Norway is Number One!

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Here’s some sobering news on the “we’re number one” front. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that ever since I was a child I heard or thought or was told that the United States was the richest country in the world. As you get older, of course, things get more complicated.

I earn my living by piecing together on line teaching jobs, none of which provide either a pension or health care. Those are things every other industrial or post industrial country provides its citizens as a matter of course.

In Europe, the work week has been getting shorter and most people have four week vacations. Here we all work an increasingly longer week and if you are a professional, and feel secure, you might take two weeks off.

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Congress in 30 Seconds

A short while before the Foley story broke, I was putting together a post about a contest the Sunlight Foundation is running called Congress in 30 seconds. They have a series of web gizmos at the site that allow you to splice together your own 30 TV spot, with film clips and sound and text on the screen. The idea is to create an ad showing what you think members of Congress spend their day doing.

Josh Marshall, October 20, 2006

I was sent to Marshall’s succinct description by a TechRhet post (a listserv I subscribe to) and I thought it would be a great Wednesday video post. There’s also a contest and the winner gets $5000.00. Right now it’s dominated by “kick out the bums” videos, like the one above, but that may change. Check back often, I bet as more videos and music gets uploaded things will get really fun.

http://www.congressin30seconds.com/

You Can’t Just Say No

I am always hearing someone or the other say that this is the age of irony, that there are no more heroes, etc. Somehow being smart has gotten all mixed up with being cynical or negative. Here are two people that I think are heroic, both recently interviewed on Democracy Now.

First is Augustin Aguayo, a U.S. solider who decided to become a conscientious objector instead of fighting in Iraq. Aguayo will likely go to jail. You can read about him here:

http://www.aguayodefense.org/index.html

His interview on Democracy Now is available on his site (look up at the top-right corner of the page).

No less heroic is Army Specialist Suzanne Swift who also refused to serve in the U.S. military in Iraq. Swift alleges that she was was sexually harassed both here and abroad. Her Democracy Now interview is here:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/18/1351245

These are courageous people we should all admire and support.