POTD: Boys from St. George's College

From 2019 11 18 Old Cairo

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Cairo, Egypt, and shows a group of boys from St. George's College, located in Cairo's Nasr City district and one of the oldest private English-language schools in Cairo. The boys are on a field trip, visiting the same sites we were, and by the looks of it, having as much fun as we were. Kids are kids all over the world.

Upzoning Galatyn Park Station

Source: City of Richardson.

Galatyn or Khrushchyobka?

The Richardson City Plan Commission unanimously recommended approval of an upzoning request for 140 additional living units over and above what the current zoning permits for a new development next to the Galatyn Park DART station.

Losing Faith in the Meritocracy

Americans like to pretend we live in a meritocracy, even when the Black Lives Matter movement smacks us in the face with evidence that we don't. The education system is similar. We pretend that if you apply yourself and work hard, you will succeed in school and life. In reality, it's hard to deny that what school you attended mattered as much as how hard you worked.

The STAAR was a reaction to that. STAAR, for those who might not know, is the school system's standardized test used by the State of Texas. It claimed to identify failing schools, which could then be targeted to change the educational outcomes for many students. George W Bush ran for and won the Presidency in part on his championing education reform that led to STAAR. The result was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Remember that? It was broadly popular once. Now? Not so much. What changed?

Crip Camp (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Crip Camp (2020): Documentary about a 1970s camp in the Catskills for disabled youth run by hippies. Fun, games, brotherhood and independence. What they learned at Camp Jened prepared them to fight the government for rights for the disabled, culminating in the ADA. Inspiring. B+

Random Thoughts: 200,000 Oklahomans Get Health Insurance

Tweets from July, 2020:

• 2020-07-01: 200,000 Oklahomans get health insurance...by ballot initiative. That means they overruled the Republican politicians who don't want the near-poor who can't afford health insurance to get it. Next, Oklahomans ought to elect representatives who share their values.
• 2020-07-01: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is the guy who said senior citizens would voluntarily lay down their lives to COVID-19 to prop up business profits. Patrick is a one-man death panel.
• 2020-07-01: One day closer to the election and there's no sign of a Trump pivot yet. Will he ride "White Power" all the way to November?
• 2020-07-01: Americans could learn from Bulgarians. "Russia Wants Bulgarians to Stop Painting Soviet Monuments To Look Like American Superheroes."

After the jump, more random thoughts.

Seberg (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Seberg (2020): Bio-pic of 1960s actress spied on by FBI to stop her from funding civil rights groups like Black Panthers. Out-of-control FBI; emotional breakdown of Seberg; too much story for 90 minutes. Pick one story. Show it, don't tell it. Good job by Kristen Stewart. C+

Talking Union

Talking Union

If you want higher wages, let me tell you what to do;
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you;
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,
But if you all stick together, now, ‘twont be long.
You'll get shorter hours, better working conditions,
Vacations with pay, take your kids to the seashore.

Lyrics: Lee Hays, Millard Lampell, and Pete Seeger

Source: Talking Union.

I grew up in a union household. I'm a big supporter of collective bargaining rights, fair pay, good conditions, etc., etc. I believe that the free market, left to itself, will not deliver these things to workers. Billion dollar corporations simply wield too much power to expect any individual to be able to negotiate a fair deal. Unions help level the playing field. So, if I'm such a big union supporter, what's got me concerned with unions?

POTD: Ben Ezra Synagogue

From 2019 11 18 Old Cairo

Today's photo-of-the-day is of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt. According to legend, it's located on the site where the baby Moses was found in a basket on the banks of the Nile River. "Egypt's Jewish community is at the end of a dramatic decline, from about 80,000 people in the 1920s to less than a dozen of Egyptian ancestry now residing in Cairo. Accordingly, the Ben Ezra Synagogue functions now as a tourist attraction and museum, rather than as a functioning congregation."

"Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste."

Remember back in April and May when meatpacking plants were hotspots of coronavirus? Do you wonder why they're no longer in the headlines? Do you think it's because the owners reformed how they are run and reopened them safely? Think again. The plants might still be hotbeds of coronavirus. We don't know because governments have allowed the plants to quit reporting statistics of the spread of coronavirus among their workers.

An old political precept is "Never let a good crisis go to waste." The idea is to take advantage of a crisis to advance a political agenda. The Bush administration used the notion to escalate the 9/11 attacks into a war on Iraq, which was not involved in the 9/11 attacks. The saying itself was popularized by Rahm Emmanuel, who saw the financial crash of 2008 as an opportunity to do the things he once thought were impossible. Today's crisis is the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump has proven himself incompetent at combating the pandemic, but that doesn't mean he isn't using the crisis to advance his own political agenda.

POTD: Cairo Alleyway

From 2019 11 18 Old Cairo

Today's photo-of-the-day is of an alleyway in the warren of streets near the Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church (Abu Serga) in Cairo, Egypt.