Human Rights Watch: The Politics of Fear is the World's Number One Threat

by Nomad

In the midst of the Great Depression, President Roosevelt famously told the nation that the only thing we had to fear was fear itself. Though the sources of fear may be different today, the effect is the same.

The Many Facets of Fear

An essay by Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, explores what he sees as the root cause of many of the world's problems today: Fear.

Fear stood behind many of the big human rights developments of the past year. Fear of being killed or tortured in Syria and other zones of conflict and repression drove millions from their homes. Fear of what an influx of asylum seekers could mean for their societies led many governments in Europe and elsewhere to close the gates. Fear of mounting terrorist attacks moved some political leaders to curtail rights and scapegoat refugees or Muslims.

And fear of their people holding them to account led various autocrats to pursue an unprecedented global crackdown on the ability of those people to band together and make their voices heard.

The 2016 Human Rights Watch World report summarizes key human rights issues in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. Globally, Roth explained in his keynote essay , the politics of fears impacts human rights policy in two different ways.

Study Suggests Over-40 Workers Should Be Scheduled Shorter Work Week for Peak Performance

by Nomad

You aren't getting any younger, you know. 

None of us are.

The American workforce is aging too.

In fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of this moment in time, one-third of the total U.S. workforce are 50 years or older and one in every five American workers is over 65. 

Barring some unforeseen factor, this progression will continue and by 2050, the US Census predicts that roughly 19 percent of the total workforce will be over the age of 65 years, growing by 75%.

The bottom line is the American workforce is aging. This fact of life will become an increasingly important consideration in business management in the next decades. 

The question for management is how will this shift in worker ages affect the labor performance and how can the highest level of performance be maintained.

Scrub: How the EU's "Right to be Forgotten" Policy Highlights the Internet's Built-in Shortcomings

by Nomad

The Internet is a "gift from God," said Pope Francis and yet that it comes with some dangerous limitations. For good reasons and bad, that divine offerring is under threat.

The News Written on the Wind

Most of us didn't think too much when the Internet ground print media into the  dust.

It was a breakthrough.

An astonishing step forward. If the former system of print media disappeared, then that's what progress looks like. The hard copy was dead, silently murdered by the website.

It was certainly more convenient and in many ways, it led to a revolution when it came to access to news and information. There's no question that it allowed news addicts their daily (hourly) hits. When it came to breaking news, the Internet outstripped CNN, a network that once broke the speed barrier for the live broadcast and the on-the-scene interviews. 

As the Internet became the predominant means for the average citizen to get the news, few considered the very real difference between them. I am not referring to the vast amounts of propaganda- that's nothing new. I am not speaking about faulty information online, especially given the rise of "fake news" and spoof sites. 

The problem with using the Internet as your only information source is its uniquely ephemeral (and indeed its rescindable) nature. Things appear and disappear seemingly at random.
Despite impressive efforts, the sheer volume of information makes any comprehensive attempt to archive the information fairly impossible.

A Wall So High: Senator Sam Ervin and North Carolina's Controversial Potty Police Law

by Nomad

With his Southern drawl, dry wit, and country-lawyer persona, Senator Sam Ervin became a national hero to many during the Watergate hearings. Yet, here was a staunch conservative Democrat- a Dixie-Crat.
Today he very likely would be disgusted by what's going on in his state. 

Remembering Senator Ervin

Most of us of a certain (unspecified) age recognize the name, Sam Ervin. During the long painful summer of 1973, Congress convened a special session in order to get down to the bottom of an extraordinary White House scandal, involving a contracted break-in of opposition offices and a badly-handled coverup by the president.

Starting from May 17, 1973, the Senate Watergate Committee began its nationally televised hearings and throughout that summer, the nation stood witness to every detail of Nixon's dirty tricks and his vain attempts to keep them from wrecking his presidency. 

At the helm of that committee was a flabby-jowled Democratic Senator named Ervin.

Ervin was a treat for those of us- like me- incapable of understanding the Washington proceedings or of appreciating history in the making.

As I recall, he came across initially as a rather slow, rather amusing grandfatherly type. It was easy enough to dismiss him as a bumbler or cartoon character.
In fact, it was soon understood that Ervin was sly fox and resolution determined to get the facts.

Some 319 hours were broadcast overall, and 85% of U.S. households watched some portion of them. The audio feed also was broadcast gavel-to-gavel on scores of National Public Radio stations, making the hearings available to people in their cars and workplaces...

Over a year later, the president- who had assured the American public he was not a crook- was forced to step aside, unable to clear his name and unwilling to be held accountable. On August 8, 1974, Nixon, with a weary salute from the steps of his presidential helicopter, became the first president in US history to resign from office.

Ervin took a lot of heat during the Watergate hearings. Rolling Stone noted at the time:

Jim Fuller of the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reports his newspaper gets calls at all hours of the day and night, some from as far away as Houston, demanding that "that fat, senile old man" lay off the President. "The most common threat," Fuller says, "is castration." Ervin doesn't look worried.

The Republican Party's Suicide Squad: Is Hollywood Taking the Mickey out of the GOP?

by Nomad

The plot of the summer blockbuster, Suicide Squad, seems so familiar for some reason. 

As far as I can remember, I haven't done a film review on this blog. 

There are reasons for that. I have been called a snob when it comes to film preferences. The kinds of films I usually like are not what most people do.
"Quirky tastes," I think was how one person defined by film preferences. I wouldn't deny that.

So I lay off the film critiques.

The last film I sized up was as a budding journalist at my high school newspaper. I wrote that "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was a better film than "Star Wars." ("What's up with that chick's hair??")

And that pretty much ended my career as a film reviewer. 

In any case, there's a new film about to be released that caught my attention.  Technically, since I haven't actually seen the film, this is actually more a comment on a film than a review of it.

Here's a synopsis of the new film Suicide Squad:

Assemble a team of the world’s most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government’s disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity.

It's yet another one of those films based on comic books for audiences that like that sort of thing. Frankly I am getting sick to death of them when there are so many more interesting stories to tell.
Just say it already. "Snob!"