lolfed

I stole this from Paul Krugman's blog. Too funny, in a sad sort of way. guess you either laugh or you cry ...

but, as Krugman said, cats are cuter.

Smokers' Guilt

It's that time, again. Smokers' Guilt Week. Oh, joy.

Know how I know? Two ways, is how I know.

Let's see ... there's Thanksgiving when we go spend the day at the in-law's. Where they love you very much (and you love them) but you get gently reproving looks every time you duck out for a cigarette. Where this great raft of squealing, impressionable kids dart around and through the house and you know you know you’re the only adult to reek of stale cigarettes. Where every one of the lovely people there would be horrified to think you might feel even the tiniest hint of reprobation for indulging in this nasty habit.

Then, there's the Great American Smokeout. For more than 30 years, there's been this society-spanning effort to encourage, cajole and enable smokers to quit for Just One Day And You'll See. As if quitting for one day is a big deal for a smoker with a 40-year habit, though we do appreciate -- well, kinda-sorta but we're touched, thank you -- everyone's kind thoughts.

Ultimately, from a committed smoker's standpoint, the Great American Smokeout is little more than a non-(and worse, former-)smokers' expression of self-indulgent pity for a committed smokers' great addiction. Weak, Stone, you're weak!

Like I said. Smokers' Guilt Week.

But, here's what really pisses me off.

Eight weeks ago, I quit smoking. Eight weeks ago. To my own disquieted amazement, it's been relatively painless. Granted, I haven't quit on my own. I get by with a little help from my friends (better living through chemistry, don'cha know). Plus, Tia Rae and I are doing this together and there is strength in numbers after all (quantity has a quality all its own).

But, it’s been easy. Maybe too easy. I’ve tried to quit before and it was hard. Several times, and it was hard. I’ve gone without – a plane flight to Alaska means 8-10 hours without; to London means 10-12 hours without – and it was hard. Very hard. Why is this so easy?

I didn’t really want to quit. I mean, there’s been no transformative event to shape this decision, no health quandary prompting a sudden move to wellness. In fact, even with all my bad habits -- my love of red wine, Mexican lagar and agave tequila, Blue Bell ice cream over pie (any fresh fruit inside a flaky pastry crust will do) and and barely-seared red meat – I passed my 50-year medical checkup with my colors displayed proudly, if not flying high.

And, I’m not broke so the expense wasn’t the issue — though I’m no longer on a first name basis with the gals at the Hilltop CEFCO and we don’t burn through cash quite as quickly each month.

I know I should be proud, and justifiably so, of both of us. I can't speak for her but I’m not. I’m pissed. I want a cigarette. I know I don’t really “need” one but I want one. Further, as long as my little friends* are swirling through my brain and bloodstream, I don’t even feel the pleasurable effects of smoking a cigarette. I know. I’ve tried! Didn't do a goddam thing! Dammit!

So, I’m still addicted and I still want a cigarette, dammit, but I’ve quit. And it really pisses me off.

Smokers' Guilt Week. Bah!

We’ll go to the in-laws’ for Thanksgiving on Thursday. I won’t say anything about our new non-smoking status (Tia Rae might but, then again, she might not) so no one will likely make a big deal about it unless they notice that I don’t duck out and don’t reek. And, even if they do notice, they will be gracious and generous and encouraging and proud and it'll PISS. ME. OFF.

Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy the Smokeout. Dammit.

*Before you start reaching for conclusions, I should probably note that I am taking Chantix under a doctor’s care. Perhaps I should discuss a Xanax prescription as well.

Finalists, schmienalists.

The Rockdale Reporter published a fine editorial in Thursday's edition slamming the Texas Association of School Boards for doing an end-run around Texas' open government laws.

TASB is helping the Rockdale School Board find a new school superintendent. RISD has 49 applicants. Of that number, they've decided to talk to six and expect to offer the job to one of those six on Dec. 10. Despite the fact that state law requires that a list of finalists be released to the public, Rockdale voters will know the name of only the person RISD trustees select.

Aren't the six people trustees will interview "finalists?" No, they are "candidates." Only one "finalist" will be announced. This follows the letter -- if not the spirit -- of state law. Go look it up -- Section 552.126 of the Texas Government Code.

Down in Karnes County, the Runge school board is doing the same thing. In fact, it's getting harder and harder to find information about the people who are applying for many top government management jobs.

Again, in Karnes County, county commissioners retired to executive session to interview interim candidates for the brand spanking new position of county road administrator, despite the fact that the county never advertised for the position as required by state law. I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out the relationship between those four applicants and the commissioners.

According to the Karnes Countywide, even the Karnes County Attorney, Robert Busselman, said the closed door meeting was unlawful. That's significant because, according to state law, it is the county attorney who prosecutes local violations of open government statutes.

No word on whether Busselman will indict the commissioners for the illegal meeting but he should. That's how this kind of thing is stopped. Most local elected officials have nothing but contempt for laws that require documents and meetings be open to the public.

Ah, well ... according the The Countywide, at least, reading between the lines, this isn't the only misstep Karnes County commissioners have committed implementing the new county road system. One hopes The Countywide will keep a bright light shining on these guys. They'll deserve what they get.

What Karnes commissioners did was unlawful. What Runge and Rockdale trustees did (or, more accurately, will do) isn't.

For the last several sessions, open government advocates and local newspaper editors and publishers have been trying to convince the Texas Legislature to address the issue of finalists for top school and college administration position, but to no avail.

Groups like TASB, the Texas Association of Counties, the Texas Municipal League and the Texas Association of District and County Attorneys -- to name only four of many -- carry a lot of weight in Austin. They carry a lot of weight because they represent local elected officials and most of the people in Austin were local elected officials before they became Legislators.

The fact is, these groups are beneficial, for the most part. This is good because they represent your tax dollars at work (local governments pay dues to these organizations; they get the money to pay those dues from you). However, they also spend an inordinate amount of time picking apart open government laws looking for loopholes and exceptions so our local governments can avoid having the great unwashed juggle their collective elbows.

One thing is certain, especially in the more rural parts of Texas: the folks you elect to office would just as soon you stay away from meetings and leave 'em in peace so they can get on with the important business of spending your money.

It's not all labor's fault

The NYT gave Mitt Romney room on its oped page today. Interestingly, I agree with a lot of what he's said there.

However, he misses one huge point and it's a point many people miss when they try to compare the relationship between labor and the U.S. auto industry with that of foreign automakers.

Here's the point he hasn't really thought through ...

"... their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers."

Benefits paid to U.S. autoworkers can never be aligned with those of overseas manufacturers. Japan and most of the countries in Europe are, for the most part, social democracies. Merely being a citizen in these countries bestows certain guarantees ... among them are access to health care, good (some might say excessive) vacation time and access to affordable mass transit. There's more but these three are enough to tilt the economic playing field overseas before anyone sits down to a negotiating table.

This is a huge disadvantage for the U.S. auto industry and not one the industry can really do much about. And, since we in this country have this "thing" against socialism, it's not very likely that disadvantage will ever go away.

So, when Romney (and others) note that there is a $2,000 labor cost differential between an American-made car and a similar car built overseas, when anti-labor wingnuts harp on the union's complicity in today's debacle, we all must understand that the society those overseas workers live in (not the employers) affords them some benefits very few of us will ever enjoy.

The missed opportunity, Part Duex

A couple of posts back, I talked about the opportunity that some Texas publishers missed when they too-narrowly defined what "local coverage" really means.

The post was prompted when Bud Kennedy used the Texas Press Association's list serve to ask a question about reaction members of the community had to presidential election coverage, or lack of it.

I posted my blog entry and sent it to Bud via email, off-list. Unfortunately, it wasn't really "off-list." It was sent to all those 300-some-odd publishers and editors who frequent TPA's editorial list serve. Oops.

I hadn't intended to spark any controversy. Really.

One publisher — a good friend of mine — chided me for posting my blog on the list serve and I accepted it because she was right.

Others allowed as how I might have a point and one even made my argument better than I did.

Others, of course, stuck to their guns and defended Terrell's right to ignore the national elections — or not — the way they saw fit.

Then there was the publisher who cautioned Kennedy against paying much attention to me because I was "full of frijoles." This particular publisher went on to note that, had he even deigned to publish a story about the presidential election, it "probably would have said First socialist/Marist elected president. Instead those comments were made in our editorial on Page 4."

Wow. That's an enlightened oped page I'm glad I missed.

The storm raged for a day or two, then faded away. Bud wrote his column and even quoted me, though he identified my column by the URL rather than the name. A link to the column is here.

Reflective vests

This just in ...

The feds now require everyone who works a highway traffic accident to wear a reflective vest. The Texas Department of Public Safety has interpreted the "everyone" in this memorandum to mean "everyone."

As in, EMS workers, fire department personnel, first responders, and, yes, newspaper people.

Of course, most newspaper people are mavrickey (is this the new "truthiness?" Will Websters grant it legitimacy next year?) sorts and tend to resist unfunded mandates and efforts on the part of government to place any barrier between them and the news. So, some are resisting.

I understand their frustrations ... at the same time, I've kept a bright yellow vest and an orange poncho in my trunk for years. After all, if I'm gonna stand around a night time traffic accident, I want to take all the precautions I can so as not to get hurt myself.

One wag just asked how the DPS will enforce this new rule, since it's a federal, not state, mandate. Convince a U.S. Attorney to file charges? Not likely.

What is more likely is that DPS Troopers will less open than they already are and much more likely to refuse a reporters' access to highway traffic accident scenes, if that reporter isn't wearing a reflective vest. Officially, Troopers will likely be told to refuse to talk to reporters who don't wear the protective, reflective vests.

So, grouse all you want, guys ... just be prepared for the consequences.

The Culture Wars aren't over

It seems that even in these days of supposed post-partisan, post-racial, post-everything harmony, we still can't get past the culture wars.

I know this because the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday about a Utah town that refused to allow one sort of religious monument on city property while staunchly defending another.

From the NYT editorial 11/12/08:

Pleasant Grove City, Utah, has a city park, known as Pioneer Park, that includes various unattended displays. These include historical artifacts from the town, a Sept. 11 memorial, and a Ten Commandments monument that was given to the city by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a national civic group.

A religious organization called Summum, which was founded in 1975 and is based in Salt Lake City, applied to install its own monument in the park. The monument it proposed would include the group’s Seven Principles of Creation (also called the Seven Aphorisms), which it believes were inscribed on tablets handed down from God to Moses on Mount Sinai.

So, here we are again ... obstinate local governments deciding that neither the Establishment Clause nor the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment apply to them. So, now, they're in a fight over a religious monument planted in a city park in the mid-1950s by a civic group given money to promote a movie.

Okay —quick disclaimer, here. One of the more enticing stories I've read (or heard or been told) over the years is that, in advance of the movie, "The Ten Commandments," Cecil B. DeMille helped finance the Fraternal Order of Eagles' efforts to place monuments featuring the Ten Commandments in as many public spaces as possible. This may be simply an urban myth but it rings true and if true, it could be said that the battles the Culture Warriors have fought on this topic are less about Christian values and more about capitalistic values.

... but, I digress.

The SCOTUSblog has a wonderful analysis of the arguments set forth Tuesday. The blog's author called it the "Tyranny of Lables," which is apt. However, the legal arguments do little to disguise the fact that the leaders in this community have little or no respect for or understanding of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

It would be so easy for most local governments to have their cake and eat it, too because no interpretation of the Establishment Clause I've ever read forbids religious displays on government property. The Establishment Clause simply says the government may not promote one religion over another — it may not allow one sort of religious display in the public's space while forbidding another. The primary reason most dissenters object to Christian iconography on government property is because they are not allowed to display their own religious iconography.

Local governments could have Nativity scenes, post the Ten Commandments* and, really, do whatever their pinched little hearts desired if they also allowed other religious displays in the public's space. All they'd have to do is pass a resolution declaring public spaces open for religious displays on High Holy Days (whatever that religion's High Holy Day happens to be). Let the local Christian churches build their Nativity scenes or whatever then just sit back.

In most communities, there would few takers because, in most communities in this country, the only religion practiced is the various forms of Christianity. It seems like a simple solution, to me — maybe too simple — and I'm not sure why more local governments don't try that.

Are they so unsure in their faith that they absolutely cannot allow competition from the occasional Wiccan or Buddhist shrine? I dunno ...

Now, this would not solve the problems we have at our schools ... public prayer, proselytizing at required student events, etc ... but few SCOTUS rulings speak to all the issues and the Prayer in School crisis bids fair to continue the culture wars for a bit longer.

(*I've always wondered why we chose to fight over the Ten Commandments. That's so Old Testament. Aren't Christians supposed to pay more attention to the New Testament? If so, we ought to be posting Christ's version of the Jewish law: The Beatitudes.)

The missed opportunity

Bud Kennedy, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star Telegram, sent a request to publishers of small Texas newspapers for their thoughts on front page coverage of the national elections. If the responses were typical (and I suspect they were), I'm disappointed in my Texas newspaper brethren.

The request was prompted by picketing at the office of the Terrell Tribune, a paper that allegedly led with national stories from the wire in advance then downplayed the national election results on Election Day. I wasn't there. I don't know what pressures Bill and his staff faced that day so I won't comment on that situation.

Besides, that's not what disappoints. What disappoints is that it appears Texas publishers missed a huge opportunity in this election.

This was an historic event, one of the biggest, easiest-to-cover stories of the decade. Everyone in our communities talked about it and everyone had an opinion, regardless of who they voted for or why. To dismiss an event of this significance simply because we had to use a little imagination to tie it to our own back yards or because Tuesdays are a little tough is selling our readers — and ourselves — short.

As many of you know, I edited and published weekly and small daily newspapers in Texas for the better part of two decades. I found that my readers really appreciated local coverage of large state and national issues like pubic school finance, immigration reform and congressional redistricting. The argument of "it didn't happen here" doesn't hold because these issues have an impact on everyone in our communities and, in some cases, a profound impact.

Agreed, had I been publishing a newspaper this cycle, my advance coverage would have been focused on the local elections because our readers could get that news nowhere else. But, by the same token, neither could our readers get news of the local reaction to the results of the national election anywhere else.

To not mention this election and the local reaction to it in a prominent fashion is, in my opinion, the same as if we had completely ignored the events of 9/11. How many of us tore up our front page that Tuesday morning and devoted the rest of that day to covering the local reaction to jets crashing into the World Trade Center? We did in Cameron and, from the standpoint of local color, it was probably one of the best front pages that year. Plus, it sold out on the racks.

Instead of taking the easy way out (“It ain’t local so we don’t pay attention”), why not have prepared some sort of local reaction piece to this historic event?

One of our most under-served market segments, the “minority” community, probably voted in record numbers so they could vote for the first black man to be nominated for president atop a national party, even though they knew their vote wouldn't really make a difference to the Texas electoral vote. Isn’t that a story? Isn’t that a local hook?

And, frankly, that’s part of where this controversy — and opportunity —comes from. Our newspapers, especially those papers serving our more rural areas, serve a dwindling elite. That elite is largely white. Despite years of effort at racial diversification (often halfhearted effort), the people running and working in those newspapers are also largely white. The advertisers who support those newspapers — also likely white — probably don't care that much about our minority communities, though they should because we've all seen the demographic projections.

In Texas (and in this country) our white population is shrinking while our minority populations are growing. At the same time, we're all terrified at how long it might take for the rot of declining circulation and declining ad revenues afflicting the metro papers to trickle down to our Texas towns. To survive, we'll have to reach out to everyone in our communities, not just the elite.

If no one else, minorities in our communities watched this election closely ... and too many of our community newspapers discounted them and this elections' importance by giving it little or no coverage. Really, that’s a shame.

Texas publishers missed a huge opportunity.

Our moment in time

"This is our moment. This is our time."

The blogosphere is littered with allusions and odes to Tuesday night. I can't offer anything more profound than President-Elect Obama's own words.

In fact, I get choked up just contemplating what happened. I'll be merrily working along, flip over to the "news" page on my browser and see a story that refers to what happened. Without warning, I'll tear up and start sniffling.

"What happened." As if. As if it wasn't anything much. As if the world didn't change, and change in a more profound fashion than it did that June Sunday afternoon in 1969 when a human being walked around on another planet.

Last night, I read Thomas Friedman's NYT column "Finishing Our Work." If you haven't read it, do. It's lovely. I read the first graf out loud to Tia Rae and choked up. Again. Something I just can't seem to stop doing.

In fact, I just called the column up to make sure I got the headline and noted the first graf ... again, again, I teared up.

Thomas is correct. As much as Southern revisionists might disagree, the American Civil War, the Late Great Unpleasantness, as I'm told my paternal great-grandmother called it, finally ended Tuesday evening at 10 p.m. Central Standard Time.

My young nephew, Jerran, won't know a time that a black man wasn't president and it will be as natural to him as satellites, laptop computers and HiDef. My new cousin, Isaac, will look back at this and wonder what all the fuss was about.

And, I can't help but wonder at what my Father might say and think about this. He was, after all, a classic, conservative Republican (albeit more in the Goldwater mold rather than that of Regan) but, in the early 1960s, he helped integrate the public schools in the little Texas Gulf Coast town where we lived. In fact, he had little use for bigots of any stripe.

Part of my wonder at this remarkable period in our history is that Barak Obama didn't run to be our first black president. He seldom talked about it. And, we didn't elect him for that, either ... well, I didn't, nor did any of the people I know. We elected him to be our president, plain and simple and natural as that.

(Okay, maybe, as one of the talking heads said last night, we elected him "savior" but that's more an indication of the last eight years — or 28 years — and our current dire straits than anything he tried to do.)

So. It's done. That chapter is closed and a new one begins.

This is our moment. This is our time. We've been desperate for this for a long, long time. Let's do something with it.