Anathema to many partisans of the immigration debates: What if we look at the real value of immigration? The U.S. needs more to encourage immigration than to discourage it. God, and devil, in the details.
From the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank:
In advance of an immigration policy conference, Dallas Fed Senior Economist Pia Orrenius discusses how immigration policy can help the U.S. economy and how the global competition for high-skilled immigrants is increasing. The Dallas Fed and the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University are co-sponsoring “Immigration Policy in an Era of Globalization” at the Dallas Fed on May 19-20, 2011.
This piece had only 329 views when I posted it. Shouldn’t carefully studied views of immigration get more circulation on the inter’tubes?
Do you recall seeing any coverage of the May 19-20 conference in your local news outlets, or anywhere else? The conference included high-faluting experts who discussed immigration policies for the U.S., Canada, the EU, Europe, Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany. One might think to find some value in the information there.
Can we get the immigration we need, legally? Do present proposals in Congress offer to boost our economy, or hurt it?
Actually, there is a tour underway that highlights the great things about America, but it isn’t Palin’s. It’s the farewell tour of Robert Gates, defense secretary to presidents George W. Bush and Obama, whose work over the past 41 /2 years has dramatically improved the state of the U.S. military. While Palin played cat-and-mouse with the press corps on Interstate 95, Gates set off on a tour of Asia and Europe, where he is receiving the gratitude of soldiers and the acclaim of allies.
Gates, who remained on the job at Obama’s request, took on sacred weapons programs at the Pentagon, fired ineffective generals, won the surge in Iraq, revived a crumbling war effort in Afghanistan and got Osama bin Laden.
During that same time, Palin quit midway through her term as Alaska governor, then went on to a life of $100,000 speaking fees, reality TV shows and incendiary political speech.
There is no such delegation from the Republican Party on the way to Gates’s house, and there probably will not be. We are afflicted with Palin from the Republicans, even while Robert Gates affects us. Why can’t they figure that out?
Old Sol spoke out this week: Huge solar flare on June 7.
For scientists, it was a cool deal — especially since the flair was on the side of the Sun facing us, and there were cameras of various types trained on the action.
But just watch: The internet will light up with concerns about 2012, and those who deny warming occurs or that humans cause it, will find some reason to claim the solar flare shows that Al Gore is fat and Rachel Carson is a mass murderer, plus Darwin was the inspiration for Adolf Hitler.
If the Sun knew it would get such a reception, would it bother?
Take a look:
Still shot of the June 7, 2011 solar flare -- NASA/SDO via PopSci
Here’s a pixillated video of the event in UV at 304 Angstroms — it runs under 30 seconds, but the time covered is about two-and-a-half hours; from SOHO – SDO via TheSunToday.org:
I stumbled upon this video earlier today. It’s Isaac Asimov, famous science fiction writer and biochemist, talking about global warming — back in January 1989. If you change the coloring of the video, the facial hair style, and switch out Asimov for someone else, the video could pretty much have been made today.
Asimov was giving the keynote address at the first annual meeting of The Humanist Institute. “They wanted me to pick out the most important scientific event of 1988. And I really thought that the most important scientific event of 1988 will only be recognized sometime in the future when you get a little perspective.”
What he was talking about was the greenhouse effect, which, he goes on to explain, is “the story everyone started talking about [in 1988], just because there was a hot summer and a drought.” (Sound familiar, letting individual weather events drive talk of whether the Earth’s long-term climate is heating up or cooling down??)
The greenhouse effect explains how certain heat-trapping (a.k.a. “greenhouse”) gases in our atmosphere keep our planet warm, by trapping infrared rays that Earth would otherwise reflect back out into space. The natural greenhouse effect makes Earth habitable — without our atmosphere acting like an electric blanket, the surface of the earth would be about 30 degrees Celsius cooler than it is now.
The problem comes in when humans tinker with this natural state of affairs. Our burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) constantly pumps out carbon dioxide — a heat-trapping gas — into the atmosphere. Our cutting down of forests reduces the number of trees there are to soak up some of this extra carbon dioxide. All in all, our atmosphere and planet heats up, (by about 0.6 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution) with the electric blanket getting gradually thicker around us.
“I have been talking about the greenhouse effect for 20 years at least,” says Asimov in the video. “And there are other people who have talked about it before I did. I didn’t invent it.” As we’ve stressed here recently, global warming, and the idea that humans can change the climate, is not new.
As one blogger notes, Asimov’s words are as relevant today as they were in 1989. “It’s almost like nothing has happened in all this time.” Except that Isaac Asimov has come and gone, and the climate change he spoke of is continuing.
Scientists have been on the job that long, yes. Al Gore didn’t invent global warming or climate change, contrary to the working beliefs of much of the “no human warming” crowd.
One of the commenters at Jenkins’ blog put things in perspective:
Jim
January 8, 2011 – 10:22 PST
Interestingly, 1988 was
• the last year that we were not in ecological overshoot
• the last year we were at 350 Parts per million CO2
• the publication date of Joseph Tainter’s he Collapse of Complex Societies http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/The_Collapse_of_Complex_Societies
Thomas Jefferson got much of the glory, and we celebrate July 4.
We might learn about how politics works, and who does the heavy lifting, if we remember the full history.
Richard Henry Lee by Charles Wilson Peale (wikimedia)
On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia rose in the 2nd Continental Congress to propose a resolution calling for a declaration of independence of the thirteen colonies, from Britain.
Lee came to Philadelphia as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774, and was reappointed to the Second Continental Congress.
On June 7, 1776, Lee proposed a resolution which read in part:
Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
He had returned to Virginia by the time the Declaration of Independence was drafted and approved on July 2, but he signed the document when he returned to Congress.
Lee served as president of the Second Continental Congress (November 1784 to November 1785), and after the formation of the United States, as U.S. Senator from Virginia. In the Senate, he was President pro tempore.
Richard Henry Lee's resolution calling for a declaration of independence - image from the National Archives
When I was in 11th grade, the grandfather of one of my other students, who was at Normandy, came to talk to our history class about his experiences. He sobbed openly when he talked about storming the beaches and seeing what he thought were sand dunes, but were instead “waves” of corpses of those who had gone ahead of him. It was an experience which marked me deeply.
posted by dhens at 7:40 AM on June 6 [3 favorites]
My Mum still remembers the sound of planes flying over southern England. She and her family were awakened early by the noise and knew the push has begun. She remembers people being very quiet and determined as they went about their day and most folks dropped into a church at some point.
My gran was shot at by the Luftwaffe. The bastards.
We owe a huge debt to the people who went through it for us. I can’t imagine what the world would look like if they’d failed.
posted by Summer at 7:59 AM on June 6
That last one’s worth repeating and remembering:
We owe a huge debt to the people who went through it for us. I can’t imagine what the world would look like if they’d failed.
Peace at Omaha Beach - Omaha Beach from the American Cemetery, June 6, 2004 - Sedulia blogs.com
Dallas Independent School District’s (DISD) Superintendent Michael Hinojosa resigned about an hour ago to accept the job in Cobb County, Georgia. The board meets tonight, perhapsto appoint an interim superintendent.
Here’s the message sent out through the Dallas systems today, to teachers and administrators:
SUPERINTENDENT MICHAEL HINOJOSA RESIGNS FROM DALLAS ISD
Accepts Superintendent Position in Cobb County, Georgia
Superintendent of Schools Michael Hinojosa submitted his letter of resignation from the Dallas Independent School District today to accept a similar position in Cobb County, Georgia.
Dr. Hinojosa has served as the superintendent for the stateâs second-largest school district for six yearsâthe longest term since Linus Wright held the position in the 1980s. His last day with Dallas ISD will be Thursday, June 30, 2011.
“It has been an honor to serve as superintendent for the school district I attended as a child and where I started my teaching career,” said Hinojosa. “I am enormously proud of our shared accomplishmentsâthe biggest of which is that the number of students graduating from Dallas ISD schools is at its highest since 1983.”
This school year, Dallas ISD expects to graduate a total of 7,200 students, up from 5,800 four years ago. The number has steadily risen each of the last four years.
Under Dr. Hinojosaâs leadership, the school district implemented a systemwide curriculum that was developed by teachers. In addition, principals for schools that had vacancies during the last six years were selected through a collaborative process that allowed staff and the community to provide input.
A $1.37 billion bond program to build and improve school facilities that was approved by voters in 2002was implemented on schedule and under budget. Another $1.35 billion bond program that was approved by voters in 2008 will build 14 more schools, 13 additions, and provide renovations to more than 200 district facilities.
Dallas ISD also became known throughout the country for its leadership in arts education. The Wallace Foundation provided an $8 million grant for the district to partner with Big Thought and the City of Dallas to provide more arts opportunities for students both during and after school.
Under Dr. Hinojosa’s leadership, schools in the southern sector received a significant boost. Two early college high schools are now operating, an all-boys school will open this fall as will a New Tech High School, and three renovated/new schools will open in Wilmer-Hutchins signaling a rebirth of public education in that community.
Grants from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation enabled the Dallas Independent School District to become a pioneer in the world of student data. The grants gave principals and teachers access to data dashboards, as well as established a Parent Portal for parents to monitor the progress of their students.
During his six-year tenure, Dr. Hinojosa responded to several crises, including the dissolution of neighboring Wilmer-Hutchins ISD and hurricanes Katrina and Rita, all of which caused an unexpected influx of additional students into Dallas ISD. The biggest crisis was a budget miscalculation that eventually forced the layoff of hundreds of staff during the 2008-09 school year.
Since then, the district has put in place a number of financial controls and rebuilt its fund balance to safer levels. The district now faces a significant cut in state funding because of a statewide budget shortfall.
“It certainly isn’t easy to be an urban school superintendent in todayâs environment, but I am proud of what this community has accomplished during the last six years,” said Hinojosa. “More students are graduating, more students are scoring at college-ready levels and our teachers and principals are better-trained. I hope whoever the board chooses as its next superintendent is provided the same opportunities to make improvements to continue the momentum on behalf of the students of this community. I am thankful to trustees, our staff and so many other leaders and stakeholders in Dallas who have been part of this experience.”
One of Dr. Hinojosaâs hallmarks was to make unannounced visits to the district’s 225 schools each Wednesday morning. He said the experiences kept him grounded on what was most important in the life of a large, urban school district.
“Every school has individuals who are devoted to helping our students succeed,” said Hinojosa. “I couldn’t help but be moved by the dedication of so many people, from custodians to food service workers, librarians to counselors, aides to front office staff and of course, principals and teachers. The Dallas Independent School District will continue to shine because of each of them. My address may soon be in Georgia, but a part of me will always be in Dallas. It has been a privilege.”
Dr. Hinojosa said he is moving to Georgia in part to be closer to his son whose wife is pregnant with their first child. He has two sons who have recently graduated from Hillcrest High School in Dallas who will be attending Ivy League colleges in the fall.
In Fort Worth, the board is expected to approve a separation agreement for Superintendent Melody Johnson, who is resigning to move to California to be closer to her aged mother. Most people expect a tough fight to find a capable person to head either district.
Yeah, this video was first created for the April 2 teacher demonstrations in Austin; but the Texas Lege got filibustered at the last minute. Now the Lege is in special, emergency session.
They still plan to begin the dismantling of Texas public education. After the Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Texas did not follow the errors of Mississippi, Arkansas and Virginia, shutting down some or all of the state’s schools rather than education students of color. As a result, Texas students leapt ahead of their counterparts in those states.
But today, in 2011, the Texas Lege plans two years of budget cuts that will kill Texas education reform efforts and backtrack on 20 years of progress.
It may be like Canute speaking to the sea, the Texas Lege is that stone deaf (water deaf?) — but if Texas teachers don’t stand up for education and Texas kids, who is left to do it? Niemöller is dead. Who is left?
Franklin Roosevelt voting in Hyde Park, New York, November 2, 1937 - FDR LIbrary image
In the Dallas district, and across much of Texas, field trips are being cut out. Budget restraints, you know. Rick Perry’s math is atrocious, and the “surplus” he claimed we had in the budget turned out to be a $27 billion deficit.
For information call:
Clifford Laube at (845) 486-7745
YOUR BUS COULD BE ON US!
New funding available for field trips to historic Hyde Park destinations
HYDE PARK – Field trips are back! The National Park Service and FDR Presidential Library and Museum are pleased to offer new transportation grants for 2011 field trips to five renowned Hyde Park destinations – FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Home of FDR National Historic Site, Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, Top Cottage and Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site.
The new grants are managed by Teaching the Hudson Valley (THV), a nonprofit that helps educators and students discover and appreciate the natural, historical and cultural treasures of the Hudson Valley. A list of available programs and grant application form are available in the Grants section of THV’s website.
“These sites are brimming with world-class learning opportunities for local students,” said Sarah Olson, superintendant of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites. “We recognize that many school districts have cut back or eliminated field trips due to budget constraints. These grants are designed to put great field trips back in reach.”
Educators are free to create their own curriculum, and the sites have a wide variety of prepared curricula, including:
Pretend You are the President, grades 4-6
Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of the World, grades 4-6
FDR’s Boyhood Farm, grades 1-3
Searching for Salamanders, grades 7-12
Podcasts interpreting the many trails that traverse the 5 sites
“To walk in the footsteps of history, to touch and hear nature – these are the experiences that make learning vivid and memorable,” said Lynn Bassanese, director of the FDR Presidential Library & Museum. “Field trips are becoming an endangered species, but the need for them is still great. Together these sites have provided decades of great experiences for educators and students. These new grants will help us continue the tradition.”
K-12 educators in public and private schools may apply for regular, summer or after-school programs. Trips should be related to core curriculum or programs and take place by December 31, 2011. Teachers in the same school or district may apply together.
ABOUT THV
Launched in 2003, Teaching the Hudson Valley (THV) helps educators and students discover and appreciate the natural, historical, and cultural treasures of the Hudson Valley. THV programs foster collaboration between schools and informal learning sites. Our growing collection of free K-12 lessons uses significant Valley sites to teach all subjects. For details, visit http://www.TeachingtheHudsonValley.org.
THV is a program of the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area and HRV Greenway Conservancy, Inc.; National Park Service – Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites; Hudson River Estuary Program/NY State Dept. of Environmental Conservation; and Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist College.
# # #
Alas, it turns out it’s not intended for Texas classrooms. Drat.
I’ve taken large groups of 14-16 year-olds through those sites. An halfway interested teenager can get eyes opened seeing how FDR grew up, in the place he grew up. The library and museum offer spectacular displays on FDR’s presidency and the times. It’s exactly the sort of experience a lot of my students have never had, but need.
I’ll have to see what we can do with museums and libraries a little bit closer — the George H. W. Bush Library in College Station, Texas, the Lyndon Johnson Library in Austin, and the Bill Clinton Library in Little Rock. Possibilities of touring close-by sites make me quiet about the odd situation at the George W. Bush Library and Center for Right-Wing Propaganda planned for Southern Methodist University. There’s a great chance that the advantages of having the educational resources will outweigh the ignominy of the propaganda activities (though the Hoover Institute makes one appropriately wary).
Eisenhower's contingency statement, in case D-Day failed - image from the National Archives
This quote actually isn’t a quote. It was never said by the man who wrote it down to say it. It carries a powerful lesson because of what it is.
Yesterday I posted Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s “order of the day” to the troops about to conduct the Allied invasion of Normandy — D-Day — to establish the toehold in Europe the Allies needed to march to Berlin, and to end World War II in Europe. As a charge to the troops, it was okay — Eisenhower-style words, not Churchill-style, but effective enough. One measure of its effectiveness was the success of the invasion, which established the toe-hold from which the assaults on the Third Reich were made.
Eisenhower wrote a second statement, a shorter one. This one was directed to the world. It assumed the assault had failed. In a few short sentences, Eisenhower commended the courage and commitment of the troops who, he wrote, had done all they could. The invasion was a chance, a good chance based on the best intelligence the Allies had, Eisenhower wrote. But it had failed.
The failure, Eisenhower wrote, was not the fault of the troops, but was entirely Eisenhower’s.
He didn’t blame the weather, though he could have. He didn’t blame fatigue of the troops, though they were tired, some simply from drilling, many from war. He didn’t blame the superior field position of the Germans, though the Germans clearly had the upper hand. He didn’t blame the almost-bizarre attempts to use technology that look almost clownish in retrospect — the gliders that carried troops behind the lines, sometimes too far, sometimes killing the pilots when the gliders’ cargo shifted on landing; the flotation devices that were supposed to float tanks to the beaches to provide cover for the troops (but which failed, drowning the tank crews and leaving the foot soldiers on their own); the bombing of the forts and pillboxes on the beaches, which failed because the bombers could not see their targets through the clouds.
There may have been a plan B, but in the event of failure, Eisenhower was prepared to establish who was accountable, whose head should roll if anyone’s should.
Eisenhower took full responsibility.
Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available. The troop, the air [force] and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.
Who in the U.S. command would write such a thing today?
The message may also be viewed here. Yes, it’s incorrectly dated July 5 — should have been June 5.
Heck, I’ve missed it every year since its inception in 1993.
As usual, I’ll have to hit the trails later in the summer — hello, Colorado Bend State Park. You can make it up, too. National Trails Day is a celebration that can be done any time you find to do it, really, any place you find to celebrate it.
So, hey, buddy: Take a hike!
And have fun doing it.
Information and resources for National Trails Day:
Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower talks with paratroopers of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, June 5, 1944; photo credit unclear; from Ohio State University
Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force: You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.
Small world: Good words about Ernie came from an official at KSL-Television, Con Psarras, Vice President for Editorials and Special Projects. Con is former news director at KSL, the job that many said Ernie was perfect for, but could never have because he wasn’t in with the owners of the station. Con is also a former colleague of mine from the University of Utah debate squad (he was a much better debater than I)*.
Con Psarras, KSL’s vice president of editorials and special projects, remembered Ford as “a one-of-a-kind character.”
“He was inspirational to a lot of people,” said Psarras, KSL’s former news director. “He was a real journalist who cared about all those fundamental things that make journalists good at what they do. He was a stickler for detail. If you got something wrong, it was not a pleasant experience. Someone said they earned their first layer of thick skin from Ernie Ford.”
Stickler for detail, sure. Ford was a great copy editor, and as a managing editor he worried about getting things right, for the readers’ sake in addition to avoiding libel suits. But I didn’t find it unpleasant to get those fact challenges from Ford. He knew where the weak spots of a story were likely to be, and he asked the questions that exposed those weaknesses to the writer. I enjoyed that banter and process — which prevented mistakes from getting into print. (There weren’t idiots as editors of the Chronicle — accuracy, shoe leather and decent writing lived in that paper, often.)
Where are schools of journalism these days? I was shocked that Texas A&M dropped its journalism program a few years back. The best intern I ever had came out of A&M’s program. Liz Newlin wrote concisely and well, and she could smell the heart of a news story, and put it into the lead so you’d have to follow the arteries deeper into the thing to see what happened. Newlin could have been another Ernie Ford — but she married a guy named Taylor (you figure out the married name), went to law school and became a water law expert in Tucson.
Who trains good journalists by the score in good journalism practices anymore? Who would want to go into such a field, with newspapers coming down around those left in the newsrooms, and with every fourth yahoo with an internet connection blogging away? [Yeah, me too.]
_____________
* We got a couple of good reporters out of that debate squad. Good training for a reporter, I think. Steve Christensen signed up with UPI back when it was still a noble outfit; I don’t know where he is these days. Tim Weiler reported for several years in and around Salt Lake. Carolyn Young, one of our graduate assistants back in the Early Later Than You Think Holocene reported for KSL’s rival, KUTV, but she headed out to Oregon. Of course, none of them were journalism majors. Go figure.
RT @tom_peters: Watching sunset over Tasman Sea. Considering billion+ living on <$1/day. Anyone not subscribe to overwhelming power o ...Splashed: 6 days ago
RT @neiltyson: ThisJust In: A LeapSecond will be added to the last minute of June 30, 2012 to account for Earth's ever-slowing rotation rateSplashed: 6 days ago
Fox News says Gingrich's cheating means he'll make a good president; read Dave - Words Fail Me http://t.co/Tua6bIVmSplashed: 6 days ago
RT @SOSMarch: Read The Accountability Plateau. http://t.co/4RhL4rli The failure to improve reading reflects a failure of the accountabi ...Splashed: 6 days ago
#LCatALA - Who's at the ALA convention to report this stuff out for us? Library of Congress offers some of the stuff on the webSplashed: 6 days ago
#LCatALA - Library of Congress shows off what it can do for classroom teachers, at the American Library Assn convention in DallasSplashed: 6 days ago
RT @neiltyson: .@andrewcookie93 Want to prolong sunset at the NorthPole? Just sit there on the Fall Equinox. The Sun takes 27 hours to setSplashed: 6 days ago
RT @neiltyson: .@andrewcookie93 Want to stop sunset along the equator? Fly east to west about 1000 mph. But our planes don't fly that fast.Splashed: 6 days ago
We've been soaking in the Bathtub for several months, long enough that some of the links we've used have gone to the Great Internet in the Sky.
If you find a dead link, please leave a comment to that post, and tell us what link has expired.
Thanks!
RT @neiltyson: ThisJust In: A LeapSecond will be added to the last minute of June 30, 2012 to account for Earth's ever-slowing rotation rate 6 days ago
Fox News says Gingrich's cheating means he'll make a good president; read Dave - Words Fail Me http://t.co/Tua6bIVm6 days ago
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Stumble It!
