do you realize?

in late 2001 the model state emergency health powers act (msehpa) was introduced by a couple of lawyers from the center for law and the public's health at georgetown and johns hopkins universities.  they were directed by the centers for disease control [and prevention] (cdc), which was sourly solicited by the u.s. department of health and human services under the leadership of tommy thompson, who, in his private-sector career on the board of a "security" company, has continued to insist upon the mandatory application of the verichip.  my cat has one.

in many states msehpa was adopted to update existing communicable disease and public health laws.  in some it was a full-on replacement.  a generic scenario:

-bill introduced to state legislatures.  passage of bill.

-governor or state health authority declares emergency bio terrorism threat (actual disease diagnosis not initially required in many states; authority remains).  think influenza pandemic or bird flu (neither of which are scientifically likely). 

-mandatory inspections, control, property seizure (eminent domain laws), diagnostics, treatment, vaccinations, quarantine and isolation.  any state facility (hospital, clinic, prison) can be used to house those isolated.  employment rights also removed from suspected carriers/persons exposed.  no respect to individual rights regarding religion, health or moral/philosophical views.  if vaccination is refused, mandatory quarantine (indefinitely?).

-all state entrances/exits (entire border) sealed.

-anyone attempting to leave state can be apprehended, detained, examined and released conditionally as federal jurisdiction then applies; public health service act (2003).

-state and federal governments have complete control over citizenry with no mention of war, real national/local state of emergency or actual disaster.  convenient.

i didn't realize until now.  do some research.  check out your state's public health laws.  talk to your doctor/pharmacist/teacher/city council/representatives.  express concerns (if you have them) and open dialogue.  bio terrorism is real.  personal liberties are too.

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stinkin' rich people lie all the time (poor ones too, but follow me here; the poor aren't in charge.  also, i note that honesty does exist among the wealthy.  its just a quiet, indistinguishable note).  how else to become so wealthy?  very few are heirs (honorable exception: party-girl paris hilton).  none in the controlling class has won the lottery.  hard work isn't it.  you know that, right?  so how to become crazy rich? 

lie, cheat, steal, lie, cheat, steal, lie...oh, and one must despise individual rights/liberties (of the poor).  understand?

some are lucky.  most aren't.  most rich folks (hush now miniscule middle class, paycheck-to-paycheckers; you don't count.  but you know this, right?) are rich for a reason and intend to stay that way.  poor people do not make laws.  poor people do not elect governors/legislators/presidents.  law makers are bought.  but you know this, right?

bill gates is going crazy giving money to all the world (the "dusky hued" world, as gore vidal would say).  he wants an end to poverty, dirty water and aids.  he just cant stand it anymore.  he and warren buffet are gifting generous gobs of green.  why oh why are so many people poor?  we can fix this.  there is a cure.  they (the abstract, dark poor) have to drink nasty, warm creek water.  they sleep around too much.  aids is awful.  oh the humanity!

$billions$ are spent "in" africa.  poor ol' africa.  why, if they don't get help from us, who will help them?  send money.  send drugs.  send clean water.  send pipe lines.  send george clooney (think: army of one).  send construction crews.  send engineers.  send humanitarians.  send the god squad.  send more drugs.  no, not enough!  send even more drugs.  drop them from a plane.  tag everyone.  send them grain...delicious american enriched grain.  send security soldiers.  send nurses, doctors, pharmacists and drug reps (please, only the ugly ones.  otherwise, who will give us those neat pens?).  send teachers, er, educators.  all with no sense of border get on board (close that border behind us, k?).  we need your help!  so many poor, dirty, hungry black folks.  oh god, why them? 

____________________________________________________________________

the 'school choice' movement.  interesting.  several states have enacted laws allowing any parent to send any child to any school any time on your dime.  really?  nah, who really pays?  anybody in anywhere, usa. 

with the voucher program that the supremes coined constitutional, parents can take the state money (usually a modest amount in the lower $thousands$) allotted them for educational purposes, endorse the check to "public charter school of the new religious zealots" and send the child on her way.  how nice.  li'l sally sentence structure shall sound no more; olive branch faith-based academy teaches look-see reading.  "sea suri slay."  "slay suri, slay!"  i dew love the winner snows.

all kinds of folks are involved.  folks who don't want to bother us with too many words.  you've got alec (american legislative exchange council), and thf (the heritage foundation).  cape (council for american private education), cure (coalition for urban renewal and education) and ij (institute for justice).  there's cer (center for education reform), hcreo (hispanic council for reform and educational options) and baeo (black alliance for educational options).  and who could forget the administration's nclba (no child left behind act)?  acronyms now, abbreviations forever!

seems to be very little opposition.  choice is a nice luxury, but what happens when the vouchers (think: state tax payer $$) are paying for 40, 50, 60% (or more) of all state education in private, and mostly religious, sectors?  what happens to public education as we know it?  what of madison's words (think history: author of bill of rights) declaring freedom of conscience and protection of that freedom through a fundamental requirement of total separation of church and state? 

firstly, id like to point out...  damn, the bell just rang.  civics class dismissed.  please turn in your moral compass and proletariat protractors on the way out.  quietly!

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silly?  sure.  crazy?  certainly.  ignorant?  inevitably.  non vocal?  never.

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dickcarter, bound  

postum scrotum: john mark karr did not kill jonbenet ramsey.  but you know this, right?

in the interest of public debate and responsibility, check this out:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7866929448192753501&hl=en

scary stuff.

dickcarter, tired

christy st. george rang from the island this weekend.  she is sad we arent there.  im sad too.  but then im laughing, and laughter through tears is my favorite emotion too. thanks christy st. george.  thanks chris.  thanks dolly.   

my family had a going-away picnic at levi jackson state park for me this weekend.  havent been there in years and what a great time (shelter #2's playground is just the same...thanks dwindling u.s. forest service budget).  thanks mom.  thanks aunt mary.  thanks max.  thanks dad.  thanks robert (and yeah, mona too).  thanks sis.  thanks.

thanks george.  im coming home.

dickcarter, clearly thankful

message board comment responding to an interesting bit of information from Michael Ruppert and the decisively deviant folks at http://fromthewilderness.com/index.html :

going away party was eventful.  hooch and jello shots always remind me of carefree days in madison county with friends of historical reference.  nonetheless, a pleasure.  thanks katrina, matt, nicole, arlene, heidi, marva, joanne, annette, chris, molly, lydia, sarah, and the rest (many remane nameless to me).  and a special nod to the scag and pike county's greasiest loaf.

i will miss you all (with the ever-clear exception of the scag and the loaf). 

dickcarter, margaritavill[ain]

postum scrotum:  despite attempted distortion, the truth of the matter lies in what my Fodor's travel guide says is an "excellent place to spend a week or a lifetime." 

eerie similarities between "fake" news @:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30464

and "legitimate" news @:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/europe/11qaeda.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fS%2fShane%2c%20Scott&oref=slogin

you decide.

dickcarter, liberty's scoop

-a letter to the customer service dept. of rite aid.

Customer Service Department,

While shopping at your Tates Creek Center, Lexington, KY location (store #03954), my partner and I collected alcoholic beverages that my partner was intending to purchase. I assisted him in carrying a six pack of Corona to the counter for payment. I have done this countless times at this particular location as it is in my neighborhood and thought nothing of the matter. Once at the counter your employee, Betty (last name unknown to me), immediatley asked for my partner's ID, as he was retrieving his wallet. He produced the ID and she then said 'I need to see both IDs.' I said to her I didnt have mine with me and that I was not purchasing the alcohol. She then said 'it's state law if you carry alcohol to the counter, you must have your ID...' I mentioned to her that I have been shopping at this location for several years and that she had in fact waited on me many times before and never, never asked for an ID (even when I was the clear and sole purchaser, which is a clear violation of KY law). She then smirked and mumbled something that sounded very sarcastic and said something along the lines of 'I cant help it, its the law...' I then said to her that she as a representative of Rite Aid had been inconsistent and sold alcohol to me on several occasions over the years. She smiled sarcastically and shook her head and again, mumbled something I couldn't understand. I then stated that I would no longer shop at that location and she said 'I don't care...'

The last time I checked, it isn't state law in Kentucky to have both IDs available at check out for alcohol purchases. It, from what I've been told, is specific to the actual place of purchase or retailer. For example, Liquor Barn in Lexington, KY has several large signs posted througout their stores indicating that no sales will be allowed unless all in the party have valid IDs. Your Tates Creek Center, Lexington, KY location does not have such signage...at least not in clear and reasonable view. I am very dissapointed in your store's approach to a situation that had never been a situation before. Betty was rude, incoherent and downright offensive. I was not in any way insulting or rude to her, nor was I breaking the law. During her poorest example of proper customer service, several customers were staring and other cashiers stopped what they were doing to stare, promptly causing other customers to wait even longer to check out. And, to make matters worse, as we were leaving Betty began talking loudly to all who would listen regarding the previous situation.

I'm demanding an apology, and since reasoning with Betty regarding 'store policy and state law' versus 'store routine' was obviously out of the question, I turn to you. I don't pretend to deny my responsibility to provide identification for purchase of alcohol. I am however, a 35 year old male who looks every day of it, and then some, and would always have my ID available if I were the one making the purchase. I have been under the impression that once you know your local Rite Aid staff, and they know you, tedious issues like providing an ID become moot. And, that had been the case for, as I mentioned earlier, several years. Betty, along with other store employees who have worked at that particular location for many years, have sold alcohol, cigarettes and other various items to me without question. Reason seems to have escaped Betty this time around and she became hostile.

I am including a link to Kentukcy State Alcoholic Beverage Control law regarding prohibition of alcohol sales in this email to let you know that your employee is directly stepping outside her capacity as Rite Aid cashier, quoting laws that do not exist, and in the process alienating a long-time customer. Thank you in advance for your swift and courteous attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Dick Carter

http://www.abc.ky.gov/enforcement/alcohol/

-an essay response to an article. 

Dear Mr. Tristam,

"35?", she asked.  yeah.  35.

COMMUNICATION 101

“THE FUNCTIONAL ILLITERATE”

                Research results reported in 1993 by the U.S. Department of Education categorized between 40 and 44 million American adults as “functionally illiterate.”  The Department’s National Adult Literacy Survey (ALS) evaluated the skills of adults in three areas: prose, document and quantitative proficiency.  The survey also concluded that 50 million American adults, though more varied in skill than those classified as “functionally illiterate,” were getting along with a “repertoire [that] was still quite limited.”  Alarming numbers for a ‘first world nation’ (loosely used), no doubt.

                Understanding the implications of illiteracy requires more than alarming statistics, however, and a keen sense of what it means to justify a class structure long since denied by the minor majority hurts none either.   Furthermore, if 23 percent of the country’s adult population does in fact function as illiterate, shouldn’t there be a simpler way to do things?  Yes.  

                Take a moment and imagine waiting in a line at the local Department of Motor Vehicles that doesn’t require a fold out chair.  Or perhaps fiscally finalizing federal financial forms a preschooler could handle.  Better still, imagine matron medicare quietly knitting a grandchild’s sweater while secure in her paltry prescription plan.  No, wait.  Imagine an election, free of prejudice and vice, where

poor, black Floridians are not only allowed, by law I might add, to vote as they please, but are encouraged to do so...without fear of failure (or reprisal).  Restructuring our governmental agencies dedicated in service to the Republic in order to make their required releases (informed consent?) more user friendly would not only make moot these staggering statistics, but would in effect eliminate the need to define a difference between the functionally illiterate and the functioning illiterate. 

                But perhaps the question that must be asked is this: Why is there a literacy problem in America at all?  It has been said that we are, after all, “the most affluent and technologically advanced of all the industrial nations on earth.  We have “free” compulsory education for all (more like most), a network of state-owned and-operated teachers’ colleges (poor enrollment and outrageous tuition keep many hidden from view), strict teacher certification requirements (pay the man!), and more money and resources dedicated to educating our children than any other nation on earth.” To answer this question would require more time than I have, but to at least think on it I propose we take into consideration Robert W. Sweet, Jr.’s response.  The co-founder and former president of The National Right to Read Foundation stated that “if we are to seriously reverse the increasing number of illiterate adults in America and prevent the problem of illiteracy, we must swallow the medicine, as quickly as possible, and reject the instructional methods that have resulted in the widespread illiteracy [the U.S. Department of Education says] we have today.”      

                But how to reject the instructional methods in place that Mr. Sweet claims to be the source of illiteracy in this country?  Restructuring our public school system would mean an even greater disadvantage to those already in need of assistance because of the nature of those in power, and their “prime directive.”  And while I am in certain favor of educational reform, shifting things around in the American educational system too much would undoubetdly lead to curricular cancellations, redistricting, budgeting concerns and perhaps even more severe segregation.  To spell it out, rejection of conventional teaching methods would not only fail America’s future adults, but it would require an undertaking of proportion that no functioning illiterate in our democratic degree could possibly perform.

                I propose there is little difference between those who say they are literate and those whom they say are not.  The Department of Education’s numbers only serve to prove.  And while I do believe that illiteracy, in the purest, philosophical sense, is a problem, I have to ask myself what literacy is and then follow with an examination of how it differs from orality (illiteracy?).  The division and interplay between oral and literate media in historical and cross-cultural perspectives requires a focus on understanding the social, cultural and religious implications of different technologies for preserving and transmitting images and ideas via speech, writing, print, photographic, electronic and digital media.  We must develop a theoretical framework and methodology for understanding different media in terms of the way our brains process that which is placed before our eyes and, even more so, the way we are perceived while doing so.  Making things easier to understand for those so-called illiterate millions would not only clarify the caste, but it would ensure that those who lack representation have their own opinion on exactly how illiterate they are.  G. K. Chesterton said it best: “The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things.”  Put that in your book and read it.