Congressional Control Software© to save congress persons from themselves

Rachel Maddow interviews Rep. Weiner

I’ve been known to disagree with Ruth Marcus, especially when she lumps the self-funded Social Security program with welfare in her usage of the term “entitlements."

However, Ruth’s column posted June 2 is too much fun – at the expense of irresponsible congress persons – to not share with Katalusis readers this morning:

Ruth is at the top of her game with this one:

Technology-savvy parents of technology-obsessed adolescents have probably considered installing parental control software on their children’s devices. Programs are available to do everything from turning your teen’s cellphone into a GPS tracking device to monitoring his or her instant messaging. In light of recent events, it strikes me that this technology could be easily adapted for an equally urgent use — tracking members of Congress.

Herewith, my pitch, to congressional chiefs of staff, for “congressional control software.” Motto: “Know with certitude what your member’s up to.” 

Dear Congressional Chief of Staff,

Like many parents congressional staffers these days, you may be concerned about your child’s lawmaker’s inappropriate use of technology. Relax. With the help of Congressional Control Software©, you can help save your congressman or senator from him- (or, in the unlikely event, her-) self. 

You may be worried about invading your lawmaker’s privacy. Remember: You are not there to be his friend. Your primary job as a parent chief of staff is to protect your child member of Congress. 

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Fifth graders with toy guns enact killing bin Laden

Some rights reserved by woodleywonderworks

In her post at the Christian Century today, Katherine Willis Pershey captures what was so wrong about the way bin Laden was executed and the inappropriate celebrations of his death by some Americans. 

Pershey, associate minister at First Congregational Church in Western Springs, Ill., wrote:

My sister Marie was reading the weekly e-mail update from her daughter's kindergarten teacher. Amid reminders about library day and an upcoming popsicle party, Mrs. R. noted that the class had visited a presentation by the fifth graders about 9/11 and the bin Laden compound. In an attached photo, my niece's kindergarten class stands smiling for the camera in front of a painted mural of the twin towers engulfed in flames. 

In a second photo, the class is watching a scene on the elementary school stage. Fifth graders dressed in fatigues stand beneath an American flag, with their play guns all pointed at the same target: a child dressed as Osama bin Laden. He is slumped on the ground, his forehead streaked with fake blood.

My sister feels sick. She's been answering questions, questions that she wasn't prepared to answer for a daughter who wasn't prepared to know--not yet, and not this way. "She can't unlearn this," my sister lamented. "She can't unsee this."

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Palin mocks the media with her bus trip

Photo via Top of the Ticket (LA Times)

Andrew Malcolm at the Top of the Ticket (LA Times) captures the humor+revenge as Sarah Palin leaves the media in the exhaust on her non-campaign bus tour:

Sarah Palin, with her counterintuitive secret publicity bus tour, is demonstrating one of the most important rules of American politics:

There is nothing the U.S. media wants more than something it thinks it can't have. Hence the power of news leaks that manipulate the thrust of their initial presentation. Hard-to-get is a rigid rule of human behavior. Ask any teenage boy or girl.

And there are few things more sweet to Palin and her fervent supporters cheering their TV sets this week than the image of a hungry know-it-all "lamestream media" caravan of 15 or more vehicles traipsing along behind her red-white-and-blue bus enroute to they-know-not-where to do they-know-not-what.

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Reducing cancer risks for cell phone users

a Bluetooth headset

Yesterday, I posted about the cancer risks of cell phone use; on the CBS Evening News last night, Dr. Jon Lapook offered a couple of tips for cell phone users to reduce those risks.

1. Instead of holding your cell phone next to your ear, use an earpiece.
2. Text whenever possible.
3. When a land line is available, use it.

And at this point, keep in mind that your risk of being in a car accident while using a cell phone for either voice messages or texting is greater than the risk of cancer.

Either way, keep in mind that your life - and if you’re out on the highway, the lives of others - may be at stake. 

Cell phone use and risks for cancer

Out and about in a nearby St. Paul suburb, I continue to be puzzled by the number of people I see in places like my healthcare clinic, the supermarket, the bank, a local big box, and in any parking lot, clutching their cell phones tightly against their ears.

As a practitioner of mindfulness meditation, I’m concerned at the lack of awareness these folks are bringing to their daily activities; I’m especially concerned when I see a cell-phone preoccupied parent with a couple of children in tow.

And these are no doubt the same people you see driving down the freeway engaged in conversation on their phones oblivious to other traffic.

It’s likely related to my practice of mindfulness meditation that I deplore multitasking and spend very little time on the phone at home or elsewhere.

After reading an article over at CNN today citing a warning from the World Health Organization, I have an additional reason to forgo the escapism from everyday life afforded by the increasingly advanced versions of the once humble cell phone.

It would seem that obsessive cell phone users are not only endangering their own lives and the lives of others out on the freeway, they are also putting their own lives at risk wherever they happen to be simply by gluing the little devices to their ears for prolonged periods of time.

CNN’s Danielle Dellorto has the story:

(CNN) -- Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, according to the World Health Organization. The agency now lists mobile phone use in the same "carcinogenic hazard" category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform.

Before its announcement Tuesday, WHO had assured consumers that no adverse health effects had been established.

A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team found enough evidence to categorize personal exposure as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

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Germany takes the lead in shutting down its nuclear plants

Other countries, including the United States with its 104 reactors, would be wise to follow Germany’s lead in its decision to shut down its nuclear plants.

George Ismar for the Sydney Morning Herald has the story:

GERMANY has announced plans to become the first major industrialised power to shut down all its nuclear plants, with the last to be closed by 2022.

Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen announced the government's "irreversible" decision, which was prompted by the Japanese nuclear disaster.

Germany has 17 nuclear reactors, eight of which are currently off the electricity grid. Seven of those off-line are the country's oldest nuclear reactors, which the government shut down for three months pending a safety probe after the Japanese disaster at Fukushima. The eighth, in northern Germany, has been mothballed for years because of technical problems.

Most of the plants are to be off-line by 2021, sources said, but three plants were to serve as a back-up in case of energy shortages and would be closed a year later.

The decision comes after the environment ministers from all 16 German regional states on Friday called for the temporary order on the seven plants to be made permanent. The agreement emerged after 12 hours of negotiations between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of the three government parties — Dr Merkel's Christian Democrats, the Christian Social Union and the pro-business Free Democrats. Also involved in the talks were the chiefs of the two main opposition parties.

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Good, bad or indifferent, Palin creates a buzz

Palin's no stranger to motorcycles (public domain photo via LA Times).

Whatever you can say about Sarah Palin, the woman knows how to create a buzz. Whether she’s paddling down a river in Alaska with her family and scaring up Mama grizzlies or climbing on the back of a motorcycle in Washington, DC, the former governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate attracts crowds.

Today, Sunday, May 29, 2011 Palin, whose son is in the military, joined a rally with other bikers in DC in support of American war veterans.

Rachel Weiner reports for the Fix (Washington Post):

Palin, along with husband Todd and daughters Bristol and Piper, joined the hundreds of thousands of riders who gather in D.C. every year to raise awareness for prisoners of war and soldiers missing in action. 

Palin’s arrival at the event around 11:30 a.m. caused a huge commotion that event organizers struggled to contain. Photographers swarmed her; young men in suits hung around the press pack asking Palin to sign copies of her books. Rolling Thunder security yelled at press and fans not to touch the expensive bikes. 

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