Main Stream Media just reported (6:30 AM CT) that the Groundhog saw his shadow today (2/2/12) and that means that there will be at least five more weeks of winter (it used to be six weeks, but with global warming and all...) and billionaires will continue to fund people like Newton Gingrich. [Read more]

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree [Read more]

[touched off by article on epi-markers & homosexuality]

I'm excited about progress in science on a number of levels, and figure our understanding of matters will be vastly different in 20-30 years based on evolving tools & theories.

Politically I think it poses problems as well - we base our policies on traditional understanding of issues and traditional approaches. First suggestion in the economic crunch was a jobs program 1930's style combined with tax cuts 1980's style. Economics & finance has moved on, but our policy makers haven't. [Read more]

If we are really serious about stopping the mass shootings that are occurring in this country, we really need to get serious about what's really going on.

There is an obvious shooter profile. Characteristics seem to fit every single one. Here is a description of the New Mexico Pastor's son who killed his whole family:

"We know him as a bright, curious and incredibly talented young man.  He was a brother, nephew, grandson and cousin," said the statement, which was obtained by ABC News affiliate KOAT in Albuquerque from former New Mexico state Sen. Eric Griego, the suspect's uncle. [Read more]

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree [Read more]

Read this - it's from the Facebook account of George Takei. Yes, the George Takei from Star Trek.

A favor, friends. My dear friend Peter David, a renowned Sci Fi / Fantasy writer, suffered a stroke. His family is facing heavy medical bills, but doesn't want handouts. Instead, if you'd like to help, check out his work and pick up a copy of one of his books. I wish him a full and speedy recovery. http://goo.gl/mnF7g

I'm not sure what the dynamics for David and his family are and perhaps Takei was simply helping a brother out but... [Read more]

This is a short one.

We're not as clueless as we think we are or want to think we are. I started a music website several years ago, before the breakdown. I have been very slowly bringing it back together - very slowly.

Before I went travelling, I had actually helped to produce a mixtape ("mixtapes" are compilations popular in hip-hop) called "We're On Everything." There was no fooling anything - there was a sample of a comedian talking about children who are addicted to painkillers, cigarettes, cough syrup, etc. I knew full well that I was cocktailing - even if the cocktailing was something my family had pushed me toward. [Read more]

Half-way points in two-term presidencies are inevitably moments to take stock and to consider redirections of policy.  Right now, the political blogosphere is properly full of that stocktaking and redesign. Lists abound on policies needed[1] and priorities to be pushed,[2] which is why there is no need to add to those lists in any detail here.

            What may therefore be more valuable is this: an insistence that, to properly situate this second Obama Inaugural, we need more than favorite lists and seamless histories. We need coherent policy platforms that are anchored in the proper periodization of time. For as a country and as an economy we are not just at any random moment in history. Rather, we are at the very end of the second great growth period experienced by the American economy since 1945. In consequence, we are currently in a deeper hole than any that can be quickly corrected by this policy or by that.  And unless we realize this underlying truth – and design the full sweep of our public policies accordingly – we run the risk (indeed, probably face the certainty) that the 2010s will eventually be remembered, as the 1970s are now remembered, as a lost decade. The 1970s cost one generation easy access to the American Dream. We must do all that we can to make sure that the 2010s do not impose a similar cost on another generation. [Read more]

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

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[response to other threads got too long]

You obliquely point out a big issue - people don't have any real ideas for creating mass jobs in the black community, aside from back to government.

In the 50's I believe (via Buckminster Fuller), Brazil was intent on modernizing, with some wanting to emulate the US with its railroads, despite the existence then of airplanes more suitable for Brazil's vast distances and thick jungles.

People don't shop in black Walmarts because 1) I don't think they much exist, and 2) the white one is much cheaper. (At one point, Walmart had about 13% of all imports from China). [Read more]

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I wrote about a strange occurrence on November 12, 2011. Someone shot 11 bullets into the White House! I do not think that 'they' even told us about the 11 shells they found at that time! [Read more]