Why Things Are The Way They Are

This was posted on a DailyKos discussion thread today and nicely sums up the state of the economy and politics in these United States. Worth sharing, I think-- credit to MFTALBOT:

Let's get clear on something: (5+ / 0-)

Thomas Frank has said that, for a purportedly rightist party, the Republicans talk an awful lot about class resentment, but in a strangely inverted way: they define the elites in terms of cultural preferences rather than economics - "elitist, Volvo-driving, Latte-sipping, gay-loving liberal snobs in their big cities, sipping lattes and looking down their noses at the humble, hard-working common folk out in 'flyover country.'"

Thomas rightly points out that the one thing never mentioned by Republicans is the role of economics in the class structure.

The reason Republicans get away with this is the Democrats changed from having their policies grounded in economic fairness, and instead increasingly defined themselves by cultural issues. As the Republicans started defining themselves as champions of working people (a definition that, if you look at their economic policies, is ludicrous) the Democrats stopped talking about economic fairness and went along with defining themselves more along cultural lines.

One of the most disheartening things about the Democratic Party's haplessness is that it has allowed the Republicans to incrementally dismantle the hated New Deal, which they want to do because the New Deal costs Our Reptilian Corporate Masters power.

Our Reptilian Corporate Masters hate New Deal style policies because what they desire is a frightened, submissive, and most of all low-wage workforce, because that will allow them to Make More Money, And Thus Have More Power. The New Deal was absolutely hated by the oligarchy because it took away a lot of means of asserting absolute dominance over working people.

This is why single-payer health care represents such a threat to the Republicans' real constituency (the Oligarchy): fear of losing medical benefits keeps people from daring to step out of line and demanding better wages or working conditions.

This is why Our Reptilian Corporate Masters absolutely love crippling student loan debt: it is a potent tool to hold over folks to keep them from threatening the system. They want a population that is "educated" along the lines of vocational training (the knowledge that one is incurring a large debt tends to focus one's mind on the income potential of one's major...) rather than what used to be considered an "education" before the rise of Our Reptilian Corporate Masters in the late 19th century.

This is why raising taxes, and especially making our tax system more progressive (i.e., raising the tax rates as one goes up the income scale) is spoken of as That Which Must Not Be Done, if you listen to Republican rhetoric.

The thing is, actions have consequences, and the tiger the Republicans rode to success in the 2010 mid-terms will eventually start asking awkward economic questions of the Republicans, and then their venal fraud will be made plain. I pity them when that day comes.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. -Bertrand Russell

by mftalbot on Tue Dec 14, 2010 at 04:15:53 PM PST

My latest column: American religious knowledge falls short of ideal

How well do you know religions?
St.Cloud (MN) Times
Wednesday, 6 October, 2010

A groundbreaking new study on the religious
knowledge of Americans was released last week, and
the results will be surprising to some.

The U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, conducted by
the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, asked
about 3,400 people to answer 32 basic questions
about Christianity, world religions and the role of
religion in American life.

The average respondent got about half right, and
while the folks at Pew refused to issue a grade we all
know that scoring 50 percent on most tests does
not earn you an A.

Other studies, including Pew’s own 2008 American
Religious Landscape survey, have shown Americans
are much more likely to identify themselves as
religious than residents of other industrialized
nations. Almost 84 percent of us claim an affiliation
with one religion or another. But the new survey
uncovered a striking gap in knowledge not just
about “other” religions but in many of the
respondents’ own traditions.

Little knowledge

Americans may be very religious, but many of us
still don’t know much about the Bible or the history
of Christianity. More than a third could not identify
Genesis as the first book of the Bible. Only 39
percent could identify Job as the biblical figure who
remained true to his faith in God despite terrible
suffering. Less than half could name the four
Gospels that open the New Testament. And Martin
Luther? Just 46 percent could identify him as a
leading figure of the Reformation.

Our knowledge of other religions is even less
impressive. Less than half of the survey respondents
knew the Jewish sabbath begins on Friday. Only 46
percent could identify the Quran as the holy book of
Islam. Just 47 percent correctly associated the Dalai
Lama with Buddhism. And a scant 27 percent
recognized Islam as the dominant religion of
Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country.

Our understanding of the role of religion in public
life was also found lacking. Though a solid 68
percent could identify what the Constitution says
about religion in general terms, their understanding
of the application of that tradition was poor.

While 89 percent knew that a public school teacher
cannot legally lead a class in prayer, only 36
percent knew that public schools may offer courses
in comparative religion. And a bare 23 percent
realized that it is also legal to teach the Bible as
literature in public schools.

Atheists, agnostics

More than a few Americans will be surprised to learn
that the group scoring the highest were self-
identified atheists and agnostics, who averaged
20.9 correct answers out of 32. Close behind were
Jews and Mormons, at 20.5 and 20.3 respectively.
Well back in the pack were white Catholics (16) and
Protestants (15.8), followed by “nothing in
particular.” At the bottom of the list were black
Protestants (13.4) and Hispanic Catholics (11.6),
who scored only slightly better than half as well as
the atheists/agnostics.

In an era marked by increasingly divisive religious
debates, de facto religious litmus tests for political
candidates and growing hostility toward those
whose beliefs fall outside perceived norms, the fact
that many Americans cannot even answer simple
questions about their own traditions reliably should
give us pause.

Who are we to condemn members of other faiths
when we know almost nothing about them? Why
should we demand an elected official profess a
particular set of beliefs when many of us don’t even
understand the implications of those beliefs? And if
we are such a religious nation, why are so many of
us unable to answer even basic questions about
such mainstream texts as the Bible?

One way to address this shocking deficit in
knowledge might be to assign an atheist to lead a
study group in every religious congregation in the
country. Or people might just open their minds, talk
to their neighbors, and read a book or two about
some belief system outside their own.

But foremost, all of us might try to remember the
Golden Rule. Although 45 percent in the Pew survey
incorrectly identified it as one of the Ten
Commandments, it’s really a decent philosophy for
anyone to follow, no matter what their faith.

-Dr. DRL

My latest newspaper column: year-round school?

Let's hit the books year-round

St. Cloud (MN) Times• September 1, 2010

In the early stages of Minnesota’s gubernatorial race, the three major candidates have been quick to link education and economy, noting that without a well-educated work force our state has little hope for economic growth. But none has suggested any major reforms to K-12 education, and the debate has largely centered on funding mechanisms and levels.

A more ambitious reform agenda might start with the school calendar.

Our common nine-month schedule is a 19th-century relic reflecting the need for young family members to serve as farm labor in the summers and the outdated belief that young minds can be easily overexerted by too much learning. It was also based on the assumption that mothers generally don’t work outside the home and are available to provide child care. Through the 20th century, this status quo was reinforced by economic interests that came to rely on cheap summer labor from teens, though the largest of those sectors (agriculture) eventually eliminated many of its summer jobs.

‘Balanced calendar’

Twentieth-century educators repeatedly told us of the loss of skills, knowledge and positive habits that occurs over the long summer break. Some schools adopted the “balanced calendar” as a solution. It does not add instructional days to the school year, but simply redistributes them more evenly so that students are out of the classroom for no more than four weeks at any one time. This alternative addresses the summer slump, but shows little evidence of increasing overall educational results. It also leaves families needing to find child care in four-week blocks every few months.

A more radical reform would actually increase the number of instructional days in the school year by invading part of the sacrosanct summer vacation. Simply adding a summer session of 50 days — extending the typical school year from 175 instructional days to 225 – would be the equivalent of adding 3.7 years worth of instructional time under the current K-12 system before graduation.

What student would not benefit from three years of additional education before the age of 18? And what employer or college would fail to recognize the value of this extended preparation?

Many advantages

A longer and more rigorous school year offers myriad benefits. Curricula can be refocused. An entire quarter could be dedicated to innovative teaching techniques or developing skills and knowledge in areas underrepresented in the curriculum. Experiential learning programs could be developed to shift students from theory to application.

Resources could be pooled to establish short-term magnet schools to foster deeper exploration in the arts, sciences, trades, or other areas.

Students could take on projects that can’t be done under a traditional schedule, or that required intense focus for several weeks at a time. Perhaps most importantly, academic rigor and expectations could be raised for all grades — making Minnesota’s children the best educated in the nation.

The biggest benefits would likely accrue to the youngest children, who would gain most from an engaging summer program and avoiding the summer slump. But older students would benefit as well.

At the extreme, the three-plus years of additional contact time provides could be used to eliminate the final year of high school. In its place, 17-year-old students could be required to complete an internship, apprenticeship, service project, technical college course of study, or on-the-job training program that would better prepare them for college or a career. It also could prove invaluable to better understanding their own interests, skills and vocation, as opposed to following default paths into work or college under the current system.

Of course, such reforms would come with costs. Teacher salaries would have to increase, and certainly some would prefer not to work summers. Operating expenses for schools would go up, as would demand for air conditioning, busing and other services.

Seasonal employers might find it harder to get cheap summer labor. And families would have to adapt to a new summer rhythm. But if education is as important as the gubernatorial candidates claim, good leadership should help us find ways to overcome barriers.

It would be great to hear some ideas for real educational reform between now and November. Year-round school should be part of that debate.

-Dr.DRL

Dr. DRL on video-- MyMN.org

The new public advocacy group My Minnesota has just issued its first "people's report" on the state of the state. They basically made their film by taking a camera to summer events (parades, festivals, etc.) and asking people in the crowd to talk about the future of the state.

You can view it online at www.mymn.org and look for Dr. DRL to spout Words of Wisdom (tm) at about 1:50 into the roll.

-Dr.DRL

My latest newspaper column: corporate spending in politics

Here's my latest column. The online forum will be up a the paper for a week and the comments there are fairly amusing.

-Dr.DRL
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Times Writers Group: Can businesses afford politics?

St. Cloud (MN) Times • August 4, 2010

Heads were scratched nationwide last week when public records revealed both Target and Best Buy had made $100,000 donations to a political organization called MN Forward. Its major activity to date has been funding ads in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer, a staunch social conservative who has been endorsed by Sarah Palin.

This was perfectly legal since the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Citizens United case eliminated most restrictions on corporate donations to political organizations. With legal rights to free speech akin to individuals, corporations can use their resources to support any candidate or cause they see fit — but that doesn’t mean doing so is always good for business.

Target in particular has come under fire for its donation because Emmer’s conservative social positions are not shared by all of its customers. The company has a reputation as being pro-GLBT, in part because it offers health benefits to domestic partners. But Emmer has spoken strongly against marriage equality and even embraced a controversial Christian singer widely criticized for stating that Muslim countries that put homosexuals to death are “more moral than even the American Christians.”

A backlash against the donation to MN Forward started on social networks and blogs. In less than a week, a new Facebook group called “Boycott Target Until They Cease Funding Anti-gay Politics” gained more than 27,000 members, and virtually every story related to Target now refers to the flap.

This raises two basic questions: Is the political value of supporting a controversial candidate or organization worth negative publicity? And will consumers care enough to change their shopping habits if they disagree with a corporation’s choice of causes?

A Target representative explained that “our support of causes and candidates is based strictly on issues that affect our retail and business objectives” while CEO Greg Steinhafel told critics “Target’s support of the GLBT community is unwavering, and inclusiveness remains a core value of our company.”

Consumers may not be as willing to separate economic policy from social positions.

In this case, consumers did take notice when Target engaged in political spending perceived as contrary to their values. Small-scale boycotts and storefront protests of Target have been organized. Target’s official Facebook page has been flooded with protests, and complaints have poured in to the Human Rights Campaign, a pro-GLBT organization that had given Target good marks.

Time will tell if this is simply short-term outrage or if consumers will really change their shopping habits.

But what if all our shopping choices became politicized? Will we carry a list of stores that share our political values? Will consumers pledge loyalty to a single store not due to “low, low prices” but for political, cultural or religious reasons?

Among the first department stores in the United States was the Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution, formed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1868. The “ZCMI” department stores didn’t sell exclusively to Mormon customers, but for many Mormons the ZCMI was the only proper place to shop for more than 130 years, until it became part of Macy’s in 1999. Was Brigham Young ahead of his time in believing consumers should spend their money at stores that shared their values?

While surveys show most Americans base their retail choices on pocketbook issues, our polarized political climate may challenge that. In the future, we may shop at liberal or conservative stores, eat at progressive or conservative restaurants, and hire plumbers or mechanics who are affiliated with our own political parties.

Until that happens, any business directly or indirectly taking a political position on a divisive issue runs the risk of alienating customers. Meanwhile, boards and shareholders may want to ask if the potential political gain of exercising this “free speech” is indeed worth the cost.

-Dr.DRL

Target under fire for donation to conservative MN candidate

Target Corporation's $150K donation to a conservative PAC called "MN Forward" has been all over the news in Minnesota the last week; I'll have a column in the local paper on the topic this Wednesday. Today Minnesota Public Radio focused on the basic question of whether or not consumers will pay attention to corporate donations and make their shopping choices accordingly. Audio of the entire program is available from their web page.

Would you refuse to shop at a store owned by a corporation that espouses values that conflict with your own?

-Dr.DRL

A little history: how a letter in 1971 set the stage for today's broken politics

A quick trip to the (virtual) archives uncovered this secret letter written by Supreme Court Justice-to-be Louis Powell in 1971. Headed "attack on American free enterprise system" it outlines the world we live in today-- where the working class and ordinary citizens are rendered nearly voiceless while corporations control not only the means of production (wink wink!) but the flow of information and indeed much of the government itself. All this was a conscious strategic move, launched in the 1970s, advanced mightily during the Reagan years, and fully matured during the George W. Bush era.

Read it and weep. This is as much a founding document of modern American conservativism as Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative. It is a blueprint of how things came to be, and as such explains a great deal of why our world is a worse place than it might have been if other values had prevailed.

-Dr.DRL (one of the "liberal faculty" that had Powell terrified 40 years ago)

Here's an inescapable reality according to a new study from The Center for American Progress "By the 2016 election the United States will have ceased to be a white Christian nation. Looking even farther down the road, white Christians will be only around 35 percent of the population by 2040." The full demographic analysis in the report is facinating. Our country will be a very different-- and likely much more progressive --place in another decade.

Another major shift will be the rising importance of Millennials in the mix; they will account for 35-40% of all voters by 2020 and currently favor Democrats by a 2 to 1 margin.

To have any hope of maintaining relevance, the authors argue that the GOP has a few options:

• Move to the center on social issues.
  
• Pay attention to whites with some college education and to young white working-class voters in general.
  
• Another demographic target should be white college graduates, especially those with a four-year degree only.
• In the long run the GOP has to have serious solutions of its own that go beyond cutting taxes. These solutions should use government to address problems but in ways that reflect conservative values and principles.

Read the full report for many more fascinating details. Perhaps there's hope for the future after all.

-Dr. DRL

My latest newsper column: How Far Do You Think Ahead?

How far do you think ahead?
St. Cloud (MN) Times• May 5, 2010

How much time do you spend thinking about the
future? Not next week or next year, but "the future"
as in decades from now, say 2050, 2100 or beyond?

The odds are good the answer is "very little,"
because American culture is oriented toward the
short term — the coming paycheck, the next
quarterly report, the annual profit/loss statement,
the biennial election cycle.

The most distant events people commonly plan for
today are utterly predictable, like saving for college
or retirement. Monday's announcement from the
Pentagon that the U.S. nuclear arsenal has decreased
by 84 percent from its 1967 peak is a reminder that
it wasn't always this way.

The generations that came of age during the Cold
War did think about the future — and often
despaired for it. That threat has been muted for a
generation, replaced by other fears that can't
compare to the bleakness of nuclear winter and
Mutual Assured Destruction.

One result is that young people have stopped
despairing for the future — and perhaps thinking
about it much at all. Ask a teenager what he or she
imagines the world will be like at mid-century and if
you get anything in response it may be some vague
prediction about technology (smaller, faster
computers) or social change (people will be nicer to
one another.)

This isn't their fault. It's simply a reflection of our
cultural preoccupation with the short term and the
small scale.

Despite this lack of attention, futurists — people
who professionally study the future — are making
bold predictions for mid-century and beyond.

Some of their projections are obvious, logical
extrapolations of current trends. For example, most
agree that by 2050 the U.S. will be a majority-
minority nation (i.e. non-Hispanic, single-race
whites will be in the minority.) And few would argue
access to information and communication technologies
will improve in quality and speed,
perhaps beyond what we can imagine having a use for today.

These are examples of what former Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once famously called
"known knowns." The more interesting projections
fit Rumsfeld's "known unknown" category, things
that might happen but will require significant but
conceivable leaps in technology, major social
changes or some other driving factor we are less
able to predict.


This category could include disruptive innovations
like new energy sources (i.e. nuclear fusion), m
edical breakthroughs (genetically modified
humans?) or even the looming consequences of
global climate change.

But the most intriguing category corresponds to
Rumsfeld's "unknown unknowns," i.e. things we
can't adequately conceive of now because our
capacity to imagine them is bounded by our present
reality. This category commonly includes
speculation about what futurist Ray Kurzweil calls
the "singularity," the idea humans could one day
create a machine or a human-machine hybrid that
exceeds the cognitive capacity of the human brain.
Should that occur, the resulting intellect could
logically produce innovations beyond the capacity
of purely biological humans to even imagine, much
less create.

Such "transhuman" entities could represent an
evolutionary leap from our present state and bring
about change of a nature and scale we simply
cannot fathom today. This is, of course, all the stuff
of science fiction, and that's partly the point.

There's a long tradition of imagining the future in
speculative fiction. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were
fairly accurate in many of their predictions. Aldus
Huxley and George Orwell came closer to the truth
than is sometimes comfortable.

Legions of Cold War writers imagined the aftermath
of nuclear war, to varied ends, and thankfully all
were wrong. But young people today are not reading
speculative fiction. They are not burdened with the
constant threat of global annihilation, so they have
the luxury of not thinking far into the future at all.

The unfortunate result is that instead of musing
about the economics of commercial travel to Mars,
the efficiency of organic computers implanted into
our brains, or the ethics of genetically modifying
human embryos, many are simply wondering what
they'll do next summer or where they'll be living in
five years. So the next time you speak with a young
person ask them about the future. Find out how far
their imagination stretches. Then give them a little
push and see what happens.
###

Dr.DRL

Local school receives LEED Gold rating for sustainability

A press release today announced that Kennedy Community School in St. Joseph, MN has earned a LEED Gold rating from the US Green Building Council. I was involved in the project from the early stages in 2006, largely as a "green building gadfly" who threw out crazy ideas and researched alternatives with the design team. The school was designed to meet the LEED Silver standard but exceeded that in its first two years of operation.

Kudos to GLT Architects and the St. Cloud School District #742 team!

-Dr.DRL
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Kennedy School Receives USGBC® Gold Certification

St. Joseph, MN (April 26, 2010) – The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) has awarded St.Cloud Area School District 742’s Kennedy Community School in St. Joseph, Minnesota, with a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Schools (LEED®) certification at the GOLD level.

The LEED Green Building Rating System is a nationally accepted benchmark for evaluating sustainable sites, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere efficiency, material and resource selection and indoor environmental quality. Points can also be achieved for innovation in design.

“GLTArchitects (GLTA) and their design team partnered with the school district and members of the community in 2006 to design a school that would save energy and be sensitive to the environment, and which would be designed to create opportunities to teach the students and the community about sustainable practices,” said GLTArchitects’ Principal Architect, David Leapaldt.

Kennedy Community School earned this special recognition for numerous key design accomplishments. The building minimizes environmental impacts through several site-related measures, such as an infiltration basin which manages 100% of all on-site storm water. A partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service installed 40 acres of native wildlife habitat on the site that is maintained with the help of
the students. Parking was situated so that one impervious surface meets the needs of school and outdoor athletics activities. Wells were installed for the athletic fields to avoid using potable city water to maintain them. Water efficiencies were incorporated into the design of the building to reduce water use by over 30%.

Reduced operating costs are achieved through a geothermal heat pump system using the natural cycles of the earth for heating and cooling, reducing the dependence on fossil fuels. “In two winters, we have not burned one ounce of fossil fuel on site,” said Principal, Diane Moeller. Electrical energy usage is also minimized. Classroom windows are designed to maximize daylight, with sensors reducing light levels or
even turning off the lights when sufficient natural light is available. Tubular skylights are installed in interior corridors, reducing or eliminating the need for artificial lighting of the corridors during the day. Overall, the building uses 39% less energy than the benchmark standards.During construction, 78% or 563 tons, of all construction waste was diverted from a landfill, and over 20% of all materials used in the project were manufactured regionally.

Indoor environmental quality is carefully controlled to provide an atmosphere that is both healthy and comfortable. A “displacement ventilation” system was installed that allows more fresh air to be provided and supplies it at a lower velocity to greatly reduce the sound of the ventilation system. Materials selected throughout the school are environmentally sensitive in their make-up and manufacture and require far lower levels of ongoing maintenance. The team also received recognition for the school as a teaching tool. “Our sustainability curriculum spans all grade levels and is embedded in most curricular areas. We are fortunate to be able to teach
sustainability through the use of a green building as the base,” said Moeller.

“A lot of detail goes into the design and the submittal for LEED certification of a facility,” said GLTA Project Architect and LEED Project Team Administrator, Steve Paasch. “The school district and our project partners were critical to ensure the information was accurate and timely. This USGBC Gold Certification is proof that the Kennedy Community School performs to the environmental levels established by the school district and the community.” Grooters Leapaldt Tideman Architects (GLTArchitects) is a full-service architectural firm based in St. Cloud, Minnesota, providing quality, sustainable architectural services and design for clients throughout the Upper Midwest. Learn more about GLTArchitects and the project at www.gltarchitects.com.

###

My latest newspaper column: religious diversity at home

Our local paper has been filled with hateful attacks on our Muslim neighbors in recent weeks, often backed by very inaccurate assumptions about the beliefs of the local, majority-Catholic population. This is exacerbated by the fact that almost 10% of our community are refugees from Somalia who have arrived in the last five years or so, a very visible symbol of the changing demographics of central Minnesota. I wrote this column in part to provoke a discussion about the assumptions the presumed majority are making about themselves and the people they seem to believe are all like them.

Times Writers Group: Many
know little of others' faiths

St. Cloud (MN) Times• April 7, 2010

by Derek Larson

Religion plays a large and important role in
American society, as the news and opinion pages of
this newspaper have demonstrated in recent weeks.
That role is changing though, and trends suggest
the assumptions many make about their neighbors'
religious beliefs are increasingly inaccurate.

The best information available on American
religious practices today comes from the Pew Forum
on Religion and Public Life. Among its most recent
surveys, one can find many fascinating statistics:

26 percent of Americans are identified as
evangelical protestants, 23 percent Catholic, and 18
percent mainline protestants.

16 percent – the next largest group – are the
"unaffiliated" which includes atheists and agnostics.

Jews (1.7 percent), Buddhists (0.7 percent), Muslims
(0.6 percent) and Hindus (0.4 percent) are among
the largest of the non-Christian groups.

44 percent of adults have left the religion in which
they were raised, either for another or none at all.

Fully 25 percent of young adults (ages 18-29) are
unaffiliated with any religion.

71 percent of all unaffiliated Americans are under
age 50.

While 31 percent of Americans today were raised
Catholic, only 24 percent remain so.

37 percent of married couples are of different
religious faiths.

There are also major variations between states:

At the extremes of the poll, 91 percent of
Mississippians believe in God while only 54 percent
of those in Vermont/New Hampshire report the
same.

Arkansas is only 5 percent Catholic; New Jersey is
42 percent Catholic.

Alaska and Oregon are among the least religious
states, each with 27 percent unaffiliated with any
religion.

Alabama and Mississippi are among the most
religious, with only 8 percent unaffiliated.

Minnesota ranks 29th for "belief in God" and 35th
for frequency of prayer, well below national
averages.

Political and social views also vary within and
across denominations:

33 percent of all Catholics reported they were
Republican or "lean Republican."

48 percent of all Catholics reported they were
Democratic or "lean Democratic."


Mormons reported the highest incidence of
Republican affinity at 65 percent.

Members of "historically Black churches" reported

the highest incidence of Democratic affinity at 78
percent.

Catholics were the most likely of the major groups
to believe that "homosexuality should be accepted
by society" at 58 percent; Mormons were least likely
to accept this statement at 24 percent.

62 percent of members of mainline protestant
churches felt that "abortion should be legal in all or
most cases;" among Catholics 42 percent felt the
same as did 27 percent of Mormons.

It is overwhelmingly clear from the data that the
religious lives of Americans are more complex than
many assume, and the traditional stereotypes about
beliefs, practices and their consequences are often
not supported by the data.

We know comparatively little about the specific
religious beliefs of Americans before the late 20th
century when private polling organizations began to
ask personal questions of individuals, in part
because the federal government only formally
collected data from religious groups between about
1850-1946.

What is obvious from any glance at the existing
data, however, is that the American religious
landscape has always been much more diverse than
many assume today. A total of 186 different
denominations were counted in the 1906 Census of
Religious Bodies, for example, and even then they
ranged from Adventists to the Vedanta Society,
Baha'i to the Society for Ethical Culture.

Taken as a whole, these data suggest that those who
react to growing religious diversity with fear are
missing the fact that the United States has always
been diverse. The lack of a state religion and the
religious freedoms enshrined in our founding
documents and legal culture ensure it will remain
so. Rather than fear those who are different, it might
be more sensible to talk with them and seek out
common ground.

If that's too much to ask, then those who rely so
often on handy stereotypes might at least take the
time to learn how much diversity there is within the
ranks of their own faiths.

-Dr. DRL

My latest newspaper column: on governors and taxes

From the St. Cloud (MN) Times:

February 3, 2010

Times Writers Group: Pick a governor, not an extremist

Tuesday's caucuses were the first step in bringing real leadership back to the governor's office in St. Paul. Regardless of who wins either party's endorsement, there's hope that the eventual victor will not have drunk Tim Pawlenty's particular brand of anti-tax Kool-Aid along the way.

If that's the case, Minnesota may yet recover some of the ground lost to the governor's refusal to even consider raising taxes as part of the response to budget crises in recent years.

Monday's news brought a stark example of the end result of this sort of unwavering anti-tax ideology in the case of Colorado Springs. In that city of almost 400,000 people, thousands of street lights will soon be shut off, police officers and firefighters will be sent packing, and citizens will be asked to BYOM (bring-your-own-mower) to city parks. The city's police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. Other "non-essential" city services will cease later this spring, including things like evening and weekend bus service.

How did "The Springs," home to the U.S. Air Force Academy and the second largest city in Colorado, get to this point? Has the "Evangelical Vatican," known for its high concentration of conservation Christian organizations, somehow fallen from divine favor? Did the Department of Defense suddenly decide to shutter Fort Carson, NORAD, and Peterson Air Force Base? Did the US Olympic Training Center move to Mexico in search of warmer winters?

Sadly, the people of Colorado Springs did this to themselves via a so-called "taxpayers bill of rights" or TABOR law that placed strict limits on taxes and left local government unable to respond to the recession by doing anything other than slashing services.

The Colorado Springs TABOR law is particularly shortsighted because it restricts public spending to the level of the previous year's budget, plus a small allowance for population growth and inflation. That may be sufficient in good times, but when times are tough — say in a recession — budgets constrict as tax revenues fall. The worst comes afterward, of course, when the law prevents tax increases to restore budgets to their prerecession levels without a vote.

In a notoriously anti-tax community like Colorado Springs the net result is decaying infrastructure, declining public services and ultimately failed government. It's obviously a terrible way to manage the community's future, but residents brought this upon themselves, in part by buying what that anti-tax peddlers were selling ("we'll run the city like a business!") without much thought to the consequences.

By contrast, voters in Oregon endorsed two ballot measures last month that raised taxes on individuals earning more than $150,000, boosted corporate tax rates and increased the minimum tax on business for the first time since 1931. While there's a certain populist appeal to a tax increase that only hits 3 percent of the population, everyone will bear the weight of the increased business and corporate taxes as they are passed on to consumers.

Certainly some would question the wisdom of pushing a $750 million tax increase during a recession, but the voters of Oregon were faced with what they considered unacceptable cuts to public safety, education, and health and human services. It didn't even come down to street lights for them.

We in Minnesota are lucky that anti-tax zealots haven't yet gained much power beyond the governor's office. The damage has been constrained as a result.

Sure, the Minnesota Miracle is well behind us. Yes, our roads are decaying. Social services have been cut. Education is in decline. Oversight and regulation are hampered by lack of resources. We know. But at least the street lights are still on, right?

As the long list of gubernatorial candidates is winnowed to a final few, Minnesotans would do well to keep Colorado Springs and Oregon in mind. We need a governor who will consider every option rather than basing critical decisions on the dictates of a narrow ideology.

A mix of tax increases and spending cuts will be necessary to balance future budgets and maintain the quality of life that makes living here worthwhile, so let's make that the first issue to put before the candidates between now and November.

May the least narrow-minded win.

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Dr.DRL

Help for Haiti-- please consider donating

Everyone's heard about the disaster in Haiti. Medical Teams International (formerly Northwest Medical Teams) is an international aid group based in Portland, Oregon. I've long admired their work and supported them through donations when trying to respond to a crisis. They are an explicitly Christian organization but they represent the "good" side of that faith perspective, i.e. providing services to anyone and not using their aid as a tool for evangelizing.

If you are looking for a way to respond to the Haitian tragedy please consider Medical Teams International as a possible place to donate. They are sending their first response team on January 14th and more aid will follow. Their main web page includes a link to donate specifically to this operation.

-Dr.DRL

Wall Street Journal lists best jobs of 2010-- guess who's at #5?

The Wall Street Journal has published a list of the "best' jobs for 2010. Shockingly, "historian" comes in at #5! The rest of the list is packed with surprises as well.

-Dr.DRL

My latest newspaper column: looking back at 1910

My latest column ran today in the St. Cloud Times. Nothing remotely controversial in this one, so probably much less fun from the online chat at the paper in response. Happy reading anyway though, and happy New Year!

-Dr.DRL
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January 6, 2010
Saint Cloud (MN) Times

Times Writers Group: Times do change, but do we?

By Derek Larson

Years ending in zero often prompt optimistic predictions as people turn their backs on the past and look to the coming decade with hope. In practice, short-term predictions of anything but the status quo are almost always wrong, if only because change that comes quickly is inherently unpredictable.

Time, as it happens, moves much more slowly than most of us realize. Step back from the perspective of a decade to that of a century and the slow pace of change is even more obvious.

Americans enjoying the first week of January in 1910 were really more like us than not. Their media — which basically meant newspapers — included some predictions for the looming teens but were mostly filled with the same sorts of stories we see today: crime, accidents, politics, weather, human interest and random curiosities.

The dominant paper of the day — The New York Times — offers typical examples. On Jan. 1, 1910, the Times featured the scientific insights of astronomer Percival Lowell, who announced that Martians were hard at work digging canals on their planet.

On Jan. 2, sporting news was fixated on the defeat of the Tulane football team in Havana, the first time a Cuban team had beaten an American one.

January 3 was crime day, with the largest headline decrying the shooting of a young woman at the Fashion Ball on Sixth Avenue, an apparently innocent victim of a “gang feud.” The requisite maudlin human interest story was about a man who had disappeared on Christmas Day while “going for a pail of beer.” He was found frozen to death in a snow drift eight days later, dead of exposure, his pail in one hand and money in the other.

The front page on Jan. 4 told the sad tale of a wealthy woman whose car was stolen when her chauffeur stopped for a cup of coffee, forcing her to miss a theater party. Of slightly greater interest was a story about the acquisition of two more trust companies by financier J.P. Morgan in a stock deal bringing the value of his corporation to more than $170 million (close to $4 billion today) making it “by far the largest in the United States.”

The next edition reflected a slow news day, marked by a piece about four people who died from eating tainted home-canned pears in Massachusetts and a longer article about a Harvard geologist who had determined the Earth was exactly 60,000,000 years old.

An emerald lost but later found at the Waldorf Hotel led the news on Jan. 6, paired with headlines about an ice storm and a 10-year-old boy genius who the paper claimed would “revolutionize geometry.”

On Jan. 7 it was revealed that Mrs. Charles W. Morse, whose husband had been convicted of breaking federal banking laws and sentenced to 15 years in prison, was starting a petition to President Taft to have her husband released from prison. Taft may have been preoccupied though, as the Times also reported that he had just received a new horse from Montana, “one of the strongest animals that could be found in the West ... and able to carry the weight of the president.”

As we look forward from 2010, things haven’t changed that much. Newspapers — and all other media — will cover the same sorts of stories The New York Times did in 1910 because our lives are basically the same.

The few pieces that may accurately predict the future will be almost impossible to identify now; only with decades of hindsight will we know which were important and which were more like the feature about President Taft’s horse.

Meanwhile, we’ll go through life just as people always have, one day at a time, blithely ignorant of what the future may bring but always hoping for bigger and better things.

-Dr.DRL