The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper

The Seattle Times is disappearing before my very eyes.  Its size has shrunk over time and soon it will be as small as the Reader's Digest.  (This is exactly what happened to toilet paper - it has gotten narrower and narrower until pretty soon you cannot wipe with it... )  In 2001 the front page of Seattle Times was 13.5 inches wide (34.5cm), now it is 11.5 inches wide (29cm).  It feels different in your hand - as if the news inside were not weighty enough to merit a full size front page.

Helsingin Sanomat is 15.75 inches wide (40cm).  That feels substantial - almost too big to handle - after being used to the American newspapers.

Many American newspapers are in financial trouble.  They are being sold or simply just shut down.  The idea that one should make a (good, big) profit while producing news has gotten them in the situation.  They cannot compete with the internet.  I think it's time to start thinking about news as a public good, not a way to get rich.

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Responsibility

Robert Creamer writes about responsibility and how Obama made it popular again. After years of acting like naughty teenagers Americans must begin to act like grown-ups. Especially those at the top. That will trickle down.
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At this point in history, responsibility for others is not some "soft" or "utopian" value, it is critical to our success and survival on our increasingly crowded planet. More than that, it's the key that will both prevent us from destroying ourselves -- and can unlock exponentially expanding human possibility in the 21st century.

And of course when you say it to people -- when you call on their best instincts instead of pandering to their selfishness and prejudice -- people know that you're right. They instinctively respond when they are called upon to be the best they can be; when -- as Barack Obama did last night -- they are addressed as adults and inspired by hope.
[Creamer]

Japan's Lost Decade and the USA

People, including Obama, keep talking about “Japan’s lost decade” and warning that the same could happen here if we don’t act boldly and swiftly enough on the economy. Japan experienced a deep recession in the 90’s and because the government was too cautious in the beginning, Japan had ten years of “no growth”.

I have two problems with this analysis:
1) Why do we assume that we always have to have growth? That is not sustainable in the long run – we’ve already begun to see that.
2) The United States has already had a “lost” quarter century. When you compare the average Joe’s wages today to the wages in the 70’s, they have not changed in real buying power! Even though we’ve experienced “amazing growth” in the last 25 years the benefits have mostly gone to the very few at the top. So a “lost decade” might not be so bad. Maybe it would slow people down a bit and make them more community-oriented and less greedy.


I am not against Obama’s plan to stimulate the economy, but I hope there will be a serious shift in our priorities after this crisis.
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Oscars

Slumdog Millionaire won quite a few oscars including best picture and best director.  I saw it and thought it was good, but I didn't think it was that extraordinary.  The beginning - when the brothers are small - is quite compelling, then it becomes more ordinary.  But, good.

I also saw Milk with Sean Penn and liked it quite a bit.  Penn is really, really good.  Well deserved.

I wanted Meryl Streep to win, because she is so amazing in anything she does.  I have not seen The Reader, but am sure Kate Winslett was very good in it. 

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Jailing Kids For Cash

Amy Goodman reports:

As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer. The case offers an extraordinary glimpse into the shameful private prison industry that is flourishing in the United States.

More ways that show how greed and corruption ruin everything.  I have been concerned about the private prison system in this country for a while: people are making money by jailing others.  Pretty soon we have private companies executing people with the blessing of the State.  Sweet.

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Kielteiset tunteet

Kielteisten tunteiden vatvominen heikentää terveyttä
18.2.2009 20:42
A A
Päivi Repo
Helsingin Sanomat


Epäonnistumiseen reagoimistavalla on väliä, osoittavat uudet tutkimukset.
Tapoja on monia: yksi tarttuu pulloon, toinen suklaalevyyn, kolmas harrastaa suojaamatonta seksiä, neljäs vajoaa synkkiin ajatuksiin.

Kaikilla tavoilla on huonoja vaikutuksia terveyteen. Myös tunteiden märehtiminen heikentää terveyttä, niin fyysistä kuin henkistäkin.
Vatvoja kuvittelee, että perinpohjainen pähkäily vie asian juurille. Sen sijaan edessä voikin olla vielä pahempi jumi.

"Vatvominen ei selvitä asiaa, mutta alakuloisuus ja masennusoireet lisääntyvät eivätkä vähene", kuvailee Jyväskylän yliopistossa työskentelevä tohtori Marja Kokkonen.
Hän on tutkinut tunteiden säätelyn vaikutuksia terveyteen ja kirjoitti siitä muun muassa Lääkärilehteen joulun alla.

"Ahdistus lisääntyy ja keskittymiskyky vähenee, kun huomio keskittyy asian vatkaamiseen. Ongelmanratkaisutaidot heikkenevät."
Märehtiminen myös kutsuu mukaan aiempia ikäviä muistoja. Lopulta voi kuvitella, että koko elämä on mennyt vinoon.

Seurauksena näyttää olevan tukku huonoja vaikutuksia: myönteiset tunteet vähenevät ja terveys tuntuu heikommalta. Pelot ja huolet kasvavat, sepelvaltimotaudin riskit lisääntyvät, hoitoon hakeutuminen voi viivästyä, ja itsemurha tulee ajatuksiin helpommin.
Vaarallista on myös tunteiden tukahduttaminen. Sen ja märehtimisen vastakohta eli tunteiden ilmaiseminen taas on yleensä hyvästä.

Omat reagointitavat eivät kuitenkaan ole muuttumattomia, vaikka taipumus onkin pysyvä.
"Tavoite on huomata, että pyöritän taas tätä samaa levyä", Kokkonen sanoo. Sen hoksattuaan voi yrittää muutosta.

Sexy Clive Owen

Sexy is subjective. For The Daily Beast's Jessi Klein it means funny, tall, and geeky—anything but People magazine-obvious. View her gallery of ten hotties.

Every year, People magazine purports to show us the Sexiest Men Alive. And every year, as I wearily flip through yet another photo spread of a shirtless Matthew McConaughey (it seems he’s running away from decent scripts) or a blazer-draped Patrick Dempsey, I think to myself: I’m bored. Obviously these guys are all handsome (obvious being the operative word), but they all seem so glossy, so shellacked, like those weird fake gourds you see at the supermarket. Where are the compelling men? The funny men? The passionate men? The tall, geeky drinks of water? I’ll tell you where they are. They’re in my head. All the time. See below.

 

Stephen Chernin / Reuters

Hot Adult: Clive Owen

Clive Owen has a power over me. Maybe it’s because in a sea of androgynous Tiger Beat Hollywood boys, he is a Full Grown Man. Or maybe it’s because he is the closest a human can come to looking like a wolf. A beautiful wolf who speaks with an incredibly sexy British accent.

I agree with this pick.  T

See all picks here.

Republicans on SNL

Saturday Night Live does a great Republican Party meeting.  Watch here:

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Seattle-Helsinki

Scandinavian Airlines kertoo lopettavansa suorat lennot Seattlen ja Koopenhaminan valilla ensi kesaan mennessa. Surkea uutinen. Olen kulkenut SAS:n reittia 80-luvun lopulta lahtien - siita asti kun Finnair lopetti suorat Seattle-Helsinki lennot. Luulisi etta matkustajia riittaa tallekin lennolle; melkein aina kun olen matkustanut Seattlesta Helsinkiin tai pain vastoin kone on ollut taynna. Matka on mielettoman pitka ja rasittava. Se muuttuu entista pidemmaksi ja rasittavammaksi taman muuutoksen jalkeen.
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Obama's Press Conference

I listened to President Obama's press conference on the radio while doing my grocery shopping last night. He spoke so well it was difficult to focus on swiss cheese and bread in the store. He was honest, candid, and descriptive. It felt so right and appropriate to have a good leader in the White House.
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Transcript of the press conference here.

Obama's Message About the Stimulus Plan

President Obama sent a message to his supporters about the stimulus plan he'd like to get passed in Congress.  Watch it by clicking the link below. --- T

Obama's new message here

Naomi Klein On Public Revolt

Naomi Klein writes about public revolt around the world. It's quite fascinating. How long until Americans are fed up? Of course, Obama may have something to say about that. We'll see if he can affect real change with his stimulus plan.
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'The pattern is clear: governments that respond to a crisis created by free-market ideology with an acceleration of that same discredited agenda will not survive to tell the tale. As Italy's students have taken to shouting in the streets: "We won't pay for your crisis!"'
Naomi Klein

American "Slave Mentality"

Joshua Holland writes about the recent riots around the world due to the economic crisis affecting the globe. In America - where the economic melt-down started - people seem quiet and subdued, even though jobs are disappearing and homes are lost by the millions.

I have often wondered why Americans seem so docile, so meek, so submissive. I have blamed the TV, the cheap beer, and the brutal suppression of any rebellion or outburst of anger. Mr. Holland has a good perspective on this. Below is an excerpt of his text.
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Americans are rightfully angry about that state of affairs, but with a few small exceptions, quietly so. Why? It depends on whom you ask.

In a 2006 interview with Harper's, Barack Obama shared a subtle, but rather fundamental observation about America's political culture: "Since the founding," he said, "the American political tradition has been reformist, not revolutionary." If there is to be positive change, Obama has argued, it must be gradual; "brick by brick," as he put it in one of his final campaign speeches.
Mark Ames, author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion -- From Reagan's Workplaces to Clinton's Columbine and Beyond, argues that Americans have been beaten down to a degree that they're now a pacified population, largely willing to accept any economic outrage its elites impose on them.

In a 2005 interview with AlterNet, Ames said the "slave mentality" is stronger in the U.S. than elsewhere, "in part because no other country on earth has so successfully crushed every internal rebellion."

Slaves in the Caribbean for example rebelled a lot more because their oppressors weren't as good at oppressing as Americans were. America has put down every rebellion, brutally, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the Confederate rebellion to the proletarian rebellions, Black Panthers, white militias ... you name it. This creates a powerful slave mentality, a sense that it's pointless to rebel.

Anyone who has witnessed the brutal police riots that have become so common since the infamous "Battle in Seattle" protests against the World Trade Organization in 1999 can tell you there's some merit to the argument.

It's also the case that European societies tend to be more homogenous than the mishmash of tribes we call the United States. Whereas Americans are divided by religion, region, ethnicity, urban-rural tensions and all the other trappings of the "culture wars," the primary split in most European countries is class.

Ron Sims

Our very own Ron Sims will be heading to Washington DC as deputy secretary of Housing and Urban Development.  Congratulations, Mr. Sims!  

He is currently the King County Executive here in Seattle and very well liked by the locals.  We'll miss him.

--- T