Roger O Green

Good day: asylee, bamboozled, storyline

“Persecution or the fear thereof must be based on the alien’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”

This is what makes a good day: learning something new. Often it’s at work, but not always.

I was doing some research on demographics. I could NOT find what I wanted at the Census, so I looked on the page for the Department of Homeland Security. I discovered a word that was new to me: asylee. My spellcheck does NOT like it.

USCIS’ somewhat skewed definition: “An alien in the United States or at a port of entry who is found to be unable or unwilling to return to his or her country of nationality, or to seek the protection of that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. Persecution or the fear thereof must be based on the alien’s race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. For persons with no nationality, the country of nationality is considered to be the country in which the alien last habitually resided. Asylees are eligible to adjust to lawful permanent resident status after one year of continuous presence in the United States. These immigrants are limited to 10,000 adjustments per fiscal year.”

The difference between a person seeking refugee status and asylum status you can check out here; the distinction is narrow. The dictionary definition of asylee is merely “a person who is seeking or has been granted political asylum.”

That day, Facebook decided that I might want to repost something from five years ago, and I, unusually, actually did. The item received more likes this time around than it did in 2012, maybe because it’s even more true:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

On my way home on the bus that night, I hear the guy behind me talking, ending with “I try not to f@#& too many of the shanks in the apartment building.” I figure he’s some sort of lowlife scum.

But then I hear, in an odd mechanical male voice, “I try not to f@#& too many of the shanks in the apartment building,” which is oddly amusing. And then he sends the audio file to someone, I believe to himself. Is he some sort of writer? If you find that line in a book published in the next couple years, or hear it in a movie theater near you, know it was created and dictated on the CDTA 905 bus.

Video review: Where To Invade Next

After the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis, bankers were actually prosecuted.

The movie Where To Invade Next appeared briefly in theaters in New York City and Los Angeles at the end of 2015, but was booked for general release in February 2016. Unfortunately, Michael Moore, the writer/director/star, caught pneumonia around that time, forcing him to cancel activities to promote the film.

Then in May 2016, he emailed MoveOn members, offering them a copy of the video for a donation to the organization, and “tens of thousands… responded.” I was one of them.

The premise of the film is that Moore would “invade” particular countries, and “steal” their best ideas. In Italy, for instance, he interviewed well-paid workers with guaranteed vacation and paid parental leave.

France had delicious-looking school meals and frank sex education. Finland’s education policy, according to the Minister of Education, involved almost no homework and no standardized testing. In Slovenia, the President note that students, including those from other countries, can get a tuition-free, and therefore debt-free higher education.

The Germans have labor rights and a work–life balance, while engaging in an honest national history education about its past, especially regarding the Nazis. Portugal has a rational drug policy and has abolished the death penalty. Norway’s humane prison system applies even to the maximum-security facilities.

Tunisia touts women’s rights, including reproductive health, and women were very important in the drafting of a new constitution in 2014. In Iceland, where women have been in power, the world’s first democratically elected female president came about after a general strike by women.

Of course, the kicker is, in each of these cases, the countries had originally “stolen” the ideas from the United States. For instance, after the 2008–11 Icelandic financial crisis, bankers were actually prosecuted. This came directly from the playbook of the United States after the savings and loan scandal of the 1980s, and in stark contrast with how the US dealt with its subsequent fiscal disaster.

I’ve seen several of Michael Moore’s documentaries. Where To Invade Next is more fun, and far less preachy, than some of his recent films, as he shows what other countries’ choices look like compared with the American dream that seems so difficult to achieve. Yet it doesn’t paint those other countries as total utopias.

Certainly, some will find his examples superficial – I find them even more compelling as the movie progresses – but given the way many Americans know so little about the world outside their borders, this would probably be helpful primer. Not incidentally, there’s a bit about tearing down the Berlin Wall. People from all political stripes may find the film intriguing, a source of conversation even more relevant in light of recent political events in the United States.

February 2017 weather rollercoaster

She was TICKED and rightly so.

It snowed – again – in Albany, NY in February 2017. It snowed so little last winter, and indeed this one (less than 17 inches to date by February 9) that when it actually took place, people were SHOCKED. They complained it was cold, in upstate New York, in winter; oh, please.

And they have forgotten how to shovel. If you do it frequently, it’s much easier. If you get down to the sidewalk level, then the pavement gets a chance to dry up. but if you don’t, the covering turns to ice, and it’s pain to walk on. And if you live on a corner lot, clear to the street in BOTH directions!

There were school closings and delays in the area on the 9th and the 13th. The latter in particular got on my nerves. I noticed that Albany schools had a two-hour delay, as did the school my wife teaches in, and I confirmed this at 6:30 a.m. on the Times Union newspaper website. I’m watching CBS News This Morning, which starts at 7, not particularly paying attention to the closing scrolling along the bottom. But I did happen to notice that Albany city schools were shown as CLOSED! What?

I ran upstairs to the laptop in the office and saw that I had an email from Albany SNN (School News Network) that the schools were indeed closed, posted at 7:08 a.m.! I also confirmed on the TU website. It was called SO late that, as I was out shoveling the walk, and my wife digging out the car, she saw a teacher at the Daughter’s old school who had not heard about the closing, only the delay. She was TICKED and rightly so.

There’s a basic arithmetic rule in my household that apply to snow days:
* If the Wife’s school delay/closing is greater than, or equal to, the Daughter’s school delay/closing, this is good.
* If the Wife’s school delay/closing is less than the Daughter’s school delay/closing, this is a PITA.

I rushed to work, took care of a couple must-do tasks, and less than two hours later was taking a bus home and taking 3/4 of a day “vacation.”

And after these two storms, which brought the seasonal total to a mere 41 inches (less than average), it got warm. The snow went away as the temperature reached the upper 60s (upper teens C), breaking a couple daily records, 69F on the 23rd, and 74F on the 24th (!) before going back to more seasonable temperatures. I even rode my bike to work work a couple days. (I need to – ouch – do that more often.)

February rambling #2: Which Side Are You On?

City Fines Interracial Couple Who Found Racist Graffiti On Home

WHY FACTS DON’T CHANGE OUR MINDS

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Obamacare and Putin

The Peril of Potemkin Democracy

The Shallow State celebrates its ignorance

Steve Bannon to media: We’re going to make it worse for you every day, then WH bars news outlets from briefing

Bannon Admits Cabinet Nominees Were Selected To Destroy Their Agencies

Private prison company hires former Jeff Sessions aides to lobby in D.C. (Oct 2016); Attorney General Jeff Sessions: U.S. to continue use of private prisons, reversing Obama directive (Feb 2017)

FCC Is Already Canceling Internet Services for Low-Income Customers

Eliminating arts funding programs will save just 0.0625% of budget

Have your papers ready’: Customs agents checking IDs on DOMESTIC flights

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch’s mom

While Orange scandals mount, Chaffetz decides to investigate … a cartoon character

Gabby Giffords to Louie Gohmert: ‘Have some courage. Face your constituents’

He could make things a little easier for preachers

Dear Evangelicals, I Don’t Think You Realize How You Sound To Everybody Else

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau affirms $50M for physics think-tank in Waterloo, Ont.

Mexico City, Parched and Sinking, Faces a Water Crisis

Human Rights Watch fights to end child marriage in New York

Meet the Math Professor Who’s Fighting Gerrymandering With Geometry

The Only Thing, Historically, That’s Curbed Inequality: Catastrophe

How to Spot Manipulation

What a Silicon Valley liberal learned from supporters of 45

I Was a Muslim in This White House

The Atlantic: Michael K. Williams Asks: Am I Typecast?

The Color of Love: Kim Novak and Sammy Davis Jr.

City Fines Interracial Couple Who Found Racist Graffiti On Home

Breaking the silence: Jason Gough talks about being sexually abused as a child

When Things Go Missing

Understanding Alzheimers in three minutes

Why you should really start talking to old people more

The only library in the world that operates in two countries at once

The Darkest Town In America

Is Verizon’s new unlimited plan worth it?

TED Talk with Norman Lear

Arthur: Not blogging is exhausting

Oscars 2017: What It Was Like Onstage During the Best Picture Mistake; most misspelled nominee: Naomie Harris

Noted actor Bill Paxton dies at 61 – saw him in Apollo 13, Titanic, Spy Kids 2, Million Dollar Arm, and Twister, among other films, plus the video Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes

Richard Schickel, Movie Critic, Author and Filmmaker, Dies at 84

Coverville’s Brian Ibbott: What happened to manners at movie theaters?

Bertram Forer, American psychologist who described the technique for self-deception familiar to psychics, astrologers and even popular business personality tests

Library Hand, the Fastidiously Neat Penmanship Style Made for Card Catalogs

Dictionary’s latest additions include ‘side-eye,’ ‘humblebrag,’ and ‘ghost’

VHS memories

Major League Baseball: Intentional walks will now be granted to hitters with a signal from the opposing dugout, rather than by having the pitcher throw four obvious balls; BOO! HISS!

On Why Serena Williams Is His Favorite

The NBA G-League? No. No no no no no no no…

Philosophy Jeopardy

Unputdownable: 17 books I read in 24 hours or less (because they were just that good)

Vanna White turns sixty

Twisted, sister

Now I Know: Georgia’s Version of Stonehenge and The Pink Light That Wipes Out Teenagers and How Cows Mooved Through Manhattan and Why Knowing is Half the Battle

Music

The K-Flow Show Episode 1, featuring Rebecca Jade (the niece!)

Pac-Man – Weird Al (to the tune of the Beatles’ Taxman)

Total Praise – Richard Smallwood and Vision

Sam Cooke with “Touch the Hem of His Garment”

Down to the River to Pray – Alison Krauss [Live]

Which Side Are You On? – Ani DiFranco

Simon & Garfunkel take to the stage to perform their iconic hit Sound Of Silence

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

David Bowie’s son shares emotional tribute after his five posthumous Grammy wins

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr Reunite to Record Together in Studio

Where Should Axl and Slash Go Now?

H is for Doctor Henry Heimlich

In 2016, Heimlich himself performed the maneuver on an 87-year-old woman.

Henry Heimlich, the doctor who invented a lifesaving anti-choking procedure, died at the age of 96 in December 2016. He had some controversial medical theories, especially during his later years. But the Heimlich maneuver saved countless lives.

“Performing abdominal thrusts involves a rescuer standing behind a patient and using his or her hands to exert pressure on the bottom of the diaphragm. This compresses the lungs and exerts pressure on any object lodged in the trachea, hopefully expelling it.”

The trick about the Heimlich maneuver is that one cannot really practice it on a real person, only a dummy. I learned it at a Red Cross training that I took in high school back in the late 1960s.

On a Sunday in May of 1995, I was in a real funk and had been in a pretty sour mood. I had to go to my ex’s place and get the last of my stuff. Then I had to go visit a choir member in the hospital who was dying. I didn’t bother to go to church for worship and only went to the meal afterward because I promised I would.

This woman, who was over 80 and who I did not know, was off to the side from the dining area, looking as though she were turning blue. Then someone opined that perhaps she might have eaten something. I recalled my training from high school but was worried about perhaps breaking a rib, which I knew could happen.

Still, I utilized it for the first time. After one thrust, some piece of meat came from her mouth and flew at least 15 feet. The pastor at the time – this was in my old church – was always one to come up with a smart-aleck remark. He said to me, “If you see ME choking, just let me die.”

Three years later, when I got the JEOPARDY! Information Sheet that asked for five items that they would use for their “chat cards”. I wrote, among other things about Earl Warren, Rod Serling, mountain climbing, and LPs, “The Heimlich maneuver works!”

Earlier in 2016, Heimlich himself performed the maneuver on an 87-year-old woman seated next to him at the senior community where he lived. The Heimlich maneuver is one of the most used medical procedures used by non-medical personnel.

ABC Wednesday – Round 20