Letter to NPR...

Hello WUWM friends,

I'm a long time listener, and a recovering fundamentalist from the far religious-right, but even I was disappointed when I heard the reference to the "Cato Institute: a libertarian" think-tank. First, the Cato institute is not Libertarian in their practice of their focus. They have no philosophical basis for that claim. It's just a tag they've chosen to purport to seem ideologically ethereal. 

By now we know that the Cato Institute is a puppet org for the interests of the Koch brothers. Created by them to gird their political agendas, the Cato institute is now understood to be a ruse. Remember, they're behind the "climategate" scandal, the instigators of bad press versus the entire climate science community, and the biggest contributors to efforts to roll back environmental initiatives.

That's ancillary to the story I heard this morning in the 9:00 hour, which was about teachers and their reputations in the public sector. Twice the Cato Institute was referenced and given a chance for their rep to comment on perceptions about teachers and their unions. This is outrageous! (sorry, I had to use an exclamation) The Koch brothers have been funding ads in WI and around the country which have done much like what climategate did, skew the public perception against teachers and their unions. 

In WI, just after 100,000 plus teachers and supporters of unions were at the Capital, amidst weeks of protests, the Koch brothers, through their second of three puppet orgs, The Americans for Prosperity, began running ads which demonized teachers for missing classes, and their unions as thugs and malcontents. The very same ad played in your NPR story may have been funded by the Koch's, then your reporter cites their research into the perceptions?

I know that the Cato institute is the equivalent of an intra-agency metrics tracking entity to measure the results of their own efforts to sway perception and gain political capital. But NPR, as the last bastion of objective journalism in USA, should not post their quarterly numbers, so to speak. Please make every effort to expunge any notion that the Cato Institute has any credibility or objectivity. They don't . It's time that NOVA dump funding from one ot the Koch brothers and it's time that NPR severs any and all ties to any of the 35 or so orgs which they fund.

That story was not journalism, it was an infomercial.

Thank you for your time. I've certainly come a long, long way from the days when I would have eaten that up.

Peace,

Christian E. Vettrus

Milwaukee, WI USA

Sagging Jeans Prohibition Not Merely Intrusive

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/14/nation/la-na-baggy-pants-20110415


"intrusiveness by government has reached a new peak in America, with the State of Florida now in the process of legislating a dress code that bans baggy pants. Seriously! I can't believe the Florida electorate voted in the current governor and legislature in order to get laws like this." -- fb friend


A friend posted this on Facebook regarding a new law in Florida to prohibit sagging/baggy jeans.


Although I agree that it is intrusive. I am torn. I live in the inner-city of one of the most segregated cities in USA, and worked with semi-incarcerated juveniles for 5 years.

Sagging is a problem. I see youths with their pants beneath their manhood out on the streets regularly. There might even be a belt cinched, but it's beneath their rear end. This is indecent at the very least.

But the real problem is that those pants with 28" legs are used to hide weapons and things. We confiscated them as contraband when the kids were admitted to our facilities (I worked at two different ones). I've seen a gangbanger produce a baseball bat from one of those pairs of jeans on one occasion, and that's not the worst sort of weapon that they conceal.

These pants are also used for property theft and shoplifting. Again, they hold an awful lot.

I've not been quite able to discern the sagging phenom as a counterpart of this second issue, but often the cause is quite different than one might think. I sometimes wonder if someone sags their jeans to show that they're unarmed. The gangbanger who is armed is often grasping the jeans waist and possibly the weapon with one hand at all times, so who knows?

I know that when I first lived in the 'hood I was judgemental about why folks walk down the middle of the street and not the sidewalk. Then I realized that people often don't shovel snow off the walks in the winter round here... and that you are less likely to be jumped if you walk in the street. So it actually makes some sense.

Of course, the drug dealers walk in the street to facilitate quick transactions also.

Anyway, don't be so quick to apply the same outrage to this issue. It isn't just minority youths who wear these things. It's all types of them. They're kids, and they need structure anyway.

But they're not the problem. The companies like JNCO who produce these clothes are... and they produce jeans with logos that are tailored to gang bangers. They have five and six pointed crowns embroidered on them depending upon the maker.

What people don't realize is that many major clothing and shoe manufacturers have actually tailored their lines of clothing to gangs. Converse, Nike, Starter and others are notorious for this. It's a fact that most white folks don't see. But I can identify clothes which are used to "flag" for gang membership.

The baggy jeans are an emblem of a dangerous subculture which is not race-bound. It's complicated for sure. No simple answers here. Big Brother in this case is more right than wrong...