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.

The Best Essay Written This Year!

On By southwerkIn Editorial
Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen
Harro and Libertas Schulze-Boysen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

The Best Essay Written This Year!

 

After reading the first three paragraphs of Emily Bazelon’s essay, The Nazi Anatomists, How the corpses of Hitler’s victims are still haunting modern science—and American abortion politics, I realized I was hooked. She could’ve put the literary equivalent of the phone book after those three paragraphs, and I’d read every word.

 

This is the writing in the big leagues, top of the line, cream of the crop, etc. This essay is going to be used in schools and colleges to show others what possibilities the essay has to offer.

 

Read it. You’ll never forget it.

 

James Alan Pilant

 

Nazi anatomy history: The origins of conservatives’ anti-abortion claims that rape can’t cause pregnancy.

 

In 1941, Charlotte Pommer graduated from medical school at the University of Berlin and went to work for Hermann Stieve, head of the school’s Institute of Anatomy. The daughter of a bookseller, Pommer had grown up in Germany’s capital city as Hitler rose to power. But she didn’t appreciate what the Nazis meant for her chosen field until Dec. 22, 1942. What she saw in Stieve’s laboratory that day changed the course of her life—and led her to a singular act of protest.

 

Stieve got his “material,” as he called the bodies he used for research, from nearby Plötzensee Prison, where the courts sent defendants for execution after sentencing them to die. In the years following the war, Stieve would claim that he dissected the corpses of only “dangerous criminals.” But on that day, Pommer saw in his laboratory the bodies of political dissidents. She recognized these people. She knew them.

 

On one table lay Libertas Schulze-Boysen, granddaughter of a Prussian prince. She’d been raised in the family castle, gone to finishing school in Switzerland, and worked as the Berlin press officer for the Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. She joined the Nazi Party in 1933. On a hunting party, she flirted with Hermann Göring, commander of the Luftwaffe, the German air force. But in 1937 Schulze-Boysen joined the resistance with her husband, Harro, a Luftwaffe lieutenant. They helped form a small rebel group the Nazis called the Red Orchestra. When Libertas started working for Hitler’s movie empire in 1941, she gathered photos of atrocities from the front for a secret archive. Harro was transferred to Göring’s command center and with other dissidents started passing to the Soviets detailed information about Hitler’s plan to invade Russia. The Gestapo decoded their radio messages in 1942 and arrested Harro at the end of August. They came for Libertas eight days later. Both she and her husband were sentenced to death for espionage and treason.

 

via Nazi anatomy history: The origins of conservatives’ anti-abortion claims that rape can’t cause pregnancy..

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, Bullying Prevention.

 

http://terkinn.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/sticks-and-stones-teenage-drama-a-book-by-emily-bazelon/

 

No writer is better poised to explore this territory than Emily
Bazelon, who has established herself as a leading voice on the social
and legal aspects of teenage drama. In Sticks and Stones, she brings
readers on a deeply researched, clear-eyed journey into the
ever-shifting landscape of teenage meanness and its sometimes
devastating consequences. The result is an indispensable book that takes
us from school cafeterias to courtrooms to the offices of Facebook, the
website where so much teenage life, good and bad, now unfolds.

 

Along the way, Bazelon defines what bullying is and, just as
important, what it is not. She explores when intervention is essential
and when kids should be given the freedom to fend for themselves. She
also dispels persistent myths: that girls bully more than boys, that
online and in-person bullying are entirely distinct, that bullying is a
common cause of suicide, and that harsh criminal penalties are an
effective deterrent. Above all, she believes that to deal with the
problem, we must first understand it.

 

South Korea and Nuclear Safety

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment
The coat of arms of South Korea Español: escud...
The coat of arms of South Korea Español: escudo de Corea del Sur 日本語: 大韓民国の国章 中文: 大韩民国国徽 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

South Korea and Nuclear Safety

South Korea has become the center of a nuclear corruption scandal. Basically, parts that meet the safety requirements of a nuclear plant are expensive. Sub standard parts can save a plant operator millions upon millions of dollars. So, they faked the required documents and used sub standard parts on what appears to be a gigantic scale.

Now, I’m one of those foolish people who keep pointing at the record of problems with nuclear safety. I have the perception regarded by many, even some modern environmentalists as foolish, that nuclear power has been distinguished by lies, exaggerations, safety violations and the occasional complete disaster during all of the history of its use.

Isn’t this a cautionary tale when many reactors in the fourth most powerful economic power in Asia are found to be using parts that in an emergency will fail?

What worries me is the enormous sums of money to be made by evading the safety standards. If a nuclear plant melts down, thousands of square miles can be unusable for human habitations for tens of thousands of years. In fact, the exclusion zone at Chernobyl is 1,006 square miles. For comparison, Benton County in Arkansas is roughly 880 square miles. Oklahoma City is 612 square miles. it’s a lot of real estate to lose permanently unless you consider twenty thousand years or so a reasonable amount of time to wait.

I believe that the temptation to make millions of dollars by evading the regulations in nuclear power plants makes a nuclear disaster inevitable.

James Pilant

Below are a few news stories on the South Korean nuclear corruption story.

South Korea charges 100 with corruption over nuclear scandal

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/10/us-korea-nuclear-idUSBRE99905O20131010

October 10th, 2013 South Korea
has indicted 100 people, including a top former state utility official,
of corruption in a scandal over fake safety certifications for parts in
its nuclear reactors, authorities said on Thursday.

Asia’s fourth largest economy
has faced a series of shutdowns of nuclear reactors due to fake
documents going back to late 2012. Of its 23 reactors, six remain
offline, including three halted in May to replace cables supplied with
bogus certificates.

“We
hope the so-called nuclear mafia style behavior would be rooted out if
strict investigations and law enforcement and system reforms continue,”
Kim Dong-yeon, a top government policy coordinator, told a news
briefing.

Stung by Scandal, S. Korea Weighs Costs of Curbing Nuclear Power


http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-stung-scandal-s-korea-weighs-costs-curbing-nuclear-power/1778164.html

October 28th, 2013 It started with a few bogus safety
certificates for cables shutting a handful of South Korean nuclear
reactors. Now, the scandal has snowballed, with 100 people indicted and
Seoul under pressure to rethink its reliance on nuclear power.

A shift away from nuclear, which generates a third of South Korea’s
electricity, could cost tens of billions of dollars a year by boosting
imports of liquefied natural gas, oil or coal.

Although helping calm safety concerns, it would also push the government
into a politically sensitive debate over whether state utilities could
pass on sharply higher power bills to households and companies.

Gas, which makes up half of South Korea’s energy bill while accounting
for only a fifth of its power, would likely be the main substitute for
nuclear, as it is considered cleaner than coal and plants can be built
more easily near cities.

“If the proportion of nuclear power is cut, other fuel-based power
generation has to be raised. If we use LNG, the cost will definitely go
up,” said Hwang Woo-hyun, vice president of state-run utility Korea
Electric Power Corp (KEPCO).

Scandal threatens South Korea nuclear-export ambitions


http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/11/south-korea-nuclear-investigation-scandal-shutdown.html

November 7th, 2013 Selling nuclear equipment is a point of pride for a nation that has
made stunning gains in technology in a single generation. South Korea
also has planned to step up nuclear power at home as a way to reduce
fossil-fuel imports and burnish its green credentials. Eighteen plants
are supposed to be built before 2030.

“That’s going to be in jeopardy,” said Katharine H.S. Moon, professor
of political science at Wellesley College. However, “if the government
can correct this efficiently and quickly and transparently, they will
have a better chance of resuming their export ambitions.”

The investigation isn’t the first problem to hit the South Korean
nuclear sector this year. Two reactors were temporarily shut down last
month after malfunctions, and corruption charges hit employees at the
state nuclear power agency earlier this year. In the latest scandal,
South Korean media reported that the forged safety certificates only
came to light because of an outside tip, which has added to the public
unease.

“I don’t think you can have confidence that the system is working
until the agencies catch these things on their own,” Lyman said.

From around the web.

From the web site, Counterfeit Parts.

http://counterfeitparts.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/south-korea-shuts-down-2-nuclear-reactors-voa-breaking-news/

South Korea Shuts Down 2 Nuclear Reactors – VOA Breaking News

South Korea has been forced to shut down two nuclear reactors to replace components provided with fake quality certificates…

Related articles

Rand Commits Plagiarism and Wants to Kill His Accuser

On By southwerkIn code of ethics1 Comment
English: United States Senate candidate , at a...
English: United States Senate candidate , at a town hall meeting in Louisville, . (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Rand Commits Plagiarism and Wants to Kill His Accuser

 

A man commits plagiarism and gets caught. It happens. I’m sure I will make a mistake and use someone’s remarks without properly attributing them. I write several hundred posts a year besides my other writing. It’s just a matter of time. It will be totally inadvertent. I have no intention of stealing material. Should someone point out my mistake, I will apologize and properly attribute the remark. A gentleman can do nothing else. If caught in an obvious wrong, amends must be made.

 

But not everyone understands these rules.

 

Rand Paul has been caught using direct quotes from other authors as if it were his material. And it appears that further research is revealing that he may have been plagiarizing for quite some time. He didn’t apologize. He’s angry. And he says if only the law allowed he would challenge his accuser to a duel with the presumed intent of shooting her down like a dog.

 

A gentleman does not take other people’s writings and pass them off as his own.

 

A gentleman once caught in an obvious wrong does not insist that it is a political attack, and therefore, somehow irrelevant.

 

A gentleman caught in an obvious wrong does not infer that he would kill his accuser.

 

I heard that Paul had borrowed some material without attribution the day after the Maddow’s program aired. I, a longtime political junkie, expected a quick admission of a mistake, a simple apology and the media to forget the whole thing in a couple of days. Imagine, my astonishment when a supposedly seasoned politician decided to hang tough in the face of overwhelming evidence.

 

Rand Paul has made this a big story by refusing to accept responsibility for his acts. And has compounded this with his ridiculous dueling suggestion. Where does he thinks he lives? the South of the Pre-Civil War era? Maybe that’s where he wants to live. But we don’t live there and his antics merely cast doubt on his intelligence, his honor and his judgment.

 

James Pilant

 

Move over, Ted Cruz: Rand Paul’s wacko public meltdown – Salon.com

 

On the one hand, the revelation that he lifted material from several speeches as well as whole pages of his book from other sources, without attribution, isn’t necessarily a 2016 candidacy-ender. What’s most politically self-destructive is Paul’s bizarre reaction to the charges – which really aren’t “charges,” they’re fact. Instead of admitting he or someone on his staff made an error and promising to toughen his standards, he’s attacked Rachel Maddow, who found the first instance of plagiarism, repeatedly and personally.

 

“This is really about information and attacks coming from haters,” he told ABC’s Latino-focused network Fusion. “The person who’s leading this attack — she’s been spreading hate on me for about three years now.” Ew, “spreading hate on me,” that sounds kind of disgusting, Rachel – really?

 

And then, in a bizarre, likely candidacy-ending interview with ABC’s “This Week,” he began talking about a duel.

 

“Yes, there are times when [speeches] have been sloppy or not correct or we’ve made an error,” Paul said. “But the difference is, I take it as an insult and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting. I have never intentionally done so.”

 

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He went on: “And like I say, if, you know, if dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, you know, it would be a duel challenge. But I can’t do that, because I can’t hold office in Kentucky then.”

 

“I think I’m being unfairly targeted by a bunch of hacks and haters.”

 

Paul’s assumption that normal people will hear his reference to fighting a duel and say, “Hell yeah!” betrays his permanent residency on the American fringe. He lives in a world where it’s always the 19thcentury South, and troubles are best handled with guns and guts, not government. Paul acts like nobody’s ever been either smart enough, or brave enough, to tell the plain truth – and once he does, common sense voters will recognize it and reward him. Instead, they recoil and go, “Huh?”

 

via Move over, Ted Cruz: Rand Paul’s wacko public meltdown – Salon.com.

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site,

 

http://cavnews.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/maddow-rand-paul-needs-to-explain-wikipedia-plagiarism-if-he-wants-to-run-for-president/

 

Then on Tuesday afternoon, BuzzFeed editor Andrew Kaczynski pointed out that
this is a recurring problem for Paul. In a speech to a group of
Hispanic business leaders, he gave a note-for-note recitation of the
Wikipedia entry for the movie “Stand and Deliver,” which tells the story
of an inner city math teacher.

 

“When you are running for president, a plagiarism scandal is not what
you want on your resume, especially not something as embarrassing as
plagiarizing Wikipedia, but that is what Rand Paul has on his hands
now,” Maddow said.

 

“And in the face of mounting evidence that this wasn’t an isolated
incident, that this is a repeat thing,” she continued, “Sen. Paul is not
talking. We reached out to his office again today, no response at all.”

 

Maddow pointed out that it’s not just her show now asking questions
about this. On Tuesday night, the Louisville Courier-Journal ran a
headline story called “Rand Paul mum after being accused of plagiarism.”

 

“Rand Paul may not want to answer to me or this show or this network
about this,” Maddow said, “but he’s going to have to answer for this to
his home town press or to somebody. He may not want to answer for it,
but he’s going to have to.”

 

Forensic Historical Findings

On By southwerkIn Editorial
English: The Tudor period carrack Mary Rose in...
English: The Tudor period carrack Mary Rose in its specially designed building at the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth, United Kingdom. Svenska: Karracken Mary Rose i sin specialkonstruerade byggnad vid Historic Dockyard i Portsmouth i Storbritannien. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Forensic Historical Findings

 

This post is, in particular, for my criminal justice students.

 

Forensic science is now being used to interpret the past. The BBC has several programs devoted to the subject, but here is a documentary about a single subject, the Mary Rose.

 

This ship was the largest ship in King Henry the VIII’s fleet. It capsized while he watched from shore.

 

In the program, they study the crew’s remains to gain insight into the causes of the sinking.

 

James Pilant

 

Ghosts of the Mary Rose : Documentary³ – YouTube

 

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, Peace and Freedom.

 

http://johnib.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/the-mary-rose-flagship-for-henry-viii-sails-back-to-life/

 

This is how it is done. The half of the ship that survives sits on a

frame in a dry dock. Around this, a modern museum has been built.

Inside, the visitor stands on a central suspended walkway. To the right,

behind windows, is the wreck, as if cut down the middle. To the left,

architects have constructed a mirror image, on the decks of which

objects can be examined in situ. There are central walkways at three

levels.

 

I did not expect to like the new building, but the oval structure

embracing the fish-shaped ship looks good from outside, a sort of great

black stealth flying-saucer. From near to, it’s like Peggotty’s house,

the upturned boat on Yarmouth beach in David Copperfield.

 

I have not been so elated by a museum since I first looked into the

Pitt-Rivers collection’s wild eccentricities in Oxford. Here at

Portsmouth, the beauty of ordinary items impresses: the whole wooden

world of a Tudor warship. Here, three feet away, is the 90-gallon

cauldron for boiling 500 men’s beef, and the brick casing that held it

over the fire, and the very half-burnt logs, caught just as they were

extinguished by that inrush of water 468 years ago.

 

Jerry Stahl Rants!

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Jerry Stahl: Government has a “fascist-adjacent” devotion to business – Salon.com

Hard to pick one thing – but of late the delusional nature of the American psyche can get to me. The America is No. 1 insanity, as likely to be perpetrated by Chris Matthews as Sean Hannity. I mean, No. 1 at what? Domestic spying? Fascist-adjacent governmental devotion to banks and business? Stripping its citizens of dignity, hope and food stamps? Letting industry poison the water and air? (Though that title might to go China, too.) I get particularly angry – now that I have a baby in the house again – about drones. Don’t the people who keep blowing up grandmothers in Afghanistan and Yemen and God knows where else realize that, one of these days, those poor bastards are going to start sending drones in our direction? And if they’re as random and inaccurate as ours, it’s not going to be pretty.

via Jerry Stahl: Government has a “fascist-adjacent” devotion to business – Salon.com.

Ban the Box Picking Up Momentum?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism
CRIME Suicidal Tendencies by Yaia
CRIME Suicidal Tendencies by Yaia (Photo credit: YAIAGIFT™)

 

Ban the Box Picking Up Momentum?

 

“Ban the Box” is a movement in States and communities to have employers eliminate questions about whether or not an applicant has a criminal background. These questions keep millions of people from even being considered for employment.

 

America’s passion for imprisonment driven by the “war on drugs” has resulted in a truly incredible proportion of the population with a criminal background.

 

So, we as a nation are confronted with a policy decision, “Do we make them unemployable as former criminals with all the costs that entails or do we facilitate re-entry into society?” It’s an important decision. The productivity, the potential, of millions of Americans is huge. Equally, the loss in tax money and social disruption of creating a permanent underclass is also huge.

 

I worked in criminal justice for some years. When I’m teaching my classes, I tell my students that it’s okay to tell me if they have committed a crime but never tell their classmates. I get that people who commit crimes have to re-enter or be some kind of pariah. Most people don’t. Media stoked fear of the other is a vicious ratings builder.

 

If someone has done their time and paid their penalty, they should have a second chance. Second chances are in a real way what America is about.

 

James Pilant

 

Target Will Stop Asking People Their Criminal Histories On Job Applications | ThinkProgress

 

The big box retailer Target will stop asking prospective employees about their criminal records on job applications, the company announced over the weekend. The decision signals an important move toward helping former inmates who struggle to find work because of employment discrimination.

 

Advocacy groups for ex-offenders’ rights have pushed for years to “Ban the Box,” a phrase referring to the box on an employment application that asks about someone’s criminal past. The question, administered before a person has a chance to even land an interview, can disqualify otherwise eligible candidates off the bat.

 

But, starting at the beginning of next year, Target will wait until making a provisional job offer before inquiring about a prospective employee’s criminal record, giving candidates the chance to make their case before an employer passes judgement. The company’s decision comes just a few months after Minnesota — where Target is headquartered — approved a “Ban the Box” statute.

 

“The Box” can be one of the main barriers of re-entry for people with a criminal past. When an employer sees that box checked, it can be an automatic disqualifier. And the practice is so widespread that it can really hurt the chances for employment for ex-offenders. Surveys show that%

 

via Target Will Stop Asking People Their Criminal Histories On Job Applications | ThinkProgress.

 

From around the web!

 

From the web site, Out and Employed ( I recommend this site – quite good. jp)

 

http://outandemployed.wordpress.com/2010/07/10/ban-the-box-update/

 

As I noted in my last post, this week is devoted to checking on the status of legislation affecting  ex-offenders.

 

 

One of the more effective strategies — and one that seems to be  gaining steam —  is the  ”Ban the Box”
grassroots campaign.  The box, of course,  is that section of the
employment application that asks about whether you have a criminal
record.  The question can come in a variety of forms as  blogger James Walker notes in his very comprehensive post. Sometimes
it’s even a series of questions, as I discovered when my son recently
applied at our local grocery store for a job as a bag boy.  These are
usually yes/no questions, typically followed by a space where you’re
asked to explain any charges in further detail.

 

The problem is that once you check ”Yes,” your application often
goes no further.  One human resources professional recently told me
that in cases where someone answered yes in an online application at
his former employer, the application was automatically deleted.

 

Since 2003, some 30 cities states and counties have eliminated the box and the question from applications.

Related articles

 

 

Too Many People Are Going to Have Insurance?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism2 Comments
Fox News Channel
Fox News Channel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Too Many People Are Going to Have Insurance?

Are we scraping the bottom of the barrel of Anti Obamacare arguments? Is that all that’s left? Too many people are going to have insurance (and doctors may be paid less?)?

“There’s too much health insurance.” He says. Where? When?

I myself have been denied benefits in circumstances I would have not thought possible. And my friends have as good or better stories than mine.

It must be nice to live in his world and get up in the morning and be outraged by people getting “too much health insurance.”

James Pilant

Fox News’ Dr. Siegel: Too Many People Have Health Insurance Under Obamacare

On The Hannity show last night, yet another in a zillion Fox News segments designed to trash the Affordable Care Act “Obamacare”, Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel revealed that his number one concern was not how well the ACA covers his patients or even how affordable it is but that too many people will wind up with health insurance. And that inconveniences him and the “haves” he treats.Siegel said:Before they started this, we were all in trouble with insurance to begin with. There’s too much health insurance. It covers too much. Too many people have it and they can’t in my office to see me. I’m full. …I can’t see all these people.There’s a shortage of doctors. So what do they do? They’re going to pay us less.So the answer is less health care? So Dr. Siegel won’t be inconvenienced and/or get paid less? Doesn’t this violate the Hippocratic Oath?

via Fox News’ Dr. Siegel: Too Many People Have Health Insurance Under Obamacare VIDEO –.

From around the web.

From the web site, Health Care for All California.

http://healthcareforallsfv.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/even-fox-news-cant-tarnish-the-positives-involved-in-the-aca-obamacare/

The Fox News article then goes on to claim that jobs are being hurt by the ACA. By the “employer mandate” specifically. A mandate that will not even go into effect until 2015 and may be significantly changed before then. The Obama administration and others know it is a flawed portion of the law. This is widely agreed upon. Which is why it has been delayed. To claim that anyone lost a job or job hours due to a mandate that doesn’t yet exist is ludicrous. In fact, the Investor’s Business Daily “study” that claims that over 300 employers cut employees or employee hours due to the mandate is either based on hearsay OR has links that actually admit that no work hours have been cut BECAUSE the mandate has been delayed (for example, the so-called evidence provided for Biola University cutting employee hours. Which it has not. Because the mandate has been delayed).

And Fox News AGAIN inadvertently reiterates the argument that insurance should not be tied to employment.

We will be sure to reference this FoxNews.com article frequently to show why we need Single-Payer in California and beyond.

Industry Buys Its Own Facts?

On By southwerkIn Capitalism
English: The Globe House, headquarters of Brit...
English: The Globe House, headquarters of British American Tobacco in London, as seen from River Thames Deutsch: Das Globe House, die Zentrale der British American Tobacco in London, von der Themse aus gesehen (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Industry Buys Its Own Facts?

I read once that you are entitled to your opinion but not your own facts. Apparently, an industry funded “science” group produces whatever “facts” are necessary when they’re needed.

So, let’s look at this from a business ethics standpoint. We have a public controversy in which an industry is doing something that may cause the public harm. Scientific evidence appears to suggest that some regulatory action is necessary. Business ethics would seem to dictate a rational and intelligent approach where we weigh evidence, perhaps do a cost-benefit analysis. Then we an enlightened civilized group decide what’s best for people in a democracy. That’s ethics.

But wait, certain companies have decided that when that scientific evidence appears and could cost them money, that it be branded junk science, and what’s more they have an organization that produces their very own private “facts.” Thus, we short circuit the whole system and stymie action necessary for people to live in health and peace.

Using a tissue of lies, and let’s not be tender about what this is, is unethical, a catastrophic failure of business ethics. It is the model developed by the tobacco industry to stop regulation of second hand smoke. It is designed to confuse and complicate the public debate over what should be done. It has been very successful in demonizing science and crippling democracy.

Lies kill, and these kinds of lies are particularly pernicious.

James Pilant

“Impartial” science group funded by Big Oil, soda and tobacco – Salon.com

Mother Jones has blown the lid off the American Council on Science and Health, a pro-industry research and advocacy organization known to defend everything from fracking to the potential harms of BPA from what it calls the “junk science” that’d have you think such things could pose a danger to public health. The group says all of its conclusions are driven by science, but its funding, leaked documents reveal, come from industry groups and corporations, to a greater extent than ACSH has acknowledged:

According to the ACSH documents, from July 1, 2012, to December 20, 2012, 58 percent of donations to the council came from corporations and large private foundations. ACSH’s donors and the potential backers the group has been targeting comprise a who’s-who of energy, agriculture, cosmetics, food, soda, chemical, pharmaceutical, and tobacco corporations. ACSH donors in the second half of 2012 included Chevron ($18,500), Coca-Cola ($50,000), the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation ($15,000), Dr. Pepper/Snapple ($5,000), Bayer Cropscience ($30,000), Procter and Gamble ($6,000), agribusiness giant Syngenta ($22,500), 3M ($30,000), McDonald’s ($30,000), and tobacco conglomerate Altria ($25,000). Among the corporations and foundations that ACSH has pursued for financial support since July 2012 are Pepsi, Monsanto, British American Tobacco, DowAgro, ExxonMobil Foundation, Phillip Morris International, Reynolds American, the Koch family-controlled Claude R. Lambe Foundation, the Dow-linked Gerstacker Foundation, the Bradley Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust.

via “Impartial” science group funded by Big Oil, soda and tobacco – Salon.com.

From around the web.

From the web site, Mint Press News.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/why-is-big-tobacco-funding-climate-change-skeptics/169312/

Greenpeace recently released an update

to a March 2010 report that stressed, once again, that climate change

denial is not only funded by the fossil fuel industry, but the tobacco

industry as well.

As Mint Press News previously reported,

companies in industries such as oil and tobacco often give generous

financial donations to organizations funding research that work to

discredit peer-reviewed, scientific studies indicating that climate

change is a real phenomenon caused by humans.

The reason? If the government were to increase regulations

on environmental issues in general, tobacco companies, too, could see a

negative effect to their bank accounts, considering their products’ environmental impact – not to mention potential smoking bans that could negatively affect sales of tobacco products.

While the tobacco industry is not commonly associated with

dispelling the existence of climate change, the industry has been

funding organizations that attempt to cast doubts on the validity of

climate change studies since the early 1990s.

As the English writer and environmental and political activist George Monbiot wrote

in his book “Death Denial,” “the corporate funding of lobby groups

denying that manmade climate change is taking place was initiated not by

Exxon, or by any other firm directly involved in the fossil fuel

industry. It was started by the tobacco company Philip Morris.”

Related articles

Law Firm Thinks Women Are Airheads

On By southwerkIn Editorial

Law Firm Thinks Women Are Airheads

 “Practice big words!!” – when do you say that to an attorney and it not sound insulting?

Business ethics would seem to suggest equal treatment for equal work but there just must be something about women in the workplace that drives men to stupidity? I don’t get it. By the time, you have gotten through law school, that big words problem is done. The rest sound like some male with supervisory status gets his education on women’s conduct from old reruns of Ally McBeal. Surely, there is some actual experience in the firm of supervision that doesn’t depend on insults to keep people in line? Or maybe this is just based in the firms collective mind in the concept that women have many child-like immature characteristics and need a different management touch?

I don’t think you need any deep  business ethics analysis. Don’t insult your workers. If there is a conduct problem, deal with it intelligently and don’t firebomb the staff with a badly thought out memo.

And from my own personal thought, it may be time for the outdated concept that women are just larger children to die, to go away, to run off into the wilderness of failed and mindless ideas and starve there alone.

James Pilant

 

Giggles
Giggles (Photo credit: Walt Stoneburner)

 

Sexist Law Firm Memo Tells Women Lawyers ‘Don’t Giggle,’ ‘Don’t Squirm,’ And ‘Practice Hard Words’ | ThinkProgress

 

Clifford Chance, a massive, international law firm employing thousands of elite attorneys, distributed a memo entitled “Presentation Tips for Women” that was better suited for a middle school forensics class than for graduates of the world’s leading law schools. Worse, interspersed between rudimentary pieces of advice such as “Stand up” and “Don’t wave your arms” are a series of often-gendered suggestions that call into question whether one of the world’s largest law firms understands that professional women are fully capable of dressing themselves.

 

Among the words of advice offered to every single female associate at Clifford Chance are “Don’t dress like a mortician,” “Wear a suit, not your party outfit,” “If wearing a skirt, make sure audience can’t see up it when sitting on the dias,” and — in an odd reference to six year-old sexist news coverage of then-Senator Hillary Clinton — “No one heard Hillary the day she showed cleavage.”

 

via Sexist Law Firm Memo Tells Women Lawyers ‘Don’t Giggle,’ ‘Don’t Squirm,’ And ‘Practice Hard Words’ | ThinkProgress.

From around the web.

From the web site, The Journal of All Items Various and Sundry

http://ohbutmeow.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/women-are-stupid-uptight-drunk-sluts-take-47810/

I don’t want to fall into the trap of blaming all men for this crap, because I do happen to know some decent fellows who, for the most part, don’t buy into it, and when they do, are pretty good at giving themselves a slap upside the head and realizing they’re being kind of piggish. And I do think women, myself included, have become very, very good at playing the male chauvinist game, and we need to stop being complicit in destroying ourselves to keep it going. So, yeah, it takes two to tango and other related truisms, but goddammit, it’s becoming more and more impossible for me to remain calm and logical in the face of the increasingly Sisyphean task of bearing the responsibility for all things dull and ugly while taking none of the credit for their opposite.

 

Challenges and Changes in Police Work

On By southwerkIn Editorial
A police car in Washington, D.C.
A police car in Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Challenges and Changes in Police Work

 

I recommend reading the whole article. This police officer has gone through the last twenty years, some of the most turbulent years in the history of policing. His observations are enlightening and intelligent.

 

James Pilant

 

A Frontline Officer on Challenges and Changes

 

Entering my third decade in policing, I had an epiphany about how much my profession has changed since I learned to write reports on manual typewriters in my 1989 recruit class. Like every other industry, policing has seen such dramatic changes that what we imagine for the next 20 years is as surreal as the idea of people travelling to space on paid space shuttles was two decades ago. Two decades ago society would not have tolerated the idea of conducting business from home and having meetings as avatars in virtual environments, yet many businesses now operate this way.

 

Law enforcement has evolved from paper reports and filing cabinets, to body worn cameras and global positioning in a digitally connected universe. Most North Americans use smart phones that connect them immediately with information that we could not have imagined in previous decades. Police officers now must assume that an action they take in the street may be replaying in the media before they get back to the office to write a report about it.

 

In the 24 years of my own policing career, I’ve had a front-row seat to the changes that have occurred and have witnessed how these changes present challenges that cross every industry and  confront administrators in both the public and private sectors. Two decades ago administrators made decisions about what information to release, whereas now they must manage information that is already out there.

 

– See more at: http://www.mqup.ca/blog/frontline-officer-challenges/#!

 

From around the web.

 

From the web site, The Thin Blue Line.

 

http://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-are-5-biggest-challenges-facing.html

 

WHAT ARE THE 5 BIGGEST CHALLENGES FACING POLICE FORCES TODAY?

 

 

 

On a police networking site recently, the above question sparked a mass

of interesting responses from all ranks and many from outside parties.

Here at http://thinbluelineuk.blogspot.com/

we are asking the same questions. We would be particularly keen to hear

from front line officers from all forces with their informed views.

Imagine you had the opportunity to have your views heard, without

recrimination, by Theresa May and Nick Herbert. We will collate the

responses and forward them to Theresa and Nick and let you know the

outcome. We will also be asking these questions on other forums such as Police Oracle and would be keen to elicit the support of police blog sites.

 

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