freedom of information with exceptions (chapter 8):

The Freedom of Information Act has been around since the 1970s. It is intended to provide "any person with the statutory right, enforceable in court, to obtain access to Government information in executive branch agency records. This right to access is limited when such information is protected from disclosure by one of FOIA's nine statutory exemptions." The act's "exceptions" are
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(1): National security classified information.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(2): Related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(3): Information specifically exempted from disclosure by statute.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4): Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person that is privileged or confidential.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5): Inter- or intra- agency memoranda protected by either the deliberative process privilege or the attorney work-product privileges.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(6): Personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(7): Certain types of information compiled for law enforcement purposes.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(8): Information relating to the supervision of financial institutions.
• 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(9): Geological and geophysical information and data, including maps, concerning wells.
The exceptions are reasonable in general, but there are a couple worthy of scrutiny if not outright challenge. The first for example indicates classification without justification. Perhaps you are right to protect the information but the justification for classification should be subject to review when information is requested. The second one might protect discriminatory practices within an activity that may have no reasonable justification other than "that's how we've always done it." In the third a statutory exemption exists to protect information that is subject to a statutory inquiry. The point here is that government exists intentionally for the benefit of the governed. Intention and actuality are the items to scrutinize. One other note: the invasion of privacy could apply only in the case of information about private citizens who have not invaded the privacy of other private citizens. A convicted murderer has become a ward of the state, that's us, no longer a private citizen. The intent of this quick note is to invite investigating our freedoms, founded by white, educated, landholding men when women had about as much "freedom" as any other "property" human or otherwise. Gender hegemony is antiquated. This "freedom of information act" might be another way to redefine what is freedom and expand beyond the 18th Century view of rights, and ignored wrongs.

mea culpa y mi vida comica, naturlich.

herewith ye find might my long thought, only now submitted, reponse to rhetorical activity, mit copia, in chapter 2. hopefully there is not by now a newer edition of the ARCS...
time to reload the western canon? Kairos, the best time for action might be, often is, when the action seems to be the next reasonable step. this point of view, at the edge of though, NOW, seems a ripe moment to suggest a reload of the wester canon. Why? Fresh powder, fresh though, more accuracy in the field of now.I've nearly a quarter century of military experience in me. it's like a jungle i'll never completely get out of. The point here is not me but a fluid, living, changing notion of canon. some tomes most revered are milestones we as humans need not pass again in relation to where we think we want to get. old shoes may no longer fit; new shoes take time to adjust to the feet in them. READ!
where are we going with all these words? To places unique to each one of us, within the vastness of a language community.
Why? Because we can and will be happy to have done so, especially if the work to get there is somehow significant along the way.
PRACTICE PRACTIC PRACTICE
that reminds me of the "how to get to Carnegie Hall" cliche. it's not about the address, it's about the process, which includes knowing when to use a semicolon. then i kicked over a full cup of coffe; oops.

progymnasmata a la Chreia

praise/dedication/rock and roll celebration FOR a word or two about John Lennon, i am hardly qualified but can think of no finer friend i never met though i might think some more again. after hectic years of world-wide visibility, while he was finding out who he was mr. lennon was finally welcome to live in a hardedge city of american dreams, of human dreams and occasional screams, where taxis outnumber privately owned cars. returning from wrapping up work on yet another album a vengeful fan robbed us all of what more we'll never know. Imagine beyond "imagine", or don't. if his name is new to you, that's okay too. it's only rock and roll, by humans just like us, not super people in a magic bus.

to paraphrase, i did that by mentioning "imagining there's no homework, it's easy if you don't read the synopsis, take notes, listen to lectures, or otherwise try to remember lucy's name, the one with the diamonds, so you can find it in the phonebook, or google it.

Lennon was continuing to add to the idea he and his wife, Yoko Ono-Lennon Ono yo, were encouraging the world to consider: Give peace a chance. So many of us don't see much profit in peace, or so it seems. The idea of no possessions is up for challenge to, as is the idea that there's nothing to kill or die for just the joy of living right now, this minute, satisfied with things as they are before diving back into developing toward whatever we have for desiring.

A contrast notion would be to sing about winning, appropriate as super bowl time is at hand. "Who wants it more?" I think Ludikrus draws royalties for that one. It was a theme for the superbowl last year, if memory hangs happily.

For comparison there is a song about getting together, smiling, trying to love one another (not only or limited to sexual performance)...and the Lennon line from "Yellow Submarine" to "hook up and otherwise comingle."

There's no end to the Lennon legacy as there is hopefully no end to human potential. There have been some marvelous achievements all through our story as humans. We have access to the best to date but it's right to realize there is always room for improvement. John Lennon had an image to carry with him...the working class hero become a worldclass star, living across the street from Central Park just like anybody else who can afford the neighborhood. No "hood" is safe, but some are safer than others. Doing what you love to do and being famous for it can be a dangerous thing. Or we can all be "nowhere people, living in a nowhere land" making nowhere plans for nobody.

This blog represents a surge underway to get me in the cyberlife mode in a proactive way. I'm happy to say i'm not allergic to strawberries and that this blogging is "getting better all the time".
I can't think of many things without some song coming to mind. Then, bang, bang, out go the lights.

imagine i know what to do

i IMAGINE i do to....here is the place where i will get back here later and fill in the blank behind chapter 2s assignments...activities and the Chreia, which for me is John Lennon's "imagine." it's like "imagine there's no homework, no place for me in cyberspace. i hope someday i'll blog us...and we all can have some fun...." i'd type more but i have a class to get to and it's not in the building where i am typing this.....ah, you know the drill.

i shall not remain behind our group brain

this is my weekend to catchup and potato....i mean, i've austen (jane), twain, two by naylor, a literary criticism and our monumental arcs. then, in spite of efforts to surrender to psychosclerosis, i am now a blog dog. if only i had internet at home. maybe a neighbor does. type at you monday. have some fun!

rhetorical chances

i am a daily surprise to me as i find me where i was forty years ago with a world of experience in between. pueblo is home now. retired from the army, i am studying at csup to get into a field called semiotics, the study of everything we humans do communicate peacefully, i hope, and keep track of what we've done, what's going on, and where we hope to be after lunch and even later.

this class is a continuing adventure in communications study. my major was art until recently, when i found out that art is just part of the semiotics universe and what was missing in visual expression was words, which are just as capable of abstraction as pigment.

today is edgar poe's birthday. you skeered?

trust curiosity

what did i most like about the book.....use of the word FUN. see page 27...."messing around with language is fun."