Couple of things
- The word on the street is that there's more to this than meets the eye ... what that would be, I don't know, so now I'm just speculating.
- Spinning off of Blake's story, I take a brief look at the upcoming special election for the 10th Congressional District.
- Wow. I say again, wow. I'm thinking this all might be talk, but if the University of Georgia is seriously considering pulling back, that's pretty big. They say they want to all of the land to help develop the proposed medical school, but they have met some resistance with the Local Redevelopment Authority and drew some questions from lawmakers earlier this week. There are some more hearings today regarding some of the non-profits, including IHN of Athens which I helped work on, so I'm hoping to get over there this afternoon.
- As I've discussed here before, some of the incredibly partisan, and sometimes shallow, arguments over at Daily Kos tend to frustrate me. And I don't necessarily agree with everything in this one (primarily his central argument of cutting funding), but it was submitted by a soldier who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and opposes the war, so it offered a unique take on the whole situation.
- On the opposite side of the spectrum, Cindy Selvidge's argument is so juvenille and ignorant it's almost hard to believe it isn't a joke. 'We're taking a stand that needs to be taken, telling people who hate us we're not going to take it anymore ...' Awesome. Because Islamic extremists will recognize our conviction and surely will lay down their arms after your PowerPoint presentation.
- The UNICEF report on child poverty has the U.S. at the bottom of the barrel, which is more than a tad disconcerting. And we lag in everything from public assistance to family support, so it covers all of those things that people from both sides of the aisle say is the cause.
- Don Nelson talks about possible land purchases by the local government.
- Adrian's running for the president of the Jennings Mill Homeowners Association, so good for him. I didn't realize there was such a grueling campaign to go through, so I'll give him my endorsement just for good measure. On a related note, I'm trying to get one started for my neighborhood, which should be lots of fun.
- Spinning off of Blake's story, I take a brief look at the upcoming special election for the 10th Congressional District.
- Wow. I say again, wow. I'm thinking this all might be talk, but if the University of Georgia is seriously considering pulling back, that's pretty big. They say they want to all of the land to help develop the proposed medical school, but they have met some resistance with the Local Redevelopment Authority and drew some questions from lawmakers earlier this week. There are some more hearings today regarding some of the non-profits, including IHN of Athens which I helped work on, so I'm hoping to get over there this afternoon.
- As I've discussed here before, some of the incredibly partisan, and sometimes shallow, arguments over at Daily Kos tend to frustrate me. And I don't necessarily agree with everything in this one (primarily his central argument of cutting funding), but it was submitted by a soldier who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and opposes the war, so it offered a unique take on the whole situation.
- On the opposite side of the spectrum, Cindy Selvidge's argument is so juvenille and ignorant it's almost hard to believe it isn't a joke. 'We're taking a stand that needs to be taken, telling people who hate us we're not going to take it anymore ...' Awesome. Because Islamic extremists will recognize our conviction and surely will lay down their arms after your PowerPoint presentation.
- The UNICEF report on child poverty has the U.S. at the bottom of the barrel, which is more than a tad disconcerting. And we lag in everything from public assistance to family support, so it covers all of those things that people from both sides of the aisle say is the cause.
- Don Nelson talks about possible land purchases by the local government.
- Adrian's running for the president of the Jennings Mill Homeowners Association, so good for him. I didn't realize there was such a grueling campaign to go through, so I'll give him my endorsement just for good measure. On a related note, I'm trying to get one started for my neighborhood, which should be lots of fun.
posted by Jmac at 7:03 AM
3 Comments:
I guess it's time to display my political ignorance again.
1) The UNICEF report uses some whacked out measurements. First, it says itself that "relative" poverty is more a measure of income disparity than a measure of how poor children are. The higher the median income in a country, the higher the "relative poverty rate" is likely to be. Right? So, the fact that the United States is one of the richest countries followed by OECD, naturally makes it a prime candidate for high relative poverty rate. So, is anyone surprised that the U.S. is basically an outlier in the table?
And, material deprivation is measured by the number of books in the home? Seriously? So children in a family that owns three televisions, two DVD players, and a library of movies could be considered materially deprived because they don't have a library of books? That's more an assessment of poor education habits and not material deprivation. When I think material deprivation, I'm thinking warm meals, clothes, toiletries, etc. I guess I just don't get it.
2) If UGA doesn't build the Medical School complex on the Navy School site, where else would they build it? Adams & Co. want to make it campus-like, which means brick sidewalks and grassy places, so the condensing the plans to allow others to use the space won't jive. If they don't get this space, I foresee this development in the least opportune spot possible both traffic-wise and in terms of inconvenience to neighbors. What happens if UGA decides to abandon the site altogether? Who gets the land, and who makes sure commercial development would survive there? Look at the Homewood Village. Is DialAmerica the highest bidder, or were they the only ones that wanted to move out there? I guess I just don't get it.
To clarify, I'm running for a spot on the board of directors. Only the directors elect the president and other officers.
And when you speak of starting an association for your neighborhood, it's a different kind of beast from what our neighborhoods have, a mandatory property owner's association.
I don't necessarily understand your concern. The study took the median income in each nation, and then viewed the number of children that lived below different levels of that median in an attempt to fairly rank poverty across the board.
In the U.S., the median household income is roughly $45,000. This study reveals that close to 25 percent of the children living in the country today live in a household that makes less than half that number. Other countries have similar median household incomes and have demonstrably lower child poverty rates.
There are probably several reasons the U.S. is an outlyer, but it is not necessarily because of the variables in the study.
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