USPS Get Back In Your Swim Lane!

I do not deny Congress’ power, under Article I, Section 8, to “establish post offices”, but I was quite surprised to receive the following notice in my mailbox today, especially given the fact that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is running an annual deficit of over ten BILLION dollars:

It’s not the fact that I live in an apartment and my unrestrained dog (if I had one) would have to get through my front door, down the hall, into the elevator, down the elevator, off the elevator, then through two additional doors to even get to where the mail is delivered that I’m mostly upset about (although that did strike me as terribly funny when I originally read the notice).  What really upsets me is that, given their woeful financial state, “National Dog Bite Prevention Week” is even an issue at the USPS.

If dog bites to postal workers were causing significant financial losses to the USPS, then I could understand their investment in thousands (or possibly millions) of notices.  But they’re not.  By their own admission, my area didn’t even make it on to the list of “Fiscal Year 2011 Top 25 Dog Attack Rankings”, meaning there were less than 15 dog attacks in fiscal year 2011.

Further, although approximately 4.7 million people are bitten annually, “[c]hildren are the majority of victims and are 900 times more likely to be bitten than letter carriers.”  Since children account for approximately 50% of dog bites, that gives us:

children = 0.50 * 4,700,000 = 2,350,000 bites

children = 900 * mail carriers

mail carriers = children / 900

mail carriers = 2,350,000 / 900 =  2,611 bites

In 2011, there were 228,160 delivery routes, which for the purpose of this rough approximation should mean approximately 228,160 mail carriers.  This means that for any one mail carrier (averaged across all mail carriers, obviously it’s a bit lower for my mail carrier, given the challenges for a dog in my building) over the course of the entire year, their chance of being bitten by a dog was 1.14%.  And that’s not the chance of an injury-causing bite.  That’s the chance of any bite.  Only about 1.7% of all bite victims end up with injuries bad enough to send them to the emergency room.

There is a place for National Dog Bite Prevention Week in local communities.  It is not a bad idea.  Local daycares, preschools, and elementary schools can teach children the principles of “Wait, Ask, Invite, Touch“.  Local businesses that regularly access properties where dogs might be can send out emails (after all, it’s in the best interest of their bottom line to keep their employees safe) or leave printed notices.  Local agencies, especially Animal Control Officers, can alert citizens about the consequences of badly behaved and unrestrained pets during registration.  All of these things make good sense for the community.  Having the USPS spend money it doesn’t have on something that isn’t its responsibility does not.

What Is The Cost Of Your DREAM?

Let us consider the fictional case of Jennifer, who was born in the equally fictional country of Faraway in 1994 and brought to the United States illegally by her parents in 1996.  She will soon graduate from high school and turn 18.  She is an excellent student and is graduating in the top five percent of her high school class from a public school in Montgomery County, Maryland, where her family has lived for as long as she can remember.

First, let us approximate how much Montgomery County spent educating Jennifer from kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Montgomery County’s fiscal year 2011 operating budget was $2.104 billion dollars.  Assuming Jennifer has no special needs, and given that 80.4% of that amount was spent on instruction and that there were 144,064 students, (and assuming that approximately the same amount of money was spent to instruct each student) we find that $11,742 was spent on Jennifer:

$2,104,000,000 * 0.804 / 144,064 = $11,742

Montgomery County’s budget in previous years was likely less, but when we adjust those budgets to 2011 dollars it stands to reason that the above number is a reasonable average for the annual amount spent on Jennifer.  This means that the total amount spent by Montgomery County on Jennifer’s public education was:

$11,742 * 13 = $152,646

But wait!  Surely Jennifer’s parents offset this amount somewhat through property taxes, even if they were paid by proxy through rent paid to their landlord.  And you are correct.  Let us assume that Jennifer’s parents were paying $1500 per month rent (adjusted to today’s dollars), that their landlord was paying property tax on $300,000 annually, and that 100% of that property tax went to cover Jennifer’s public school costs:

$300,000 * 16 (years) * 0.009590 (property tax rate) = $46,032

So our generous calculation has Jennifer’s parents covering less than one-third of her public school education costs (and we have been assuming that she is an only child).  Jennifer has, so far, received over $100,000 in public education benefits (no different, one might argue, than any other child in the United States, but remember, Jennifer is different).

But Jennifer has a DREAM!  She feels that because she has lived her whole life in Maryland, knows no other home than the United States, speaks no other language than English, and feels alienated from the Farawian culture, that she is entitled to pay in-county tuition at a Montgomery County community college.  Before we consider the cost to the County of allowing Jennifer to pursue her DREAM, let’s take a moment to meet Jeremy, also born in Faraway in 1994.  Jeremy’s family stayed in Faraway and he is also graduating this year.  He has also worked hard, is graduating in the top five percent of his class, speaks fluent English, and would like to attend class this fall at a community college in Montgomery County, Maryland.  Here are the costs that Jennifer and Jeremy would have to pay (for 15 credit hours) if Jennifer’s DREAM comes true:

Jennifer:  $2,226

Jeremy:  $5,862

The difference for the state to fundone semesterof Jennifer’s DREAM is $3,636, and Jennifer’s DREAM is only to attend community college.  For now.  Remember, Jennifer and Jeremy are both citizens of Faraway.  They are both top students at their high schools.  They both speak fluent English.  The only difference between them is that Jennifer’s parents have been enabling her to break the law for the last sixteen years.  I support dreams, but in a world full of dreamers Jennifer should be willing to pay just as much for her DREAM as Jeremy.

First, They Came For The Nutella

This week Ferrero, maker of Nutella, agreed to pay over three million dollars when they settled two separate class-action lawsuits (one in California and another covering the rest of the United States):

“The complaint is that this ad and others like it play up the healthiness of  the breakfast those adorable kids are eating, while neglecting to mention that the few tablespoons of Nutella on their toast contains 200 calories, 11 grams of  fat (3.5 grams saturated) and 21 grams of sugar,” commented Consumerist.com. “That’s comparable to a Three Musketeers candy bar.”

Ferrero has agreed to change its marketing campaign, modify the Nutella  label, modify certain marketing statements about Nutella, create new television  ads, and change the Nutella website.

Shoppers who bought Nutella between Jan. 1, 2008, and Feb. 3, 2012 (Aug. 1,  2009, and Jan. 23, 2012 if you live in California) can file a claim and join the  class action, according to the official notice from the company.

Here is the commercial to which the previous excerpt refers:

And here is an excerpt from the actual complaint:

8. Nutella is deceptively marketed, advertised, and sold to Plaintiff and the other Class members as a “healthy” and “nutritious” food.

9. The central message of Defendant’s marketing and advertising is that Nutella is a “wholesome” food product and can be served as part of a “balanced” and “nutritious breakfast.”

10. In Nutella’s marketing and advertising, Defendant omits that the nutritional value claimed, if any, is not derived from Nutella, but is instead derived from other foods or drinks (e.g., whole grain breads, fruit and milk) which are advertised to be consumed along with Nutella.

11. Defendant’s claims regarding Nutella are false and misleading because they omit that Nutella contains high levels of saturated fat, the consumption of which has been shown to increase the blood cholesterol levels. High levels of cholesterol have been shown to increase one’s risk of hardening of the arteries, heart attack and stroke.

12. Defendant’s claims regarding Nutella are also false and misleading because they omit that Nutella contains over 55% processed sugar, the consumption of which has been shown to cause type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems.

13. Indeed, the serving size, 2 tablespoons, contains 200 calories, 11 grams of fat — 3.5 of which are saturated fat (18% of your daily recommended value) — and 21 grams of sugar.

Setting aside for a moment the fact that all of the nutritional information above was plainly available to the plaintiff on the label, let’s take a look at how these numbers compare with some other breakfast foods.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch, for example, is advertised in the following commercial as “part of this good breakfast” (the image shows a bowl of cereal, an orange, and a glass of milk):

Here is the nutrition label for Cinnamon Toast Crunch:

And just so we’re completely clear, the serving size is 3/4 cup.  Here’s what 3/4 cup of Cinnamon toast crunch looks like in a bowl:

Since it would takeat leasttwo servings to come anywhere close to filling the bowl, there is a minimum of 20 grams of sugar and 260 calories in a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (without milk).

And what about all that saturated fat in Nutella?  One whole hard-boiled egg has 5 grams of fat and 2 grams of saturated fat, meaning that a serving of Nutella has about the same amount of fat as two eggs (without the cholesterol), not an unreasonable breakfast by most standards.

Is Nutella a “healthy” breakfast by itself?  Most people would probably agree that the answer is no (just as they would probably agree that nothing but eggs or Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast is not “healthy”).  Ferrero, however, went out of its way to show what does make a healthy breakfast, both in the commercial and on the label:

Any reasonable consumer should be able to figure out that the thing made out of chocolate and sugar is making the breakfast “tasty” while the other items listed are making it “balanced”, which is what makes this entire class-action lawsuit laughable.  Then again, we live in a country where a certain fast food chain thinks we can’t we can’t tell the difference between chicken and kale, and we have a government that agrees.

If you have bought Nutella in the last four years and are disgusted by this settlement, or at a minimum think that consumers should have some responsibility to read nutrition labels, you can file an objection:

If you are a Settlement Class Member and do not request exclusion, you or your attorney on your behalf may object to the Settlement. Such objection must be in writing and must provide evidence that you are a Settlement Class Member. The procedures for submitting a written objection are identified below. A written and signed objection (and any support for it) must be filed with the Court and served on all of the following attorneys with a postmark no later than June 8, 2012:

[see link above for list of attorneys]

Any objection regarding or related to the Settlement Agreement shall contain a caption or title that identifies it as “Objection to Class Settlement in re Nutella Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation, Civil Action No. 3:11-cv-01086-FLW-DEA” and shall also contain information sufficient to identify the objecting Settlement Class Member, as well as a clear and concise statement of the Settlement Class Member’s objection, the facts supporting the objection, and the legal grounds on which the objection is based. If an objecting party chooses to appear at the hearing, then a notice of intention to appear, either in person or through an attorney, must be filed with the Court and list the name, address and telephone number of the attorney, if any, who will appear.

This is one class I definitely don’t want to be a member of.

BREAKING: Iowa Not Inherently Racist

I previously wrote about a class-action lawsuit against the state of Iowa alleging “implicit bias” (as opposed to overt racism) in their civil service hiring and promotion practices.  Although I focused on the fact that blacks are actually not underrepresented in government jobs as compared to census data, District Judge Robert Blink ultimately dismissed the lawsuit earlier this week specifically because of the implicit bias argument:

The case relied on the theory of implicit bias, which has received growing interest among employment lawyers after researchers developed the Implicit Association Test to test racial stereotypes. Their work has found an inherent preference for whites over blacks in about 70 percent of Americans, including among many who do not consider themselves racist.

 

University of Washington psychology professor Anthony Greenwald, who developed the test, testified on behalf of the plaintiffs that a similar percentage of Iowa managers likely had preferences for whites and that it could be a cause of hiring discrimination in Iowa.

 

Blink did not find the testimony persuasive. He said that Greenwald offered no data specific to Iowa and could not estimate what percentage of hiring decisions were the result of stereotyped thinking about blacks. The judge also said implicit bias “merely reflects attitudes” and did not mean discrimination occurred.

Thomas Newkirk, the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer, plans to appeal the decision.  In the mean time, Iowa has officially been declared a racism-free zone.

You Don’t Need Identification To Vote?

I recently found myself travelling alone on a fourteen-hour flight from Washington, DC to Tokyo.  I was seated next to another solo traveler, an Egyptian citizen who currently resides in northern Virginia.  (Marwan just joined Twitter, so please engage him there if you have any questions about the topic of conversation below.)  While talking about our children, he mentioned how wonderful he thought it was that his young son was being encouraged to vote at school (the specific example he mentioned was what type of decorations to use in the classroom), creating in the US what he felt was a “culture of voting.”  Marwan himself had made it a point to always vote in Egypt, “even when Mubarak was the only choice”, and discussed voting (at the Egyptian embassy) in the recent parliamentary elections as well as the upcoming presidential election.

At this point I could not resist the following line of questioning (paraphrased, of course, as I was not recording our friendly conversation):

Debbie:  Do all citizens have the right to vote in Egypt?

Marwan:  Yes.

D:  Are there non-citizen residents living in Egypt, like you currently live in Virginia?

M:  Yes, but not as many as in the US.

D:  So when it is time to vote, how do they know that only Egyptian citizens are voting?

M:  What do you mean?

D:  What would prevent someone living in Egypt who is not an Egyptian citizen from voting?

M:  Oh, we have to show our national identification cards.

D:  Did you know that in the US you do not have to show identification to vote?

M:  Really?

D:  Really.  (Below is a video from James O’Keefe and Project Veritas demonstrating that identification is not required when voting in Vermont.)

 

M:  Why not?

D:  Some people consider requiring identification to be racist.

M:  What?

D:  I’m sorry, I can’t explain it very well because almost everyone in Egypt is, well, Egyptian.  You come from a mostly homogenous society, so I realize the concept of an identification card being a form of racism doesn’t make much sense to you.  The basic argument, at least as far as I understand it, is this:  non-whites are more likely to be unable to afford identification, and therefore if identification is required to vote, then requiring identification to vote favors whites.  This argument is used even if identification is free, because there is an investment in time and transportation that, so the argument goes, still favors whites over non-whites when it comes to obtaining identification.

M:  Wow.

D:  Yeah.

It was very interesting to talk to someone about voter identification from such a unique perspective.  Please do not think I am advocating a US identification card.  The states are perfectly capable of providing identification for their respective citizens.  And (please don’t take offense Marwan) I’m certainly not holding Egypt up as an example of all things good in the world, I’m simply presenting the view on this issue of someone who takes their right to vote, albeit in another country, very seriously.

(Parental) R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y

I lettered in basketball, soccer and track in high school.  I never once rode in any coach’s personal vehicle.  Ever.  (In fact my most vivid memories are of long bus rides to, and especially from, athletic events on school buses with vinyl seats and no air conditioning.)  Which is why I am confounded that parents of four students at Homestead (Florida) Senior High School saw nothing wrong with their children riding in (what they thought was) the personal vehicle of a track coach to a meet in Gainesville, over 350 miles and six hours away.  What could possibly go wrong?  Maybe this:

Walter Chambliss, 26, was arrested after he was clocked driving 86 mph in a 70 mph zone on State Road 91 in Fort Pierce Friday, according to a Florida Highway Police report.

 

The report says Chambliss didn’t have his license on him. When he gave police his name and social security number, they noticed he had a number of suspensions for failing to pay tickets and failing to appear in court.

 

Chambliss wasn’t authorized to drive the rental car he and the students were in, so it was towed. Had the students not called their parents, they would have been stranded on the side of the road.

Even worse was their parents’ (in my opinion) entitled reaction when they found out about the incident.  Did they blame the coach for misleading them about this being a school-sponsored event when it wasn’t? (Or for speeding?  Or for driving with a suspended license?)  Did they blame themselves for not questioning why a school-sponsored track meet would have four students stuffed into a personal vehicle with a coach (rather than the whole team, or if only certain students qualified, a school or school district vehicle)?  No.  They blamed the police and the school (and one parent demanded counseling for the “traumatic” experience of his sixteen- and eighteen-year-old sons being brought to the next exit in separate vehicles):

 

Mr. Wilson says he was under the impression that this was a school field trip and tried to call the athletic director at Homestead Senior High to help bring the boys home.

“He said he didn’t know anything that was going on and offered me no assistance to get them back home,” said Mr. Wilson.

 

The boys say they were dropped off at a gas station where relatives arranged to pick them up.

 

“There were no district events on Friday or Saturday because of the Holiday. The trip was not sanctioned by the school or district,” Miami-Dade Public Schools said in a statement released Monday. “The assistant coach approached some parents and asked their permission to take the students.”

 

Chambliss said he took the students upstate as a mentor, not a school employee.

 

“The facts still remain, they have and they did leave the kids on the side of the road and didn’t try to get them back home,” said Clayrinski Wilson. He said he requested that his children speak to a school counselor about the traumatic experience, and said that request had not been fulfilled by Monday afternoon.

Mr. Wilson, just for the record, the school is not responsible for anything that happened to your sons, traumatic or not.  If you feel they need counseling, hire a therapist.  You’re their dad.  It’s your job.  It’s your R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y.

Where There’s Smoke There’s, Um, Smoke?

Last week (Tuesday, April 3, 2012, to be precise) I had the pleasure of enjoying an exhibition game between the Washington Nationals and the Boston Red Sox at Nationals Park with my mother and my son.  It was a beautiful day to be outside, but I did find it a bit annoying that the digital “scoreboard” could not be relied upon to show the actual score, or any other pertinent information about the game, at any given time.  To illustrate my point, take a look at this video demonstrating the capabilities of the scoreboard at Nationals Park (if you watch, or fast forward, to the end, the cameraman pans around the park showing that all of the video surfaces can be taken over, with no location dedicated to game information):

I knew I wasn’t the only one confounded by the lack of a scoreboard when I noticed that the gentleman in front of me had his iPad with him and was using it as a virtual scoreboard.  The only other negative on this otherwise lovely afternoon was the final play of the day, as the Nats trailed 8-7 in the bottom of the 9th, having come back from a 6-0 deficit:

Repko, playing in center, then threw out Ian Desmond to end the game, with catcher Daniel Butler applying the tag.

“I thought I was safe, but I’m healthy. That could have ended a lot worse. I was rounding third, I was just telling myself, `Hey, be careful. It’s not that important.’ Nothing against the catcher, but we’ve got nothing on the line out there,” Desmond said. “I think he was No. 81. No offense to him, but he wanted to block that plate, and I wasn’t really going to fight him for it, you know what I mean? During the season, it might be a little different.”

So my mother, ever the devoted Red Sox fan, got to gloat for the rest of the day week.  That’s OK.  My reward was a great day out with two of my favorite people and a reminder about something that I’ve been wanting to blog about for a while…

Back in February, it was “reported” (I use the term loosely as the language in the article I quote seems, in my opinion, a bit biased) in February that the Atlanta Braves were going to modify their new weekend alternate uniforms:

It was a complete no-brainer, but props to the Atlanta Braves for placing a new crossed tomahawk logo on the sleeve of their new weekend alternates. The cream-colored throwbacks — which the baseball world learned about a few weeks ago — are based on the uniforms that the team first wore after moving to Atlanta in the 1960s.

The jerseys of those less-enlightened times featured a savage on the sleeve and it’s a wonder that anyone ever thought the image was OK. The logo strips Native Americans of any humanity and turns them into a one-dimensional character devoid of any sympathy or tribute. It honestly might be the only defense that the few defenders of Cleveland’s Chief Wahoo have left. (“Well, it’s not as bad as what Atlanta used to have.”)

Now to be completely fair, this is not a throwback uniform, simply a uniform based on a design from 50 years ago, so arguments about authenticity aren’t really valid.  What are valid, however, are the reasons Atlanta originally chose to be the Braves.  One of the article’s commenters sums it up well:

The real throwback Indian looks mean, brave, and ready to fight…that’s what a sports team is SUPPOSED to be.  It’s not a patch that’s put on there to say “look at how silly we can make those stupid Indians look…how superior we are to them!”
I’m all for not offending people, but it can be taken too far.  It’s been taken too far here.

And just when you thought professional baseball couldn’t get any sillier or any more politically correct, well, they did (don’t despair, dear reader, this one just might have a happy ending).  Also reported this February:

The Astros are celebrating their 50th anniversary this season. And as you may recall, last September they announced that they’d be marking the occasion by wearing an assortment of throwback uniforms from throughout their history — including Colt .45s uniforms — for Friday home games.

…

“[T]he Astros will wear retro jerseys from past decades every Friday home game this year, starting with the Colt .45s (minus the pistol, which was deemed inappropriate to include on a uniform).”

Now, just for the record, here’s what a Colt .45s uniform looks like with and without the pistol:

As I said, though, this story may just have a happy ending.  In March, Houston announced they had reversed their decision:

After getting the go-ahead from Major League Baseball and receiving overwhelming support from fans, the Astros announced Friday they were keeping the pistol on the original Colt .45s logo that will be on the throwback uniforms they’ll wear twice this year as part of their 50th anniversary.

“We made this decision for a number of reasons,” Astros owner Jim Crane said in a statement. “We listened to our fans, who were almost unanimously in favor of wearing the original jersey. We wanted to honor all of our past uniforms during this special 50th anniversary season, and we felt it was important to be true to the tradition of the franchise.”

But wait.  There’s an even happier ending.  Yesterday, the Astros beat the Braves 8-3, at least temporarily putting the score at POLITICAL CORRECTNESS 0, HONORING OUR PAST 1.

I would love to have finished this post with the perfect happy ending, telling you that the Astros went on to beat the Braves in their Colt .45s uniforms, but alas, it was not to be.  They lost 6-4 today.  But at least the Braves weren’t wearing their near-throwbacks, and at least they’re still the Braves.