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Lower 9th Ward Photo Essay

I'd been wanting to write about LA's Gov. Bobby Jindal, who's been popping up around the intertubes lately as a possible VP candidate for McCain, a former biology major who's performed exorcisms, and the leader of the state that just passed by a landslide the teaching of intelligent design in local schools.  But honestly, you should just read this post at Firedoglake.  It's got all details of the horrendous, humorless, dangerous irony of Jindal's Reaganesque conservative rise against the backdrop of Katrina.

My contribution? A dear friend's work-in-progress photo essay of the "recovery" of the Lower 9th Ward, captured from January 2006 through August 2007 (and the second anniversary of the storm).  It will be updated next month.

I guess LA school children will be learning how God leveled New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina to punish those homosexuals after all. 

From McCain/Jindal '08, may G-d save us all. 

- Redstar
x-posted at The Redstar Perspective

Odds and Ends V: Personality Profile

One last side note - as I head off to the National Training Night at the 'Bucks - Red mentioned at the end of last week that she had taken Myers-Briggs, the well known personality profile system, and came up as INTJ. There are descriptions of the INTJ personality here and here... but what's weird is that Red and I, without ever comparing, turn out to be exactly the same.  I, too, tested INTJ.

Since taking Myers-Briggs, I've come around to the notion that it really does provide interesting insights, partly because the relative similarities of its insights to deep astrology are more than many (like my Mom) would care to see. You can take the quiz here. In the meantime, I plan to continue quietly taking over the planet. :)

Go With God

Spent last night - when I should have been writing, natch - re-watching The Mormons with Mom.  I had wanted her to see it (well, I want you to see it, too, if you haven't), partly to continue the discussion we've been having about "all religions are weird in their own way."

I thought all along that Mitt Romney's candidacy faced hurdles that came with his religion, and though many questioned the notion (and some still do), the fact remains that we're not, now, contemplating President Romney's future administration, and it's partly because in the South, Evangelical voters have handed substantial pluralities to Mike Huckabee.

Watching The Mormons last night, I saw a little more clearly the things that would upset Baptists and other Fundamentalists, but I also came up with a new reason why This Weird Is Different.  And I think it's the difference between what you want to believe and what you have to believe, to make a religion work, things that may explain why Mormons face especially high hurdles of scrutiny for their beliefs.

I'm One Of The Smart Ones

Like Ezra, I too have been trying to avoid the revived examination of studying the "links" between IQ and race; unlike Ezra, though, I think I can get out with just one bite at the apple, and not wade in a second time so as to just muddle the most valuable point: the highly subjective nature of IQ testing.

In the end, the problem with Charles Murray's The Bell Curve isn't co much in the conclusions he draws (with Richard Herrnstein) as it is in his premise, relying on IQ data in the first place.  We rely on IQ as a measure of intelligence mostly because there's nothing else.  That doesn't ensure its validity, or give it some patina of credibility.  Indeed, it's mainly the sort of pseudo-science that seems plausible most to the people who find it leads to conclusions they pretty much had anyway.  This is the problem with SATs too, and with drawing too many conclusions, or basing college admissions, on a standardized test with inherent biases and statistical flaws.

It's a fool's errand to get drawn, as the otherwise sensible William Saletan has, into examining and reexamining relationships between IQ tests and race; there are different kinds of intelligence, and being smart knows no particular race, creed, or national origin, All the dollar words people use - heritability, biogenetics, etc - are really ways to dress up little more than common social attitudes about race and class, which have nothing to do with rigorous, scientific scrutiny (and which, then, leads me to my high horse about how the social sciences are not really sciences, but never mind). The point is that all of this is just so... unnecessary.  And mostly, I think, it's what happens when conservatives get a little too much free rein; suddenly every crazy idea seems to reappear, in yet more earnest form. The only winning move is not to play.

Don't Mess With Mr. In Between

Conservative crowing this week about new stem cell research that suggests some human cells (skin cells, in this case) can be "reprogrammed" to behave like embryonic stem cells may be the most curious kind of right wing triumphalism yet.  Almost nothing in thier back-patting is quite what it seems.

For one thing, the right claims the left has "virtually ignored" this development - odd, since the "mainstream media" they criticize so much had it on America's front pages yesterday - and refuses to acknowledge the breakthrough. The latter point also makes no sense - apparently, if we're not sufficiently awed, then it's not real. Nonsense.

But perhaps the oddest thing is trying to suggest that this discovery is vindication for Bush's refusal to fund stem cell research, and that studying embryonic stem cells is now a non-issue.   

Feels Like Another One

Every five, six years or so, we get a spate of "the next generation" articles.  This generally coincides with a new group of college graduates, usually a change of Presidents, and maybe some social phenomenon.  They're not the greatest examples of demographics (since they frequently from pseudo-sociologist commentators like David Brooks) research, and they usually come with built-in analysis - since the Baby Boomer columnists love to write them - around "why isn't this generation as committed/interested/active as we were?"

Memo to the new generation: shrug it off.

What prompts me to weigh in is a column from, yes, Brooks, as well as the simplistic ramblings of Thomas Friedman, which prompted this article in The American Prospect, this blog post from Ezra, and this partial squib from RedStar, my pal who isn't really in the generation in question. Yes, Red, these articles are about a torch being passed.  Welcome to my aging world.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

I had planned to talk about the mind boggling appointment of an avowed contraception opponent as the head of family health programs at HHS, but the story only deepens with the news today that middle school students in Portland, Maine will be able to get birth control pills privately, without parental notification.

...and I realized, I could goose my numbers.

Sure, I'll get a lot of cheap search engine hits off of "teen sex" (If only I could add boobs, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears... nah, that's just cheating), but seriously... what is it with Republicans?   And when will this country figure out how to talk about sex?

Turn, And Face The Strange

Given my various interests (boy is that gonna seem like a loaded opening), it's probably no surprise that I try to keep an ear tuned to the low grade buzz over ex-gays.  Like many gay people, I find the Ex-gay Ministries disturbing, unhappy outgrowths of the highly discredited movement to convince gays that they can "change," and become straight, and that this is a healthy, normal thing to do.

This used to come up a lot over at Lucianne.com when I first joined up - someone would post some sort of anti-gay hysteria (there was more of it in the mid-nineties, before various right wing gay scandals happened and gay marriage took over their consciousness), and then some occasionally well meaning, but usually prejudiced and angry, soul would say "it's just a choice" and cite the notion that dozens, nay, hundreds, had gone the other way.

I always like to answer these things, because the numbers game was the really funny part.  I'd point out that there were thousands and thousands of gay people who had absolutely no interest in changing, that they felt just fine the way they were, thank you very much, and it was foolish to believe that gay people would just go away or become straight.  I think, gradually, some of that sunk in; at the vry least, I got some people to realize that ther conceptions of what being gay was could probably be defined as limited.

But the Ex-gay Ministries have played funny games with those perceptions, giving a new legitimacy to the old claims... and now, a new study has come out with some curious claims about the potential for change.

Bring Me Water From The Moon

Well, just as I was about to update the blog at about 6 this evening, my Mom and the Most Adorable Nephew in the Universe arrived.  So my apologies, but the world dwill have to wait for the wishes of a five year old boy.

It is awe inspiring, and terrifying, to mean so much to someone so small. To be able to  get a kid to listen to you with the promise of a special treat, and to be able to get an ice cream shoppe to stay open so a kid can get his favorite (chocolate). For this kid, I can work miracles.

And all so, at the end of his day, I can listen to him tell me about how he wants to be an astronaut, so he can bring me back a piece of the moon.

And so I finish tonight, under the light of the moon, on the night of Summer Solstice, with the Space Shuttle returning to Earth, inspired by the boyhood dreams so common to us all. I don't really need anything as wondrous as a piece of the moon.  Just the light in his eyes as he tells me that one day, he will. Because with it, he already has.

Everything (in NYC)'s Gone Green

Just in time for Earth Day, I finally found something environmental I could sign on to: Mayor Bloomberg's extensive Earth Day proposals for New York City.

Since he was elected (and re-elected), I've found little to complain about with the Mayor.  I know others complain about Bloomberg and smoking, Bloomberg and trans-fats, the "nanny state" nonsense and all of that.  I'm sorry - smoke free is nice, trans fats are bad for you, and people could use a little taking care of, if you ask me.

So leave it to Bloomberg to promote the kind of environmentalism I like: incremental, realistic looks at some things that would improve the city and make a difference - like building housing over the BQE, and cleaning up brownfields across the city for redevelopment.  Increasing and improving park space, and charging extra for cars going into Manhattan, as they have had much success with in Central London.

Some cry that Albany will stand in the way; I'm sure they will, but bravo to the Mayor for starting the discussion.  Almost everyone, right, left and center was pretty much amazed that Bloomberg was focused, looked at what was possible, but offered a plan with real vision.  I say, when you go from working class to billionaire, you probably know a little about how to manage and grow things. But then, I'm private sector liberal like that. At least these proposals seem more meaningful to me then the current "go green" fad among the Hollywood and Park Avenue elite, or all that "carbon offset" discussion from An Inconvenient Truth (one word on carbon emissions: China). A nicer city with more parks and more affordable housing, done in ways that improve the environment?  That sounds like a plan.  Sign me up.