"The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll and we can be grateful for that."

Larry Kudrow, CNBC, said this a few days ago, and got flak for it, as, I guess, he should. He sort of apologized for it, too, though unlike many, I do not think he needed to. He shared a sentiment common to his class. It's good to hear a reminder now and again.


This is the global economy Arne wants your child to join. 


Me? I'm busy wrecking as many future Kudrows as I can, showing them lichen and moss and squirrels on our Bloomfield Green. It's hard to hate the world once you fall in love with the local.

Here's an idea--no bombing areas of the world at least half your citizens can't find on a map.
The photo is from here, unattributed--I'd love to hear where it came from.....

 

READ MORE - Now a word from our sponsors....

Maybe I'm a tad sensitive, at least for someone who once scrapped with another dockworker while mutually armed with shovels, but I doubt it.

Maybe it's because my Dad flew tons of tuna for Nippon Cargo Airlines back in the day, but I doubt it.

Or maybe it's because I just read CitiGroup's 2006 report praising plutonomy, so I'm looking a little too hard, but I doubt it.

Or maybe it's because my first girlfriend was first generation Japanese American; her mother grew up in Japan during the war. I learned a little about Japan, and a lot about cultural blindness.

This is a screenshot from Google news this morning. It was taken from the general news, not the business section:

Maybe we'd see the same concern about the financial markets if this had happened in Ireland.

But I doubt it.

What better way to nakedly expose what matters most to those of us who have the most. This is shameful.

Photo is of Google news, obviously, taken around 6:30 AM EST. 
Yes, I know the news order is based on a computer algorithm--this makes it better? 
Yes, I know it would be shameful no matter what part of the world got hit.

READ MORE - Shameful

A few of us got to meet with Governor Christie and the Ed Commissioner Chris Cerf, behind closed doors, no camera, no press, for almost two hours. I didn't even have to wear a suit.

A passionate, civil discussion took place, about, among other things, the purpose of public schools.

Governor Christie is bright, charming, and well-versed in educational policy. I expected nothing less. His message to us was consistent with his public statements. Mr. Cerf, likewise, knows his stuff.

For those of us still holding the quaint notion that a functioning democracy requires truly public spaces, truly public schools, truly informed citizens, a smidgen more idealism (and a lot less elitism), well, I failed to make any change in the destructive path Jersey's following, though I did get to show the Governor a blister I got clamming on public waters.

And yes, I get the irony of pushing for public schools while immersed in a private meeting.

The other irony? It's not what's happening inside schools that creates the huge inequities we see, and ultimately it's what's happening outside our walls that determines the success of our students.

The "storied pomp" are killing the rest of us.

Maybe our next meeting should be in a boardroom at  

CitiGroup, home of the Plutonomists, their word, not mine.

READ MORE - "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"