Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 32 of 78).

Human trafficking in Haiti

The story of the ten Americans arrested in Haiti on charges of child trafficking is very, very disturbing. There is a huge story here. Now news comes that lawyer Jorge Puello who volunteered to represent them is wanted on child trafficking charges himself – in multiple countries.

I know the whole innocent-until-proven-guilty thing, but the evidence here isn’t looking good. Some of the kids who the group tried to “rescue” were not even orphans. It sounds to me that at the very least the alleged ringleader, Laura Silsby, had some mental problems, crying when no orphanage would give her kids. Perhaps a bit fanatical?

Regardless of this groups guilt or innocence, I hope this case shines a light on the underworld of child trafficking and causes some real changes in how kids in these poor countries are treated.

Bonus: Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has some commentary on the hypocrisy of those who decry the group’s Haiti detention but who had no problem with the U.S. jailing Muslims in squalid, hidden prisons without charges or representation.

Garner library

Word has it that Wake county library officials are considering closing the Southeast Regional Library in Garner due to budget cuts. What a shame that would be. When Kelly and I lived in Garner the library was one of our favorite places to go. It was and is the only library close enough that we could bike to it. With no bookstores in Garner (at the time, anyway), the library was one of the few things that kept Kelly and me sane.

I sure hope the county comes up with another way of saving money because closing that library would be a huge blow to the people of Garner and surrounding areas.

The Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center

I’m conflicted about Raleigh’s proposed Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center. On one hand, it’s always irked me that Raleigh always seems to settle for mediocre, to go for the practical or least controversial option rather than aim for greatness. Raleigh loves to hedge its bets. Raleigh’s habit is to look only at the short-term. Putting aside the current economy, I like that the Lightner Center has been designed to be the home for our police and fire departments for many decades. I can think of very few things Raleigh has ever discussed that had that long an outlook.

There should be no doubt that our police department desperately needs a new home. The current police headquarters is an embarrassing ratrap that should have been demolished twenty years ago. The current 911 center is also a travesty. On a slow day the basement call center seems cramped and chaotic. I’d hate to see what it looks like during a major event like a hurricane. Pandemonium, probably.
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Judging drivers

The recent snow and ice event started up the predictable office debates about “people just not knowing how to drive in this weather.” It didn’t matter that some of these driving “experts” complained of people driving too fast and some complained of people driving too slow: no matter what the other driver clearly was in the wrong.

The late, great comedian George Carlin once observed that anyone driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac. It’s true: we’re quick to judge other drivers by our own driving. This leads to all sorts of problems, not only for your judging someone else but for the driver you are judging.

I think some drivers take this criticism to heart when they overhear it and try to adjust their driving to accommodate these views. The result is a driver who drives outside of his or her comfort zone, which is where the real danger begins.

As for me, I don’t care whether you drive too fast for my tastes or too slow for my tastes (though I prefer, uh, slower), just as long as you drive within your comfort zone. If you stick with what you know both of our trips will go more smoothly.

Where I’ve worked: U.S. Navy: Signing up

The Navy: it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure, as the advertising went. In truth it’s a job and so much more. How does one fit the “so much more” into a post about jobs? How does one choose to take on such an adventure?

It was the fall of 1987. I was a recent high school graduate working part-time at the local hardware store. Most of my friends went off to college, beginning adventures of their own. The thought of college didn’t excite me – the thought of becoming a future cube dweller didn’t excite me – and I put zero effort into applying. Still, I knew I was missing out on something and I wondered where I would find my adventure. I felt very alone at that point in my life.

My parents prodded me to enroll at the local community college but I wasn’t thrilled at that prospect, either. They then suggested the military, and without many other adventurous opportunities it began to sound appealing. My brother Allen had joined the Army earlier and seemed to be liking it. Why not look at the Navy?
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Things heating up in Iran again

I was stunned to read the extraordinary words of Iranian opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi today, where he essentially called for a new revolution. Mousavi said that tyranny was not rooted out during the 1979 revolution, implying that the current government is corrupt.

“Stifling the media, filling the prisons and brutally killing people who peacefully demand their rights in the streets indicate the roots of tyranny and dictatorship remain from the monarchist era. I don’t believe that the revolution achieved its goals,” Mr Mousavi added.

This guy is begging the authorities to arrest him, or worse. With the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution coming up on February 11th, Iran could be in for another round of civil unrest.

Chinese switch to cadmium as poison of choice

Remember how I said there was no Chinese word for OSHA? It turns out safety-conscious Chinese toy manufacturers continue to poison our kids, this time with cadmium:

In the study, the AP analyzed cadmium content in commonly available children’s jewelry and found most of the pieces had significant cadmium content. One of the pieces contained 91 percent cadmium. That’s not parts per million; that’s percent. That’s toxic waste.

This just goes to further my view that Chinese culture encourages one to cheat, just as long as one doesn’t get caught.

Unwanted birthday present

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that corporations can meddle all they want in elections. This is in spite of the fact that they aren’t real persons and cannot vote. If you had any illusions that your political representative would listen to you rather than the big corporation happily polluting your neighborhood, you can forget about it. Hamilton’s vision for America was at odds with Jefferson’s and now Hamilton’s is firmly in control.

It’s nice to think that America is the land of the free. When you look at it closely, however, you begin to see that the cards are stacked mightily against the individual. As Joe Strummer of The Clash said in the song Know Your Rights:“you have the right to free speech … as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.” That is, you have the right to be counted … as long as Exxon, General Electric, and other corporations are free to count more.
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Avoiding airport security gridlock

So it seems that today another person in a major airport went someplace he wasn’t allowed and shut down the whole terminal for hours. Jules Paul Bouloute, who just returned from Haiti, walked through an alarmed security door and paralyzed JFK airport. This comes less than two weeks after Chinese student Haisong Jiang walked the wrong way through security and caused the evacuation of the Newark airport.

To me, it doesn’t matter whether these individuals have bad intent, whether they’re incompetent, or whether they just made a dumb mistake. The fact that someone can in five seconds cause six hours of misery and chaos to a terminal full of passengers shows how broken our air travel system truly is.
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Going under again

Last weekend the kids went to a pool party for a friend at Gypsy Divers. The scuba diving school rents out time in a room and its heated pool for birthday parties and the like. I hadn’t planned to get into the pool at first but on a whim I dug up my ancient dive certification card from the training I got back in 1989.

As the kids got ready for the pool, I chatted with staff and asked if it was possible to get some gear on and try diving again. After squinting hard at the hair-covered picture on my dive card, the staff issued me a BC, regulator, and tank, and sent me into the storage room to hunt down flippers, booties (which Kelly found so attractive), and a mask. After a quick, two-minute refresher lesson on all the controls around me and a suggestion to stay near the shallow end at first, I straddled the poolside and slipped into the twelve-foot end.
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