Mass Murder Memos: The Dombrowsky Effect

By Alexander Prisant

Don't feel too good about yourself or your country just because something akin to a chaotic "national debate" is now taking place in America about violence. What's going on here is something I call "The Dombrowsky Effect".

Condie Dombrowsky was a friend of one of my younger brothers. He must have been 11 or 12. Almost every morning Condie rode his bike to school across a small white bridge that spanned an inlet in Great Neck, New York.  The bridge was white and sturdy. But it was also insidious, because of its width.  It was the width from hell.

It was probably built when two horses could pass on this two-way road. But now we were decades into the car age and this bridge could only take one whole car and maybe half the width of another.  To drivers with lousy eyesight or worse judgment it looked tempting to think they could just squeeze by that guy coming the other way, without waiting a whole 20 seconds for the other driver to pass.

All the locals knew this  bridge well. All the locals thought this was a catastrophe waiting to happen. There was town chatter every few years when an accident on the bridge caused an injury. But there was no fatality on that bridge for 15-20 years. So all that happened was everyone, every time, said "Somebody must do something!" And then nobody did anything.

Until the morning Condie Dombrowsky rode onto that bridge for the final time. He was clipped from behind by a car a little out of control . It flung him off the  bike and crushed him against the side of the bridge. My brother's young friend died on the spot.

Human nature finally kicked in. Actual mortality brought actual action. The same townspeople, the same municipal leaders who'd failed Condie Dombrowsky in life, swiftly acted upon his death. Within two years, a new wider, safer span was built across that inlet from Great Neck into Kings Point. There had always been funding and resources available before. What Condie provided now was "will".

Today, 40 years later, we are weary, more desensitized, having lived through political assassinations, the 9/11 attacks, half of the bloodiest mass murders in US history in the past five years and almost 80 murders and suicides nationally every day. Every day. So now it takes hundreds of Condie Dombowskys to get us off the national couch. 

This one is not as easy to fix as widening a bridge. Will we initiate action on a number of things that might at least reduce the size and dimension of American murders?  Stay tuned.

The Journey We Take Together--part 22

(Editor's Note: Sandy and Susan Prisant, having done some travelling and writing during years overseas, are now back in America battling aging, disease and all the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--with gusto.) 

  

More American than the New York Yankees,

More American the Red, White and Blue,

Oh Hail our Constitutional Right

To Choose Home Depot for a new Barbecue!

We’re not exactly DIY royalty. In our house, there’s a missing nail here and a broken wire there. Cleaning is an extra challenge because you never know what’s going to collapse. Or when. But sometimes you see Susan hurdling through the air like an All-American fullback, saving something irreplaceable left us by our grandmothers.

So it was with naïve optimism we saw a trim box less than two feetsquare loaded into our car. The whole grill was in there. How hard could assembly be?

A few hours later we began to find out. Talk about shock and awe. This must be what the Germans felt like when the dawn lifted and all those D-Day ships were pounding the beach. With a bottle of wine firmly in hand, Sandy was laying out dozens of parts on the terrace. It was starting to look like an auto parts store doing inventory. There were odd metal plates, round rings of rubber and lots of instructions.

With all this stuff spread as far as the eye could see we quickly got serious. Like a surgical team preparing for a marathon procedure. Sandy held out his right hand: “Left Cart Lower Brace. Part 30.”

Susan, on her knees, desperately scanned the floor for Part 30, a three-sided, two-holed piece of metal that looked just like a half-dozen other parts in the Assembly Instructions.

And then…jubilation. First piece found. Fitted. And forgotten. We were on the way.


Cautiously we began rummaging for the second piece—a Wheel Axle Bolt (Part 36). After an hour and a half turning over every part laid out on the floor, we came to a profound conclusion: This Wheel Axle Bolt could not be found. And who needed it anyway?

So the clinical surgery approach was quickly replaced by a treasure hunt. We scanned the instructions and the array of nuts and bolts and parts. Why was everything so small? At one point we had to get tweezers just to pick one up,..

After four hours we needed another new strategy. We wound up with something between a market stall search and military reconnaissance. Out on the terrace, we groped through rows of unidentifiable bits and pieces. They began to look like bobby pins and hair slides at a garage sale.

After eight hours we wished we hadn’t seemingly cornered the market on everything in this “sale”. But it was too late to take it back. We soldiered on into the night, finally collapsing over a dinner of corn flakes.

We faced the morning with a fresh outlook. All we needed was new outfits—like military camouflage. Control panel support brackets, valve fixed plates and tank retention brackets were not going to beat us—the people who launched the Walkman in Europe.

We just needed a boost from new outfits—maybe military camouflage? Dressed to kill, we marched out back to the terrace and huddled amongst the rows of parts. There were one-hundred-and-eighteen to go. Risking DIY Disqualification we had choose between going AWOL and achieving our mission. It was daunting.

And then suddenly, we found one piece that matched a crude picture in the instructions. It was not a bobby pin! More jubilation, followed by a breakthrough. Parts 11, 49, 21, 84 and 66 all fit. Together!

Our basic training was serving us well. We looked at parts 51, 17 and 96. We looked at the half-built object and the three parts and decided: Who needs them? With military precision, they were drummed out of service.

On it went, through the second day. We couldn’t see a barbecue yet, but they swore that’s what we were building. We only got the baby barbecue with lots less pieces. Yet somehow we were heading into the weekend. Before we’d started, a friend said, “45 minutes and you’re done.”

But we were now on Hour 23. It was daunting. Again.

And then we came to this mystifying instruction:

“Attach tank brace by inserting the carriage belt through

the keyhole, slide down and then use the wing nut to secure.”

What?

By Sunday night we could see the outline of something, which if you sat there squinting, you could jus-s-s-s-t about make out the beginnings of a cooking device.

Was a hamburger really worth all this?

It was 1:38 AM Monday when the instructions said this:

             “Place cooking grate on support ribs directly above heath distribution                             plates.” (Why couldn’t they just say ‘put the grill on top and you’re done’ ?)

But it was true. We were done. The thing stood on four legs. It opened and closed. And it made fire. Wow.

At American labor rates, we racked up assembly costs of $540 for a grill retailing at $99. Throw in the tongs, spatulas and basting thingies and we wound with costs equivalent to the annual GDP of a small village in Gabon.

When we talk about the American Dream, surely this it.

But what looks like a blow to efficient free enterprise can still be averted if we can somehow compile the outdoor cook’s answer to Julia Child. Before Labor Day.

Unexcptionalism - A Primer

Editor:The concept of "American Exceptionalism"--once fundamental to our core beliefs as a nation--has been relegated to Tea Party chatter for extremists in great denial. This week in The New York Times  the author E L Doctorow explains how we have systematically stripped  away our own birthright in less than a decade--A S Prisant


TO achieve unexceptionalism, the political ideal that would render the United States indistinguishable from the impoverished, traditionally undemocratic, brutal or catatonic countries of the world, do the following:


PHASE ONE
If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, ignore the first sacrament of a democracy and suspend the counting of ballots in a presidential election. Appoint the candidate of your choice as president.






If you’re the newly anointed president, react to a terrorist attack by invading a nonterrorist country. Despite the loss or disablement of untold numbers of lives, manage your war so that its results will be indeterminate.






Using the state of war as justification, order secret surveillance of American citizens, data mine their phone calls and e-mail, make business, medical and public library records available to government agencies, perform illegal warrantless searches of homes and offices.

Take to torturing terrorism suspects, here or abroad, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Unilaterally abrogate the Convention Against Torture as well as the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. Commit to indeterminate detention without trial those you decide are enemies. For good measure, trust that legislative supporters will eventually apply this policy as well to American citizens.

Suspend progressive taxation so that the wealthiest pay less proportionately than the middle class. See to it that the wealth of the country accumulates to a small fraction of the population so that the gap between rich and poor widens exponentially.

By cutting taxes and raising wartime expenditures, deplete the national treasury so that Congress and state and municipal legislatures cut back on domestic services, ensuring that there will be less money for the education of the young, for government health programs, for the care of veterans, for the maintenance of roads and bridges, for free public libraries, and so forth.

Deregulate the banking industry so as to create a severe recession in which enormous numbers of people lose their homes and jobs.

Before you leave office add to the Supreme Court justices like the ones who awarded you the presidency.

PHASE TWO

If you’re one of the conservative majority of a refurbished Supreme Court, rule that corporations, no less than human beings, have the right under the First Amendment to express their political point of view. To come to this judgment, do not acknowledge that corporations lack the range of feelings or values that define what it is to be human. That humans can act against their own interest, whereas corporations cannot act otherwise than in their own interest. That the corporation’s only purpose is to produce wealth, regardless of social consequences.

This decision of the court will ensure tremendous infusions of corporate money into the political process and lead to the election in national and state legislatures of majorities of de facto corporate lobbyists.

PHASE THREE

Given corporate control of legislative bodies, enact laws to the benefit of corporate interests. For example, those laws sponsored by weapons manufacturers wherein people may carry concealed weapons and shoot and kill anyone by whom they feel threatened.

Give the running of state prisons over to private corporations whose profits increase with the increase in inmate populations. See to it that a majority of prisoners are African-American.

When possible, treat immigrants as criminals.

Deplete and underfinance a viable system of free public schools and give the education of children over to private for-profit corporations.

Make college education unaffordable.

Inject religious precepts into public policy so as to control women’s bodies.

Enact laws prohibiting collective bargaining. Portray trade unions as un-American.

Enact laws restricting the voting rights of possibly unruly constituencies.

Propagandize against scientific facts that would affect corporate profits. Portray global warming as a conspiracy of scientists.

Having subverted the Constitution and enervated the nation with these measures, portray the federal government as unwieldy, bumbling and shot through with elitist liberals. Create mental states of maladaptive populism among the citizenry to support this view.

PHASE FOUR

If you’re a justice of the Supreme Court, decide that the police of any and all cities and towns and villages have the absolute authority to strip-search any person whom they, for whatever reason, put under arrest.

With this ruling, the reduction of America to unexceptionalism is complete.

A Universe Without Purpose

Editor's Note: Our Hopes and Fears vs. Science. Real Science. It appears the more we learn the more stark and random the entire universe turns out to be. Today in the Los Angeles Times,  cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss updates us on a possibly bleak intergalactic reality: 

The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis. Everywhere we look, it appears that the world was designed so that we could flourish.


The position of the Earth around the sun, the presence of organic materials and water and a warm climate — all make life on our planet possible. Yet, with perhaps 100 billion solar systems in our galaxy alone, with ubiquitous water, carbon and hydrogen, it isn't surprising that these conditions would arise somewhere. And as to the diversity of life on Earth — as Darwin described more than 150 years ago and experiments ever since have validated — natural selection in evolving life forms can establish both diversity and order without any governing plan.



As a cosmologist, a scientist who studies the origin and evolution of the universe, I am painfully aware that our illusions nonetheless reflect a deep human need to assume that the existence of the Earth, of life and of the universe and the laws that govern it require something more profound. For many, to live in a universe that may have no purpose, and no creator, is unthinkable.


But science has taught us to think the unthinkable. Because when nature is the guide — rather than a priori prejudices, hopes, fears or desires — we are forced out of our comfort zone. One by one, pillars of classical logic have fallen by the wayside as science progressed in the 20th century, from Einstein's realization that measurements of space and time were not absolute but observer-dependent, to quantum mechanics, which not only put fundamental limits on what we can empirically know but also demonstrated that elementary particles and the atoms they form are doing a million seemingly impossible things at once.




And so it is that the 21st century has brought new revolutions and new revelations on a cosmic scale. Our picture of the universe has probably changed more in the lifetime of an octogenarian today than in all of human history. Eighty-seven years ago, as far as we knew, the universe consisted of a single galaxy, our Milky Way, surrounded by an eternal, static, empty void. Now we know that there are more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe, which began with the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. In its earliest moments, everything we now see as our universe — and much more — was contained in a volume smaller than the size of a single atom.




And so we continue to be surprised. We are like the early mapmakers redrawing the picture of the globe even as new continents were discovered. And just as those mapmakers confronted the realization that the Earth was not flat, we must confront facts that change what have seemed to be basic and fundamental concepts. Even our idea of nothingness has been altered.




We now know that most of the energy in the observable universe can be found not within galaxies but outside them, in otherwise empty space, which, for reasons we still cannot fathom, "weighs" something. But the use of the word "weight" is perhaps misleading because the energy of empty space is gravitationally repulsive. It pushes distant galaxies away from us at an ever-faster rate. Eventually they will recede faster than light and will be unobservable.




This has changed our vision of the future, which is now far bleaker. The longer we wait, the less of the universe we will be able to see. In hundreds of billions of years astronomers on some distant planet circling a distant star (Earth and our sun will be long gone) will observe the cosmos and find it much like our flawed vision at the turn of the last century: a single galaxy immersed in a seemingly endless dark, empty, static universe.




Out of this radically new image of the universe at large scale have also come new ideas about physics at a small scale. The Large Hadron Collider has given tantalizing hints that the origin of mass, and therefore of all that we can see, is a kind of cosmic accident. Experiments in the collider bolster evidence of the existence of the "Higgs field," which apparently just happened to form throughout space in our universe; it is only because all elementary particles interact with this field that they have the mass we observe today.




Most surprising of all, combining the ideas of general relativity and quantum mechanics, we can understand how it is possible that the entire universe, matter, radiation and even space itself could arise spontaneously out of nothing, without explicit divine intervention. Quantum mechanics' Heisenberg uncertainty principle expands what can possibly occur undetected in otherwise empty space. If gravity too is governed by quantum mechanics, then even whole new universes can spontaneously appear and disappear, which means our own universe may not be unique but instead part of a "multiverse."




As particle physics revolutionizes the concepts of "something" (elementary particles and the forces that bind them) and "nothing" (the dynamics of empty space or even the absence of space), the famous question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" is also revolutionized. Even the very laws of physics we depend on may be a cosmic accident, with different laws in different universes, which further alters how we might connect something with nothing. Asking why we live in a universe of something rather than nothing may be no more meaningful than asking why some flowers are red and others blue.




Perhaps most remarkable of all, not only is it now plausible, in a scientific sense, that our universe came from nothing, if we ask what properties a universe created from nothing would have, it appears that these properties resemble precisely the universe we live in.




Does all of this prove that our universe and the laws that govern it arose spontaneously without divine guidance or purpose? No, but it means it is possible.




And that possibility need not imply that our own lives are devoid of meaning. Instead of divine purpose, the meaning in our lives can arise from what we make of ourselves, from our relationships and our institutions, from the achievements of the human mind.

Imagining living in a universe without purpose may prepare us to better face reality head on. I cannot see that this is such a bad thing. Living in a strange and remarkable universe that is the way it is, independent of our desires and hopes, is far more satisfying for me than living in a fairy-tale universe invented to justify our existence.

Lawrence M. Krauss is director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. His newest book is "A Universe From Nothing."

Report: University Graduates just as Likely to be Unemployed as Dropouts

By A S Prisant

Editor: Now from Britain comes formal confirmation of what we all see anecdotally in America--a college education doesn't solve unemployment, it just delays it. With roughly 25% unemployment among 16-24's, US rates are similar to the UK. US income data shows that the later in their 20's an individual enters the workforce, the projected loss of income over a lifetime can rise to the mid six figures. Question: Are six-figure tuitions now worth the cost in our society's "new normal"? Here, James Hall of the Telegraph  reports on the latest data:

In figures that will raise questions over the value of higher education, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that almost 26 per cent of 16-year-olds who left school with “only a GCSE qualification” are unemployed.

At the same time, almost 25 per cent of all 21-year-olds who left university with a degree are unemployed.

The figures are included in a breakdown by the ONS of unemployment among 16 to 24 year-olds, which at 1.04 million people is running at its highest rate since 1986.


The ONS’s figures show that youth unemployment has risen in each of the last three recessions and the immediate years following them. For example the ONS said that the current total of 1.04 million unemployed compares with 924,000 in the 1993 recession.



The most striking revelation in the ONS’s Characteristics of Young Unemployed People survey is the fact that the proportion of joblessness is the same among 16-year-olds with one GCSE as it is among 21-year-olds with a university education.


As well as showing that around a quarter of people in each of these groups are unemployed, the ONS found that a fifth of 18-year-olds who left full-time education with one A-level are unemployed.


The figures did show, however, that people with a degree or A-levels are more likely to get a job as they get older.

The ONS found that unemployment among people with only GCSEs rises to almost 27 per cent for 18-year-olds before falling to 13 per cent among 24-year-olds.

However for people with a degree, the 25 per cent unemployment rate when they are 21 falls to 5 per cent when they hit 24.

Depresion and Democracy

Editor's Note: for some time we have been describing the current economy as in Depression.  Dr. Paul Krugman of Princeton University is a Nobel Laureate in macro-economics.  This column appeared in the New York Times  on December 11, 2011.

`

By PAUL KRUGMAN

It’s time to start calling the current situation what it is: a depression. True, it’s not a full replay of the Great Depression, but that’s cold comfort. Unemployment in both America and Europe remains disastrously high. Leaders and institutions are increasingly discredited. And democratic values are under siege.

On that last point, I am not being alarmist. On the political as on the

economic front it’s important not to fall into the “not as bad as” trap. High unemployment isn’t O.K. just because it hasn’t hit 1933 levels; ominous political trends shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s no Hitler in sight.

Let’s talk, in particular, about what’s happening in Europe — not because all is well with America, but because the gravity of European political developments isn’t widely understood.

First of all, the crisis of the euro is killing the European dream. The shared currency, which was supposed to bind nations together, has instead created an atmosphere of bitter acrimony.

Specifically, demands for ever-harsher austerity, with no offsetting effort to foster growth, have done double damage. They have failed as economic policy, worsening unemployment without restoring confidence; a Europe-wide recession now looks likely even if the immediate threat of financial crisis is contained. And they have created immense anger, with many Europeans furious at what is perceived, fairly or unfairly (or actually a bit of both), as a heavy-handed exercise of German power.

Nobody familiar with Europe’s history can look at this resurgence of hostility without feeling a shiver. Yet there may be worse things happening.

Right-wing populists are on the rise from Austria, where the Freedom Party (whose leader used to have neo-Nazi connections) runs neck-and-neck in the polls with established parties, to Finland, where the anti-immigrant True Finns party had a strong electoral showing last April. And these are rich countries whose economies have held up fairly well. Matters look even more ominous in the poorer nations of Central and Eastern Europe.

Last month the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development documented a sharp drop in public support for democracy in the “new E.U.” countries, the nations that joined the European Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not surprisingly, the loss of faith in democracy has been greatest in the countries that suffered the deepest economic slumps.

And in at least one nation, Hungary, democratic institutions are being undermined as we speak.

Taken together, all this amounts to the re-establishment of authoritarian rule, under a paper-thin veneer of democracy, in the heart of Europe. And it’s a sample of what may happen much more widely if this depression continues.

It’s not clear what can be done about Hungary’s authoritarian slide. The U.S. State Department, to its credit, has been very much on the case, but this is essentially a European matter. The European Union missed the chance to head off the power grab at the start — in part because the new Constitution was rammed through while Hungary held the Union’s rotating presidency. It will be much harder to reverse the slide now. Yet Europe’s leaders had better try, or risk losing everything they stand for.

And they also need to rethink their failing economic policies. If they don’t, there will be more backsliding on democracy — and the breakup of the euro may be the least of their worries.

The Problem with Health Car is For-Profit Insurance

In America, there is much sound and fury about health care but damn little light. Here is an exception from Oregon.

By Samuel Metz and Charlotte Maloney

The Register-Guard (Eugene, Ore.), Jan. 9, 2012

Modern mythology recounts James Carville giving candidate Bill Clinton memorable advice regarding his upcoming presidential campaign: “It’s the economy, stupid.” Those of us wrestling with health care reform might take similar advice: “It’s the financing, stupid.”

Why do politicians such as Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., obsess with untried models of health care reform? They propose a “premium support option” for Medicare that would also extend to small businesses. Insurance companies are expected to compete with traditional Medicare to provide comprehensive benefits at affordable prices. Beneficiaries unable to afford premiums will receive vouchers of limited sums to support their premiums; hence the name, “premium support.”


This plan presumes that private insurance companies will eagerly compete for market share by offering better benefits at lower prices to our seniors. This simply does not happen.


Our two congressmen may be confusing American insurance companies with those in Europe. European companies are forbidden to discriminate on the basis of health, must offer policies to any applicant, must supply comprehensive benefits in every policy, and cannot cancel a policy for any reason. They compete by offering better benefits at lower costs with better customer service.


In contrast, American insurance companies play by entirely different rules. They compete by refusing policies to sick applicants, shrinking benefits, dropping policy holders as soon as they get sick, and denying or delaying payment to providers. In short, they compete by providing less care to fewer people.

Our last experience with letting private insurance companies compete for seniors (Medicare Advantage) reconfirmed this: Private insurance companies skimmed off the healthiest seniors and provided them with no better benefits than traditional Medicare except they cost the government 15 percent more. Why should we expect private insurance to be more successful than Medicare with the Wyden-Ryan plan?


If we define a “successful” health care system as one that delivers better care to more people for less money than we do, examples abound around the world and within our own country. These systems come in all varieties — complete government control, minimal government control, private providers, group providers, fee-for-service physicians, salaried physicians, managed care, medical homes — you name the variation, and it’s been used successfully. The United States uses all of these, but our health care is in the pits.


The United States lacks the three common elements used in every successful health care system. And these elements are not delivery methods; they are financing methods:


* Everyone is included forever. No exclusion for any reason. No one is dropped or marginalized when they become old, sick, poor or unemployed.


* Little or no cost-sharing. No patient is discouraged from seeking health care. Instead of making a patient decide if they need medical care before seeing a physician, the physician decides after seeing the patient.


* Financing is provided by publicly accountable, transparent, not-for-profit agencies. Although some models permit profits from delivering health care, none allows profits from financing health care.


Successful systems can make almost any delivery method succeed, but only when financing fulfills these elements (unlike the Wyden-Paul proposal, which fails to address any of them). No delivery system has ever succeeded in their absence. Though pundits may obsess endlessly why these requirements are theoretically unnecessary, the reality is stark. Bad financing makes any delivery system fail.


America appears wedded to our traditional (and unsuccessful) private health insurance industry that fragments us into the healthy (who can purchase access to health care) and the sick (who can’t). And the fragmentation is not static. If you were previously healthy but become sick, your insurance company will do its best to exclude you from access on their dollar.


No other nation has provided universal cost-effective health care with this method. We haven’t either. There is no reason to think it will work in the future.


Wyden and Ryan neatly avoid tampering with our lethal dependence on financing health care with private insurance. This continues to place the health of the private insurance industry over the health of the people they serve.


Without a change in health care financing, reform is futile. In all recorded history and throughout the world today, we find no working models of a society providing universal cost-effective health care using our unique American system of private health insurance. It is possible Neanderthals achieved this goal with private insurance but left no written record. Doubtful.


We spin our wheels by focusing on our delivery system. It’s the financing, stupid.


Charlotte Maloney of Eugene is a retired occupational therapist and outgoing treasurer of Health Care for All-Oregon. Samuel Metz, M.D., of Portland (samuelmetz@samuelmetz.com) is a member of the Oregon Single Payer Coalition.


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