Toward the Virtue-Based Business School

My article "Toward the Virtue-Based Business School" is about to appear in the forthcoming issue of The Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies.  The editor, Oskar Gruenwald, is very imaginative, a great scholar and a very nice guy. Dr. Gruenwald describes The Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies as:

a forum for dialogue across the disciplines, integrating knowledge, ethics and faith in search of solutions to panhuman dilemmas.  A peer-reviewed trilingual thematic annual, JIS seeks a reassessment of all the arts and sciences.  JIS explores the interfaces between facts and values, knowledge and faith, science and religion, while affirming the autonomy and methodological imperatives of diverse disciplines. The need for interdisciplinary approaches as a key to reinvigorating and integrating both teaching and learning is increasingly recognized in the academy...


My paper argues for a comptency-based approach to business education rooted in virtue ethics. 

Golden Fleece at Golden Hill: Which Ulster County Legislators Have Conflicts of Interest?

Via E-mail and Snail Mail

Mr. Mike Hein

Ulster County Executive

 PO Box 1800

Kingston, NY 12402-1800

Dear Executive Hein:

There are rumors circulating in Ulster County that there are several county legislators whose relatives reside at the Golden Hill Nursing Home on which the legislature is to vote concerning a capital investment of about $1,500 per Ulster County household, that is, $100 million.  Legislators with conflicts of interest may not vote in the best interest of the Ulster County populace.  All legislators with conflicts of interest ought to be required to disclose their conflicts to the Ulster County Ethics Board.   This would include disclosure of whether they have family members, including great grandparents, grandparents, in-laws, aunts, uncles and/or domestic partners who are employees or residents of Golden Hill.

Sincerely,


Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Cc: Ulster County Board of Ethics

c/o County Executive's Office

PO Box 1800

Kingston, NY 12401

Change Obama Believes In

 I just received this from a friend. The British sinking to holocaust denial in their school curriculum is a good example of the kind of change Obama was talking about.

Subject: FW: Six Million Jews

In Memory of those who lost their lives and those who served and are serving now!

Six Million Jews When I was a kid, I couldn't understand why Eisenhower was so popular.  Maybe this will explain why.         General Eisenhower Warned Us [   It is a matter of history   that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead. He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened' This week, the   UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred. It is NOT removed as yet.. However, this is a frightening portion of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it. It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in   Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests Who were 'murdered, raped, burned, starved, beat, experimented on and humiliated' while the German people looked the other way! Now, more than ever, with   Iran , among others, claiming the Holocaust to be a myth, it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets. [ This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people! Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world. How many years will it be before the attack on the   World   Trade   Center   'NEVER HAPPENED'     because it offends some Muslim in the U.S. ??? Do not just delete this message; it will take only a minute to pass this along.  FREEDOM ISN'T FREE...SOMEONE HAD TO PAY FOR IT   History provides a very valuable record of who we are and what we stand for!!!!!!!!

Town of Olive Comprehensive Plan Fits National Pattern

The following article by Henry Lamb appears in the April 23, 2011 edition of World Net Daily. It fits the Town of Olive Comprehensive Plan to a "T." A friend forwarded it to me today. 


Sunday, August 14, 2011

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PRIVATE IMPROPERTY
U.N.'s Agenda 21 is in your community
Exclusive: Henry Lamb highlights ubiquity of global restrictions on the people's land

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Posted: April 23, 2011
1:00 am Eastern
By Henry Lamb

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Editor's note: Listen to this column online.
Anyone who reads Chapter 7 of Agenda 21 and then reads his local comprehensive land-use plan will immediately recognize that most of the provisions of the local land-use plan come directly from Agenda 21. More often than not, the elected officials who adopt these plans have never read Agenda 21, and many have never even heard of the U.N. document, signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
The facilitators and professional planners have heard about Agenda 21, but frequently claim that the plan they are working on has nothing to do with the U.N. or Agenda 21. Don't believe it for one minute.
Gary Lawrence, former director of the Center for Sustainable Communities at the University of Washington, and chief planner for the city of Seattle, told an audience in London:

In the case of the U.S., our local authorities are engaged in planning processes consistent with LA21 [Local Agenda 21], but there is little interest in using the LA21 brand. … So, we call our processes something else, such as comprehensive planning, growth management or smart growth.

In community after community, the same scenario is repeated. The federal government, through the EPA or the Department of Commerce or the Department of Interior, offers special grants to communities for the purpose of developing a vision for a greener future and a plan to convert the vision into reality.
Typically, the local government will find a private consultant to "facilitate" the process. The facilitator will identify a local "steering committee," carefully chosen from people who represent various segments of the community, all of whom are known in advance to be sympathetic to the goals of Agenda 21.
Typically, the advisory group will meet in private to lay out the framework for the process and the goals for the finished product. When this is achieved, public meetings are scheduled to give the appearance of public input and ownership. Rarely are these meetings ever publicized adequately to attract the private-property owners who are most directly affected. Care is taken to see that members of local environmental organizations and social-justice organizations constitute the majority of attendees.
These public meetings are said to be "the visioning process." The procedures vary slightly from community to community, depending upon the facilitator. Remarkably, however, the "vision" in every community contains essentially the same elements: restricted auto traffic; bike trails; walkable neighborhoods; integrated housing; high-density urban boundary zones; conservation areas; green belts; and much more – directly from Agenda 21.
Once the vision document is complete, the next step is to convert it into a comprehensive land-use plan, adopted by local elected officials in the form of an ordinance that is enforceable with fines and other penalties. The plans are necessarily so long and complex that few people ever read them, other than the professional planners and enforcement officials. Many, if not most, of these comprehensive plans incorporate many, if not most, of the codes developed by the International Codes Council. Here are some of the codes:

International Building Code International Residential Code International Fire Code International Energy Conservation Code International Private Sewage Disposal Code International Mechanical Code International Fuel Gas Code International Wildland-Urban Interface Code ICC Performance Code International Existing Building Code International Property Maintenance Code International Zoning Code International Green Construction Code

Here's a sample of what to expect. From Chapter 2 of the International Green Construction Code:

CONSERVATION AREA. Land designated by the jurisdiction or by state or federal government, as a result of a community planning process, as appropriate for conservation from development because of the land possessing natural values important to the community including, but not limited to wildlife habitat, forest or other significant vegetation, steep slopes, ground water recharge area, riparian corridor or wetland. DAYLIGHT SATURATION. The percentage of daytime hours throughout the year when not less than 28 foot-candles (300 lux) of natural light is provided at a height of 30 inches (762 mm) above the floor.
DEMAND RESPONSE, AUTOMATED (AUTO-DR). Fully Automated Demand Response initiated by a signal from a utility or other appropriate entity, providing fully-automated connectivity to customer energy end-use control strategies.

This is a tiny sample of the rules and regulations buried deep within the innocent-sounding comprehensive land-use plans adopted by unaware local officials to achieve the politically correct label of "sustainable community."
(Column continues below)
These plans should be rejected, not simply because they arise from the United Nations, but because they infringe personal freedom and private property rights. The implementation of these comprehensive land-use plans effectively transfers to government the right to dictate to individuals what kind of materials must be used in constructing their privately owned homes. The Auto-DR provision defined above actually gives government the right to dictate the temperature in your home, and the ability to enforce it.
This is madness! This is sustainable development! This is Agenda 21!
Local tea parties, 9/12 groups and property-rights organizations must learn about Agenda21 and exactly what their local visioning statements and local comprehensive land-use plans contain. Many groups are forming study committees to analyze their local plans by section and then report back to the entire group. This way, not every individual has to read the entire plan.
If this rush to oblivion is going to be stopped, it is up to private citizens to get informed, get involved and help get into office only those people who truly respect the Constitution and the individual freedom it is supposed to guarantee.

American Association of University Professors' Anti-Semitism

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) should join the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in retracting a peculiar statement  that disparages three law suits concerning antisemitism.

Today, The Jewish Daily Forward published Kenneth L. Marcus's Op Ed about the joint AAUP-AJC statement, which was written by Kenneth Stern, AJC's president, and Cary Nelson, AAUP's president.  Marcus describes one of the three law suits which the AAUP and AJC disparage.  It is brought by two Berkeley students, Jessica Felber and Brian Maissy, and Berkeley Professor Mel Gordon.  It concerns persistent and violent anti-Semitic harassment to which the three and others allegedly have been subjected on the Berkeley campus.  Similar complaints have been lodged at UC Santa Cruz and Rutgers.

Marcus writes that the AAUP-AJC statement says:

(S)ome, in reaction to these recent incidents, are making the situation worse by distorting the provisions of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and what has been called the 'working definition of anti-Semitism'... 

...Opposing anti-Israel events, statements, and speakers, they believe the only way to “protect” Jewish students is by imposing censorship. 


The "working definition of antisemitism" comes from a statement of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC):  "Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities."  In
other words, in a classic example of victim blaming, Nelson and Stern aver that Jewish students' and professors' complaints about having been violently attacked are actually censorship of their attackers' criticisms of Israel.  The AJC-AAUP  statement also refers to a Department of Education "Dear Colleague" 
letter which states that bullying  falls  under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act when:  "peer harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability is sufficiently serious that it creates a hostile environment and such harassment is encouraged, tolerated, not adequately addressed, or ignored by school employees."


Former Berkeley student Jessica Felber alleges that she was rammed by a shopping cart because because she is Jewish, and Berkeley's Professor Mel Gordon alleges  that "he had been, 'savagely beaten and spat upon' by the Students for Justice in Palestine."
 
The antisemitic character of the Stern-Nelson claim can be assessed with a thought experiment--if a  Latin or African American student alleged that they had been battered with a shopping cart, would the AAUP have issued a statement indicating that the complaint had been an attempt to silence academic debate about race relations?

Marcus's Op Ed in the Jewish Daily Forward is spot on.  Marcus notes that several influential figures, such as David Horowitz, had criticized the AJC-AAUP statement, which had caused a "rift in the Jewish community."  He also notes that David Harris, the AJC's executive director, and other AJC leaders,  have renounced the AJC-AAUP position statement. However, Mr. Marcus does not raise the question of the AAUP's commitment to a position which is insensitive and anti-Semitic.

I call on Dr. Nelson to retract the statement.

Saugerties Town Government Gives Tax Breaks to Section 8 Developer; Citizens Protest

I just received this from Patriot246:

From: patriot246 [mailto:patriot246@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2011 3:41 PM
To: jwilsy@saugerties.ny.us
Subject: Letter to the Saugerties Town Planning Board

                        Dear Ms Wilsey,

                         

                        In your capacity as secretary of the Saugerties Town Planning Board will you please forward the letter below with attachment.

                        Thank you.

                       

                                                            August 17, 2011

Mr. C. Howard Post, Chairman and Town of Saugerties Planning Board

Saugerties Town Planning Board

4 High Street

Saugerties, NY 12477

Dear Mr. Post,

On August 16, 2011 you presided over a “public hearing” regarding a project which includes the construction of 40 low income rental units in Glasco. After allowing Larry Regan from Regan Development Corporation to present his plans for over a half hour, the meeting was open for pubic comment and questions. In opening the meeting to the public Mr. Regan suggested to the public that he knew many of us were present out of concern about crime, impact on our schools, taxes and such issues and invited questions about those concerns. Mr. Post did not direct Mr.Regan from that those topics. After an hour and a half of sometimes heated discussion on socio-economic and natural resource issues, much was revealed about the plans that were not known. A school official pointed out that this project will cause a hike in school taxes translating into an extreme burden on the tax payers.

Many of us learned for the first time about NY State Law 581A and the negotiated deal with town officials to pay a total annual combined property and school tax of only $26,000 per year for the next 30 years for all of the 40 housing units, which includes 1,2 and 3 bedroom units. After allowing the public to question for well over an hour  time Mr. Post announced to us that we, the public, had raised almost no issues which the planning board would consider. Though many of us asked to keep the meeting open your board took a vote which was tied and Mr. Post cast the decisive vote to close the meeting.

Today I consulted with a state assemblyman and also met with the DEC and learned that in fact the State Environmental Quality Review does provide for consideration of the issues you Mr. Post said the board would not address. This is the instrument that your board uses for its review. The Full Environmental Assessment Form Section C #11 asks whether the project will create a demand for any community provided services (recreation, education, police and fire protection),none of which have been addressed.

This project low income rental housing project which promises to be a financial burden on all property tax payers is being considered as the same plan which was approved for high end upscale revenue producing town houses several years ago before this recession. It is highly likely to create a need another classroom to our school and bring into our school district children with special needs that drives the cost of education to skyrocket.

I am writing this letter to you, Mr. Post to ask that the Town Planning Board to address all of the areas mentioned in the previous statement, to reconsider whether this is indeed the same plan and above all to consider the socio-economic impact on the Hamlet of Glasco and town of Saugerties.

Respectfully,

Proud life time resident of Saugerties

Attached link: SEQR Full Environmental Assessment Form with highlighted addressed areas.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/permits_ej_operations_pdf/longeaf.pdf

The Fed Is Responsible for US Jobs Exiting to China

Gerald Celente of Trends Journal and Trends Research Institute just e-mailed with a special report about the exodus of jobs to China.  Celente takes a protectionist tack, with which I profoundly disagree. He writes:

"Libertarians and “free market” economists praise Wal-Mart’s low prices achieved by offshoring, but these prices do not include the costs of the decimated state and local tax bases that are destroying American cities, the costs of the high unemployment and the personal depression, crime, and income support programs. These and other costs are expenses imposed on third parties by the movement of American jobs abroad in order to maximize profits...



"Free trade works, if it works at all, only when capital and technology remain in the domestic economy and find their best use or comparative advantage. Offshoring is the contradiction of free trade. It is the pursuit of lowest factor cost and absolute advantage."


The basic statement of free trade, comparative advantage, is still valid.  There is no reason for an ongoing exodus of jobs under a free market system where there is no paper money system to artificially inflate the dollar at the expense of workers.  This has occurred since 1913, especially since 1970.

The dollar is used as a reserve currency around the world, not just in China. Its reserve currency status elevates its value. There are $10 overseas for every dollar here, with central banks around the world holding trillions in treasury bonds.  If the foreign dollar holdings were to be exchanged and the treasury bonds sold, as happens with bubbles, the dollar would be worth less than its current value. This happened to the pound in the early 20^th century.  Americans would be poorer, but manufacturing would return here. A Faustian bargain.

Under a libertarian system, a metallic standard, overseas investment would depreciate the dollar, eventually forcing overseas investors to repatriate their investments.  The flow of gold or silver would pose a market-based mechanism to limit expatriation of investment. This has not happened in our state-dominated economy because of the paper money system and the limited ability of planners like Bernanke and Geithner to function independently of special interest pressure.  Such pressure would not evaporate under a tighter degree of regulation. New forms of regulatory privilege would emerge. The current system is the result of government intervention and Progressivism.  When the Sherman Anti-trust Act was passed in 1890 and the Fed established in 1913 firms were far smaller, there was less monopoly, there was no possibility of unlimited expatriation of capital, the average real wage was rising (unlike since 1970s, when the gold standard was removed) and although there had been depressions in the Gilded Age, they were milder and briefer than the post-Fed depressions and recessions in 1920, 1930, 1974, 1978 and today.  Where does the investment capital to invest overseas come from? The Fed. It is not a libertarian free market phenomenon.

Celente's suggestion, to impose regulatory limits on where and how capital is deployed, would create impediments to investment and cause a stock market crash because of increased riskiness and regulatory controls. Small as well as large investors would be hurt.  This is what occurred in the early 1930s, with the Smoot Hawley tariff contributing to the Depression. 

Creating paper money with one hand and then imposing regulatory controls with the other disrupts expectations. Investment capital flees. New irrational bubbles form. Rather than expand firms’ investment here, investors would find overseas firms in which to invest.  Many US firms would leave the country. Why stay here? The wonderfully educated work force? A stable government? Low taxes? I don’t think so. Voluntaristic solutions work better than state compulsion by planners with human hence limited mental capacities and motivations.  

1933: Democratic Party Government Steals Public's Gold

H/t Daily Bail. From The Pittsburgh Press, March 10, 1933.  

"Fear of public disgrace or threatened fine or imprisonment drove hundreds of gold hoarders to the windows of the Federal Reserve Bank today, to turn in metal in sums raising from $5 to $700,000. "

What had become of the Americans of the Whiskey Rebellion? A nation that drinks obsequious cowardice from  its education system's deserves neither liberty nor security.

Harry Markopolos Finds Bank Currency Trade Scam

H/t Mairi.