BREAKING AWAY

Says it all...

2011-11-23T22:05:00.000-05:00

SHAME on the Police

2011-11-20T14:49:00.000-05:00

UC Davis Police Lt. John Pike uses pepper spray to move Occupy UC Davis protesters blocking a walkway in the quad on Friday, 11/18/11. (photo: Wayne Tilcock/Davis Enterprise)

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/316-20/8495-qchillingq-uc-davis-video-launches-investigation

This is just so shocking.

What is the "Occupy" movement all about?

2011-11-09T16:05:00.000-05:00

I think this article describes it very well:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/3/Honeybee-Democracy-The-Oc-by-Bruce-Toien-111109-141.html

Deliberately Teargassing people who are going to the aid of an injured protester

2011-10-27T14:22:00.001-04:00

So unfair...

http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8110-occupy-oakland-too-big-to-fail-too-big-to-jail
(See, Youtube video of this unfortunate scene in the first item in this newsletter. The Reader Supported News is an excellent updater on the Occupy movement.)

"Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation's Income, Study Finds" NY Times

2011-10-26T17:21:00.000-04:00

U.S. | October 26, 2011
Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation's Income, Study Finds
By ROBERT PEAR
A new report from the Congressional Budget Office is likely to figure prominently in the escalating political fight over the economy.

2011-10-25T23:32:00.001-04:00

I visited Occupy Boston today:
At the back of the space is a well placed rise in the ground that accommodates speakers such as this one who is reading poetry-a daily activity around 3 in the afternoon:

Here are some of the signs I read and a few other shots. I like the statue of Gandhi near the entrance; and the site is excellent, especially as it is directly in front of the Federal Reserve Bank (see below).

Below: The Federal Reserve Bank stands across the street from the Occupy Boston encampment:

This is pretty serious stuff:

2011-10-19T19:45:00.000-04:00

"How I Was Arrested at Occupy Wall Street

By Naomi Wolf, Guardian UK

19 October 11

ast night I was arrested in my home town, outside an event to which I had been invited, for standing lawfully on the sidewalk in an evening gown.

Let me explain; my partner and I were attending an event for the Huffington Post, for which I often write: Game Changers 2011, in a venue space on Hudson Street. As we entered the space, we saw that about 200 Occupy Wall Street protesters were peacefully assembled and were chanting. They wanted to address Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was going to be arriving at the event. They were using a technique that has become known as "the human mic" - by which the crowd laboriously repeats every word the speaker says - since they had been told that using real megaphones was illegal.

In my book Give Me Liberty, a blueprint for how to open up a closing civil society, I have a chapter on permits - which is a crucial subject to understand for anyone involved in protest in the US. In 70s America, protest used to be very effective, but in subsequent decades municipalities have sneakily created a web of "overpermiticisation" - requirements that were designed to stifle freedom of assembly and the right to petition government for redress of grievances, both of which are part of our first amendment. One of these made-up permit requirements, which are not transparent or accountable, is the megaphone restriction.

So I informed the group on Hudson Street that they had a first amendment right to use a megaphone and that the National Lawyers' Guild should appeal the issue if they got arrested. And I repeated the words of the first amendment, which the crowd repeated.

Then my partner suggested that I ask the group for their list of demands. Since we would be inside, we thought it would be helpful to take their list into the event and if I had a chance to talk with the governor I could pass the list on. That is how a democracy works, right? The people have the right to address their representatives.

We went inside, chatted with our friends, but needed to leave before the governor had arrived. I decided I would present their list to his office in the morning and write about the response. On our exit, I saw that the protesters had been cordoned off by a now-massive phalanx of NYPD cops and pinned against the far side of the street - far away from the event they sought to address.

I went up and asked them why. They replied that they had been informed that the Huffington Post event had a permit that forbade them to use the sidewalk. I knew from my investigative reporting on NYC permits that this was impossible: a private entity cannot lease the public sidewalks; even film crews must allow pedestrian traffic. I asked the police for clarification - no response.

I went over to the sidewalk at issue and identified myself as a NYC citizen and a reporter, and asked to see the permit in question or to locate the source on the police or event side that claimed it forbade citizen access to a public sidewalk. Finally a tall man, who seemed to be with the event, confessed that while it did have a permit, the permit did allow for protest so long as we did not block pedestrian passage.

I thanked him, returned to the protesters, and said: "The permit allows us to walk on the other side of the street if we don't block access. I am now going to walk on the public sidewalk and not block it. It is legal to do so. Please join me if you wish." My partner and I then returned to the event-side sidewalk and began to walk peacefully arm in arm, while about 30 or 40 people walked with us in single file, not blocking access.

Then a phalanx of perhaps 40 white-shirted senior offices descended out of seemingly nowhere and, with a megaphone (which was supposedly illegal for citizens to use), one said: "You are unlawfully creating a disruption. You are ordered to disperse." I approached him peacefully, slowly, gently and respectfully and said: "I am confused. I was told that the permit in question allows us to walk if we don't block pedestrian access and as you see we are complying with the permit."

He gave me a look of pure hate. "Are you going to back down?" he shouted. I stood, immobilised, for a moment. "Are you getting out of my way?" I did not even make a conscious decision not to "fall back" - I simply couldn't even will myself to do so, because I knew that he was not giving a lawful order and that if I stepped aside it would be not because of the law, which I was following, but as a capitulation to sheer force. In that moment's hesitation, he said, "OK," gestured, and my partner and I were surrounded by about 20 officers who pulled our hands behind our backs and cuffed us with plastic handcuffs.

We were taken in a van to the seventh precinct - the scary part about that is that the protesters and lawyers marched to the first precinct, which handles Hudson Street, but in the van the police got the message to avoid them by rerouting me. I understood later that the protesters were lied to about our whereabouts, which seemed to me to be a trickle-down of the Bush-era detention practice of unaccountable detentions.

The officers who had us in custody were very courteous, and several expressed sympathy for the movements' aims. Nonetheless, my partner and I had our possessions taken from us, our ID copied, and we were placed in separate cells for about half an hour. It was clear that by then the police knew there was scrutiny of this arrest so they handled us with great courtesy, but my phone was taken and for half an hour I was in a faeces- or blood-smeared cell, thinking at that moment the only thing that separates civil societies from barbaric states is the rule of law - that finds the prisoner, and holds the arresting officers and courts accountable.

Another scary outcome I discovered is that, when the protesters marched to the first precinct, the whole of Erickson Street was cordoned off - "frozen" they were told, "by Homeland Security". Obviously if DHS now has powers to simply take over a New York City street because of an arrest for peaceable conduct by a middle-aged writer in an evening gown, we have entered a stage of the closing of America, which is a serious departure from our days as a free republic in which municipalities are governed by police forces.

The police are now telling my supporters that the permit in question gave the event managers "control of the sidewalks". I have asked to see the permit but still haven't been provided with it - if such a category now exists, I have never heard of it; that, too, is a serious blow to an open civil society. What did I take away? Just that, unfortunately, my partner and I became exhibit A in a process that I have been warning Americans about since 2007: first they come for the "other" - the "terrorist", the brown person, the Muslim, the outsider; then they come for you - while you are standing on a sidewalk in evening dress, obeying the law."

The Beauty of Central Utah

2011-10-16T15:04:00.001-04:00

I never tire of the views of Capitol Reef and the Henry Mountains
in the background, seen from the Aqueous Plateau of Boulder Mountain.

Portland's Japanese Garden....

2011-10-12T21:57:00.002-04:00

We visited one of the best Japanese gardens in America

and the Portland Zoo:

Mike and I dug into bowls of too many crawfish, a learning experience.

- Posted from my iPad

Injustice in America

2011-10-11T02:02:00.001-04:00

The following is quoted from the newsletter of the Brennan Center for Justice of NYU Law School, October 10, 2011:
Anti-Immigrant Laws Keep Documented and Undocumented People Away from Courts and Justice System at Large
Grace Meng, “Immigrant Injustice,”Hill Congress Blog, October 7, 2011

Grace Meng, a researcher in the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch, writes in the Hill’s Congress blog: “I met ‘Sonia,’ a farmworker in upstate New York, in August. She and her husband had managed to scrape together $3,000 for a down payment on a house. After two years of making mortgage payments, they discovered the seller had never transferred the title to them. They are being evicted from the home they thought was their own. What would you do if you were Sonia? Hire a lawyer? Sonia and her husband tried to do just that, but as they started to seek recourse in the legal system, the seller threatened to call immigration. Sonia is an undocumented immigrant. If Sonia were in Alabama, she would be barred from seeking justice in its courts. In addition to other abusive provisions, Alabama’s new immigration law declares that its state courts will not uphold any contracts involving undocumented immigrants. But even outside of Alabama, Sonia essentially lacks access to justice. . . . Legal service providers in Raleigh, North Carolina report that undocumented immigrants face the same problem Sonia did. Since undocumented immigrants cannot get legal title to the cars or mobile homes they buy, sellers often don’t actually transfer the property to the buyers. The Latino Outreach Center in the Blue Ridge Mountains frequently receives reports from day laborers that local homeowners who hired them to rake leaves and do other small jobs have refused to pay them, knowing they can get away with it. Undocumented immigrants have long been afraid of government officials, but that fear is now translating into a fear of the justice system. Immigrants avoid going to court in communities from Fresno to Rochester, even to pay traffic tickets or to help a family member with translation, because Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents like to hang out by the courthouse. In North Carolina, a victim of domestic violence told me she would never again call the police for help after being questioned more about her immigration status than her safety the first time she called. . . . When millions of people are afraid to avail themselves of their rights under the U.S. legal system, the entire system is undermined. The injustice is not only to undocumented immigrants but to U.S. society as a whole.”

- Posted from my iPad

Portland, Oregon area visit

2011-10-11T01:20:00.001-04:00

If you like to walk in light rain and fog come visit with us. We enjoyed this view from our host's living room, a bit north of Portland.

If the drizzle, mist and fog are depressing after a time Portland is the capital of micro-brewing.

Darrow Tests the water at Seaside, Oregon:

Lower Multnomah Falls:

Mt. Hood:

-Posted from my iPad

Location:Portland, Oregon

Fwd: The tanks - part 3

2011-10-10T01:12:00.000-04:00

Occupy Wall Street: The Most Important Thing in the World Now

2011-10-07T20:10:00.000-04:00

http://www.thenation.com/article/163844/occupy-wall-street-most-important-thing-world-now

Another shot in Escalante country

2011-10-05T20:52:00.000-04:00

More About Canyon Country, Utah

2011-10-02T16:13:00.001-04:00

Janet, near the entrance to Cohab Canyon, said to have been a place of refuge for some Mormons who sought to practice polygamy and to evade federal agents.

A rather carefully constructed cairn on the way to the "Tanks" in Capitol Gorge.

John at the "Tanks."

So, on to Oregon...

Location:Cohab Canyon, Capitol Reef

What Have Got To Show For Our Mountain Of Debt?

2011-10-02T15:47:00.001-04:00

The New York Times reports that "a Brown University study, published in June, estimates that the United States will have spent $3.7 trillion in Afghanistan and Iraq by the time the wars are over." Maybe we would be better off had we spent this money on paying off some debt, improving our educational programs, restoring and building our infrastructure and doing research to regain first place in innovative science and technology. I think so.

Location:Oakland

Escalante to Capitol Reef

2011-10-01T16:39:00.001-04:00

We decided not to camp on this trip, so here we are in the bunkhouse of our Evergreen host in Boulder, Utah.

We hiked to the lovely Lower Calf Creek Falls in the desert near Boulder.

along Calf Creek on the way to the Falls:

In Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.

Pioneer graffiti in Capitol Gorge on the way to the "Tanks."

The pioneers who traveled through this canyon used water from large potholes, now called the "Tanks" high above the canyon floor.

Janet on the way to the "Tanks":

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Salt Lake City

KurzweilAI.net: An Interesting Newsletter

2011-09-30T23:52:00.000-04:00

Friday September 23, 2011
Weekly edition
News and Blog Headlines

A six-sigma signal of superluminal neutrinos from OPERA
How to make movies of what the brain sees
Searching for new ideas
OPERA neutrino experiment on breaking speed of light — UPDATE #2: CERN seeks independent replication
Will super Wi-Fi live up to its name?
OPERA neutrino experiment on breaking speed of light — Update #1: Live webcast, ArXiv paper posted
Scientists turn back the clock on adult stem cells aging
Video: Goertzel presents open-source AI engine at AGI-11 conference
Electrical stimulation of brain boosts birth of new cells
UC San Diego biologists discover genes that repair nerves after injury
Marijuana could prevent post-traumatic stress symptoms
New 'smart window' switches from transparent and opaque in seconds
Longevity gene debate opens trans-atlantic rift
A knack for bashing orthodoxy
'Inexhaustible' source of hydrogen may be unlocked by salt water
Breakthrough: proton-based chips that communicate directly with living things
Technology listens as doctors keep talking
A future for drones: automated killing
Turn your smart phone into a robot remote control
Free will and quantum clones: how your choices today affect the universe at its origin
Next-generation solar cell technology
On-line gamers succeed where scientists fail, opening door to new AIDS drug design
Google Wallet official launch
China and India developing biotech drugs
Robots to reduce cost of building aircraft
Every breath you take, every move you make …
The cyborg in us all
NASA satellite expected to crash to Earth in days
Smartphone brain scanner
Amazing Earth video from the Space Station
Intel runs PC on CPU powered by solar cell
Installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems in the US declined significantly in 2010 and 2011
How to synthesize a new kind of yeast cell — or person
Scientists create first step toward creating 'inorganic life'

Latest News

A six-sigma signal of superluminal neutrinos from OPERA
September 23, 2011

A measurement has been performed on the time that muon neutrinos take to travel from their production point at CERN to the Opera detector, finding that neutrinos take a handful of nanoseconds less than if they were traveling at light speed, experimental particle physicist (CERN and Fermilab) and blogger Tommaso Dorigo reports. Neutrinos seen by … more…

How to make movies of what the brain sees
September 23, 2011

Remember the movie Brainstorm? Imagine watching someone's dream, or tapping directly into the mind of a coma patient. University of California, Berkeley scientists claim they have finally achieved this classic futuristic movie "mind reading" trope. Sorta. They're using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and computational models, to decode and reconstructing people's dynamic visual experiences. So … more…

Searching for new ideas
September 23, 2011 Source Link: Technology Review

Google's head of research Alfred Spector explained in an interview why artificial intelligence is crucial to the search company's future. "In general, we have been using hybrid artificial intelligence, which means that we learn from our user community," Spector said, "When they label something as having a certain meaning or implication, we learn from that."

OPERA neutrino experiment on breaking speed of light — UPDATE #2: CERN seeks independent replication
September 23, 2011

GENEVA, Sept. 23, 12:30 a.m. PDT — Given the potential far-reaching consequences of the OPERA experiment — which observes a neutrino beam from CERN 730 km away at Italy's INFN Gran Sasso Laboratory, indicating that the neutrinos travel at a velocity 20 parts per million above the speed of light — independent measurements are needed … more…

Will super Wi-Fi live up to its name?
September 23, 2011 Source Link: Technology Review

It's likely that a few years from now, Americans' laptops, smart phones, and other wireless devices will be able to get online using "Super Wi-Fi," a new standard that will increase capacity in places where regular Wi-Fi networks have become overcrowded. The idea of Super Wi-Fi is to make use of the vacant airwaves that … more…

OPERA neutrino experiment on breaking speed of light — Update #1: Live webcast, ArXiv paper posted
September 23, 2011

A live Webcast from CERN is scheduled for 16:00:00 (Europe/Zurich) Friday September 23, 2011 (07:00:00 PDT Friday September 23, 2011). "If confirmed, the CERN discovery is one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all times." — CERN and University of Bologna physicist Antonino Zichichi on Italian television RAI 1, Sept. 23, 2001 A technical paper, … more…

Scientists turn back the clock on adult stem cells aging
September 22, 2011

Researchers led by the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and the Georgia Institute of Technology have shown they can reverse the aging process for human adult stem cells, which are responsible for helping old or damaged tissues regenerate. The findings could lead to medical treatments that may repair a host of ailments that occur … more…

Video: Goertzel presents open-source AI engine at AGI-11 conference
September 22, 2011

AI researcher Ben Goertzel gave a talk about the OpenCog open source AI engine at the Fourth Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-11), held on Google's campus in Mountain View (Silicon Valley), California, on August 3–5, 2011. The video of the talk is now online at YouTube.

Electrical stimulation of brain boosts birth of new cells
September 22, 2011

Stimulating a specific region of the brain leads to the production of new brain cells that enhance memory, researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children have found. The findings show how deep brain stimulation (DBS) — a clinical intervention that delivers electrical pulses to targeted areas of the brain — may work to improve cognition. … more…

UC San Diego biologists discover genes that repair nerves after injury
September 22, 2011

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have identified more than 70 genes that play a role in regenerating nerves after injury, providing biomedical researchers with a valuable set of genetic leads for use in developing therapies to repair spinal cord injuries and other common kinds of nerve damage such as stroke. While scientists … more…

Marijuana could prevent post-traumatic stress symptoms
September 22, 2011

Administering cannabinoids (synthetic marijuana) after experiencing a traumatic event blocks the development of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in rats, according to a new study conducted at the University of Haifa. The researchers exposed a group of rats to extreme stress. The rats displayed symptoms resembling PTSD in humans, such as an enhanced startle reflex, impaired … more…

New 'smart window' switches from transparent and opaque in seconds
September 22, 2011

A new "smart" window system that can inexpensively change from summer to winter modes, darkening to save air conditioning costs on scorching days and returning to crystal clarity in the winter to capture free heat from the sun, scientists from Soongsil University, Seoul report. "Smart" windows that reflect sunlight away from buildings in summer and … more…

Longevity gene debate opens trans-atlantic rift
September 22, 2011 Source Link: New York Times

A trans-Atlantic dispute has opened up between two camps of researchers pursuing a gene that could lead to drugs that enhance longevity. British scientists say the longevity gene is "nearing the end of its life," but the Americans whose work is under attack say the approach remains as promising as ever. The dispute concerns genes … more…

A knack for bashing orthodoxy
September 21, 2011 Source Link: New York Times

"It's highly plausible that in the universe there are God-like creatures," says evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, but belief in the supernatural strikes him as incurious, which is perhaps the worst insult he can imagine. "Religion teaches you to be satisfied with nonanswers," he says. "It's a sort of crime against childhood." His first children's book, … more…

'Inexhaustible' source of hydrogen may be unlocked by salt water
September 21, 2011

A grain of salt or two may be all that microbial electrolysis cells need to produce hydrogen from wastewater or organic byproducts, without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere or using grid electricity, according to Penn State engineers. "This system could produce hydrogen anyplace that there is wastewater near sea water," said Bruce E. Logan, … more…

Technology listens as doctors keep talking
September 21, 2011 Source Link: Technology Review

Medical dictation software company Nuance Communications is developing what it calls Clinical Language Understanding. It's designed to automatically extract information from a doctor's dictated narrative description of a patient and use it to fill out electronic records. Clinical Language Understanding has been developed with the IBM researchers who created Watson, the computer system that was … more…

A future for drones: automated killing
September 21, 2011 Source Link: Washington Post

An exercise in autonomous robotics with two model-size planes could presage the future of the American way of war: a day when drones hunt, identify and kill the enemy based on calculations made by software, not decisions made by humans. The automated, unpiloted planes worked on their own, with no human guidance, no hand on … more…

Turn your smart phone into a robot remote control
September 21, 2011

Technology Review blogger David Zax reports two ways to turn your iPhone/Android into a remote controller: Orbotix is developing an smartphone-controlled ball called the Sphero, and BirdBrain Technologies' Brainlink system lets you hack your old Roomba or other household robot and turn it into something more like a remote-controlled car.

Free will and quantum clones: how your choices today affect the universe at its origin
September 20, 2011

Do we have autonomy, or are our choices preordained? Computer scientist Scott Aaronson has proposed a variation on the Turing Test that he calls the Envelope Argument or Prediction Game to address the question of free will, Scientific American blogger George Musser reports. Someone poses questions to you and to a computer model of your brain, … more…

Next-generation solar cell technology
September 20, 2011

The "most efficient colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cell ever" has been created by researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T), King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) and Pennsylvania State University. Quantum dots are nanoscale semiconductors that capture light and convert it into electrical energy. Because of their small scale, the … more…

On-line gamers succeed where scientists fail, opening door to new AIDS drug design
September 20, 2011

Online gamers have solved the structure of a retrovirus enzyme whose configuration had stymied scientists, biochemist Firas Khatib of the University of Washington (UW) reports. The players were adept at a computer game, Foldit, that allows players to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure of protein molecules. After scientists repeatedly failed to piece together the … more…

Google Wallet official launch
September 20, 2011

Google released Monday the first version of its Google Wallet app to Sprint. With Google Wallet, you can tap, pay and save using your phone and near field communication (NFC). Google is now rolling out Google Wallet to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones through an over-the-air update, with a $10 free bonus to the Google … more…

China and India developing biotech drugs
September 20, 2011 Source Link: New York Times

Chinese and Indian drug makers have taken over much of the global trade in medicines and now manufacture more than 80 percent of the active ingredients in drugs sold worldwide. But they had never been able to copy the complex and expensive biotech medicines increasingly used to treat cancer, diabetes and other diseases in rich … more…

Robots to reduce cost of building aircraft
September 20, 2011

Fraunhofer researchers have come up with a concept for a flexible assembly-line concept using robots to build future aircraft more flexibly and economically. The aircraft will be machined and assembled by small industrial robots, as in the automotive sector. The key element of the assembly line is a versatile component gripper made of lightweight CFRP … more…

The cyborg in us all
September 19, 2011 Source Link: New York Times

Gerwin Schalk studies Albany Medical Center patients who have become some of the world's first cyborgs, with brain implants. Schalk transforms the brain signals emitted by their thoughts into software commands. He is, in effect, designing a button that the mind could push. He dreams of letting people speak with their neurons, issuing silent commands to … more…

NASA satellite expected to crash to Earth in days
September 19, 2011

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is expected to crash to Earth Sept. 23, plus or minus a day, as of the latest NASA update, Sept. 18. NASA says the 35-foot-long satellite will crash somewhere between 57 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south latitude — a projected crash zone that covers most of the planet. Although … more…

Smartphone brain scanner
September 19, 2011

Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have demonstrated a fully functional smartphone brain scanner — consisting of a low-cost 14-channel EEG headset with a wireless connection to a smartphone (Nokia N900) — enabling minimally invasive EEG monitoring in real-world settings. The system provides a fully portable EEG based real-time functional brain scanner, sensors, data … more…

Amazing Earth video from the Space Station
September 19, 2011

Science educator James Drake built this amazing timelapse video from the perspective of the International Space Station as it flew over North and South America, created it by downloading a series of 600 photographs, Universe Today reports.

Intel runs PC on CPU powered by solar cell
September 19, 2011 Source Link: Computerworld

Intel has developed an experimental low-power Pentium processor (code-named Claremont) the size of a postage stamp that could run PCs on solar power, by dropping energy consumption to under 10 milliwatts. The company's goal is to deliver a 300-fold improvement in energy efficiency in high-performance computing over 10 years.

Installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems in the US declined significantly in 2010 and 2011
September 19, 2011

The U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has released the latest edition of an annual solar photovoltaic (PV) cost tracking report, showing that the installed cost of PV power systems in the United States fell substantially in 2010 and the first half of 2011. The average installed cost of residential and … more…

Scientists create first step toward creating 'inorganic life'
September 17, 2011

University of Glasgow scientists have taken their first tentative steps towards creating "life" from inorganic chemical cells (iCHELLS), potentially defining the new area of "inorganic biology." "What we are trying do is create self-replicating, evolving inorganic cells that would essentially be alive. You could call it inorganic biology," said Professor Lee Cronin, University of Glagow … more…

New BLOG POSTS

Breakthrough: proton-based chips that communicate directly with living things
September 21, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

University of Washington scientists have just crossed another major threshold between humans and machines: they've built a transistor that uses protons instead of electrons. Their ultimate goal: create devices that can communicate directly with living things certain biological functions that involve protons — eventually even control them — a "first step toward 'bionanoprotonics'." Yes, there … more…

Every breath you take, every move you make …
September 19, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

Those University of Utah engineers who built wireless networks that see through walls are now taking it a step further: detecting if surgery patients, adults with sleep apnea, and babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) have stopped breathing. This thing freaks me out a bit. Think what Homeland Security could do with … more…

How to synthesize a new kind of yeast cell — or person
September 19, 2011 by Amara D. Angelica

Scientists, in theory, could one day create whole new lifeforms, going way beyond simple cloning, new research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine suggests. The scientists have now replaced the DNA in a yeast chromosome with computer-designed, synthetically produced DNA (structurally distinct from its original DNA), producing a healthy yeast cell. So perhaps one … more…

New EVENTS

Mechanicrawl 02011

Dates: Sep 24, 2011 – Jan ,
Location: San Francisco, California
more...

The Annual Burrill Personalized Medicine Meeting

Dates: Oct 3 – 4, 2011
Location: Burlingame, California
more...

App Conference and Hackathon

Dates: Oct 26 – 27, 2011
Location: Santa Clara, California
more...

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Poor People Lose Again-this time their access to Federal Court

2011-09-12T22:06:00.001-04:00

The following is quoted from the e-newsletter of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law:

Under New Restriction, Minnesota Legal Aid Groups Unable to Bring Lawsuits in Federal Court with State Dollars
Paul Demko, “Legal aid groups wrestle with new restriction,”Saint Paul Legal Ledger; September 7, 2011
The Saint Paul Legal Ledger reports: “State funding has been ‘hugely important because of its flexibility,’ said Catharine Haukedahl, executive director of Mid Minnesota Legal Assistance, one of the state's largest providers of legal representation to poor individuals. ‘We would prefer not to see less flexibility.’ Organizations receiving state grant dollars can no longer use that money to pursue federal court cases. A little-discussed provision in the public safety budget bill is causing headaches for legal services organizations across the state. The legislation states that ‘priority must be given’ to clients with cases in state courts when spending state dollars. Despite the seeming ambiguity in that language, legal aid groups are interpreting it as a prohibition on spending state dollars to litigate cases in the federal courts. It's the first time that state funds for legal services have been restricted in such a manner. . . . Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says the provision was simply intended to remind legal aid organizations about the proper use of state dollars. ‘There was discussion about whether or not mission creep has affected legal services over the years,’ Limmer said. ‘This was a reminder to legal services that we should keep in mind the original intent of the funding.’ . . . . The state budget allocates $22 million for civil legal services during the current biennium. . . . . The 11-member Legal Services Advisory Committee, which is appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court, is responsible for allocating $1.5 million of that money. It's part of a two-year, $4.1 million grant pool that comes from three funding sources. The restriction on spending has already altered the grant process, said Bridget Gernander, the state's legal services grant program manager. Most notably, the advisory committee decided to use only non-state funds in making grants to the Immigration Law Center of Minnesota and the Advocates for Human Rights, which work almost exclusively on federal court matters. In addition, the relevant language from the legislation was included in each grant contract in order to make certain that legal aid organizations are aware of the change. . . . . The change comes at a time when legal services groups face dwindling budgets. The court system was one of the few areas to largely avoid the budget axe in the deal reached in July. But legal services was an exception, taking a 6.8 percent cut. It could have been much worse: The initial bill passed by the Legislature contained a 17 percent reduction in spending for legal aid. . . . . The restriction on how state dollars may be spent is already changing the way that legal aid groups do their work. It's causing organizations to implement additional administrative tasks to track state dollars so that they can prove to legislators that none of it is being spent on federal cases. . . . It also could alter where aid groups file lawsuits. If they have a choice between seeking redress in state or federal courts, they may be more inclined to choose the former in order to allow the use of state funds.”

Where are we headed-Back to 1984?

2011-09-11T10:16:00.002-04:00

No. 06-2741. - UNITED STATES v. GARCIA - US 7th Circuit

Dinner at Technique

2011-08-27T22:39:00.000-04:00

We enjoyed celebrating Lillian's birthday yesterday at Technique the restaurant of the Cordon Bleu International School of Cooking here in Cambridge.

Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal sponsoring Girls' Camps-Will you Help?

2011-08-20T15:47:00.000-04:00

Recently, we met a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal who is doing some excellent work helping people at a major hospital in Dakar and at a high school in a suburb of Dakar to establish and build gardens adjacent to the institutional buildings. There are some images of those gardens in our recent posts. Since our return home, he has written to us about another project that he and other Peace Corps volunteers are undertaking, camps for girls. He writes:

"Peace Corps volunteers in Senegal have started to develop annual, week long girls' camps in different regions. The camps range in age groups, but generally are designed to give females a safe, open space to discuss crucial gender issues (that they might not be able to elsewhere), learn about the environment, health-related issues, the importance of education, etc, and, of course, to have fun. This year the Dakar region is hosting the second annual girls' camp the first week in October. A number of volunteers in the Dakar region are participating, using our combined knowledge of Health/Environment Education, Small Enterprise development, and Agriculture. I'll be helping out with a few of the environmental sessions, basically helping spread the work about moringa and showing the usefulness of bottles and such as alternative containers. We're all set to go, save for a bit of fund raising."

So, Janet and I contributed a few bucks and we are hoping that some of our Breaking Away blog readers might wish to do the same. If you wish to view the girls' camp project on the Peace Corps site and consider making a donation, which is tax deductible, please visit:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=685-178

Excerpt from the PC website:
"...Our main objective with this camp is to help these young women see the importance of school and how it benefits both themselves and their family lives; in short, creating the perfect work/life balance...."

And for more information and updates, please let us know. John and Janet

Intercultural Dimensions announces its next Crossing Cultures Senegal program

2011-08-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

Crossing Cultures Senegal-January 2013

Intercultural Dimensions, Inc. (a 501(c)(3) educational organization) offers a stimulating travel and educational program focused on the French-speaking Republic of Senegal, West Africa. The program dates for the 2013 Crossing Cultures Senegal program are January 2 to January 18. It will be ID's 22^nd program to Senegal. Escape the cold and experience the real story of Senegal.

Led by two former U.S. Peace Corps volunteers, this well-established cultural immersion program appeals to people in and out of academia. It works well for those who want to experience family life and community projects in rural areas of this diverse nation and for

those with special interests in dance and music training, teaching, literature, environment, medicine, government, NGOs, agriculture, language and health projects.

The Crossing Cultures Senegal group (three leaders and three participants) is small allowing the leaders to tailor activities to the participants' interests. Many professors, teachers and students of French have been past participants.

Reasonable cost. Extended stays for volunteer work or field study can be facilitated. This program is an eye-opener. For some it can be a stepping stone to their future; for others it can be an enrichment of the work they are already doing. Start now and apply early.

Deadline for applications is September 15, 2012.

Please visit ID's website for more information and to apply to participate in the next program:

Please click here:www.interculturaldimensions.org

John Hand and Janet Ghattas

Movie of the 2011 Crossing Cultures Senegal program in Senegal

2011-08-18T13:18:00.001-04:00

Previously, we have posted some media about our recent trip to Senegal. If you wish to see more, there is a 19-minute movie of Intercultural Dimension's 2011 trip which is available at this link:

http://gallery.me.com/johntaylorhand

There is also a collection of stills on that gallery; click on the links for ID-2011.

And there is a shorter version of the video (11 minutes) on You Tube under the username: jthand123.

Route 95 in Utah-One of the Best

2011-08-17T12:09:00.001-04:00

If ever you get a chance to drive from Blanding to Hanksville, Utah, take the time to do so-it is one great drive. Not only is the scenery fabulous as viewed from your vehicle but along the way, there are a number of great short hikes where you will find beauty and fascinating ruins and relics of the past inhabitants.

Here, we see the route 95 bridge across the Colorado River.

Anasazi ruin in Butler Wash, an easy hike from Route 95

Pottery shards in a canyon close to Route 95

Maison des Esclaves, Senegal

2011-08-16T22:48:00.001-04:00

During almost fifty years Joseph Ndiaye, as curator of the Maison des Esclaves on the island of Gorée, informed people from all over the world about the horrors of slavery. In doing so, he must have met many of the world’s luminaries. We miss him.

Therapeutic art and gardening at a hospital in Dakar

2011-08-16T15:02:00.000-04:00

We visited a therapeutic art workshop and two gardens at Fann Hospital in Dakar. The patients are enthusiastic about these additions to their medical treatment.

My Grandfather

2011-08-14T20:56:00.001-04:00

Note: Please click on the documents, once or twice to enlarge the print.

" Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?" Jack Kerouac

2011-08-13T11:18:00.000-04:00

The price of gold

2011-08-03T20:25:00.001-04:00

In my lifetime the value of this coin, about the size of a dime has risen from about $4 to about $350 today. Much of that astonishing increase has occurred in the past decade.

Looking Back...

2011-07-31T14:09:00.002-04:00

Chief Rising Sun, (third from left) entertained us at my fifth birthday party.

I still have this Ute drum:

Chief Rising Sun

I guess you could say that my birthday parties have been going downhill ever since. Chief Rising Sun helped my father with the 1937 production of "The Sundance," an opera that was composed by William Hanson in collaboration with a Sioux woman, Gertrude Simmons Bonnin.

Utah-Arizona - a few favorite shots

2011-07-28T16:50:00.000-04:00

(above) Cottonwood Canyon Road, east of Bryce Canyon, Utah

The Betatakin Ruin, Navajo National Monument, Arizona

A view of Keet Seel, Navajo National Monument, AZ, a spectacular, well preserved Anasazi ruin and an interesting hike.

Grinding stones at Keet Seel

Lower Calf Creek Falls, a nice place to cool off and have a picnic in Escalante country

Hell's Backbone, an exciting scenic drive in the Escalante region

Desert Storm in central Utah

The Grand Gallery, Horseshoe Unit, Canyonlands National Park-a fantastic panel of pictographs and petroglyphs said one of the finest examples of "Anasazi" art so far discovered. The hike to this fairly remote location is fun and interesting.

Our Elected Federal Officials Are Violating The Constitution

2011-07-24T21:47:00.000-04:00

Our federal government officials are sworn to uphold the Constitution and to work to protect the people. But their current actions and inaction violate the Constitution. The failure of the Government to take the normal steps to pay the obligations of the United States, previously approved by legislation, puts the country and the people in immediate jeopardy of severe losses and injuries. Millions of innocent people may suffer as a result of our elected officials' collective violations of their sworn duty. Before the U.S. suffers a possibly disabling reduction in it's credit standing, the President should assure the public and the financial community that America's debts will continue to be paid in full and on time. While it is true that we owe too much money, the answer does not lie in refusing to pay our just debts and carrying out the legislation which is already on the books. If our expenses are to be reduced that should be done through future legislation -- not by refusing to pay what we owe.

Location:Cambridge

Should Wade Have Another Go At The Presidency?

2011-07-24T18:30:00.015-04:00

Driving east from Kolda is not much fun...

The Casamance is a sorry story of missed opportunity. Long ago, just after independence in the early 1960s there were experimental gardens and a lot of hope in this region. People were enthusiastic. A Chinese agricultural team near Sedhiou established a magnificent garden of fruit trees and vegetables; they also produced a great deal of rice in a local rice field using methods and tools available to the people of the area. The roads in the Casamance were not paved but they were in good shape and one could travel from Ziguinchor to Sedhiou to Kolda to Tambacounda at speeds around 100 km. an hour. Try that now! It isn't just the roads that have suffered in the Casamance. There is a paucity of development throughout the region. Five decades have been largely wasted in a region that might have become the breadbasket of Senegal.

Maybe it's the politics. If the region were truly developed, perhaps the southern part of Senegal - and some of its people - would gain in power at the expense of some in the north. Maybe that is not involved, I don't know. But it seems strange to me that a region with such potential has been so long and to such a degree neglected. It's a shame.

Various places we visited in Senegal

2011-07-23T11:42:00.002-04:00

Theater group in Kaolack

Garden in Kolda assisted by a Peace Corps Volunteer (on left).

Janet at the market in Kolda before visiting the village of Temento Samba

Dancing at Temento Samba

The Chief, Samba Mballo gave us his home during our visit.

Solar power for this home in Temento

pounding couscous at Temento

preparing dinner at Temento Samba

Fields adjoining the village

Pape, who coached successful men's and women's soccor teams now turns to basketball.

Vocalist who sings with the balafonist at Sedhiou

M. Mané, master balafonist at Sediou

Fatou Diemé at Diedhioucounda

El Hadji Abdoulaye Biaye giving us a lesson about the Region of Sedhiou

Garden at Diedhioucounda

We took a pirogue ride on the Casamance River to the Ile du Diable. (They say, it's best not to step onto the land).

Computer room at the "Fort" in Sedhiou. (I hope it's being used by the people in Sedhiou.)

Dinner at Diedhioucounda

Cakes were baked for us in the solar oven at Diedhioucounda

Tea in the afternoon at Diedhioucounda

The Kankouran marches about in Sedhiou in front of our compound.

Some of the women of Diedhioucounda

On the road east of Kolda-maybe some work should be done here instead of building the new airport!

We always enjoy visiting the artists' retreat, Sabo Badé at Toubab Dialaw.

On the rad outside Dakar

In the market at Kolda

Urban Farming

2011-07-17T16:50:00.000-04:00

Check out this interesting site concerning urban farming

Sabo Badé - Artists' Space

2011-07-16T15:43:00.000-04:00

Sculptures by Gérard Chenet at Toubab Dialaw, Senegal

The buildings and their settings, conceived and executed by Chenet are themselves works of art

The Mandinka Kancouran in Sedhiou

2011-07-12T08:16:00.001-04:00

Here we see the Kancouran who protects young men who are being initiated from evil spirits (among the Mandinka).

YouTube Video

Location:Sabo Badé

Kaolack, Kolda, Temento Samba

2011-07-11T15:51:00.001-04:00

Roof design at the cultural center (Alliance Franco-Senegalaise) in Kaolack

Rope shop in the Kolda market:

Janet marketing in Kolda in preparation for our visit to the Pulaar village Temento Samba.

Location:Sabo Badé, Senegal

Sedhiou

2011-07-11T15:26:00.001-04:00

Computer room at a community center in Sedhiou.

Our host in Sedhiou baked two cakes for us in the family's solar oven-delicious.

A Balant singer accompanied the master balafonist for our entertainment.

YouTube Video

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Sabo Badé, Senegal

Once More in Sedhiou

2011-07-08T07:06:00.001-04:00

We visited the cultural center and it's library. (below)

Home grown veggies are served with rice and fish at our host's home in
Sedhiou.

Pape, who coaches soccer and basketball, having led successful men's and women's teams for Sedhiou now begins the basketball season.

Location:Sedhiou, Senegal

Visit to a small Peul village

2011-07-08T06:30:00.001-04:00

Dinner on the hoof...

The chef du village gave Janet and me his home for the night. We were comfortably accommodated.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:South of Kolda, Senegal, near the Guinea Bissau border

A Day in Kolda

2011-07-03T05:08:00.001-04:00

The kaicedra tree in Kolda

At a demonstration garden assisted by a Peace Corps volunteer in Kolda. Public training sessions encourage urban gardens here and in a number of other cities and suburbs in Senegal. (below)

Location:Kolda, Senegal

Fatick and Kaolack continued

2011-06-30T16:06:00.001-04:00

Discussion with the traditional healers at Fatick.

People come from distant parts even other countries seeking salt here in the Sine-saloum area of Senegal.

The Senegalese-French Alliance community center provides many cultural services to students, researchers and the general public in Kaolack with it's lending library, study rooms, archives of newspapers, theater, movie room, language lab, classrooms and cybercafe. It's unusual design won the Aga Khan Award in architecture.

John (left) speaking with the director.

At Kaolack, we were entertained by a musical theater troop which presents morality plays in the City and in the villages.

YouTube Video

Location:Kaolack

Dakar to Kaolack, June, 2011

2011-06-30T12:13:00.001-04:00

More from the Fann Hospital gardens, Dakar, above: a shot from the Infectious Ward garden at Fann Hospital

In the therapeutic garden at Fann Psychiatric Ward (above and below)

YouTube Video

Below: Janet in the course of the orientation session for the 21st program of Intercultural Dimensions at the Hotel Ganalé, Dakar.

YouTube Video

Above: We visited a garden cultivated by students at the Lycée (high school) in a suburb of Dakar. This is a joint effort of the school and the Peace Corps. A volunteer comes regularly to consult and work in the garden. The plan is to utilize the proceeds of the garden for the maintenance of the garden and for the benefit of the students, including the purchase of medications for the infirmary.

Though many students are preparing for exams at this time, several members of the Gardening Club came to greet us.

Leaving the suburbs of Dakar to continue to Fatick and Kaolack. The road is shared by a variety of conveyances.

Fueling our "sept place" modified Peugeot station wagon is not cheap.Fuel costs about $6.70 a gallon at today's rate of exchange.

On the way to Kaolack, we visited a center for transitional healing at Fatick ("Malango"). The administration and healers were most welcoming and explained their work, their successes and problems with us. (Below)

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Dakar-Kaolack, Senegal

A gradual privatization of electricity

2011-06-30T05:01:00.001-04:00

Since we arrived in Senegal five days ago, the electricity has been off more than it has been on, I believe throughout the country. Businesses to some extent can get along with their privately purchased generators. Of course, this is at a significant added expense. At our hotel, we had electricity but we were asked to turn off the air conditioner because the generator was being overtaxed. Apparently, the generator has no problem with outages of a few hours but outages of long duration may be beyond its capacity to endure and fully supply the needs of the hotel. I suspect this is true for other businesses as well-and so I was told. But those who have the means to purchase such machinery and fuel it do not include the common man and woman in the street nor many institutions such as schools and infirmaries. As for small business people such as tailors, woodworking tradesmen, iron workers and many others, they have no means to pursue their livelihoods.

It is one thing when electricity is cut off due to causes of nature beyond human control. Though severe, that kind of interruption is both understandable and of relatively short duration. What we have here is a system that simply is not working and has not been working over a long period of time. The last time we were in Senegal and the times before that, there were outages, but nothing like what we are experiencing now. A two or three hour interruption several times a week is bad enough; but now we are way beyond that level of inconvenience. We are into a really serious deterioration of the level of functioning in Senegal.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Senegal

Hospital Gardens Help Patients in Dakar

2011-06-27T13:25:00.001-04:00

We visited a garden at the Fann Hospital in Dakar this morning. The produce is utilized at the hospital for the benefit of the patients. There is also a therapeutic garden beside the psychiatric ward. Both gardens are assisted by a Peace Corps volunteer.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Dakar, Senegal

The People's Law

2011-06-27T13:13:00.001-04:00

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Dakar, Senegal

1963, 1988 and 2011: tear gas in the streets of Dakar

2011-06-26T05:41:00.002-04:00

1963: About two months following Mamadou Dia's attempted coup d'etat in December, 1962, the Peace Corps arrived. The armored vehicles and clouds of tear gas in the streets did not cause us much concern inasmuch as the situation was, by the first of February, mostly stabilized. Dia was in jail. Still, for a fledgling democracy it was startling and worrisome.

1988: I wish I had kept the full page picture of me standing near a burned out car on the principal street in downtown Dakar which appeared on page one of a daily newspaper in April, 1988. It was my first return to Senegal after my Peace Corps service which ended in 1964. I returned to visit friends and to attend festivities at Thies for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Peace Corps in Senegal. (I hope to return for the "fiftieth.") The cause of the riots was the treatment that the presidential hopeful Abdoulaye Wade received. Just two months after the New York Times spoke of Senegal's democratic processes and showed Mr. Wade making a speech in Kaolack, he was jailed for some supposed criminal insubordination. Not a good sign. When I returned to Dakar from Sedhiou, tensions were very high, the lights were off at night; it was, maybe, a close call.

Many have believed in the democracy of Senegal and in Mr. Wade as an agent of change when finally he ascended to Senegal's highest office. He spoke eloquently of Senegal's democratic institutions in a speech at the J.F.K. School of Government at Harvard in 2008. I hope that he can still dream the progressive dreams he had in '88 and thereafter.

2011: Janet and I are conducting our 21st Intercultural Dimension program in Senegal. As we set off for Dakar and the countryside of central and southern Senegal, we read that tear gas is once again clouding the street as demonstrations take place in Dakar. This time they are in protest of the policies of Mr. Wade and conditions of life in present-day Senegal.

So, where do we stand today? We are fast approaching the fiftieth anniversary of Peace Corps in Senegal. Before that occurs, there will be another presidential election in Senegal. Let us hope that it will be a peaceful and productive continuation of Senegal's democracy.

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Dakar, Senegal

In Case You Suffer From Back Pain...

2011-06-18T15:45:00.000-04:00

OPEN LETTER TO BACK PAIN SUFFERERS:

In January, 1981, shortly after the law firm where I worked dissolved, as I was riding a bike through the streets of Eugene, Oregon, I stopped short to avoid hitting the back of a car. I felt something "go" in my back, but it didn't hurt then. A few hours later, I was in agony on the floor in my home. Shuffling and doubled over, I managed to get to the office of a sports medicine physician. He did nothing but examine me. He gave me neither medicine nor any physical adjustment - just told me to take it easy. This made me very anxious, since he didn't seem to think anything of my predicament.

At that time, I thought it was an isolated episode that would go away and not return, for I had not experienced back pain for 20 years. My back was "out" and would return to normal. The pain diminished, but persisted. So, I went to an osteopath, who gave me the physical adjustment I wanted and also a muscle relaxant. Now, I felt "treated." I relaxed, and after a few days of slow going, I was normal. I put the incident behind me.

But not for long. Several months after I returned to New York and my old job, I awoke one morning unable to get up. The pain was quite fierce. Of course, I at once identified the cause: raking leaves in the yard. This time I went to a chiropractor, who adjusted my back and took x-rays. The results were alarming and depressing. He told me I had degenerative disc disease and that the condition was chronic and incurable. But there was hope for a fairly normal life if I followed instructions and took care.

Over the ensuing six years, I went to a chiropractor every time my back "went out," that is, several times a year. Each bout lasted from three to twelve weeks. I could not do many things that I enjoy doing. Physical exercise was dangerous. Running was out of the question. Hiking was problematic; I worried I'd have to be rescued on some ridge in the White Mountains, as once I almost did.

Carrying, lifting, driving, even sitting in a theater became increasingly difficult, painful and fearsome. Doing research in a library was extremely uncomfortable - especially standing in the stacks. Going to meetings anywhere that I did not have the right kind of chair presented significant problems. Every day I had to spend from a half hour to two hours lying on a pad on my office floor. I missed work several weeks a year and almost routinely had to leave early or arrive late. My life was carefully arranged to protect my fragile back. Nevertheless, the pain became continual and worse around 1986. The doctors told me that I could expect a gradual worsening of the condition. I felt pretty bad since I was only in my mid-forties. I wondered about what my condition would be in my fifties.

During one particularly awful episode, I consulted an orthopedic surgeon, who paced, looked very grave and told me I would be in deep trouble without surgery. In desperation, I consulted a neurologist, who assured me I could control the problem with certain exercises and swimming. I followed his suggestions and swam 5 or 6 times a week, though I dislike swimming for exercise.

One day in late '86, coming out of the courthouse in White Plains, someone asked me how I was doing. I didn't lie. She suggested I see the physician that she said had cured her husband of back pain, John Sarno. Dr. Sarno is a professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine.

Dr. Sarno's theory is that except for rare cases, back pain is caused not by structural defects in the back (which, of course, do appear in various scans). Rather, pain emanates from the back, shoulders, neck or legs, etc., as a result of mild deprivation of oxygen in the affected area of the body. This condition is produced deliberately by the brain for the purpose of distracting one from repressed emotionality, including repressed anger. The name that Dr. Sarno has given to this condition is tension myositis syndrome (TMS). Thus, the tension that causes back pain is not tension of which one is readily aware. In order to sustain the deception, the brain associates back pain with various triggers, such as raking leaves or twisting - almost anything will do. TMS is a stratagem of the brain to protect itself from what the brain considers a threat of an overwhelming nature.

Curing back pain results when one rids oneself of the self-deception involved. Once one understands that the pain is harmless, because it arises from a stratagem of the brain, the syndrome loses its efficacy. What a pleasure it was to lose the fear of deterioration and pain and to realize that I could safely resume all activities. I have done so and I have had no debilitating back pain since 1988, when I attended Dr. Sarno's program.

Dr. Sarno first conducts a physical examination and takes the history. If he makes a diagnosis that the pain is a result of TMS, the patient is asked to return to the N.Y.U. Medical Center to attend a class in which Sarno teaches how and why the pain is produced. It is the knowledge of how TMS works that dissipates the deception and hence the pain, which no longer can serve any function. I was examined by Dr. Sarno in January, 1988. In February, I attended his lectures with about 50 other patients. Subsequently, I attended several of his Tuesday afternoon seminars and within a couple months I no longer had back pain.

In 1988, when I was a patient and student of Dr. Sarno, he avoided the term “psychosomatic,” because, he said, that word was loaded with inaccurate meaning. He focused on back pain exclusively and preferred simply to use “tension myositis syndrome,”or “TMS.” If I recall correctly, his treatment lectures and his 1991 book (Healing back Pain) only tangentially speculated that TMS may be part of larger medical phenomenon. But with publication of The Divided Mind, Dr. Sarno has produced a landmark work encompassing the field of psychosomatic medicine.

If I read Dr. Sarno’s latest book correctly, broadly speaking, there are three ways in which his thinking now is radically different from when I saw him for treatment. TMS describes a benign strategy by which the brain protects itself from what it considers to be dangerous emotional material contained (locked away) in the sub-conscious part of the brain. Other psychosomatic conditions, however, are not limited to the benign pain of TMS; they are capable of damaging or destroying the individual. Secondly, while TMS is caused entirely by psychosomatic processes, other psychosomatic processes can be a partial cause of - or an exacerbating factor in - any illness, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Thirdly, psychosomatic conditions are universal among humans.

I think that Dr. Sarno’s work is profound. I urge you to read The Divided Mind, The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders, Harper Books, 2006. I recommend also, Healing Hypertension-A Revolutionary New Approach, by Samuel J. Mann, M.D. Hypertension Center, NY Presbyterian Hosp.-Cornell Medical Center, John Wiley and Sons, publisher, 1999.

Some Photos from Senegal

2011-06-16T09:10:00.001-04:00

Near the "ranch" at Toubab Dialao

Chez Chenet

Pirogue on the Casamance River at Sedhiou

In the market at Kolda

Janet with a women's group at Diofior

Marriage festivities at Neman Ding

Drummers at Sedhiou

Sabo Badé

Early morning contemplation of the Qur'an

at the ranch

A good Mafé

fields at Temento Samba

at Neman'Ding

Mamadou Mané, dit, Maaneebaa

lead poisoning of children, a continuing horror

2011-06-15T23:47:00.000-04:00

New York Times
WORLD | June 15, 2011
Lead Poisoning in China: The Hidden Scourge
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Over the past two and a half years, thousands of workers, villagers and children have been found to be suffering from toxic levels of lead exposure, mostly caused by pollution from battery factories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/world/asia/15lead.html?emc=eta1

But lead poisoned children are not only the shame of China, they are our shame as well. Is there any excuse for this state of affairs in America in this century? According to the Illinois Department of Health:

"National surveys estimate that more than 3 million children 6 years of age and younger have lead poisoning. This number represents almost one out of every six children younger than age 7. In Illinois, more than 5,000 children were found to have lead poisoning in 2008."

http://www.idph.state.il.us/public/hb/hblead.htm

- Posted from my iPad

Illegal Loggers Profit From Conflict In Senegal's Casamance

2011-06-14T13:23:00.000-04:00

http://www.jollofnews.com/illegal-loggers-profit-from-conflict-in-senegals-casamance.html

This is such an outrage. The forests of the Casamance are aleady in tough shape, now this rape of the land by bandits and who knows who else? How are these logs being shipped? And to where?

Wouldn't It Be Nice If Air Afrique Were Here To Take Us To Senegal.

2011-06-14T13:11:00.000-04:00

It was always a pleasure to fly Air Afrique with its welcoming flight attendants and excellent meals. Of course, one had to put up with a delay here and there, sometimes a lengthy one; but all things considered, we'd like to see a return of that service.

Let your imagination roam: where might Kadhafi go?

2011-06-11T14:29:00.000-04:00

I read an absurd little news piece which I received as a subscriber to Google's alerts for the Casamance. Here is an excerpt:

"Senegal is also targeted by Libya, according to the statement, as President Abdoulaye Wade was expected Thursday in Benghazi. 'The Libyan people have the right to support Casamance rebels, who have been fighting for almost three decades for the independence of their region,' the statement said."

Kadhafi would fit in, I suppose, with those bandits.

- Posted from my iPad

Sedhiou, Senegal-from my sunset/sunrise collection

2011-06-10T23:34:00.000-04:00

Sunrise over the Casamance River at Sedhiou

Sunset at Sedhiou

First Project of Peace Corps in the Casamance

2011-06-10T14:50:00.003-04:00

It was late in February, 1963, when we arrived at Koussy following a couple of false starts at developing a project. With several dozen Senegalese homesteaders, we managed to build some 35 houses - a new village, Koussy trois, a km. or so from Koussy.

In 1988, I visited Senegal to see my frineds and attend a party at Thies to mark the 25th anniversary of Peace Corps in Senegal. I found Koussy "trois" fully occupied and functioning. In July, 2010, I visited Koussy 3 again and found it in the condition pictured below. I was stunned. The story as far as I know it is complicated and I prefer to face the future rather than speculating about rumors that may not be true. The fact is, no family resided there when I returned last year; it appeared to be merely a bleached skeleton. I was sad as I left Koussy 3.

Yesterday, a friend who teaches in nearby Koussy sent me some pictures, one of which is posted with this entry. Again, I am amazed. Is it possible that Koussy 3 may again function to house families? I am hoping so and looking forward to learning more when we return to Senegal.

Koussy "3" in July, 2010-an empty shell that once housed 35 families.

Restoring a building at Koussy "3" May, 20, 2011-quite a surprise. (photo by Boubacar Seydi)

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Koussy 3, near Sedhiou, Senegal

If this is going to continue, what will ordinary working people do?

2011-06-10T12:26:00.000-04:00

BUSINESS DAY | June 10, 2011
Companies Spend on Equipment, Not Workers
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
As the economy recovers, companies' capital spending is growing faster than their spending on employees, encouraged by tax breaks and falling prices for equipment.

Should We Kill When We Can Capture The Enemy

2011-06-05T14:54:00.000-04:00

I believe it was a mistake to kill Bin Laden. If we had taken him alive, as apparently we could have done, he would have faced trial as a mass murderer. As my friend Ben says about taking him alive: "I believe that Osama would have lost a lot of his lustre as a federal prisoner, rather than his status now as a mythic figure ever in the imagination of his still numerous followers. But forget about propaganda for the moment--we had the opportunity to take the man alive, to do justice the right way, and we just did not do it."

I think that even those who are known to have participated in mass murder, whether they are common criminals, heads of organized crime syndicates or leaders of states who have committed crimes against humanity, they should be captured, if possible, and tried in domestic or international courts.

Seeking Participants for the 21st Program of Intercultural Dimensions

2011-06-04T11:34:00.000-04:00

It is always such a pleasure to be with our friends and associates in Senegal.

A Disturbing Headline in Today's News

2011-06-03T22:46:00.000-04:00

"Moody's Warns of Downgrade for U.S. Credit"

We have chosen to spend a lot of money on waging war in the Middle East. Has this choice utilized our resources effectively? I do not think so. Instead, our financial condition has so deteriorated during a decade of wasted effort and lawless behavior at home and abroad that we risk no longer having the means to ameliorate our domestic problems.

Another great breakfast at Becky's

2011-05-31T22:59:00.000-04:00

We always stop at Becky's Diner in Portland on our way to and from Bangor.

Another Cut To Crush Poor People

2011-05-28T20:40:00.000-04:00

At a time when so many are unemployed, when the country’s proportion of poor people is growing, when thousands of low income households face mortgage foreclosure, Congress has cut funding to the national Legal Services Corporation. In a May 23, 2011 news article, I read that according to the president of Legal Services of New Jersey: “Over the past three years, nearly 300 of its 703 attorneys have been let go.... Two out of three people who come to us, we can’t handle."

This is truly a dire situation, not just in New Jersey but throughout the country. Over the past thirty years the opponents of Legal Services for the poor have succeeded in reducing its funding to less than half that of 1980 (adjusted for inflation). I have previously discussed the 1996 restrictions which Congress imposed on legal services attorneys-restrictions which continue to impair their ability to assist the poor.
The history of Legal Services is a sad tale; but it is not an isolated trend in the reduction of assistance and services to the nation's common man and woman.
The article quoted above can be found at: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/05/after_budget_cutbacks_legal_se.html

A poor family's abode along the Hudson River, Peekskill, NY

Problem Solving

2011-05-26T17:29:00.001-04:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/business-thinking/8527500/Daniel-H-Pink-employees-are-faster-and-more-creative-when-solving-other-peoples-problems.html

Sent from my iPad

A New Day

2011-05-24T22:48:00.001-04:00

me

- Posted from my iPad

Location:Cambridge

Volunteer Rapes: Utterly Shocking Failure on the Part of the Peace Corps

2011-05-11T15:50:00.000-04:00

How could Peace Corps Washington be this stupid?

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U.S. | May 11, 2011
Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Former volunteers are going public about being sexually assaulted while serving, prompting a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Cape Cod Get Away, May, 2011

2011-05-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

Breakfast at the Chatham Gables Inn before biking on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. The weather was temperamental but we did bike each of our three days on the Cape.

Surf-Gliding at the Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod

View from Room 021 at the Chatham Bars Inn-quite a lovely room (and at half price, too).

Dale Cahuly Glass Art at the MFA, Boston

2011-05-01T10:37:00.003-04:00

Assistance for the Poor

2011-05-01T10:09:00.000-04:00

There are those who might today agree with the views below; I am not one of them. What do you think?
1798: In his essay on population, Malthus said that the poor have no right to support, and the death of the poor would help keep the population in balance. He also considered that if given money, the poor would simply use it for ale, and that being poor was a disgrace. And in 1835, the U.S. Supreme Court added its voice and authority to the damning of the poor:

"We think it as competent and as necessary for a state to provide precautionary measures against the moral pestilence of paupers, vagabonds and possibly convicts as it is to guard against the physical pestilence which may arise from unsound and infectious articles."

This view gave rise to the poorhouse, both in England and in America and to laws which regulated the movements and activities of the poor:

In 1834, the poor laws were reformed in England, so that only indoor (poorhouse) relief was to be given. This set up a real test of poverty and would deter indolence. Indeed, Disraeli said that the new law "announced to the world that in England, poverty is a crime." The laws were reformed also to ensure that the poor were never better off than the lowest paid workers. The Royal Commission put it this way:

"Nothing but extreme necessity will induce any to accept the comfort which must be obtained by the surrender of their free agency and the sacrifice of their accustomed habits and gratifications."

Just a few decades earlier, the Articles of Confederation (Art. IV) stated that all citizens except paupers shall have free ingress and egress from one state to another. This exception was eliminated from the Privileges and Immunities clause of the Article IV of the US Constitution. One of the key ways in which the poor were controlled was by laws requiring them to stay where they were born. The residence requirement for public aid goes back to the mid-13th Century, to a time when the plague had made farm labor quite scarce, and so, workers were not allowed to travel about. It is not an exaggeration to sum up the English/American view of poverty thusly: "A willing pauper is near to being a thief."

Reform movements in both countries in the early part of the twentieth century did improve the circumstances of poor people somewhat; for one thing, the poorhouse was discarded in favor of aiding the poor in their own homes and by treating them as normal, productive members of society. Indeed, one of the core concepts of the Social Security Act of 1935 is that poor people should have control of their lives by being given cash assistance rather than in-kind benefits. even as late as 1934, in thirteen states poor people could not vote or hold office. In 1968, a lawsuit had to be instituted in order for people not owing real property to gain the right to vote in a school board election in Ossining, New York.

Six Million Steps

2011-04-28T08:03:00.000-04:00

That's the name of the blog that my friend Mike and his friend Jan have begun to journal their adventure hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada. They just started out a few days ago. Here's a link to their blog:
http://amuddler2-6millionsteps.blogspot.com/

Surfing Oahu

2011-04-23T15:59:00.000-04:00

Ibn Arabi- I believe in the Religion of love ابن عربي - أدين بدين الحب.wmv

2011-03-25T23:03:00.001-04:00

"My heart has become a receptacle of every form;
it is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols, and pilgrims' kaba,
and the tablets of the torah, and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of love, whichever way its camels take.
For this is my religion and my faith."

-- Ibn Arabi

Homelessiness in an American Town - Last of a Three Part Series

2011-03-19T16:14:00.000-04:00

NO VISITORS - TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED

Visitors at the facilities for homeless families often are restricted as to where and when they may visit residents. In some cases, visitors may not go beyond a visitors’ room near the entrance; at other facilities, residents are forbidden to have overnight visitors; and at some, visitors have been excluded entirely. For example, at one facility, the entrance to the driveway resembles a military installation. One must wait for the resident to come down the hill to the gatehouse; then the visit is limited to meeting with the resident in a public room adjacent to the gatehouse.

There was a motel, actually a former summer resort, where the management prohibited residents from having visitors after 10 p.m. and required that residents submit to searches of their cottages at any time of the day or night. Defendants advised residents of the motel that "...all visitors must leave the property by 10 PM. Anyone discovered on motel property after 10 PM will be turned over to the police...."

In order to enforce the visitor policy, the motel security guards would search the living quarters of residents after 10:00 p.m. and turn “illegal” visitors over to state police agents for criminal prosecution. The searches were conducted from shortly after 10 p.m. to as late as 2:30 a.m. When the security guards come to the door they announce that they are present to conduct a "bedcheck," an "occupancy check" or a "census check." There are usually two guards, one of whom makes a search of the premises, which often includes the closets, cabinets, drawers and refrigerator as well as the bathroom and bedrooms. The other guard remains outside with an attack dog, with the front door open. Oftentimes, children are awakened in the middle of the night by the beam of in their faces. Occasionally, a guard dog has entered a room and jumped up on a child’s bed.

HOPELESS CORNERS, N.Y.

The call came in to the Hopeless Motel reception desk at 2:45 p.m., a bomb would go off at precisely 3:30 - “Get them homeless out of there,” was the only further statement of the caller; there was no bomb, but because the caller had first asked for room 308, a family found itself summarily dispossessed the next morning. It didn’t matter to the management that Barbara Rackman was a victim of spouse abuse, nor that it was almost certainly her husband who had made the call, deliberately to make trouble for her. He had been sued by DSS for failing to support his child and had beaten Barbara and had threatened their child when she had told DSS his whereabouts and signed affidavits against him for DSS to use in Family Court. The management was concerned only that trouble was brewing, and there was enough of that already in the letters to the management and the local newspaper. Ms. Rackman was ordered out the following morning.

So now, for Barbara Rackman and her seven year old daughter Debra, it was back to DSS and on to another motel in another town, on another highway, in another non-neighborhood, amidst fast food restaurants, automobile sales rooms, automobile fumes, bags of clothing and more bags. Again, as in the case of the Roberts family, the families at the Red Apple Motel, hike along a busy corridor to shop for food, pushing baby carriages and trailing youngsters for whom there is no playground other than a shopping center. A single motel room often functions as a permanent home for a family of four. Is it any wonder that one official who inspected this motel’s numerous rooms devoted to homeless families, "the rooms look like refugee tents."

With only a parking lot for a playground, Barbara and Debra faced a summer of heat and boredom. Barbara’s search for a place to live produced nothing but responses of “No welfare” and an occasional offer of an apartment at a rent far beyond what DSS allows. Barbara counted the days until school would start and give Debra a break from the boredom and chaos of the homeless section of the Red Apple. Registration Day finally arrived. Barbara and Debra arrived a little before 8:30 a.m. at the front door of the Benton McIntyre Elementary School on Monday September 4th. Barbara expected no difficulty, after all, there had been no problem when she registered Debra in school in Hopeless Corners. Debra had had a pretty good year there, so why shouldn’t she be able to adjust and do just as well in this new school district.

Mother and child were not prepared for the cold reception and rejection she received from the staff and then the principal at McIntyre. She was told that the school district did not accept motel children, that she was not a resident of the district and so, her child could not attend without payment of the tuition. Debra and her mother returned to their room only with the suggestion that they ask DSS to transport Debra back to her previous school district. DSS agreed to provide transportation, but despite the pleading of Barbara and her DSS caseworker, the previous school district also refused to accept Debra, saying that she was no longer a resident of the district and could not attend without payment of tuition.

Barbara appealed to the state commissioner of education, who issued a temporary emergency order directing the McIntyre school district to admit the child. The following summer, the commissioner issued a regulation which he hoped would solve the homeless problem, directing that homeless children have a choice of continuing in the school where they became homeless or attending school near in the district where the motel or shelter is located. For Debra, this worked out well, but for many children living in motels far distant from their old schools and friends, it has meant a ride of an hour or even two hours by taxi or special bus each way, thus excluding all after-school activities.
NB: All names used in this series of fiction are fictitious and any resemblance to the names of living persons is not intended.

Pray for a Resolution to the Crisis in Japan

2011-03-16T20:48:00.001-04:00

Kennin-ji Temple, Kyoto

Homelessness (ficton based on actual cases) - Part 2

2011-03-15T14:49:00.000-04:00

No, the Roberts hadn’t given the motel manager, Kenberg, any reason to call their caseworker at the department of social services, not for over a year, but on their way to their room an onion dropped unnoticed in the hallway and a security guard found it on his 6 p.m. tour of the halls. He sniffed at each door on the floor, and coming upon a telltale odor of frying onions, he knocked hard, then waited only a moment before bursting in, so the family would not be able to hide the evidence. Ben waved to his boys to stash the plates under the bed. A mad scramble ensued but was not fast enough. The frying pan stuffed under the bed did nothing to hide the smoke and smell of the onions and hamburger. “Too late, Roberts, we been watching you, your kids dropped an onion in the hall, your all history here, tomorrow morning, your outta here. Now give me the stuff, your pan, your hot plate, you can go to jail, you know for cooking here.” “My kids gotta eat, don’t they, they gotta eat....” Don’t you cook for your kids?” “Speak to Mr. Kenberg in the morning, first thing in the morning, I got my orders, nothin’ I can do ‘bout it;” the door closed.

“Dad? What about school tomorrow? We gonna miss school again like when got homeless? I got a test in geometry.” Don’t worry, Mark, just go on to school like nothin’s wrong. I’m gonna speak to the manager in the morning, maybe he’ll let us stay, he’s got to.” “Can we eat the burgers, Dad, or are they gonna come back and take them too?” “Take it easy Steve, turn on the TV.”

“Mr. Kenberg, I been here over a year, no fights, no drugs, nothin’. I got three kids in school, all doing good, you can’t kick us out ‘til school’s out, please, I don’t know where they’ll put us, might be far away or back in a hole in Yonkers, I can’t miss work, please, just give me a break, once.” “I can’t keep you, just can’t do it Ben. You and your kids made no trouble here, but I told yah, I told yah lots a times, the town wants me closed down, the fire people are over here every other day looking around to close me down. They don’t want no homeless here. It’s gettin’ hard as hell to run this place. You gotta go, sorry Ben, you gotta get down to welfare right away, with all your stuff, down to welfare this morning. Check-out’s at eleven. I’ll call the worker for you if you want.”

I had to hand it to Roberts, sending me a fax from a neighborhood store was ingenious. He explained later that getting through the host of intake workers at our office was if anything more challenging than getting in to see an emergency worker at the DSS office. It hadn’t always been that way at our shop, but I had to agree, it was so nowadays. Anyway, Roberts’s fax was brought to me without going through ”intake screening,” lucky for him. I asked him how he got our fax number: “Simple, I asked at the police station next door to the welfare office.” Roberts explained that he would lose his job if he had to spend all day at the welfare office. It was already pretty late in the morning when he had arrived there, having to take a bus from the motel all the way to the district office of DSS.

He had called in to his job, but they told him he had already taken off too much time. He said he couldn’t tell them what was going on; he had to get to work by 1 p.m. or he would surely lose the job. He said he had to come down to welfare almost once a month for some damn thing and often had to spend the whole day, the usual story. He just couldn’t do so today. Yet, he had no place to sleep that night, and welfare was getting on his case for having gotten himself evicted from the motel. Apparently, they were letting motel and hotel evictees sit around until they finished with new applicants with emergency problems and newly homeless families that had just been evicted from “permanent” housing. A caseworker who did an initial intake on Roberts told him that she didn’t know but what he would be given low priority and placed out-of-county because he had gotten himself into trouble by violating the “no cooking” rule.

When I called the supervisor, Ms. Bonloch to stress my client’s need to stay in the area in order to retain his employment, her response was a curt refusal to interfere with the worker’s judgment call. Her view was that there were more deserving people for the limited slots available in-county. My only hope of getting him accommodations reasonably near his job was to act boldly and quickly. I sent a fax to the district director stating that out-of-county placement was not only arbitrary in the circumstances of this case, it would be contrary to the policy of the State DSS, which mandates emergency placements in or as near as possible to the homeless family's original residence. I then told Roberts to call me again in a half hour if he hadn’t been given a new placement within commuting distance to his job. I got no further call from him that day.

When Ben Roberts did call me back, three days later, he said the DSS worker had given him an “emergency apartment” in a town that is close enough for him to get to work by bus. Ben Roberts said he and the boys were very happy with their new place with its kitchen and two bedrooms. He thanked me for my intervention and said he was sure that if I hadn’t been involved, he would have been sent far away. He then told me that he had received a notice of reduction of his grant from DSS. I suggested where a fax could be sent to me at no cost, and a few hours later, I found Roberts’ reduction notice in my mailbox.

On its face, the reduction notice was routine and correct, simply adjusting the amount of public assistance to reflect Roberts’ recent pay increase, which he had duly reported. The facts stated in the notice were correct, the math was correct, and the regulations called for the result: Roberts was being asked to make a monthly payment for his apartment that exceeded his entire net take-home pay of 1143.32 a month. The absurdity of Roberts’ situation struck me as comical. I stared at the paper for some time before filling out a form request for a fair hearing to send to the State DSS. I faxed the request as it was the last day to do so to keep the grant unreduced pending a decision after a “fair hearing.”

In preparing for the hearing, I wanted to see this apartment for which my client was being billed $1239.58 a month. Ben Roberts’ broad smile didn’t square with what I viewed on entering his new place, but I understood full well that almost anything beats living in a single motel room with three children for over a year. The apartment turned out to have two small bedrooms; the refrigerator door was broken, two of four burners and the oven were inoperable, the paint was badly peeling from the walls and a huge colony of cockroaches crawled the walls even in daylight. The intercom didn’t work, there was no smoke alarm, the lock on the front door to the building hung down by one loose screw and the mailboxes were in bad shape. Those were the most obvious problems. This was supposed to be a model emergency apartment sponsored by DSS and one of the many do-good non-profit organizations set up supposedly to assist homeless families.

I asked Ben if he had been given any choice of where he would be staying, “No,” he was not asked or shown the apartment in advance. He was assigned to live there. While I was in the building, I asked Mr. Roberts to take me around to find out what some of the other tenants were paying for similar apartments. Our inquiries disclosed that comparable apartment were renting for $750 to $850 a month, some in better condition than his. I asked Roberts for the paper he signed when he took possession of the apartment; it turned out to be something called a “license,” a document which explicitly told Roberts that he had none of the rights of a tenant, but did have the duty to pay for his accommodations. When Roberts complained to the Building Inspector about the conditions in his apartment, he was told that the inspectors do not inspect premises leased under the DSS emergency assistance program - that DSS was responsible for ensuring compliance with the housing code.

At the hearing, to which Ben invited the press, we argued that the demand that Roberts pay over $1200 a month for an apartment such poor condition is unconscionable, that the license agreement is unconscionable and an attempt to evade the landlord’s responsibilities to provide a habitable apartment, that Roberts was being gouged for rent far above that which other tenants were paying and finally, we demonstrated the impossibility of what DSS was asking him to pay. There never was a decision after this hearing, for the matter became moot when a civic organization found an apartment which the Roberts family was able to afford - as a direct result of the publicity engendered by the hearing.

TRESPASSING AT HOME

While I was visiting the building with Ben that day, one of the other residents of the “emergency” apartments asked me for help to stop his summary eviction. It seems he received a paper under his door the day before telling him to be out of the building by 5 p.m. the same day. He had not done so, and a security guard had come the night before threatening him with arrest for trespassing if he didn’t get out immediately.

Another occupant of the building, a Ms. Thomas stopped me to complain about drug pushers in the hallways. She told me that one of the dealers, who does not live in her building had knocked her down and cut her with a knife because she made a remark to him that he should leave her kids alone. For this, she is to be evicted immediately, without benefit of legal notice and a proceeding in housing court. Building security had reported to Social Services that Ms. Thomas was seen “fighting with other residents” in the hallway. I called the main office of the non-profit organization which operated the apartment under contract with the owner and DSS. A “housing supervisor” informed me that since my client was not a tenant, but was living in the emergency apartment as though it were a hotel room, she could be evicted without going to court and would be arrested if she did not leave by 5 p.m. I sent a fax to the head of the organization stating that my client had a right to remain in the apartment pending judicial proceedings.

The following day, Ms. Thomas called to say she had received a ten-day notice to leave the apartment or judicial proceedings would be commenced to evict her. She was subsequently served with court papers claiming only that she had been given notice; no reason was stated, no allegation was made that she had performed any wrongful act. Such was the “New Public Housing,” where due process no longer protects one’s occupancy.

Grosvenor Arche-Largest Double Arch

2011-03-12T09:46:00.001-05:00

Let's go to the canyon,
Over slickrock, under arches;
Walk among the pinon.

Homelessness and Poverty In An American Town

2011-03-11T23:52:00.002-05:00

(a fictional account based on actual cases with names changed) - Part I in a series

In March, 1987, Ben Roberts and his three children, aged 13, 15 and 17 were evicted from a Section 8 apartment because Ben was not there when a worker from the Section 8 office came to inspect the apartment. He had called the housing office at 8:30 a.m. to say he wouldn’t be at his apartment due to an emergency hospitalization of his youngest boy with a bad asthma attack. A clerk promised to relay the message to the worker when she came in. Nevertheless, Roberts’ government housing subsidy was terminated, and he was subsequently evicted for non-payment of rent. He had had no knowledge that a free lawyer might be available to him and no notice that he had a right to a hearing before the termination of his rent assistance for alleged “non-cooperation.” After the eviction, Roberts lost his job as a school custodian in large part due to the many hours he had spent at the welfare office to get his family “placed” in emergency housing. He also suspected that his supervisor did not want a “homeless” man working at the school. The Roberts family was “placed” by the welfare department in a motel in a town some 25 miles distant. After three and a half months of searching for a job and an apartment, Roberts found work in as a maintenance man in a hospital. Roberts remained in a motel, because without housing assistance, his income was insufficient to enable him to rent an apartment. He would need at least two bedrooms, and in his search, he found nothing for less than $800 a month, and very little below $950 a month.

The kids used to be pretty happy about getting out of school, especially as the days lengthened. Play time now doesn’t exist for them, neither can they go out for a team, rehearse for the school drama or even get some extra help. If they come home by taxi, like the other motel kids, they must leave at once, the taxis don’t wait for extra curricular activities. Anyway, they don’t like the other kids seeing them get into those taxi, and the drivers can be pretty nasty. The Roberts boys take the public bus back home. It’s a good hour or more, but at least they have that option. Many children do not have a choice, living in motels fifty miles to the north. For those placed in out-of-county motels, it’s an hour or an hour and a half by taxi each way to school. Younger kids often fall asleep in class.

The boys get off the bus near a Grand Union; with no refrigerator at home, they shop often. From there, it’s a good half hour walk alongside the stream of traffic to get back to the motel room. They hate that walk, there’s no sidewalk, not much shoulder and no way to get off the road in some stretches. They pass mothers driving baby carriages as they go, but it’s the honking that infuriates them, gets to them the most, more than the dirt and fumes and squeezing by baby carriages. When they approach the motel in late afternoon sunlight, the grocery bags have to be hidden in a nearby culvert until dark, as though they were contraband. It used to terrify Mark to bring the bags into the motel after dark. In time, he got to think nothing of it; they had a system down pat with Benny keeping lookout for the security guard. You could always lie about what you had, say it was deli or cereal, milk whatever. But people were forever getting caught cooking and getting kicked out, “replaced,” they call it. So far, the Roberts had not been replaced. (To be continued)

JFK Library and Museum

2011-03-11T22:51:00.001-05:00

Intercultural Dimensions at the Harvard Model UN Conference

2011-03-06T12:15:00.000-05:00

Janet the ID table.

Tulip in Boston

2011-03-05T23:10:00.001-05:00

Graduation at SingSing Prison, Ossining, NY

2011-03-05T20:04:00.001-05:00

I'm glad to see that educational programming has been re-instated. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/nyregion/07towns.html
I have a lot of respect for the inmates in the college program at SingSing. In the law courses I taught there, I found the students more responsive and interesting than in the classes I taught at a law school.

2011-03-05T20:00:00.000-05:00

The “New Vision” of Legal Services

In 1971, we asked a federal court to prevent municipal officials from demolishing a building as a part of the city's urban renewal program. Our complaint was that the government was destroying housing without assuring the tenants of adequate, safe relocation housing and moving expenses. The case was brought as a nation-wide class action, a form of action which provides relief to all the unnamed members of the class and which, previous to the inception of the Legal Services program had rarely, if ever, been used on behalf of poor people. The judge gave us a lecture about politics and the judiciary. Suddenly, he turned to me and asked, "Are you lawyers legal aid or are you that new fangled thing they have?"

The judge was curious about us because prior to the establishment of Legal Services as a part of the War on Poverty in the 1960s, legal aid had had a "charity" perspective of helping poor people with legal matters. This entailed writing a letter or negotiating to assist a poor person but rarely litigating a matter affirmatively. With the establishment of the Legal Services program as part of the Office of Economic Opportunity in the mid-1960s, the Government began funding an agency with a broad mandate to use all of the tools available to lawyers. Besides litigation and lobbying, Legal Services attorneys were encouraged to educate poor people about their rights and to assist them in organizing action groups such as tenants' unions and associations of consumers, prisoners and welfare recipients. And, poverty law became a career option rather than merely a way for new lawyers to learn the ropes.

Lawsuits were encouraged and supported financially to correct many systemic wrongs, such as housing and school segregation, disparities in municipal services, police brutality and inhuman prison conditions. Farmers and corporations which hired migrant laborers came under legal attack. Landlords for the first time were considered merchants of services rather than as lords of the manor. Government agencies that dispense benefits were told by the courts that what they considered generous gifts were property interests to which poor people could claim entitlement and from which recipients could be dispossessed only with elaborate procedural protections.

The theory that welfare benefits should be treated as a property interest under the due process clause of the Constitution was proposed by Charles A. Reich in "The New Property," [73 Yale L. J. 733 (1964)]. The tenor of the times, that welfare could be a constructive force in people's lives, is reflected also in Reich's article "Individual Rights and Social Welfare: The Emerging Legal Issues," [74 Yale L. J. 1245, 1257 (1965)], where Professor Reich writes, "[i]n a constructive alliance of law and social welfare there lies hope for a fundamental change in the status of the disadvantaged in our society - a bill of rights for the disinherited." Indeed, in Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 265 (1970), a landmark welfare and due process case, Justice William Brennan, stated:

"Welfare, by meeting the basic demands of subsistence, can help bring within the reach of the poor the same opportunities that are available to others to participate meaningfully in the life of the community... Public assistance, then, is not mere charity, but a means to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...."

Governmental agencies and corporations have a great advantage if they can give a litigant what he's asking for and then go on doing the same wrong to hundreds or thousands of other people. So, when poor people's lawyers began bringing class action lawsuits challenging the wrongful conduct of government administrators and corporations, Legal Services' clients were empowered to obtain relief not only for themselves but for others as well. The class action saved many cases from dismissal as moot, and it obtained community-wide, state-wide and nation-wide remedies against many wrongful policies. And where lawsuits were not altogether successful in accomplishing the goals of poor clients, there was legislative and administrative advocacy. Legal Services attorneys were often successful in persuading legislators to change the rules to provide relief from unfair situations which were not amenable to solution by litigation.

Additionally, the Legal Services program encouraged its staff attorneys to get together and stratagize in regional and national conferences. There were national back-up centers to help with sophisticated research and co-counseling of large litigation. There was money available for expert witnesses and other litigation expenses. The attorneys, in turn, helped organize people in their communities and provided people with information about their rights concerning health and welfare, landlord-tenant law and consumer law, to name a few areas of Legal Services practice.

Examples of How This Worked:

1. Seeking Decent Housing With The People's Housing Movement

The People's Housing Movement was a joint project of a local Community Action Program and a Legal Services branch office which involved every aspect of Legal Services work as it was understood in the late 1960s - grass roots organizing and lobbying, welfare rights, community legal education, legislative and administrative advocacy, individual and group representation and class action federal litigation. The issues involved slum housing, an urban renewal agency's land use decisions and an agreement between a city and a private developer to exclude welfare recipients from a newly constructed moderate income housing development.

2. Protecting The Privacy Of Homeless Families With A Class Action

This case involved a former summer colony converted for use as a shelter for homeless families. Security guards at this facility would search the cottages from 10:00 p.m. until 2:30 a.m. One guard would search the closets, cabinets, drawers, bathroom and bedrooms while the other remained outside with a guard dog. Children were awakened in the middle of the night and sometimes the dog entered as well and jumped up on a child's bed. If an unauthorized person were found, he would be detained and the family would be summarily expelled from its cottage. The problem called for interviewing many families, informing them of their rights in the circumstances, holding meetings of the tenants, and bringing a class action to terminate the abusive conduct of the owner.

Over the years from 1981 to 1995, Legal Services' funding was cut by 25%, and by 1995, the poor were served by one-third fewer attorneys than in 1981. Then, in 1996, many more Legal Services staff were laid off or quit when Congress cut the program an additional 30% and eliminated all funding for the national back-up centers. The reduction in funding is only one aspect of the degradation of Legal Services for the poor. During the 1980s much of the funding for Legal Services offices no longer came from the national government, but instead, it came more and more from state and local government agencies. The increase in local funding led to greater political control of Legal Services programs. State and local agencies decided whom Legal Services attorneys serve, what work they did and, in some instances, they determined who may be sued with their money. Moreover, there was an intensification of management and bar association control over staff, closure of neighborhood offices, mounting pressure to increase the number of cases opened and closed each year and reluctance to expend money and time on impact litigation.

Here is an example of interference by a funding source. A person who oversees a government funded program made these statements at a meeting with Legal Services advocates:

"Load up on technical assistance, information referral and education. They want to see a lot of numbers. Train as many as you want just don't advocate. There aren't a lot of court cases, we're not aggravating a lot of people."

This official also informed the advocates that the state agency did not want Legal Services attorneys to appear at administrative hearings where they would be in an adversarial position to county officials.

A second example: beginning in the late 1980s, eviction prevention grants from the State Department of Social Services were conditioned on the agreement of a Legal Services office not to sue the state or county Social Services departments with any of the grant funds. Consider also a letter written by an experienced Legal Services attorney to an Assistant Attorney General:

"When Ms. X. went to court she told us she asked about the repairs and the landlord replied he would only repair when she vacated. That needs to be challenged but this office lacks the resources to do it. The best we can do is try to locate suitable housing for our clients."

The 1990s brought a so-called "new vision" to the Legal Services Program. The new policies imposed massive restrictions on what Legal Services attorneys may do for their clients. The restrictions imposed by Congress in 1996, I believe, cut the heart out of the Legal Services program. I will briefly outline them:

No Class Actions [45 Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) Part 1617]

Without class actions, many poor people who are injured by an unlawful practice remain without a remedy. High impact lawsuits are at risk of dismissal when defendants seek to moot the issues presented by giving relief immediately to the person or persons who bring the law suit. By doing so, defendants often seek to continue their illegal conduct with respect to people other than those who brought suit. By immediately giving relief to one or several wronged individuals, defendants reap the benefits and advantages of continuing their illegal conduct with respect to hundreds or thousands of other people. Class actions often avoid this obstacle to justice.

No In-Person Solicitation, No Training Programs Advocating a Particular Public Policy and No Grass Roots Lobbying (45 C.F.R. Parts 1612 and 1638)

In developing cases attacking illegal policies and practices, it is essential for the Legal Services lawyer to solicit clients by, for example, handing out flyers at welfare centers and at other public locations where poor persons are likely to be found and then speaking directly with potential clients concerning their rights. Without in-person informational sessions and on the spot solicitation of clients, much illegal conduct will remain unchallenged. These regulations also prohibit Legal Services attorneys from advocating for particular public policies.

No Legislative Lobbying and No Advocacy to Change Administrative Policies (45 C.F.R. Part 1612)

Much of the work of Legal Services attorneys involves persuading government administrators to alter policies and practices so as to conform their policies to constitutional and statutory requirements. Since advocacy concerning administrative policies is now prohibited, Legal Services attorneys have to rely on litigation to provide protection of the rights of their clients. But Legal Services attorneys are unable to bear such a burden of litigation and the poor suffer the consequences. Moreover, there are laws and polices which injure poor people which are not amenable to solution in the courts, but which might be altered through legislative lobbying by lawyers and by grass roots lobbying.

No Claims for Statutory Attorney's Fees (45 C.F.R. Part 1642)

In addition to denying Legal Services organizations the funds they desperately need to function after the reductions of the past 25 years, this prohibition turns Legal Services attorneys into second class lawyers. They are deprived of an important tool with which to negotiate for the best settlements in lawsuits where a statute gives the prevailing party a right to an award of attorney's fees. The prospect of having to pay substantial attorney's fees is a strong incentive for a defendant to agree to terminate an illegal practice early in a lawsuit rather than to play it out and continue the unlawful conduct as long as possible. A former Legal Services attorney, David S. Udell, gives a devastating example of the effects of this prohibition in "The Legal Services Restrictions: Lawyers in Florida, New York, Virginia and Oregon Describe the Costs," [17 Yale Law and Policy L. Rev. 337, 360 (1998)]. After the Government prohibited Legal Services attorneys from seeking fees, a housing authority brought a frivolous eviction case against a family based on a bogus claim of criminal conduct by the mother. A Legal Services attorney obtained a dismissal of the case, but the lawyer could not seek an attorney's fee even though it was available in principle. The authority brought the same claim a second time and the Legal Services lawyer obtained a second dismissal. Unfortunately, the third time the housing authority sought the family's eviction on the same unfounded basis, the Legal Services office was not available and the family was evicted. Had the attorney's fee restriction not been in effect when Legal Services did represent the family, the housing authority likely would have been required to pay fees to Legal Services. The threat of additional fees most likely would have prevented further harassment of the family.

No Representation of Illegal Aliens (45 C.F.R. Part 1626)

Illegal aliens are entitled to the equal protection of the laws, and they should have lawyers to enforce their rights. Citizen children of illegal aliens may find themselves homeless or without food and clothing because this prohibition cuts off legal assistance to their parents.

No Representation of Prisoners (45 C.F.R. Part 1637)

Prisoners, too, are entitled to the equal protection of the laws and to access to the courts. The prohibition on representing prisoners applies not only to claims concerning the conditions of confinement but to all claims and defenses, including those in domestic relations, consumer and landlord-tenant cases. Thus, if a client is merely arrested and jailed while an eviction proceeding is pending, the Legal Services attorney cannot defend the client in housing court.

No Representation In Eviction Proceedings Brought By A Public Housing Authority Against A Person Accused Of Certain Drug Offenses (45 C.F.R. Part 1633)

Under this restriction, a public housing tenant who has been charged with drug-related conduct is precluded from being represented by a Legal Services attorney regardless of the merits of the accusation.

No Welfare Reform Cases (45 C.F.R. Part 1639)

Litigation to secure subsistence income for poor people lies close to the heart of the mission of Legal Services. The restriction on challenging welfare rules and policies was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001 on first amendment grounds.

I fear we have gone a long way back to the legal aid of earlier times. John McKay, a recent president of the Legal Services Corporation has written about a "new vision" for Legal Services. "Federally Funded Legal Services: a New Vision of Equal Justice Under Law." Tennessee Law Review 68 (2000) pp. 101–18.Mr. McKay embraces the 1996 restrictions and urges that:

"Taken as a whole, the restrictions on the types of cases LSC programs are allowed to handle convey a strong Congressional message: federally funded legal services should focus on individual case representation by providing access to the justice system on a case-by-case basis. Therein lies the key to bipartisan support and the future of federally sponsored legal services."

I cannot agree with this concept of a "New Vision" of legal assistance to poor people in America. The prevailing view of the federal government seems to be that individualized service - handling a poor person's everyday problem - and seeking reforms of systems which injure groups of similarly situated poor people are mutually exclusive alternatives. They are not; they never have been. Indeed, I do not believe that there really is a new vision of Legal Services for the poor. What some call a new vision strikes me as little other than the same myopic vision that opposed zealous and thorough representation of poor people throughout its history.

Moreover, in recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on counting numbers of cases and giving poor people pieces of legal help rather than full service. Thus, we see increasing resources devoted to brief service, advice, referrals, internet-based information and assisted pro se litigation. While these components of legal assistance can play a useful role, today, systemic injustices, such as segregated housing, due process deficiencies in agency procedures and environmental hazards impacting poor neighborhoods are not likely to be addressed often by lawyers associated with that "new fangled thing."

Indian paintbrush

2011-03-04T22:52:00.001-05:00

Breakfast Torte

2011-03-02T15:28:00.001-05:00

To make this dish I had to get up so early, but it was worth the effort.

Let's Have Fun

2011-03-01T10:45:00.000-05:00

Here's to happiness!

Making a Pirogue

2011-02-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

at Sedhiou,Senegal

Peanut Fields

2011-02-27T09:06:00.002-05:00

I love the tranquility of this shot, taken in the late afternoon at Neman Ding, Senegal.

The "Seven Samurai," my favorite movie

2011-02-26T17:54:00.001-05:00

Just watched again, for maybe the tenth time, what a great movie. I saw it in the fifties when it first appeared.

Legal Aid Cuts Are Continuing Despite Increased Need

2011-02-25T20:22:00.013-05:00

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202476843961&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

Now, we learn that a bill has been introduced in Congress to cut back the funding for the national Legal Services Program on top of state cuts. This is very bad, given the increasing need of lower income people for government sponsored legal assistance. Justice and equality in our system entails the availability of lawyers for all parties in our courts. That is a dream that the "War on Poverty" began to try to fulfill through the Legal Services Program. But since 1981, the nation has gradually eroded what was a fine, indeed, outstanding federal program of assistance to the poor. I will post some additional thoughts on this topic.

The Sun Over The Casamance, Senegal

2011-02-24T22:12:00.000-05:00

From Top to Bottom: Sunset at Thiobon, Region of Bignona, Sunset at Sedhiou, Sunset at Thiobon, Sunrise over the Casamance River at Sedhiou. The softness of the skies over the Casamance calms me.

Fishermen on the Casamance River

2011-02-24T22:01:00.005-05:00

Location:Near Sedhiou, Senegal

This shot was one of three finalist photos in the recent Boston Area Returned Peace Corps Volunteers' photo contest.

Monet's Garden, Giverny

2011-02-22T20:36:00.005-05:00

(Please click on photos for a better view.)

These photos taken at Giverny by John Hand are subject to Copyright, 2011, and may not be copied for commercial purposes without my permission.

Homeless Families, Emergency Assistance and Due Process

2011-02-22T20:05:00.001-05:00

THOUGHTS ABOUT POVERTY AND JUSTICE (CONTINUED)
Before 1981, there was no homeless population in Westchester County, New York where I worked for a Legal Services field program. When a family was evicted or burned out of their home, the family quickly obtained replacement housing. However, with welfare grants not keeping pace with the rising costs of housing during the 1970s, many families were able to pay their rent only by using the portion of their earned income that was exempted by law from consideration in calculating their welfare grants (the first $30 plus one third of the balance of gross income). One of the supposedly cost saving welfare reforms of the early Reagan years was the elimination of this exemption. It was then that we first saw families become homeless. Over the years, rooming houses were eliminated and many single people also lost their only affordable shelter.

The massive numbers of homeless people, including thousands of children brought about a system of so-called “emergency housing,” arranged and supported by the welfare department. In time, the welfare department contracted with corporations to provide “emergency” services to the ever growing numbers of homeless people. The result was a system where due to no fault of their own, many children and adults found themselves in environments where the normal conditions and rights of civil life and society did not apply. Instead, families became subject to strict supervision, a lack of basic privacy and a set of special rules and controls.

Some examples: Homeless families and single people became "licensees" of their accommodations, rather than tenants. As licensees, they could be evicted from emergency apartments and shelters without any of the normal rights of tenants. They could be denied overnight visitors and allowed restricted visitation during the day. They had little or no redress from unsanitary and unsafe housing conditions. They could be required to submit to physical and mental examinations and therapy sessions as determined by case workers and housing managers. Their rooms and apartments were subject to unannounced searches, even during the night, to ensure that there was no unauthorized person on the premises and that they possessed no contraband.

These and many other restrictions on normal living conditions were rationalized as necessary incidents of the "emergency" situation created by a large homeless population. This was not a temporary dislocation of people caused by a great storm, fire, riot or other massive disturbance. It was a persistent situation that was created by welfare and housing policies and it could have been remedied by governmental policies. But the homeless were for the most part poor people of color and they were not desired in any community's "backyard.”

There is a major problem with fighting for the rights of homeless people to the have normal protections of privacy, freedoms to come and go, rights to protest unhealthy living conditions and to challenge unjust evictions and other arbitrary governmental decisions. That problem stems from the very concept of civil “emergency.” The government used the rubric of “emergency” to justify its curtailment of civil liberties and statutory rights of homeless families. Homeless families might complain that they were being deprived of entitlements, freedom and privacy without “due process of law,” but that constitutional concept is by no means absolute.

Due process and our other constitutional rights depend on the circumstances, on what people demand and on what each of the branches of government say they mean. What protections are available under “due process of law” is determined by balancing the interests of the government against those of the individual. As the Supreme Court stated in Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, resolution of what process is due requires a “consideration of (i) the nature and weight of the private interest affected by the official action challenged; (ii) the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest as a consequence of the summary procedures used; and (iii) the governmental function involved and state interests served by such procedures, as well as the administrative and fiscal burdens, if any, that would result from the substitute procedures sought.”

A state of emergency shifts the resolution of what process is due to the favor of the government, in order for it to reduce or eliminate the emergency. There is danger to civil liberties and other rights whenever the government determines that an emergency exists, especially if the emergency is indefinite in duration, widespread geographically and indeterminate in its scope and details. The government can be expected to take advantage of any shifting of the balance between government power and individual rights. The executive branch, especially, will not voluntarily give up whatever powers it can accumulate from the legislative and judicial branches in order to maintain surveillance and control of the people.

- Posted from my iPad

Senegal Rejects Referendum Proposed For The Casamance

2011-02-21T10:33:00.001-05:00

http://www.africasia.com/services/news_africa/article.php?ID=CNG.aec6e9d9ef41c5c3a4dd6ff8e77b27b0.a11
So, just what is the solution?

PRAYER IN THE ROCKIES by Ronald George Hand

2011-02-20T08:36:00.001-05:00

"Wind of the mountains, blow me clear
Of trivial thoughts, and stupid fear;
Blue of the mountains, steep my soul,
Color my life and make me whole.

Rain in the mountains, wash me clean
Of selfish cares - the small and mean;
Oh purple mist and wild bird cry,
You mark the trail to a boulder sky.

Wind of the mountains, wind and the rain
Freshen my cup of laughter again;
Strength of the hills, flow into me;
Earth, bear me up to a Destiny."

WELFARE For Families With Children

2011-02-19T21:04:00.001-05:00

Aid to Families with Dependent Children was not a failure as some have said. AFDC served the country quite well for many decades, beginning during the Great Depression. It could have been improved, but instead, it was eroded by Reagan and then eliminated by Gingrich-Clinton. The removal of that program was part of a package of so-called reforms which injured poor people and diminished our civil rights and liberties. AFDC was was more than a charitable hand-out to poor children and their parents. Although it bestowed no right to receive any particular amount of assistance, whatever was determined to be appropriate was an entitlement. Assistance could not be denied in an arbitrary manner. A family's benefits, once granted, were protected procedurally by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In the Supreme Court case which announced that right, Justice William Brennan said,

"Welfare, by meeting the basic demands of subsistence, can help bring within the reach of the poor the same opportunities that are available to others to participate meaningfully in the life of the community... Public assistance, then, is not mere charity, but a means to "promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity...." Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 265 (1970).

AFDC contained strict work rules which were enforced. And, many welfare mothers were able to keep their apartments when grant levels failed to rise with inflation in the 1970s by working, because, at that time, working parents were allowed to keep a portion of their earned income. Reagan eliminated that partial exemption, resulting in thousands of families becoming homeless. The elimination of AFDC in 1996 removed the national safety net for poor children.

- Posted from my iPad

From My Animals Album

2011-02-19T20:56:00.002-05:00

Taken at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Of Children-A Continuing National Disgace

2011-02-18T23:19:00.000-05:00

The Feds have made 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood the maximum safe level. Even 5 micrograms are too much. This is not new, but the articles still come and probably will do so for another decade or two, unfortunately. Click for the latest article I have read. Here is an excerpt from the article:
"Some doctors say that the C.D.C. could act more aggressively to identify poisoning cases by lowering the threshold at which lead levels are considered elevated. That threshold is 10 micrograms per deciliter of blood in children under 6. But Dr. John Rosen, who founded the lead program at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx in 1972, said research had established that even at levels as low as 5 micrograms per deciliter, lead could cause irreversible impairment to intelligence quotient, motor skills and behavior."

Political Asylum

2011-02-18T17:26:00.002-05:00

http://voa-intheirownwords.blogspot.com/2009/06/ordeals-in-seeking-asylum.html

Nico Colombant did a nice job with this video presentation of the work that Community Legal Services and Counseling Center, Cambridge, MA, does for victims of persecution who seek asylum in the United States.

Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution - NYTimes.com

2011-02-17T14:30:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/world/middleeast/17sharp.html?hp

Dictators, beware!