On Tenderhooks during My Public Radio Fundraiser

Three times a year my public radio station conducts its fundraiser. As the economy has weakened and millions of hard-working Americans have lost their jobs, their retirement plans and their health care, public radio faces a steeper and steeper climb to meet its fund-raising goals.

Initially the drives were $600,000. With government support of public radio being cut, it rose first to $800,000 and now to a cool $1 million. That means three times a year my favorite station must raise $1 million to maintain its operations. This at the same time that increasing numbers of its faithful listeners are less capable of maintaining, let alone increasing their support. At the same time, the importance of public radio and television has increased as a source of educational material and public information during an era in which budget cuts are dismantling quality public education and for-profit media has descended to the lowest common denominator.

As I write, the eighth day of WAMC's fund drive is waning. They have not yet reached the $800,000 mark. For many years the drives ended on the sixth or seventh day. This one promises to last a week and a half. This is a station that provides an independent voice in a sea of corporate-sponsored mainstream media that blatantly espouses a far-right agenda. This is a station that REFUSES to talk down to its listeners at the same time it gives them a voice.

My station does not have a university sponsor. It must get its revenue from underwriters, sponsors and its listeners. Will it make it one more time? Will it get the funds that enable it to stay on the air for four more months?

My lips to God's ear.

Note: if you are interested in pledging call 1-800-323-9262.

Sex, Lies and Distractions

For two weeks American media have feasted on yet another political sex scandal. It is not that budget deficits, kill Medicare initiatives, America's collapsing educational system, rising theocracy, assault on women's rights and three, or is it up to four now, foreign wars have suddenly disappeared. It is that sex scandals work very well to distract the American citizenry from our real problems.
So-called "mainstream" Republicans and Democrats reap the added benefit of watching an uncomfortably outspoken, highly articulate proponent of progressive causes crash and burn.

So while Congress threatens to default on America's debt, the nuclear crisis in Japan worsens by the day, Homeland Security strips American citizens of their Constitutional protections, state after state enacts hideous laws invading a woman's control over her own health and welfare, our country adds Libya to its undeclared war list, violent storms destroy huge slices of territory while drought, fire and flooding rampage the globe as the planet warms and the oceans rise, we can focus on the real problem - sex stuff.

Good job.

It's What's in Our Food, Stupid

Europe is struggling to locate the source of a brand new strain of E. coli that is antibiotic resistant and lethal. More than one theory blames the common practice of giving antibiotics to perfectly healthy animals as a likely cause. This use of antibiotics has come under fire before as the scientific and medical communities have repeatedly warned of the fast approaching day when "super bugs" will end the miracle age of antibiotics once and for all. In the meantime, savvy consumers are advised to choose their meat from antibiotic free sources. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendy-gordon/food-antibiotics-_b_871780.html?ir=Green

Of course this article says nothing about vegetables often providing the source of E. coli outbreaks.

Our Republican Congress continues to equate "deregulation" with "jobs" and agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration with "job killing" regulation. This at the same time that corporations prove every day of the week how devastating to our environment, health and safety their actions in the absence of meaningful oversight can be.

Americans are accused of causing their own obesity and diabetes with poor food choices. Agri-business bombards the air waves with commercials insisting high fructose corn syrup is just the same as processed sugar and nothing to worry about. Last week I saw that the popular brand of potato salad I was purchasing listed high fructose corn syrup as one of its top ingredients. What is that about? When I make potato salad from scratch, I do not add either sugar or corn syrup. Why should I? It tastes delicious without them.

Definitions of what is organic have been twisted by agri-business to include products consumers would not consider organic if they knew how they were produced. Food dyes and flavorings labeled as "natural" are sometimes "natural" petroleum or chemical products. "All natural" fruit drinks sold for small children frequently contain HUGE amounts of sugar or high fructose corn syrup and bear little or no resemblance to fruit juice.

Even folks who conscientiously read the labels can be fooled by the list of ingredients. Perhaps the best rule of thumb is to select products with short ingredient lists that contain no words you do not understand. Reduced or low sodium canned goods often contain HUGE doses of sodium. Reduced or low fat products frequently contain high levels of sweeteners. As regulation and oversight decrease, label reading becomes more critical. Of course we are then assuming the labels are accurate. Without oversight, can we rely upon that?

Next time you hear a politician talk about "job killing over regulation" ask yourself who is contributing to his campaign and how product safety can be maintained without oversight. Might not be a bad time to read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the book that started the whole food safety movement over 100 years ago.

Supporting Another Public Radio Fund Drive

Why should I once again dig into my pockets for my local public radio station - WAMC - as it conducts its spring fund drive? The last one seems just a few short weeks ago.

Well, in the interim the Republican-controlled Congress attacked public support of public television and public radio as a wasteful use of tax monies. This at the same time funding for public education was cut to the bone and mainstream media further consolidated into a few wealthy, super powerful corporations that specialize in mind-numbing reality shows and pseudo-news coverage. My Democratic-controlled state government's budget cuts included cuts in funding for public tv and radio and public education.Public libraries also are being squeezed in the spending cuts.

The result is a rapidly shrinking supply of free educational material. Public television and public radio still provide excellent programming and quality news coverage. As long as they do, and I have the resources, I will continue to support them.

I have a special affection for my local public radio station. It gives me the opportunity to listen to and participate in listener discussions that ARE NOT shouting matches and that DO present differing viewpoints.

Time to step up to the plate.

Economic Dilemmas in Hard Times

My thoughts... .

1. Policymakers that put raising taxes off the table in deficit reduction negotiations are disingenuous about their agenda.

2. During tough economic times, those who are doing well need to pick up the slack to help those who are doing badly survive.

3. Defunding public education and laying off tens of thousands of teachers guarantees an unskilled underclass in a society.

4. A negative balance of payments of tens of billions of dollars a year renders budget balancing initiatives futile.

5. Unregulated corporations destroy democracy. Regulation is an indispensable component of free enterprise. Unregulated competition inevitably results in monopoly and oligopoly.

6. Private ownership of natural resources is dangerous to human welfare. Destruction of the environment to make a profit is criminal.

7. Contracts that harm the public good should be invalidated.

9. The same institutions that destroyed global economic stability now control the global economy. This is a BAD thing.

10. Corporations that are "too big to fail" need either to be broken up or nationalized.

11. Corporations are not citizens. They are NOT entitled to equal rights and MUST be subordinate to the public will. Any members of the Judiciary that rule otherwise have violated their oath of office and deserve impeachment.

Bimbos and Stud Muffins

It probably started with reality shows about "wealthy" bachelors pursued by women who wanted to "marry up." Then Flavor Flav traded a disfunctional relationship with Strange Love co-star Brigitte Neilsen for a bevy of publicity seeking nymphets in Flavor of Love.

Bravo began a series about Real Housewives of Orange County and MTV had startling success with Jersey Shore. What do these shows have in common? The participants are superficial, self-absorbed, highly sexed and have the social morals of New York bankers. Bravo has degenerated into a Real Housewives franchise machine.

Whatever happened to Bravo and A&E, which at one time rivaled PBS in the quality of their original programming? Or MTV, once a showcase for innovative, edgy musical videos? Or TLC whose initials, now ironically, stand for The Learning Channel? Or Discovery? Each and every one of them appears to me to have descended far below our society's lowest common denominator.

I reserve my strongest personal objections to the bimbo and stud muffin genres portrayed in the Real Housewives franchise and Jersey Shore, which objectify their subjects as purely sexual, mentally challenged creatures.Ugh.

Lurking on Reddit.com

I really have to stop lurking on Reddit.com. Today following a link I landed in the middle of a YouTube video of dancers being roughed up and arrested at the Jefferson Memorial and the press being informed they had to stop filming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UyiaR1PDhQ When the police were asked what law was being violated, they refused to answer as they continued to clear the monument of visitors.

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Then another link sent me to Salon.com and an article by a woman who claimed a Chicago hospital initially refused to perform an abortion of her dying fetus while she was bleeding out. http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/05/26/abortion_saved_my_life/index.html

There are the political rantings, largely from the left, but also from the right. The links to articles from obscure blogs and mainstream media. The links to cartoons and pictures that use one quick image to say more than pages of script - like which states get the most back from the federal government. http://www.lazlow.com/uploaded_images/2987025203_fc2c517522_o-748920.jpg

Yeah, I really have to stop hanging out on Reddit. This is getting out of hand. I would spend some time playing online poker, but the Justice Department ripped that option away from me weeks ago. I would go to the gun range for pistol practice instead, but without a permit that is illegal in my state. And getting that pistol permit is very a long, tedious process.

Gee, I wonder if there are any new posts I should see... . http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/