The battle just gets uglier between the AFM and management.
The American Federation of Musicians announced that it has placed the Louisville Orchestra on its “Unfair List,” just a week after the orchestra emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy without a collective bargaining agreement with its musicians and just weeks before the orchestra’s season-opening performance scheduled for Sept. 10.
Placing the organization on the unfair list means that any union members who play for the Louisville Orchestra without a contract could be fined. All the orchestra’s musicians are members of the New York-based union.
The federation issued a statement saying it took the action because during a U.S. Bankruptcy Court hearing on Aug. 15 the orchestra’s chief executive, Robert Birman, said the orchestra would continue working toward a contract with the current musicians but could also pursue agreements with non-union musicians or sidestep the union to make agreements with union musicians.
Utter silliness, from both sides.
The Seattle Symphony seems to be thriving, sans the AFM.
Maybe, it's time to rethink the entire enterprise...just sayin'...
Monday, August 22, 2011
Thoughtful Take On Libya, The Morning After Gadaffi's Exit: Juan Cole, University of Michigan
Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context. His most recent book is Engaging the Muslim World (Palgrave Macmillan, March, 2009) and he also recently authored Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
His thoughts on recent events in Libya here.
There is a lot of tin-foil-hat nonsense floating about. This seems like a level-headed, considered view of the situation.
His thoughts on recent events in Libya here.
There is a lot of tin-foil-hat nonsense floating about. This seems like a level-headed, considered view of the situation.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Interpreting Tony Blair: It's Not My Fault, Honest!
Tony left just in time, before the inevitable outcomes of trashing British culture top-to-bottom revealed themselves in all their viciousness. His final thumb in the eye was to leave the UK in the tender care of Gordon Brown, and Gordon Brown to take the vituperation when all fell apart.
However, with His Legacy threatened by the recent riots, he just had to speak up.
He says, says he, that talk of a general moral decline is wrong-headed. It's simply a problem of--
First, there was a legal system overwhelmed by the nature of the crime committed by these young people, buttressed as it is by gangs and organised crime.
Second, these individuals did not simply have an individual problem. They had a family problem. This is a hard thing to say and I am of course aware that this, too, is a generalisation. But many of these people are from families that are profoundly dysfunctional, operating on completely different terms from the rest of society, middle class or poor.
Most of them are shaping up that way by the time they are in primary school or even in nursery. They then grow up in circumstances where their role models are drug dealers, pimps, people with knives and guns, people who will exploit them and abuse them but with whom they feel a belonging. Hence the gang culture that is so destructive.
This is a phenomenon of the late 20th century. You find it in virtually every developed nation. Breaking it down isn't about general policy or traditional programmes of investment or treatment. The last government should take real pride in the reductions in inequality, the improvement in many inner-city schools and the big fall in overall crime. But none of these reaches this special group.
There it is, ya'll! It's not my fault! The entire essay is an attempt to distract away from the moral and ethical issues of a society that really seems to have lost its way, and the resultant crime in the streets. It's just those dysfunctional families, you know, tsk-tsk. Let's not get into any discussion of good-and-evil here.
Yo! Tony! Lissen' up, bro'!
Screwed-up families and kids are created by people operating in a moral vacuum, where no one dares use the big 'E' word, or the 'S' word ('Sinfulness'), or the 'F' word ('Failure'--as in the failed Welfare State). The families where Mom and Dad stay sober and walk with the kids to the local parish church for Sunday School and choir practice tend to not, repeat not produce gang members. The families that insist the kids do their school work tend to not produce candidates for exclusion from school.
Yet, these are the values ridiculed by the past thirty years of popular culture and official policy. Vice is excused, marriage rates have plummeted, out-of-wedlock birth is now common, and the most famous quote of 10 Downing Street during your term was 'We Don't Do God'.
Indeed, you didn't. And it shows, Tony. It's not just the cities, Tony. OS has friends with kids in good schools in small towns well away from the big cities of the UK, and those students are instructed to always walk at least in pairs, never at night, lest they be set upon by the local hoodie types. And this is in the picture-postcard, bucolic English small towns. It's not just the cities, it's everywhere.
This reminds OS of late 2001 and 2002, when Bill Clinton was at pains to convince us all that it wasn't his fault that Bin Laden ran free while Bill was busily chasing Monica Lewinsky around the Oval Office. There are reports that Osama was offered up to us on a plate, and Bill was too busy thinking with his smaller brain to pay attention.
Tony still has books to sell, a legacy to protect, a seat in Lords to possess, a university chair in his name to be awarded. Let's not connect the dots between his past performance and present outcomes.
That really would be wrong, at least in Tony's moral universe.
However, with His Legacy threatened by the recent riots, he just had to speak up.
He says, says he, that talk of a general moral decline is wrong-headed. It's simply a problem of--
First, there was a legal system overwhelmed by the nature of the crime committed by these young people, buttressed as it is by gangs and organised crime.
Second, these individuals did not simply have an individual problem. They had a family problem. This is a hard thing to say and I am of course aware that this, too, is a generalisation. But many of these people are from families that are profoundly dysfunctional, operating on completely different terms from the rest of society, middle class or poor.
Most of them are shaping up that way by the time they are in primary school or even in nursery. They then grow up in circumstances where their role models are drug dealers, pimps, people with knives and guns, people who will exploit them and abuse them but with whom they feel a belonging. Hence the gang culture that is so destructive.
This is a phenomenon of the late 20th century. You find it in virtually every developed nation. Breaking it down isn't about general policy or traditional programmes of investment or treatment. The last government should take real pride in the reductions in inequality, the improvement in many inner-city schools and the big fall in overall crime. But none of these reaches this special group.
There it is, ya'll! It's not my fault! The entire essay is an attempt to distract away from the moral and ethical issues of a society that really seems to have lost its way, and the resultant crime in the streets. It's just those dysfunctional families, you know, tsk-tsk. Let's not get into any discussion of good-and-evil here.
Yo! Tony! Lissen' up, bro'!
Screwed-up families and kids are created by people operating in a moral vacuum, where no one dares use the big 'E' word, or the 'S' word ('Sinfulness'), or the 'F' word ('Failure'--as in the failed Welfare State). The families where Mom and Dad stay sober and walk with the kids to the local parish church for Sunday School and choir practice tend to not, repeat not produce gang members. The families that insist the kids do their school work tend to not produce candidates for exclusion from school.
Yet, these are the values ridiculed by the past thirty years of popular culture and official policy. Vice is excused, marriage rates have plummeted, out-of-wedlock birth is now common, and the most famous quote of 10 Downing Street during your term was 'We Don't Do God'.
Indeed, you didn't. And it shows, Tony. It's not just the cities, Tony. OS has friends with kids in good schools in small towns well away from the big cities of the UK, and those students are instructed to always walk at least in pairs, never at night, lest they be set upon by the local hoodie types. And this is in the picture-postcard, bucolic English small towns. It's not just the cities, it's everywhere.
This reminds OS of late 2001 and 2002, when Bill Clinton was at pains to convince us all that it wasn't his fault that Bin Laden ran free while Bill was busily chasing Monica Lewinsky around the Oval Office. There are reports that Osama was offered up to us on a plate, and Bill was too busy thinking with his smaller brain to pay attention.
Tony still has books to sell, a legacy to protect, a seat in Lords to possess, a university chair in his name to be awarded. Let's not connect the dots between his past performance and present outcomes.
That really would be wrong, at least in Tony's moral universe.
Tripoli Is Hotting Up: France 24
This from France 24, which tends to have a good handle on Middle East news:
Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli on Saturday night, after days of battlefield defeats left Muammar Gaddafi’s government and troops penned ever more tightly in the besieged capital.
The scale of the unrest was unclear, but speculation was rife that Gaddafi’s 41-year rule was close to collapse.
Tripoli residents told Reuters they could hear shooting from several locations and there were anti-Gaddafi protesters in the streets. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told state television however: “All of Tripoli is safe and stable.”
This week’s rebel advances on Tripoli—Muammar Gaddafi’s last major stronghold—have transformed the war by cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Gaddafi.
Two twitter feeds from appear to be reputable sources are here:
http://twitter.com/#!/JomanaCNN
http://twitter.com/#!/jessradio
Gates of Vienna has been keeping up with the refugee flood making its way from Northern Africa to Southern Europe, which has been generally overlooked in all the tizzy about Europe being, well, broke.
Chinstraps on, ya'll. If you're in the markets, the waters will be choppy. If you're in Tripoli, though, you're likely to get caught in the crossfire. Gadafi and his ilk tend to create as much chaos, and as many refugees and casualties as possible, in order to retain power and/or cover their escape to the airport with the country's gold reserves to keep them warm. Gas up that Gulfstream, Mohamar! don't fergit the bullion. Hugo Chavez may be yer home-boy, but nothing sez 'thank-yew' like about a ton of gold.
BTW, if the rebels capture the Lockerbie Bomber again (who did not, after all, die of cancer) will they ship him back to the Scots for safekeeping? Or will they quietly turn him over to the CIA? Just sayin...
Explosions and gunfire rocked Tripoli on Saturday night, after days of battlefield defeats left Muammar Gaddafi’s government and troops penned ever more tightly in the besieged capital.
The scale of the unrest was unclear, but speculation was rife that Gaddafi’s 41-year rule was close to collapse.
Tripoli residents told Reuters they could hear shooting from several locations and there were anti-Gaddafi protesters in the streets. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told state television however: “All of Tripoli is safe and stable.”
This week’s rebel advances on Tripoli—Muammar Gaddafi’s last major stronghold—have transformed the war by cutting the capital off from its main road link to the outside world and putting unprecedented pressure on Gaddafi.
Two twitter feeds from appear to be reputable sources are here:
http://twitter.com/#!/JomanaCNN
http://twitter.com/#!/jessradio
Gates of Vienna has been keeping up with the refugee flood making its way from Northern Africa to Southern Europe, which has been generally overlooked in all the tizzy about Europe being, well, broke.
Chinstraps on, ya'll. If you're in the markets, the waters will be choppy. If you're in Tripoli, though, you're likely to get caught in the crossfire. Gadafi and his ilk tend to create as much chaos, and as many refugees and casualties as possible, in order to retain power and/or cover their escape to the airport with the country's gold reserves to keep them warm. Gas up that Gulfstream, Mohamar! don't fergit the bullion. Hugo Chavez may be yer home-boy, but nothing sez 'thank-yew' like about a ton of gold.
BTW, if the rebels capture the Lockerbie Bomber again (who did not, after all, die of cancer) will they ship him back to the Scots for safekeeping? Or will they quietly turn him over to the CIA? Just sayin...
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Memo From Birmingham UK To all Gun Control Advocates
Sometimes, it has to be said in ways that even a moron like Sheila Jackson-Lee can understand it.
If'n yew take awllll the guns away frum the law-abidin' citizen'ry, and don't allow officers to carry sidearmz inter dang'rous siteashuns, then yew gets organized groops uf young hoodie-wearing rioters shooting live ammo from their sidearmz at the police and law-abidin' citizen'ry.
Criminalz don't pay no heed to gun-control laws--deyz CRIMINALS!! Dey da bad peepuhls, and the shop owners and pub owners who try to defend themselves with baseball bats against gangs of criminals armed with guns--dems da good peepuhls.
In CNN-speak:
(CNN) -- Police have released dramatic security camera footage they say shows masked and hooded rioters firing shots at unarmed officers and a police helicopter in the English city of Birmingham.
They hope the public will come forward with information as they investigate the violence that took place amid widespread rioting earlier this month.
The footage shows a group of 30 to 40 young men, dressed in black, in the Newtown area of Birmingham as they attacked a pub late on Tuesday August 9, West Midlands Police said in a statement.
As police tried to disperse the group, petrol bombs were thrown at a police car and shots were fired, police said. Officers believe the rioters intended to set fire to the pub.
Chief Constable Chris Sims said the incident was being treated as attempted murder and arson.
Video of the rioting, which is sickening to watch, at the link.
If'n yew take awllll the guns away frum the law-abidin' citizen'ry, and don't allow officers to carry sidearmz inter dang'rous siteashuns, then yew gets organized groops uf young hoodie-wearing rioters shooting live ammo from their sidearmz at the police and law-abidin' citizen'ry.
Criminalz don't pay no heed to gun-control laws--deyz CRIMINALS!! Dey da bad peepuhls, and the shop owners and pub owners who try to defend themselves with baseball bats against gangs of criminals armed with guns--dems da good peepuhls.
In CNN-speak:
(CNN) -- Police have released dramatic security camera footage they say shows masked and hooded rioters firing shots at unarmed officers and a police helicopter in the English city of Birmingham.
They hope the public will come forward with information as they investigate the violence that took place amid widespread rioting earlier this month.
The footage shows a group of 30 to 40 young men, dressed in black, in the Newtown area of Birmingham as they attacked a pub late on Tuesday August 9, West Midlands Police said in a statement.
As police tried to disperse the group, petrol bombs were thrown at a police car and shots were fired, police said. Officers believe the rioters intended to set fire to the pub.
Chief Constable Chris Sims said the incident was being treated as attempted murder and arson.
Video of the rioting, which is sickening to watch, at the link.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Policing In Nashville, Tennessee: Shackling Women In Labor To The Bed, Committing Blatant Perjury In Federal Court
This tidbit from the Nashville Tennessean:
Anyone who visits OS's front porch knows his opinions about illegal immigration. So let's get that one out of the way. This case is not about illegal immigration. It is about the Metro Sheriff's Department torturing a person in their custody, and therefore under their care.
There is no place for torture in a culture that operates under the rule of law. Full stop. End of story.
There is also no place for perjured testimony offered by the police during a trial.
Full stop. End of story.
The police claimed that the video of this poor woman's arrest did not exist, and so testified. In fact, it did. It strains credulity to then assert that they simply 'forgot' about its existence.
So, why are the officers who shackled the woman not the subject of a grand jury investigation--and that means all the way up to the sheriff himself? Why haven't they been perp-walked, in shackles, to send the message to the city and state that this sort of behavior is prosecuted? Otherwise, anyone subject to a traffic stop could find themselves tortured by any local police department with impunity.
Why wasn't the officer (and the prosecutor who prepped his testimony) who committed perjury not facing a contempt hearing, and time in jail? The rule of law must extend to all, or the culture will fly apart at the seams.
And, finally. Why didn't the Federal Government do its job of securing the border in the first place, and prevent this horrible thing from happening at all? Of all the damaging things George Bush the Younger did to this country, his willful neglect of this issue will prove over the long run to be the worst. For this, he deserved impeachment and removal.
Full stop. End of story.
A federal jury awarded Juana Villegas $200,000 because the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office shackled her to a bed while she was in labor in 2008.
In April, U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes Jr. ruled that the agency violated her rights when it shackled her and later denied her a breast pump after her son Gael was born.
Villegas, who was in the country illegally, was arrested during a traffic stop in Berry Hill and detained under a sheriff’s office immigration program while she was nine months pregnant.
Metro Legal argued that Villegas' anguish was not from the shackling but because she was under the threat of deportation. But the judge said jurors could not know that she was in the country illegally while deciding the issue of whether she should be compensated.
Attorneys had asked for $1.2 million.
Anyone who visits OS's front porch knows his opinions about illegal immigration. So let's get that one out of the way. This case is not about illegal immigration. It is about the Metro Sheriff's Department torturing a person in their custody, and therefore under their care.
There is no place for torture in a culture that operates under the rule of law. Full stop. End of story.
There is also no place for perjured testimony offered by the police during a trial.
Full stop. End of story.
The police claimed that the video of this poor woman's arrest did not exist, and so testified. In fact, it did. It strains credulity to then assert that they simply 'forgot' about its existence.
So, why are the officers who shackled the woman not the subject of a grand jury investigation--and that means all the way up to the sheriff himself? Why haven't they been perp-walked, in shackles, to send the message to the city and state that this sort of behavior is prosecuted? Otherwise, anyone subject to a traffic stop could find themselves tortured by any local police department with impunity.
Why wasn't the officer (and the prosecutor who prepped his testimony) who committed perjury not facing a contempt hearing, and time in jail? The rule of law must extend to all, or the culture will fly apart at the seams.
And, finally. Why didn't the Federal Government do its job of securing the border in the first place, and prevent this horrible thing from happening at all? Of all the damaging things George Bush the Younger did to this country, his willful neglect of this issue will prove over the long run to be the worst. For this, he deserved impeachment and removal.
Full stop. End of story.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
It's Getting Ugly Out There: Janeane Garofolo Rants About Herman Cain
Sort of a Department of HUH?? moment, ya'll. Why either of them would burn air time over a retired business exec from Atlanta who decides to run for President is waaaay beyond OS's abilities to comprehend. The man's got all the money he can spend for as long as he wishes to spend it, and Miss Janeane opines that he's been bought off by the BigBadMean Wepubwikans.
Actually, Herman probably makes establishment Republicans highly nervous, since he does understand math, knows how to explain it to his audiences, and doesn't care what the GOP National Committee thinks about him.
Oh, well, ya'll. Read it and see if Miz Garofolo makes any sense to you...
The full transcripts of her remarks on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
Actually, Herman probably makes establishment Republicans highly nervous, since he does understand math, knows how to explain it to his audiences, and doesn't care what the GOP National Committee thinks about him.
Oh, well, ya'll. Read it and see if Miz Garofolo makes any sense to you...
The full transcripts of her remarks on Countdown with Keith Olbermann:
GAROFALO: In this presidential race, because he deflects the racism that is inherent in the Republican Party, the conservative movement, the Tea Party, certainly, over the last 30 years the Republican Party has moved more and more to the right, but also race-baiting more, gay-baiting more and religion-baiting more; but Herman Cain, I feel like, is being paid by somebody to be involved and to run for president, so that you can go, 'Oh, yeah. They can't be racist! It's a black guy, it's a black guy who is asking for Obama to be impeached.' Or, 'It's a black guy who's anti-Muslim.' Or, 'It's a black guy who is a Tea Party guy.' And I feel like, well, wouldn't that suit the purposes of whomever astroturfs these things-- whether it be the Koch brothers, or ALEC, or Grover Norquist or any anything. Or it could even be Karl Rove. Let's get Herman Cain involved so it deflects the obvious racism of our Republican Party.
OLBERMANN: Well I mean, would that be separate of his delusions of grandeur, or were they just taking advantage of it...?
GAROFALO: He's a business man!
OLBERMANN: He's a business man, ultimately!
GAROFALO: Whoever pays him and he may have a touch of Stockholm Syndrome. There may be a touch of Stockholm Syndrome in there, because any time I see a person of color or a female in the Republican Party or the conservative movement or the Tea Party, I wonder how they could be trying to curry favor with the oppressors. Is it Stockholm Syndrome or does somebody pay them?
The Tale Of Two London Oxfam Shops, Located On The Same Street
Toby Young of The Telegraph conveys the sad news with wry wit:
The whole post is a worthy read, and the shop is worthy of any support UK readers may be able to offer.
I got a plaintive email earlier today from Tony Lee, the manager of the Oxfam Music and Audio shop in Ealing that was looted last week. Another Oxfam shop was damaged in the riots – a brick was thrown through a window of one of the shops in Manchester – but this was the only one to be looted, presumably because it sells CDs and DVDs. There’s an Oxfam Book shop on the same street in Ealing and, needless to say, it was completely untouched.
The whole post is a worthy read, and the shop is worthy of any support UK readers may be able to offer.
Monday, August 15, 2011
PGA Championship 2011: Congratulations Due To Keegan Bradely, Jason Dufner, And The PGA
What a finish to a major tourney--25 year-old Bradley claws back from his triple-bogey on the 15th hole, ends regulation tied, and wins the playoff from Jason Dufner.
Dufner just seemed to physically run out of gas on the last few holes. His final putt of the playoff was a thing of beauty, though, and OS hopes we see much more of of both of these players. We haven't had one of those 'Palmer/Nicklaus' style rivalries since, well, Arnie and Jack.
Both these gents are classy guys, from all appearances, and they certainly do play the game.
Kudos to the PGA for letting them play, and not allowing rules officials to assert their worn-out egos into the process. The course was set up clearly, the crowds were controlled, and it was a sanely-run event, thankfully for all.
We'll see both Keegan and Dufner at Augusta next year! Should be fun!
Dufner just seemed to physically run out of gas on the last few holes. His final putt of the playoff was a thing of beauty, though, and OS hopes we see much more of of both of these players. We haven't had one of those 'Palmer/Nicklaus' style rivalries since, well, Arnie and Jack.
Both these gents are classy guys, from all appearances, and they certainly do play the game.
Kudos to the PGA for letting them play, and not allowing rules officials to assert their worn-out egos into the process. The course was set up clearly, the crowds were controlled, and it was a sanely-run event, thankfully for all.
We'll see both Keegan and Dufner at Augusta next year! Should be fun!
Simon Marcus: We Learn In Funny Ways
His thoughts are eminently worth considering, because they ring so true.
We are a strange lot, the human race. We learn in funny ways. Once you break a taboo it is gone, once you break a boundary it is gone, if you get away with something and you enjoy it, you do it again. When kids attack teachers, (and it happens thousands of times a year) being sent to the cooling off room is pretty much a reward, a fixed term exclusion often makes no odds either. If a social worker tells a teenage mum the word ‘no’ emotionally damages a child, a message goes out. If an adult admonishes a gang of children for littering and gets a police caution a message goes out. If a father is reported to the police for smacking a child a message goes out. If an adult is arrested for grabbing a child who is stealing, or assaulting another child, a message goes out. If knife criminals receive community sentences, a message goes out. If people tell you about your rights as a child, and never about your responsibilities, a message goes out. If teenage girls are given flats for having babies a message goes out. If the police arrest you fifty times and nothing happens a message goes out.
A great week to all OS's readership. He is grateful for each and every one of you.
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