A mutual insurance company which is working for its policy holders.

Any ideas on how to get that done?

I have been reading around the Eisenhower Foundation site that Adie gave the link to, and wow. These guys have been doing research into exactly what we need to know right now, which is the causes of urban and civil violence. Timely, eh wot?

Their mission statement:

The Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation is the international, nonprofit continuation of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Riot Commission, after the big city riots of the 1960s) and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (the National Violence Commission, after the assassinations of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy). (my bold)

Here’s how their policy sections starts out:

Over twenty-five years ago, after the big city riots, the bipartisan President’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Riot commission) concluded, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal.”

They proceed to describe how the separation has widened in the 25 years and the middle class now joins the poor in being ‘truly disadvantaged’. They talk about causes (hint, supply-side economics) and solutions, too — plus great sections on what works and what doesn’t. It’s big but a must-read. You can download it or bookmark it for reading in digestible bits.

Doh, would this be one of those left-wing think thanks that aren’t supposed to exist? This is what Christy’s going to be part of. Ding!

I look forward to reading a report of the conference.

TX and CA together have more people in prison than the entire EU.

The prison system is not working at all. 1 in 4 black youths is under the authority of prison system, either in prison, jail or on probation.

We imprison drug offenders who need help not incarceration. And of the 2.1MM people in prison only 3.75K are involved with violent crimes or crimes where a weapon was carried. That means 1.6MM non violent people are locked up cost taxpayers from 18K – 87K a year.

And of course most of those incarcerated are poor and have little access to decent legal counsel.

What’s with this country? Govs Cuomo and Brown built more prison cells than any else.. more than were buult since the revolutionary war. These guys are supposed be “librals”.

America loves to lock people up.

We love all these cops protecting us from all the criminals roaming our streets.

We love the army…with its weapons… We love the national security state.

We love fascism… or so it seems.. because that is what this society looks like when viewed objectively.

“The Department of Agriculture recently announced that it would remove the word “hunger” from reports on the nation’s food supply.
Instead, it announced that it would use “low food security” or “very low food security” in its reports. I have written to Secretary
of Agriculture Michael Johanns to express my displeasure over this change.

Officials at the Department of Agriculture report that the change in labels was not a plot to try to disguise or mask hunger in
America. Instead, they claim that “hunger” is too amorphous a phrase to describe, in their terms, ”a potential consequence of food insecurity that, because of prolonged, involuntary lack of food, results in discomfort, illness, weakness or pain that goes beyond
the usual uneasy sensation.”…”

…thanks for speaking for us!

The glitch I talked about at 87 seems to have “edited” out my original comment at 52. My system was acting squirrelly, so I shut down and rebooted to see if that helps. Meanwhile, could one of you be so kind as to cut my original remarks out of *ilbo’s comment # 80 and put them back at 52 where they belong? Then you can delete this comment as well.

Thanks!