Government waste

See http://www.cagw.org

Keeping up on Internet stuff
http://www.researchbuzz.com/index.shtml

Where do I get me one of these cool jobs, where bonuses are 100 times salary?

And the base is not bad, I think I could get by in NYC for $1.4 mil. But the bonuses would certainly smooth things out.

Grasso to Get $140 Million Pay Package
Bowing to criticism of the secretive way it compensates its chief executive, the board of the New York Stock Exchange disclosed yesterday that its top executive, Richard A. Grasso, would receive lump-sum payments totaling $140 million in accrued savings and incentives, in addition to a base salary of $1.4 million and a bonus of at least $1 million.

Three positive steps to take

http://www.bestfootforward.com
http://www.voyageweb.com
http://www.takebackthemedia.com

SBDM stuff of interest

http://www.ed.gov/offices/IES/
http://www.kasc.net/

Taking pot-shots at the mayor

The farkers have done it again. Why they pick on our mayor, I don't know. http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=580356

random links

http://www.artsandlettersdaily.com/ - has long been an outstanding compilation of good stuff on the web

http://www.acton.org/ - study of religion in everyday life

http://www.opinionjournal.com/ - can the Wall Street Journal be opinionated?

http://www.beacon.org - Beacon Press - home of some very interesting books

Recent books

Started Farewell to Arms as a book on tape, and it was interesting, but when the tape messed up, I wasn't really caught up, so I moved on.

I really like McMillian's A Day Late & A Dollar Short that I'm listening to now. Intertwined family stories, told from a rotating perspective.

It's amazing the difference that a good book makes on the road.

More than you wanted to know about librarians

http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Libraries/Librarians/

Trip to Indy
Friday we left for Indy, and met Kevin, Trish, Meghan and Maddy by about 4:30. We stayed at the Omni, and it was more kid-friendly than I thought it would be.
Friday night we just ate at the City Centre food court.

Sat. we went to the zoo with Paul & Jan, and the weather was nice.

Sun, we went to the Children's museum, and Buca di Beppo for dinner. Then off to Lsvl, where Stacey & I saw "L'Auberge Espagnole". Funny take on a "trying to unite Europe", from the framework of a student-exchange program. Set in Barcelona, in Catalan, French, Spanish, German, English, etc. etc. The younger British brother was a racist, and the news comes out Monday that Britain still won't join the euro. The Sun reports that Blair is going from "wait and see" to "hope and pray".

Gelb "genius" books

I got the tape of "discover your genius", and liked listening to the beginning enough that I wanted to see the book, since it has "genius activities". Gelb has picked 10 genuises, and shows you how to think like them. I may not remember them all, but Jefferson, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Plato, Ghandi, Copernicus and Einstein.

So, I broke down and actually bought "how to think like Leonardo". I have yet to read any of it. I hope I will be able to work through it this summer.

Nickel & Dimed by Barbara Erenreich

Was interesting to read. A writer who goes for a journey in the world of the working class. Lots of interesting tribulations that some people never have to think about. Especially strange to read it as Chuck Sohner was dying.

More on peace & justice, and living wage at http://www.peaceandjusticeky.org

Geeks and Geezers
Interesting foreword: gathered data from those under 30 and over 70 and looked at what it takes to make leaders.

Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips

Haven't finished it yet, but shows that the disparity between the wealthy and everyone else is growing. It may now actually be more extreme than it has ever been.

Campaign Finance Reform
Not supposed to be thinking about this sort of thing anymore, but, in case you are http://www.opensecrets.org/.

Or a whole Yahoo section at http://dir.yahoo.com/Government/U_S__Government/Politics/Elections/Campaign_Finance/Reform/

She can't really say that, can she
Molly Ivins rules. Check out her current column at http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

The Unknown, and Laudable, Osbourne
Sharon and Ozzie Osbourne have three children, although you only see two on the reality show. The eldest, I think it is a daughter, has chosen NOT to be on the show.

All congratulations to her. I hope she is enjoying her time out of the limelight. It is good to see someone choosing NOT to get the embarrasment and hyperattention of reality TV.

We have constructed a feedback loop that is very dangerous: we are showing people how to act by these reality TV shows, and we may not be upholding the highest possible aspirations. Be careful what you watch: it influences more than you may realize.

Smart Growth in Kentucky
There is a link to what is going on with smart growth in Kentucky http://www.planning.org/growingsmart/States/Kentucky.htm.

Found via http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/policy.html, a collection of policy pointers.

Suburban Nation by Duany, Plater-zyberk and Speck. Another interesting book. Read it, too.

Points to city- and neighborhood-planning as the source of many problems. The design of the neighborhood has lead naturally to isolation and not knowing your neighbor, since you have to drive everywhere. The wide, smooth arcs and wide streets that allow for easy car navigation naturally let drivers go faster, and people don't want to walk, even if there are sidewalks. Even, and perhaps too far, points to the isolation of the neighborhood as leading to teenage problems: the isolated 13-, 14- and 15- year olds either can't wait to drive, or go wild when they finally can.

Says that zoning in 99% of the U.S. does NOT allow the useful, walkable, mixed development of the classic "neighborhood", with shop owners living over the stores, etc. Sprawl is REQUIRED by zoning. Not any one decision, but a series of small mistakes too us to the illogical extreme. If you require parking for retail, you have to have big parking lots which discourage walking, and you naturally get blots on the landscape of big-box retail.

Adovates use of a "traditional neighborhood checklist", with several pages of suggestions.

Points to Congress for New Urbanism at http://www.cnu.org and Traditinoal Neighborhood Development at http://www.dpz.com.

The Future of Success by Robert B. Reich

Really interesting book. Go read it.

Some suggestions from the end:

• "Earnings insurance" - people who get a sudden, substantial (30%? 50%?) rise in income would pay part of that into a fund. People who have a corresponding bad year (30 or 50 percent loss in earned income) would get some money from the fund, maybe half their loss, to smooth out the shocks in the fast-moving new economy.
  
• "Community insurance" - corporations who want to move to a new location would pay into a fund that would help the old locations re-train/re-tool/recover from the shock.
  
• Invest in education of course, but even further, hand everyone a nest-egg of $60,000 at a certain point (age 18 or age 21), funded by a tax on the very rich. Or, my idea, phase back in the estate tax to create this endowment.
  
• Raise the pay of the "caring professions" (nurse's aides, home health-care aids, child-care workers, schoolteachers, social workers) so that more people will be attracted to those professions.
  
• (Possible danger here- why not allow parents themselves to do this) Create preschools for 3- and 4-year-olds, and create more after-school care for school-aged children.
  
• Encourage businesses to give people more flexibility to care for their children or elderly.
  
• Staying home with a child under three would be subsidized.
  
• Fund schools through other means than property taxes. Perhaps a national net-worth tax.
  
• Break the cycle of poverty by requiring a certain percentage of low-income housing in upscale developments.
  

Three conversations we are currently having (that probably need to be brought together):
1) how wonderful technology is - we are all getting terrific deals
2) the fear of unfettered capitalism, greed of corporations, and global problems (this book was pre-9/11 and pre-Enron)
3) creating balance in our lives