The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Cleaning House' Edition
Flint (MI) public housing authority, in an effort to fight crime in the projects, is considering a requirement for all current and prospective residents to take a drug test to keep their federally subsidized apartments.... Housing Commission Executive Rodney Slaughter said he wants a drug-testing program modeled after the city of Indianapolis, where public housing residents are required to take annual drug tests. If a resident tests positive, they would have 30 days to test negative or seek help...
Flint eyes drug tests for public housing | detnews.com | The Detroit News
Would you support such a policy in your community?
Well, then, Poll-fans... Some mighty fine responses this week... Interesting and entertaining (Hi, Dan)... Have at it, would ya now?...
Adam in NoHo suggested...
One might implement a policy based on suspicion of drug use (we suspect you, you tested positive, you have 30 days to clean up or get out), but I believe it would be against the 4th amendment to just summarily testing the public at large. I don't believe that all recreation drug use is harmful. A lot, but not all. Besides, George W. Bush lived in public housing, was clearly on using, and wasn't tested even once.
(I agree, Adam, that certain 'recreational' drug use is harmless, but Crack, Meth and Heroin use is most definitely not. It's the Crack and Heroin that plague Flint, Meth being more of a rural 'Po' White Trash' problem here in Michigan. And, yes, there are 4th amendment issues to consider, although if Indy is doin' it, they've somehow gotten around it. How, I don't know...)
bebo reasonably stated...
Only if the housing commission executive & all elected & appointed officials take the same test.
(Sure... Seems fair to me)
DanD essayed (I coulda said 'bloviated', but I'm a nice guy, dontcha know...)
Federally subsidized housing ... is it a privilege, or is it a right? But wait, is the Flint MI Public Housing Authority a Federal or State office? If it's run by the state, then it really has no authority to mandate drug testing without Federal approval. As it seems, most states do not mandate the unrestricted drug testing of their taxpayer financed, welfare cases as a de facto pre-condition for receiving some FEDERALLY subsidized benefit.
Anyway, government subsidized housing is mostly meant for people who just can't quite make it on their own, unless of coarse they're a public servant managing a private household on public property, say like a governor or perhaps even a P(r)esident. Otherwise, if Obama went to Michigan, he could be required to pee in a bottle first before staying at the local, visiting dignitaries mansion opulently sustained for such tax financed office-holders (wouldn't that be a hoot!). I mean, when they take over WDC, the co-opted teabagger class could even apply such an industry of urine-collection to the resident outsourcing of all, government-subsidized, 5-Star (or lesser) hotel rooms ... they could even make it apply to ALL those members of Congress camping out for tap-dancing auditions at local airport restrooms.
But if such a mandate only targets poor people, then this rather oppressive demand is just another strategy used to expand an already self-bloviating and (physically rather) obese bureaucracy. Tell me Bob, which Federal (and also State and local for that matter) government employee (both appointed and elected) does not support taxation that is specifically meant to fund their own, high comfort-level wages (I'd imagine even Ron Paul keeping his 'front-of-the-bus' seat on this wagon)? Well, a bureaucracy of "golden-flow" would (and has already, in some places) join their ranks! Tell me, would the pee-testers also be pee-tested?
And since most elected (or otherwise employed) public teat-suckers can quite literally "live out of" their offices if necessary, Shouldn't this rule even more so apply to every rat-fucker (go ahead and Google it, rat-fuckers, Nixon) who officially spends ANY time beyond 30 seconds a day, sitting in their significantly comfortable, government-subsidized and extensively air conditioned rat holes of administrative employ?
Of course, this really doesn't mean Jack Schit ... I know an industrial worker who recently had to take a "random" pee-test as a condition confirming his/her contracted employability. He/she just went on-line, found out where a small packet of synthetic urine (around $80 or so) could be purchased, and then undetectably secured a warm pouch of it next to that most valued organ of liquid relief before entering a pee-test stall, where that synthetically undetectable brew was then emptied into the provided cup. Only really stupid people EVER fail an appointment-scheduled, random drug test (unless it's military, where the local non-commissioned sex pervert just loves to intimately watch their subordinates pull out their privates [sometimes even committing a "pull-test" assurance that it is, indeed, a "real" private part] for a wide-net-casting, urine collection event).
Okay Bob, I've tortured you long enough, (Why, Dan? Why?) now to answer the question.
(Sigh... 'bout time, I'm sayin'... Get on with it, then, Man...)
Yes, I would support this rather perverted, massive collection of uric acid, but only after EVERY beneficiary of American government-funded largess (which would include the employees of every government-run institution, as well as any domestic and foreign aid recipients, such as the entire governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Zion-land) are first mandated to suffer the same indignity of having some perverted law-enforcement puppet demand that they piss in a plastic bottle (where all "donors" are also by default, giving away their most private, individual genetic codes) before any local fascist can benefit from their own, Federal Reserve-invented, billion-dollar surplus of U.S. Government welfare cash.
Oh yeah, and as an additional requirement, ANY refusal by ANY foreign cultic bureau-member of such, above-identified organizations would summarily prohibit all subsidy from ever being awarded to that entire organization, again (or at least without radical "regime change").
(LOL... Dude, sometimes I can't help but think that ya gots WA-A-A-Y too much time on yer hands... But, you ARE entertaining, fer all that, an' that's a fact!...)
Richard McD echoes bebo...
NO on GP (General principles?). When they start testing everyone connected to this idea, maybe then.
DRD sent...
Hello Bob, (Hello, Don)
When public ownership of the housing is considered, the question is settled for most persons. Then it comes down to this: Would I allow a person, renting my upstairs apartment, to use drugs? Most would answer no. Some owners, for appearance sake, would forbid them, even though they are not 'hard-liners' against drug use. Most owners have certain agreements in the lease form that spell out the dos and don'ts of those renting as well as those of the owners.
It comes down to the right's of the owners being able to control the level of certain illegal activities that might prove harmful, or destructive, to their facilities, as well as the safety of the renters themselves. I see this as an issue of property rights in favor of the owners. Bob, another fine example of showcasing human behavior. (Aw shucks, Don... 'taint nuthin')
Joe replied...
Hi Bob (Hi Joe... I should tell you sometime about the drinking game that we Coastguardsmen played that involved that greeting... Off duty, of course!)
I read in my paper that the most abused drug is Oxycontin now and you can get past the Cleaning House tinkle test. So now you have people hooked on synthetic heroin instead of reefer!!!!!! Makes no sense.
(Hmmmm... according to this Oxycontin and urine tests? - Drugs.com it is detectable. Time line depends on frequency and dosage, of course...)
Lorie in Buckeye-Land thoughtfully opined...
Yes, clean house, but with some caveats.
And that's because I'm not Nancy Reagan, and that's because I think that punishing people for the coping mechanisms that they use to survive poverty is backwards, and that's because the sanctimonious finger-wagging of social conservatives is a luxury that only the Nancy Grace's of the world will indulge in and, mainly, it will not freaking WORK on that simplistic level of "you use, you're out."
In general principle, I once thought that job drug testing policies were much too Big Brother. I'm not exactly zero-tolerance now, whatever that term means, but I've had to call the cops a few times over the years due to the meth and crack freaks who keep moving in next to me.
Nine out of ten applicants at the local Wal Mart here test positive for drugs. We're in one of the poorest counties in Ohio -- no coincidence. Private employers can afford to pick and choose, with little impact on the community, but public housing is a different animal.
If communities do not have access to basic drug addiction services, and I bet that they don't in Flint, then being punitive about housing issues is unconscionable. The ethics of forcing someone with a serious medical issue to get straight in 30 days without a medical detox or face homelessness is something that the aforementioned Nancy's would have thought up, wagging fingers and all.
One can make the argument that public housing is a way to institutionalize poverty, anyway. The long view is that we need jobs and infrastructure changes in the inner cities to make them livable again, so that public housing is not necessary.
I don't see how creating a bigger population of homeless street addicts can be part of any comprehensive solution, but on the other hand, I sure as hell wish that my landlord would adopt such a strategy with this duplex from hell that I live in.
It's an experiment that is doomed to failure, or at least to chaos, especially within inner city public housing. It skirts the real issues and blames the victim
-- as if drug users created double digit unemployment, urban blight, 5th rate schools and forced our manufacturers to flee to China. Yeah, those bastards!!
Look, I hate druggies as much as anyone, and I know what crisis and crime they cause, but scapegoating is way too "Nancy" for me. Flint, MI, if you're listening, do it right or don't do it at all.
(Thanks, Lorie... Well put...Kudos...Oh, and... GO BLUE!)
~~~~~~~~~~~
So.... My turn... Since the poll was posted last week, The Flint Housing Commission has reconsidered the proposal and decided against it. Mainly due to the obvious civil rights issues with major area newspapers editorializing against it... That said, however, I understand the desperation that inspired the idea. Violent crime in Flint is beyond belief. 48 murders so far this year in a city of 110,000. Three just since this poll went up and it predominately revolves around the 'Hard' drug trade and the gangs that control it. That fact is a nationwide epidemic and there's no denyin' it... So, what's to be done? I do not know the answer to that question that would satisfy everyone. I don't think anyone does and I find that fact depressing... So, there it is...
Thanks to all responders... As before, Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Question
The 'Will Lizzie Warren take an axe...?' Edition
President Obama has appointed Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren to help organize the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The question now is whether Warren, a consumer champion, will wield the full power afforded that agency to crack down on Wall Street swindlers and speculators... Right now, the jury is still out...
There Will Be "Hell to Pay" If Elizabeth Warren Does Not Have Real Power | CommonDreams.org
Do you think Ms Warren and the CFPB will effectively protect consumers?
1.) Heck, yeah... She'll kick ass and take names...
2.) Not a chance... She's merely 'window dressing'... The Bankers rule...
3.) I haven't a frickin' clue what will happen...
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: The Angry Rich and Taxes (nytimes.com)
Political rage is coming not from the jobless, but from the very privileged, who are furious at the thought of their tax cuts expiring.
Andrew Anthony: "John Humphrys: 'Let headteachers get on with improving schools'" (guardian.co.uk)
Making a new documentary on Britain's education system taught the broadcaster much about social mobility and getting the most out of children.
Oliver Burkeman: Weirdness just got weirder (guardian.co.uk)
… Weird people - citizens, probably including you, of nations that are Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic. Almost everything experimental psychologists believe about the human mind comes from studies of the Weird. But perhaps you've guessed the problem: from a global standpoint, Weird people may be really... what's the word? Yes: odd.
Steve King: Swatting Flies
On [September 17] in 1954 William Golding's first novel, The Lord of the Flies, was published. The novel was rejected by twenty-one publishers and had lukewarm reviews but it was immediately popular, despite its bleak view of human nature. Many of Golding's other nine novels are also read as gloomy evocations of his notion that "man produces evil as a bee produces honey."
Steve King: Selling the Sketches
Of the half-dozen books which Mark Twain published during the 1870s, two of his least remembered are also among his most important. Sketches, New and Old (1875, a detail from the frontispiece shown here) and Punch, Brothers, Punch! and other Sketches (1878) are collections from Twain's "alternate writing career"-brief magazine pieces, some short stories, a sprinkling of speeches, and other occasional material.
"The Night Bookmobile" By AUDREY NIFFENEGGER: Reviewed by Jane Ciabattari
This first graphic novel by Audrey Niffenegger, the author of 'The Time Traveler's Wife,' is a sugary, visual valentine to the joys of reading.
Jim Collins: "Bring on the Books for Everyone: How Literary Culture Became Popular Culture" (popmatters.com)
Apparently, the love of literature can now be fully experienced only outside the academy and the New York literary scene, out there somewhere in the wilds of popular culture.
Kelis: 'I'm the only me there is' (guardian.co.uk)
The dancefloor diva is back. And now she's a fully trained Cordon Bleu chef. Kelis talks to Hattie Collins about her foody new tunes - and why the music industry thinks she's 'a bitch.'
Will Harris: A Chat with Alan Parsons, Musician, Producer, Engineer (bullz-eye.com)
On the recording process in 2010: You can make an album while you're on a train if you want to, which is good and bad. There's more music out there, and unfortunately that means more bad music as well, but it also means more good music.
Zachary Pincus-Roth: YouTube creative artists pride themselves on being a separate breed (latimes.com)
Popular series have gone subscriber-only, and Hollywood has come knocking, but independent spirit reigns.
roger ebert's journal: I'm still not all here (Toronto Report #6)
We now have it on Casey Affleck's word that "I'm Still Here," the film about Joaquin Phoenix's apparent descent into self-destruction, was a hoax. We cannot doubt this. Well, perhaps we can; the possibility exists that Affleck caught so much shit after the release that be decided to back off from his devastating portrait of his brother-in-law. But let's agree it is a hoax.
David Medsker: A Chat with Al Jean, Executive Producer of "The Simpsons" (bullz-eye.com)
Publishing companies have gotten very aggressive with songs. If someone sings "Happy Birthday to You," you have to pay money to Disney for that. But, if you use the melody but not the lyrics, and it's not in a birthday context, it's free.
wrote:
responded:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Suggestion
Guerrilla Marching Band
Guerrilla marching band takes Detroit by surprise . . .
You may not have heard them yet, but get ready. The Detroit Party Marching Band is coming soon to a bar, wedding, backyard party or bar mitzvah near you. Mostly likely without being invited.
Guerrilla marching band
MAM
Thanks, Marianne!
Reader Suggestions
Michelle in AZ
Protest Signs
Benny Does London
pope protest signs in Britain
always wonder where's the guy swinging the censer, what I call "the Flaming Purse"?
"Go Shit in the Woods" "Nothing says 'Faith in God' like four inches of bulletproof glass"
LOL! many more at link.
Protest Signs
Sharon in Tejas
Thanks, Sharon!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Thick marine layer, followed by a sunny afternoon.
Addressed UN
Stevie Wonder
U.S. pop and soul music legend Stevie Wonder told diplomats from nearly 200 nations on Monday to stop squabbling over copyright and agree on a pact bringing "hope and light" to blind people around the globe.
And the singer-musician, himself sightless since just after birth, warned negotiators at the United Nations intellectual property and copyright agency WIPO that he would write a sad song about them if they didn't act on his appeal.
"We must declare a state of emergency and end the information deprivation that continues to keep the visually impaired in the dark," said Wonder, whose music has won dozens of top awards in his 50-year career.
He told delegates on the opening day of WIPO's annual assembly that they should agree on an action plan that would empower the blind and near-blind by side-stepping copyright rules and giving them access to books and learning.
Stevie Wonder
Baltimore Honors
Frank Zappa
Rocker Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore but gained greater popular acclaim in Europe than in the United States. On Sunday, devout European fans of the late musician brought his mustachioed likeness back home in the form of a bronze bust.
Several hundred fans gathered on a sweltering afternoon as city officials dedicated the bust of the ponytailed rocker outside an east Baltimore library. The bust is a replica of another in a public square in Vilnius, Lithuania, and was donated to the city by Zappa enthusiasts in the small Baltic nation.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined Zappa's widow, Gail, and three of his grown children in watching as a curtain was drawn back to reveal the bust set atop a 12-foot steel pole. Later, Zappa's son, Dweezil, took the stage with his tribute band, Zappa Plays Zappa.
Sunday's ceremony marked the 25th anniversary of Zappa's testimony before Congress on freedom of expression for recording artists, though the scheduling was coincidental. Zappa had testified against proposed warning labels about lyrical content, calling them a path to censorshiop.
Frank Zappa
Skipping Prayer Day In His Honor
Christopher Hitchens
Stricken with cancer and fragile from chemotherapy, author and outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens sits in an armchair before an audience and waits for the only question that can come first at such a time.
"How's your health?" asks Larry Taunton, a friend who heads an Alabama-based group dedicated to defending Christianity.
"Well, I'm dying, since you asked, but so are you. I'm only doing it more rapidly," replies Hitchens, his grin faint and his voice weak and raspy. Only wisps of his dark hair remain; clothes hang on his frame.
The writer best known to believers for his 2007 book "God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything" has esophageal cancer, the same disease that killed his father. He is fighting it, but the 62-year-old Hitchens is realistic: At the very best, he says, his life will be shortened.
Christopher Hitchens
Civil Union
McGillis - Leis
Actress Kelly McGillis has been joined in a civil union with her girlfriend in New Jersey.
McGillis and Melanie Leis' civil union was performed in municipal court in Collingswood on Sept. 15.
McGillis, 53, starred in the movies "Witness," "Top Gun" and "The Accused" in the 1980s.
Her civil union partner is an executive with Independence Communications, a company that provides Muzak to businesses. The New York Times first reported their civil union.
McGillis - Leis
Following The Money
Tea Baggers
Who's picking up the tab for the tea party?
Love 'em or hate 'em, tea party gatherings are the grassroots real deal. Organic, earnest groundswells of populist sentiment and full-throated political expression that have upset the political establishment left and right. Effective too, as they beat mainstream candidates from Delaware to Nevada to Alaska.
But just beneath the surface are professional fund-raisers, foundations, and political action committees - some of which have been around for years - pushing an agenda that neatly matches the conservative/libertarian aims of most tea partyers.
Changes in campaign finance law and the aims of the tea party movement converge in a mutually-supportive way.
Specifically, the tea party - particularly as it fights government spending and taxation under Obama and the Democratically-controlled Congress - is the sometimes-raucous face of traditional limited government lobbying. In return, the movement's efforts get significant financial backing from those lobbying organizations, which in turn are supported by conservative foundations and business interests.
Tea Baggers
Site Hacked
MPAA
The Web site run by the Motion Picture Association of America, the lobbying arm of the major Hollywood studios, was temporarily brought down Saturday by pirates enraged by an escalation in anti-piracy efforts.
MPAA.org and the Web site of AiPlex Software, a company the MPAA hired to target sites where piracy was rampant, were incapacitated for much of the day, according to the piracy blog Torrentfreak.
"The MPAA is aware of the illegal attack and has taken measures to mitigate the effect of any denial-of-service attack," said an MPAA spokesman, noting the organization was able to get its site back online.
The attacks were declared on the message-board group 4chan, which is notorious as a hotbed for piracy activity. Their call to arms was prompted by a statement AiPlex made earlier in the month about stepping up its own efforts to counter torrent sites trafficking in copyright-infringing content.
MPAA
Ordered To Court
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan was ordered on Monday to appear in court after admitting that she failed a court-ordered drug test a few weeks after being released from jail and a subsequent stint in drug rehabilitation.
Los Angeles court officials said Lohan's probation had been revoked and a formal warrant for her arrest had been issued, but held until Friday, when she must appear in court.
Friday's hearing is expected to determine whether the "Mean Girls" actress will return to jail.
Lindsay Lohan
Released On Bail
Randy Quaid
Authorities say actor Randy Quaid and his wife have been released on bail after their weekend squatting arrests for moving into a home they reportedly sold years ago in California.
Santa Barbara County sheriff's spokesman Drew Sugars says the Quaids were arrested Saturday after an alarm went off at the Montecito home and the couple was found living in a guest house.
The 59-year-old actor known for roles in "National Lampoon's Vacation" movies and his wife, Evegena, were booked for investigation of felony residential burglary and misdemeanor entering a building without consent.
The Quaids were released on $50,000 bail early Sunday.
Randy Quaid
Cops Plea, Avoids Jail
Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton can still sashay down red carpets and hit the club scene but she better not step outside the law for the next year after pleading guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges stemming from her cocaine arrest last month at a Las Vegas resort.
Hilton, who faced a felony drug charge, avoided jail time by acknowledging during the Las Vegas Justice Court hearing that she had cocaine in her purse and lied to police when she was arrested.
She will serve a year of probation under the terms of a plea deal and faces a year in jail if she is arrested for anything other than a minor traffic violation during that time.
Hilton, 29, pleaded guilty to drug possession and obstructing an officer. She must complete a drug abuse program, pay a $2,000 fine and serve 200 hours of community service.
Paris Hilton
Inaccurate Statements
FBI
The FBI gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when it claimed a possible terrorism link to justify surveilling an anti-war rally in Pittsburgh, the Justice Department's inspector general said Monday in a report on the bureau's scrutiny of domestic activist groups.
Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI had no reason to expect that anyone of interest in a terrorism investigation would be present at the 2002 event sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, a nonviolent anti-war and anti-discrimination group.
The surveillance was "an ill-conceived project on a slow work day," the IG stated in a study of several FBI domestic terrorism probes of people affiliated with organizations such as Greenpeace and the Catholic Worker.
Earlier, in statements to Congress and in a press release, the FBI had described the Pittsburgh rally surveillance by one agent as related to a terrorism investigation.
FBI
Settles Suit
Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan has settled her $100 million lawsuit accusing E*Trade Financial Corp of modeling a "milkaholic" baby girl in a television commercial after her without permission, a lawyer for the actress said.
Lohan withdrew her lawsuit against the New York-based online brokerage on Monday, court records show. The lawsuit was withdrawn with prejudice, meaning it cannot be brought again. The terms of a settlement were not immediately available.
E*Trade spokeswoman Allison Jeannotte said in a statement: "It was a simple business decision. We always have to consider the cost and time involved in litigation, and we are pleased to have the matter behind us."
Lohan sued E*Trade on March 8, alleging its use of a baby girl named Lindsay in an ad violated her privacy.
Lindsay Lohan
$6 Million To U.S. Schools
Oprah Winfrey
TV talk show host Oprah Winfrey said on Monday she would give a total of $6 million to six educational organizations that help to turn around troubled U.S. schools.
The award is the largest given by Winfrey's Angel Network during her show and came as Winfrey devoted two days of her influential TV program to the issue of public schooling.
The winning organizations, announced on Monday's broadcast, are based in Philadelphia, California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana and Texas.
According to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the performance of American students in science and math is consistently in the middle or lower than their international counterparts.
Oprah Winfrey
Uncertain Future
Wild Horses
On a stretch of barrier island without paved roads, some of the last wild horses in the eastern United States are seeing their world get smaller each year.
A boom in vacation homes in the last 25 years in this remote place has seen the descendants of colonial Spanish mustangs confined to a 7,500-acre sanctuary on the northern tip of North Carolina's Outer Banks. And now the herd itself may shrink along with its habitat.
A plan backed by the federal government would see the herd reduced from about 115 horses today to no more than 60 in a bid to stop the animals, designated North Carolina's state horse this year, from competing with federally protected birds for increasingly hard-to-come-by resources.
The Fish and Wildlife Service says the plan will reduce harmful behavior by a species it considers a nuisance. But residents who rely on the horses to bring in tourist dollars or who simply cherish the mustangs as a symbol of the country's spirit worry it could bring about the collapse of the herd through hereditary diseases and other complications of a shallow gene pool.
Wild Horses
Home For Sale
Jerry Garcia
Would-be home buyers now have a chance to taste the high life, Grateful Dead-style: Jerry Garcia's house is for sale.
The 11-acre estate in rural Marin County, north of San Francisco, was the bandleader's last home before he died of a heart attack in 1995 at age 53.
The sellers are asking just shy of $4 million for the 7,000-square-foot Mediterranean-style home and surrounding grounds.
The real estate listing describes amenities such as a 1,500-square-foot artist's studio, a solar-heated pool and an organic garden. The estate has 300-degree views that span the Berkeley skyline to the Pacific Ocean.
Jerry Garcia
In Memory
Leonard Skinner
Leonard Skinner, the basketball coach and gym teacher who inspired the name of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, has died in Florida. He was 77.
Skinner's daughter, Susie Moore, says Skinner died in his sleep early Monday at the St. Catherine Laboure Manor in Jacksonville, where he had been living for about a year. He had Alzheimer's disease.
Skinner was working at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville in the late 1960s when he sent a group of students to the principal's office because their hair was too long. Those students later formed a band, using a variation of Skinner's name for their own.
Skinner later allowed the band to use a photo of his Leonard Skinner Realty sign for the inside of their third album.
Leonard Skinner
| CURRENT MOON lunar phases |
