Family Celebration; Agrabah; Political Policy Goals; Creating Fear; Immigration; Homicide Rates

This is for the sunny and warm 21st of February, 2016:

Today, my three kids and some of their loved ones celebrated the birthday of their beloved mother and memere.. who was my beloved wife Elaine,  for 43 years.  She passed away in 2000 during a heart operation.   She is still sorely missed by me and my family.

My kids each prepared an entrée from one of her recipes, and I brought rolls... she loved bread products.   So, we dined on zucchini bread, macaroni and cheese, chicken casserole, apple cake, and other delicacies.   Chris and Kathleen passed out birthday presents to everyone, as was our custom when Elaine was alive.  We also sang the Vaughan version of Happy Birthday. 

I brought some family pictures and we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed over some that were thought to have been destroyed... but are too priceless to get rid of.   Chris will be scanning some of the pictures to create a Vaughan family photo album online or disc.

We were able to view and speak to one of my grandchildren via some version of Skype.  My kids are much more computer savvy than I am these days. 

Now... back to this crazy universe:

Items from recent The Nation magazines:

Agrabah

A reported Public Policy  survey sez:

30% of the Republicans polled favored bombing the Sultantate of Agrabah.

44% of the Democrats supported accepting refugees from this land of genies and flying carpets.

This is interesting because......Agrabah is the fictional kingdom from the Disney Movie Aladdin!

Policy Goals

The Nation editorializes on the political race.. I found the following statement of interest:

"For the Democrats... a race between two candidates who share a commitment to many policy goals that are anathema to their GOP opponents:

the protection of a woman's right to control her own fertility,

increasing access to higher education,

ending the epidemic of police violence against African Americans,

reigning in the corrupting influence of big money in politics,

stopping the scourge of gun violence,

moving America and the world away from a fossil-fuel economy..."

Generating Fear in the Populace

Eric Alterman presents these quotes:

Henry Adams: "Politics has always been the systematic organization of hatreds."

Jay Gould (on how to stay "on top"):  "Pay one half of the working class to kill the other half."


Immigration

The Nation shows the following homicide rates  per 100,000 persons in the US and in Central America:

United States:  4
El Salvador: 40
Guatemala: 35
Honduras:  84

I think I mentioned that in our Great Decisions class, we learned that only a few Mexican children are sneaking into the country.. most of them come from those Central American countries listed above.

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