Stimulus and Higher Education

This was a great article that helped me see what was in the bill for higher education. Go to the website and check out the comparison between the House and Senate Bills, It is easy to read and useful in understanding the changes.

clipped from www.insidehighered.com he compromise economic stimulus bill crafted by Congress (the bill text is now available, here and here), the compromise legislation would deliver a total of $53.6 billion in new aid to states over the next two years. About $30 billion in new funds would flow to students and their families in 2009 and 2010, about $17 billion in the form of increased Pell Grants and $13 billion in expanded higher education tax credits he final package allots roughly $16 billion to several federal agencies for research grants and facilities over two years, That includes $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health ($8.5 billion for research grants and $1.5 billion to renovate university facilities), $3 billion for the National Science Foundation, and $2 billion for science and research programs at the Energy Department.

Inaugural test

This is a test message for my blog.

The story of the bad landlord.

 Last night I had a dream I moved into a really cheap apartment. 

The place was a mess and I was going to rehab it. It turns out there was a door in the back that went into a locker where there were supplies for boating, like paddles and life jackets. 

My landlord was a jerk and while I was at work, she gave a key to the place to some druggies who ransacked the place looking for things to steal. 

Luckily I hadn’t moved in yet so there wasn’t anything of value in the place. They also used the back room to do drugs and I tried to chase them out. I hadn’t even lived there a day but I couldn’t get a refund on the place.

why do I shave my legs...hmmmm

I like soft hair. And humans have a lot of it. But the other night I was wondering why I do all the work to shave my legs, and then wear pants all winter. Humanbeings are so strange, always always altering their bodies. The next question to ask is why men are starting to shave their chests.

clipped from www.straightdope.com from the Journal of American Culture by Christine Hope bearing the grand title "Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture." The gist of the article is that U.S. women were browbeaten into shaving underarm hair by a sustained marketing assault that began in 1915. (Leg hair came later.) The aim of what Hope calls the Great Underarm Campaign was to inform American womanhood of a problem that till then it didn't know it had, namely unsightly underarm hair. Some argue that there's more to this than short skirts and sleeveless dresses. Cecil's colleague Marg Meikle (Dear Answer Lady, 1992) notes that Greek statues of women in antiquity had no pubic hair, suggesting that hairlessness was some sort of ideal of feminine beauty embedded in Western culture.

ISU Library Newsletter Contest

I submitted "Oobler Oogler", but it didn't win. But this is pretty cute anyway.

clipped from libpublic2.eol.isu.edu The Oboler Library recently held a contest to name their new in-house newsletter, which is posted on the doors of the library’s restrooms. Competition was fierce, with over 75 entries! Many of them were definitely worthy to be the bulletin’s new title. Library Reference staff donated funds to purchase the award, a $25 gift certificate for University Bookstore. Oboler Library’s Reference staff had a great time selecting the winner, though choosing just one was difficult. There was surprisingly little duplication, which shows just how clever and creative our library patrons are! Here are some of the runners-up, or “dishonorable mentions,” as one staff member quipped: · The Straight Flush · Bengal News Flush · Flushing Times · The Flush Factor · Library Leak · News from the Throne · Morning Constitution · LavaStories · Tissue Issues · The Toilet Paper · View from the Loo

AP Insanity

I can't believe this is what goes as news. Is the AP really out there to start wars, pit two groups against one another, American vs. American? Well according to this AP wire story, KPVI in Pocatello picked up, there is evidence to show they are.

http://www.kpvi.com/Global/story.asp?S=9356535

This article is especially offensive to me in 2 ways.

A. By reporting on "not publicly cited" evidence, it is just conjecture. This may be seen in two ways. One way is that it points out that Mormon's will believe something, even when there isn't evidence to support it. That's not a way to make the LDS church more popular in America.

B. It is pitting Mormons against gays, in some sort of false dichotomy. The people involved on both sides of the Prop 8 issue are Americans. The LDS Church's playing of the blame game only works to bias people against the Church. Whenever a church calls other American's terrorists, right after opposing them rights, it makes the church look only MORE bigoted. You oppose their rights and then call them terrorists.

In this story, of course it must be the gays...it couldn't possibly be the fact that there were FLDS have been in the news for the last few months and people may have a problem with the FLDS and not know the difference; nor could it be some angry church member about any of the other issue that the church has going on. It couldn't be that the church has a history of racism, or that there are lots of angry Republicans in Utah, over an election and church-targeted threats make news.

Anther thing the article, and framing of the Mormon's as the victims in this, is minimizing their role in Prop 8. I'm not sure that some church member make the claim to the AP to help cast them as the vicitm. I don't think this is something a church would come out and say when there is no evidence.

How about professional journalists report when there is new, instead of when there are just blame games and divisiveness to report.

presidential debate schedule

September 26, 2008: Presidential debate with domestic policy focus, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS
October 2, 2008: Vice Presidential debate, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
October 7, 2008: Presidential debate in a town hall format, Belmont University, Nashville, TN
October 15, 2008:Presidential debate with foreign policy focus, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY

Look Twice

Sweet...I love science

clipped from greatergood.berkeley.edu America that is moving past traditional racial divisions and prejudices, it's probably safe to assume that all of us harbor more biases than we think. More recent research shows that our prejudices are not inevitable; they are actually quite malleable, shaped by an ever-changing mix of cultural beliefs and social circumstances. Old-fashioned racism and sexism were known quantities because people would mostly say what they thought. Blacks were lazy; Jews were sly; women were either dumb or bitchy. Modern equivalents continue, of course—look at current portrayals of Mexican immigrants as criminals (when, in fact, crime rates in Latino neighborhoods are lower than those of other ethnic groups at comparable socioeconomic levels).

To be a feminist again.
Going to the book store tonight was refreshing. Reading through the essays and looking at the books on topics I love was great. For one, it reminded me of why I identify as a feminist.

Ahhhhh, to be a feminst.
So to understand reproductive justice must come first the understanding of injustice. For women injustice when government and societal structures impede on the thing closest to you, your body.

People agree that rape is an injustice. Rape is the most intrusive bodily violence. Not only is it an assault on your body, but it is an assault framed on sexuality because of the nature of the organs that are involved.

A survivor of sexual violence come to recognize they are a sexual physical being.

Rape is also an exprience of your body being controlled by another person. This loss of control is unplesant and society and laws are sympathetic to this. But there are laws and a history that also intrude upon women's bodies, like rape.

The lack of reproductive health care and especially the lack of comprehensive sex/sexuality education and family planning supplies like birth control, and safe abortions, are things that women must fight for. They must fight for it in a system that has only included women in positions of legislative power since August 18, 1920. Only 24% of Congress is female and have female bodies they must care for.

Women are considered an oppressed group because they are not given the power to (equal power as men) to control their own lives. Women have more opportunities then they did in the past, even what I have the opportunities to do is far greater then my mother. But today, even with the opportunities that are increasing there is not equality. Even when a woman does get a traditionally male position (like in the sciences) we are still making only 77% of what a man with the same experience and qualifications does. The reasons for this are not blatently misigomist, but there are social pressures for behavior that impede women. Most of these pressures are throwbacks to the history of women's position, not about individuals' lackings.

Even in the historical female responsiblity for family planning has become politicized by men and sciences through laws. What was a taken-for-granted as logical choices for women, decisions about their own bodies, is still being fought for.

This is why I am a feminst.

Time for some campaigning

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Netroots Nation Day 1

Okay, here is post 1 about my trip to NN08!
I got to SLC about midnight and met my friend Chris's mom, Lordes. She is very interesting, her house is filled with stuff, all kinds of stuff. Ranging from cheap crap to very expensive foreign dolls, this place is packed. I slept with, gah! of all things, a bed full of elephants.

You know what they say..."if you lie with the dogs, you will get flees". I don't know just what I'll get from sleeping with elephants.



So I got to Phoenix about 6:40 am. I had breakfast with my friend Ellen.

I had very nice conversations on the flights with lovely people. One is Affton a BYU student, and another was Linda, a woman from California.

We talked the whole time on the planes and really didn't get bored for a moment. it is nice to meet new people, and it was a treat that I sat next to them.




I got to Austin about 1:40 pm and got my suitcase and then met up with Dorothy from Hawaii. We took a taxi ride to the hotel. I checked in, took a shower and then had a minor emergency!
The cord to charge my computer was dead and I couldn't charge my computer! So I took at $12 cab ride to the place where I could get one, and $45 later, I had a new charger. The guy at the hotel said it would cost just $.050 to ride the #3 bus back to the hotel, but I couldn't find the bus stop, so I decided to walk. I was on 26th st, and the hotel is on 3rd and over about 6 blocks. I wasn't thinking right when I realized that this is about 3 miles! It was humid and about 95 degrees outside, but I walked back to the hotel. Here were some of the sites I saw walking back to my hotel.

I was carrying my purse and my computer, and I was sweating like a pig...just look at my shirt when I got back.

Then I went back to the hotel. changed my shirt and blogged a bit.







Then I went to the BurntOrange party. It hadn't started yet, so I got a fat tire beer and talked to a local regular about the soccor game on TV.

I went outside where I met some wonderful people. I met Greg from MT and a local Austinite who has some great ideas about precinct grassroots organizing. Greg from MT and I talked a bit about rural politics, and MT. There was another guy there who was cool who was wearing a gree O*bama shirt and responsible for a cool flier I want to post on my door in the hotel. It says "Democracy begins at Home" and has suggestions on organizing neighborhoods.

During the BurntOrange party I met the founders of Drinking Liberally! Here they are. Greg is in the middle, and I forget the guy on the left's name, but you can look it up by going to drinkingliberally.org.
I got swag bag and was so starving, I ate the fortune cookie right away. Check out this fortune..."For some sad reason, you still have high hopes for Ron Paul". So I taped it to a postcard I'm sending to a friend.

Well, I'm off again. I'll post more later.
Peace!

More on racism and wealth

clipped from www1.umn.edu Rich with exhaustive research and statistics, this book is also a compelling history of the United States. The Color of Wealth makes the case that since the founding of the colonies, the U.S. government has systematically enacted policies that favored white wealth acquisition--like Jim Crow laws, the denial of citizenship (and thus property rights) to Chinese immigrants and land theft from Mexican-Americans and Native Americans throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Even the venerated G.I. Bill, which is credited with creating the middle class after World War II, did little to help African-American veterans who were denied admission to predominantly white colleges and redlined out of many neighborhoods. The result today is that white families are more likely to acquire wealth through inheritance, own stocks and other investments and possess homes with a higher average value than families of color.

Yes, the rich are getting richer

While this evidence maybe good for seeing improvement it is still the richest 20% of people making most the money. In 2006, the median annual household income was $48,201.00 according to the Census Bureau. Census data also shows that 19.26% of all households had annual incomes exceeding $100,000. They are making twice as much as the middle class. The top 20% of Americans are making 5 times more then the lower class. Another sad point is that 12.3% of middle-class people's income declined in 2006 and they are living in poverty and the bottom.
And also, the top 6.37% of Americans are making one third of all the income in America.

So these facts, however positive they may seem to African Americans' economic improvement, they are masking that African Americans are still making just 60% of White Americans, and the continued economic inequality in America.

clipped from findarticles.com For African Americans in households earning $100,000 or more annually, that rate increased to 7.4%, up from 6.5% of those polled, or 1.275 million, up from 1.089 million. The number of households earning more than $100,000 annually increased to 12.7% or 16.31 million in 2001, up from 11.9% or 14.89 million people in 2000. 2000 2001 Overall Adults with Household Incomes of $75,000 22.6% 24.3% African American Adults with Household Incomes of $75,000 14.9% 16.5% African American Adults with Household Incomes of $100,000 6.5% 7.4% Overall Adults with Household Incomes of $100,000 11.9% 12.7%

Racism's complexities

clipped from www.gossamer-wings.com African American salaries are 60% of white American salaries. Bill Gates has more wealth in securities than all black American households combined. 10,000 blacks have graduated from America’s top 25 business colleges in the last 25 years. But almost no blacks have ownership or stock options or are CEOs of top corporations especially the new high tech companies. Nor do blacks serve on the boards for Internet companies. In fact, a recent book, Black Wealth/White Wealth, authors Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro say that systemic barriers to upward mobility have seriously impaired the ability of many black Americans to accumulate wealth and a better life. For example, the average white blue collar worker has been able to accumulate more wealth than the average black professional, at least in part due to the country’s history of racial oppression.

part two of Woot

clipped from www.youtube.com