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Minister Remkes (Binnenlandse Zaken) brengt woensdag een bezoek aan ‘zijn’ Rampenidentificatieteam (RIT) in Phuket. Hij kondigde dat maandagavond aan na kritiek uit de Tweede Kamer. De minister was al in Thailand, waar hij sinds tweede kerstdag vakantie viert.

De PvdA en zijn eigen VVD toonden zich maandag teleurgesteld omdat Remkes tot nu toe geen bezoek bracht aan de Nederlandse slachtoffers. De minister verblijft op het eiland Koh Samui, aan de oostkant van de landtong in Zuid-Thailand, iets noordelijker dan het overspoelde toeristenoord Phuket. Hemelsbreed liggen de twee eilanden ongeveer 250 kilometer uit elkaar.

Een woordvoerder van Remkes verklaarde maandag dat de minister op tweede kerstdag heeft gebeld om te zeggen dat hij veilig was geland. Hij was van plan zijn vakantie te laten doorgaan en wilde niet gestoord worden: “Doorgaans is het zo dat als de minister op vakantie is, dan is hij op vakantie en wil hij niet gestoord worden.”

Politici en enig moreel gevoel schijnen niet samen te gaan tegenwoordig.

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The United States likes to think of itself as the very embodiment of meritocracy: a country where people are judged on their individual abilities rather than their family connections. The original colonies were settled by refugees from a Europe in which the restrictions on social mobility were woven into the fabric of the state, and the American revolution was partly a revolt against feudalism. From the outset, Americans believed that equality of opportunity gave them an edge over the Old World, freeing them from debilitating snobberies and at the same time enabling everyone to benefit from the abilities of the entire population. They still do.

To be sure, America has often betrayed its fine ideals. The Founding Fathers did not admit women or blacks to their meritocratic republic. The country’s elites have repeatedly flirted with the aristocratic principle, whether among the brahmins of Boston or, more flagrantly, the rural ruling class in the South. Yet America has repeatedly succeeded in living up to its best self, and today most Americans believe that their country still does a reasonable job of providing opportunities for everybody, including blacks and women. In Europe, majorities of people in every country except Britain, the Czech Republic and Slovakia believe that forces beyond their personal control determine their success. In America only 32% take such a fatalistic view.

But are they right? A growing body of evidence suggests that the meritocratic ideal is in trouble in America. Income inequality is growing to levels not seen since the Gilded Age, around the 1880s. But social mobility is not increasing at anything like the same pace: would-be Horatio Algers are finding it no easier to climb from rags to riches, while the children of the privileged have a greater chance of staying at the top of the social heap. The United States risks calcifying into a European-style class-based society.

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The other day I found myself reading a leftist rag that made outrageous claims about America. It said that we are becoming a society in which the poor tend to stay poor, no matter how hard they work; in which sons are much more likely to inherit the socioeconomic status of their father than they were a generation ago.

The name of the leftist rag? Business Week, which published an article titled “Waking Up From the American Dream.” The article summarizes recent research showing that social mobility in the United States (which was never as high as legend had it) has declined considerably over the past few decades. If you put that research together with other research that shows a drastic increase in income and wealth inequality, you reach an uncomfortable conclusion: America looks more and more like a class-ridden society.

And guess what? Our political leaders are doing everything they can to fortify class inequality, while denouncing anyone who complains–or even points out what is happening–as a practitioner of “class warfare.”

Wow.

Although it is amazing how ignorant people can be, I’m glad they at least asked the questions. Imagine these people not asking them, but acting on what they think they know…

More here.

When nine-hundred years you reach, as many push-ups you will not be able to do.

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Montana’s public universities must provide their gay employees with insurance coverage for their domestic partners, the state’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

[..]

Although the decision turned on a definition of marriage, the majority emphasized that gay marriage was not at issue.

“We have not been asked nor will we address the question of whether Montana’s marriage statutes discriminate against same-sex couples by denying them the right to marry,” Justice Jim Regnier wrote for the majority.

In a concurring decision, Justice James C. Nelson, criticized the recent constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“Sadly,” Justice Nelson wrote, “many politicians and ‘we the people’ rarely pass up an opportunity to bash and condemn gays and lesbians despite the fact that these citizens are our neighbors and that they work, pay taxes, vote, hold public office, own businesses, provide professional services, worship, raise their families and serve their communities in the same manner as heterosexuals.”

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For about 20 hours, the ham operators — sometimes using car batteries to run their radios — were the main link between the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the outside world, relaying information about survivors to anxious relatives and friends.

And with most telephone lines down and cell phones scarce, the ham-radio club’s efforts proved invaluable as the scope of the disaster increased day after day.

The first messages were to let people on the Indian mainland know that those on the island were safe and unharmed.

A young waiter at Harpole’s hotel asked them to get word to his mother in Hyderabad, India, that he was alive and well.

“We found a ham-radio operator on the mainland, gave the mother’s telephone number,” Harpole said. Within five minutes a ham operator in Hyderabad called the waiter’s mother and relayed the message.

Next time your local legislators are trying to take away radio frequencies currently used by ham radio, for wireless networking or mobile phones or whatever, tell them to fuck off…

There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class.

Judith Martin, (Miss Manners)

A mosque is seen still standing in this aerial view of the town of Meulaboh in Aceh province, Indonesia, which was flattened by tidal waves last Sunday, photographed on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made his second visit to the region since Sunday’s earthquake and tsunami to assess the damage and inspect relief efforts.

A man walks across railway tracks, twisted by the force of the tidal waves near the village of Kalamulla , 40 km from Colombo, southwestern Sri Lanka.

If you look at the domain name of this artist, you know all you need or want to know:
http://www.buttprintart.com

thanks, sarah!