Not qualified to lead

A certified radiologic technologist is an important healthcare occupation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 212,490 CRTs employed nationwide in 2009. Median earnings in 2009 were $43,539 with the 75pct point on the occupation's national pay scale averaging $53,137. You may have met a few CRTs; they are employed mostly by hospitals and imaging centers. Preparatory education programs have trended towards bachelor's degrees in recent years but many CRTs have Associates degrees or non-degree certification, such as the Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer.

This makes Ms. Brewer the only Governor who lacks a college degree. CRT (and similar) training programs develop valuable technical skills (and Ms. Brewer may have been the best CRT in the history of medical imaging) but the critical thinking skills needed for effective political leadership are born only in rigorous degree programs offered by accredited institutions.

Ms. Brewer recently signed into law anti-immigration legislation that humiliated intelligent Arizonans and embarrassed the United States. She broadly fits the white-hate demographic - 62 years old, lacking higher education attainment. Is it any wonder that she was so easily manipulated by right-wing extremists to legalize racial profiling? The law was authored by Russell Pearce, a former sheriff's deputy with links to hate groups.

Pearce's checkered past includes an accusation of domestic violence and later dismissal from a state government post. Pearce attributed half of Arizona's homicides to illegal immigrants to prod public fear into support of his execrable law. Since law enforcement crime statistics do not include perpetrator immigration status, it's obvious the Pearce was lying through his teeth. Pearce's hatred of brown people extends to babies. Given his druthers, the criminalization of babies will scare most undocumented expectant mothers away from prenatal care. By voting in a bill written by Pearce, Arizona's political leadership has embraced baby cruelty as state policy. Needless to say, Pearce is also uneducated. Is it any wonder he pals around with Nazis like JT Ready?

Pearce claimed ignorance of Ready's Nazism after above photo was made public. Ready's unabashed racial invective has drawn attention from the Southern Poverty Law Center. According to the SPLC, Ready marched with neo-Nazi's in 2007 (above). This led Republican leaders to demand his ouster as Maricopa County GOP precinct committeeman. Ready's own final solution to immigration called for land mines along the border. Considering that Pearce has 35 years experience in law enforcement, his feigned ignorance of Ready's Neo-Nazism is ridiculous.

The SPLC reports that Ready has also maintained racist views in an online profile:

"Sporting his trademark star-spangled necktie, Jason "J.T." Ready is familiar to Phoenix, Ariz., residents, law enforcement officers and journalists as a City Council gadfly and oft-quoted member of the anti-immigration Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

Online, though, Ready is better known to the nearly 2,000 registered users of New Saxon, a newly popular white-supremacist social networking website, as "Viking Son." His self-created New Saxon profile displays photographs of Ready wearing a kilt, donning a bulletproof vest, and scouring the desert for "illegals" through a pair of binoculars. Ready lists his "turn-ons" as "a woman who loves our Race, Kultur, Heritage, History and Future," identifies the racist fantasy novel The Turner Diaries as his favorite book, and describes himself as a big fan of neo-Nazi teen pop duo Prussian Blue."

The SPLC provides additional background on Ready in profiles of 20 racist/extremists. Ready's includes this motto: "The Purity of the Aryan Race is the most precious resource Nature has to offer All of Humankind." The New Saxon website is an active tool of the National Socialist Movement (NSM). It's intentions remain undisguised.

The Columbia, Missouri Police Department prepared an insightful briefing on NSM before a "protest rally" at the University of Missouri. This excerpted page explains why NSM adherents make frequent reference to "88".

This post has only scratched the surface of a hate network beneath Arizona's new law. Ms. Brewer may or may not be an overt racist but her lack of education has enabled willful ignorance of legislative ties to groups that worship Hitler. Arizona's immigration law is founded on un-American principles. Her actions make it plainly obvious that Ms. Brewer is not qualified to lead.

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UPDATE Aug, 5, 2010: Utah gets a clue. Click here for an insightful analysis by The Economist.

Insidiously Evil

What is the most insidiously evil product ever devised?

Ralph Nader might claim it's this one, although he's a bit kooky and the book he wrote on this product, which vaulted him to fame & fortune, is based on questionable analysis:

TheRaven thinks that while video (may have) killed the radio star, TV is definitely hypnotizing the developed world into ultimately deadly inactivity. What is the #1 enabler of slow, sedentary death? Some examples:

A piece in the New York Times tosses TheRaven's old nemesis into our candidate pool. It turns out that some high-ranking military officials also hold this product in contempt. Here's an example of how otherwise intelligent people are led astray by the seductive charms of PowerPoint:

Click image to see full-size (you don't want to miss this)

Quoth Marine General James N. Mattis: “PowerPoint makes us stupid”

Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster says “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control”

(Click the image to see what General Stanley McChrystal has to say)

The overall concern among senior military staff is that PowerPoint "stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making".
  
T.X. Hammes wrote a withering attack on PowerPoint which was published in the Armed Forces Journal (http://www.afji.com/2009/07/4061641). He rightly disparages PowerPoint as a decision support tool and provides context by noting its value is as an instruction tool, drawing a clear line between the needs of decision-makers and those of students: It can be useful in situations it was designed to support — primarily, information briefs rather than decision briefs. For instance, it is an excellent vehicle for instructors. It provides a simple, effective way to share high-impact photos, charts, graphs, film clips and humor that illustrate a lecturer’s points. Here, the bullet can function as designed by providing a brief, simple outline of the speaker’s material that facilitates note-taking and even (one hopes) student retention. Yet even in a classroom setting, it is not appropriate for developing a deep understanding of most subjects. For that, additional reading is required. There is a reason students cannot submit a thesis in PowerPoint format.

  

An article appearing in the Small Wars Journal (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/07/print/draft-draft-draftpowerpoint-1/) cites a leading expert: Dr. Edward Tufte of Yale University, an expert on information presentation who has participated in the accident investigation of both Space Shuttles, wrote extensively on the misuse of PowerPoint slides in NASA during the accident investigation board. Tufte had considerable issues with one slide in particular. The slide shows a huge contradiction between the title, in large font, and the actual text of the bullet-points, which is in small text. The title of the slide downplays the extent of the potential damage to the Space Shuttle, while the small text in the bullets however, indicate that the damage to the shuttle could potentially be significant, which it was. Tufte notes that, as information was passed up the chain, important details were omitted—details which stressed the potential for extreme damage to the Columbia’s wing, and ultimately, resulted in its destruction upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

 

Notes Tufte: "As information gets passed up an organization hierarchy, from people who do analysis to mid-level managers to high-level leadership, key explanations and supporting information is fil­tered out. In this context, it is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation. At many points during its investigation, the Board was sur­prised to receive similar presentation slides from NASA offi­cials in place of technical reports. The Board views the endemic use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers as an illustration of the problematic methods of technical com­munication at NASA".

The report on organizational causes of Columbia's failure (http://anon.nasa-global.speedera.net/anon.nasa-global/CAIB/CAIB_lowres_chapter7.pdf) notes that: "...at every juncture....the Shuttle Program's structure and processes, and therefore the managers in charge, resisted new information." PowerPoint only served to exacerbate NASA's dysfunctional management culture and lives were lost as a direct result.

TheRaven concludes that while TV remote controls are killing us slowly, PowerPoint's corruption of critical decision-making qualifies it as a truly evil product, exemplified by its contribution to epic American disasters. If your decision-making process relies on PowerPoint presentations, beware.

  
The Times article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?scp=1&sq=powerpoint&st=cse