Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

Wichita police testing out 6 body-mounted cameras (via The Wichita Eagle)

On By southwerkIn Opinion

From the article by Stan Finger –

A half-dozen Wichita police officers are testing a new body camera system that records everything the officers see and do outside their vehicles.

The field tests began two weeks ago and will continue for another two weeks, Capt. Jeff Easter said Wednesday.

“Anything that they get out of the vehicle on, they’ll record,” Easter said of the officers. “Anything is evidence. You never know what’s going to happen in front of you when you get out on the scene.”

Early results are promising.

“It’s a very good system,” Easter said. “The video quality is amazing. It’s much better than any other camera system we’ve looked at in the past.”

The system is manufactured by Taser, which is letting Wichita police try it out. The head-mounted system resembles a Bluetooth and can also be attached to an officer’s hat or eyewear.

I’m a little surprised that the police are adopting these without any fuss. I have read and directly heard about the police disabling cameras. But apparently it has become a useful tool for the officer.

I’m a little more interested in what this means for the rest of us. I recognize that the technology is available to be purchased now but it is not the same. These things kick on every time an officer exits the car. They keep all of what is seen for a year. This is no short time surveillance camera in a tie. While we are not police officers whose department is willing to spend the $5,000 a year necessary, we will eventually be the beneficiaries of the technology. Soon at a reasonable price you will be able to make a record of everything you see 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It might be useful taking college classes or at a family reunion or in large scale use changing the social fabric of the nation.

Will all Americans adapt their behavior to an utterly continuous recording of themselves by countless others? What will be the long term social effects?

In terms of business ethics, what we have here is the private becoming public. Discussions, comments and negotiations will all be easily recorded in the most informal of circumstances with the ability to keep records for years. Is there a disclosure requirement? Is there going to be an unspoken agreement not to use these in negotiation? Can they be used in court? This kind of evidence could come back to bite you as long as it exists and eventually those records will exist for the course of our lives or longer.

Will states or the federal government regulate their use? That is an important question. There is some regulation of recording phone calls. The grounds for this is that there is no consent from one of the parties. That would be a similar justification for laws on continuous viewing by personal cameras.

These things worry me. We seem as a society to do things without discussion and debate. When we do it turns every single time into a debate over personal freedom versus government regulation whether or not these are significant factors in the issue. Every subject can be classified that way but that doesn’t mean it fits into that box. Surveillance is more of an issue of what can new technology do and “what the effects are.” What are the advantages of this technology? Does it conflict with our customs and morality? What effects will it have in different areas of endeavor; medical operations, trial, sports, sex, and countless others. Once we think about the effects then we can start putting it into legal or regulatory boxes. But in current discussion the boxes come first and we never do the often subtle thinking that allows humanity to make reasonable and intelligent decisions.

James Pilant

P.S.

I went to a “gadget site” on the web. I couldn’t get a price but the system ad read this way. I think you’re supposed to feel like Tom Cruise in a Mission Impossible move.

This High Quality Body Camera set is ready for Covert Operations. This complete set is all you need. At a much better and higher resolution then our lower priced Body Cam, you get what you pay for. This is the best there is. Camera is powered by the DVR unit itself so there is no stupid 9 volt batery to weight you down.

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Will the Government Ever Attempt to Enforce the Law Against the Bank of America?

On By southwerkIn White Collar Crime1 Comment

Bank of America is teetering on the edge of collapse. It has received enormous aid from the federal government in bailouts, loans and preferential treatment to the tune of trillions of dollars of government guarantees. To add further injury to the insults already suffered, the federal government, that is, the Obama Justice Department has okayed a settlement protecting Bank of America from lawsuits for its practice of filing false affidavits and inventing ownership of property in American Courts. Yet even with this help, the bank is run so badly that it is still failing.

How long does this go on?

Is the government going to bailout this bank one more time?

What crimes do they have to commit? What incompetence do they have to display? What greed in the form of enormous executive bonuses do they have to display? – before enough is enough and they are allowed to perish?

James Pilant

Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail | Politics News | Rolling Stone

In a pure capitalist system, an institution as moronic and corrupt as Bank of America would be swiftly punished by the market – the executives would get to loot their own firms once, then they’d be looking for jobs again. But with the limitless government support of Too Big to Fail, these failing financial giants get to stay undead forever, continually looting the taxpayer, their depositors, their shareholders and anyone else they can get their hands on. The threat posed by Bank of America isn’t just financial – it’s a full-blown assault on the American dream. Where’s the incentive to play fair and do well, when what we see rewarded at the highest levels of society is failure, stupidity, incompetence and meanness? If this is what winning in our system looks like, who doesn’t want to be a loser? Throughout history, it’s precisely this kind of corrupt perversion that has given birth to countercultural revolutions. If failure can’t fail, the rest of us can never succeed.

Bank of America: Too Crooked to Fail | Politics News | Rolling Stone

 

 

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Ethics Bob has a book out!!

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics

The Ethics Challenge

The newspapers (and our blog) are full of unethical politicians; the sports pages full of rule-breaking players and parents; the business news full of sleazy companies and greedy CEOs; the education pages full of students who cheat on exams.  What’s a person to think?
Perhaps you really do have to cheat to win.  Perhaps you need to shade the truth to get ahead.  Good people hear that “everybody does it,” and wonder.

The Ethics Challenge

It is a great pleasure for me to offer a plug for Ethics Bob’s book. Please go the web site (click the link above) and consider buying a copy.

James Pilant

This is a video from the same author –

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An Examination of the Political and Economic Crisis in Ireland

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

I very much enjoyed this documentary. I find it insightful. A citizen of Ireland who worked as a foreign correspondent returns home and looks at his country with some perspective.

It’s easy to see the very similar problems in both the United States and Ireland. In both cases, the government baled out the banks without asking any serious questions nor taking into account the actual value of the bank loans. In both cases, a real estate bubble that was clearly propelled by speculation was considered to be a safe and continuing source of prosperity for the country. And in both cases, the taxpayers wound up footing the bill, while unemployment doubled and services were reduced.

In other words, the well connected walked away and discussed with great seriousness their loss of reputation and minor financial irritations, while the great majority of the nation’s citizen’s suffered for their crimes.

James Pilant

Ireland The Rise and Fall of the Economy, Real Estate, Development – YouTube

 

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Listen to the “Morality” of Laissez-faire.

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice

The English government during the Irish Famine of 1845 – 1852 adhered strictly to a doctrine of Laissez-faire. I want you to listen to the cold blooded ramblings of a government in thrall to a cruel, vicious and irrational policy concept. This is where economic philosophy confronted tragedy and compounded it.

Watch the clip and see if you can avoid recoiling in horror at the voices of the decision makers mindlessly repeating the necessity of letting the market have its way.

James Pilant

Laissez-faire

When Ireland Starved Episode 3 Managing The Famine (Part 1 of 3) – YouTube

When Ireland Starved Episode 3 Managing The Famine (Part 1 of 3) – YouTube

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Student Loan Debt a Lifetime Burden for Middle Class but Major Money Maker for Goldman Sachs

On By southwerkIn Economic Justice1 Comment

Kids today still screwed – Student Loan Debt – Salon.com

Just in case anyone decided to “scam” themselves some free higher education by going to college and then declaring bankruptcy, Congress decided in 1998 to make sure that student loan debt had no statute of limitations and could not be discharged except in the event of extreme (and effectively unprovable) hardship. Then tuition began skyrocketing, players like Goldman Sachs got into the student lending business, and middle-class job opportunities for people without college degrees disappeared. The result, naturally, has been extremely profitable for certain people (Lally Weymouth) and basically awful for everyone else in America. Now, Eric Pianin is in Lally Weymouth’s Washington Post saying that student loan debt might be “the next debt bomb.”

Kids today still screwed – Student Loan Debt – Salon.com

My poor students are getting battered by an economy where there are few jobs in a nation where last year’s college graduates owed an average of $24,000 in student loans.

Other nations do not place the burden of higher education on the students. It is a matter of public expenditure. The United States has long been the leader in college graduates worldwide and no we are fourth. I see no prospect of that getting better but only worse. Education is not a commodity. It is a public good necessary for a successful society.

We can do better than this. We are a better people than this.

James Pilant

The Lorax is a Wonderful Film; John Carter is Just another Disney Flick

On By southwerkIn Opinion

‘Lorax’ trumps ‘John Carter’ with $39.1M weekend

“Dr. Seuss’ the Lorax” has easily beaten Edgar Rice Burroughs‘ “John Carter” at the weekend box office.

Studio estimates Sunday put Universal Pictures’ “The Lorax” at No. 1 for the second-straight weekend as the animated adventure based on the children’s book took in $39.1 million. That raised its 10-day domestic total to $122 million, making “The Lorax” the top-grossing movie released this year.

“John Carter,” based on “Tarzan” creator Burroughs’ tales of the interplanetary adventurer, opened in second-place with $30.6 million. That’s an awful start given the whopping $250 million that Disney reportedly spent to make “John Carter,” which also earned generally poor reviews that will hurt its long-term prospects.

‘Lorax’ trumps ‘John Carter’ with $39.1M weekend

I saw the Lorax this weekend. It was wonderful. It was a tree hugging, singing extravaganza sure to warm the heart of every environmentalist living while scaring Fox News into new bouts of barely sane rants. Yes, the word is wonderful!

At the beginning of the film, the infatuated teen goes over to see the gorgeous red headed girl across the street and she says, “I think if someone brought me a tree, I would just marry them on the spot.” The five year old three seats over turned to his mother and said, “I think I know what happens now.” Yeah, we know what happens next.

James Pilant

Here is the trailer!!

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A Useful Web Site if You Are Behind on Your Bills

On By southwerkIn Editorial

I was asked to put this web site on my blog. I was a little worried because I’ve been asked before and the sites turned out to be less than reputable. However, I have visited this site several times and I find the recommendations to be intelligent and practical. The link to various companies that you might owe money like the major utility companies would be worthwhile even by itself. So, have a look and see what you think. If you like it, let me know. If there are problems, let me know. But I like what I see, and believe the advice and information to be useful to most people with debt problems.

I Cant Pay My Bill Pay | Make Payment or Get Help If You Can’t Pays

Managing overdue bills – So, if you’ve fallen behind, how do you go about paying overdue bills? Icantpaymybill.com offers an extensive research database and learning center for how to pay off bills and repair credit. We invite you to browse our library of bill paying tips and guides, and we’re confident that you’ll find a helpful resource that will allow you to get out of debt quickly and efficiently, and to get back to financial stability. Whether it’s credit-lending department stores like a Wal-Mart bill, a grocery store bill, or a Macy’s bill, or a utility bill like your phone bills, heating bills, or electric bills, this website has researched the best ways to pay, the worst possible outcome (creditors calling, repossession), and how other people who couldn’t pay that particular bill have dealt with the problem.

I Cant Pay My Bill Pay | Make Payment or Get Help If You Can’t Pays

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If a Highway Robber Has to Go to Jail, Why Does the Elite on Wall Street Get to Stay Home?

On By southwerkIn Business Ethics
Phil Angelides

Will Wall Street Ever Face Justice? – NYTimes.com

Four years after the disintegration of the financial system, Americans have, rightfully, a gnawing feeling that justice has not been served. Claims of financial fraud against companies like Citigroup and Bank of America have been settled for pennies on the dollar, with no admission of wrongdoing. Executives who ran companies that made, packaged and sold trillions of dollars in toxic mortgages and mortgage-backed securities remain largely unscathed.

Meager resources have been applied to investigate the financial assault on our country, which wiped away trillions of dollars in household wealth and has resulted in 24 million people jobless or underemployed. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which Congress created to examine the full scope of the crisis, was given a budget of $9.8 million — roughly one-seventh of the budget of Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.” The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations did its work on the financial crisis with only a dozen or so Congressional staff members.

Will Wall Street Ever Face Justice? – NYTimes.com

Phil Angelides, the author of the above column, shares an identical opinion to mine. Justice has not been served.

I wrote extensively about the mortgage crisis back when business writers considered it a matter of a few small mistakes in the paperwork that weren’t worth getting upset over. I watched day by day as we learned about robo-signing, error laden foreclosures sometimes on homes that the client owned outright, and the use of a federal government program called HAMP to push people out of their homes and force them to pay outrageous penalties. The federal government did not even keep records of what HAMP was doing for the first six months and the fact that it was run by a twenty year bank veteran did not surprise. There wasn’t any fox in the hen-house, there was a rabid lion operating with permission to prey at will.

Millions of Americans suffered. Barely treading water, troubled by lost jobs, debts and predatory banks, the hard-working people of America were thrown an anvil by a federal government laden with former bankers in every conceivable position. It’s a sad story and reflects badly on the President of the United States who promised us better.

I was not surprised when the claims of homeowners and criminal prosecution of these mortgages companies were settled for a pittance. It would have been one of the saddest days of my life if in the months leading up to the settlement I had not experienced over and over again a federal government immune to the calls of justice and accountability. The settlement was just another nail in the coffin of fairness, a level playing field of law for the middle class and those who would prey upon them.

It remains to be seen whether or not a White House now deserted by its Wall Street Financial Backers will pursue a tougher attitude toward enforcement of the law.

James Pilant

Phil Angelides talk about the real cause of the financial shortcomings in state budgets

(Banksters are to blame NOT TEACHERS)

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Wall Street Suffers “Hard Times”

On By southwerkIn Corpoorate Social Responsibility

A few weeks ago there was a controversy over grants given to Planned Parenthood by the Susan Komen foundation. The vice president confronted by complaints that poor women would lose their access to health care responded dramatically –

Karen Handel, a former GOP candidate who ran on a pro-life platform, shows her true colors. She just happens to be Susan G. Komen’s Vice President of Public Policy now. “Just like a pro-abortion group to turn a cancer orgs decision into a political bomb to throw. Cry me a freaking river”

Disdain for poor women and their need for medical currently fashionable among some groups of Americans. There is a suspicion in some quarters that the top 1% find paying for social services an welcome burden.

Now, of course this behavior is contrary to the Greek concept of virtue ethics, modern Protestant business ethics and Catholic social doctrine. However a proportion of the the 1% are getting their comeuppance. It is a small comeuppance but nevertheless, any comeuppance is better than none.

Please read this excerpt –

Wall Street’s Average Cash Bonus Expected To Fall To $121,000

Wall Street cash bonuses for 2011 are expected to drop 14 percent and profits are expected to drop by half for the second year in a row, according to a forecast Wednesday by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

That would result in cash bonuses of $19.7 billion. Profits are expected to be less than $13.5 billion in 2011, compared to $27.6 billion in 2010.

The average cash bonus is expected to be $121,150 for 2011, down from $138,940 in 2010. Bonuses peaked before the recession in 2006 at $191,360.

Wall Street’s Average Cash Bonus Expected To Fall To $121,000

You read it right. Wall Street bonuses will only be $13.5 billion dollars. It’s a trifle, a small amount of money. Of course, it would pay for all the college tuition in the United States for the next year and still have a couple of billion walking around money left. But like I said that’s just a smidgeon on Wall Street.

You probably noticed that the average payout on Wall Street will be $121,000.

Let’s see what is said about this –

The average cash bonus is expected to be $121,150 for 2011, down from $138,940 in 2010. Bonuses peaked before the recession in 2006 at $191,360.

DiNapoli said the forecast for this bonus season shows continued hard times on Wall Street two years after the recession officially ended. The securities industry lost 28,000 jobs, including 9,600 that had been briefly recovered before the slide began in April.

“Continued hard times!” Wow! $121,150 is almost three times the average salary in the United Stand and these people also draw a regular salary. Average salary at Goldman Sachs is $367,057. But we know they’re suffering. 

Well to quote the former vice president of the Susan Komen Foundation, “Cry me a freakin river!”

James Pilant

Here is my take on the 1% with a little help from Garfunkel and Oates.

Save the Rich

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