1. Talking about changes in rules that were supposed to shorten the Republican presidential selection process
as reported in the NY Times:
“You’ve got a set of unintended consequences that weren’t planned for,”
said Richard F. Hohlt, a Republican donor and Washington lobbyist."
My problem with this is obvious, right?
2. From SFGate about rainbow colored doritos:
"Doritos are a product marketed to children, so they make the perfect
gateway snack to introduce children to the joys of homosexuality,"
writes Ed Straker of the ironically named American Thinker website. "What business does PepsiCo have pushing homosexuality on our kids?
While Straker classifies the different colored Doritos – "green are
homosexual, the pink are lesbian" – he fails to tell readers how many
chips you have to eat in order to turn gay. Or turn stupid.
3. LA Times had what looks like a useful Earthquake preparation quiz. Other related articles looked more like a Sharper Image Earthquake special catalogue.
4. Something for liberals to think about in a January/February 2015 Washington Monthly piece:
Let Us Now Praise Corporate Persons. I haven't totally figured out all the implications of what he's arguing or whether there are other fixes that would solve the problems he raises OR whether the
Move To Amend people are, as he implies, using an axe to do brain surgery on the constitution. Here are some appetizers for the rest of the article.
Citizens United was a bad
decision; but the cry of “Corporations are not people!” isn’t helping
fix the problem—in fact, it’s making it worse.
By Kent Greenfield
"The American left is notoriously
fractious. But one belief that unites more than most is this:
corporations are not people. . .
But the attack on corporate personhood is a mistake. And it may,
ironically, be playing into the hands of the financial and managerial
elite."
He gives some examples of cases where he claims corporate personhood is important.
"In a legal system without corporate personhood, the channel for that
outrage [after the Deepwater oil spill] would be limited to lawsuits and criminal inquiries against
individual human beings responsible—managers, workers, and contractors.
That’s important, of course. In any legal jurisdiction worth its salt,
the search for culpable individuals has to be part of the settling-up of
any man-made disaster. But it should not be all. No human being—except,
perhaps, Bill Gates—would have enough money to compensate those harmed
by a massive disaster like Deepwater Horizon. Because a corporate entity
is also on the hook, there’s a chance for something approaching real
compensation or real responsibility. Corporate personhood is thus not
only a mechanism for the creation of wealth (by encouraging investment),
it is also a mechanism for enforcing accountability (by providing a
deep pocket to sue)."
Another example he offers is the
NY Times and
Washington Post using their corporate first amendment rights to publish the Pentagon Papers (classified RAND studies that disputed what the public was being told about the Vietnam war.)
"In 1971, for example, the government sought to stop the New York Times, a for-profit, publicly traded media conglomerate, and the Washington Post,
which had gone public as a corporation only a few weeks previously,
from publishing the leaked Pentagon Papers. The Supreme Court correctly
decided that the newspapers had a First Amendment right to publish. That
was one of the most important free speech decisions of the twentieth
century. At the time, no one seriously suggested that the correct answer
to the constitutional question was that the Times and the Post, as
corporations, had no standing to bring a constitutional claim at all.
(And for those of you saying to yourselves, “Well, this isn’t a good
example, since the newspapers are protected by the First Amendment’s
press clause”: the Court has never given any greater substance to the
press clause not already covered in the freedom of speech."
My reaction is that corporations could have some other kind of identity - say as corporations - that has the kinds of protections he says they need, without giving them access to the rights of human beings. He points out that corporations can't vote (at least not at the ballot box). He knows a lot more about business law than I do, so I don't know. Worth reading, if nothing else, to be aware of his arguments and then develop a credible response.
We had dinner at the Spice Route restaurant in the Pavillion Mall on Bainbridge Island. As we were leaving we began talking to one the employees there. It turns out she's from Nepal and, understandably, very upset about the earthquake that just happened. Alaskan readers, if you think this is too far away, she also lived in Homer for two years.
She works at the Spice Route Indian restaurant in the Pavillion mall (upstairs) on Madison on Bainbridge Island. You can contact her there at 206 780 3545. If she's not there, let them know why you're calling. If you can help in any way. Go by there and let them know. She's trying to figure out ways to raise some money to send to Nepal. Maybe you can invite her to talk to your school or your organization. Anyone involved in philanthropy or aid programs could give her some guidance for other organizations that she could work with. 
