Archive for June, 2014

Believers

In terms of money, I think that Hobby Lobby’s “victory” in the Supreme Court today was Pyrrhic, and that the lawyers who advised the family who owns most of the shares *must* have advised them of this. The company will lose a number of highly trained employees as well as a large number of long-term customers. That is money going out the door.

The company might save a little money in insurance costs.

The family loses. It must have known. This family *believes* in the cause.

Updates

1: I’ve tried out my theory on two friends of mine. One thinks Hobby Lobby’s sales will go through the roof. The other nodded politely.

2: Dan Savage is at work on a neologism. – 3 July

Kwantlen addendum

The Province newspaper and the NDP weigh in on the Kwantlen compensation controversy. Neither is pleased, alas.

NoContest.CA

New stuff’s up!

The calamities are coming …

The future American class war:

Wealthy Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer warns his “fellow zillionaires” that “the pitchforks are coming for us plutocrats.”

At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.

And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last. …

The thing about us businesspeople is that we love our customers rich and our employees poor. So for as long as there has been capitalism, capitalists have said the same thing about any effort to raise wages. We’ve had 75 years of complaints from big business—when the minimum wage was instituted, when women had to be paid equitable amounts, when child labor laws were created. Every time the capitalists said exactly the same thing in the same way: We’re all going to go bankrupt. I’ll have to close. I’ll have to lay everyone off. It hasn’t happened. In fact, the data show that when workers are better treated, business gets better. The naysayers are just wrong.

Most of you probably think that the $15 minimum wage in Seattle is an insane departure from rational policy that puts our economy at great risk. But in Seattle, our current minimum wage of $9.32 is already nearly 30 percent higher than the federal minimum wage. And has it ruined our economy yet? Well, trickle-downers, look at the data here: The two cities in the nation with the highest rate of job growth by small businesses are San Francisco and Seattle. Guess which cities have the highest minimum wage? San Francisco and Seattle. The fastest-growing big city in America? Seattle. Fifteen dollars isn’t a risky untried policy for us. It’s doubling down on the strategy that’s already allowing our city to kick your city’s ass.

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The future world:

In The New York Review of Books, Bill McKibbon says it is no longer “if” but “when” climate change will ruin our world.

Human effects on the atmosphere and climate can actually be read more easily from the South Pole than almost anywhere on earth, and the results are truly horrifying. To put the facts simply, the massive ice sheets are starting to move with awful speed. On the narrow Antarctic Peninsula, which points up toward South America, and where most Antarctic tourists come, melt is proceeding as fast as or faster than anywhere on earth. It’s here that a big chunk of the Larsen B ice shelf broke off in 2002.

But the peninsula contains relatively small amounts of ice; most of the world’s freshwater is tied up in the giant ice sheets of East and West Antarctica. Scientists—innately conservative—had long considered that these giants were comparatively stable, at least over millennia: it’s no easy feat to melt a mile or two of ice, especially when the air temperature rarely if ever rises above freezing. However, as Walker hints toward the end of her account, researchers have grown increasingly concerned about the stability of the West Antarctic in particular.

Enormous glaciers spill out from the West Antarctic ice sheet into the Amundsen Sea in the South Pacific. It’s perhaps the most remote part of the most remote continent, and to make matters worse the most interesting part of it is underwater. So scientists have been sending “autonomous subs” beneath the waves to study the geology, and using satellites to study changes in the height of the ice. Their work wasn’t quite finished when Walker went to press with her book, but her account provides all the background you need to understand what may have been the most depressing announcement yet of the global warming era.

In mid-May of this year, a pair of papers were published in Science and Geophysical Research Letters that made clear that the great glaciers facing the Amundsen Sea were no longer effectively “buttressed.” It turns out that the geology of the region is bowl-shaped: beneath the glaciers the ground slopes downward, meaning that water can and is flooding underneath them. It is eating away at them from below and freeing them from the points where they were pinned to the ground. This water is warmer, because our oceans are steadily warming. This slow-motion collapse, which will occur over many decades, is “unstoppable” at this point, scientists say; it has “passed the point of no return.”

This means that as much as ten feet of sea-level rise is being added to previous predictions. We don’t know how quickly it will come, just that it will. And that won’t be all. A few days after the Antarctic announcement, other scientists found that much of Greenland’s ice sheet shows a similar underlying geology, with warm water able to melt it from underneath. Another study that week showed that soot from huge forest fires, which are more frequent as a result of global warming, is helping to melt the Greenland ice sheet, a remarkably vicious cycle.

In certain ways none of this really comes as news. A leading glaciologist, Jason Box of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), has calculated that given the paleoclimatic record, our current atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases are probably enough to produce an eventual sixty-nine feet of sea-level rise. But it’s one thing to know that the gun is cocked, and another to see the bullet actually traveling; the news from the Antarctic is a turning point. It doesn’t mean we should give up efforts to slow climate change: if anything, as scientists immediately pointed out, it means we should ramp them up enormously, because we can still affect the rate at which this change happens, and hence the level of chaos it produces. Coping over centuries will be easier than coping over decades.

“Compassion is a word that sounds good in anybody’s mouth”

flanneryoconnor

This is Flannery O’Connor reading “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction.” I had never heard her voice before – until this evening – though she has been one of my favourite writers since junior high school – for different reasons as the years have passed.

Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

 

Kwantlen’s Compensation Controversy

There have been four presidents of Kwantlen Polytechnic University since I was hired eleven years ago. Our current one, Dr. Alan Davis, seems to me to have been the best. Why? He understands how our university’s future will never be a break from its past: a community-focused, rigorous institution devoted to providing students with real-world expertise – from fashion and interior design to horticulture to business to criminology and, now, even to beer-brewing and to Chinese medicine.

He has been a superb hire. In his previous post – president of the State University of New York’s prestigious “university without walls” – he demonstrated his commitment to cool and interesting innovations, humanism, and technology.

How Dr. Davis got hired is not controversial, but how he got paid *before* he started his job as President has. Today he released this statement:

Colleagues,
 
I am very troubled by aspects of administrative compensation at KPU that have recently come to light. It is clear that, prior to my arrival at KPU, there was an established pattern of issuing pre-employment consulting contracts to people being hired to senior positions. The recipients of those contracts, including myself, were unaware that these contracts might be non-compliant in some way with BC public sector regulations.
 
Assistant Deputy Minister Rob Mingay found in his recently released Compensation Review of Kwantlen Polytechnic University that the mis-reporting of two of those contracts (including my own) was not in keeping with the spirit and intent of government standards.
 
Similar conclusions could be drawn about other such contracts that were issued before my arrival.
 
I am therefore conducting a review of these issues, using independent external resources as required.
I wish Dr. Davis the best, and I applaud the transparent manner with which he has addressed this episode.
 
 

National Identity vs. Cultural Differences

Here is my blog-friend Clarissa’s take. Oft-times I don’t know how to respond to her posts, which are so smart and personal and awake to argument.  I just love to read them.

Good Rule: Take pleasure in your artistic process

This might not make you an artist. But, if you don’t take such pleasure, no one will give a hoot about your song, painting, poem, or garden. This is from my friend Jonathan Mayhew’s brilliant and beautiful blog:

If you don’t write with delectation your reader will feel none. If you are bored with your topic, your reader will feel your boredom–your pain, whatever it is that you feel, she will feel it too.

Taking pleasure. Well, look at the play I wrote yesterday, playing hooky from my scholarly writing. That was fun and I don’t care whether anyone else likes the final result.

The first thing: take pleasure in the raw materials. What you have chosen to write about has value and interest to you. It could be the pleasure of finding something egregiously bad or stupid, even.

Take pleasure in the level of engagement with the material. You are enjoying your spending of the time in this company. With this engagement, you lose a sense of your self as separate from the material.

Take pleasure in the final result, your ability to make something valuable and pleasurable to other people. Write pleasure-giving sentences.

Academic and personal freedom at Trinity Western University

Friends and former students of mine who have attended TWU say the vibe there is friendly and open-minded, despite

TWU’s long-standing “community covenant,” which requires faculty and students to refrain from homosexual relationships or risk expulsion. The covenant forbids premarital heterosexual relationships and “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.” …

Even though Premier Christy Clark’s government has approved TWU’s proposed law school and accepted the university’s argument that “religious freedom” gives it the right to discriminate against gays and lesbians, TWU’s dream to open a law school has run into heavy pushback from provincial law societies, beginning in Eastern Canada.

In the latest development, B.C. Law Society members this month overrode their own leadership and voted by a margin of 3,210 to 968 to direct their board of governors to deny law society accreditation to the proposed law school.

Douglas Todd’s story in The Vancouver Sun covers the controversy very well. (h/t SW)

 

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Neologism

“Defecadence”: [DEF-uh-KEYD-ns] Noun –> A particularly awful sequence of musical tones.

Where We Belong

Old-fashioned video and musical values reclaimed: *enchanting*. God bless “Those Darlins,” so smart and fun and … new.

Those Darlins, "In the Wilderness"

Those Darlins, “In the Wilderness”

What is not said …

… is a maze as real as life.

Happy Father’s Day, Dad

momanddad_5x7

I love you, Dad.

“Rebranding”

There is no such thing as . It means going into “witness protection,” then coming out as something utterly different.

Words are cyphers, always.

[When they are meant to impress and confuse, these cyphers are “bullshit” cyphers. By “bullshit” I mean words that are meant to hide the author’s true intention rather than reveal the author’s intention. What the author who suggests that she or he can rebrand your organization is trying to hide: “I cannot do this, AT ALL.” – June 12]

A colleague writes that “rebranding” often ends up being “debranding,” a process set in motion by poor leadership. In the end, esprit de corps suffers (badly) and money (a ton) is wasted. (h/t PC) – June 12

Outlook TV

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This Canadian-based television magazine covers events, people and sports in the LGBT community and airs on Shaw TV (channel 4) in Vancouver and OutTV (channel 100) across Canada. The show highlights the joy and creativity across of this community. Very good friends of mine participate in producing this magazine. So much wisdom and understanding have been fostered by these folk.  The transgender tipping point didn’t come from nowhere.

Update: My buddy Jack Fox has recently updated OutlookTV’s website, providing links to all 41 of its shows. (Here is OutlookTV’s Facebook page.) – June 13

HR

From my wonderful friend Agata Zasada, Human Relations dynamo:

So many times managers forget the journey it took to hire an employee, from last year’s budgeting, the job descriptions, interviewing and making a final decision. Many things can change over the course of time, so it’s important to realign your new hires purpose, expectations, measures of success and what the first 90 days should look like (or whatever number of days). Here are some things to consider and get you started.

Kwantlen to Open Campus #5

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My fine university made a big announcement today. Here is the school’s news release:

Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) will expand its commitment to the region south of the Fraser with a 30,000 square foot (almost 2,800 square metre), three-storey site dedicated to professional development, business and innovation at 3 Civic Plaza in Surrey City Centre.

President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. Alan Davis announced today that KPU plans to reinvigorate the educational experience in Surrey with a roster of new programs that meet the needs of industry, business and professionals in Metro Vancouver’s latest downtown core.

“Kwantlen was born from the need to provide relevant post-secondary education to the South Fraser Region. For the past 32 years, we have grown to serve more than a quarter of a million students. But KPU’s vision is to be bigger, bolder and better. KPU Civic Plaza is just that,” said Davis.

Expected to open early 2016, KPU Civic Plaza plans to deliver professional studies, upper-level business courses and post-graduate credentials in downtown Surrey, from a location with excellent transit and SkyTrain access, on a hotel and residential site that can accommodate professionals from throughout the region.

The centre is also envisioned to become a hub for community engagement, collaboration and connection between researchers and Surrey’s health and technology sectors on Innovation Boulevard. From City Centre, KPU will lead the landscape of urban education, championing the entrepreneurial spirit that has led Surrey to become the largest city in Metro Vancouver, and the second largest in the province.

“With one-third of Surrey’s population under the age of 19, the new KPU Civic Plaza is an excellent example in how the City of Surrey is reaching out to meet the needs of our future leaders,” said Mayor Dianne Watts. “Once complete, the KPU Civic Plaza will begin by bringing more than 1,600 students each year into our downtown core, which falls in line with the City’s vision for the area. I like to welcome the students and staff of Kwantlen Polytechnic University to the heart Surrey City Centre.”

KPU Civic Plaza will expand on the traditional academic day and year, with community-oriented, short-term and direct professional development programming to be offered throughout the entire calendar year – on weekdays, evenings and weekends. Initially, Surrey’s largest and longest-serving university will accommodate over 1,600 students in a district filled with companies charging the city’s business, economic and social sectors.

“KPU is a perfect fit with 3 Civic Plaza. I can already imagine the students adding to the sense of community. KPU will be at centre ice of the new City Centre,” said Sean Hodgins, President of Century Group, the developer behind Surrey City Centre’s iconic plaza.

Proposed programs include graduate diplomas and certificates in: strategic planning, media and communications, public relations, emerging markets analysis, product development, management sciences, accounting, human resource management, financial analysis, specific business applications, and professional standards.

Goddamn Teachers

From the New York Times:

LOS ANGELES — A California judge ruled Tuesday that teacher tenure laws deprive students of their right to an education under the state Constitution. The decision hands teachers’ unions a major defeat in a landmark case, one that could radically alter how California teachers are hired and fired and prompt challenges to tenure laws in other states.

“Substantial evidence presented makes it clear to this court that the challenged statutes disproportionately affect poor and/or minority students,” Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court wrote in the ruling. “The evidence is compelling. Indeed, it shocks the conscience.”

The ruling, which was enthusiastically endorsed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan, brings to a close the first chapter of the case, Vergara v. California, in which a group of student plaintiffs argued that state tenure laws had deprived them of a decent education by leaving bad teachers in place.

The teachers’ unions said Tuesday that they planned to appeal. A spokesman for the state’s attorney general, Kamala D. Harris, said she was reviewing the ruling with Gov. Jerry Brown and state education officials before making a decision on any plans for an appeal.

My conscience isn’t shocked but my sensibility is truly bloody irritated.

Public school teachers take care of your kids. All day long. Oh, and teach them.  And coach them after school.

Even though I teach as a professor at a post-secondary level, I cannot even imagine the workload and stress and conflict to which these teachers must adapt.

Go to hell, Judge.

(h/t Clarissa)

 

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