Art thief, is the coffee shop liable too?

I was in a Coffee shop on Friday and noticed this artist was selling pictures of artists; Adele, The Clash, Prince, Rhianna, Eminem, and others. They were all clearly images made by others that he had manipulated slightly in a photo editing program, had printed on canvas or some other material, and was offering for sale from the coffee shop's walls. As an artist who creates all my own work and struggles to find a market I was taken aback at this obvious theft. First, of the original image maker's work and secondly of the artist depicted. If the AP-v-Shepard Fairey case taught us anything it is that stealing like this for profit is illegal. I don't think this guy will sell very many of his "paintings" but, even one sale is a theft.

What do you think?

Santa Sid & some friends @MallofAmerica on Sunday, October 23!

George Carlin's Greatest Moment

Check out this video on YouTube:

Learning about Right-Wing ideas

I've really been trying to understand the Right-Wing desire to protect the richest Americans from paying their fair share of taxes. Rep. Paul Ryan said the other day that it wasn't political when he proposed to strip Medicare from folks and replace it with a voucher. He said his budget proposal was a manifesto but an economic one, ". . NOT political" he said. So I'm learning about the economic underpinnings of the right & some Tea Party Patriots - I say some because I'm sort of a TEA Party guy. (Tax Even Aristocrats - but my voice is drowned out by the Bachmann/Ron Paul types)

So Republicans since Reagan have been trying to "starve the beast." By this they mean the Government here & most often the Federal Government. Rep. Ryan explained "When you take a look at the problems our country is facing, debt is No. 1," Ryan says. This is a debt largely wrought by Republicans; cutting taxes on the rich and paying for Wars off-budget during the Bush years. "The math is downright scary and the credit markets aren't going to keep on giving us cheap rates. "Lawmakers," he says, have "a moral obligation ... to put up solutions to fix this problem."

So why not increase revenue to lower the debt? Is there any room for Republicans to agree with Democrats on some increases in taxes for those earning the highest incomes? Ryan says no. "Here's the problem if you keep raising tax rates," he says. "You slow down economic growth." To those who argue that taxes used to be higher and the economy did OK, he says, "this is the 21st Century where tax competition matters so much more. ... Our competitors are lowering their tax rates."

In trying to understand w/ these arguments I noted a few premises that we have to consider:
1) Republicans seem to believe that "each man is an island," that on this island that man is king of his domain, toiling in solitude to support his family, maintain his castle and serve his maker. This idea seems to form the basis of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC and many GOP calls for freedom from Government.
2) Economics are all & only about competition. Cooperation between and amongst individuals, companys, countries, or any groups can only lead to socialism or worse, communism. In America the right believes that the COMMONS -those assets held in common for the good of all people- are an insidious cancer on the rights of private capital and the owners of that capital. As J.P. Morgan said, "If Congress insists on making stupid mistakes and passing foolish laws, millionaires should not be condemned if they take advantage of them." Only now Congress is more and more in the pocket of the rich before they even take their oath.

3) Economic decisions, negotiations, and leverage flow only to the rich. In effect the capitalist concept of one dollar/one vote. Political questions must be decided by he who is richest, loudest, and most belligerent. The notion from our earliest days that a meritocracy would be a smart way to govern has been entirely discredited by these economic anarchists. "Ruling elite" has become an epithet to be hurled at anyone who might use superior intellect to argue in favor of balance or compromise in our deliberations.

At the risk of setting up straw-men to argue against, these seem to underpin the Neo-Con arguments against raising taxes on rich people. The rich must be protected from paying a fair share. They create jobs -the argument goes- that poor and middle class people need to pay the rent, buy groceries, and care for their children. The rich job creators must be free to decide the amount of pay & work rules while the worker CANNOT use collective bargaining or regulatory leverage such as a Minimum Wage laws, equal pay rules, or any Government intervention in economic matters.

I want to understand. I want to feel that thoughtful folk are struggling to come to agreement about these issues but, it seems that liberals like me are only talking amongst themselves. I do not sense that anyone in the Republican Party, the Tea Party hierarchy, or Right-Wing think tanks has any desire to come to agreement about what is best for our country. They only seem to want to win. As if winning would be best even if they are wrong. So we continue with policies that have slowly bankrupted our treasury, lowered our standard of living -ironically only if you are poor, middle class, or upper middle class but, not the rich, whose incomes have increased substantially due to much lower taxes, caused declines in our sciences, research, arts, healthcare, housing, business climate, environment, and our precious natural resources. 30 years we've been walking down this wrong path. But, so long as the GOP keeps winning, what is good for America can just, "GO to hell!"

I for one hate this mentality. I believe we should create a more perfect union. I believe our Government should be the agent for this & for the establishment of Justice, ensuring the domestic tranquillity, providing for the Common defense & the General welfare. That by doing these, all building up of the Commons, we will secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves & our offspring.

Is too much TOO much. Not for the GOP, tax FREE in the USA!

I know anecdotes are not statistics. &, 2, 3, four or more things happening at about the same time does not mean they are related but, these types of news stories keep getting juxtaposed on the front pages of my papers. To wit:

WI Governor Scott Walker admits his budget cutting bill that dissolved many rights of workers to freely associate had nothing to do budget cutting but was solely about taking away the rights of poor & working class people of Wisconsin. (posted to YouTube by Congressman Denis Kucinich D, OH)

A Financial Crisis With Little Guilt - After Widespread Reckless Banking, a Dearth of Prosecutions (NYT 4/14/11)

United's Hemsley took home $48.8M (Strib business 4/14/11) Total compensation in 2010 was less than half his $102 million in 2009.

Ameriprise, broker unit to pay $150M (Strib business 4/14/11) Clients, many seniors who were misled, get 40 cents on the dollar.

GOP votes to Cut taxes on rich & pay for it with cuts to health care for poor, elderly, & infirm & food stamps for young needy families. (NPR 4/15/11)

Percent working lowest since '83 (USA Today 4/14/11)

[President] Obama Unveils Debt Relief Plan - Calls for Spending Cuts & Tax Increases (NYT 4/14/11)

Congressman Paul Ryan R WI says Medicare & Medcaid must be privatized even if it men more expensive less effective care than a government run plan can provide. (NPR All Things Considered 4/14/11)

What are the GOPers thinking? What part of "Huh?" don't they understand? If you get a chance to ask, please ask the GOP: Why should rich people get a free ride on the taxes that all the rest of pay US in full?

A couple of my best friends. Phebe Hanson & Patricia Hampl

On the chemical properties of dihydrogen monoxide

Since I've been able to experience both in the recent months: I would much rather deliver the paper at 4:00 am with .75 inches of precip. at 28 degrees F as the flakes pile up forming a six inch layer of quiet, white across the landscape.
-vs-
Today at 4:00 am delivering the paper with .75 inches of precip. at 36 degrees F as large drops of almost frozen water/slush hit my face and drench my clothing. Although I love the sound of rain and thunder, the eight degree variance really creates a different feeling and experience.

Let's hear it for water.

Gas Main Explosion Via @rstephens

Check out this video on YouTube:

Street walking in Minneapolis.

I estimate that #MPLS has spent or committed several billion dollars to creating an infrastructure that separates pedestrians from motor vehicles. Right-of-way, real estate, and other capital costs alone in the city must be 4-5 billion for sidewalks. When you include the time and energy spent to keep the sidewalks clear in the winter we easily spend millions each year to protect pedestrians. Why then do citizens still walk in the street, at night, wearing dark clothing, & walking the wrong way in the street?!??! So dangerous. So scary, so silly, so needless. I see it twice a week or more all winter.

Irony in our country!

The political elite atop the GOP consolidates it's minority ruling party status by pitting union workers against TeaParty patriots in a cynical ploy to destroy government institutions in place since the Great Crash of '29 since none of us really remember it very well. Meanwhile the class elite, the rich, increase their wealth and consolidate their standing astride the backs of hard working Americans & the wanna-be-rich suffer the consequences of trying to enter the rarified world of monied elite; all on the pages of my morning paper! 

Why is that man in the picture on page 1A bowing his head? Because he knows he has betrayed his family, his constituents, and his state in a cynical political maneuver.

Shame should be on all these leaders but, certainly FoxNews will call it a victory for democracy!

Cocoa peanut butter almond chocolate chip cookies

Hard to live tweet & bake at the same time.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Right wing media bias & confusion over taxing the rich

A letter writer in the right leaning Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities. (er- I'm sorry, Minnesota's Top News Choice.) points out that the top 5% of earners pay 60% of the income taxes in the country. Patrick O'Keefe of Maple Grove doesn't give a citation but, seems to think this proves the rich are way over taxed. However, this doesn't begin to take all factors into account.

Do the rich make 60% of the income? No, it's closer to 80% isn't it? And, what about property taxes. Perhaps they pay 60% there to but own 70% of the property & control huge swaths of public land's mineral or right of way rights. Oh, then there's Social Security & Medicare taxes. The rich probably pay about .05% of these because they're capped at about $108,000 in earnings. And sales taxes? Clearly the rich don't pay a fair share of these. Another, the gas tax. The rich use way more road subsidies living out in private enclaves & driving huge cars that chew up our highways. Plus many of these privileged folk tend to speed, creating more pressure on our common right of ways. In so many ways the rich are greatly under taxed. One only need look at how much their income has increased in the past forty years. Our Former Governor Tim Pawlenty was fond of pointing out how fast government spending had gone up over some period of years, say 10% then asking, "how many of you know anyone whose salary has gone up 10%?" I always thought the answer was obvious, "not many of us because we don't rub elbows with the richest members of our society." It is their income that has gone up, while the working people of our country have lost ground, paid more in taxes, and seen their jobs, their homes, their communities and their way of life destroyed by Republican leaders and their rich friends in media, finance, and warmongering.

So, Mr. Patrick O'Keefe, please don't think your use of statistics convinces everyone of your delusion that the rich pay too much in taxes or even cover the cost to society of maintaining their life-style. I may be an atheist but, How I pray for the day that the rich man's behavior is treated like a gay man was in the last part of the 20th century. We can be better, but we need to be better aligned with one another first.

The Gift of a Decade.

It's been 3,652 days since President's Day 2001. GW Bush had been in office almost four weeks & the MPRB was planning to close the skating rinks after the evening skate. I rushed over to skate one last time for the season. Hockey stick in hand, I was involved in a friendly, pick-up game when, making a routine turn behind the net, I fell, perhaps my skate stuck in a short crack.

I knew immediately as I was going down,
"I broke my leg!" I said, as I fell.

"You did not!" replied of the skater next to me, as he looked down at me on the ice.

He continued, "I'll call 911!" seeing at a glance that something was not right with the configuration of my bones. The game stopped while players became caregivers, propping up my leg, bringing me water & my cell phone. I called Mary, had my Handspring PDA (like a Palm Pilot!) delivered, & within ten minutes I was being transferred from the ice to a stretcher. Soon, I was in the back of an ambulance, the EMT said, "I'm going to take off your skate, this could hurt." As he firmly grab both parts of my leg I could feel the two parts of the broken bone grind against each tour under my skin. Simultaneously, the other EMT injected Morphine into my arm. A warm, clam, relaxing wave washed over me. "Pain?!? What pain?"

I had surgery the next evening. A titanium rod, four screws, a pulmonary embolism, three months of rat poison, & countless hours of rehab later, I was able to skate an in-line marathon in June of 2001. I still have a file of the event:

I was lucky to out of work and living in MInnesota, the State Dept. of Health & Human services helped us pay the $37,000 bill. They also negotiated it down to about $7,200. (wish I had negotiating skills like that.)

The gift in this episode? Well, ten years on I'm fitter, thinner, healthier, & this morning when I slipped on the ice and felt my left leg bend awkwardly beneath the full weight of my body, I sensed the titanium protecting me from another catastrophic fracture.

Before the thaw in South #MPLS.

The Holiday Pageant at Open Eye Figure Theatre

Please try to see this show in Minneapolis. It's really fun, holiday focused, in a beautiful, intimate theatre. I sing in the choir Wednesday & Thursday afternoon & Wednesday evening.

-Santa Erik

Not new wheels, . . . new runners!

Ten days 'til the Giftmas Season

Hanukkah's in its fifth day. It's true. In a week the rest of the midwinter holidays begin. Christmas strats its run in ten days. Kwanza's seven day run kicks off 12/26. Solstice this year is on December 21, when the Sun ends its apparent slide to the south at 11:47 AM here in Minneapolis.

The Season is about to begin. I make gift deliveries starting on December 6, but real gifting season runs from December 21 thru January 13, St Knut's Day! So get ready! Gifts like respect, technique, doubt, skepticism, science, process, play, exertion & tons more are on the way to all the people of the planet, nice OR naughty!

A common good: The gift of sharing.

I've been writing about patience & waiting in the days before December. I've also been listening to our national debate over health care. The debate is coming to an end w/the Senate floor action. During this discussion many ideas flop around, assertions made, facts determined, and opinions expressed.

The Headline: Sunday, November 29, 2009,
New York Times:

Food Stamp Use Soars Across US, Stigma Fades

The Maps:

1) Growth of Food Stamp use from June 2007- June 2009.

Front page map shows high growth in food stamp in FL, home of the head "Ditto-Head" and in ID, WY, UT, NV, & GA. (These six states have ten GOP Senators.)

2) Percentage people in each county who receive food stamps, June 2009.

Jump page map show use highest across the south from AZ thru NM, TX, OK, MO, AR, LA, MS, AL, KY, TN, NC, GA, SC WV, & FL. (These 16 states have twenty-two GOP Senators.)

I feel really good about sharing the wealth of our nation with anyone who needs. Using the Department of Agriculture Food Stamp Program should be stigma free and available to any citizen who is hungry. Even if they are Republican. I ask are these the same places where people are organizing against a right to affordable health care insurance under the label of the Tea Party Patriots? I didn't do a scientific study but looking at the lists of links by state at the Tea Party Patriots Web site and at the Wikipedia page it seems like a large number of these states are the same places. Citizens in good conscience rail against "socialist health care" yet while use the roads, libraries, fire departments, public gathering places and our shared wealth in the form of food stamps. Where are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the like most popular? I looked around and it looks like they are popular all over. I guess the masters of misinformation drive the discussion on this point and they'll certainly ignore this story.

In many cases these are the same people who think nothing spending millions of dollars for three days of intensive care for a malformed premature infant whose prognosis at birth, or even before birth, is for three to six months of life. Life, they say, is sacred. Often the same folks who would force a pregnant woman to seek illegal care to control the outcome of her pregnancy, on the notion that God endows life and life begins when sperm meets egg & genes are intertwined. A poor definition of life in my book. Life is a line, not series of dots, lined up. People exist along the line we don't start & end, we participate. Each moment of consciousness is a decision to continue participating. Life began 3.X billion years ago on Earth and now it is in every crevice and nook.

We can disagree about policies and programs a government should promote. We can disagree about what unseen, or unknown things to believe in. We can teach our children what we choose even if it is a lie like the Easter Bunny exists or Santa comes down the chimney on Christmas morning to celebrate the birth on earth of God made man. But we need each other. We need all of humanity to continue our life on this planet. We even need people who believe such wild stories as are being told in the ultra-conservative, "taxes are only for poor" mainstream media like Fox. We need to share our world if we are to live on it long enough for our species to survive. Self-awareness should allow us to plan the next step in human culture but only if we can move as one.

Health is key to life so it should be a basic right. We need our neighbors to be healthy or we will get infected by them. Our children deserve to be taught how to be healthy. Our government is a great place to mediate & govern the vast and complex issues that make up the public, individual health care universe. A doctor is only a small part of the healthcare system. Patients have responsibility to monitor their own health, instead we've become a nation of fools paying more for less and believing we're getting the best. It's as if we have are the Emperor in the story of the Emperor Has No Clothes. I mourn for our democracy if the loud voices who led us with the failed policies of the past 3 decades can win this debate just by lying to their fans.

One final note on the health care debate: Our nation deserves to have healthy citizens, we need healthy citizens so we can once again lead the world in: innovation; creativity; social, cultural, economic, & artistic ideas; sports; technology; and medicine. We can afford to have the best if we stand up and demand reason prevail over faith, lies, and superstition. We can not afford to continue the byzantine system of healthcare delivery we have now, it bankrupts individuals, small & large businesses across the country. We need the Senate and the House to finish their work and deliver a bill to President Obama for signature.

Time: A gift of preparation

Turning from November to December. (From nine to ten – those Romans really did influence our calendar didn't they?) I'm ready for the season of reason. I'll prepare for the mid-winter holiday I love so much. It hasn't really snowed here yet, at least no accumulation. Not cold enough to make ice for skating. The lakes, still, open water. We haven't had more than a few days of temps below freezing.

So let's keep the mid-winter holiday in perspective. This not a time for a feeding frenzy of purchasing like the stories in the paper. Not a time to obsess about every detail of a party still weeks away. It is time to share with friends and acquaintances. Share food, meals are excellent sharing venues.

• Invite a friend to breakfast or dinner today.

Gifts: Giving w/o spending.

For years the frenzy of holiday purchasing ramped up. More each year. Last year retailers sold less than in 2007. Now, predictions for national retailers is another drop for 2009. But, small, independent, locals seem to be growing. There is another aspect of this change that can't be measured by retail sale. The new gift paradigm. Gifts of ideas, gifts of technology -not gadgets, processes or techniques- and the gifts of understanding; these uplift the soul, enhance the culture, and degrade the toxic effects of compulsive consumption.

When I started to write about patience about 10 days ago I was not completely sure where the topic would go. Now, as the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas (a season we called Advent when I was young) starts w/ the ghastly named Black Friday, I realize patience is just another intangible gift that can be recycled and repurposed and regifted. You can teach yourself and others to be patient. Simple techniques like breathing thru your nose or sipping rather than gulping when you thirst can build your ability delay gratification of your desires.

Gifts of intention, reflection, will-power, integrity, passion, respect, and commitment are often more appreciated than you would think when you present them with dignity and understanding.

• Try a new gift paradigm today!
• Share your ideas with me and other who read my blog.

The Wisdom of Santa