(From The New York Times - Ko Sasaki for The New York Times)
A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN OUR BACKYARD? PLEASE AND THANKS!
(New York Times)
A New York Times article describes the receptivity to power plants in Japan by local communities today, after many of the same communities had displayed the NIMBY pattern of opposition when such developments started 40 years ago. What is different today? For one thing, local communities have become dependent on “their” power plants because they have produced jobs and lavish sports facilities where there were none. The situation is changed little from the “Music Man” syndrome of locals being seduced into accepting a boys’ band “right here in River City.”
`
“WE’LL NEVER TO BE TO BUY OUR OWN HOME.“
(UK Independent)
According to new surveys, this is the prevailing mood among young Britons, faced with high housing prices and difficulty in obtaining mortgages, the number of which has sunk to all-time lows. Indications are that Britons will join must of the rest of Europeans as being permanently denied home ownership and become a “Generation Rent.” Proposals to remedy this situation by making mortgages easier to obtain are countered by arguments that this would only help generate further foreclosures when people obtain mortgages they cannot avoid to pay.
`
DO AMERICANS HAVE “LEGAL RIGHTS?” ONLY IF THEIR EXERCISE DOES NOT ENDANGER “NATIONAL SECURITY.”
(AlterNet)
Tom Engelhardt argues that Americans, by virtue of “Justice” Department actions of both the Bush and Obama administrations, are now living in a “post legal” society. Recalling the Dred Scott decision that blacks have no rights that whites need observe, the “war on terrorism” has stripped people accused of crimes of any recourse to constitutional rights and has relieved political leaders for any legal accountability of their actions, so long as these are deemed as necessary as a matter of “taking the gloves off” in the GWOT.
`
READ MY LIPS: CUT TAXES TO REDUCE BUDGET DEFICITS.
(Common Dreams)
Chuck Collins, co-author with Bill Gates of a book advocating heavier taxation on “accumulated wealth,” says the U.S. has been afflicted with a decade of “magical thinking” in which conservatives have waved a single-minded wand by using tax cuts as the sole solution to the problem of budget deficits. Collins says that in fact any effective deficit reduction calls for a mixture of reduction of spending (especially wasteful military spending) and tax increases (especially for the wealthy). The one-note approach of tax slashing has obviously been a failed approach, as budget deficits grow alongside the application of this “magical” approach.
`
YOUR KIDS HAVE DENTAL PROBLEMS? DON’T MOVE TO FLORIDA.
(Miami Herald)
The state is once again given an “F” grade for its provision of dental services to children in poor states. Only 1 in 3 children with Medicaid coverage was seen by a dentist last year. Lack of insurance and expensive co-pays, along with a shortage of dentists in rural areas, are blamed for the poor performance of the state in this area.
…………………………………………………………………………….
Quote of the day…
Here’s a prediction: when Bob Dylan finally hangs it up and goes home for good, he’ll do it with class, the way Cal Ripken ended The Streak of consecutive games played. There’ll be no “farewell” tour, and certainly no endless reunion/comeback tours. One night he’ll simply take himself out of the lineup, and they’ll just stop listing new dates on his website. Most of us won’t know anything important even happened.
David Vest, a reflection as Dylan turns 70.
…………………………………………………………………………….
Do you receive the daily headlines in the form of an early-morning e-mail? If you don’t and you would like to receive them, just send a note to sunstateactivist2@yahoo.com and you’ll be enrolled in the “Progressive breakfast club.”
Recent Comments