Money, war, and the true cost of poor civic education

As Congress debates measures to support or oppose the administration's continuation and escalation of the war in Iraq, pro-war Members are trying to cast the debate in terms of "cutting funding to the troops." As if we'd stop sending out paychecks and expect them to live off the land and then hitchhike back to the States. For example:

Rep. Sam Johnson: "We must not cut funding for our troops. We must stick by them."

House Minority Leader John Boehner: "..after their Iraq resolution passes, Democrats will begin moving legislation to systematically cut off funding for America’s troops."

But how are they able to make this case straight-faced? After all, the intent of limiting or blocking war funds is hardly to deprive soldiers in the field of needed resources. Rather, cutting funding for the war would ultimately force the U.S. to scale back its operations in Iraq and bring troops home.

The fact that this frame around "cutting funding to the troops" gets any traction whatsoever suggests a few things about the state of civic awareness in America today. It really only works if we assume that many Americans do not understand that the power of the purse is one of the key tools available to Congress to balance executive power.

Can we assume that? You be the judge.

• American Civic Literacy Board report: "More than half of college seniors did not know that the Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits the establishment of an official religion for the United States."
• National Association of Secretaries of State youth survey: "A majority (55%) of the young people agree with the statement that schools do not do a very good job of giving young people the information they need to vote."

When people aren't learning how their government works, we can hardly expect them to make the political choices that best reflect their values and interests...especially if opinion leaders are able to manipulate ignorance to serve their own ends.

Radio news wasteland

In what I suspect is the karmic reward for our groaning over pledge drives, it's official--you can't get talk public radio in DC on Sunday mornings.

For years now, WAMU (88.5 FM) has frustratingly broadcast a steady stream of bluegrass morning 'til night on Sundays. I got nothing against bluegrass. But a little Weekend Edition Sunday would be nice, maybe? How about This American Life or somethin'? Mix it up a bit?

Until recently, those craving Liane Hansen's dulcet newsvoice on Sundays could still tune in to WETA (90.9 FM), the Virginia-based NPR affliate, to get Weekend Edition and other shows. But now 90.9 has gone all classical. Hourly NPR news only. WTF?

I am sure that DC's classical music lovers are grateful to WETA. The station switched its programming back to classical after DC's only classical station shut down in January. (WP) And I wouldn't be surprised if the type of people who listen to a lot of classical radio are also the type of people who pledge big bucks to public radio stations, so it makes business sense.

But what about the unserved market of Sunday morning radio news junkies? Who's looking out for us?

This is CNN.

This CNN.com story did not disappoint:

Man with sword mistakes porn for rape

But then, you can always turn to the CNN website for the most important, up-to-the minute headlines. Like this one.

Judge Larry Seidlin says he is preparing to rule on who will get custody of Anna Nicole Smith’s body. Watch live on CNN Pipeline now.

You write like a girl

The Gender Genie thinks the author of this passage is: male!

Paste some text you've written in the Gender Genie, which will attempt to predict your gender "based on a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author."

I dunno...I've done the test with 3 different passages, and every time, it comes out "boy." Might try coloring the text pink next time or something.

Mourning DC pedestrians

A Metro Bus killed 2 pedestrians in a crosswalk on Pennsylvania Ave. last night at around 6 pm. They had the light, and the bus driver's been charged with negligent homicide. Even more shocking and awful, did you realize this is the third fatal Metro Bus accident in eight months? (WP)

Let this be a reminder to us all that just because you're in a crosswalk, crossing with the light, does not mean that a Metro Bus or one of those damn 12 foot high Escalades with Virginia plates isn't going to plow right through you (can the people in the cockpits of those things even see a five-foot-tall pedestrian in front of them? Doubt it). Be careful out there...

CrackerJacked

Things have been a little busy at Antigravitas Central recently, hence the sporadic blogging. Specifically, we are in the process of moving and there's no reliable internet access at the new place yet. But fear not, dear reader, we'll be back to normal soon enough--and in the meantime I must request some important information from you. Please respond to waage (at) antigravitas (dot) com.

Poll:

Q1. Is it your perception that today's Cracker Jacks® contain fewer peanuts per handful than they did 20 years ago, or do they contain more peanuts, or about the same?

Q2. In your opinion, are the prizes contained in today's Cracker Jack® bags way less cool, objectively, than they were 20 years ago?

I only ask because I just opened a bag, and once again, got totally shafted on the peanuts and the prizes. What gives?

Recipe of the day

I have taken to making my own black bean "hummus"--loosely defined. Here's the recipe 'cause it's yummy and healthy and practically free to make. I eat it on a big ol' sandwich that would make Mollie Katzen proud, with some sprouts and tomatoes and avocado.

You need--
can of black beans
a clove or two of garlic
salt
olive oil
balsamic vinegar, or lemon juice, or lime juice--basically, something acidic
chipotle chile powder (optional, but awesome)

Throw the beans, garlic cloves, pinch of salt, drizzle of olive oil, even smaller drizzle of vinegar, pinch or two of chile powder in a food processer and blend. OR smoosh everything together with a fork or potato masher, making sure to pre-smoosh the garlic in a mortar and pestle or garlic press. The secret is that it's actually better if you smoosh vs. food process it.

Go Pepco Go!

The metro area set a new record for daily winter electricity use yesterday, a reporter declared on our local Fox News broadcast last night. But it's another cold one and I think--no, I know--we can do better than that.

Here are few simple things you can do to help take us over the top!

• Keep your thermostat set at at least 75 degrees. If you become uncomfortable, simply remove extra layers of clothing.
• If you must blow-dry your hair, be sure to do so during peak hours.
• Two words: incandescent bulbs.
  
• The hotter the water, the better. And baths are better than showers.
• Your electric oven will do a much better job than your microwave at burning energy. So preheat away and then throw in that chicken pot pie.