In the news

The N&O also reported Thursday that three juniors at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough were sent to in-school suspension after refusing to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery.  Allegedly they were sent there only because that was the only place where they could be supervised while the rest of the junior class took the test for 2 hours Tuesday and Wednesday.  But the Principal, Gary Thornburg, told the paper that "I don't have a lot of patience with people who are refusing to take the assessment - or refusing anything that their entire grade level is participating in."  It's true that students can sign an opt-out form to say they do not want to be contacted by the military, but the article does not say if the military still gets the test results, and apparently the Principal has a problem with non-conformity and critical thinking. 

 

It was courageous of these students to refuse to take the test, which looks to me like a way to grease the way for students to enter the military.  The article notes that fewer than 10 students take the test each year at East Chapel Hill High, after it was given to all sophomores when it opened in 1996, resulting in "such an outrage from the parents and community that we didn't do that anymore," according to career development coordinator Winslow Carter.  The State Department of Education recommends against what Cedar Ridge High is doing. 

 

I wonder how I would have done on the test, but I think the students were right to refuse.  At my high school in Durham there were military recruiters and I once signed a card for more information from the Marines, and then I kept getting calls, I think over 2 or 3 years, even though I said politely I was not interested.  The US was not even at war most of that time, other than enforcing the genocidal sanctions against the Iraqi people and maintaining the DMZ in Korea.  Military service in general might not be immoral in itself, everyone cannot be a pacifist, but to serve now means to sacrifice yourself for imperialism and then be discarded by the government.  

 

The paper also reports that Congressman Price, as Chair of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, apparently aided in the transfer of $50 million dollars to 96 projects that benefitted influential or at-risk members of Congress.  

 

The Greens and Libertarians are collecting signatures to get on the ballot this fall and have petitions on their State websites.  They need 2% of the vote in the last gubernatorial election, or 69,733, but this means they actually need 100,000+, at a cost of $100-150,000 dollars.  It is also easy to lose access after all of that effort, as happened to the Libertarians a few years ago.  

 

Finally, the out of control US spy satellite will be shot down with a missile at the edge of the atmosphere, allegedly to prevent damage from falling debris or toxic hydrazine fuel (the current explanation), and there is speculation that the government fears that its technology will reach another country.  It is pure speculation, but I wonder if this is being publicized to create a provocation, an opportunity to demonstrate "Star Wars" technology to China and Russia, since China recently destroyed one of its own satellites in orbit and Russia is opposing US plans to put anti-ICBM missiles on Russia's borders. Allegedly this is aimed against the DPRK and Iran, but it could be an attempt to give the US the ability to strike Russia without fearing a nuclear counterattack, and would therefore trigger a new arms race.