The Most Permanent Election Change

I keep thinking of the kids that a friend of mine recently taught in South Kansas City. Also my now much grown up kids at Hawthorne Elementary in San Luis Obispo. What a different world they'll be viewing for at least the next four and hopefully the full eight, if things go well, upcoming years.

Black Men Hope Obama Presidency Shatters Racial Stereotypes - San Jose Mercury News - 09 Nov 08

"'The most famous black man in America isn't dribbling a ball or clutching a microphone,' writer Ta-Nehisi Coates noted in a recent essay for Time magazine. 'He has no prison record. He has not built a career on four-letter words.'

The significance isn't lost on 14-year-old Jordan Brown, who attends Santa Clara's Wilcox High School.

'Obama being elected shows that black people can be smart and have some class,' Jordan said. 'People expect black people to be athletes. Like we can run fast and play basketball, but we're not smart. Now they see that black people can be smart, and people voted for Obama because he is smart.'

Many scholars note that the Obama family — his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha — is even more powerful than the image of Obama alone."

"Some stereotypes are reinforced by real-life challenges. In California, nearly 42 percent of black students drop out of high school. A 2008 study by the Pew Center for the States also found that one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars.

Matthew Morgan, a senior at San Jose State University, said Obama's victory gives him a new sense of personal responsibility. [...]

'For perceptions of black men to change, it's going to depend on how we carry ourselves,'' he said after an African-American history course this week. 'I'm proud to say that I feel like I have a lot of responsibility on me, on us as a people. Obama needs support, and we all have to step up to the plate and get involved in our communities. There are no more excuses.'"

The Most Permanent Election Change

I keep thinking of the kids that a friend of mine recently taught in South Kansas City. Also my now much grown up kids at Hawthorne Elementary in San Luis Obispo. What a different world they'll be viewing for at least the next four and hopefully the full eight, if things go well, upcoming years.

Black Men Hope Obama Presidency Shatters Racial Stereotypes - San Jose Mercury News - 09 Nov 08

"'The most famous black man in America isn't dribbling a ball or clutching a microphone,' writer Ta-Nehisi Coates noted in a recent essay for Time magazine. 'He has no prison record. He has not built a career on four-letter words.'

The significance isn't lost on 14-year-old Jordan Brown, who attends Santa Clara's Wilcox High School.

'Obama being elected shows that black people can be smart and have some class,' Jordan said. 'People expect black people to be athletes. Like we can run fast and play basketball, but we're not smart. Now they see that black people can be smart, and people voted for Obama because he is smart.'

Many scholars note that the Obama family — his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Sasha — is even more powerful than the image of Obama alone."

"Some stereotypes are reinforced by real-life challenges. In California, nearly 42 percent of black students drop out of high school. A 2008 study by the Pew Center for the States also found that one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars.

Matthew Morgan, a senior at San Jose State University, said Obama's victory gives him a new sense of personal responsibility. [...]

'For perceptions of black men to change, it's going to depend on how we carry ourselves,'' he said after an African-American history course this week. 'I'm proud to say that I feel like I have a lot of responsibility on me, on us as a people. Obama needs support, and we all have to step up to the plate and get involved in our communities. There are no more excuses.'"

Another Good One

With one major concern.

I suspect I find the tendency of some big-city authors to associate small-towns with bigotry almost as displeasing as they find associations of big-cities with anti-Americanism. Both sides should stop this polarizing framing. Now.

Tears to Remember - Judith Warner Blog - NY Times - 06 Nov 08

"On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: 'Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.'

'Save this paper,' she told us. 'This is the start of a whole new era.'

And it was. An era of unbridled deregulation, wealth-enhancing perks for the already well-off, and miserly indifference to the poor and middle class; of the recasting of greed as goodness, the equation of bellicose provincialism with patriotism, the reframing of bigotry as small-town decency.

In short, it was the start of our current era. The Reagan Revolution was the formative political experience of my generation’s lifetime, like the Great Depression, the Second World War or Vietnam for those before us. And in its intellectual and moral paucity, in its eventual hegemony, these years shut down, for some of us, the ability to fully imagine another way."

Another Good One

With one major concern.

I suspect I find the tendency of some big-city authors to associate small-towns with bigotry almost as displeasing as they find associations of big-cities with anti-Americanism. Both sides should stop this polarizing framing. Now.

Tears to Remember - Judith Warner Blog - NY Times - 06 Nov 08

"On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: 'Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.'

'Save this paper,' she told us. 'This is the start of a whole new era.'

And it was. An era of unbridled deregulation, wealth-enhancing perks for the already well-off, and miserly indifference to the poor and middle class; of the recasting of greed as goodness, the equation of bellicose provincialism with patriotism, the reframing of bigotry as small-town decency.

In short, it was the start of our current era. The Reagan Revolution was the formative political experience of my generation’s lifetime, like the Great Depression, the Second World War or Vietnam for those before us. And in its intellectual and moral paucity, in its eventual hegemony, these years shut down, for some of us, the ability to fully imagine another way."

Duke Nukes Estimates Double

Now that Obama is in, the prospects for any of this fiscally imprudent nonsense have been seriously dimmed.

The latest S&P estimate has the price of a new nuke as going up to $8,000/kw. Moody's estimate is a mere $7,000 a kW. And that doesn't include roughly an extra billion a plant for Yucca Mountain costs per nuke. And the equally non-trivial costs of decommissioning the nasty boys. And this all assumes things go well which they rarely have in this industry.

To give one a sense of proportion in pricing, a little 10 kW Bergey wind turbine, installed, runs about $5,200/kW. A source at NREL says the big G.E. wind turbines run about $2,600/kW. The difference between nuke and wind prices provides significant room for storage and infrastructure investments.

Duke Doubles Cost Estimate for Nuclear Plant - The Business Journal - 04 Nov 08

( Snippets here . . . )

Duke Nukes Estimates Double

Now that Obama is in, the prospects for any of this fiscally imprudent nonsense have been seriously dimmed.

The latest S&P estimate has the price of a new nuke as going up to $8,000/kw. Moody's estimate is a mere $7,000 a kW. And that doesn't include roughly an extra billion a plant for Yucca Mountain costs per nuke. And the equally non-trivial costs of decommissioning the nasty boys. And this all assumes things go well which they rarely have in this industry.

To give one a sense of proportion in pricing, a little 10 kW Bergey wind turbine, installed, runs about $5,200/kW. A source at NREL says the big G.E. wind turbines run about $2,600/kW. The difference between nuke and wind prices provides significant room for storage and infrastructure investments.

Duke Doubles Cost Estimate for Nuclear Plant - The Business Journal - 04 Nov 08

( Snippets here . . . )

No Money, Sorry. Can't Clean Up Your Radioactive Mess. Maybe Later.

Vermont Yankee Decommissioning May Have to Wait 60 Years - Vermont Public Radio - 30 Oct 08

"The owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant says it will have to wait almost 60 years before it has enough money to decommission the plant. Faced with that lengthy timeline, lawmakers are likely to try again to force Yankee to set aside funds for decommissioning."

TVA Fund for Cleanup Takes a Hit - Tennessean - 08 Nov 08

"'We've got quite a mess brewing here,' said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Oversight Project for the nonprofit Beyond Nuclear, 'and we're only able to see the tip of the iceberg.' Going into this financial crisis, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not have a handle on verifying the status and veracity of decommissioning funds for the nation's nuclear plants. 'That problem has only been exacerbated by the stock market diving.'

( A bit more . . . )

No Money, Sorry. Can't Clean Up Your Radioactive Mess. Maybe Later.

Vermont Yankee Decommissioning May Have to Wait 60 Years - Vermont Public Radio - 30 Oct 08

"The owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant says it will have to wait almost 60 years before it has enough money to decommission the plant. Faced with that lengthy timeline, lawmakers are likely to try again to force Yankee to set aside funds for decommissioning."

TVA Fund for Cleanup Takes a Hit - Tennessean - 08 Nov 08

"'We've got quite a mess brewing here,' said Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Oversight Project for the nonprofit Beyond Nuclear, 'and we're only able to see the tip of the iceberg.' Going into this financial crisis, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not have a handle on verifying the status and veracity of decommissioning funds for the nation's nuclear plants. 'That problem has only been exacerbated by the stock market diving.'

( A bit more . . . )