Anti-Gay Rights Focus Divisive Even to Staff</a>,” sums it up quite nicely, but let me break it down for you. Or better yet, let’s let Mr. Perry speak for himself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%;">Exhibit A:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">And then, as the NYT put it, I give you Exhibit B:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">“The ad came a day after Mr. Perry stood out in attacking as “silly” a new <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/07/world/united-states-to-use-aid-to-promote-gay-rights-abroad.html" title="Times article.">Obama administration initiative</a> using diplomatic efforts and foreign aid to promote gay rights around the world and beat back efforts in other nations to criminalize homosexual conduct and persecute gays. This policy, Mr. Perry contended, was an “example of an administration at war with people of faith in this country.”</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I’m sorry… What? This may very well be the most logically incoherent line of reasoning I have ever heard in my entire life—and I worked as a psychiatric nurse in intensive care schizophrenia units for a very, very long time. I suppose this isn’t surprising, though, coming from a state whose governor vetoed the initial version of a 1998 anti-hate crime bill put forth in honor of a black man who was beat unconscious, urinated on, chained at the ankles and dragged behind a pickup truck for three miles before getting decapitated by a cement block when the truck took a hard turn, only to then be dumped in mangled pieces in a ditch beside an African American cemetery, at which point his <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/texas-set-to-execute-man-for-1998-dragging-murder-of-james-byrd-jr.html">white supremacist</a> murders headed on over to their neighborhood barbeque in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper,_Texas">Jasper, Texas</a>. And why exactly was the initial version of this anti-hate crime bill vetoed? Because its first version included phrasing that extended protections from these types of hate crimes to gays and lesbians, and that apparently isn’t in line with “American and Christian values.” The bill had to be rewritten <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">twice</i> before it was finally passed into law—I guess to assure that safety and equality were not yet extended too far. To be fair, though, that wasn’t Perry. It was none other than our former Governor and President, George W. Bush. This bill was not amended to include crimes targeted at people based on sexual orientation until 2009 <a href="http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/10/620000629/1#.UAa2TXDaiEU">after Obama took office</a>, despite the fact that more than 12,000 such serious crimes had taken place—and those are just the reported crimes; the actual number is undoubtedly significantly higher—in the decade that passed while Bush refused to compromise his highly moral “Christian values.” I wonder if Governor Perry took this move by Obama as an “attack on faith” as well. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">What Now?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">There is a place for religious sentiment and Christian values, if you like, and that place is in a church—<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">not </b>in a legislative chamber. If these are the types of policies that so-called American tradition and righteous moral values produce, then I, and I suspect a great many others, want absolutely NOTHING OF IT involved in the decision-making processes that take place within the hallowed walls of local government buildings. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I think Americans ought to be free to believe in whatever god or gods they choose, if they choose, and I stand by that position. But when factions of people among us begin implementing policies based on such beliefs, or even gross misinterpretations of such beliefs, that are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">intensely </i>damaging to the general welfare and well-being of our society, then <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">this is where we have to draw the line.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">It is high time that we start seriously evaluating these dearly beloved “American traditions.” We all need to take a long, hard and HONEST look at not just the traditions themselves, but the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">implications </i>that these traditions carry. We must break down the walls of this unyielding, dogmatic, partisan radical extremism that has entrenched itself in our governing bodies so that we may finally give way to an open and honest, rational and intelligent, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meaningful</i> public discourse. And once evaluated, we have to then be willing to actively <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">challenge </b>those traditions that we find are not genuinely in the best interest of our society. </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">This</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> should be the new American Dream. </span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-92208639847477310732012-07-13T00:43:00.001-05:002012-08-13T15:49:53.368-05:00Gay Bashing and Bad Science<style>
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This morning I remembered why I periodically delete the Statesman app from my iPhone. Not because I have anything against the Statesman, but because reading purely Texas news is a hazard to my family’s health: it never fails to send my own blood pressure through the roof, meanwhile gravely endangering my husband’s life as I am all too often tempted to catapult my beloved giant coffee cup across the room in a fit of rage. And of course we don’t have health insurance. We are Texans, after all.</div>
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Two things I hate most in life: gay bashing and bad science. Leave it to Texas to find a way to squeeze both topics into <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/local/ut-investigates-professors-study-on-children-with-gay-2415276.html">the same article</a>. Apparently, UT professor of sociology Mark Regnerus has published a study in the journal Social Science Research that reports “adults with gay parents tended to report lower levels of success in economic and romantic pursuits and struggled more with mental health issues.”</div>
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Well of course they do. Wait. What? They don’t, you say? Balderdash! Says who? Oh… Virtually every study published since they removed “homosexuality” as a disease from the DSM circa 1986? And virtually every other expert on the subject? And virtually every child ever raised by a loving, committed LGBT couple? Wait, wait, wait. I’m confused. Homosexuality <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">isn’t </i>a disease? Well that’s news to me—and about half of Texas. Okay, so maybe just half of Texas. </div>
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Let’s back up, shall we? I’ve heard a wise (wo)man say once or twice that it’s never, ever wise to just blindly trust <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">any </i>old thing<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>I read<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>in the newspaper, so let’s give that a go and see if we can’t sort this mess out for ourselves. Who’s with me? Everyone? Lovely. First and foremost, for my less scientifically inclined readers I will begin by explaining, as a public service announcement, the way in which to properly read a scholarly paper. </div>
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1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>Read the title & abstract.</div>
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2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>Look up the authors.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Determine funding.</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">4.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Examine methodology/experimental design.</b></div>
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5.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span>Then, and only then, read the paper. </div>
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Please note: Step 3 and 4 are bold for a reason; these are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by far </i>the most crucial steps in the process. Still with me? Good, let’s practice. </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Step 1-A. The Title. </b>“How different are the adult children of parents who have same sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study.” Fair enough. Important question, it would seem, since according to the mainstream media “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monique-ruffin/gay-civil-rights_b_1168897.html">gay is the new black</a>.” </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Step 1-B. The Abstract. </b>I should probably include an extended quote here instead of just a link for you to <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610">read it yourself</a> since we both know you probably won’t, but I’m going to trust you. Remember, we have our fancy Science Hats on right now. Geeks Honor. </div>
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Wow, back so soon? Okay, I’ll paraphrase now, just in case you cheated. (Cheaters!) He basically says, “We have now uber-officially and very scientifically determined: Mom+Dad=Gooood. Mom+Mom/Dad+Dad = Baaaaad.” There is MUCH to be said here, but I think it will be adequately addressed in Step 4 below. So let’s move on. </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Step 2. The Authors. </b>Mark Regnerus, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, specializing in research areas of “sexual behavior and family formation,” and the author of two books. You can check out the full bio on his official fan page (?) <a href="http://www.markregnerus.com/">here</a>. But again: Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Sounds legit. Moving right along. </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Step 3. Funding. </b>Read: Epic fail numero uno. The New Family Structures Study’s two primary backers: <a href="http://www.winst.org/publications/index.php">The Witherspoon Institute</a> and the <a href="http://www.bradleyfdn.org/default.asp">Bradley Foundation</a>. Granted, these sites if not the entities themselves are incredibly well constructed. As I read each of their mission statements I found myself cheering them on, fighting the urge to click the “Donate!” button. (If you know me at all, you won’t find this surprising. I just gave $40 to a woman who came to the door supporting something called the Jupiter Index. I haven’t a clue what that is, but she said they tried to “help people write better.” I asked her if there was a limit on donations or if she took credit cards. There wasn’t, but she didn’t, so I gave her every dollar I had on me. What can I say? It happens.) But about what’s-his-name’s backers. You have to do a fair bit of sleuthing around these sites to discern what sort of agenda they’re actually pushing, but one needn’t look much further than their respective publication lists to get a clue. For instance, the Witherspoon Institute hosts its own online “journal” called <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/">The Public Discourse</a> which hosts a shockingly homogenous (no pun intended) docket of articles with titles such as these: <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/06/5713">Religious Freedom Under Siege</a>, <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/06/5772">Planned Parenthood v. Casey at Twenty: The Worst Constitutional Decision of All Time</a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i><a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/07/5794">Immigration: He Who Is Without Sin</a>, and last but certainly not least, <a href="http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2012/06/5702">The Newest Front in the Battle over Marriage</a> which carries the byline: “Same-sex marriage should not come in the back door, via an arguably collusive lawsuit in which no one charged with the responsibility of enforcing the law actually defends it.” Back door, eh? (That’s what she said… Oh shut-up, you know you were thinking it too.)</div>
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Anyway. So he was bankrolled by a pair of ultra-conservative, Bible touting homophobes. What of it? That doesn’t necessarily mean the good doctor’s data is bogus, does it? </div>
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Allow me to introduce you to my friend—a rather loathsome chap, goes by the name “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funding_bias">funding bias</a>.” While this was once regarded as academia’s dirty little secret, it is now more or less universally accepted that a researcher’s funding sources, albeit unfortunately, often largely if not entirely predict a given study’s findings an overwhelming majority of the time. It is for this reason that Big Tobacco finds no link between cigarettes and lung cancer, Big Oil finds no link between burning fossil fuels and global warming, and Eli Lilly finds no link between Prozac and increased suicide rates. Like it or not, money makes the world go ‘round. (Dolla’ Dolla’ Bills, ya’ll.) It’s not necessarily that every study is designed to deliver the intended results (though that is clearly often the case) so much as it is a refrain from publishing negative results—the ones that don’t say what one wants them to say. This is perhaps not as ominous as it sounds. Or perhaps it’s more. Regardless of your particular perspective on it, though, we can all agree that it at least exists and evaluate outcomes accordingly. Knowledge is power. Now, keep that in mind while you brace yourselves for Epic Fail numero dos, the granddaddy of all granddaddies.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Step 4. Methodology/Experimental Design. </b>One would expect that a UT professor—of sociology no less—would be well versed in the realm of comparable cohorts, meaning that groups chosen for comparison are reasonably equal in all other ways aside from the variable in question. For instance, one would think that when comparing various family structures as Regnerus did, he would vet healthy, stable dual-partner heterosexual homes against healthy, stable dual-partner homosexual homes; and heterosexual “broken homes” vs. homosexual “broken homes.” Is this what he did? If he had, I wouldn’t have wasted a chuck of my day ranting away; I would’ve simply accepted his data as interesting and worthy of further consideration in the realms of both science and public policy. </div>
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But he didn’t. </div>
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Regnerus implemented experimental design so egregious that I only pray Ben Goldacre doesn’t stumble across it; it will likely give him an instantaneous aneurysm. What the good professor has done in this “study” is compare the outcomes of adult children that grew up in healthy, stable two-parent heterosexual homes in which both parents were biologically related, to the outcomes of adult children that grew up in a random assortment of broken homes in which the single parent left standing alone had had at least one homosexual relationship at any point during the respondent’s childhood. Um… Seriously?</div>
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And please do <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOT </b>draw the erroneous conclusion here that homosexuality is in any way, shape or form directly proportional to this “broken home” phenomenon. The average divorce rate of first marriages for heterosexual couples is roughly 52%, so don’t go giving the gays all the credit for this one. We are ALL equally likely to both grow up in and be party to broken homes, and we are all equally likely to exercise our “God-given” American right to screw our kids up however we please, regardless of sexual orientation. In fact, a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15504280802177615#preview">number</a> of <a href="http://how%20does%20the%20gender%20of%20parents%20matter/?">recent</a> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00324.x/abstract">credible</a> </i><a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/06/07/peds.2009-3153.abstract">studies</a> suggest that growing up in a dual-parent lesbian household might actually be advantageous over the traditional type for a child. Do we honestly believe that growing up with two loving, committed and engaged mothers or fathers is somehow worse for a child than growing up in the foster care system? If so, then we have nothing left to talk about because you have deluded yourself into believing utter garbage that has exactly zero grounding in reality. </div>
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Oh, before I forget:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Step 5. You may now (finally) <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049089X12000610">read the paper</a>. </b>Do it. I dare you.</div>
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<br /></div>
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On a side note, in the Good Professor’s defense (because God knows he needs one), he might’ve achieved the clearly desired results in a scientifically valid way had he done one thing differently. (Okay, several things differently.) Had Dr. Regnerus taken his study sample from Texas alone and not from the rest of the nation, I highly suspect these outcomes would at least be closer to the truth. Why? Because of studies, press, and attitudes just like the ones found in this paper that apparently dominate the Texas citizenry. Can you imagine the additional torment piled on a child of any age growing up even in the happiest, healthiest gay or lesbian household <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in TEXAS? </i>I shudder to think. </div>
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But while results along these lines may have ultimately supported Regnerus & Co’s bottom line, would these findings have actually been a product of any particular family structure? Absolutely and unequivocally, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NO</b>. It would have merely been a product of our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">societal structure—</i>over which parents of any sexual preference have effectively zero control (aside from getting the hell out of the Bible Belt, anyway). Our grand and mighty Texas society must surely be one of the most harshly alienating, brutally discriminatory and subversively prejudiced cultures on earth… Made worse only by the fact that we “do it with a smile,” seemingly justifying our gross mistreatment of our fellow citizens in the name of “morals” and “values.” An awful lot of people perhaps ought to grab a dictionary and remind themselves of what those words actually mean… </div>
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I am inclined to agree with Monique Ruffin—gay may very well be the new black. It blows my mind how very many people are vetting to, once again, end up on the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">WRONG </b>side of history. Aside from the illegality of discrimination (Equal Protection Clause, anyone?), why is it that the very people who turn their noses up at all forms of governmental interference are the very people championing such extensive governmental over-reach into the private lives of ordinary citizens? And what ever happened to “Thou shalt not judge” or “God loves all his children equally” anyway? You may as well save your breath with the “You’re going to burn in Hell” rhetoric. For any LGBT person living in the Lone Star State, I’m sure they feel that they’re already there . . . .</div>
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And in case you missed this:</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FSQQK2Vuf9Q" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
Or this: </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-51368632415970156772012-07-10T19:58:00.001-05:002012-08-13T15:51:21.434-05:00"Texas Exceptionalism" ... Exceptional? Sure. Exceptionally good? Not a chance.<style>
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As with most intelligent discussions, I think it’s important
to first clarify the language being used. What do we mean exactly by the term
“exceptional”? The dictionary lists these two alternate definitions: </div>
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1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>Unusual; not typical.</div>
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2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span>Unusually good; outstanding. </div>
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While I think most Texans tend to agree with our exceptionalism
in terms of the latter definition, I will go along only if we are using the
former. In fact, I might go so far as to add my own third option here,
something to the tune of “Unusually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bad</i>;
substandard.” But we’ll get back to that. </div>
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For those of you subscribing to #2 above, it would seem that
you are in camp with a substantial portion of the population, if not the
outright majority. Many seem to believe that our state is the ideal model which
all other states ought to aspire. While I see exactly zero evidence to support
such an outlandish claim, I suppose it could be said that we at least come by
it honestly. For starters, American Exceptionalism is certainly in no short
supply in this country. As Americans, the vast majority believe that our country
is superior to all others in every possibly way, though I doubt many are aware
that <a href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/18/american_exceptionalism">the
term itself was coined by Joseph Stalin</a>. Christ, now I sound like Glen Beck.
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Anyway. It seems to me we’ve just taken American
Exceptionalism one step further in the Lone Star State and declared ourselves
the greatest thing since sliced bread. (DFW: Home of <a href="http://www.mrsbairds.com/company/overview.html">Mrs. Baird’s</a>! Woot!)
Is this healthy? (The notion, not the bread.) I tend to think not. It seems to both
breed and encourage the xenophobic and tribalistic mentality that is arguably, at
least in my view, our biggest problem. I think it is bad at the state level for
the very same reasons I think it is bad at the national level: The airs of
arrogance, condescension, and superiority only stand to alienate the rest of
the world’s citizens with whom we have to get along; it discourages our own
citizens from feeling that we are all on level footing, and should therefore
consider alternate opinions and perspectives in our decision-making processes
as equally valid positions; and it negates any incentives we might otherwise
have for learning about other places and cultures. Why bother learning anything
about these other crappy states or countries that are inherently inferior? What
could we possibly hope to learn from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them
</i>anyway? We’re clearly the best. They should all just learn about and emulate
us and the world would be a better place, right? Wrong. </div>
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Very, very wrong. </div>
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<br /></div>
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If the rest of the country (and perhaps the world) were to
follow our “exceptional” Texas lead, here’s a glimpse of what they would get
(as reported by Gail Collins in the book discussed in our assigned reading
list, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/books/as-texas-goes-by-gail-collins.html">As
Texas Goes…</a>, </i>with a host of citations offered for each statistic<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">)</i>: </div>
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<ul>
<li>Percent of Uninsured Children: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b> (out of 50, obviously)</li>
<li>Percent of Population with Food
Insecurity: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2<sup>nd</sup></b> </li>
<li>Percent of Non-Elderly <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">un</b>insured: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b> </li>
<li>Teenage Birth Rate: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">7<sup>th</sup></b> (Three cheers for
abstinence education!)</li>
<li>Overall Birthrate: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">2<sup>nd</sup></b> </li>
<li>Percent of Population 25 and older <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">without </b>a HS diploma: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b> </li>
<li>Amount of CO<sub>2</sub> Emissions:
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b> </li>
<li>Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released
into Water: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b> </li>
<li>Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released
into Air: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b> </li>
<li>Amount of Hazardous Waste
Generated: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">1<sup>st</sup></b></li>
</ul>
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Yay, Texas! We’re #1! We’re #1! Indeed, in many respects, we
are… </div>
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<br /></div>
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Unfortunately, this only stands to support my claim that
while, yes, we might be exceptional, it is much more easily argued that we are
exceptionally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bad.</i></div>
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In that oh-so friendly Texas
nature—Southern hospitality and all that jazz—might I offer my fellow residents
a heapin' helpin' of delicious Humble Pie?</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2819164673918737919.post-80101378234771089922012-07-10T15:04:00.001-05:002012-07-14T16:13:20.922-05:00If you missed this, you shouldn't have.<div style="background-color:#000000;width:520px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><iframe src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:cms:video:colbertnation.com:413074" width="512" height="288" frameborder="0"></iframe><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b>The Colbert Report</b> <br />
Get More: <a href='http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/'>Colbert Report Full Episodes</a>,<a href='http://www.indecisionforever.com/'>Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>,<a href='http://www.colbertnation.com/video'>Video Archive</a></p></div></div><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02399463384273013381noreply@blogger.com0