"Moonshine"

The making of alcohol illegally-that is w/o a permit-is known as "moonshine". It was made big-time in the days of Prohibition and still is in existence in North Carolina. It is illegal today if it is made w/o paying tax on it. In NC the production and sale of the alcohol is regulated by the North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement agents (that's ALE; maybe someone in NC has a sense of humor). In 2010 ALE agents were still seizing large quanitities of non-taxed alcohol.

Moonshine dates back to the Civil War and at some point became entwined with stock car racing and NASCAR, even to the point where the NASCAR Hall of Fame has an exhibit "honoring" a moonshine still. A member of that Hall of Fame-Junior Johnson-developed his driving skills in western NC smuggling "white lightning". North Carolina is known as the "Moonshine Capital of the World". "Moonshine is a rich part of NC cultural roots-blues, bluegrass and country music, barbecue, folk art and crafts have all intertwined with moonshine".

This summer there will be a "Shinefest" held in Madison, NC being sponsored by the Southern Culture Society (Its web site is http://www.southernculturesociety.org/).

(Source: "Moonshine's Local Heritage" in The North Carolina Farm Bureau news on March/April 2011).

Death Penalty in Texas

John Grisham has written a book dealing with this topic called "The Confession" and he takes a decidedly anti death penalty view. He notes that in Texas those opposed to the death penalty are called "abolitionists". This can be found in chapter 38 of the book along with a list of anti death penalty groups. Execution Watch, Students Against the Death Penalty and Death Penalty Focus all check out to be real (at least according to Google). I find it interesting that a state that was a former member of the Southern Confederacy would use the term "abolitionist", knowing how that term is viewed with considerable disdain in the old south. I googled the term "abolitionist" and death penalty and came up with a group called The Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement. This group was founded in 1994 and created its own name.

(Source: The Confession by John Grisham and texasdeathpenalty.com).

Triangle Shirtwaist Co Fire

Today is 100 years since the factory fire in NYC that claimed the lives of 146 people-mostly young women-working in what we know as a "sweatshop". The workers were on the 9th floor of the building and the city fire department lacked ladders high enough to reach. There was a fire escape but it did not reach the ground and collapsed after a few people got out. As we know one set of doors were locked from the outside-to keep workers from "making off with leftover scraps of cloth". There were elevators that made a number of runs to the 9th floor but became inoperable after the cables "stopped working". Some people jumped down the elevator shafts. There were no sprinklers. Most of the young women were Jewish and Italian and at least one was only 14. The owners of the factory were Max Blanck and Isaac Harris who had previously opposed a workers strike in the garment industry and "hired thugs to beat up their seamstresses when they picketed the plant". The ownere were charged with manslaughter "but acquitted in the absence of any laws that set workplace safety standards".

The political bosses-Tammany Hall-got behind a movement for change fearing that the Socialist Party in NYC would gain members by political inaction. Charlie Murphy was the Tammany boss, Al Smith was the Assembly Speaker and Robert Wagner was the state Senate president. Francis Perkins was on the street that day and saw workers jumping to their deaths from the building. "Over time...legislation..." was passed to correct some of the problems.

The business community then was opposed to any legislation to correct the problems. They said "the revolution had arrived", that "it would lead to the wiping out of industry in this state" and that the "best government is the least possible government". "Such complaints, of course, are with us still...mine operators after fatal explosions...bankers after they've crashed the economy...energy moguls after their rig explodes or their plant leaks radiation".

(Source: "A fire that still burns bright" by Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post. In The Virginian Pilot on 3/24/11).

Radiation Issues

The Fukushima, Japan nuclear accident has again raised questions about the use of this source of energy. Some info from the paper today. Radiation from the explosion is expected to reach the west coast of the US-California-by weeks end. Can we assume it will reach Hawaii sooner? I don't know; maybe the wind currents will take it elsewhere. The Chernobyl explosion in 1986 "spread (radiation) around the globe and reached the West Coast of the US in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule". The Diablo Canyon plant in California is near earthquake fault lines. The Indian Point plant is 35 miles north of NYC and "near a fault line". The Perry plant east of Cleveland is "within 40 miles of two faults". This industry is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC. (As you might guess, I am not a fan of nuclear power).

(Source: Info taken from The Virginian Pilot on 3/17/11).

Update 3/19/11. The risks from radiation are not always easy to determine. Levels of radiation are measured in "millisieverts per hour"; a check x-ray is 0.15 millisieverts p/h. A high dose is over 500 millisieverts p/h and "can raise the risk of leukemia, breast, bladder, colon, liver, lung, esophageal, ovarian and stomach cancers and "the blood cancer multiple myeloma". A debate centers around the number of deaths caused by the Chernobyl accident. This source notes that there have been 6000 tyroid cancer deaths in the 25 years since 1986. "The US EPA says no amount of radiation is absolutely safe above the 3 to 6 millisieverts a year that most of us get from normal living". (I wonder if that sentence is correct)

(Source: "Risks aren't always clear in exposure to radiation" the AP. In The Virginian Pilot on 3/19/11).

Education 2011

I came across an excerpt from the Brown v. Board of Education ruling that we should all remember when budget cutting is in the air. It follows. "Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society. It is required in the performance of our most basic public responsibilities, even service in the armed forces. It is the very foundation of good citizenship. Today it is a principal instrument in awakening the child to cultural values, in preparing him for later professional training, and in helping him to adjust normally to his environment".

(Source: A Renegade History of the United States by Thaddeus Russell. Free Press edition. Page 314).

Gitmo and Obama

Pres Obama has issued an executive order that will "create a formal system of indefinite detention" at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It would appear that the admin tried to open a facility in the US to conduct trials, but a bipartisan congress blocked him. Some of the detainees could be held for life w/o a trial. There are presently 48 of the remaining 172 detainees that the Obama order pretains to. It is noted that "the group could not be prosecuted in military commissions or in federal court because evidentiary problems would hamper a trial". The admin believes the "rules of war" allow for this treatment and some US courts have agreed; however they say "some detainees should be released for a lack of evidence against them". There is, what appears to be, a legal procedure for the trials that involves written review of their case, a gov't rep appointed to act as advocate, right to appear before a board, call witnessess and into evidence. One attorney who represented past detainees says the system is no different than the one Bush II created. The admin has decided "...not to release any Yemenis, even those cleared for repatriation". GOP congressman, Peter King, says that the Obama program is a "vindication" of the Bush II program. It seems the first to be tried is Al-Nashiri, for the Cole bombing, even thou an official of the military commission "...had dismissed the charges against him". He will be difficult to try due to the fact that he was waterboarded, tortured, and threatened with death by a power drill.

(Source: "Obama restarts Guantanamo trials" by staff and wire reports in The Virginian Pilot on 3/8/11)

Presidential Debt Commission

A number of senators-democrats and republicans-have taken up the recommendations of the Debt Commission and are pushing for President Obama to sign on. Mark Warner (D-Va) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga) have teamed with democrats Dick Durbin (one of the most liberal senators) and Kent Conrad and republicans Tom Coburn and Mike Crapo; they are refered to as the "Gang of Six". The national debt is $ 14 trillion and we are presently borrowing 40 % of every dollar spent. They want to reduce the debt by $ 4 trillion over 10 years. The commission's recommendations they are supporting are as follows. Lower tax rates while doing away with $ 1 trillion in tax breaks for individuals and corporations. Raise the age for social security retirement and increase the payroll tax on high earners. Raise the gas tax and cut spending on all programs including defense. Presently 16 republicans and 15 democrats have signed on. Warner says that the US is in for "financial Armagedon" if we don't get the deficit under control. He also notes the Chinese have been our biggest creditor and if we don't make changes, they will dictate them.

(Source: "Soaring US debt needs fix now, senators say" by Bill Bartel of The Virginian Pilot on 3/8/11).