Sympathy for Rapists?

On April 18, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Why are we supposed to have sympathy for rapists? – Salon.com

An evolved society is one that extends understanding and forgiveness for its offenders. But not because it’s such a goshdarn shame some kids can’t play football now. We have to look at what happened in Steubenville, what happened in Cleveland, Texas, what happens on college campuses and in marital beds and military bases every single day and recognize that rape is not a crime that is just perpetuated by what Sean Hannity recently flippantly called “evil” men. We have to see that one of the tragedies here is how badly we are failing our men and boys, every time we pretend that rape is something that happens entirely because of a how girl dresses or how much she drinks. We have to believe when Ma’lik Richmond’s father says, ”I’m sorry for what you all had to go through, and I hope somewhere in your hearts that you can forgive Trent and Ma’lik for the pain that they caused your daughter and put you through. I’m gonna bear his pain with him. I’m sure Trent and Ma’Lik will learn a valuable lesson from this and become productive citizens in this world one day.” We have to hope that those boys can indeed learn what it means to be a man from all of this. We have to teach then. So that one day, they can teach their own sons.

Why are we supposed to have sympathy for rapists? – Salon.com

Swartz Honored

On April 17, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Swartz Honored

Aaron Swartz Posthumously Awarded ALA’s James Madison Award | Occupy America

On Friday, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) posthumously awarded internet activist Aaron Swartz the American Library Association’s (ALA) 2013 James Madison Award during the 15th Annual Freedom of Information Day in Washington, D.C. According to the American Library Association, “Swartz will receive the award for his dedication to promoting and protecting public access to research and government information.

“Aaron loved libraries. I remember how excited he was to get library privileges at Harvard and be able to use the Widener library there. I know he would have been humbled and honored to receive this award. We thank you,” said Robert Swartz, Aaron’s father in reaction to the award. “Aaron’s goal was to make knowledge freely available to everyone and we can all further his legacy by making this happen.”

Before his suicide in January, Swartz was a co-founder of Demand Progress, an advocacy group that organizes people to take action on civil liberties and government reform issues. Swartz was also a leader in the national campaign to prevent the passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill that would have diminished critical online legal protections.

…

The James Madison Award honors individuals who have championed, protected and promoted public access to government information and the public’s right to know national information. ALA has long been a supporter of open access policies that increase the amount of research made available to the public.

Aaron Swartz Posthumously Awarded ALA’s James Madison Award | Occupy America

Student Loan Debt Trap

On April 16, 2013 By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Student Loan Debt Trap

Commentary: Helping alleviate the student debt trap | McClatchy

Andrew Ross, a New York University professor of social and cultural analysis and an advocate of student debt relief, spoke on the subject at Duke this month. In an interview, Ross said he sees the effect of debt on his students. “A lot of my students fall asleep, and not all of them because of my boring lectures, but because they are working two or three jobs,” he said.

Their struggle will continue after college, Ross said, despite a degree from one of the nation’s most expensive institutions. “This generation faces a predicament where their future is foreclosed,” he said. “They’ve taken on debt to prepare themselves for employment, and the employment is not there.”

At a time of bailouts for Wall Street banks and extensive corporate welfare through tax breaks, it’s wrong that we now accept heavy student debt as inevitable and inescapable. (Federal law prohibits, except in rare cases, private or federal student loans from being discharged in bankruptcy court.)

Commentary: Helping alleviate the student debt trap | McClatchy

Does Suspension Make Any Sense?

On April 15, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Does Suspension Make Any Sense?

Why do we suspend children from school? – Slate Magazine

Several schools have suspended children for joking about guns in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings. A 7-year-old in Maryland was suspended for chewing a breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun, while others have received the same punishment for pointing their fingers like guns or using toy guns that blow bubbles. Suspension seems like a counterintuitive disciplinary tool, since many children would prefer to stay home from school, anyway. Why is suspension such a common punishment?

Because it’s familiar, cheap, and convenient. It’s also demonstrably ineffective. Its deterrent value is low: A 2011 study showed that Texas students who were suspended or expelled at least once during middle school and high school averaged four such disciplinary actions during their academic careers. Fourteen percent of them were suspended 11 times or more. Suspensions don’t even seem to benefit the school as a whole. In recent years, while Baltimore city schools have dramatically reduced suspensions, the dropout rate has been cut nearly in half.

Still, surveys consistently show that parents support suspension, because it keeps those students perceived as bad apples away from their peers. Principals continue to rely on suspension, in part because it creates the appearance of toughness. Parents can’t complain about inaction when a principal regularly suspends or expels bad actors. Administrators may also favor suspension because it edges problem students out of school: Students who have been suspended are three times more likely to drop out. Some researchers refer to a student who gives up on school after repeated suspension as a “push out” rather than a dropout.

Why do we suspend children from school? – Slate Magazine

An American Dream

On April 14, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

An American Dream

High-speed trains in the United States: Is Alfred Twu’s fantasy map too fantastical? – Slate Magazine

Last month, graphic designer and railroad aficionado Alfred Twu published a stunning map of what America would look like if virtually every last nook and cranny of the country were connected by a state-of-the-art, 220-mph rail network. Twu’s plan for a national high-speed rail system could get passengers from Cheyenne, Wyo., to Albany, N.Y., in just under 12 hours. It captured an old-school patriotic longing among young tech-savvy Americans for big, prestige projects with a design that was elegant in its simplicity. Online media outlets described Twu as a “visionary.” “This Is What America’s High-Speed Rail System Should Look Like” was one typically glowing headline.

Some conservatives had a different description for Twu and his map. “High-speed rail supporter Alfred Twu has gotten a lot of attention for having boldly drawn a map of where he thinks high-speed trains should go,” wrote Randal O’Toole of the libertarian Cato Institute. “Twu’s map is even more absurd than Obama’s plan,” he wrote, describing the map, and high-speed rail in general, as a “ridiculous fantasy.”

O’Toole’s reaction demonstrated one of the principal reasons why American high-speed rail has been mostly stymied: One person’s beautiful vision of the future is another’s terrifying government boondoggle. The Obama plan to use $8 billion in stimulus money as a carrot to get states to invest in high-speed rail went down in flames two years ago. It failed largely because Republican governors in states such as Florida rejected federal funds. But if there were some way to get beyond partisan politics and legal battles over right-of-way issues, what would an ideally efficient map of an American high-speed rail system actually look like?

High-speed trains in the United States: Is Alfred Twu’s fantasy map too fantastical? – Slate Magazine

Is Healthy Food an Ethics Issue?

On April 13, 2013 By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Is Healthy Food an Ethics Issue?

Daniel J. Schultz: Betcha Can’t Eat Just One

Reading Moss’ book, I grew uneasy as he described the marketing and engineering principles used to reach one of the most targeted demographics: children. Examples include the use of fruit juice concentrate, which can make up as little as five percent of the total beverage, to give the “health halo” to sugary drinks. Other packaging mistruths include the promotion of cereals that are more than 50 percent sugar as part of a well-rounded breakfast. Lunchables are packaged to imitate the cheerful appearance of a gift to make children especially excited to open and enjoy the food inside.

Since the 1970s, researchers have known that kids are attracted to higher levels of salt and sugar, which companies have used as an advantage for their products. Moss quotes Julie Mennella, a biopsychologist, who describes this as “manipulating or exploiting the biology of the child.” I was one of the kids these companies targeted and successfully sold their products to, becoming one of their “heavy users.”

Daniel J. Schultz: Betcha Can’t Eat Just One

Cramped Altruism

On April 13, 2013 By southwerkIn Politics

Underage workers in the corporate heaven of Foxconn

Cramped Altruism

Other People’s Children – NYTimes.com

I’ve noticed this thing quite a lot in American life lately — this sort of cramped vision of altruism in which it’s considered perfectly acceptable to support only those causes that are directly good for you and yours. We even have a tendency to view it as “inauthentic” when people support policies that aren’t in their self-interest — when a rich man supports higher taxes on the rich, he’s somehow seen as strange, and probably a hypocrite.

Needless to say, this is all wrong. Political virtue consists in standing for what’s right, even — or indeed especially — when it doesn’t redound to your own benefit. Someone should ask Portman why he didn’t take a stand for, you know, other people’s children.

Other People’s Children – NYTimes.com

Healthy Weight Part of Job Description?

On April 12, 2013 By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Healthy Weight Part of Job Description?

CVS To Penalize Workers Who Don’t Disclose Weight, Body Fat

One of the country’s largest pharmacy chains is asking its workers to find out how fat they are and then disclose it to their insurance provider.

Not only is that company, CVS Caremark, telling workers who use its health insurance plan to have a doctor determine their height, weight, body fat, blood pressure and other health indicators. It is also asking workers to give permission to the insurer to turn over that information to a firm that provides benefits support to CVS, the Boston Herald reports.

Workers who don’t take part in the voluntary “wellness review,” paid for by CVS, will have to pay an annual $600 penalty.

Obamacare could make such practices more common. The health care reform law allows employers to levy a higher penalty against workers who don’t participate in company wellness programs. In some cases, workers could also have to pay more if they don’t meet certain health targets like appropriate body mass index.

CVS To Penalize Workers Who Don’t Disclose Weight, Body Fat

Overwhelming Pursuit and Massive Firepower

On April 12, 2013 By southwerkIn Opinion

Overwhelming Pursuit and Massive Firepower

Feds To Investigate Cleveland Police After 137 Shots Fired In 59-Car Chase | ThinkProgress

On November 30, 2012, what began as a routine police drug patrol in Cleveland, Ohio ended in an unauthorized 59-car police chase in which 137 shots were fired and two unarmed individuals were left dead. The department-wide malfunction has prompted an investigation by the Department of Justice into the city police department’s use of excessive force and the “the adequacy of CPD’s training, supervision, and accountability mechanisms.”

In spite of a police policy that no more than 2 vehicles be involved in a chase, more than 59 vehicles joined the pursuit “without the sector supervisor’s knowledge or permission,” according to a state investigation of the incident. The chase began after a car pulled over for a turn signal violation drove away, and was later identified by several other officers driving at a high speed. Due to faltering communication, and the misimpression that the individuals were armed and fired a shot, the incident escalated until one-third of the police department had joined the chase.

Feds To Investigate Cleveland Police After 137 Shots Fired In 59-Car Chase | ThinkProgress

Puritan Success

On April 11, 2013 By southwerkIn Business Ethics

Puritan Success

Lynn Parramore: Jamie Dimon’s Ultra-American Rise and Fall: The Great Gatsby Meets Moby Dick

Australians have an old joke about their country’s founding elements: Sure, we got the criminals, but America got the Puritans, which is much worse.

The folks who arrived on our shores from Europe four centuries ago brought with them some peculiar notions. The Puritans believed in the Calvinist “Doctrine of the Elect,” a depressing divine plan whereby God pre-selected those destined for heaven and damned everybody else to hell. You could never know who was on the A-list and who was in for a fiery eternity. At least that’s what old John Calvin had taught.

But mere mortals could never be content with so mysterious a system, so they became obsessed with finding out who was elect. Material possessions, they concluded, must be a sign. Didn’t people who worked hard and kept up their prayers often amass more stuff than others? Hard work was godly, and since it often resulted in riches, they must be godly, too. Wealthiness was next to godliness.

In an essay on The Great Gatsby, America’s great literary ode to our distinguishing love of wealth, John A. Pidgeon notes that the striving for money became a means of salvation. Take the Puritan reverence of riches, add in equal parts transcendentalism and rugged individualism, and you’ve got the American Dream in all its shining glory: If you work hard, if you believe fervently enough, you can make yourself a fortune. You, too, can join the ranks of the elect.

Lynn Parramore: Jamie Dimon’s Ultra-American Rise and Fall: The Great Gatsby Meets Moby Dick