Mr. President, It's Time to Act...Now!

Since 2001 under President George W. Bush’s orders, the US has been in a state of national emergency, which has been continued by President Obama. One of the provisions of the US national emergency legislation concerns powers over the control and regulation of property. Under this provision, the President has the authority to order the stockpiling of certain strategic materials and authorize allocation of materials to promote national defense, and can require industries to give priority to government contracts. 

 

Among the highest national homeland security priorities is the condition of the United States Electrical Power Grid, which requires upgrading and steps toward securing American power equipment.

Producing more effective and efficient equipment for airport passenger screening and screening of materiel entering US ports, which is currently virtually unscreened.  Under numerous federal contracts the President has the authority to order such steps.

The upgrading of nuclear power plants with fail-safe mechanisms in the event of terrorist attacks is essential. The US Dept of Energy has the power to order such upgrades.

Remodeling and upgrading hospitals and clinics is necessary to accommodate increase numbers of patients in the event of a biological or nuclear attack, which are currently woefully inadequate.  This is an authority of the Dept of Health and Human Services.

Upgrading of public schools as sites in which to secure children in the event of a terrorist attack calls for renovation and replacement of badly outdated schools.  This is regulated by the US Dept of Education.

Upgrading interstate and state highways making it possible to more rapidly facilitate the evacuation of major population centers in the event of a terrorist attack or nuclear disaster is among the highest priorities.  This is an authority of the US Dept of Transportation.

These are all steps the President has authority to undertake under the President’s National Emergency Powers, and he should do so expeditiously. Since these activities require release of funds by banks and other institutions that are currently withholding them, which is further depressing the economy, the president has the authority to order them to make such funds available, at risk of seizure if they fail to do so.  

Many of these steps can be undertaken within the constraints of current 2011-2012 federal budgets through re-allocation, but others will require using the President’s emergency powers in accordance the US Constitution Article II, Section 3, which gives presidents the power to control the budget process, if necessary using Executive Orders.

In each instance, priority should be placed on hiring unemployed workers to undertake these very important national security activities, with hiring Iraq and Afghanistan veterans being among the first in line.

Some may argue these steps involve exceeding the President’s authority.  They don’t. Mr. Bush initiated such steps and Mr. Obama would be continuing them. 

It’s time to quit messing around and get something done.

Please REPOST this Blog entry to interested individuals, and send to your elected representatives and the President.  Be sure to add your own comments, at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact   http://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/How_to_contact_senators.htm

http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Theocracy and Plutocracy in Iraqi and America

American politics increasingly resembles Iraqi politics. Medina in Saudia Arabia during Muhammad's time, was an early example of a truly democratic state, but the development of democracy in the Islamic world eventually came to a halt following to the Sunni-Shia split. In modern Iraq the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council party became one of Iraq's most powerful political parties and was the largest party in the Iraqi Council of Representatives (like the House of Representatives).  It is a Shia Muslim party previously led by prominent Shia Ayatollahs. No confusion there, it is a theocratic party (like the Ayatollahs in the US Tea Party which now runs the Republican Party).  The other major party, The Iraqis, consists of an alliance of Sunni tribal leaders, led by those of al-Yawar's Shammar tribe. It is also a religious party, but somewhat more secular (i.e. more like the US Democratic Party).  Aside from the periodic throwing of shoes, and insults hurled at one another, the most striking feature of the Iraqi Parliament is its lack of activity. The Iraqis can’t come to any agreement about most things, but are entirely stalemated as to how to divide their enormous oil wealth. 

You will recall the catcalls, jeers and spitting at African American House members by members of the Tea Party in 2009.  The Iraqis would no doubt find it familiar to the way their own Parliament operates.  You will also be aware that nearly the only legislation passed by the Republican House of Representatives has been to oppose abortion and Gay rights, and Paul Ryan’s bizarre budget proposal designed to end Medicare and Medicaid.  They have also blocked nearly every bill designed to address unemployment, housing foreclosures, consumer protection and other economic problems of working Americans, proposed by the White House.  They have also blocked nearly all federal judge appointments, and most appointments of senior administrative personnel who are essential to running federal government agencies. They want to make certain federal agencies aren’t working well.  Despite the fact that from 60-70% of Americans agree with the basic objections raised by the “Occupy/We are the 99%” group, the Republicans in Congress have decided to ignore the public will. They hope to demonstrate the Athenian ideal of one-person-one vote democracy is now hopelessly defunct.

During a recent Iraqi parliament session, it was announced the Parliament will be on holiday until November 20^th.  That’s right: Despite continuing political stalemate regarding major issues facing the nation, Iraqi lawmakers will not meet for another 6 weeks or so. Ostensibly, the reason for the long holiday is the fact that it coincides with the pilgrimage to Mecca in early November. It is expected that a large number of deputies will actually be out of the country making deals with foreign businesses and governments.  If this sounds close to home, it is basically the same strategy of the Republicans in the US House of Representatives, which is the party of the Evangelical Christian Religious Right, whose goal is to demonstrate that democratic government by elected officials can no longer work in America.  The goal of the Religious Right in the US is the same as the Shia Ayatollahs in Iraq and the theocracy in Iran, to create a government with the superficial appearance of democracy run by major corporations and extremely conservative religious groups, a total merging of plutocracy and theocracy.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams must be turning over in their graves.

R2D2 and Teaching Children with Autism

Most of us enjoyed R2-D2, who along with his droid companion C-3P0 joined Luke Sywalker, Princess Leia and Obi-Wan in Star Wars.  There is something endearing about the innocent, well-intentioned but very naive mechanical humanoid that nearly everyone falls for.

Automotive driving and aircraft simulators, much earlier iterations of virtual reality devices, have been used for years to train better driving skills in motorists, and flying skills in pilots.  The idea of using machines with human properties that are able to simulate people is also highly appealing in military training and teaching.  It is used by the US Military to train soldiers on tactics for attacking urban enemy strongholds, as was apparently done in Iraq and apparently in the Seal Team Six assault on Bin Laden’s headquarters in Pakistan.

In the past few years there has been growing interest in using virtual reality systems and robots to teach skills to children with autism social skills, like recognizing facial expressions and more appropriate social skills.  There are several computerized systems to train discriminations of facial expressions among children with ASDs, some of which are free (e.g. You Face It at University of British Columbia) while others are rather expensive (e.g. the system developed by Cambridge University UK).  None have presented compelling evidence that the skills trained transfer well and are sustained in natural environments, though no doubt that could be programmed as well, nor that they are more efficient than teaching facial discriminations in vivo with real people.

 In this week’s autism news there is a report from India that Dr Kaska Porayska-Pomsta is developing a virtual reality world for children to use in learning to negotiate their social worlds. Dr. Porayska-Pomsta has published one report of improving attention in infants that did not involve virtual reality devices and there are no data available as far as I was able to find using his system with children with autism.  Another report from the Robotics Research Lab at University of Southern California have created studies for children with autism to interact and play with Bandit, a small human-like robot (somewhat R2D2 like) with movable eyebrows and mouth, and motion sensors that allow him to back away or move forward.  The designers hope to create a balance between human and robot so that he is approachable and engaging without being too realistic or intimidating. Maja Mataric (shown above),  co-director of the Robotics Research Lab at USC remarked, "Some work had already been done with toy-like robots before we got involved in the research. We were specifically interested in using human-like child-sized robots which would serve as peers, not toys, in the interaction with children."  In initial pilot experiments with the robots, Mataric and colleagues found that children with autism exhibited unexpected social behaviors, including pointing, initiating play, imitating the robot and even showing empathy.  Dr. Mataric has published two papers describing her work with accelerated recovery of upper-extremity function after injury caused semi-paralysis, but almost no data, involving children with autism.

As I recall among the reasons that R2-D2 was so appealing was that he was played by the actor, Kenny Baker, who had a pretty good idea what people do in various situations.  It may be noteworthy that E.T. may have been even more popular with his huge child-like innocent eyes and loving qualities, though a living being.

Children with ASDs often do not generalize well from skills taught in contrived settings to real life.  Numerous efforts to use dolls in simulation training has been used with some success with children with mild to moderate disability.  There have been numerous successful outcome studies using video modeling using live and taped models.  While it is possible a robot may be used to teach a child some rudimentary social responses, the robotics idea is mostly wishful thinking at this point.  It is possible virtual reality systems may be more promising.  Linda LeBlanc at Auburn University has used a virtual reality system to teach safety skills to students with autism, so the approach shows some promise, at least with gross motor skills. 

On the other hand, if you want to teach children with autism to interact with people, it may be easiest and most effective to directly teach social skills and communication with people rather than with computers or robots, at least that is what we have done. 

Gloria Steinem and Consent of the Governed

Consent of the governed is one of those phrases of political philosophy that strike the listener as being a high-flying, abstract notion. That is incorrect. It is actually a rock bottom principle that must guide our democratic government, that has gone badly awry, and everyone knows it.

 Consent of the Governed refers to the idea that a government’s legitimacy and moral right to use state power is only justified and legal when derived from the people or society over which that power is exercised.   Such consent is contrasted to the divine right of kings.  Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government."  The founders of the United States believed in a state built upon the consent of "free and equal" citizens; a state otherwise conceived would lack legitimacy and authority.  This was expressed, among other places, in the Declaration of Independence and in the Virginia Bill of Rights, especially Section 6, which stated:

“That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, the attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for publick uses without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the public good."

In her remarkable speech to the conference, "Sex, Power and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 Years Later" at Hunter College in New York on October 15, 2011, Gloria Steinem pointed out that the current political upheaval in the United States (and indeed throughout the Western World, Japan and South Korea) stems from the fact that people in democratic countries correctly object to being goverend without their consent, and clearly not “for the public good,” to use the language of the Virginia Bill of Rights.  She argued that within the United States, many white men had grown accustomed to being in control of virtually everything of importance, from their relationship with their wife and children, to conditions within their workplace, to control of racial and religious minorities, and other aspects of daily life, almost as if it were a divine right.  Such control has been considered a white male entitlement in America.  Steinem referred to violent crimes of white men (or teenage boys) against women or others in society, rapes or mass shootings in schools and places of employment, as stemming from their fear of loss of control.  She argued that the rise of the Radical Right in America is just such a largely white male reaction to losing the ability to control American society and their personal lives as they see fit, regardless of the rights of other Americans.  Steiman nested the discussion of the Clarence Thomas hearings, and the abuse of Anita Hill as a witness, within this context.  She argued that it was an attempt by the Radical Right to wrest control over the Constitutional Rights of Americans by appointing an unqualified, illegitimate person to the US Supreme Court, who would obediently endorse their repressive policies.

She concluded her remarks by noting that the current “Occupy” and “99%” political demonstrations are the outward expression, essentially the last resort, of those of us who are governed, to express their grievance to those in government for their lack of democratic representation.  The heart of the matter is that a relatively small number of people (as if by Divine Right) is in control of major corporate financial interests which are now in charge of most of American pseudo-democratic processes. Congressional and Senate seats are bought by corporate interests, as are even seats on the Supreme Court.  That means that those who are intended to represent the bulk of the American people no longer do so, they represent those corporate interests.  Similar reactions throughout Europe and parts of Asia indicate this is a universal reaction to lack of consent of the governed of their Government’s failure to act in the public interest.  Steinem concluded by noting that those who have been in power will not concede control quietly, like the man who murders his abused wife because she will no longer tolerate the abuse, or the mass shooter who kills everyone in his workplace because he feels he no longer has control.  She said in conclusion, “We are in a time of great danger and need to protect one another. We are about to be free and restore democracy, and we we need to be clear that we are not going to stop.”

Ayn Rand: The “Philosopher” of the Radical Right

Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum was a Russian Jew, the daughter of a pharmacist who led a very bourgeoisie life as a young child, as pictured below.  But she spent her adolescent years learning first hand about the 1917 Russian Revolution.  Her family lost almost everything during the Revolution, which was the source of her venom against Communism. In high school she determined that she was an atheist and that she valued reason above any other human attribute.  After Revolution, universities were opened to women, including Jews, allowing Rosenbaum (later Rand) to be in the first group of women to enroll at Petrograd State University, where she studied in the department of social pedagogy, majoring in history. At the university she was introduced to the writings of Aristotle and Plato, who would form two of her greatest influences and counter-influences, respectively. A third figure whose philosophical works she studied heavily was Friedrich Nietzsche, the highly favored political philosopher of the Nazis whose Übermensch was required reading in Hitler’s Reich.  

She subsequently studied for a year at the State Technicum for Screen Arts in Leningrad.  In 1925, Rosnbaum (Rand) was granted a visa to visit American relatives.  Intent on staying in the United States to become a screenwriter, she lived for a few months with relatives in Chicago, one of whom owned a movie theater and allowed her to watch dozens of films for free. She then set out for Hollywood, California. She struggled in Hollywood and took odd jobs to pay her basic living expenses. A chance meeting with famed director Cecil B. DeMille led to a job as a spear-carrying extra in his film, The King of Kings, and to subsequent work as a junior screenwriter. While working on  DeMille’s film she met an aspiring young actor, Frank O'Connor; the two were married on April 15, 1929. Rand became an American citizen in 1931. Taking various jobs during the 1930s working for a time as the head of the costume department at RKO Studios.

When she began attempting to publish her writing, she took the assumed name, Ayn Rand, for reasons that aren’t altogether clear. Rand's first bestseller, The Fountainhead, received far fewer reviews than We the Living, her first unsuccessful novel, and reviewers' opinions were mixed. Mimi Reisel Gladstein later wrote, "reviewers seemed to vie with each other in a contest to devise the cleverest put-downs," calling it "execrable claptrap" and "a nightmare;" they said it was "written out of hate" and showed "remorseless hectoring and prolixity." Author Flannery O'Connor wrote in a letter to a friend that, "The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail." The tenor of the criticism for her first nonfiction book, For the New Intellectual, was similar to that for Atlas Shrugged, with philosopher Sidney Hook likening her certainty to "the way philosophy is written in the Soviet Union", and author Gore Vidal calling her viewpoint "nearly perfect in its immorality". Her subsequent books got progressively less attention from reviewers. 

Though Rand perceived herself as a philosopher (she called her theory Objectivism) and many of her Right Wing enthusiasts describe her that way, she was mainly a screenwriter who also wrote two novels that sold a large number of copies. It may be useful to bear in mind that among best-sellers have been Think and Grow Rich,  The Horse Whisperer and The Happy Hooker.  Somewhat charitably, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in its brief article about her described her as having outlined a comprehensive philosophy, including an epistemology and a theory of art. There is no mention of her political philosophy.   She is seen by some within literature, as being a staunch feminist, very much at odds with the values of most Right Wing conservatives. She is a favorite of the Right Wing because the hero and leader of the Capitalists’ who go on strike in the Fountainhead, John Galt, describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the minds of the individuals most contributing to the nation's wealth and achievement. With this fictional strike, Rand intended to illustrate that without the efforts of the rational and productive, the economy would collapse and society would fall apart.

So, we have the somewhat odd situation in which Ayn Rand, Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum, a Jewish atheist-feminist novelist screenwriter, who was a champion of objective analysis (unlike most Republicans who pay little heed to objective evidence or logic) is the philosophical darling of the American Right Wing, though few people who consider them philosophers by profession would see her as a significant philosopher.  She serves a practical purpose for the likes of Paul Ryan, who I understand, requires his Congressional staff to read Fountainhead, as a means of attempting to promulgate his radical views.

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)

Many of us mark points in our history over the past several decades by the model of Apple Computer, IPhone or IPad we were using, in my case starting with the Lisa in 1983, followed shortly by the Classic 128K the following year.  I had an office in Elliott Hall at the U of Minnesota and was knee deep in behavioral pharmacology research, writing grant applications and articles for publication. Like some of us early adopters I mistakenly fell for the so-called Apple Portable in ‘89 that was about as portable as a suitcase filled with books, actually it was 16 pounds.  I can’t remember if I used it for a paperweight or what, but it was a mistake.

I had the good fortune of using a '93 Mac Color Classic for awhile, but what really changed my life was the Powerbook G3 in 1998, a real honest to goodness, bonafide portable computer, dark grey with smooth lines that you could carry around and use to make presentations at classes and conferences.  Seriously cool beans. That year I was Director of the Kennedy Center at Vanderbilt and carried it with me on every trip to Washington or other schmoozing visits. I used it so much the dull gray shell began to turn shiny where my wrists rubbed on it. 

My second big Apple mistake, though I can’t really blame it on Steve Jobs, was due to my own greed, believing more is better, was the 17” Titanium G4 portable in 2001, with a gorgeous, huge screen, but it turned out was really much too big to schlep around in a brief case, just managing to get it wiggled out for airport scanners.  I got an IPod, but have to confess that I never used it as much as I expected. It didn’t really ring my bell.  I guess maybe if I sat on the school bus zoning out I might like it, but I don’t do that much any more.

I found myself almost entirely using my 15” MacBook Pro which had replaced the 15" aluminum PowerBook, and it looked almost identical. It was an incredible workhorse and easy to tote around.  It worked extremely well and wan't even ugly, like you somehow expect hard working devices to be.

 I wasn’t one of those who lined up for hours on June 30, 2007 for my brand spanking new IPhone, but I managed to get one within a few weeks of release.  Now that was entirely different, it could be an IPod or a phone or PDA.  And now I own the IPhone 3GS, and am salivating to get my hands on the 4S.  Right now I alternate between my IPad that I purchased in 2010, my MacBook 13” portable and my IPhone 3GS.  The IPad goes with me on the plane for long trips, like to Amsterdam, to watch movies (gorgeous video), listen to music and play mind-numbing, time-consuming games. Talk about stunningly beautiful, the IPad is a joy to behold.  When the new IPad has the ability to transfer documents files like a MacBook, I may switch to an IPad and use it for nearly everything.


Because of my Macs, I have been able to write five books over the past 8 years, including creating most of the illustrations, and developed and maintained this Blog and my own website, Autism Treatment, http://www.travisithompson.net   Not bad for a guy who grew up with a block of ice in the icebox in his kitchen and a black dial phone and an RCA"magic eye" radio in the living room. 

What is it about Apple devices and systems that make people like me entirely devoted to them?  First of all, they are incredibly user friendly; Apple introduced iconic navigation and the mouse and track pad. The Mac OS works smoothly, usually, and there are few crashes.  Second, they do exactly what you need them to do with no BS.  No funny looking code or systems tricks to navigate to make it work.  There are few if any viruses.  Third, if you do have trouble figuring out how to make something work, you go to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store and the problems are solved, like that.  Courteously, with no BS.  And finally, maybe as important as anything else, they are stunningly beautiful devices.  If there is technological eye candy, this is it.  Why else do you think all those people are lined up in the Apple Store waiting to fondle an IBook Air or an IPad 2?

I’ve been trying to think about someone other than Steve Jobs whose creative achievements, have become such an integral part of my life.  I can’t.  Steve deserves an enormous amount of credit for changing the world for the better, which few of us can say we have done over our lifetime.