1x "Namastay in Bed" Home Wall Print.
Prints are printed on High Quality 300gsm card in A4 (8.3 x 11.7 inches/ 210mm x 297mm).
NOTE - You will receive the unframed print only - no frames or accessories included in listing pictures are included.
Other sizes available A5 (148mm x 210mm) or A3 (297mm x 420mm) - please message us for pricing and ordering.
We will print, pack and post out to you within 2 business days via Australia Post trackable satchel which will typically reach you within 2-7 days. A tracking number will be messaged to you upon dispatch.
Please note, if you select express shipping that we are located regionally so you will receive in 2-3 business days.
Prints are posted to you flat in protected package with backing board and cello bag.
We may use hand drawn illustrations from various artists in some of our prints, from whom we have purchased commercial rights. Purchasing a design does NOT entitle you to copyright - the designs are not to be shared, copied, re-created, resold or distributed in any way.
We love to see how our valued customers wear and use our products. We encourage you to share how you have displayed your art by tagging us in your pic on Instagram @olive_and_ada or #oliveandada or shout out on Facebook, and remember to follow us on both to keep in the loop with new products, giveaways and details of where you may see us at a market near you!


text:
Anthroposophy: Social Questions
Body, Mind, Health & Healing: Psychology
Esoteric: Psychology
Social Responsibility: General
Waldorf & Special Needs Education: Resources
A Rosicrucian Path of Leadership
Torin M. Finser
SteinerBooks
Pages 144 pp.
"Be a person of initiative and beware, lest through hindrances of your own body or hindrances that otherwise come in your way, you do not find the center of your being, within which lies the source of your initiative. Observe that, in your life, all joy and sorrow, all happiness and pain, will depend on finding or not finding your own individual initiative. This should appear, as if written in golden letters, constantly before the soul of anthroposophists. Initiative lies in their karma, and much of what meets them in this life will depend on the extent to which they can become willingly, actively conscious of it." —Rudolf Steiner, Aug. 4, 1924
Torin Finser takes on some of our contemporary challenges and proposes new solutions. Rather than simply "kicking the can down the road," as often happens with issues such as sovereign debts, Middle East conflicts, and environmental issues, Finser calls for individual initiative. Drawing on a variety of rich cultural and spiritual traditions, he makes the case for social change that begins within. To do so, one must first access resources that support initiative and innovation. Key questions discussed in this book include:
How is it possible to live a spiritual life in our materialistic age?
Can an individual person still make a difference?
How can we use a whole-systems approach to innovation?
How can planetary wisdom help us find appropriate leadership styles?
What are the inner conditions needed to work with the transcendent Self?
In the swirl of multi-tasking, how can we find moments of solitude and reflection?
We need new, a ethical individualism that is fully transformative. As quoted from the Peace Pilgrim in chapter 2: This is the way of peace—overcome evil with good, and falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. Today's world needs people of initiative—those willing to become the change that is so desperately needed. This book offers a wakeup call for inspired leadership.
Introduction: "Hear me God, I can't take it anymore..."
Living a Spiritual Life in an Age of Materialism
Freedom and Initiative
Planetary Leadership
Appendices:
Meditations for the Days of the Week
The Pentagram as a Tool for Self-development
From the Anthroposophical Prison Outreach Program
Torin M. Finser, PhD,has served Waldorf education for more than four decades, first as a class teacher and later as the Director and faculty member of the Waldorf Teacher Education Program at Antioch Uni-versity New England. A former General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in America, he also helped found the Center for Anthroposophy in New Hampshire. His research and writ-ings have reached people all over the world, including several books that have been translated into multiple languages. Torin has served as a consultant, workshop leader, and keynote speaker at numerous conferences. He is married to Karine, has six children, and is also now a very happy grandfather!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Website design Wollongong, graphic design Wollongong, logos Wollongong, business cards Wollongong, brochures, car decals, posters and print design.
Coffee Master is a traditional Italian, family run coffee roaster based in the Illawarra. The logo was kept simple and reflected the process coffee beans must go through to get to the coffee lover, leaf, bean, pour, drink.


text:
BICSE Letter Report on Evaluating the Effects of TIMSS (2000)
Chapter: Letter Report
Original Pages Text Pages
Page 1 Share Cite
Suggested Citation:"Letter Report." National Research Council. 2000. BICSE Letter Report on Evaluating the Effects of TIMSS. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/9903.
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
National Academy of Engineering
Board on Testing and Assessment
Board on International Comparative Studies in Education
Dr. Gary W. Phillips
Acting Commissioner
1990 K Street, N.W., Room 9116 Washington, D.C. 20006
Dr. Judith S. Sunley
Interim Assistant Director
Directorate for Education and Human Resources
National Science Foundation 4201 Wilson Boulevard Arlington, Virginia 22230
Dear Dr. Phillips and Dr. Sunley:
With funding from your agencies, the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education (BICSE) at the National Academies was established in 1988 to advise you on the conduct of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and other international comparative studies of education. Since that time, BICSE has been involved with all aspects of TIMSS, from elements of its original design to aspects of its conduct and oversight, and from release of reports to concerns about data availability and secondary analysis. Our recent reports document some of BICSE 's efforts related to TIMSS.1 BICSE continues to be interested in the effects that TIMSS results are having on practice.
The board writes to you now because we believe that there is an urgent need to evaluate the effects of TIMSS on education practice, as well as the process by which TIMSS has been used to try to bring about change in the United States. If, as Mislevy (1995:419) suggests, "in the broadest sense, international assessment is meant to gather information about schooling in a number of countries and somehow use it to improve student learning,"2 then educators need to
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20418 Telephone (202) 334 3010 Fax (202) 334 1294 national-academies.org
Board on International Comparative Studies in Education, Learning from TIMSS: Results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, National Academy Press, 1997; Next Steps for TIMSS: Directions for Secondary Analysis, National Academy Press, 1999.
Mislevy, R.J. (1995), What can we learn from international assessments? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 17:410-437.
understand more about this "somehow" – the process by which they can start to move from a rank-ordering of countries to changing learning in classrooms.
The board commends the long-standing collaborative investment and effort that both the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation have made in TIMSS. The study's methodological rigor, sampling and participation rates, as well as the collection of a rich array of explanatory variables all contribute to its value as a research and statistical tool that allows examination and comparison of the United States with other countries.
In addition, recognizing the potential of such international data to affect practice, additional investments were made to ensure data reports that were easier to understand and interpret, to achieve wider and more accurate media coverage, and to promote broad public interest in the results. Publicly released video tapes of two mathematics lessons in each of three countries (Japan, Germany, and the United States) seemed to pique the interest and enthusiasm of their many viewers. Several states and one consortium of districts participated in an experiment with using state- and district-level TIMSS data to affect practice in those places. Production and quick release of materials from TIMSS – from test items to tool kits to the data itself – were facilitated in the hope that both researchers and educators could use them to understand the results more deeply and that practitioners would find them valuable for examining their own practice. Almost daily, stories trickle back, suggesting that administrators in districts and teachers in classrooms are talking the language of international standards in mathematics and science. All these efforts represent creative attempts on an unprecedented scale to use solid international data to inform and influence practice across our nation. Yet evidence of their actual use and effects remains almost entirely anecdotal.
At a recent BICSE meeting, a number of the key participants in the above-mentioned efforts to use TIMSS results to influence practice came to discuss the results of those efforts with the board. For example, we heard from the First in the World Consortium, a group of districts located in Chicago's northern suburbs, that has used TIMSS participation as a key part of its strategy to ensure its students are first in the world in mathematics and science by the year 2000. The strategies these districts have employed to use their TIMSS results include the development of teacher learning networks, summer institutes, lesson-study groups (using TIMSS videotapes), and a topical curriculum framework benchmarked to the highest achieving TIMSS countries by topic. However, no evaluation data are available either to help other districts understand the process of participating in such a collaboration or about the effectiveness of these various strategies in improving classroom practice and student achievement.
Another example is the Department of Education's TIMSS tool kit, which was developed to present the TIMSS data in a way that would be accessible and relevant to a broader range of policy makers and educators than would normally follow international results. The principal audience for the tool kit was the providers of professional development for teachers. The tool kit represented an attempt to translate research findings into a form that would be readily accessible to practitioners. For example, a curriculum module included a guidebook that allows educators at the local level to use TIMSS as a starting point to evaluate their own curricula. The tool kit 's designers hoped that by presenting the information about TIMSS in a clear, consistent manner, it could help to prevent misunderstanding of this complex dataset. Tool kit dissemination efforts have included national conferences to train trainers, as well as efforts on the part of several professional organizations to distribute it to their membership widely. For example, the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) purchased one kit for each of over 200 of their affiliate groups at the state and local level and used them as the focus for the annual leadership meeting. Anecdotal reports suggest that the kit has proved useful to many in the field; yet no systematic evidence is available about how widely the tool kits were distributed, who has used them and how, or what the effects have been of professional development efforts based on the kits.
BICSE has come to several conclusions about these efforts:
There is considerable enthusiasm, as well as a lot of activity, directed toward using TIMSS as a strategy for reform and improvement throughout the United States.
From our examination of some of the more visible of these activities, we conclude that they are potentially very useful strategies to pursue.
No research, evaluation, or systematic policy analyses are being conducted to try to document or understand the effects of these strategies. This is a missed opportunity.
A timely commitment to evaluation is important because interest and enthusiasm in international data remain high. As you know, a repeat of TIMSS with the grade 8 cohort (TIMSS-R) was funded and mounted quickly; the achievement data were collected in fall 1999 and the video data have followed. In TIMSS-R, a number of states and districts are participating in a Benchmarking Project and are already meeting together to plan for the release and use of their data in 2001. There is a unique opportunity to understand and learn from these promising efforts to use international data to shape practice at the state and district level.
Such data are needed now so that, in the future, people can understand which of these efforts worked and which did not, how the successful efforts achieved their goals, and the magnitude and nature of the effects they have had. Evaluation will benefit the design of future international studies, making them more useful to reformers, especially to efforts to include states and districts in such data collection. Such information will be needed by those in states
and districts who are participating in the international studies and working on educational improvement. Without such evidence, decisions about future policy strategies and investments – aimed at making international data useful in educational improvement – will be guided by anecdotes, best guesses, and personal preferences. We recommend that the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation commission some well-designed studies that assess the effects of TIMSS on practice: both the process of how TIMSS is being used as well as the effects of those efforts.
An additional investment now in such studies can allow the nation to benefit even more from the major investment that has already been made in the collection of international data about science and mathematics achievement.
Attachments: Board roster
Board statement of charge
Cc: Janice Earle
Alan Ginsburg
Patrick Gonzales
Kent McGuire
Eugene Owen
Valena Plisko
Larry Suter
Elizabeth VanderPutten
Next: Board on International Comparative Studies in Education - Roster »
BICSE Letter Report on Evaluating the Effects of TIMSS Get This Book
Letter Report 1–4
Board on International Comparative Studies in Education - Roster 5
Board on International Comparative Studies in Education - Statement of Charge 6
Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.


text:
\section{Introduction}

Ultra-cold Fermi gas has been the focus of a lot of research investigations due to its highly controllable attractive interaction\cite{Bloch-RMP,NSR,GriffinPRL02,Ourreview,HuHuiPRA05,KinastPRL05}. Comparing to other condensed matter systems, it is very difficult to establish the appearance of condensate or phase coherence in cold fermi gases, because of the lack of transport measurements. A decade ago, the superfluidity of Fermi gases has been proved experimentally by the observation of the vortex lattices\cite{Zwierlein-vortex}. But this method still requires a fast sweep of the attractive interaction between the fermions to the deep Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) limit, in order to see the density depletion in the vortex core. Recently, an alternative approach based on measuring the collective (Nambu-Goldstone) mode though the Bragg spectroscopy has been carried out experimentally to establish the phase coherence of unitary Fermi gases \cite{Vale14}. Due to the inhomogeneity of the clouds of Fermi gases, the integrated Bragg spectroscopy is difficult to extract useful information to indicate the existence of the condensate. This issue has been overcome by a method invented in Ref.\cite{Vale14}, which makes the local observation of Bragg spectroscopy possible.

A lot of information of the many-body stsytem can be inferred from the dynamic structure factor, such as the excitations related to the pair breaking and quasiparticle scattering. Importantly, the Nambu-Goldstone mode due to the breaking of U(1) symmetry in the superfluid/superconducting phase can also be deduced when the momentum transfer is small, which can help to judge the onset of the ordered phase.
A theoretical account of Bragg spectroscopy requires a consistent calculation of the density-density response function or the dynamical density structure factor (susceptibility)\cite{Stringari06,HaoPRL10}. The word ``consistent'' here means that one must take into account of the contributions from condensate, pair fluctuation and collective modes in a gauge invariant fashion such that certain conservation laws must be respected. A naive tree-level calculation of the density response function cannot even produce the correct locations of poles associated with the collective modes. Due to the strong correlations occurred in the unitary limit, the BCS-BEC crossover theory of unitary Fermi gases has to employ certain approximations to compute various thermodynamic properties\cite{Randeria97,Haussmann}. It is a challenging problem to maintain the gauge invariance of the linear response theory when extensions of these approximations are included. The ``consistency'' of the theory can be thought of as an important constraint since no exact solution is known for strongly correlated Fermi gas.

Important progresses have been made in the theoretical framework of the structure factor. Early development of quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) approach was focused on low temperature simulation\cite{CombescotEPL06}, and later applied to inhomogeneous unitary Fermi gas at finite temperature \cite{GandolfiPRA14}. Diagrammatic technique was applied in Refs.\cite{Combescot06,HaoPRL10,StrinatiPRL12}, and the random-phase approach (RPA) was developed in Ref.\cite{HuHuiPRA10}. The latter was later generalized to the RPA on top of the superfluid local density approximation (SLDA-RPA) approach.

In this paper, we adopt an $G_0G$ pair fluctuation theory to compute the density response function of unitary Fermi gases. We show that a gauge invariant linear response theory of which the approximation exactly matches the approximation used in the thermodynamic calculation can be constructed. In this way, one can show that the resulting response function will satisfy the current conservation and various sum rules exactly. Our theory also has the advantages of easy implementation in the numerical calculations.

This paper is organized as follows.
We first brief introduce $G_0G$ pair fluctuation theory both below and above $T_c$ in section \ref{sec-G0G}. Then we show how to construct a gauge invariant linear response theory in section \ref{sec-th}. In section \ref{sec-num}, we present the numerical results of our theory and compare with experiments.

\section{A brief introduction to the Pair Fluctuation theory}
\label{sec-G0G}
In this paper, our evaluation of dynamical density susceptibility is based on the $t$-matrix theory with ladder diagrams made by one bare and one fully dressed Green's functions, which is known as the ``$G_0G$" theory. This approach is inspired by the early work of Kadanoff and Martin \cite{KM}. A detailed review of this theory can be found in Ref.\cite{Ourreview}. This asymmetric choice of the ladder series is more compatible with the BCS-leggett ground state\cite{KM,Maly1}. Before explaining the main idea of the theory, we first fix some notations as follows.

Assuming that $m$ is the particle mass and $\mu$ is the chemical potential, the general one-particle Green's function is
\begin{equation}
G^{-1}(K)=G^{-1}_{0}(K)-\Sigma(K).
\end{equation}
Here $G_{0}(K)=1/(i\omega_{n} -\xi_{\mathbf{k}})$ is the non-interacting fermionic Green's function, $\Sigma(K)$ is the self-energy and $\xi_{\mathbf{k}}=\varepsilon_{\bf k}-\mu$ is the free fermion dispersion with $\varepsilon_{\bf k}={\bf k}^2/(2m)$. We adopt the following convention: $k_{B}=1$, $\hbar=1$, four-vector $K=(\omega_n, \mathbf{k})$ with $\omega_{n}=(2n+1)\pi\beta$, $n$ is an integer, $\beta=1/T$ and $\sum_{K}=T\sum_{n}\sum_{\mathbf{k}}$.

For the strongly attractive Fermi gas, the pair fluctuations can be treated as virtual non-condensed pairs in equilibrium with the condensate of Cooper pairs. To describe the effects of non-condensed pairs, we introduce the $t$-matrix $t_{\textrm{pg}}(Q)$ which can be thought to be an amputated propagator for non-condensed pairs. Below $T_c$ in the superfluid phase, the self-energy of the $G_0G$ $t$-matrix theory can be decomposed into two parts. Aside from the usual BCS self-energy $\Sigma_{\textrm{sc}}(K)=\Delta^2_{\textrm{sc}} G_0(-K)$ with $\Delta_{\textrm{sc}}$ being the order parameter, there is a pseudogap self-energy which is dressed by the pair propagator or $t$-matrix as
$
\Sigma_{\textrm{pg}}(K)=\sum_Q t_{\textrm{pg}}(Q)G_0(Q-K)\label{sig}$.
The pair propagator is given by the summation of infinite ladders made of bare and full Green's functions, and its expression is given by
\begin{eqnarray}
&&t_{\textrm{pg}}(K)=\frac{g}{1+g\chi(K)},\\
&&\chi(K)=\sum_{Q}G_0(K-Q)G(Q).
\end{eqnarray}
Here $g$ is the contact coupling constant, which is related to the $s$-wave scattering length $a_s$ through
\begin{equation}
\frac{1}{g}=-\frac{m}{4\pi a_s}+\sum_{\bf k}\frac{1}{2\varepsilon_{\bf k}}.
\end{equation}
This renormalization relation cancels precisely the ultraviolet divergence in $\chi(K)$.

The Bose-Einstein condensation condition of the non-condensed pairs in this case can be expressed as the vanishing of the ``pair chemical potential". Then the condensation condition is equivalent to the divergence of of the pair propagator at zero momentum $t^{-1}_{\textrm{pg}}(0)=1+g\sum_KG_0(-K)G_(K)=0$ which is just the BCS gap equation. Therefore, the $G_0G$ theory reduces to BCS mean field theory at $T=0$.

There is an undetermined pseudogap self-energy in the $t$-matrix which determines the pseudogap self-energy itself. Therefore, the full $G_0G$ $t$-matrix theory requires a  self-consistent solution to $\Sigma_{\textrm{pg}}$ from a set of coupled integral equations, which is too complicated in practical calculations. One can employ an approximation to simplify the final result. The pair condensation condition, or the Thouless criterion, $t^{-1}_{\textrm{pg}} (0) = 0$, implies that
the main contribution to $\Sigma_{\textrm{pg}}$ comes from the vicinity of $Q = 0$. Thus, one can simplify the convolution to a multiplication
\begin{eqnarray}\Sigma_{\textrm{pg}}(K)\approx\Big[\sum_Q t_{\textrm{pg}}(Q)\Big]G_0(-K)\equiv-\Delta_{\textrm{pg}}^2G_0(-K).\end{eqnarray}
In this way, $\Sigma_{\textrm{pg}}$ takes the same form as the BCS self-energy, which greatly simplify the numerics and also provides an explicit expression for the pseudogap $\Delta_{\textrm{pg}}$. Hence the total self-energy is given by $
\Sigma(K)=\Sigma_{\textrm{sc}}(K)+\Sigma_{\textrm{pg}}(K)$.
Then energy gap can be decomposed into the superconducting (sc) and the
pseudogap (pg) parts
$\Delta^{2}=\Delta_{\textrm{sc}}^{2}+\Delta_{\textrm{pg}}^{2}$.
Now $T_c$ is determined by the vanishing of the order parameter $\Delta_{\textrm{sc}}$,
 while $T^*$, the onset temperature of pairing, is determined
by the vanishing of the total gap $\Delta$. Below $T_c$, the gap, number
and pseudogap equations can be summarized as
\begin{eqnarray}
\frac{1}{g}&=&\sum_{\mathbf{k}}\frac{1-2f(E_{\mathbf{k}})}{2E_{\mathbf{k}}},\label{eq:gap}\\
n&=&\sum_{\mathbf{k}}\Big[1-\frac{\xi_{\mathbf{k}}}{E_{\mathbf{k}}}+2f(E_{\mathbf{k}})\frac{\xi_{\mathbf{k}}}{E_{\mathbf{k}}}\Big],\label{eq:neq}\\
\Delta_\textrm{pg}^2&=&a_0^{-1}\sum_{\mathbf{q}}b(\Omega_{\mathbf{q}}).
\label{eq:pgeq}
\end{eqnarray}
Here $f(x)=1/(e^{x/T}+1)$ and $b(x)=1/(e^{x/T}-1)$ are Fermi and Bose distribution functions, and $E_{\bf k}=\sqrt{\xi_{\mathbf{k}}^2+\Delta^2}$. $a_0$ and $\Omega_{\mathbf{q}}={\bf q}^2/(2M)$ are the pair propagator residue and pair dispersion with an effective mass $M$ respectively, which can be obtained by
the following expansion
\begin{eqnarray}
t^{-1}_\textrm{pg}(\omega,\mathbf{q})=a_0(\omega-\Omega_{\mathbf{q}}),\quad T<T_c.
\end{eqnarray}
Above $T_c$, there is no condensate and $\Delta_\textrm{sc}=0$. We expect a non-zero pair chemical potential appearing in the following expansion
\begin{eqnarray}
t^{-1}_\textrm{pg}(\omega,\mathbf{q})=a_0(\omega-\Omega_{\mathbf{q}}+\mu_p),\quad T>T_c.
\end{eqnarray}
Accordingly the gap and pseudogap equations are replaced by
\begin{eqnarray}
\frac{1}{g}&=&\sum_{\mathbf{k}}\frac{1-2f(E_{\mathbf{k}})}{2E_{\mathbf{k}}}-a_0\mu_p,\\
\Delta_\textrm{pg}^2&=&a_0^{-1}\sum_{\mathbf{q}}b(\Omega_{\mathbf{q}}-\mu_p).
\end{eqnarray}

So far we have summarized the most important ingredients of $G_0G$ pair fluctuation theory. This theory has been applied to compute various thermodynamical quantities in the BCS-BEC crossover of ultra-cold Fermi gases, and agrees with the experiments well\cite{Yanthermo}. A gauge invariant linear response theory based on it must contain the approximations in the same way as how the pair fluctuation effect is included in the self-energy.

\section{Gauge Invariant Linear Response Theory with Pair Fluctuation Effects}
\label{sec-th}

\begin{figure}[t]
\includegraphics[clip,width=0.45\textwidth]{MT-AL.eps}
\caption{A diagrammatic representation of Eq.(\ref{V1}). The thin and thick straight lines correspond to bare and full propagator of a single fermion respectively. The wavy line denotes the pair propagator $t_\textrm{pg}$. The small dot and big circle are the bare and full interaction vertices respectively. The small square is the pairing field. The ellipse is the collective-mode contribution.}\label{MT-AL}
\end{figure}

The Hamiltonian of the ultra-cold Fermi gas has a U(1) symmetry, of which the Noether current $J^\mu$ satisfies the conservation law $\partial_\mu J^\mu=0$. The density-density response function function can be obtained from a linear response theory subjected to an effective external electromagnetic (EM) potential $A_{\mu}$ where $\mu=0,1,2,3$ is vector index of the pseudo Minkowski space with metric $\eta^{\mu\nu}=\textrm{diag}(1,-1,-1,-1)$. The induced EM current is given by the Kubo formalism
$\delta J^{\mu}(Q)=K^{\mu\nu}(Q)A_{\nu}(Q)$, where $Q=(\omega,\mathbf{q})$ is the four-momentum of external field.
The EM response functions are given by
\begin{eqnarray}\label{Kmn}
K^{\mu\nu}(Q)=2\sum_K\big(\Gamma^{\mu}(K+Q,K)G(K+Q)\nonumber\\
\times\gamma^{\nu}(K,K+Q)G(K)\big)+\frac{n}{m}h^{\mu\nu},
\end{eqnarray}
where $h^{\mu\nu}=-\eta^{\mu\nu}(1-\eta^{\nu0})$ is the diamagnetic current contribution, $\gamma^\mu(K+Q,K)=(1,\frac{\mathbf{k}+\frac{\mathbf{q}}{2}}{m})$ is the bare EM interaction vertex, and $\Gamma^\mu(K+Q,K)$ is the full interaction vertex to be determined later. The density-density response function is the ``00'' component of the tensor $K^{\mu\nu}$.
The density susceptibility and dynamical structure factors are
\begin{align}
&\chi''(\omega,\mathbf{q})=-\frac{1}{\pi}\textrm{Im}K^{00}(\omega,\mathbf{q}),\nonumber\\
&S(\omega,\mathbf{q})=-\frac{1}{\pi}\cot\frac{\omega}{2T}\textrm{Im}K^{00}(\omega,\mathbf{q}).
\end{align}
Note when $\omega$ is large or $T$ is low, there is almost no difference between $\chi''$ and $S$ since the factor $\cot\frac{\omega}{2T}$ is almost 1.

In a gauge invariant linear response theory, the perturbed current must also be conserved, i.e. $q_\mu \delta  J^\mu(Q)=0$, in the whole BCS-BEC crossover regime at general temperature. This can be guaranteed by the Ward-Takahashi identity (WI) of the EM response function $q_\mu K^{\mu\nu}(Q)=0$.
These WIs satisfied by the response functions can be further inferred from the WIs satisfied by the interaction vertices
\begin{align}
q_{\mu}\gamma^{\mu}(K+Q,K)&=G^{-1}_0(K+Q)-G^{-1}_0(K),\label{WIb}\\
q_{\mu}\Gamma^{\mu}(K+Q,K)&=G^{-1}(K+Q)-G^{-1}(K)\label{WI0},
\end{align}
and Eq.(\ref{Kmn}). The first WI can be easily verified, and the second WI indicates that the correction to the EM vertex must be in the same approximation as the self-energy effect
is included in the Green's function.
\begin{figure}[t]
\includegraphics[clip,width=0.45\textwidth]{STpgq0.5_1.0_w2.eps}
\caption{(Color online). The dynamical density susceptibility $\chi''(\omega,k)$ (in units of $n/(2E_F)$) of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas as a function of $\omega$, when $k=0.5k_F $ (shown in (a)) and $1.0k_F$ (shown in (b)). Here $n=k^3_F/(3\pi^2)$, $E_F=k_BT_F=\hbar^2k^2_F/(2m)$.}\label{STpgLq}
\end{figure}

A gauge invariant linear response theory for BCS mean-field theory can be developed by the integral equation formalism \cite{Nambu60}, matrix linear response theory incorporating with consistent fluctuations of order parameter \cite{KulikJLTP81,Arseev,OurJLTP13} or functional path integral approach \cite{HLYAP16}. When stronger-than-BCS attractive interaction is considered for strongly interacting Fermi gas, the gauge invariance has to be maintained in a non-trivial way due to the pair fluctuation effects. There have been some formal discussions on this subject \cite{RufusPRB16,RufusPRB16_2,HLYAP16,OurACMP15,HYPLA17}.

A general principle to find a gauge invariant interaction vertex is the same as proving WI in quantum field theory: inserting the bare EM vertex to the self-energy diagram in all possible ways. For the pseudogap self-energy associated with the non-condensed fermion pairs, these insertions give rise to the Maki-Thompson(MT) diagram related to pseudogap, denoted by MT$_\textrm{pg}$, and the two different Aslamazov-Larkin (AL$_{1,2}$) diagrams. For the BCS self-energy associated with condensed fermion pairs, these insertions give rise to Maki-Thompson diagram related to superfluid, denoted by MT$_\textrm{sc}$, and also a contribution related to collective modes, denoted by Coll$_\textrm{sc}$ of which we haven't found a diagram representation \cite{OurACMP15}. In summary, the full vertex is now given by
\begin{align}
&\quad\Gamma^{\mu}(P+Q,P)=\gamma^{\mu}(P+Q,P)\nonumber\\
&+\textrm{MT}^{\mu}_{\textrm{pg}}(P+Q,P)+\textrm{AL}^{\mu}_{1}(P+Q,P)+\textrm{AL}^{\mu}_{2}(P+Q,P)\nonumber\\
&+\textrm{MT}^{\mu}_{\textrm{sc}}(P+Q,P)+\textrm{Coll}^{\mu}_{\textrm{sc}}(P+Q,P).\label{V1}
\end{align}
Here the MT$_\textrm{sc}$ diagram is obtained by inserting the EM vertex to the bare propagator of the superfluid self-energy
\begin{align}
&\quad\textrm{MT}_\textrm{sc}^\mu(P+Q,P)\nonumber\\
&=-\Delta^2_{\textrm{sc}}G_0(-P)\gamma^{\mu}(-P,-P-Q)G_0(-P-Q)\label{MTSC}
\end{align}
Similarly, the MT$_\textrm{pg}$ diagram is obtained by inserting the EM vertex to the bare propagator of the pseudogap self-energy
\begin{eqnarray}\label{MTmu}
\textrm{MT}^{\mu}_{\textrm{pg}}(P+Q,P)=\sum_Kt_{\textrm{pg}}(K)G_{0}(K-P)\nonumber\\
\times\gamma^{\mu}(K-P,K-P-Q)G_{0}(K-P-Q).
\end{eqnarray}
The two AL diagrams can be obtained by inserting EM vertex to the pair propagator
\begin{eqnarray}
&&\textrm{AL}^{\mu}_{1}(P+Q,P)=-\sum_{K,L}t_{\textrm{pg}}(K)t_{\textrm{pg}}(K+Q)G_{0}(K-P)\nonumber\\
&&\times G(K-L)G_{0}(L+Q)\gamma^{\mu}(L+Q,L)G_{0}(L),\nonumber\\
&&\textrm{AL}^{\mu}_{2}(P+Q,P)=-\sum_{K,L}t_{\textrm{pg}}(K)t_{\textrm{pg}}(K+Q)G_{0}(K-P)\nonumber\\
&&\times G_{0}(K-L)G(L+Q)\Gamma^{\mu}(L+Q,L)G(L).\label{ALmu}
\end{eqnarray}
Note that due to the asymmetric choice of $t$-matrix, we have two different AL terms in $G_0G$ theory, while there is only on AL term in the Nozieres Schmitt-Rink(NSR) crossover theory \cite{NSR}.
The last one is the collective-mode diagram
\begin{align}
\textrm{Coll}_\textrm{sc}^\mu(K+Q,K)&=\Delta_{\textrm{sc}}\Pi^{\mu}(Q)G_0(-K-Q)\nonumber\\
&+\Delta_{\textrm{sc}}\bar{\Pi}^{\mu}(Q)G_0(-K),\label{CSC}
\end{align}
where $\Pi^{\mu}=\Pi_1^{\mu}+i\Pi_2^{\mu}$ and $\bar{\Pi}^{\mu}=\Pi_1^{\mu}-i\Pi_2^{\mu}$, with
\begin{eqnarray}\label{tmp4}
\Pi^{\mu}_1=\frac{\left|\begin{array}{cc}
Q_{21} & Q^{\mu}_{31}\\
\tilde{Q}_{22} & Q^{\mu}_{32}
\end{array}\right|}
{\left|\begin{array}{cc}
\tilde{Q}_{11} & Q_{12}\\
Q_{21} & \tilde{Q}_{22}
\end{array}\right|},\quad
\Pi^{\mu}_2=\frac{\left|\begin{array}{cc}
\tilde{Q}_{11} & Q^{\mu}_{31}\\
Q_{21} & Q^{\mu}_{32}
\end{array}\right|}
{\left|\begin{array}{cc}
\tilde{Q}_{11} & Q_{12}\\
Q_{21} & \tilde{Q}_{22}
\end{array}\right|},
\end{eqnarray}
Here $\tilde{Q}_{11}=Q_{11}+\frac{2}{g}$, $\tilde{Q}_{22}=Q_{22}+\frac{2}{g}$ and the response functions $Q_{ij}$ are given in Appendix.\ref{appb}. This diagram only appears in the superfluid phase (below $T_c$) where the symmetry is spontaneously broken. In the strict mean field theory, this diagram can be obtained by inserting the EM vertex into the gap equation at all possible places \cite{HYPLA17}.

\begin{figure}[t]
\includegraphics[clip,width=0.45\textwidth]{STpg.eps}
\caption{(Color online). The dynamical density susceptibility $\chi''(\omega,k)$ (in units of $n/(2E_F)$) of a homogeneous unitary Fermi gas as a function of $\omega$ when the momentum transfer is relatively large. These 5 different colored curves correspond to 5 different sets of values for $T/T_c$ and $k/k_F$, which are labeled in the figure.}\label{STpg}
\end{figure}

The full EM vertex given by Eq.(\ref{V1}) satisfies the Ward identity (\ref{WI0}) $q_{\mu}\Gamma^{\mu}(K+Q,K)=G^{-1}(K+Q)-G^{-1}(K)$. A proof by combining Eqs.(\ref{TWI}), (\ref{MWI}) and (\ref{CWI}) can be found in Appendix.\ref{appc}
The full density-density response function is now expressed by
\begin{align}
&\quad K^{00}=Q^{00}_{33}+\delta K^{00}_{33}\nonumber\\
&\delta K^{00}_{33}=-\frac{\tilde{Q}_{11}Q^{0}_{32}Q^{0}_{23}+\tilde{Q}_{22}Q^{0}_{31}Q^{0}_{13}}
{\tilde{Q}_{11}\tilde{Q}_{22}-Q_{12}Q_{21}}\nonumber\\
&\qquad+\frac{Q_{12}Q^{0}_{31}Q^{0}_{23}+Q_{21}Q^{0}_{32}Q^{0}_{13}}
{\tilde{Q}_{11}\tilde{Q}_{22}-Q_{12}Q_{21}},
\end{align}
where the expressions of the response functions are given in Appendix.\ref{appb}. $\delta K^{00}_{33}$ comes from the collective-mode contribution. Hence it vanishes above $T_c$ since there is no symmetry breaking there, and the poles of it determines the dispersion of collective modes (Nambu-Goldstone modes). The WI ensures that the structure factor satisfies the $f$-sum rule
\begin{align}
\int_{-\infty}^{+\infty}d\omega\omega \chi''(\omega,\mathbf{q})=\frac{nq^2}{2m}.
\end{align}

\section{numerical results and discussions}
\label{sec-num}

\begin{figure}[t]
\includegraphics[clip,width=0.4\textwidth]{S-T-pg.eps}
\caption{The dynamical density susceptibility $\chi''$ (in units of $n/(2E_F)$) as a function of $T/T_c$ for $k/k_F=5$ and $\omega=\omega_0$, where $\omega_0$ is peak location below $T_c$ and $\omega_0=\omega_r/2$ above $T_c$. Panel (a) and (b) are calculated from the mean field theory and pair fluctuation theory respectively. The insets denote the blows up of the $\chi''$ curves around $T_c$.}\label{STm}
\end{figure}

Now we present the numerical results of our theory and compare them with the experiments. We first calculate the dynamic density structure factor of uniform unitary Fermi gases from low to high temperatures with relatively small transfer momentum. The results are shown in Figure \ref{STpgLq} where $k=0.5k_F$ in (a) and $1.0k_F$ in (b). Here $k_F$ is the Fermi momentum of a noninteracting Fermi gas with
the same density. In our $G_0G$ theory, the critical temperature is $T_c\simeq 0.26T_F$ at unitary limit, which is about 40\% higher than the experiment value $T_c/T_F=0.167$. This difference is due to the inaccurate estimation of the mean field background, which is also known from other thermodynamic quantities. However, we can expect that the dynamical density susceptibility is generally insensitive to this background. When $T<T_c$, there is clearly a peak associated with the Nambu-Goldstone mode due to the spontaneous breaking of the U(1) symmetry in the superfluid phase, which gives rise to a collective motion of the condensate. When the transferring momentum is small enough, this corresponds to the well known Bogoliubov-Anderson mode.
In the numerics, the imaginary part of $\omega$, which comes from the complex continuation $i\omega_n\rightarrow\omega+i0^+$, in the response functions is assumed to be infinitesimally small below $T_c$, which can be understood by assuming that the lifetime of the pairs is long enough below $T_c$. This makes the peaks in Figure \ref{STpgLq} much sharper than those of the experiments. There are also two single-particle continua, one corresponds to the quasiparticle scattering process with $\omega=\pm(E^+_\mathbf{k}-E^-_\mathbf{k})$ where $E^\pm_\mathbf{k}=E_{\mathbf{k}\pm\frac{\mathbf{q}}{2}}$ are quasiparticle dispersions, another corresponds to the pair breaking process with $\omega=E^+_\mathbf{k}+E^-_\mathbf{k}>2\Delta$. For details please refer to the expressions of the response function list in Appendix.\ref{appb}. When the transfer frequency is low enough the former continuum branch becomes quite apparent in the curves denoted by the $T=0.1T_c$, $0.5T_c$. This agrees with the recent experiment\cite{ValeNP17}. When $T>T_c$, the collective-mode peak disappear due to the restoration of the symmetry, and the continua join together. As we increase the transferring momentum $k$, the collective-mode peak approaches the pair-breaking continuum (see Figure \ref{STpgLq}(b)). Finally they will merge together is $k$ is large enough.

In Figure \ref{STpg}, the dynamical density susceptibility $\chi''$ are plotted as a function of $\omega$ for large transferring momenta. As we discussed before, all continua and peak merge together. The five different curves correspond to $T/T_c$=0.42, 0.72, 0.96, 1.26, 1.36 and $k/k_F$=3.8, 3.9, 4.1, 4.3, 4.5 respectively. Here we choose the relative temperature $T/T_c$ in figure \ref{STpg} according to the experimental results in Ref.\cite{Vale14}. Below $T_c$, $\chi''$ displays a sharp peak roughly at $1/2$ of the so-called recoil frequency $\omega_r=k^2/(2m)$ when $k$ is large enough such that $\omega_r/2>2\Delta$. This sharp peak of $\chi''$ clearly corresponds to the scattering of the pairs from momentum conservation consideration. Since the lifetime of the pair is assumed to be long enough below $T_c$ as we discussed previously, the peaks in Figure \ref{STpg} are also much sharper than those of the experiments.
 Above $T_c$, this sharp peak disappears again and only a very broad continuum roughly centered around $\omega_r$, which corresponds to the pair breaking ($\omega>2\Delta$) and quasiparticle scattering.
Here we have assumed that the recoil frequency in the response functions has a nonzero imaginary part $\omega+i\frac{1}{\tau}$ above $T_c$ after implementing analytical continuation, since the non-condensed pairs have a finite lifetime. The lifetime is chosen approximately as $\tau\simeq 10E^{-1}_F$ to ensure a suitable width of the peak.
This qualitatively agrees with what has been observed in the experiments \cite{Vale14}.

In Figure \ref{STm}, we plot the dynamical density susceptibility $\chi''$ as a function of $T/T_c$ for fixed large momentum $k/k_F=5$ and fixed frequency $\omega=\omega_0$, where $\omega_0$ is the location of the peaks below $T_c$ and $\omega_0=\omega_r/2$ above $T_c$. Below $T_c$, the peak location is not exactly at $\omega_r/2$. Only when the momentum transfer is large, the peak location is close to $\omega_r/2$ since the characteristic length is much less than the size of condensed pairs. Hence we choose to plot the value of $\chi''$ at the top of the peak, which makes the curve blow $T_c$ not very smooth. Above $T_c$, there is no sharp peak any more, thus we simply plot the value of $\chi''$ at $\omega=\omega_r/2$. One can clearly see that the temperature dependence of $\chi''(\omega_0)$ is roughly linear both below and above $T_c$, but with quite different slopes. Above $T_c$, $\chi''(\omega_0)$ is almost flat, while below $T_c$, $\chi''(\omega_0)$
increases much faster with decreasing $T$. This indicates that the appearing of condensed pairs greatly increases the pair scattering. Therefore, $\chi''(\omega_0)$ can serve as an order parameter of the condensate in certain sense. In the insets, we show the blow up of the details around $T_c$. One can see the flat curve above $T_c$ actually increases slightly with the increasing temperature. This trend is the same as the ideal gas.

\section{Conclusion}
In summary, we construct a manifestly gauge invariant linear response theory for a strongly correlated Fermi gas, from which the dynamic density structure factor can be studied near the Feshbach resonance. Our numerical results qualitatively agrees with the known experimental results.

\textit{Acknowledgment ---}
Yan He is supported by NSFC under grant No.11404228. Hao Guo is supported by NSFC under grant No.11674051.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


There is growing concern about what is and isn't permissible in terms of physical contact with children in sport. Some misleading and inaccurate information has been promoted within the sports sector, which can undermine the confidence of coaches and others in their ability to use safe, appropriate coaching methods.
There have also been instances in which adults who are motivated to harm and abuse children have done so by falsely claiming that their behaviour was part of legitimate teaching, coaching or caring practices.
The purpose of this part of the website is to clarify the position of the CPSU in relation to this issue and offer guidance to all those involved in working with children in sport.
There are a number of principles that should be followed when the activity involves physical contact.
Physical contact should be in response to the needs of the child and a good general guideline to keep in mind is don't do something that the child can do for themself.
meet the requirements of the sport.
The adult should explain to the child the nature and reason for any physical contact reinforcing the teaching or coaching skill. Unless the situation is an emergency, the adult should ask the child for permission.
It's good practice for sport clubs, as part of an induction process or pack for new members, to explain to parents and their child, or give written guidance, about any physical contact that will be required as part of that activity. Children should be encouraged to voice concerns if any physical contact makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened.
Contact should not involve touching genital areas, buttocks, breasts or any other part of the body that might cause a child distress or embarrassment. Any physical contact should always take place only in an open or public environment and not in secret or out of the sight of others.
The CPSU is not aware of any sports bodies that have stated that no physical contact is permissible under any circumstances within the context of coaching or teaching.
Any form of physical punishment is unlawful, as is any form of physical response to misbehaviour unless it is by way of restraint. See our Managing Challenging Behaviour page for more information. It is particularly important that adults understand this, to protect their own position as well as the overall reputation of the organisation.
Some sport or physical activities are more likely to require coaches or teachers to come into physical contact with children from time to time in the course of their duties. Examples include showing a pupil how to use a piece of apparatus or equipment, or demonstrating a move or exercise during a coaching or teaching session in order to reduce the risk of injury due to falls or errors when performing. Adults should be aware of the limits within which such contact should take place and of the possibility of it being misinterpreted.
A number of sport or physical activities may require physical contact between young athletes and those teaching them, for reasons of both teaching and the participant's safety. A number of sports Governing Bodies have developed guidance to assist coaches in this area. Those teaching these sports should follow this guidance. Even in sports where there is a need to support or touch a child, over-handling should be avoided.
It should be recognised that physical contact between an adult and a child that may occur during legitimate teaching or coaching may be misconstrued or misunderstood by a pupil, parent or observer. Touching young participants, including well-intentioned informal and formal gestures such as putting a hand on the shoulder or arm, can, if repeated regularly, lead to the possibility of questions being raised. As a general principle, adults in positions of responsibility should not make gratuitous or unnecessary physical contact with children. It is particularly unwise to attribute frequent touching to their teaching or coaching style or as a way of relating to young participants.
There may be occasions where a distressed child needs comfort and reassurance, which may include physical comforting, such as a caring parent would give. Physical contact may also be required to prevent an accident or injury and this would be wholly appropriate. A child or coach may want to mark a success or achievement with a hug or other gesture. Adults should use their discretion in such cases to ensure that what is normal and natural (and seen by others that way) does not become unnecessary and unjustified contact, particularly with the same child over a period of time.
There may be some roles within sport or physical activities where physical contact is commonplace and/or a requirement of the role, particularly sports science or medicine. These tasks should only be undertaken by properly trained or qualified practitioners. This guidance does not seek to replace the specific guidance and codes of practice developed for those professionals and reference should be made to the appropriate body for that discipline.


text:
Q: Google closure compiler for java 8 which Google closure compiler version is for java 8?
Tried v20220905 version:
java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/google/javascript/jscomp/CommandLineRunner has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 55.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 52.0

A: You didn't provide much information. Anyway, the problem is linked to the version of the JDK your using.
Required Java version in 55 - ie Java 11 (or more)
Your JDK version is 52 - ie Java 8
You should upgrade you JDK (or use a version of this lib that support Java 8).
For more information about Java file version: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_class_file#General_layout

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
module("recovery-manager");

function onGet(env) {
    var username = env.request.queryParams['username'];
    var domain = env.request.queryParams['domain'];
    var userId = env.request.queryParams['userId'];
    //if username is not available redirected to password recovery init page
    if (!username || !domain || !userId) {
        sendRedirect(env.contextPath + '/recovery/password');
    }

    //TODO wrap with try after fixing error in senRedirect inside try
    var pwdRecoveryConfig = recoveryManager.getRecoveryConfigs().getPassword();
    var hasMultiple = recoveryManager.hasMultiplePasswordRecoveryEnabled();
    if (!hasMultiple) {//when multiple recovery options are not enabled
        if (pwdRecoveryConfig.getNotificationBased().getRecoveryLink().isEnablePortal()) {
            Log.debug("Notification Based Password Recovery flow started for user: " + userId);
            //TODO invoke password recovery via email
            recoveryManager.sendRecoveryNotification(userId);
            sendRedirect(env.contextPath + '/recovery/complete?password=true');

        } else if (pwdRecoveryConfig.getSecurityQuestion().isEnablePortal()) {
            Log.debug("Security Question Based Password Recovery flow for user: " + userId);
            sendRedirect(env.contextPath + '/recovery/security-questions?username=' + username + "&userId="+ userId);

        } else if (pwdRecoveryConfig.getExternal().isEnablePortal()){
            sendRedirect(pwdRecoveryConfig.getExternal().getUrl());
        }
        //TODO decide what, when non of the options are enabled
    } else {
        var questions = recoveryManager.getUserAnsweredQuestions(userId);
        if (!questions.success) {
            sendError(500, questions.message);
            //TODO
        }
        return {
            hasMultipleOptions: hasMultiple,
            hasUserQuestions: questions.data.length > 0,
            userQuestions: questions.data,
            externalOption : pwdRecoveryConfig.getExternal().getUrl(),
            recoveryCode : questions.code
        };
    }
}

function onPost(env) {
    //TODO pasword recover option handle
    var recoveryOption = env.request.formParams['recover-option'];
    var userId = env.request.queryParams['userId'];

    if (recoveryOption === "email-recovery") {
        recoveryManager.sendRecoveryNotification(userId);
        sendRedirect(env.contextPath + '/recovery/complete?password=true');
    }

    if(recoveryOption === 'security-question-recovery') {
        return recoveryManager.recoverPasswordViaUserChallengeAnswers(env);
    }
        //TODO else

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Julio Balmaceda & Virginia Vasconi
Coming from different backgrounds, Julio and Virginia started to dance together in 2015. Together, they have have created a unique style recognized for their interpretation of the music and their dynamic. They combine elegance with technique, elasticity with strength, to create the perfect ingredients for beautiful, passionate and talented tango.
They work together all over the world teaching, performing. They are members of the jury of the most important Tango championships and Mundial de Tango in Argentina, Europe, Asia and the USA.
Julio started his Tango career with his father, the well known master Miguel Balmaceda in 1988. He is considered one of the most important teachers around the world due to his unique style and pedagogy.
Currently, he travels the world to perform and to teach in the most important festivals and venues. In 1998 he performed in Broadway with "Forever Tango", whose staff was nominated for the Tony Awards for the best choreography. He also performed at The Carnegie Hall, in a tribute to Astor Piazzolla together with Pablo Ziegler, Paquito de Rivera and Gary Burton. In 2008 he choreographed his own show "Corazon a Corazon" in Tarbes, France. During 2011, he performed and choreographed the musical "Tita, Una Vida en Tiempo de Tango" directed By Nacha Guevara in a prestigious theater of Buenos Aires and he was nominated by the ACE Award as the best choreographer of the musical. In 2013, he participated in the show "Tango Tranzas" in Sydney, Australia. He is also a judge member of the Mundial de Tango in Buenos Aires and Argentina since the beginning of it.
Virginia took her first dance steps in her mother's gym at the age of five and later she studied classical ballet and artistic gymnastics. She graduated as an English Translator at the Faculty of Languages in the Province of Cordoba. She is a Jazz dance teacher, proficient in Latin rhythms, stretching, classical ballet and contemporary dance. She moved to Buenos Aires in 2008 and immediately became a member of the DNI Dance Company and School until 2015. She has performed in the most prestigious Milongas and Theaters of Buenos Aires.
She has been performing and teaching in international festivals around Europe, Canada and USA and Asia. In 2015, she created, along with Julio Balmaceda, the show "Tango, a Society of Two", presented in ST. Petersburg, Russia. Currently, she continues her training in yoga, modern dance, stretching, ballet, and theater in order to enhance her skills as a tango dancer, teacher and performer.
View Julio & Virginia Seminar


text:
Posts published in January 2020
Education attitudes were highlighted most strongly in this year's release of the Boise State University Public Policy Survey, which polls Idahoans on what they think about what's happening in their state.
But a section toward the back of the survey, on a different subject, seems just as notable.
In the Energy and the Environment section, a pull quote noted this: "Currently, a majority of the energy developed in Idaho comes from clean sources, such as renewable energy, that do not use fossil-fuels."
That sentence alone might take many Idahoans by surprise, since much of political energy in the state has been (for a long time) supportive of fossil fuels, and the headlines about oil and gas drilling at Payette County have gotten a lot of attention. Less attention may have gone to the headlines from last summer
that of the 18 wells drilled there, 10 had been shut down, and no drilling permits were pending.
The pull quote was right. A massive amount of Idaho electric power production long has been developed through hydropower - just ask Idaho Power about that - while the other long-time power component - coal-fired, based out of state - has been in retreat as a key factor. Meanwhile, wind and solar have been galloping ahead. One of the recent big and deserved news stories in that area concerns a new massive solar power field in the desert lands near Jackpot.
Idaho is a serious renewable power state, probably among the leading clean-energy production states anywhere in the country.
How many Idahoans know that is unclear; probably a distinct minority. And the Boise State study didn't (to judge from its release statement) get at that.
But nevertheless it did say this: "68.5% of Idahoans responded that they either strongly or somewhat favored the state transitioning to 100% clean energy by 2050, and 24.9% opposed this goal."
I'd be interested in knowing a lot more about the quarter of respondents in Idaho who opposed the goal. You could understand the concern in, say, coal country, where fossil fuel development is locally important to the economy. But why would Idaho have any interest in standing in the way of the trend? Idaho is not a major producer of coal, oil, or gas.
The numbers shift, as you might imagine they would, when the question gets at support for the transition "if it meant an increase in your power bill?" The worst-case scenario bumps up the negatives against clean energy to 40 percent.
But generally, attitudes among Idahoans are strongly favorable toward clean energy, and toward almost all kinds of it.
One question asked, "If Idaho increases its use of local, renewable energy, there are a
variety of possible sources of this energy . Do you favor or oppose increasing our use of the following sources" - and more than three-fourths of Idahoans said they support solar, wind, hydro and geothermal. Solar actually seemed to be the most popular, reflected in strong support (more than 90 percent) for credits on electricity bills when people connect their residential solar units to the grid.
Not a lot of all this popular support tends to be reflected in the Idaho legislature, and that's a trend you see reflected across a number of subject areas across many annual iterations of the BSU Idaho surveys.
The reasons for that might be worth some survey inquiry in future years.
The tax man cometh
It's a stark contrast to watch legislators propose some dramatic tax policy changes then read the Boise State Public Policy Survey.
I attended a Republican traveling town hall a few weeks back and there was lots of talk about property tax relief. I guess property values are going through the roof in the Treasure Valley. Property tax bills are going up. Rates haven't changed, but valuations have and county governments and municipalities have to deal with the growth. The Republican legislators felt the need to provide some relief to homeowners.
There have indeed been some proposals early in the session. One suggestion is to double the sales tax and eliminate property tax. Another is to add a cent onto sales tax and prohibit local school or municipal levies. Both of these proposals would disturb the "three-legged stool" of Idaho's tax structure which gets near equal revenue from sales, property and income taxes.
Keep in mind, sales and income taxes go mainly to the state general fund, but property taxes stay more local with counties. But over half of the state general fund pays for K12 education here in Idaho, so those income and sales taxes you pay don't stay down in Boise.
Then you read the Boise State Survey and it seems Idahoans have a different perspective. More people think the state budget should stay the same (43%) than think it should increase (37%) but only 8% supported a decrease. When asked about taxes, a strong majority (68%) thought taxes were about right; only 20% thought they were too high. These conservative Idahoans also agreed (almost 60%) that the state was headed in the right direction. Only 30% thought it was on the wrong track.
So just what problem in our tax structure are legislators feeling the need to solve? Or maybe, now when people are pretty happy, those pesky legislators think a little disruption would be tolerated.
States do tax policy all manner of ways, and we have neighboring states with all three different flavors. Oregon has no sales tax. Washington, Nevada and Wyoming get by without an income tax. But comparing chocolate to strawberry to vanilla is just what tax wonks love to do. "Tax burden" is the appropriate term coined by such researchers and whenever the studies are done, Idaho comes in pretty darn low. One study by the Idaho Tax Commission in 2015 showed Idahoans had the second lowest tax burden in the country. I think the Boise State survey respondents sense the light burden and don't feel the need for major changes.
Did you know the highest tax bracket in the Idaho income tax tables tops out at $11,554/ year? That means you could be in Idaho's top income tax bracket and still be eligible for Medicaid. In essence, we have a flat income tax. Almost 97% of the state's income tax revenue comes from people in the top bracket. Almost all of us pay the top rate of 6.92% on our income.
Earlier I mentioned the three-legged stool of Idaho's tax structure. This analogy was always held up to me as a model for stability. When a recession hits, income and sales tax revenue plummets, but property tax revenue stays more stable. We saw this in 2008-9 with the Great Recession. Governor Risch's tax reform of 2006 raised sales tax a cent but cut property taxes and Idaho education funding got cut. But local levies sure cropped up, didn't they?
Representative Caroline Nilsson Troy made an interesting comment this week at a legislative coffee meeting hosted by the Moscow Chamber of Commerce. She pointed out how the committee that spends the money (JFAC) gets lots of support staff and interim study time. An investment in the committees that raise the money might be worth it too. That is, unless you think things are doing just fine.
What do we mean by that?
When we talk about politics, we find quite often that we aren't talking about the same things. We are actually talking past each other.
We address political and social subjects as though some of us speak Urdu and others Swahili, so few of us actually absorb what those from different perspectives are saying and thinking. But we seldom admit we may be misunderstanding each other.
This sounds like an old problem, but the extent of it, and the way we experience it now, is relatively new.
Half a century ago, Americans mostly drew from a common well of public and political speech. Thus, in nearly all cases, we understood in similar ways what was being communicated.
We might disagree — and quite often did — about what conclusions to draw, what moral and ethical standards to apply, and what priorities to set. But we spoke, generally, the same language.
A person might be more sympathetic to the extremely different Joe and Eugene McCarthy. But what each of them said or meant never was seriously in doubt.
Today, words, phrases, concepts and even proper names now mean different things depending on which bubble you live your life in. That led me to reflect on the issue at more length in a newly released book, "What Do You Mean by That? How forked tongues and twisted words have taken over our politics."
What is an "elite" and who is in it? Who is a "patriot" and what makes him or her so?
What do we mean by the "media?" Do its various elements have an agenda, and if so, what is it? (Different parts of "the media" can have different goals, of course.)
In the United States, the Constitution provides a definition and a means of determining what constitutes "treason," but political advocates on both left and right toss the word into many other contexts.
I've been writing about politics, mainly for newspapers, for more than 40 years. And the job of communicating the same thoughts about the subject has gotten trickier with time. It has become necessary to take a hard look at the words we're using and what we mean by them, because we don't all mean the same thing.
Many are the people in America who use these words and ideas and toss them about as if everyone else conceives of them the same way. We typically swim in our own currents and use the words and their definitions we're most familiar with, often unaware that others, many others, in our society are operating with entirely different dictionaries.
The result is, we do not hear the same thing.
A couple of years ago, a writer named Howard Polskin, after years in journalism and corporate communications, launched a website and e-mail publication called TheRighting. Its mission is to collect writings from the right side of the political spectrum "to help inform middle-of-the-road and liberal audiences about stories and viewpoints not on their radar screens that are shaping political opinion across a wide swath of America."
What he collects are not differing philosophical views, but rather whole topics that never reach non-ideological media. And yes, I'll assert flatly that there are such.
Entirely different worldviews are being formed out there, in the manner of a alien world creating sci-fi novelist. Many of the most intractable of our conflicts happen when these differing worldviews prevent us from making connections.
Few subjects have remained as heated, and less susceptible to mediated resolution, for as long as abortion. One problem is, the people in the opposing trenches define themselves in ways that do not link up at all — "pro-life" vs. "pro-choice" — with no hope either side will take seriously the core concerns of the other.
There's no engagement. And how could there be, when one side is thought to be "anti-life" and the other "anti-choice."
The problem comes in different ways. What does a word or phrase mean — say, patriot, sovereign citizen, proper role of government, Medicare for All?
Patriot was a term in disrepute a couple of centuries ago. You didn't want to be called one, especially if you were a politician.
Over time, it evolved into a descriptor of pride, then gained some use in sarcasm. More recently, it's gained a lot of use — with no ironic intent — among extremist, militia and especially anti-government groups.
What you mean by "patriot" depends a great deal on who you are and who you're addressing. And in the meantime, it is continuing to evolve.
Sometimes words we think of as being clear have developed split meanings — different meanings depending on where our allegiances lie.
Who is a Christian? Different people who call themselves Christian extend the word in very different ways, some broadly, some narrowly.
All of that has political as well as religious implications in this country.
Even more political than that, who or what is an "elite?" Some people apply the term to the wealthy and powerful, others to people with certain views, attitudes or backgrounds.
A more obvious example is "values." Most people think values are important, but they don't all celebrate the same values by any means.
There are new creations that pop up out of almost nowhere as well, such as "incel," "fash," "red pill," even the better-known "#MeToo," with little attempt to make them part of the larger cultural vocabulary. They're intended as elements of language for insiders, not language for true communication.
Other words are used as epithets, such as "snowflake," "enemy of the people" and "cuckservative." Some of these can be turned around and used against their originators as well.
For some years, "snowflake" was a mainstay of message boards on the right. Now it is being increasingly used by those on the left.
Then there are growing uses in our political talk of academic-sounding terms — "cultural Marxism," "stochastic terrorism," "integralism" and "intersectionality." They sometimes have slippery definitions almost begging to be misunderstood.
Many words and phrases are used by one element, but not another. Take "underachiever," "red pill," "real America" and "owning the libs." They are used essentially as markers, as indicators, to suggest to a reader the stance and viewpoint of the writer.
That can work as long as you're familiar with the overarching point of view. Otherwise, no.
The phrase "liberty-minded" might seem open and vague to many people. But to those who use it most, it has a highly specific and concrete meaning.
There is hope. If we think about these words carefully and demand definitions — asking, "What do you mean by that?" — it's possible for us to restore more meaningful communication.
SOS for the salmon
Shortly after taking office as Idaho Attorney General in January 1983, I took a crash course in the life-and-death struggles of Idaho's anadromous fish. The U.S. Supreme Court set oral argument that March for a case filed years earlier by a prior AG, Wayne Kidwell. The lawsuit was against Oregon and Washington, claiming the down-streamers were overfishing salmon and steelhead runs. Idaho sought an allocation of the fish runs.
I arrived in Washington two weeks ahead of the argument with about 20 banker boxes of records from the trial. My study of the records included the life cycle of every run, the upstream and downstream mortality of each run at each of the eight dams (4 Columbia and 4 lower Snake), habitat issues, the fish taken in the two rivers and the Pacific by all types of fishers, and practically every other factor affecting the survival or mortality of these remarkable fish.
The one thing that really struck me during my preparation for the argument was the devastating toll the dams took on the smolts during their downstream journey. It was almost beyond comprehension that such large numbers would get minced by the dam turbines, perish in the slack waters behind the dams or otherwise succumb to dam-related stress. Overcoming the dangers posed by the dams was obviously the key to survival.
The argument went fairly well but the outcome was not ideal. On the plus side, the Court ruled that each state was entitled to an equitable share of the fish and that each had a responsibility to conserve and augment the resource. On the other side, six of the nine Justices declined to set an allocation formula. Idaho ex rel. Evans v. Oregon, 462 U.S. 1017 (1983).
The case gave me an appreciation of these magnificent creatures and a strong commitment to do everything possible to protect and enhance their runs. It is hard to comprehend the strength and tenacity of these fish--fighting their way through hundreds of miles of rushing and cascading waters to regenerate their species and then die.
In the ensuing years, every conceivable measure has been tried to reduce mortality at the Snake dams--trucking or barging around the dams, spilling over or around them, whatever--but nothing has really worked. Some solutions increased survival on the journey to the Pacific, but it was found that large numbers of those fish suffered delayed mortality from the stress.
Despite the expenditure of about $17 billion, there has been little success in regenerating the wild fish runs. Of 100 smolts heading downstream, only 1 can be expected to make it back to its spawning grounds. The recovery target is 4% and the minimum is 2%. The draft Lower Snake River Dams Stakeholder Engagement Report released by the State of Washington in December estimates that the recovery target can be achieved by breaching the 4 lower Snake dams and increasing the spill level at the 4 lower Columbia dams.
A long-time observer of this drama, Rocky Barker, noted in an Idaho Statesman article last May that the solution to the problem is removal of the four lower Snake River dams. Instead of trying to figure out a way to get the fish safely around, through or over the dams, just punch through the dams.
It has taken me a while to conclude that this is the way to go. Other solutions can be figured out for getting grain to market, producing power and the like. But restoring this stretch of the Snake to its pre-dam condition is the only feasible way in my mind to safely flush the smolts to the Columbia. I would not support breaching if it would endanger Idaho's control over its water. It will not!
With the increasing temperature of both the Pacific and the two rivers, the survival of anadromous fish runs has been made even more precarious. They might have a fighting chance if we can remove the main barrier to their continued existence. If the Snake dams stay intact, the salmon and steelhead won't be around much longer. The Supreme Court indicated we have a responsibility to conserve and augment this valuable resource. Let's do it.
"We are lost"
Soon, we'll be done with this national impeachment embarrassment and can get back to watching Donald Trump turn whatever he touches to ashes. Maybe.
Or, if scuttlebutt is accurate, we might have some witnesses and documents. Rumor at this point. But, could be.
Like too many Republican senators, I haven't watched every "breathless" moment. And, like the petulant and shameful Lindsey Graham, I haven't stayed in the chair in the chamber where the Republican-authored rules said he should stay. The rules, it seems, were written for Democrats only.
Unlike the disgustingly partisan Sen. Jim Risch (R-ID), I chose not to fall asleep or trot back to my office to avoid listening to the evidence.
Under normal journalistic principles, I wouldn't write a review of the proceedings until their conclusion. Normally.
But, in this case, the GOP presenters will not disappoint in their expected avoidance of accuracy, facts and truth. They've so often telegraphed their intent that many observers can almost write the expected headlines in advance.
"Nothing Donald Trump has done merits being removed from office."
"Trump and fellow Republicans were not permitted to be present or offer testimony in the House hearings."
"Democrats operated in secrecy and refused Republican involvement."
"Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton created the problems in Ukraine."
Even a professional dumpster diver couldn't find a single fact in such claims. But, that's their story and they're sticking with it.
You don't have to be a lawyer to summarize all this impeachment business to date. There are enough lawyer "jurors" to deal knowingly with all the legal mumbo jumbo. Even if the likely outcome is a colossal miscarriage of justice.
No, all you need to know has been carefully and publically presented enough times that just about anyone with an open mind can make sense of the facts and understand the issues.
For this observer, the Democrats have most professionally presented a rock solid case. Even operating without key witnesses and the chain of documents denied them, Adam Schiff and company have masterfully laid out the facts. Absent all the resources they're entitled to, they've made their case in support of both articles of impeachment previously approved by the House.
In a bit of irony I'm sure not lost on the Dems, last week, Trump tweeted an admission he's guilty of the charge of obstructing Congress. In undeserved advance praise of his own legal team, Trump wrote "They (Democrats) don't have the documents. WE have the documents."
As a non-lawyer, even to me, that seems like an admission of guilt to the impeachment charge of obstructing Congress.
Also, just as an observer, it's obvious the pick of Adam Schiff to head the Dems impeachment case was masterful. His Friday summation and charge to Senators was brilliant. A former federal prosecutor, Schiff built an almost perfect case. Without key witnesses and the storehouse of withheld White House documents, Schiff and his team used only publically accessible materials to create a damning presentation. Even the aforementioned Lindsey Graham publically acknowledged Schiff's leadership and legal talents.
All of this was done with Dems having one hand tied behind their backs. And, with many Republicans blatantly ignoring the rules laid down by their own majority leader. Book reading, playing gadget games, doing crosswords, eating, sleeping or just walking out. Even several Senators who'll be asking voters to re-elect them in 10 months.
Why would voters do so after witnessing such disgraceful behavior?
Somewhere in all the words, I found a statement by Schiff that hit close to home.
"The American people deserve a president they can count on to put their interests first. Framers (of the Constitution) couldn't protect us from ourselves if right and truth don't matter. And you know what he (Trump) did was not right.
"No Constitution can protect us if right doesn't matter anymore. And you know you can't trust this president to do what's right for this country. You can trust he will do what's right for Donald Trump. He'll do it now. He's done it before. He'll do it for the next several months. He'll do it in the election if he's allowed to
"Right matters. And the truth matters. Otherwise, we are lost."
Wise words that many Republican senators will never understand. Until it's too late.
Free market health care
In his book Words that Matter, linguist Frank Luntz counsels against referring to "private health care," if what you're trying to do is to reduce, eliminate or de-emphasize such programs as Medicare and Medicaid (or, prospectively, the Affordable Care Act). Speak instead, he advised, of "free market health care."
It does sounds friendlier, doesn't it?
But what does it mean?
It means in practice, in the era of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare; Luntz was writing a couple of years before its passage): going back, in many respects, to what the United States had previously. The ferocious political debates of 2017 and 2018 brought forward to the nation what that meant: Eliminating or diminishing health care insurance coverage for tens of millions – maybe most – of Americans.
Here's a dispassionate take, from Wikipedia, on what the term could be taken to mean:
"In a system of free-market healthcare, prices for healthcare goods and services are set freely by agreement between patients and health care providers, and the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority. A free market contrasts with a controlled market, in which government intervenes in supply and demand through non-market methods such as laws creating barriers to market entry or directly setting prices. Advocates of free-market healthcare contend that systems like single-payer healthcare and publicly funded healthcare result in higher costs, inefficiency, longer waiting times for care, denial of care to some, and overall mismanagement. Skeptics argue that health care as an unregulated commodity invokes market failures not present with government regulation and that selling health care as a commodity leads to both unfair and inefficient systems with poorer individuals being unable to afford preventive care."
Those "market failures" are not a matter of chance or an occasional slipup, but an inherent part of the system.
Free markets, in the classic and idealistic sense, operate at least theoretically under arms-length, willing-buyer-willing-seller conditions. In many marketplaces that can and does happen, but in others specific conditions do not allow for it. In the case of health care, while there are exceptions, the consumer and provider are not on a level playing field with comparable leverage.
My one experience with hospitalization began when my wife called for an ambulance – sent by the only outfit available – which then took me to the nearest hospital. No options were seriously considered even for a moment; there was no time and no capability to assess (much less do a price comparison) of alternatives. Upon arrival at the emergency room, the demand was made that I sign an open-ended – completely open-ended – agreement that I would pay whatever charges were imposed, with no ceiling on the number of dollars involved, nor any way for me to control them. My life was at immediate risk, and neither I nor my wife anywhere in the process was given a chance to consider options or even find out how much expense we were committing to. Checking the alternative of another hospital or medical provider was not even a remote consideration. (We did not have health insurance at the time either, though the situation would not have been greatly different if we had.) This was not an arms-length, willing-buyer-willing-seller transaction. The only real choice involved here was: "Your money or your life."
(I should add in fairness that the actual medical care I received was excellent, and because of that I soon recovered fully.)
In other terms, the health care system involves (as a Nobel Prize-winning economist argued) "a huge mismatch of power and information between the buyer and the seller. If a salesman tells you to buy a particular television, you can easily choose another or just walk away. If a doctor insists that you need a medication or a procedure, you are far less likely to reject the advice. And … people think they don't need health care until they get sick, and then they need lots of it."
Even aside from life and death situations, true arms length transactions are unusual. Changing doctors or medical centers is often difficult or time-consuming. For many people, multiple providers may be involved. Many patients, especially those in advanced age, may have difficulty dealing with the options even if they were all practically available.
Some medical treatments really are discretionary or allow for the time and information patients need to make informed and thoughtful choices. The free market can and frequently does (or could) work in those cases. But much health care is not on that level, and for most people, most of the time, getting it to work in a fair, useful and affordable way probably would take still more regulation at some level.
The system is immensely complex, and while the core of it in the United States has emphasized involvement by private providers, there's long been governmental regulation of various sorts as well – not to mention the ugly elements of a highly competitive for-profit system, which often has a tendency to drive up prices and cut costs (service and quality for patients).
Writer John Daniel Davidson remarked, "We've never really had a 'free market' health care system in the modern era. What we've had is more like crony capitalism. We spend hundreds of billions every year subsidizing employer-sponsored coverage, which mostly benefits large employers, while also paying for a Medicare entitlement that includes every American over age 65 – even billionaires. We could create a market-based system that subsidizes those who need it while driving down costs for everyone else. But it would mean disrupting the cronyism that has dominated American health care for 70 years. So far, neither party has been willing to do that."
That may be in part because neither has been able to find a way to make it work.
The Senate on trial
You may have heard a number of references this week to the Senate impeachment trials of two former presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, both of whom, given the long verdict of history, likely deserved to be convicted. Neither was, of course, and Donald Trump almost certainly will not be convicted either.
"The proceedings there look like a flimsy excuse for a trial," David Graham wrote in The Atlantic, "and they are. But under the surface, a series of real trials is going on. Vulnerable senators sit in the dock, the jurors are voters, and the verdicts won't come back until November."
While the serially lying president is technically on trial for abuse of power and his corrupt obstruction of Congress, additionally it is the Senate itself and individual senators on trial and among the accused are Idaho's get-along by going-along Trumpians, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch.
Neither Idahoan did anything this week to warrant the high public trust that voters have repeatedly bestowed upon them and their craven political opportunism may yet bite them. By repeatedly rejecting the notion that the Senate should actually conduct a trial of the president as the Constitution demands, Crapo and Risch have put the interests of the Republican Party – not to mention their own interests – ahead of the truth.
Both men voted over and over again not to seek witnesses or documents that the Trump White House has systematically refused to produce. This knowing disregard for information that could either convict or exonerate Trump may prove to be an effective strategy to prevent the truth from catching up immediately with the president, but the known unknowns of what is to come, a steady drip, drip of harmful revelations, should bring shivers to what is left of the spines of Crapo and Risch.
Risch also unintentionally provided what will both be a lasting image of Trump's impeachment and a metaphor for his own bootlicking in service to the president. Since still cameras are not allowed in the Senate chamber an old-school sketch artist for the New York Times captured Risch in pen and ink, head buried in hand snoozing at length during the trial's opening day.
Ironically, Risch's afternoon nap came at the precise moment the Senate was debating whether to require the production of documents from the State Department, the agency of the federal government that Risch's Foreign Relations Committee is supposed to oversee. It is worth noting that not once in the first year of his chairmanship has the napping Risch required an appearance before his committee of the Secretary of State who is positioned squarely at the center of the Ukraine scandal that engulfs Trump's presidency. So, Risch's sleeping is more than a metaphor it is a pattern.
But set aside the comparisons to the racist, bullying Johnson in 1865 and the womanizing, dissembling Clinton in 1999, the true historical analog to the current Trump trial happened in 1954. In December of that long ago year of the Eisenhower presidency the United States Senate actually acquitted itself very well by condemning the outrageous conduct of one its own – the junior senator from Wisconsin Joseph McCarthy.
As much as Trump's presidency reminds us of Richard Nixon, another vulgar Republican who at least had the good grace to confine his bigotry to private conversations and eventually had the decency to resign the presidency short of being impeached, Joe McCarthy is Trump's true political ancestor.
McCarthy, as the superb new documentary in the PBS American Experience series makes clear, based what became his celebrity and his Republican power on a lie. McCarthy rode the fiction of widespread communist infiltration of the federal government all the way to the top much as Trump rode the lie about Barack Obama's citizenship to his own takeover of the GOP. Both men are bigots: McCarthy an abuser of homosexuals and "elites" in the entertainment world, while Trump attacks any critic, but particularly immigrants, Muslims and African-Americans like the black listed athlete Colin Kaepernick or Congressman John Lewis.
McCarthy was a bully. Trump is, too. Both count the repulsive Roy Cohn, McCarthy's Senate aide and Trump's long-time lawyer, as a godfather. Each attacked and skillfully manipulated the press and intimidated fellow Republicans into support or silence. Each tapped into something dark and sinister in the American psyche, the uncommon willingness to embrace the paranoid and ego driven impulses of a blustering demagogue. But there the parallels end because in 1954 the Senate, unlike today's Senate, did something about McCarthy.
Led by Republicans who had had enough of McCarthy's nonsense – a hero of the story was Utah Republican Arthur Watkins whose role in bringing down McCarthy featured in the first paragraph of his obituary twenty years later – 67 senators condemned McCarthy, as one biographer has noted, "for obstructing the business of the Senate, impairing its dignity, and bring the entire body into dishonor and disrepute."
Yet with Trump Senate Republicans can't muster the guts to even seek let alone confront the truth. As journalist Susan Glaser wrote the Trump defense team, much like the president, is "loud, intemperate, personally nasty, ad hominem, factually challenged, and often not even bothering to have a tenuous connection to the case at all." The word "Ukraine" did not pass their lips.
A Senate on trial and found wanting may well have even longer-term consequences for the increasingly fragile American experiment than ignoring the crimes of an individual president. Once the sideboards of Constitutional constraint where the legislative branch holds to account the executive are chopped into kindling the whole structure weakens and slides toward collapse. Have no doubt that is happening.
In 1954 when Senate was on trial along with Joe McCarthy, Idaho's then Republican senators, like Crapo and Risch today, took the path of party loyalty rather than institutional honor. Herman Welker, a one-term Idaho senator who if he is remembered at all is remembered as "an unflagging supporter" of his pal McCarthy, was one of 22 Senate Republicans – Idahoan Henry Dworshak was another – who refused to sanction McCarthy.
"I wonder," Welker said after the McCarthy censure, "if we did not injure the reputation of the Senate more than we could have in any other way." Welker's prediction was blindingly wrong and history honors not him, but those like Arthur Watkins who defended the honor of the institution.
For Crapo and Risch it's one thing to be a knee-jerk partisan, but an altogether more serious matter to be a wrecker of great institutions in service to a criminal president.
Incommunicado
If you've purchased a car within the last decade, there's a good chance its technology will let you make and receive telephone calls without ever touching your cell phone.
Motor vehicles produced these days, and for some time now, mostly are equipped with bluetooth technology, and every year the portion of vehicles on the road which do not include this equipment diminishes. Some non-equipped vehicles still stay on the road for a long time to come, but they will become rare.
It's been more than a decade since the west coast states of California, Oregon and Washington passed state laws prohibiting the handheld use of cell phones while driving, and many other states have done that as well. (Passengers, of course, still can use them.) The specifics of these rules are a little different in every state.
They did not come out of nowhere. The National Safety Council has estimated cell phone use while driving is implicated in about 1.6 million car crashes every year. Nearly every state has regulated their use while driving in some way or another; Idaho has banned texting while driving, in common with nearly all the rest of the country.
In the case of more general no-handheld cells while driving laws, there was some complaint at first, but most people adjusted. Not everyone complies; cops still pull over drivers with some regularity for holding a smartphone while driving. (Any use of one, not just talking on the phone, is banned while driving.)
But increasingly, people actually have adjusted, either by using alternate technology, such as a car's bluetooth capacity, or phone holders or other equipment. Or - imagine this - they increasingly seem to forego distracting conversations while managing a vehicle in heavy traffic. Either way, the smartphone-while-driving ban in these states, as in the many others which have placed them on the books for years, has been readily accepted.
Some Idaho cities have moved in that direction, and others might. The state overall has not, yet.
There's something positive to say about not being an early adopter of a new product or a new idea. Why not let someone else do it first, and let them rather than you work the bugs out of it? You can also get an indication of the value of an idea by seeing whether other states have backed off from it; though in this case, states have been tending to toughen rather than weaken cellphone/driving bans as years have passed.
At this point, on this idea, in most of the states that have tried it, most of the bugs have been worked out. Idaho really can draw from the experiences of other states in fashioning a sensible policy in this area.
Idaho is still working on it. Legislation on the subject has been surfacing steadily in recent weeks. Some of it is negative; one is a measure similar to one from last session which would ban local government handheld/cellphone/driving bans.
One of the bills proposed for this year's Idaho legislative session means to expand and toughen the law on distracted driving generally. It is so sweeping that it has attracted concerns even from law enforcement.
But there is a limit to these things. If you required by law - and got compliance - on a rule saying that drivers must at all times sit up straight, keep both hands at the 10 and 2 spots on the wheel, look at nothing but the road or mirror and neither talk with anyone nor listen to any other non-car sounds … what you'd have after a while is a zoned-out, barely-thinking, non-alert driver.
In other words, distracted.
So where to draw the line? That's where past experience and good judgement is supposed to come in.
Idaho poverty and justice
Governor Little has a sense of justice. And he's acting on it. He's fighting poverty in Idaho, though he doesn't freely use the term.
This week we remember Martin Luther King. He fought against racial injustice but more, he knew poverty was a millstone around the neck, preventing young children from developing the content of character by which he famously called for us to judge them. But many rise up out of poverty and grow their character, and indeed, grow their wealth. Justice guards that path from poverty.
In Idaho, as well as nationally poverty is defined based on monthly income; this gives us the measure "Federal Poverty Level". Many dispute these terms, but if you are going to measure something, you need to be consistent. I'll use it.
If you look at that national designation, Idaho is actually pretty low, with only 11% below 100% FPL, ranking us near the bottom. Nationally, nearly 14% live below 100% FPL. But if you look a little higher, folks making less than 200% of the FPL, we jump up to the top third, with 34% earning less than $2082/month. Nationally, only about 30% earn less than 200% of FPL.
So, Idaho has poverty, but more, we have many folks working hard and not making a lot. We are a low wage state. That pathway out of poverty, guarded by justice is paved with education. Idaho folks would benefit greatly from the opportunity of education, a free, common, uniform education, as our Idaho Constitution guarantees. Our founders knew it; Brad knows it.
And Governor Little knows, for primary education to be valuable and effective, the ability for students to read at grade level when they reach third grade is a key indicator. Most of those that can't struggle going on in the grades; many of those that can will thrive. He has committed investment toward early reading capabilities. It is a worthwhile investment. And, as always, there is more to do.
The other move Governor Little has made for justice in Idaho has to do with the recently released criminal offenders. Idaho has one of the highest incarceration rates in the country. Over a third of those in the system are there for crimes involving drugs or alcohol. Furthermore, Idaho has the highest recidivism rate (people released, then returned to prison). So, we incarcerate many with fixed sentences for drug violations, and when they are released, they often go back to jail or prison for parole violations.
Reintegrating offenders takes an investment. The recently passed Medicaid Expansion law will help felons in need of medical care, since, odds are they will be working a pretty low wage job that might not offer health insurance benefits. Brad knows this value and knows the investment is worth it.
But Governor Little knows the path for released offenders from the structured chaos of the prison environment to the goal of productive community members would benefit from sign posts; limited structure. He has put funding to operate a community reintegration center in Twin Falls. Low risk offenders will live there in a supervised setting, continuing programs and working in the community before being released.
Work gives more than a paycheck. It's a place to build relationships, confidence, skills and value. And people need more than money to climb out of poverty.
I appreciate our governor's commitment to justice. All people deserve our respect and all, under our Constitution have the right of justice. But making positive steps forward take time. And there is more to do.
To quote Martin Luther King:
If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.


By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - OK, here's the deal. There's this dumbass named David Venables, a 70 year old retiree from the UK (apparently.) He purchased a few LG air conditioner units from a store on Tumba Muerto. Then he used an AC technician to install the units, but the guy was not an authorized LG technician, so as soon as he touched the units he effectively invalidated the warranty or guarantee. As if that wasn't enough, he also asked the AC technician to modify the typical installation, and to mount external thermostats on the wall. When all of that didn't work and the units were damaged in the process, this guy tried to return them to the store. Predictably, they told him to pound sand. So what does he do? He drives up to the front of the store, smashes the units with an ax, records the whole thing with a video camera, and uploads the video to YouTube. And now the lawyers are involved on all sides. I have a strong feeling this David Venables guy is never going to be happy, anywhere. Maybe he should try Costa Rica? He thinks he's making some kind of a statement and he is - he's saying "I'm A Dumbass!" at the top of his lungs. Well done, idiot. You should know that within your own statements made on your videos, you basically confess to having invalidated the warranties. Ever heard of "personal responsibility?" Whatever, I'm sure you feel better blaming someone else. Good luck with that.
I furnished my Panama apartment in Bella Vista with 5 LG air conditioners from Infox (the same store in the video) which were installed by an LG certified installer. They have worked fine for nearly a year. It is easy to find unqualified workers in Panama, but I can't imagine that anyone would actually hire someone not certified by the manufacturer to install something that expensive.
I for one feel extremely sorry for that old man because almost the same happened to me with FRIOLIN SEGUNDO. I bought an air conditioner from them but they told me that "they do not do installations; they just sell the units". As a result I had to hire an independant installer. One month later the machine did not work anylonger. The installer said that the machine was still under guarantee but FRIOLIN SEGUNDO claimed that it was wrongly installed and therefore they did not recognize the manufacturer's warranty.
If you go to his youtube page he lists all his grievances over 3 videos. he is a man that has come from a culture where you generally can trust the advice you get from people you meet and won't be over charged or messed about, and he has moved to a country where you take your chances a lot of the time. He is also from a generation which would walk into shops and just ask for what he wanted and he would expect to get the service and advice he needed without problems. He would be told the right goods to buy and he would accept sales people at their word. But the culture he comes from also has a lot of cowboy builders and tradesmen, so he should know better.
To be fair, anywhere in the world you could be unlucky like he has been. including his country of origin. But he needs to take responsibility for himself and not be so trusting of people's advice and think more for himself. I can't help but have a little sympathy for him but he did choose Panama and he ought to know not to pay over the odds for things. His behaviour outside the shop is reminiscent of a british farmer that sprayed slurry over a building after a complaint fell on deaf ears. Sometimes old people just become very reactionary. There is probably room for a business out in Panama to provide lifestyle advice and management for the pensionados, if there isn't already.
I Had A Similar Problem: A couple of years ago I was doing a remodel on a new apartment. I went to Do It Center and purchased all of the stuff we needed - a new large refrigerator, washer and dryer, on-demand hot water heater, and four Samsung air conditioning units. However, since the work was still underway in the apartment, the AC units sat in boxes in one of the bedrooms until we were ready to install them. I had my AC guy come over and do the work, and at that time we discovered that one of the units was damaged and not working. It could be repaired, but I tried to get a new one. Do It Center explained that more than 30 days had passed since i purchased the unit so they would not do an exchange or a refund. I tried to get them to change their minds but they dug in their heels and refused. Anyway, I eventually just had my guy repair the unit and it's been working fine ever since.
Use Authorized Technicians: I now know for new equipment and new installations it is critically important to use installation technicians that are authorized by that store or brand. If you don't then the manufacturers will use this trick every time to declare your warranty as invalid. If that happens, I guess you can go back to the store and chop your AC units up with an ax if that will make you feel better, but it won't change the company's policy. Once the unit has been working for a few years and the warranty expires, and for regular cleaning and maintenance, this becomes less important.