The Social Security website has a pretty cool feature that shows you popular baby names for each year. It also has another cool feature that shows you how particular names have changed over time. Different names fluctuate in popularity over the years.

For example, when I was born, back in 1981, Alexander was the 70th most popular name for boys born that year. It is pretty damn cool to see how that has changed in the years since. For 2009 it is the 4th most popular name! Wow! Obviously I did much to popularize the name.

Since I’m a bit of a geek, I put the information into a graph:

It grew in popularity every single year from 1981 to 1993. Then held flat at 20-22nd through the rest of the 90’s. Then in 2001 is started to climb even further till finally, last year, peaking at the 4th most popular name in America! I’m such a trend setter! Here is the raw data:

1981 - 70th
1982 - 65th
1983 - 63rd
1984 - 54th
1985 - 50th
1986 - 41st
1987 - 37th
1988 - 34th
1989 - 32nd
1990 - 28th
1991 - 26th
1992 - 23rd
1993 - 21st
1994 - 22nd
1995 - 21st
1996 - 22nd
1997 - 22nd
1998 - 22nd
1999 - 21st
2000 - 20th
2001 - 20th
2002 - 15th
2003 - 16th
2004 - 15th
2005 - 12th
2006 - 12th
2007 - 11th
2008 - 6th
2009 - 4th

Check this link to track your own name.

http://netdugout.com/nocal/2010/06/03/open-letter-to-bud-selig/

An Open Letter to Bud Selig

Commissioner Selig,

I have nothing but good words for you almost across the board. You have been one of the best Major League Baseball Commissioner in the history of the game. You will probably get yourself a place in Cooperstown one day. You have done some great things not only strictly for baseball, but for the city and surrounding communities of Milwaukee. Making the decision that I believe is called for will most likely pale in comparison to many other things that you have done in life. I do believe that it is a decision that must be made though.

All that I ask is that you give a young man his place in history. A young man that earned that place. Only twenty other men have reached Perfection. If it is not the most pristine individual accomplishment in baseball it is certainly one of them. There is a longer list of Presidents than there is of pitchers that have been perfect for nine innings. This game is called America’s. America has always been about earning what you get and getting what you earn. What are you going to do sir? Armando Galarraga earned it. You cannot dispute that. I have not mentioned instant replay. I have not berated Mr. Joyce. None of those things are called for. They call it the human factor for a reason. Humans make mistakes. Whether I agree with it or not, any change in direction on instant replay or anything like it will come to late for Galarraga. He is what this is about. Make the history books reflect reality. Please make the right choice.

Micah McCurry
netdugout.com/nocal.com

I couldn’t agree more. The call was ridiculous and needs to be overturned.

Just shocking and heart breaking. Fix this Selig.

I found this hilarious. Some random candidate in Gordon Brown’s constituency took his spot right behind the podium and stood there for the entire time he was speaking (and the previous person announced the results) with his dark sunglasses on and his fist raised.

Who is this man? Did Galen make it to the UK?

I have been following the UK election pretty closely for an American and I am fascinated. The seeming collapse of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Labour Party, the resurgence of the Conservatives, and the meteoric rise of Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats after being a perennial also-ran. The drama of having a three-way race and all the implications and possibilities it creates have captivated me. For years third parties in this country have claimed that if they were just allowed to participate in the debates they’d finally get their message heard and be taken seriously by the voters. Nick Clegg’s stunning victory in the first UK election debate certainly makes a strong case for it.

One trouble, though, is while some polls have the Liberal Democrats at 2nd in the popular vote (after the first debate some were even showing 1st) they almost certainly will be in third when it comes to the number of seats in the House of Commons. Britain, like the US, has a first-past-the-post election system. This system has always doomed the viability of a third party and part of the reason why electoral reform is a top priority for the Liberal Democrats.

What is exciting about this election is not the one-time presence of a vocal, active third party, but the possibility for lasting change to the British system. Proposals have been floated by all three parties for having an elected House of Lords, an initiative process, a way to recall unpopular or corrupt MPs, having a written constitution (only 220 years late guys), proportional representation, instant run-off voting (called the alternative vote there), fixed-term parliaments, reducing the size of parliament, and, what is most exciting for me, lowering the voting age to 16.

Both the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party have come out in favor (or perhaps “favour”) of lowering the voting age to 16 in UK elections. Austria, parts of Germany & Switzerland, and even parts of the UK (Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey) have already lowered their voting ages to 16. It is an issue that has been up for active discussion here in the United States as well, but has never really taken off.

It may be easy for us to ignore Austria or the tiny island of Guernsey, but if the United Kingdom, our long estranged then reconciled mother country, were to go 16 nationwide? We would have to sit up and pay attention. 16 and 17 year old high school students going to the polls and casting ballots that decide the fate of a nation? Yes, it could soon happen and it would actually be welcome news both for young people and for democracy.

Back in the days when we broke from our aforementioned mother country, our forefathers ranted and raved about taxation without representation. It wasn’t just an effective slogan, it was a valid complaint about relations between the government and its citizens (or, I suppose, subjects). To take money out of someone’s pocket without giving them a voice as to how much or what it is spent on is as tyrannical a concept today as it was in 1776. The trouble is both our countries continue to do it today. Young people have jobs and pay taxes (billions in fact) but have zero say about it.

Not only are young people paying billions in tax, they are also paying into Social Security, a system which may or may not be there when they get older. Most teens I’ve talked to would like to see something done about this faltering program, but our elected officials are pretty content to just keep things the way they are and not rock the boat. Of course their voters are all old enough that they’ll get theirs, so what do they care about their kids and grandkids? Frankly the selfishness of our elders seems to be a defining characteristic of our politics nowadays. Will there be a planet left for our grand children? Who cares, SUVs for everyone! Will there be an economy left for our kids? Who cares, trillion dollar deficits for all!

When young people can’t vote, they don’t have a say in the policies that affect their lives. War, the economy, government spending, the environment, health care, and everything else will continue to hurt their interests if they don’t have a voice. If they don’t have a vote.

Critics say that young people lack the maturity, experience and intelligence necessary to vote. Considering the selfish, short-sighted policies our elders vote for time and time again, are we really going to be foolish enough to call this mature? Somewhere around a third of Democrats believe Bush was behind 9/11 and somewhere around a third of Republicans believe Obama isn’t a US citizen. Are we really calling these voters intelligent?

Frankly with the rancorous debate that has crippled Washington for years, having some fresh eyes on the problems we face and fresh voters not wedded to biter partisanship like our elders, lowering the voting age can only make things better. I certainly am looking forward to trying and look forward to the United Kingdom leading the way.

The Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party both support lowering the voting age to 16 (as well as smaller parties in Scotland, Wales, and the Greens). Because of the electoral system it is unlikely the LibDems will have enough seats to form the government themselves, but it is looking increasingly likely there will be a “hung parliament’ and no party will have a majority of the seats. If that is the case the Liberal Democrats could play kingmaker in this election, throwing their support to the Conservatives or Labour. If they go with Labour it seems almost certain that within the next 2-3 years we will see our friends across the pond lower their voting age to 16.

This is an exciting time for people on either side of the Atlantic and a watershed election for us all.

I got a rare 500 Internal Server Error while trying to view something on YouTube just now and figured I’d take a screen shot. Interesting first of all to see that on YouTube, a generally reliable site. Interesting also their clever “A team of highly trained monkeys has been dispatched to deal with this situation.” And interesting finally because of the long string of nonsense at the end. Is that part of the joke too? Or is that actually helpful for them?

Spotted a very interesting post over at the Institute for Democratic Education in America. It started as a response to the following comment:

I used to direct an after-school program, which was housed in a public school classroom, and I tried to implement a democratic meeting with my middle school students (a diverse group in terms of race and family income). As well-intentioned as I was, the students didn’t respect me as a leader because I was offering them decision-making power. They seemed so used to an authoritarian school day that they didn’t know what to do with an unexpected dose of freedom. It was also just a drop in the bucket compared to the way they spent the majority of their time. How would you have handled this situation?
- Redwood City, CA

Jonah Canner responded to the above scenario with an excellent post about how we are all democratic by nature, even little kids respond to each other democratically while playing, and it is school that imposes an authoritarian structure upon us. The following years stuck in school become a long, tired battle between authority and resistance to it. With all the harm that school does it is hard to reverse it over night, it is hard also to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of that ongoing battle of authority and resistance. Especially when you don’t seem to fit easily into expected roles. I definitely encourage you to click the link and read the post. It was an insightful response.

But since I’m a bit of a jerk, I’m gonna offer up an alternative, less supportive response to the fella from Redwood City. I personally wonder if the way democracy was introduced to the students played a role. The initial comment was light on detail, but I can picture a few ways things went bad.

He/she said “I tried to implement a democratic meeting.” I’m not an educator and I don’t have much direct experience in running after-school programs or classrooms, but trying to see things through the student’s eyes I can imagine an adult coming into the room and saying “ok kids, now we’re going to do a democratic meeting” as being viewed no different from “ok kids, now we’re gonna do geometry.”

It is still an adult coming in and imposing a set of rules and guidelines on you. Still an adult telling you how things are going to be. Still an adult hoping you fit into their expectations and parameters. In my school days there were plenty of instances when the teacher would try to shake things up by doing an activity or group project or some other “fun” activity. The teachers no doubt thought to themselves, “Aren’t I an innovative, creative teacher? I’m making them draw a picture instead of write an essay.” The artistic kids liked it, but for the rest of us it was just one more piece of drudgery, the only difference is the teacher wanted credit for “thinking outside the box.”

The idea of an adult coming in and trying to implement democracy in a setting that has known only authoritarianism seems somewhat like the US invading an authoritarian nation to make them democratic. The intentions are pure, but it seems to me that true, authentic democracy can’t be given to someone or imposed upon them. It only works when it bubbles up from below.

Also, and here there are parallels to the mideast as well, if we give someone freedom and democracy, what happens if they don’t use their freedom in a way we like? The initial writer said, “they didn’t know what to do with an unexpected dose of freedom.” Obviously we don’t know exactly what happened, but what if they knew exactly what to do with a dose of freedom and it just wasn’t what the writer expected them to do with it?

Adult - Ok, we’re going to change things up today. Instead of me standing up here telling you guys what to do, I’m gonna let you guys have control. You can decide what we learn and accomplish today. You are free to decide.

Adults - Now, now, that’s not what I meant.

It seems the adult here had pretty clear parameters in mind. One of which was pretty clear from the paragraph:

the students didn’t respect me as a leader because I was offering them decision-making power.

So you were expecting them to greet you as a liberator? You wanted them to make decisions, but still wanted to be the leader? The success of letting them make decisions is dependent upon how much they respect you? What if the first decision they reached was to decide they didn’t like you very much? (sorry, happens to the best of us) I can’t imagine President Obama telling us, “Ok, guys, I let you vote, I let you decide your political future, but all you crazy tea party folks really don’t respect me, I guess this democracy thing isn’t working out.”

Again, I don’t know all the details and I feel bad calling out someone who seems to have good intentions, but democracy is messy. Freedom is messy. It rarely turns out like we want it to. Despite my cutting him down, I can totally sympathize with the writer. You try to do something really nice for someone and they spit in your face. It sucks. But whether or not you get the recognition and respect you deserve, it is still worth it for youth to make decisions. Even, and dare I say it, especially decisions you don’t agree with. If they aren’t able to make decisions that to you are absurd, ridiculous, and stupid, then they don’t really have the ability to make decisions in the first place. You are just asking them whether they want Coke or Pepsi, or whether they want to draw a picture or write an essay. Giving them a constrained field of pre-approved choices or outcomes to pick between isn’t true choice and isn’t true democracy.

So don’t get frustrated. Keep at it. But make sure that whatever democracy exists in your program it is created by the students, otherwise it’ll be empty and they’ll realize it. If, after all that, they still don’t like you very much? Well I guess that’s just politics. Just think of yourself as someone trying to provide healthcare only to find people demanding to see your birth certificate. Ain’t pretty, but that’s democracy, and believe it or not, it is worth fighting for.

A census worker I know had this to report about the waste and inefficiency in government:

Why is it that, whenever some politician yaks about wasteful government spending, they fuss over some wretched little lump of pork in the latest bill? Oh yeah, because the real problem is much more boring. But still:

When I was recruited as a census clerk, I had to go through about ten hours of training. All of it was worthless, pertaining only to the Recruiting Assistants who were also in my class. What little pertained to my job could have been learned much more effectively in ten minutes hands-on. I was one of five clerks taking that training at about $10/hr, plus a new tech officer who presumably earns considerably more, and the assistant manager who had to teach us probably earned the same amount. Result, well over a thousand dollars in tax money spent NOT DOING A DAMNED THING USEFUL.

Upon hiring, I was assigned to recruiting, a rather busy operation given that our office wants about six thousand applicants in the space of a year. The applicants are signed up over the phone to take the mandatory test. We write down their names on paper and stick them in binders. Binders, FFS. If the CEO of a non-government agency in the middle of a massive recruiting drive found his people in charge scribbling notes in binders in the year 2010, I assume he would axe several people and get a sensible database to keep track of all this. I imagine we could buy and set up a reasonable dedicated system for the cost of not-training ten clerks. But we don’t, so we have problems with people getting signed up for canceled testing sessions, five sessions with two people each on the same damned day, etc.

Less than a month ago, my office got an order from Philadelphia (the higher office) that I-9 identity forms are no longer to be stored with applicants’ other paperwork. We have about 2500 applicants, but okay. We went through all the folders, taking about 15 man-hours to separate the I-9s and alphabetize them. Sometime this week, a second order came down that I-9s are now to be stored with the other paperwork. Yay!

There are many more examples if for some reason you want them, but my point is, if this kind of crap is found throughout the federal government (and my fed retiree dad assures me it is), we could probably get by on two-thirds of our present budget by just not acting all ex-governor-of-Alaska’d. We’re bleeding money from a million tiny cuts, not to mention the absurd hiring process that all but ensures incompetents will be hired.

This stuff isn’t sexy, but I think it is the number one thing to cut the size and cost of government. People of either party has a sense that government doesn’t work. One side really wants it to work, the other not as much, but both generally recognize the problem. This is something that would appeal to all.

Even I, as someone who hates the size and scope of government, when looking at programs and departments as large chunks don’t have any very clear ideas on what to cut. Lots of things that philosophically I’d like to cut, but practically see their use and can’t imagine the steps it would take to get rid of them politically and replace them with some private entity.

This is the same reason when any semi-sensible politician proposes cuts they are talking about cutting programs that are tiny portions of the budget. Obama’s “spending freeze” that won’t really affect that much. Or McCain’s pledge to cut pork, which again isn’t a huge part of the budget.

If you can’t lop off giant things like social security, or the defense department, then you need to do what you can to make them efficient and cut the every day waste the guy talked about that bloat these big ticket items larger and larger.

The trouble is just the sheer size. I don’t think the private sector is immune. Dave formerly worked for an environmental non-profit with like a $30-50 million budget. He is always impressed with how much less crap we have to worry about as a small, streamlined two-man shop than the countless hoops and bureaucracy he had at the environmental group. Scaling up to the US Federal Government is worse by several more degrees.

The guys at the top can’t see to the bottom since there are too many layers of middle-men between and the people at the bottom who may recognize the problem don’t have any power to do anything about it.

So how to untangle this web of inefficiency?

According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the town I grew up in, Holland, MI is the second best city in the nation! (even though they lumped in those losers from Grand Haven) I haven’t lived there in 10 years, but I still make it back twice a year. I’m always surprised to hear anything about my little hometown (though the population figure below makes it sound bigger than it is) that makes national news.

The index is based on “interviews with more than 353,000 Americans during 2009, asked individuals to assess their jobs, finances, physical health, emotional state of mind and communities.” More info in USA Today.

I know the economy is hurting back home, and of the different categories cities are ranked on, Holland is only 31st in “work experience”, but it is still damn impressive! I guess everywhere is hurting, so while it can be kind of depressing seeing all the closed up stores in Holland now compared to a few years ago, it isn’t doing all that bad compared to everywhere else. But what is cool though is that despite the jobs situation back home people still have a better quality of life than anywhere else in the country besides Boulder, CO.

This bit is also interesting:

Overall, the top 10 cities include four in California, two in Utah and one each in Colorado and Hawaii. Of them, only the Holland, Mich., and Washington, D.C., metro areas are located in the Eastern or Central time zones.

I’ve spent most of my life in the two best cities in this half of the nation. Boy, don’t I know how to pick ‘em? DC is #8. Go DC! Go Holland! Yay!!

The top 10:

Boulder, CO 293,161
Holland-Grand Haven, MI 260,364
Honolulu, HI 905,034
Provo-Orem, UT 540,820
Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA 466,741
Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA 405,396
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 1,819,198
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 5,358,130
Ogden-Clearfield, UT 531,488
Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA 797,740

In early November, NYRA’s project, the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth were invited to speak at the North Carolina conference of the Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA). IECA is a trade organization representing educational consultants, many of whom refer parents (and their teens) to abusive behavior modification programs. These referrals constitute a major pipeline into dangerous, abusive and emotionally destructive programs. Despite their unusually hostile reception, it is admirable they invited CAFETY to their conference.

Reports indicate the debate was one of the most discussed and highest profile events of their conference. It was definitely an event that put CAFETY and all of us opponents of abusive behavior modification programs on the radar of educational consultants. For those interested in it, IECA described the debate.

One of the most interesting parts of the debate centered on the question of the age of medical consent. Washington state requires that all individuals 13 and up consent to medical treatment. This law, as best we can tell, has had a major impact on reducing or eliminating abusive programs in Washington state and limiting the number of Washington state youth sent to programs in other states. As people debate the benefits of regulating the residential treatment industry (especially with HR 911 on the table), medical consent is a law that NYRA, CAFETY and others have thought of as an ideal, youth rights-centered way to reduce or eliminate the harm of the troubled teen industry. I am glad to see it be a major topic of discussion at the IECA conference.

Obviously this idea wasn’t discussed without some controversy or opposition. One member of the panel, Lon Woodbury, an educational consultant and well known advocate of teen behavior modification, was especially critical of the idea of medical consent. He followed up last month with an essay using teen brain research to blast the medical consent idea:

It is our job as a society to protect our children! Giving them rights before they are able to responsibly handle them does no service to children, especially those who like to “live on the edge.” We need to rethink the whole question of children’s rights in light of research on the functioning of the adolescent brain.

I am not in the least surprised to see Woodbury make an argument in defense of residential treatment using brain science. One common theme I’ve seen in my exposure to the residential treatment world is the tendency to invalidate one’s own experiences. Your views, your conceptions of yourself, your hopes and desires are declared wrong in a program. The only one who can tell you what is real or true is the program itself. NYRA board member and CAFETY President Brian Lombrowski talks about breaking kids down and building them up again from scratch in the program’s image.

This style of “treatment” flows quite naturally when your conception of youth is that they do not have the maturity, reasoning, or brain faculties to understand themselves, their lives and their desires. When you assume they are incapable of thinking for themselves or looking out for themselves it is easy for parents to conclude their kids are lying when they call home with tales of abuse. It is far easier as well for society to excuse abuse if it is done in the name of trying to help.

Our concept of “human” is that of a rational, sentient animal. When we picture youth as inherently irrational then we don’t fully regard them as human. When we don’t fully regard them as human than all manner of abuse and mistreatment will occur. Regardless of how benign our intentions may be.

It is very important for advocates in this field to stop and think about why the victims of this industry are all young. Surely adults have mental health issues and need treatment as well. Why aren’t they forced into similar abusive programs?

Because they have rights and the ability to consent.

The entire reason this industry exists is because young people have neither. The existence of the residential treatment industry is a symptom of our wider devaluation of young people and their capacity. I did not go to medical school but I understand treating symptoms is not the ideal way to address problems.

We could (and absolutely should) enact additional safeguards, oversight, and regulation of these programs (i.e. HR 911) but ultimately these changes won’t solve the problem. We can invent (and programs surely will) kinder/gentler ways to strip down one’s humanity, we can invent physical restraints that are less likely to cause death and injury, we can take the rough edges of the facilities we lock up our children in, but they will still be locked up.

The juvenile justice system was created to offer a kinder, more understanding alternative to adult jails. In many cases residential treatment positions itself as a kinder, more understanding alternative to the juvenile justice system. We can invent new alternative systems today, but have we really made much progress?

CAFETY board member, Dr. Charles Huffine, MD takes issue with Woodbury’s interpretation of brain science:

It is not just Woodbury, there seems to be gross misunderstanding of how to interpret the research. I want you all to keep in mind that the frontal lobe immaturity shows up in high emotive situations! That is why juvenile crime is adjudicated differently - most crimes by juveniles are committed in a state of fear, excitement, being overwhelmed, shame, anxiety, etc. In calm circumstances the data shows that youth at least by 14 can make as valid a consent as an 18 yr old or 25 yr. old.

Dr. Huffine is correct. Youth DO have the ability to consent and understand their decisions. Will they always make the right decisions? Of course not. Neither do adults. Yet somehow our society survives allowing adults to make wrong decisions. Even though, as parents & bread winners, their poor decisions have far more of an impact on others than the decisions of teens.

I think though that most youth, most of the time, will make mostly good decisions. The same as adults. I think that is the most we can or should hope for. As Dr. Huffine said, science does suggest that. In fact I have a study that examines youth (some of whom are quite young) who make competent, mature end-of-life choices. I can’t imagine a more stressful, important decision a person could make than one involving their own death. It is worth a read.

Social values precede and inform the science that we do regarding young people. Our social values do not regard young people very highly. This has an enormous impact on research, and an even bigger impact on our understanding of that research. Research done on women or blacks in the 1890s is far different than research done today. I’m sure we are all aware that homosexuality was considered a disorder by the AMA for some time.

These social values which limit our understanding of youth not only cause us to restrict their ability to make decisions, they cause us to restrict the information that allows them to make decisions. The alcohol issue makes this problem plain. Due to our much vaunted research we have determined that young people cannot responsibly handle alcohol. So not only do we pass laws that stop them from drinking, we restrict their ability to learn about drinking. Our only official form of alcohol education is based on stirring up fear over how deadly, dangerous and harmful alcohol is and instructing youth to stay away. Now, after taking away all balanced, useful information through abstinence-only education we confirm our poor impressions of youth decision making when they do, in fact, make poor, uninformed decisions. Thus we feel more confident in their inability to make sound decisions and the cycle continues.

Our ability to understand what young people truly want and need is colored by many factors and is far from perfect. Instead of asserting that we know what is best for youth and invalidate the thoughts and feelings of youth like so many programs we oppose, we should trust them as people, as humans, and as equals to make the soundest decisions possible with the information they have at hand. Our role therefore should be to give them all the information available and all the honest support, understanding and friendship they desire to help them make quality decisions.

BCS DECLARES GERMANY WINNER OF WORLD WAR II
US Ranked 4th

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

“Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work–including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule–our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking.”

Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated “The US only had two major victories– Japan and Germany . The computer models, unlike humans, aren’t influenced by head-to-head contests–they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event.”

German Chancellor Adolph Hiter said “Yes, we lost to the US ; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks.” Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn ’style points’ to enhance Germany ’s rankings. Hitler protested “Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional forces.”

The French ranking has also come under scrutiny. The BCS commented ” France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking they only fell to #2.”

Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines .