The Pulse

Pre-Obama Pharmaceutical Care

2009-11-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

Wow. Totally blown away. I have a prescription that's 120 pills a month. No matter what it is, it's generic. Without insurance, the pricing is:

Wal-Mart: $8
Costco: $10
Walgreens: $90+

As a far left socialist, I have no problem with government price controls. As someone living in the United States, I have no problem with market-based economies (IMHO, socialism doesn't scale to 300 million citizens).

I understand a $2 price difference in a medication. An eleven-fold increase in a prescription? It's either a rip-off, or the #2 drug store company in the United States is hell-bent on ignoring reality.

I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart, and I am a card-carrying Costco member. Their prices seem reasonable, given their size and reach. And, given the size and reach of Walgreens, it is absolutely clear to me that not only do they not want my business, but they are willing to rip folks off to get it.

We'll see what they say when I call 'em this week. The holiday should put them in a good mood.

When NIMBY Becomes a Perversion

2009-10-21T09:54:00.000-07:00

Certain sex offenders should be segregated from society, sometimes permanently. Unfortunately, the puritan streak in our society has been labeling a portion of people engaging in criminal lapses of judgment with the scarlet letter for life, in violation of the Constitution's 9th Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. Should a 19-year-old person who committed the act of statutory rape with a 15-year-old girlfriend be permanently barred from any contact with any child, and shunned from communities, permanently branded (digitally, now that sex offenders can be looked up online).

Having connections to my state's protective services for children, I've heard my share of stories where it ends well for no one. The branding seems permanent: there's no common legal process for getting the restriction lifted across the different states.

Aggravating this is the paranoia of the scarlet letter syndrome: "Oh my god! There's a sex offender in our neighborhood? Call out the parents! Break out the pitchforks! Picket their house! Harass them in public!"

I've got kids. I worry about sex offenders, and if someone were to attack my kids, I don't know that I'd show civil restraint. Hopefully I won't get to that point. But the fact is many of these "offenders" are paying for their entire lives for a SINGLE indiscretion. While this information is available online (at the same places where you can find fancy maps, like the one above), it's misleading. Not the offenses: while I've found lots of single-offenders (blue on the map). Behind each conviction is a sad story, an offender who was only caught once... the stories number more than the blips on the map. The point is that these people are all tossed in the same, tainted pile. Chased from address to address, neighborhood to neighborhood.

And when someone does the right thing, providing a legal space for them to exist, the neighbors are up in arms. Yeah, having a bus stop near a sex-offender neighborhood is tough. But they need a way to get to work. Do the neighbor thing and walk your children to and from school. Do they (delusionally) think that dispersing the sex offenders will solve anything? It just increases the odds of a drive-through pedophile snatching a child. We've had two attempts near where my kids live -- odds are they weren't from the neighborhood.

We live in a dangerous world. But repeatedly punishing people who've already been through the system and are keeping their word and legally registering should not be further punished. It only increases the chance they'll simply drop out of the system, live wherever they want, and be lurking dangers in many neighborhoods. Or, more likely, just live their lives, glad to be temporarily free of the cloud over their lives.

Stimulus Reporting: Clouds Amidst a Silver Frame -- I Mean, Lining

2009-10-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Finally, someone's come up with a way to tell the American People about how the amazingly incalculable $787 billion stimulus package is being disbursed. Truth: as a socialist, as an American, I was against it. "Too big to fail" isn't part of the capitalist equation, and helping the poor and starving is infinitely more profitable to society than helping the mega-rich not wear rags. Humility's a good thing, especially for those who've forgotten it.

So the recovery.gov report, complete with impossible errors and gaffs found in any draft report (and I've drafted many of those over the decades) are just symptoms of something else, something wonderful: the ability, the strength, the bravery of an administration to show data, and not just information, about something critical to and criticized by the American public.

Most Americans probably don't listen to the monthly reports from the government on the Beige Report, or GDP listings. They're published one month, then updated and amended over the next few months, reflecting errors, omissions and updates from information not available at report deadline time. Information at www.recovery.gov should be given the same level of (a) initial acceptance and (b) critical regard and auditing. So that the next release of data is more accurate, and reflects the input not just of a cabal of cabinet insiders, but of every citizen economist and kibbitzer in the Unites States.

The Bush/Cheney days of hiding information behind lawyers and layers of bullshit are over. The truth is never instantly accurate, instantly obvious, or even instantly right. But having data and enough background to understand the genesis of errors in the data is infinitely better than not having access to anything but sanitized data. (Remember the USSR and its "data" and five year plans?)

Kudos to the Obama administration for putting its collective glutea maximi on the line, and getting something out to the light of day, flawed and miscalculated as it might be.

Yet Another Ugly Word of Hate

2009-09-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

Quick note: I was at one of my usual haunts, chatting with a pair of women in the new house sales business. Oregon came up, as a nice place to live. "Oh," one woman said, tossing her hair aside, "I couldn't live there."

"Why not?" I asked.

She looked around (the empty place). "Well," she confided, across four bar stools, "it's the rats."

I looked puzzled.

"You know," she said, throwing her shoulders back a bit. "'Rats. DemocRats."

It's nice to know the quality and level of political discourse hasn't changed much since '96. Scorn and hate are legal tender in this modern American debate on "traditional values" and the future of our children, our country and the planet. And hate-mongers who get paid to rile, not solve problems, benefit more than anyone else.

Of course, we're not the only victims here: just ask Tom Delay about his portrayals.

I guess there's enough hate to go around. How sad.

Code ID10T

2009-08-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to get puzzled. Athlete after hip-hop star after athlete keep getting involved in "accidental" shootings. (Check out the latest goober's story here.) As a gun owner I'm confused. After all, there are a few common-sense rules, aside from state requirements, regarding firearms:

Keep them safe and safed
Don't take them where alcohol is served or when you might be impaired
Use them only when your life is in immediate lethal jeopardy
Be legal.

Apparently folks just don't want to read the rules. Or maybe think the rules don't apply to them as they've had more than two column inches in which their name is mentioned. It's idiotic, but there you are. My confusion lies in the punishment: does a public sports figure get a pass on the old NYC "one year minimum" for weapons possession? Are we going to continue to treat our bread and circuses stars better than the plebes that watch them?

I'm not sure. And that scares me almost as much. Not because I want punishment for everyone or anyone, but because justice needs to excoriate the guilty pandered to elite as much as the ignored working folks.

And simple homilies about the joy in abject power (qua violence) don't quite work.

You must, as my son put it, have "this many proteins to have an opinion."

Most, sadly, don't qualify.

So put those guns away, put on your dancing shoes, and get out and boogie. And let the professionals worry about your security, instead of giving your egotistical paranoia full reign.

On Religion, Politics and the GOP

2009-06-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

Politics = Power.

Power is an Aphrodisiac.

Power Corrupts.

Powerful Politicians Sleep Around.

Well, three out of four ain't bad. There is, unfortunately, more than a grain of truth to that last. The latest example, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, is less of a surprise than it should be. There's a long history of politicians having their way with all manner of constituents and others. I don't condone, excuse, or in any way want to mitigate what's done by people in power.

That said, it really is a fact of life. And, if the person in office is married, it's an act of betrayal between the spouses (assuming they don't have any understandings allowing for such behavior).

American politics, in the spirit of our puritanical past, have embraced the idea that our politicians must somehow be holier than all the rest. And that their personal choices (or mistakes) imbue or sully their ability to lead. It's an absurd stretch at best, prudish priggery elsewise.

On Gays, Sikhs and a Fundamentalist Christian U.S. Military

2009-06-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Two Items crossed my screen today. The first was a post through a friend, urging support for Lt. Colonel Victor Hehrenbach, a decorated Air Force officer drummed out of service, because an acquaintance outed him as being homosexual. No one asked, and he certainly didn't tell. But out he goes, much to the detriment of his unit, and at extreme cost to the military's readiness and capabilities.

The second involved a ban on Sikh beards and turbans. A ban ostensibly put in place during the 1980s but not enforced until last year. This ban damages the American notion of diversity in our nation, and violates the rights of citizens, and soldiers, to practice their faith. The absurdity of this is borne out by Army Colonel Gopal Khalsa, who is retiring later this year after serving 29 years as a practicing, turbaned, and bearded officer.

According to the United States military, there are shortages in Jewish chaplains specifically because Orthodox Jewish requires men to wear beards as part of their prohibition against certain forms of barbering.

The fact that there is a grandfather clause to this requirement (men in service before January 1, 1986 are exempt from beard, turban and other religious requirements), it's clear this is an administrative, and not rational, ruling. (Colonel Khalsa and one Jewish rabbi are the exceptions.)

The explosion in Evangelical Christian activities in the U.S. military, including proselytizing activities by active duty, uniformed superior officers before those under their command, prayer is in direct contravention of the separation of Church and State. There are documented cases (check out Harpers Magazine, May issue) of Christian zealots in the military violating and number of regulations, not to mention inhuman, inhumane behavior usually attributed to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Before the military gets involved in the bedrooms and innocent rituals of patriotic, dedicated and humble servants, it must first cull from its midst the religious zealots proselytizing in its midst. A closeted gay combat pilot is not a problem, and beards and turbans draw attention but do not change the work of an officer. But Crusade-style practices carried out by the military, and the bug-eyed, hysterical Bible-thumpers who egg them on and add to their numbers must be banished before the military can call its justice evenhanded.

You Gotta Love the North Koreans

2009-06-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

Cute as buttons, aren't they? The Charlie's Angels of North Korea -- more properly, the Kim Jong Il's Angels. It's a great sight, perfectly staged for the cameras. Healthy looking women, with thighs, buttocks and breasts. Well-tailored outfits, for a country with almost no resources to spend on things like... food?

The depths and breadths of delusion in that country is amazing. The UN reports that over 40% of Korean children are chronically malnourished. It's a hall of mirrors, illusions facing all directions. And it's almost as if the leaders of this country have been staring into those mirrors way too long.

I doubt anyone, possibly including Pyongyang's leadership, know what the game is. Flexing nuclear muscles against the United States is, ultimately, stupid. But wisdom, like food, does not seem to be plentiful north of the 38th Parallel. Let's just hope Iran's Ahmadinejad isn't interested in Kim's playbook.

Support the Republican Party!

2009-05-10T18:09:00.001-07:00

Okay, this isn't the usual blog for that sentiment, but hear me out. Especially in light of former Vice President Dick Cheney's comments. But America's strength is in the wide spectrum of its views, and the ability of almost all views to get at least some discussion time in our society.

What makes American politics powerful is the breadth of expressions accepted in our society. It's been wildly across the board: as wild as the Civil War in the 1860s to the frightenly uniform McCarthy Era of the 1950s. The time of the Whigs of the 1830s-1850s, the Wobblies in their heyday of the 1920s. the time of the The Oneida Community (1840s). I believe we thrive when multiple, even conflicting views are part of the general landscape.

America of the first decade of the 21st century has been too monolithic. The conservative conquering of Congress, and then Bush's "election" in 2000 and "re-"election in 2004 gave a very narrow segment of the US population a voice. The fallout from the downfall of this pinnacle is the creation of a chasm. On one side are the religious and ideologues. On another are the social and, on yet another side, fiscal conservatives. The last side of this chasm (which reassuringly resembles a set of mesas in the desert than a single divide) is of the moderate or liberal political and social wings.

The Republican party is in the process of giving birth. Or expelling a demon. It's become so internally polarized that the only clear solution is for it to expel that which poisons it. A Republican party home to a wide variety of religious views would be theoretically far more attractive than the wild-eyed fanatic it's become. (Of course, if Limbaugh's version of secular fanatacism takes the helm, all bets are off!)

But the glimmer of hope to create a fuller spectrum of thought, even as the country makes its next pendulous tilt to the left, is as important as the leftward shift is personally for me.

Shoot First, Straighten it out Later

2009-04-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, the pro- and anti-gun folks are getting their underwear twisted in little, painful knots again. Couple tries to steal man's SUV. Man shoots one of them dead on his property. The other, when caught, gets charged with murder (since someone died during the commission of a felony).

On the gun control side, this is a problem because deadly force was used in the commission of a grand larceny auto. Not a carjacking, just a brazen robbery. And while lethal force could have been an option, the farmer could have let them drive off with his car, called the insurance company, and a woman would still be alive. A criminal, yes. Deserving execution? No.

On the 'no retreat' side, this is an example of the law working correctly. The criminals went onto his private property to commit a crime, confident that they could steal this SUV from this old man. Had they understood that stepping on someone's property and having that person feel endangered might result in them getting aerated, they probably would move on to other, less dangerous activities. But they didn't, and now one's dead and the other's going to jail for a very long time.

So where's the Right in the situation. People have property rights, the right to defend themselves, and also the right to remain alive and not worry that even a small wrongdoing might result in their violent deaths. (Eight shots to stop someone? We call that emptying the magazine where I come from.) How's the right to keep one's SUV greater than the right not to worry about being killed for theft?

The philosophy is for the courts, and this gentle reader, to decide. But consider that while the potential for deadly force might be a deterrent for some, it might also cause criminals to use overwhelming force when committing crimes for which they might otherwise have used none. And every life, crook or victim, is precious.

An Open Letter to Governments Seeking Independent Action

2009-04-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

Dear presidents/prime ministers of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan and Israel:

Beware the simple solution, for it has more unintended consequences than even you might hope for. 'I wish they all would just disappear' is more than slightly related to genocide. And the loss of the perceived enemy does not eliminate the real problems that underlie your country.

Iraq: Americans leaving your country will only help your neighbors chop you into little bits. Iranian bits. Turkish bits. Maybe even little Syrian bits. You may hate the Infidel, but you need their firepower and indiscriminate ability to return fire.
Pakistan: Making peace a la Chamberlain is a great way to lose the country, one province, one lie, one threat at a time.
Iran: Playing games in Iraq will backfire, since there's an international focus on keeping you honest. And Afghanistan will burn you as much as it burns everyone else, since you're population won't tolerate a regime religious enough for them.
Sudan: Sure, you can play god with your people. Until enough of them die, or enough of the Jihadi splinter groups get together and bring down your regime. Darfur's not going away, not until the West is satisfied. (P.S. The West is stronger than you and, if the UN allows it, can bomb you guys back to the 1800s...)
Israel: Go for the two states. The Palestinians are NOT ever going away, and they're breeding faster than Jews. Wait long enough the the tidal wave of Palestinians will bury more than just your last-ditch attempt at an Apartheid regime.

I try not to be this blunt on this venue (for the Middle East I usually go to "Hadofeq" for my posts. But this trend is global, not regional. Pakistan falling to the Taliban is a Clear and Present Danger to more than just the Americans. Iraq breaking into uncontrolled splinters (as opposed to partitioning) would be a disaster taking millions of lives. Iran can't survive the results of its fundamentalism. And Israel can win every war -- but would not survive the loss of even one.

My real question is: has the President of Pakistan had the "when it all comes tumbling down" talk with the US as regards its nuclear weapons and facilities. Because if not, things might get messy -- quickly.

Gotta Love the Credit Card Folks

2009-04-21T22:32:00.000-07:00

It's pretty amazing how far things have fallen. In the interest of full disclosure, the last 16 months have rendered me an amazingly bad risk, for all kinds of valid reasons. But the devious lying that's involved in credit card offers now boggles the mind. I mean, this link has a mainstream story. Mine was much simpler, and more evil.

I had a $3+ (that is to say, three dollars and change) charge on a Citi.You card account. I got a few letters about it, then decided to spare them the additional postage and called them. Three phone calls later they "had an offer for me." The offer was to reinstate my card, and my credit limit, at prime + 9.9%. I told 'em I didn't have a job at the moment, but that didn't phase them. "Don't worry," the customer service siren said, "I'm sure the credit department will figure that out for you."

Yeah, they did. The paperwork for the card came back, with a little detail: $85 yearly "program fee," and a $200 credit limit. And a 29.9% interest rate. Yah, they figured it out.

Mind you, I'm a lousy credit risk. I told them so, and couldn't figure out why they would waste the plastic involved in even thinking of reopening an account.

They were counting on human stupidity, apparently, and I can't imagine that's an ethical way to do business.

The first time I called to find out about the yearly charge for a heretofore free card, I got disconnected twice. I called back and, after another couple of disconnects, got through to someone who insisted, practically on a stack of bibles, that there was no way that a citi.you card could have a yearly fee. Two more long on-hold pauses, and she said "wow, I've never seen that before... {pause} ... so, do you want me to set that up for you?"

Oy.

Card cancelled. But for every semi-conscious human who stops 'em, how many human troglodytes just say "sure, set me up!"

#citifail!

On PR and Perks at GM

2009-03-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

The latest furor swirling around GM centers around the 8,000 or so GM employees, all white collar workers, eligible to drive a new car, and get free gas, for $250 a month. After a given number of miles and/or time, the cars are turned around and resold to GM employees at a discount by local dealerships.

I don't know how much all those TV ads for cars cost, but it seems to me that giving some employees the ability to drive around new cars is at least as powerful an advertising vehicle as a 30-second spot. And a damn sight cheaper, since those cars are then turned around and sold to employees internally after their trial run.

Okay, I think paying for the gas is a bit excessive. But they're paying $250 a month just for the right to get one of those cars. New cars, new models attract attention. According to GM internal literature, a percentage of those cars must be flex-fueled.

I guess my main complaint is why only 8,000 white-collar workers get that perk? To make this an effective program, it should be awarded to a cross section of employees. After all, do only white collar workers buy GM cars? I think not.

[Shout-out to MPGValues.com for their image.]

Shunning: A Death Penalty Alternative

2009-03-07T10:34:00.001-08:00

I'm a death penalty proponent. I believe if a person can be conclusively, without a shadow of a doubt convicted of killing another premeditatively, while sane, that person has given up the right to continue living. Take 'em out back and shoot 'em in the back of the head. Then charge the victim for the cost of the bullet.

That said, I think the US court system is so fatally flawed, such a judgement is impossible. A jury of peers has been reduced to twelve people proven to know nothing about anything relating to the case. And the peers are chosen from the geographic area of the victim, not the accused. The level of incompetence that's been shown by law enforcement, prosecutors, defence attorneys judges and the penal system make getting a fair trial a hit or miss affair. And when a death penalty is an outcome, there's no room for error.

One of the cants of the pro-death lobby points up that keeping a murderer alive costs more than killing them. Well, recent analysis by several states busts that myth. Between all the extra lawyering, and the pressure it puts on the judicial system, it's simply not true. And that, more than all the eye-for-an-eye versus eternal bleeding hearts, may finally put a stake into a barbaric practice that offers torture for years on end for prisoners and victims' families alike.

Okay, now what? Just give 'em life and let 'em have run of a prison until they die of old age? Put them in the general population? Give them television, library privileges, mail and conjugal visits, cakes from home and love letters from mentally deranged folks from the outside? The ability to contact and continue to torture the families of the victims?

Nope. We should do the next best thing to death. Put them in a cell and throw away the key. One to a cell. No outgoing or incoming mail. Limited television and book (think kindle behind glass) access. No telephone calls or personal visits. They're dead to the world. Shunned by society. Alone. For the rest of their lives.

There will be challenges to this: cruel and unusual punishment, etc. Dead people don't get any television, or conjugal visits. The alternative is for this person to go through the death process grind and then die. Conviction and a punishment of shunning would need to effectively render that person dead to rights, as it were.

Don't know if it's possible, but economically... sounds great!

Rooms for Let: Boarders Welcome

2009-02-13T19:19:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging on this and my technology blog (misposted my last one on The Ping). Another sign is coming by now, one personally touching me.

I was chatting with a friend last night. Next to him was a woman I hadn't met before, so we started chatting. Turns out she's an unemployed single mom, and my friend (hat tip to Kaos) is taking her in for free, for as long as she needs it.

I'm in the same boat: I've been a "professional writer" since last spring, and, aside from tiny gigs, have drained my savings, retirement and even a generous inheritance from a family friend. The house was sold at a loss. Renting an apartment simply isn't an option. When I first mentioned this to a former co-worker and friend, he volunteered unlimited use of a room in his house for as long as I needed it.

I don't think I'll make it to the point of hawking for change at street corners with a catchy sign and limp. But the economy and the constraints of fixed costs I can't manage (e.g., health care, child care) mean that I, solidly entering middle age, have lost my space, my freedom and, in a good way, my dignity.

We've all had an ego bubble these past few decades: after the creepy 70's, the 80's were a glorious bacchanalia of self-centered hedonism (check out the TV series Dallas, screened worldwide to this day, as a mile marker for that experience). in the 90's it was all about me, the next great things, and the ability for every investor to be wildly successful -- unless their drug habit overspent their ability to hook into IPOs or good stock picks.

A lot of that went pop for the public in America after 9/11. The wheels of exuberance, however, were already set in motion. Money begat money, and money craves money. That the real estate market became, in essence a Ponzi scheme that demanded more and more victims to pay off the returns of previous investments seems to have been lost on most everyone. Madoff did it on a personal scale: AIG did it more grandly. While the government has little to gain by bailing an individual, if AIG fails, so fail banks and financial institutions worldwide that invested in AIG's wild array of non-insurance products. And the institution has no more a moral compass than a casino: it's about money, just the money.

This just in from PlanetMoney: AIG had over $2.7 TRILLION (here, let's write it out: $2,700,000,000) in exposure (loss possibility) in collateralized debt and derivatives. There's no bailout that can help that. And if AIG fails... well, see above.

Oops.

So now we're back to "basics." McMansions aren't just a term of derision: they're a sign of egos put to brick and drywall. And for every foreclosure, another family, or surviving fragment thereof, needs to live somewhere else. So we're moving back in with our biological families, or to one of our family members of choice. Signs with "Rooms for Rent" are going to pop up as extra bedrooms go from exercise areas to potential revenue sources in a tight money market. As people relocate for jobs that pay scarcely more than the greater of unemployment insurance and minimum wage, they won't be able to pay for more than a place to put a cardboard valise and a chair at the dinner table.

Sometimes You've Just Got to Wonder...

2009-02-09T12:53:00.001-08:00

I'm looking for a little help in understanding things here. I had a Citi.You card, issued by Citi the Bank. (Mine was Citi.Baalzevuv, or City.Devil; take that, stupid dictionary lists!) Last August it was closed by the bank because of credit issues (not with them). I was cool with that, paid the full amount due, and felt lucky to be one card lighter in the wallet.

Unfortunately, an auction service for which I'd subscribed (but never used) charged a buck on it, just to make sure I was legit, the day before the card officially closed.

Now it's February, 2009. The balance is now $3.27 cents, and Citi's calling to get the account closed.

"Okay," I say, "let me close that account for you, especially since you've spent at least $20 in person-time just calling me and having this discussion."

"No," they say, after a little screen prompted thought, "we'd like you to pay the $3.72, and in return, we'll open up the card again, with your original credit line. That way you get a good mark on your credit score, more credit (which also helps your credit score) and we won't charge you the phone payment fee of $9.95 [for the $3.27 charge]. And I can get you a good rate: 10.9% plus prime!"

"You know I'm unemployed."

"Oh, that's okay," she said, not skipping a beat. "No credit check needed; we'll just reopen at your original amount."

Um... isn't this one of the ways Citi got into trouble? Giving money to folks that are patently incapable of paying back under the terms of the deal?

So yeah, I'll take the card. And bury it in the darkest hell hole I can find, away from wallet and temptation. But yeesh, what's the deal? Are we setting ourselves up for another bailout candidate a year from now? Is this how we want to use the bailout funds given to Citibank?

How many jobs will my credit line create, aside from customer services and account collections folks? What's the 'win' side to this equation?

New Clarity, Old Hates

2009-02-03T11:35:00.001-08:00

I'm glad Tom Daschle removed his name from consideration for the HHS Secretary post. If President Obama really meant business, then Senator Daschle should have been removed from consideration long before this. The President screwed up by fully backing the Senator; Mr. Obama should have reserved such public support for this, and indeed, any candidates. After all, if they're candidates, aren't they, de facto, desired by the President?

That Bill Richardson had similar issues was worrisome, but because he backed out in a timely manner, I see that as a plus, both for the governor, whom I respect, and the Obama administration.

Tim Geithner, the new Treasury Secretary, also had tax issues but, in fairness, they were of at least an understandably murky variety. Statements by commentators regarding this being a problem, given that he is heading up the national tax system I find specious: it takes teams of tax lawyers to cover the breadth, depth and complexity that is our current, and broken, system of taxation.

All the above said, it's amusing that Republicans, after engaging in twelve years of congressional hardball and absolute partisanship, now claim that the Obama administration somehow "owes" the American people an equal share with the GOP in governmental decision-making. (America's favorite personal attack dog, Limbaugh, actually wants proportional division of the stimulus package according to "popular voting" lines. Idiot.)

I agree that President Obama, and the entire Democratic Congress, must be held to significantly higher standards of transparency and operation. It's a great idea. And yes, the reality is that no one is pure, and asking public figures to be even better than everyday Joes -- who are not subject to investigative and journalistic scrutiny -- is unreasonable. That said, Obama staff should shine in the transparent light of public behavior anyway.

But the bottom line is that the GOP lost control of both of the elected branches of government, and the consequence is that they, for so long as power remains in this configuration, must work in a spirit of support, not spite, to ensure that the United States gets the best possible leadership. Gutter sniping, party line antics and other sore loser actions are not in the interests of neither their remaining political constituents nor the people they represent.

Before Republicans engage in their next salvo of complaints about how things haven't changed, perhaps they should look again at the appointment of Senator Judd Gregg who not only would be the third Cabinet-level Republican appointee but, more importantly, will be replaced, by agreement between President Obama, Governor Lynch of New Hampshire, and the GOP with a non-Democratic replacement, something they did not need to do and, in fact, crimps the attempt at filibuster-proof control of the Senate. Would junior do that? One thinks not.

The Census as Economic Stimulus a la Wal*Mart

2009-01-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

Just a quick shout out to our cyclical friends in the US government: the Census Bureau. Apparently droves (read: tens of thousands) of folks are needed for part-time, short-term (~10 week) work starting now and running through 2010. The pay is more than unemployment ($8-$19/hour), and beats sitting at home watching reruns of the shopping channels.

If you're unemployed, get to a testing center and take the (brain-dead) test. 28 questions, and "passing," in true Amerikan tradition, is 10 questions. But don't worry: if you're a military vet you only need to get five questions right. Disabled vet? Hand it in blank and you still pass. (I'm not criticizing military service; I'm decrying ridiculously low passing bars.)

If you think it's a dead-end job, try this thought on for size: it's an opportunity for you to stretch your legs, meet neighbors and other folks, and get a little perspective on where our country is at in the year 2010.

I'm a bit more selfish than that: aside from the (duh!) money, it's a way for me to meet folks I'd never otherwise interact with, and build my memory library of characters from which to draw on when writing. But that's another blog, and another persona.

Go! Do something!

Like Giving Uzi's to Children

2008-12-16T03:15:00.000-08:00

I really don't understand gun freaks. Or gun sluts. Or gun porn.

Don't get me wrong: I believe in responsible weapon possession. I agree with legislation managing the carrying of pistols by trained, licensed and stable citizens. I fully understand the fun of throwing high velocity lead at little paper targets. And, given the state of the American meat industry, I certainly prefer the idea of free range, uninnoculated meat being harvested for maximum use by hunters.

I think all kids should take gun safety lessons, just like I did in summer camp, plinking at wooden targets with a cranky, single shot .22 caliber rifle.

Gun freaks try and push an 'all guns, everywhere' approach to legislation, and actively promote and sponsor events, like the tragic one that took the life of an eight year old. Gun sluts come in both genders, and they, to my admittedly jaundiced eye, sublimate repressed sexuality into a love of guns. And pandering to them are the manufacturers, distributors, stores and trade publications extolling yet another model 1911 .45 caliber gun that 'you just have to own.'

An Uzi submachine gun, which I've used as a soldier in the Israeli Army, is a nasty, brutish, unforgiving weapon. It was designed as a grease gun for paratroopers and close quarter fighting. The weapon is intended to be used by a trained adult. How a child could possibly fire this weapon accurately in single round mode is beyond me. Firing it on automatic is lunacy. (And most adults wouldn't be able to put more than a couple or three rounds in a target at 15 yards, just from the sheer inaccuracy and recoil on automatic.)

The lawyers will flail about who's to blame. The parents? The gun show? The vendor? Israel Military Industries? The ammunition maker?

Who cares. The boy is dead.

Fully automatic weapons have no place in American society. Not even by law enforcement -- it's just not an effective way to either suppress fire (the traditional reason for automatic fire) or take out targets. They should be banned. And, for the mental health of the nation, they should not be part of the gun cum sex activities of hormonally challenged men (and women) who feel the need to crow their superiority via inherently lethal, non-defensive weapons.

Obama, Gore and Reality

2008-12-09T00:23:00.000-08:00

I'm going out on a limb here. If President-Elect Barack Obama is talking with Al Gore, then environmentalists have a reason to cheer. Of course, if Gore is not meeting with President Elect Obama, then all this is moot. (Not mute, that's a whole 'nuther thing!)

Former Vice President Albert Gore has been at the forefront of making United States citizens aware of the real, iminent, critical issues involved with global warming. If President-elect Obama can bring Mr. Gore into the government, in whichever role he can, then I believe we have a fighting chance of at least identifying the method and rate at which humans will meet their doom.

Well, that sounds rather dire. But I would point out that, given the environmental degradation attributes, the speed at which things are happening, I believe there is a chance that the incoming administration will be interested (which is mind boggling for me) in preserving or at least stopping, the rapid and lethal degredation of the global environment.

Wow.

Maybe there's hope for us after all.

Vision

2008-12-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting time to be an American. In the Chinese sense, as well as the simplistic American sense. Here's a small sample of the wonders:

Our next president will be 1/2 Caucasian, 1/2 Kenyan
The next Veterans Administration chief will be the first four-star Japanese-American
The first Vietnamese-American has been elected to House (a Republican from Louisiana)
Two years from now, the "Big Three" won't be
A year from now, at least 10% of Americans may be out of their own homes unless drastic, radical and (dare I say it) Socialist decisions are made

Be gleeful. Be scared. Be excited. Most of all, be involved. These are amazing times, and all Americans, across the entire spectrum, need to get out of their recliners, turn off talk radio and immerse themselves in what's happening. Because it's the decisions that we, and the incoming government, make in the coming two years that will determine the kind of life our children, and even their children, will have in America.

The dinosaurs of traditional industry, of traditional unions, of what constitutes a business, employment, or even income, must be examined with fresh eyes. Can citizens and companies claim tax credits for working from home, given the impact on the environment and child rearing? Should environmentally friendly products be given a discount in the marketplace over the more polluting alternatives, and should our grandchildren shoulder that debt in lieu of shouldering the burden of a poisoned ecosystem? How do we let the market determine the future of our products, while keeping big business ethical, if not honest?

Wow. A lot of firsts in the coming year. And a lot of decisions that I'm betting few will want to accept, especially as regards the environment. Let's take cars, just as one, large example. Right now we buy cars based on (a) our ability to oursmart salespeople, and (b) based on the emotional timbre the advertising gives us: Macho? Have a Hummer, or an Expedition! Love cute and zippy? There's a host of little, cute, trendy cars for you. Too rich (or want to be seen as such)? Well, there's Infinities, BMWs, Lexi, all manner of stuff. There are too many brands, too many non-linear reasons people buy cars, and if we're going to save the industry in America, we're going to have to focus people on the merits of the cars and function, and not on the spurious, idiotic, or otherwise nonsensical reasons people buy cars.

Sure, Hummers are large. So are Nitros, large Jeeps... and Unimogs. But if we're going to sell a lot of cost-effective cars, and ones that won't continue to rape our environment, then we're going to have to decide to have fewer models, and think more about how those models impact the environment.

Now, don't go all "free market" on me. The Model-T was produced by inarguably the most Libertarian profiteer of all times: Henry Ford. And there weren't a whole lot of cars to compete with him. Honda (full disclosure: I own one of them) makes great cars, and does not mind using all kind of tactics to outsell their competitors, starting from Yakuza ties in Japan all the way to undercutting American cars through sheer will to lose money to gain market share.

Americans need to think larger, strategically. Less selfishly. It really isn't about being top dog today, or this week. If we want to think 'top dog,' (and I personally think that's a result of testosterone poisoning), we need to think about real excellence, not the kind touted by marketeers. Industry, not the government. The street, not the advertisers, need to embrace the notion that a great product isn't one just well sold, or marketed, or even made. It has to be great for the generations. Ours, and those who will inherit our past mistakes, and upcoming actions.

How Far We've Come in Caring for Babies

2008-11-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit confused. I understand breast milk. I understand organic. Frankly, I understand commercial food production and distribution. I grok Wal-Mart, I grok Target. Marks and Spencer. Ahold. Whatever the global equivalents are.

Food is food. When my parents grew up in Poland in the 20's and 30's, they did not worry about the kashrut (allowed to be eaten by religious Jews) rules. Wheat contained... wheat. Bread had none of the current ingredients. Here's a list of the ingredients in the challah my mother made when I was a child:

Wheat, water, eggs, yeast, sugar, corn oil

To my left what is in the Hawaiian bread that I use now when I make my Friday night blessings (this is from their web site, so pardon the image instead of text).

Please note that this is a much longer set of ingredients than what any normal baker (and I am one, so no lip, please).

We are getting so inured to ingredients that when the FDA assigns a maximum amount of melanine to food, we are expected to take that as a normal ingredient. Rat hairs I understand. Even impurities like dust, dirt, or even rocks (yes, we all find them in our dried beans from time to time) are acceptable.

What is not acceptable is this list, to my left, of ingredients deemed necessary to make my food somehow more palatable. Since when are dough conditioners necessary for me to taste good bread? And exactly why do I need ammonium sulphate in my food?

The issue of melanine is painful, certainly. The more there is, the more kidneys are compromised. Enough, and the kidneys fail, and the person shortly thereafter.

So why, given the obvious toxicity of this chemical, and its entirely inappropriate existence in the food supply (other than to raise the level of perceived (but unavailable) protein in a sample of food. So why would the FDA feel the need to determine a maximum level of melanine, other than to appease either the Chinese or the local American manufacturers of food.

I object. As a person who pays good money for food, I want to eat food. Not furniture composites, not ammonia derivatives, not any crap that I should not be eating. Yes, I know, there are alternatives. I could spend 2x, 3x, whatever to pay for organic foods. And I would like to be local, organic foods, except that not all of us have the luxury of paying top price for food. Those of us not working (and our ranks grow larger by the day, unfortunately) can't afford the "luxury" of eating healthy.

There should be no minimum or maximum limit for melanine. For that matter, if it's made in a test tube, it should not be there. America is poisoning its own people, and we are complicit in that poisoning if we do not protest to our limits against these insane acquiescences.

Citi Bunk and Recess Appointments

2008-11-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

Bush did it before, and he (and his administration) are doing it again. It seems that weekends and any time not burdened by the weight of the free market are excellent times for the government, and specific companies, to do their dirty work.

Citigroup is a great company. They gave me a break in 1979 that no one ever gave me, and convinced me then that they are an effervescent agent of change. Seriously. Citibank was doing things in 1979 that I see startups doing today. Sure, they've become a behemoth. Sure, some of their tentacles are probably doing good.

But the bottom line is that a company (in which I was considering investing) is in really terrible, and possible terminal, difficulty.

And my response, in this coldly capitalist society, is that Citibank, like every other banking organization, deserves the same consideration for a bailout as General Motors, Ford, and even (despite their non-public status) Chrysler.

Look: if we're looking for a good ROI, then I am personally a much more likely prospect for a postiive ROI than any of these companies. Put $1,000,000 into my life, and I will ensure that I will be cash positive for the rest of my life. Give the car companies, and Citi Group, several tens of billions of dollars, and we will get... um... I don't know? from them. And that will provide the American Public with how much money?

I would be more than a little confused if I didn't have questions. Certainly, as a taxpayer/stockholder, I definitely have questions about the way in which my tax dollars are being redeployed as investment dollars.

The American Treasury, as a taxpayer and voter, does not have the right to take my hard-earned an ill-transferred tax dollars, and turn them into investments in private companies. I would much rather have those funds (to the 1/10th or 1/000th), invested in ways for me to earn a decent, tax-positive living in the new economy.

Postscript: In the space of my writing this post and going to sleep, Citi Bank has garnered $300 billion dollars in loan guarantees for toxic funds (which had heretofore been rejected as a viable path for spending dollars) from the government. I am angry and ashamed.

Embarrassment = Murder

2008-11-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

Watch more ET videos on AOL Video

There is a strong Jewish prohibition against embarrassing someone in public: public humiliation is equated with murder.

Character assassination is almost unknown, except in cases when it is unexpected. Reality television has leapt into the breech. Sad, slightly whacky, purposefully unknown and truly sick people have been enouraged to apply to compete in singing, dancing, and knowledge feats. If, for no other reason, to be ridiculed by people who are in little to no way qualified to judge their peers.

In Jewish theology, someone saving a life is thought to have saved an entire world. Would those who aided or abetted Paula Goodspeed's rush to fame -- and public humiliation -- be guilty of having destroyed a world? Certainly, Ms. Goodspeed's world has disappeared.

I fault not the specifics, but the general: Paula Abdul is culpable of trying to save her "career," along with her showmates, by lending her name and aura to the "American Idol" contest. But she bears, as do her showmates and anyone associated with the show, responsibility for bringing the concept of "Idol" from the theoretical to the real idolatry of a cult of personality, of a cult of fame, of a cult of despair.

Shame on you, Ms. Abdul. And shame on the system, and the viewers, for participating in this particularly cruel Bread and Circus pageant.

Stupid People with Top Hats

2008-11-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

One of the most irritating things about President-Elect Obama's win is the number of entirely insane people with whom I must interact or read about.

Whacko nutjobs in Kenntucky (is anyone keeping track of their sanity, let alone literacy, statistics) planned on killing multiple minorities, capping things off by driving at Senator Obama dressed in tuxedos and top hats, firing fully automatic weapons. These 18 and 20-year old folks would be total idiots in my book -- except they had access to the requisite weapons and had made plans. (Can anyone say: "neuter the idiots so they don't breed?")

A friend of mine talked about "cowboys" snatching white sheets off the shelves of local department stores. We're here in Central Texas, see: land of the semi-rational and home of the 'do what you want so long as we can't bust you' brigade.

Same friend talks about how terrible it'll be "when" Obama gets shot.

I don't know how to push love, trust and calm out past folks like this, but if we don't, the Secret Service will certainly be chasing a legion of village idiots before things calm down. And acting uber-paranoid with the President Elect until we get all the easy nut jobs out of the way.

This friend -- and a few others with similar views, talk about the race war and terror that would follow Obama's assassination (g-d forbid!).

My question is this: is their fear, their hatred, their small-minded vision so pervasive so powerful that the next President of the United States must worry about these lunatics? Or can be take a deep breath, concentrate on the realities of global warming, magnetoshphereic dissipation, and drive these false dybbuks of our generation aside long enough for truth to ring free?

I'd like to think we can rise above these idocies. But the Cheney/Bush regime has created early warning monsters that we would ignore at our own peril.

I Have Been Blessed to See This Day Come

2008-11-04T21:19:00.001-08:00

It's a peculiarly Jewish custom to recite a blessing when encountering an incredible moment in one's personal history. We have a blessing on seeing rainbows, awesome sights, and living to see yet another year's holidays.

Today is a day of blessing. Blessing that we have seen the defeat of racism by truth. The defeat of fear and hate by trust and hope. Like coming upon a bridge over the Grand Canyon, ringed by double arcs of rainbows, this is a day for the United States to see a way through the darkness and weakness that have cloaked our country for the last many years.

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha'olam, asher kiddishanu ve'ki'imanu ve'higi'anu laz'man hazeh.

Blessed are you our master, god and king of the world, who has blessed us, sustained us and brought us to these times.

Palin's America: A Nation of Small People

2008-10-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

There are different forms of evil. My post earlier today, in the form of official misinformation, was one. The picture to your left is another, more primitive one.

Sarah Palin talks the "pro-America parts of the country." Her America (although her quote sources say a lot about her pedigree) is far different from mine. The problem with her rhetoric is that it spawns the kind of Balkan 'stanism' creating the splits we've worked for decades to heal. And in tearing at our nation's scars, she, and the other fanatics of the right, are weakening the entire body politic, at a time it needs unity, not divisiveness.

Here's another example of race and allegience in the radical Republican mind. Check out the image to the left, and then please click on the image to visit Cagle's site and read the full story.

It's been a disturbing day in terms of news. AndI hope, unfortunately, it disturbs you at least as much.

Voter Fraud: Who Wanted, and Who's Wanted?

2008-10-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

The voter fraud issues raised in Ohio have existed since, well, since well before the famous Chicago line: "vote early and often!" Ballot stuffing, flyers distributed in poor areas telling people that "their voting day" was the day after the elections, and other voting-day trickery, have been around for decades, if not centuries.

As I'm writing this, an example of voter fraud (IMHO) is apparently being perpetrated by folks in the Williamson County Elections office itself (a Republican county under "attack" by Democrats):

Falsehoods:
"...to make sure voting goes smoothly. Straight party voters, especially Democrats and Libertarian, will need to check all races. Some races do not have candidates from the Libertarian and Democratic parties."
"A voter can vote Straight Party and have all of their votes count. They can also vote straight party and then select every Democrat again, if they so choose. What WILL cancel a Democratic selection is if they cast a vote for Republican in a contest, but it will only cancel their Democratic selection for that race and that race only."

Truth:
If you do not wish to vote a straight party vote, you must mark each individual candidate for whom you wish to vote, and then cast your ballot. If you select straight party line, and thne check individual candidates, this could cancel your vote for those candidates [assumedly because this would be "two votes" for the candidate?]"

(Paraphrased from an email sent today by the Jaime Lynn campaign to all registered Democrats in the candidate's area.)

Misinformations are frequently characterized as innocent mistakes, but the mistakes frequently come from the incumbent party defending its turf.

On the other hand, registration fraud issues are more an expression of overzealous or ignorant voters and voracious, paid voter registration workers. Both are problems, but not as bad as they are made out to be by the parties.

An enthusiastic but uninformed voter might, for example, register to vote at the mall, then register again if approached by a campaign's volunteer in their neighborhood, for example. Or they might think that if they register twice, they can vote twice. A registration worker, paid per completed registration, might 'fudge the data' for the sake of a few (or many) extra bucks. These folks should be prosecuted for their offences.

The registration process, to be clear, is separate from the actual voting verification. For example, if I register multiple times, when I get to my polling place, the printouts (or screens, depending on the state), my voter registration card is checked against the list. If I've registered several times, duplicates are apparent. The harder to check ones are underaged or dead people who are registered, but their ability to impact an election, especially a national election, would require vast numbers of conspirators operating in very large areas.

So: punish the greedy, watch local government election officials that might try and rig elections through misinformation or purges of voter lists against erroneous felon or other lists, and ultimately focus on the voting day safeguards, and not on the registration process. Focus is important these days.

Last Anecdote and Observations

2008-10-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

This evening I spoke with the owner of a wine store. He said that my sales are actually up compared to the last three months of last year. I'm getting a lot more customers buying by the glass, as opposed to people coming in to buy bottles and take them home. I get a better profit on the per-glass sales.

Sure, this isn't anything as scientific as something Angelo Angelou could put together in Central Texas. Or what the big marketing firms could query and sort on. But it is, I think, a fair snapshot of life in this new economy. People are spending about the same, but smarter, or in different ways, or more tactically. That bottle at home is better spent as three glasses at the bar, with friends. Topping off the gas tank feels less like a fill-up, even if the cost is the same (or greater, factoring the time to drive to the station).

The next hit will come when the retail credit dries up, and that, I think is part of why the government today focused its energy on unfreezing the credit markets. Because 80% of retail sales happen between October 15 and January 15, and what happens in the next three months will permanently impact who is in business, and how they will sell, in nine months. And without ready credit for retailers to purchase goods to sell, or factors to handle the accounts receivable from credit card sales, this will probably be the first true "Black" holiday period in a very long time.

More Anecdotes from the Texas Main Street

2008-10-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to talk with three folks representing what I think are interesting data points regarding the economic situation and its effects over the last three weeks. Again, comments are paraphrases, not quotes:

From a car repair place: Business is about the same... but folks are being more careful about what they're repairing. And they're holding off on repairs, especially if they have high deductibles.

Top Line Liquor From a liquor store owner: I'm still selling. But people (gestures toward single malt scotches), are buying the cheaper stuff, not the expensive. (Points at the bargain, economy priced bourbons and scotches.) More like these, and less (waves hand upward to the $70 bottles) like those. But hey, things will get better eventually. I'm downgrading this guy from owner to manager... clearly he hasn't looked at credit terms lately.

What's interesting is that I'm getting a fairly homogenous set of responses (this post and the last) in terms of the economic impact. Everyone seems to be getting hedgy with their investments. Everyone seems to be acting, if not executing, on a more conservative, less confident, track.

I think this is how the 1929 crash started, except they didn't have folks like me making connections quite as fast. (No, that's not a reason to self-sensor!) I predict we'll get to the 8,000 range well before the winter holidays. Unless Obama gets elected, in which case all bets, unfortunately, are off. At least with McCain/Sarah [mammoth hunter] Palin we know where we're headed. [Okay, that was partisan, but if you've been reading this blog... you know where I stand.]

Anecdotal Observations from Main Street

2008-10-02T17:18:00.001-07:00

I've been collecting comments from people running or managing retail businesses, to see what changes consumers have been made.

From a gas station manager: People are pumping differently. They're not filling up, but I see them around more often. They're topping off, like on their way home and stuff.

From a hair stylist: Business is down. Not during the weekends, then we're real busy. But people aren't coming around during the day. Like now (gestured at the empty store): between like one and five in the afternoon it's totally dead.

From a supermarket manager: Overall receipts hasn't changed. But people are buying less each time, and coming more often instead. And they're coming in more with shopping lists; they're not shopping casually.

People are talking about Main Street, and the reality of the economic impact on plain folks. These observations, to me, mirror more the crisis of confidence precipitating the Great Depression rather than technical credit crisis. 401(k)s, pension plans and the credit markets will eventually recover, with or without a government bailout (and yes, I still think it's a bailout, no matter what the pundits might opine). The crisis that has to be overcome now is the one of consumer confidence, and there are several relatively inexpensive, non-pork ways to ameliorate consumer fears:

Eliminate short stock purchases. Period.
Extend unemployment benefits to a full year.
Freeze all foreclosures for the next eighteen months, and have local bankers, a representative from the mortgage company and the homeowners sit down and try and figure out how not to foreclose on the property. The feds should give local banks (not parent companies, or at a national level) funds relative to the mortgage stresses in that area to help underwrite these new loans. Only after there's no agreement, or it's clear the homeowner would be unable to pay even a reworked mortgage, would the foreclosure continue.
Underwrite 'pay for play' programs, where unemployed people who successfully complete training and certification courses have a free ride -- but are personally liable for the courses if they do not complete them (this cuts the ITT Tech student loan scam out of the loop).

There are other ideas, ones that we'd need to think about, ideas that might not be right for every region of the country, but workable in some. But what we really need is time. Time not to rush, time not to act hastily. And if that results, as President Bush said last week, in the loss of $1.4 trillion in "value" to the country, in the form of a loss of stock value, then so be it.

Calm, thoughtful action is economically more prudent than rash, panicky and doom-driven action.

Quick Funny from a Friend's Neighbor

2008-10-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

The Veep debate will be quite the hoot. For you Dems, here's a drinking game. If any Republicans have a matching game for Biden, please forward it to me and I'll put it up alongside this one!

P.S. I made one fix: she had Gov. Palin's son's name as "Track," so the line didn't work. Mine's snarkier.

SARAH PALIN DEBATE DRINKING GAME

Every time Sarah Palin refers to John McCain as a "maverick,” chug a Red Bull while lassoing an unbranded calf.
Every time Sarah Palin cites her executive experience, fix yourself a Bloody Mary.
Anytime Sarah Palin gets lost in her “verbiage” (see Hannity interview), throw a lifesaver towards the TV to rescue Palin from drowning in her half-baked thoughts and unfinished sentences.
If Sarah Palin mentions lipstick, apply enough lipstick to leave an imprint on your drinking glass.
Every time “bailout” is mentioned, finish your drink, pour yourself an even stronger one and apply an icepack to your head.
Every time Sarah Palin alludes to Alaska’s proximity to Russia, mix a Black Russian for your neighbor. If she includes a mention of “Putin rearing his head,” add cream to make it a White Russian the color of Putin’s skin.
Whenever Sarah Palin mentions “not blinking,” toast your neighbor with “Here’s mud in your eye.” If “not blinking” is brought up when discussing how she would handle Russia, put on sunglasses that will help prevent blindness when the nuclear bombs start going off.
If Sarah Plain mentions her recent speed-dating outing with world leaders, mix yourself a Cosmopolitan. Add an extra shot of vodka if this is when she mentions Russia.
Every time Sarah Palin cites her record as a reformer, open a bottle of Sam Adams. If Palin describes John McCain as a reformer, try to think of something other than campaign finance that McCain has successfully pushed through Congress while downing your Sam Adams.
If Sarah Palin denies that Global Warming is man-made, combine ice cream, sponge cake and meringue to make a Baked Alaska. Serve to all Debate Party guests.
If Sarah Palin mentions her pregnant daughter Bristol, take of sip of Harvey’s Bristol Cream. If she mentions her son Trig, calculate the size of the (remaining) Arctic Ice Cap and pop open a cold one.
If Sarah Palin mentions that she played high school basketball, dribble into your glass. If she adds that playing sports will give women economic empowerment (yep, she’s stated this), find the recipe to and then mix a Harvey Wallbanger.
If Sarah Palin accuses the media, Joe Biden or Barack Obama of a cheap shot, down a shot of your own choosing.
If Sarah Palin mentions Cindy McCain, knock back a Bud.
Every time Sarah Palin does something that will be mocked by Tina Fey on the next Saturday Night Live, put on a pair of glasses to enjoy a good ol’ “Live From New York…” libation, be it a Manhattan or a Long Island Iced Tea.
If Sarah Palin refers to her husband as “First Dude,” gag and spit out your drink.
Clink glasses whenever you remember that Joe Biden is participating in this debate, too.
If you are a teetotaler, the prospect of a Palin Presidency should make you start drinking copious amounts of alcohol during Thursday’s debate.

I'd love to see the Republican view of this: Please, bring 'em on!

Not to waste your time, but...

2008-10-01T21:30:00.000-07:00

A video worth seeing!

Shifting to as Serious a Topic

2008-09-24T21:38:00.001-07:00

The hanging of an effigy of Barack Obama at a Christian university brings into sharp focus one of the odder issues in this election. Obama is a self-confessed Christian, no less one than McCain.

Both are struggling with their actions as opposed to their alligences. Obama, with anti-abortion and other 'leftist' stances (even silly, made up ones). McCain has similar problems. Southern Baptists, the folks who evilly brought you Messianic Judaism [1] [2] [3] [4], aren't quite happy with his less than Evangelical attitudes, although he's been their best candidate even throughout the Republican primaries: even Mormon Mitt has a looser attitude than McCain, who has opposed same-sex marriage, civil unions, or even live-in partner rights to medical insurance.

Prejudice against a Black American, against a suspiciously non-Anglo Christian, are deep-rooted. The KKK is only one of the ugly cancers that have erupted from the skin of the American psyche. Much more common, and more subtle, are the Muslim insinuation against Obama, even going to the push-poll questions that mangle his name on purpose to slip suspicion and doubt into the vapid White American voter.

Nooses, effigies and other "subtle" signs don't work in their stagers' favor: Americans have had fifty years experience with understanding the real meaning behind these formerly powerful symbols. Unfortunately for the beleaguered McCain operation, these idiots play into Obamas, not his, hands. And the best thing McCain can do is either ignore them, or revile them: both of which strengthen the hand of the left.

As usual, the lunatic right, with its symbols bereft of contextual reality, come out the losers. I'd much prefer an articulate lunatic like David Duke than these fringe nutters: David, at least, made for good and focused press. These idiots are shades of the 1950's. And we all know how that played out in the end.

Instant Feedback on Bush Speech

2008-09-24T18:09:00.000-07:00

Everything listed by the President may happen even with a massive bailout. Given the amount at risk, I suggest the following alternative plan:

Wait until after the elections to do anything other than take the time to analyze the models and consequences of economic programs
Ignore the bad loans: let the institutions that took the risk take the consequences
Take the $700B and invest it in new loans to small- to medium-sized businesses, and to ensure the continued operation of student loans
Have the SEC, FBI and any other federal agency investigate every decision-maker in companies responsible for getting us into this debacle. Engage in a 'De-Baathification' process, keeping the guilty from ever working in the financial industry again.

One last comment.The President called our capitalism the best economic ever devised. For once, I agree with him. But that means that the profits of capitalistic endeavours must be matched by taking responsibilities for losses incurred when engaging in free market activities.

The Money Shot

2008-09-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

A quick post: expect follow-ups on this. I've been watching the (selective) bailouts by the government, with my money, to "save" investment companies that have knowingly thrown themselves over the cliff. They've created the same derivative monster that shook the market back in 2001-2002, only this time with real dollars at risk. Taxpayer dollars. Now the current administration, knowing full well that whatever they come up with will fall to the next administration to execute, is preparing a gazillion-dollar bailout package, details, implications and oversight all to be determined. Some simple questions (which I'll drill down on in the coming days):

So... what if we let the chips fall where they may? Will I still be able to buy a loaf of bread?
If they're using taxpayer funds to purchase taxpayer assets, can't the government just issue us stock certificates in the corporation that will have to own those securities?
If I rip someone off, I get prosecuted. Wall Street execs, money managers, hedge fund gurus and their ilk in many cases knowingly 'sold short,' or packaged and hid bad debt in complex, multi-corporate moves (anyone remember Enron?). Where are the indictments? Where's the FBI? I wanna see handcuffs! Lots of them!
Even fiscal conservatives and free market freaks are talking regulation. Let's start by doing what Bush did (badly) in Iraq: de-Baathification trials for all involved. Every executive with fiduciary responsibility for cleaning up this mess has to first prove that she or he was not part of making the mess. And furthermore, that they will not profit, other than salary, in cleaning things up. And not own stock in any company (except through double-blind trusts) during their work and for five years after completing helping with the bailout.

That would be a good start.

Hah! Palin, Obama, Lipstick, and fast boats

2008-09-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Funny commentary on how lipstick, pigs, pitbulls and donkeys are part of the political mash. Gotta love the deft hand of Rove in the campaign!

Who's Next?

2008-09-03T11:48:00.000-07:00

Iran continues to build its nuclear capacity, while North Korea has apparently returned to its evil machinations and is putting back together what little it agreed to dismantle.

This is the poisoned fruit of the Bush administration's tree. Remember phrase "punish the innocent and reward the guilty?" Sure, Saddam's government was guilty of many things. But not WMD. And certainly not of 9/11. But better to show strength, flog a perceived threat (and clean up daddy's unfinished business and snag a little oil), than actually tackle a serious enemy.

By serious enemy I am referring to the two "Axis of Evil" countries that would entail serious military operations to subdue, and even greater resources to control over the long term. Our military has chewed through billions of pork barrel project dollars, including absurd amounts on 'Star Wars' technology, at the expense of better pay and benefits to recruit more soldiers to the ranks, or practical technologies to protect the troops in the field.

As America's coin in the world declines, other countries will slip into the resulting vacuum. China, with its economic buying power. Russia, with it's kleptocratic power. It's a dark gloom into which we slide, even with a changing of the guard expected in Washington. And the spirit of change, while an instantiatable ideal in America, will in now way auger for a sea change in the threats to America and the world from fanatics who care more about their power than their people.

Maybe we'll need those nuclear space lasers and Star Wars technology after all...

Palin Revisionism

2008-09-03T09:53:00.000-07:00

I edited my previous post, "The Palin Paradox," after seeing that (a) I was getting a lot of hits from a right-wing blog called "Eagle Forum Alaska," and (b) said blog pulled their post. That post championed Governor Palin's embracing abstinence-only education. My comment (now redacted because of the broken link) pointed out that Governor Palin wholeheartedly embraced the Bush policies on not teaching any sex education other than not having any (my definition, not theirs).

We all know the best way to do quiet people is through denial, right? C'mon, stand up for your values! The Big Lie won't work, since the Eagle's posting data is found in many other places. And the Big Distraction didn't work, as Gustav fizzled out.

The brave thing to do, the moral thing to do, is to honestly champion what you, and your governor, believe in. So put the page back up, where we can all read it!

The Palin Paradox

2008-09-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

The conundrum of Bristol Palin's pregnancy is a great snapshot of modern American views on sex education:

"Good girls" do. (Are there "bad girls?")
Lust trumps sex ed
Parents, even governors, can't stop kids from having sex
And, of course, pregnancy is a rational consequence of sex!

I'm pleased that Bristol's parents are behind her. And that the father has (a) stepped forward and (b) will do the "right" thing and marry her. It's a great lesson for parents that would otherwise distance themselves from the little trollop (their POV, not mine), or do some other non-linear thing.

I'd like conservative or religious readers to think for a moment, and then comment on the following question: how can sex education and/or policy be changed so as to decrease the chances that other daughters of religious families get pregnant? At what point is it a better choice to explain prophylactics (physical or chemical) over the chance of an unplanned pregnancy?.

The Anti-Christ is Here (Thank God!)

2008-08-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Wow. I didn't know I was rooting for the antichrist. I mean, as a Jew with a sharp tongue, I certainly _hope_ I'm rooting for the other guy. Just not that one. Whatever he stands for. Our people have no connection to 'The Rapture,' a construct of 19th century umm, passionate people. I disingenuously paused, because, again, as a Jew, the whole thing is hooey to me. We didn't have a 1st coming, so the second one makes no sense. We have no hell, only the absence of being part of God. There's no purgatory. No wacky 'what SHALL we do with all these unbelievers.' No fire, no brimstone. [Full disclosure: while Christianity is fully Thanotic (death- and afterlife-focused), Judaism does refer to this life as the 'prosdor' (literally: the hallway) and the next life as the room. But we Jews get do-overs in the form of reincarnation, and a chance for our souls to make right what we failed in previous lives.]

The Obama = Nicholae Carpathia idea is hideous. It's hateful, paranoid, and smacks of all the things for which the KKK was and is reviled. The Nazis used fear of the Jew, the unknown, the other to kill my family. And the hateful, prejudiced, zealots aligned with the McCain campaign are using the exact same tactics now, in 2008.

Debate is great. McCain certainly presents a different set of options to Obama. I welcome discussions of substance, of the priorities, strategies and even tactics of the two candidates in solving our upcoming problems. But bringing religion into this is a wedge designed to scare the Evangelical, the dim-witted, or those that bought the last lie: that Obama is actually a Muslim. Not that that is wrong in any way! (I'd love to see a Muslim President! He'd be just as fair as Kennedy was, as a Catholic, in a majority Protestant country.)

Perversions and Perverts

2008-08-06T23:25:00.000-07:00

The perversions of Amerikans frustrates me. Today there was a story on CNN (see link) referring to a "swinger" group that coerced children into having sex.

Rampant sexuality scares people; definitions are definitely in order!

Swinging is between consenting adults. Pedophilia is adults on children.
Swinging involves consenting adults. Children, by definition, cannot consent.
Swinging is between singles and couples. Pedophilia is sexual assault on a child.

Please, don't anyone think I approve of swinging personally. IMHO, marriage is between consenting adults, for the purpose of entering into a long-term relationship with a loved one. Or several. And "swinging" is for fornication with (sometimes randomly selected) people with whom there isn't such a relationship. Morally, ethically (and, if there are kids involved, as a parent) I object.

But swinging is not pedophilia. And trying to mix the two together perverts, a very basic level, grownup decisions, however misguided, with violent sexual assault on children.

The case is before the courts is about the rape, pedophilia and illegal acts committed by the Mineola Swinger's Club, which clearly consists not of consenting adults, but sick child rapists. But the media, not making the distinction between 'swingers' and 'pedophiles,' commits a grave sin of omission. It's the media's sacred responsibility to tell the truth, even if it's not socially or conventionally convenient. Swingers, open marriages, gays, lesbians, polyamous couples and others all exist in the real world. We might not all agree or believe in their legitimacy, but it's a cruel punishment to besmirth a societally unpopular label with the grotesque tar of rape.

Shame, shame, shame!

May His Name be Blessed

2008-06-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

I generally regard 'News Fleas' as being replaceable and generally irrelevant, but Tim Russert's untimely death has thrown a wrench into my asinine assumption.

Each generation has its cadre of honest, blunt, frank and otherwise weatherbeaten tellers of truth. Tim was one of them, and, especially in this charged election year, he will be missed. Perhaps more than in decades past, where the differences between candidates were accented, rather than blurred, Mr. Russert was a speaker to power, and an honest reflection of the vaunted and villified 'man on the street.' He asked the questions we would never be able to phrase, given candidate management systems and infrastrutures build specifically to keep their lauded 'chosen one' from having to respond to the direct spear thrust of the honest question.

Tim spoke truth to power, and, like the Jewish "Ethics of the Fathers," was the one who asked the blatant questions where others feared to go. We need more like him, even more now that he is gone.

Baruch Dayan Emet. And may God help us see the truth from the lies this fall.

2B, or not 2B: Work permits are the question

2008-05-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

H-1B visas, which permit foreign professionals of various ilks to work legally in the US, were all issued by late winter. H-2B visas, essentially created for migrant farm laborers, were sunset when Congress let a key provision lapse.

Let's consider the implications:

We have national shortages of doctors, nurses and all manner of technical professionals. For example, HMOs have squashed the profitability out of these careers. $60,000 is a lot of money, but for the work a nurse must do for years to reach that lofty number, it's almost better to get into sales, or something equally less messy and regimented. $60k for someone from the Philipines or Pakistan is a huge boon: for people with a work ethic, this means they can support entire extended families back home. That's not a slam: even accounting for the weak dollar, the standard of living in these countries is much lower than for the United States.
Picking grapes or tomatoes is back-breaking work. For the extremely low pay proffered, only people who can't flip burgers, greet people at Wal*Mart, or wrangle carts at the grocery story would apply. To say nothing of the gas bill they'd incur just getting to and from the farms.

Americans are supposed to have choices, and our alleged free market system currently gives more choices to people in hedge funds, finance and arcane niche careers. For the millions worried about their chances of enjoying their old age, the current economic climate does not, to say the least, bode well.

Refunds and Recipients

2008-04-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

Let's do a little math, shall we? Uncle Sam, in the name of "economic stimulation," is giving each of us $600, plus $300 per child, of our own money back, to help pull our economy back from the brink.

Let's see where that goes...

Eighteen months ago gas prices in, oh, say Baltimore, were low. about $2.12 a gallon. That's about the time agribusiness started spooling up for the great ethanol ripoff.

Price now: $3.55. So, assuming 12,000 miles a year, that's 18,000 miles times. At an average of 21.9 MPG, that's $1,060.27 more for the next 18 months, assuming (LOL) that the price of gas won't rise any more.

That's the big gorilla. For those of you not afflicted with a car, here's a small one:

Got Milk? Got Money? According to a NY Daily News article in January, milk prices are up 36% year-to-year. So what was $3.18 is now $4.41. I guess it's a good thing we're using less of it, since cows are eating corn that would otherwise be used for ethanol.

Makes a great case for breastfeeding and leaving it at that, only the cost of soybeans has also risen, due to the diversion of acreage to growing corn for ethanol instead of food. But these are trivial rises.

Bottom line: the $1,800 a family of four (with two cars) would receive from the government's economic stimulus package melts, just opposite the $2,120 in additional cost just from gas increases, not to mention all the other food and essential goods increases.

So if someone wants to stimulate the economy, I have the following suggestions:

Stop making ethanol from corn. It's increasing food prices all over the world, and competing with feed corn for livestock and milk production.
Put negative price pressure on the cost of a barrel of oil. Price increases are a function of purchase of oil on the spot market; refineries and distributors peg their increases to them.
Oil companies are engaging in profiteering. While Libertarians might rejoice in this exercise of the free market at work, it puts an incredible burden on those of us who depend on this liquid for our lives. Trucks, trains, planes, automobiles, generators... you know, civilization as Americans like it? If an electric trading company decided it wanted to play with the cost of electricity... oh, wait: Enron! Anyone seeing this? ExxonMobil's excessive profits are at the cost of the entire US economy, and if the government really wants to loosen the pressure on it's citizenry, getting prices audited and under control is a big deal. (And before anyone talks about price control, realize that cutting Strategic Reserves oil stocks loose is a direct form of price control as well.)

Well? What are you doing sitting around? Go and tell people!

Teen Sex Here!

2008-04-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

The blogosphere and the press, even the former Grey Lady, are atwitter with pictures of Hannah Montana's naked back on Vanity Fair. And references to her wearing a green bra that was visible under her shirt. Compare this to the ability for the public -- anyone in the public -- to see girls or women with backs naked but for a single strand of fabric for the back of a bikini top. This isn't even about sexy -- except in the way in which visual innuendo inflames minds.

I'm not sure what disturbs me more: parents that give their children up to be sexualized and prostituted by the mass media, or the corporations that pimp out underaged children and then, mortified by their sexualization, make even more money on the rebound.

The Spears' clan? Multiple children.

Compare this to the way the Jackson Five were "exploited." Or the Partridge Family. How did the child cast of "Sound of Music" work their teenage lives?

Sure, kids in the spotlight have been around since well before Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. And child actors have self-destructed because of the glare of the limelight -- or the demons lurking in the shadows. But the machinery and money around children, along with the dual fascination for sexy tweens and concurrent prurience around sex, make for a toxic environment for children with the lethal combination of talent and good -- or at least well marketed -- looks.

The Golden Compass Can't Find North

2007-12-12T10:29:00.000-08:00

As a firm disbeliever in anything dogmatic, and one who rarely takes things "on faith," I initially snorted at the Catholic League's well-reasoned denouncement of The Golden Compass. (Okay, the trailer, with a sinuous Nicole Kidman and very impressive graphics also more than held my interest.)

I read the first book, then saw the movie. Then read the other two books.

Cinematically, the movie of the first book in the Dark Matter trilogy is badly reminiscent of the Harry Potter movies. If you haven't read the book, the movie barely skitters across the time alloted, and does not do the book (or the author) justice. It was clear that, aside from any well-publicized crises of angst by the director, that Hollywood definitely bent the book. Almost severed it (that's an inside phrase, and a spoiler).

The second and third books of the Dark Matter trilogy definitely bear out the worries of those representing dogmatic, doctrinal religion. I can't see Unitarians griping about it, but hierarchical religions should definitely see this as an attack not only of their system of governance, but on theism itself.

I have more objections to this series, aimed at children, than the Narnia books (to be fair, I've only read the first two in the series). In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one can choose to ignore the Christian references in the book: it's a lion, pretty vs. ugly is a Hollywood prejudice, who cares how many days the lion lies injured/tortured... It's not much different from Starman, which is much more the prototypical Christian story than even Narnia. But greatest stories ever told (whether the "original" was fiction or not) are common movie riffs.

In the Dark Matter trilogy, Pullman makes a cogent case against theism. It's not just calling for deicide (killing of god) -- it brings in negative stereotypes like the almost successful pederast priest and the essential evil of those charged with teaching morals. It mocks angels, portraying them as gentle, delicate, homosexual lovers.

There are many reasons to poke fun at religion, to question it, to question one religion over another. But Pullman's books take the dark matter of theologic dogma to the edge -- and then distastefully over it, to the level of 'discourse' similar to portraying Islam's Mohammad with porcine qualities.

My only hope is that Hollywood manages to as effectively neuter the second and third movies as "well" as they did the first, since clearly this first movie was only a portent of things to come, and not a work that stands on its own -- unlike even the least of the Harry Potter movies.

Teheran Victory and NIE Assumptions

2007-12-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Training Iraqi insurgents? Check.
Providing military hardware? Check.
Giving cover to Shi'ite extremists when folks come a'knockin' at their door? Yup.
Nuke-u-lar bomb makers? Sez who?

The National Intelligence Estimate, released yesterday, provided fodder for almost every point of view in the Iran discussion. Almost all these compass points, however, are belaboring under self-imposed delusions.

The President and his sycophants showcased it as a success of their pressure, even though National Intelligence Estimate dates Iran's cessation of activities to 2003, when the biggest threat was not a direct one to Iran, but a 'flinch,' in all probability, to the invasion of Iraq. I guess technically Bush is correct -- but we can't be in a constant state of war with Iran's neighbors to expect good behavior from them.

Iran, of course, heralded this as a victory against the United States. But they probably heralded the insane Omaha mall killer as a strike against fascist Amerika, so his pronouncements are probably not worth heralding. This is also a great coup for them on the military front, since it deflects, in the fickle, ADD media world, Iran's huge investment in destabilizing Afghanistan and arming and training Iraqi militants. So long as it's not nuclear, it doesn't count!

Bloggers, always keen to have fun, have added this to the list of reasons not to live in America. Silly, but accurate as far as it goes. America is imponderably puzzling to non-residents; it's local, State and Federal laws ebbing, flowing and conflicting in an amazing, unpredictable rhythm.

Serious analysts have bemoaned America's foreign policy towards Iran since before the uprising against the Shah. They are right in their plaints; Iran has been interfered with as long as every other country in the Middle East: since the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Infidel British.

The reality is that Iran is playing the spoiler in many fronts: Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Where it can't win, it can disrupt. Where it can't disrupt, it can foment. And it will not change its stripes until the people, heretofore subdued, subjugated and scared into silence, raise their democratic voices and bring reason and logic, for which Persians have been known for millenia, back to their part of the Middle East.

The New Medical Privacy

2007-07-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

I did a pre-employment drug test recently for a new position -- my first drug test in my multi-decade career. I was past the indignance of my previous decade and the puzzlement I might have experienced the decade before that. After all, for all my 'interesting' background, drug use has been anathematic to my life. Not that it was anyone's business but my own.

The company -- Concerna -- had an oozy enough name that I was somewhat tense coming in the door. Inside were over a dozen people. Some waiting for pre-employment drug screening, others for OSHA-injury analysis. Behind the counter was a highly proceduralized crew of people that reminded me of all those late-night "you too can be a medical industry professional" advertisements. Lots of on-the-spot training, scrubs on people that clearly didn't use them, and a sense of grime all about the place. I didn't sit in any of the rows of chairs. I guy in a 3-piece suit (very out of place in this part of the country) kept walking in and out of the back office area. Smug, with a little soul patch/landing strip kind of beard.

Clearly, I went in seeing baggage. I filled out the forms, then waited as they input them (asking me for the spelling of every field, as reading didn't seem to be the clerk's strong suite). Then they gave me some forms to sign. One of them read (paraphrased here), in large letters "Signing this cover letter means have read and accepted the terms of our privacy agreement." I shuffled papers -- didn't see anything like that. I asked the person behind the counter where it was.

"Um, we have one if you'd like to read it."

"Of course I want to read it," I said, "you're asking me to sign that I read it."

She fought the filing cabinet for a couple of minutes, then came up with a form. "Here it is," she said (mechanically) brightly.

"Do you often have people ask for the form?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah," she said, "all the time."

If so, I'd guess she probably didn't give it to 'em often. She didn't know where it was.

I read the form. At no point did it mention the HIPAA acronym. Don't get me wrong, HIPAA doesn't mean your or my privacy is ensured. But at least there's a nod to the processes and procedures involved.

I called the number for the privacy officer and got immediately bumped to voicemail. Pressed zero, then asked for the Concerna's Privacy Officer. That led to a different voice mail. I left a message.

To Concerna's credit (and this is a good thing), she did call me back within ten minutes.

"So, I had a question," I said. "Are you HIPAA compliant?"

"What's on the form details our privacy statement," she said.

"Um, yeah, but are you HIPAA compliant?"

She paused. "We are reasonably compliant with HIPAA," she said.

Knowing when to fold, as Kenny Rogers pointed it, is a good thing. The woman was upset that the lab didn't give me the paper, or wanted me to sign without seeing it. She took down the number and location of the lab ("we have so many; I don't know all of them," she said) and promised a training update to get them up to speed.

There's no point in trying to reason with 'jack in the box' medical labs. They sell a commodity service to employers, and location and price are the determinants. But to employers, caring about whether their employee information is private should be a priority. And "Concentra is reasonably compliant with HIPAA...and privacy regulations" (quote from their web site) is not, in my professional opinion, good enough.

HIPAA compliance either is or isn't. It's like 2/3 pregnant -- comply with regulations, or fall short. My social security number, birth date and drivers license number are in the hands of a company that might or might not comply with Federally mandated regulations (pathetic, in light of identity theft).

Employers have a duty to ensure that their subcontractors and vendors adhere to at least the level of privacy that their customers expect from them.

Puppet Journalism

2007-07-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

When Nasrallah speaks, the world listens, even if he speaks idiocy. "I believe Israel could have been behind [the two incidents in which Spanish and Columbian UN troops were killed]." No doubt that's why his group is escorting UNIFIL soldiers so they're not hit by Al-Queda IEDs.

There's no thought to reality testing his claims, or refuting them (or even discussing them) in the article (look here). This is an example of the kind of idiot journalism that has come to symbolize this generation's journalists. After all, if you talk back, question, or disagree with a Famous Name, at best you won't be invited for any exclusive interviews! (At worst, it's fatwa time!)

Yes, Israeli could have been behind the killings of the UN soldiers (no doubt it would be easier to accomplish when they take their R&R in Israel, which is where they go). Israel also could secretly be transmitting mind control signals to the Iranian President through its squirrel spies, or, equally probably, using nuclear space lasers to melt the ice caps so as to drown the Arab countries' shoreline populations and oil terminals. Oh, please, would someone quote an unnamed former Israeli intelligence source as saying that?

We depend on journalists to report news. Idiotic babble does not rise to that level and should not be quoted. Maybe if public officials were only quoted when they made sense, they would speak more rationally (and sparingly!). On speak, but not be heard, which, all in all, isn't a bad thing.

Writing Haitus

2007-07-21T11:34:00.000-07:00

News and RL have a way of overwhelming a blog. So many issues, so little patience.

I'd lust like to draw your attention to Israel's latest attempt to prove the hypothesis that repeating an experiment without changing any variables will not create different results. By this I mean that the release of prisoners to attempt to garner 'favor' with corrupt and weak regimes.

The Freedom of Speech as a Dull, Blunt Object

2007-04-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

A straight-A high school student was arrested for turning in a disturbing creative writing assignment, which included visions of mass killings with a pistol and necrophilia.

School: Danger! Virginia Tech! Alternative learning center, criminal charges, brou hah hah!
Student: Just being creative! Lookit the assignment! (Check out his hometown paper article on the subject and his comments on it.)

They're both right, and the issue lies with the technical vs. temporally cultural definition of "free speech." (I'm gonna get in trouble with this one: I've got a bro-in-law who's a constitutional law professor).

I'd argue that if this student had written this in 1999, before Columbine1 and before VT, it would have come off as weird, sick, and perhaps resulted (if the teacher really cared) in a referral to the school shrink.

Now, after seeing what high capacity magazines and sick twisted minds can do, that same piece is a giant red flag for possibly aberrant behavior. And this kid should "suffer" the consequences of stupidity, the same as a person who yells "fire" in a crowded movie theater.

No, there's no implied threat from the student. But there doesn't need to be one for someone to see the writing as a warning sign that a person is capable of homicidal fury. After all, when a child is found to engage in animal cruelty, especially serial animal killings, it's a sign this person may grow up to be a serial killer. It's a known, established track. And if the writer happens to be a high school or college student, caveat emptor: find something equally creative but less disturbing to write about.

In each generation we learn more about the 'tells' that indicate what a person might do. Twenty years ago was the animal thing. After Columbine, we learned that a young person's writings had weight in terms of their future actions. That Virginia Tech outstripped Columbine in sheer numbers of martyred students was only due to some mistakes on the part of the perpetrators of the Columbine massacre2.

At this point, we can't take that chance with our youth. The Illinois student deserves not just reprobation, but punishment. And counseling, for in every fantasy there is the grain of truth.

Having said that, it would be great if Americans could see past their own borders to the magnitude of tragedy overseas. What I'm about to say has nothing to do with my opinion of the President's Iraq policy. We read on a daily basis about the tragedies that befall the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been two incidents involving students in schools in the last month. The total murmur on this in the general media has been body count and then moving on. To the children maimed or traumatized by being bombed, to the parents of those children, these events will change their lives forever. Helping them overcome or heal from those wounds is every bit as important as helping the survivors of the Virginia Tech or Columbine shootings. For all the money we're pouring into Iraq in terms of bribes, generator and food handouts, and other 'calming actions,' helping these kids and their families is a greater and more powerful way for us to minimize the chance that they, some day, do not turn into hatred-fueled perpetrators of massacres of their own.

I'm including Pearl River and all other school shootings throughout the world when I say "Columbine"

Kliebold and associate had over 40 bombs set up in lockers and in two cars, placed so they would cause maximum casualties to police and ambulance responders -- but they didn't realize the alarm clocks they'd used had plastic instead of metal minute hands, which meant the circuits (thankfully) did not connect. The bombs were found and diffused after the last bullets had been fired. More on that here.

Nappy Hair, Rap and Virginia Tech

2007-04-17T21:55:00.000-07:00

In a seven day span that has seen a talk show host who built his career as a shock jock have his career ended (for the moment) and national Black figures finally talking about accountability for misogynistic rap "artists," the horrific attack at Virginia Tech has pointed out the next real need for media improvement.

I'm not trying to compare any of the above in terms of impact. Of course my heart goes out to the victims, their families, and the entire staff and student body at Virginia Tech. It's healthy for the nation to join in their sorrow, to have a connection with their anguish, and to have the opportunity to help them feel a little less alone at a time like this.

What the media -- all the media -- have done is to create the kind of second-hand PTSD effect that we had with the 9/11 attacks: rerunning the traumatic sounds and sights on television, radio and the web. Splashing the picture of the lunatic responsible for the carnage, and focusing on the little details of a life he ended, dragging innocent victims along with him.

This coverage, the drilling in on the evil, the violence, the technical execution of this act, has the effect of diminishing the focus on the survivors and victim families in the name of 'ear share' or 'eyeballs.' Revelling in the pornography of this demented person's violence advances no causes, heals no wounds and provides no solace or closure. It inflames, incites formless anger and rage, or the kind of sadness that only helplessness can bring.

I can shield my children from the news at home or in the car, but the ever-pervasive media reaches beyond my hands clutching at their eyes and ears. I want to spare them from this far more than I wanted to spare my young children at the time from Clinton's 'little black dress' and explanations of sex positions at too young an age.

As a nation we have to stop. Stop our unholy fascination for violence and its depiction in audio or video formats. Stop our obsession with guns (and this as a pro-carry supporter -- they're tools, not fetish objects).

We must also start. Start paying attention to the "loners," the "losers," the children or adults that have come adrift in the midst of our lives. It takes a village to have a village, not just to raise children. In Jewish Shtetls a century ago, every village idiot had a place to turn to for food, for a warm place to sleep. It wasn't personal adoption, it was communal responsibility. Because all our children, all our co-workers are at risk from people allowed to break free from the social contract or from reality as we live it.

Which would you rather see: children being hauled out of dormitories covered in blood, or a glimpse of a breast? Which is more horrific? Which more deserving of 'community values' sanction?

What to do?

Call your local media outlets. Sure, they're (statistically) probably owned by ClearChannel or Cox or some mega-corporation, but they have to document and report to the mother ship about listener/viewer feedback.
Send e-mails to the web site.
Complain to the FCC.
E-mail your state representative and senators.
Fax your federal representative and senators.
Bring the issue up at city council meetings, school board meetings and in your place of worship.

Every state has a child abuse hotline. If you see someone under fifteen acting strangely, get some details, at least the name of the child, their school and the name of a teacher. Then call the hotline. It's anonymous, and it might save the life of someone you know or love.

Adults behaving oddly, stalking, making threats, should always be taken seriously. There are laws in place to protect people from "terroristic threats," and protective orders, while not always effective, can be a good deterrent. The best deterrent is to stand up for your neighbor, your co-workers, and even strangers. Police officers would rather handle a dozen false alarms than one homicide. Every time.

I wish peace and comfort for the Virginia Tech victims and their families. And a measure of peace for the rest of us, so that we can comfort, not relive by proxy their experiences.

Easy killings, relative freedoms

2007-02-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

Switzerland has started down the slippery slope of allowing people with death wishes to kill themselves. One of the countries that evaded the deNazification trials after WW II by claiming "neutrality." Eugenics continue where not positively abated.

In a country where President Clinton went out of his way to apologize for the Tuskegee Airmen, where States abandoned their forced sterilization of "mental incompetents" in the 1980's, reading about a first-world country moving towards helping sick people kill themselves is tragic.

Depression, bi-polar disorders and other mental illnesses can take a rational person and make them think suicide is a real option. They're right -- from a purely animal basis. But the damage they do to family really negates their selfish, tactical, short-sighted attempts to escape their pain. Medicine works. Therapy works. Suicide, as the MASH movie quote went, might be 'painless,' but the 'changes' it brings on affect the parents and families and co-workers (or fellow students) are far from that.

It's easy to toss away those in society who waver. It takes a strong society, a just society to stick up for members who are not capable of sticking up for themselves.

Switzerland is showing it's Nazi roots. The world should look at this, and then look at Darfur, the Gaza Strip and Iraq to see how it can avoid the curse of the blind eye in treating world citizens as they should be treated.

Christmas 1914 and how This isn't Your Grandparents' War

2006-12-23T10:23:00.000-08:00

The first year of the War to End All Wars, was shockingly brutal for all sides. The accepted rules of combat from the previous century were shredded by technology: the machine gun, the tank, mobile cannon. Gas attacks, which helped birthed the Geneva Convention had yet to be committed.

On Christmas day, 1914, Germans and English, at various places along the front, stopped fighting. They came out first to bury their dead in shared prayers, then went on to talk (most Germans knew some English), trade tobacco, pipes, buttons and other momentos, and sing and even pray together. German barbers even shaved English troops during the ten day truce. Even after the truce was expired, some troops on both sides tried not to kill their erstwhile trenchmates.

This was the last global conflict of the nation-states. By World War II, the conflict had shifted from pure national supremacy back to the US' Civil War: industrial and financial dominance and national fascism¹.

Our enemy bears no resemblance to our German foes, now turned full partners in democracy and cold, international industrial might. They don't share our values of war, of life (theirs, their constituents, or their enemies), aims, goals. We have nothing they want, other than our subjugation or extinction. They have things we want, and have raped them for decades to get, and we Western nations are now reaping this bountiful crop.

This "war on terror" is truly the Jihad and Crusade, terms villified by both sides for its loaded terms. The emperor has no clothes. The fanatics backing terror will not come out of their trenches to sing Kumbaya on an emotional basis. And if they do, beware the blades behind their backs and bombs strapped to their torsos.

There are some similarities. Innocent civilians are caught in the middle. Cynical military leaders use 'martyrs' on one side, and socioeconomically hungry citizens on the other to do their bidding². And the grinding war itself has little point, cannot be resolved by force, and seems to be intermidable.

World War I ground to a halt in part due to the Allies finally strangling the Axis powers' industrial might: oil, machinery and humans. It ended also in large part due to the influenza pandemic that was slaughtering close-quartered troops at a rate far in excess of any human cannons or machine guns.

Europe suffered from demographic cratering. Due to the sheer devestation and the magnitude of this high-impact war, the societies were able to rebuild -- only to lash out less two decades later in nationalistic angers partly fueled by the nature of the initial defeat.

This low-impact, slow-motion war gives both sides endless opportunities to rearm, learn from their tactical mistakes, and, at least on the terrorist side, fill in the gaps in their ranks with new martyrs, disempowered, emasculated virgins in this world looking to make their first score with their counterparts in the next.

The question is: is the West willing to really fight for victory, or keep the sniping up?

Economically, international corporate-nations with ties to all sides of the conflict are profiting by the tens of billions; it's not in their interest to fight this war to conclusion. Why rebuild a school once if you can rebuild it three times? If the current infrastructure destruction in Iraq continues, it will be importing gasoline like some other major oil producers, a clear added bonus for these "reconstruction firms." This is the ugly military-industrial complex of which President Eisenhower warned.

Politicians have loved the war until recently: fear sells votes. The turnover in the US House and Senate were as much about absolute corruption as the Iraq War. War is great for a country's economy: the huge post-WW II boom was fueled by the technologies and capacities built up during the war³.

I've heard many Americans cut the Gorgian knot and point to the obvious solution: Do not to abide by Western rules of conduct; instead follow that of the enemy. Attack with full strength, quickly cause maximum, lasting damage, and ensure that whatever population is left rebuilds by our rules, not theirs.

That might have worked in Iraq at the start of this war. Now, it would resemble a sore loser tossing a board game into the air, scattering the pieces, when play does not go his way.

There is something to be said, however, for overwhelming, drop-that-20,000-ton-bomb- and-then-invade-with-200,000-soldiers force in small areas. If the United States is to be taken seriously, it will need to be serious, pervasive force, with specific objectives and a take-no-prisoners attitude.

Right now the administration doesn't have the guts to make that decision, and generals may not have the force strength to take that decision. Maybe some variant of the H5N1 flu will come to our aid. God forbid.

Happy holidays.

[1] Hitler's rise to power was funded by industrialists who saw the money to be made in a war-oriented German economy. America didn't want to get involved in the foreign war because it was not economically expedient. Like England until the Nazis got too close, it was seen as better to let the various powers fight their own war. Japan attacked the US in part because it was threatened by Washington's oil (energy) sanctions -- a turnabout on America's oil policies of today.

[2]Even after joining, many US soldiers' families rely on food stamps or other aid, as the pay, even with hazardous duty bonuses, is not sufficient to raise a family. Non-citizens join the US army in hopes of citizenship -- which is granted posthumously in some cases.

[3]The difference today is in debt and trust. Whereas in WW II Americans were exhorted to save gasoline, grow their own vegetables and be more frugal, President Bush exhorts citizens to keep up their level of spending (debt) and consumption. That's critical because we are not short so much of supplies as we are of the movement of money in our economy.

From the Mouths of (Jewish) Babes

2006-12-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

My daughter, to a school friend trying to convert her (named Christian, lest there be any doubt): "I know you're trying to save me like, from the burning flames of hell, but... I'm okay."

Apartheid -- A Stinking Rose by Any Name

2006-12-16T10:25:00.000-08:00

Former President Carter is a naive fool, playing into the hands of both a cynical media and an equally cynical antisemitic Arab PR machine.

Jewish leaders protesting Carter's use of apartheid are self-delusional at best, lying at worst.

Israel has generally treated not only the West Bank and Gaza residents (however they want to refer to themselves) as something a little better than cattle, and something definitely less than human for over thirty years. I've seen it, anyone who's lived or worked in the agricultural, construction, or industrial sector has seen it, and anyone denying it is lying.

Israeli arab towns and cities get less economic, social, cultural, infrastructure, tourism, security and every other support available to their Jewish -- and even mixed ethnicity -- cities. Go drive up a street in Deir Al Assad, then take a spin in neighboring Karmiel. Check out the practice soccer pitches in Haifa, the drive up to Massadeh on the Golan Heights (officially annexed by Israel years ago).

That's not to say that there aren't great people, companies and relationships that transcend these terrible and institutional practices. But the norm is a form of apartheid. Carter's blunder is to let the media equate the concept of apartheid with the level of apartheid. Israel, at its worst, was far better a master than the South Africans. Just writing that sentence makes me cringe, but it's a true, qualitative statement.

And Carter using that statement turns a possible discussion about the non-revolutionary ways out of the quagmire that is the Middle East into a firestorm of fury about the players, guilty and innocent, that have to survive it.

President Carter should stick to building houses for the homeless, and American rabbis should stick to helping their constituents. Neither seems qualified to engage in this current discussion.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is Dead

2006-11-20T05:33:00.000-08:00

With the signing of the deal with India, North Korea, Iran and even Israel can breathe a sigh of relief. No longer can the United States declare that it has been even-handed in how it treats 'rogue' nuclear nations. Even the concept of a 'rogue' nation is no longer valid. India and Pakistan can now figure out how to stockpile for their next testosterone-fueled war of brinksmanship. Israel (whose possible possession of nuclear weapons I personally support) can stand proud in its theoretical ownership of these weapons -- and several different and very accurate delivery systems.

The United States had had the ability to force Iran and North Korea to the table: the NNPT is, after all, something to which almost all countries are signatories. Now that chance is lost, and those two fascist regimes can stand beside Israel as rebels with a cause. After all, if India could cut a separate deal, why can't they? And in the meantime, just like India, why should they not continue to create the tools for world blackmail?

A Late Veterans' Day Memorial

2006-11-19T14:05:00.000-08:00

I read this from one of my daughter's 3rd-grade classmates.

Q: Veterans are important because...
A: ...Or else we would not be able to say the Pledge of Allegiance

Moved me to tears. Just frank words from an eight year old Jewish boy.

418 Republicans Can't All be Wrong

2006-11-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

I was voter #450 at my polling precinct this evening. While polling officials said there'd been a steady stream of voters, I had little hope that I was going to help carry the Democratic vote; I have several neighbors that tell me or call me to let me know they're cancelling out my vote.

The interesting thing about voting this year was the tableau when I entered: six folks sitting at little voting carrels, with their carboard walls, and two sitting at tables, all filling out paper ballots. The lone voting machine was standing, available. The ten folks in front of me all took paper ballots and trundled off.

My moment of truth: show my suspicion of anything invented in the 20th century, or go for the geek? I asked the poll officer who was in charge of the paper ballots: "so, how any folks have used the machine?"

He got squinty for a moment. "Well, not many, I can tell you that. You're maybe the twentieth--"

"--Thirtieth--," cut in his seatmate.

"--to use it today."

I thought about all I knew about them, then decided to plunge into the uncertain future. "I'll take the machine," I said.

"Okey dokey," he said, and got up, sticking what looked like a plastic chalkboard eraser into the side of the machine.

I admit it: I was a bit intimidated by the thing when I first saw the thing. But as soon as I saw that it was a touch screen the little 'I hate knobs and levers' knot in my stomach unclenched, and voting proceeded apace.

I was the 32nd person to use it that entire day. Do the Republicans know something about those machines that I don't?

Discrimination and the, um, Differently Abled

2006-10-30T07:16:00.000-08:00

Apparently Gallaudet's incoming president wasn't "deaf enough" to lead this once-prestigious school for the differently-hearing.

We complain about leadership: good, bad and indifferent. Leaders must be passionate about the cause, but not necessarily of the cause. Sure, it would be great to find a homeless refugee to run the Red Cross; they'd have the real life experience necessary to understand what such people need. MDA? Ditto. Should a blind person be the only qualified president for a school for the blind?

The very nature of the cantankerous debate at Gallaudet shows that, among the deaf, there are different views on the subject of deafness. My cousin wears a cochlear implant, signs and is "mainstream." Where I work there are some deaf employees that don't -- won't -- speak, but sign instead.

If the students at Gallaudet want to stay in their cave, create a sub-species called "homo sapiens can't hear the oncoming trafficus" that's fine. But that institution belongs to all hearing-impaired individuals, not just to ASL bigots.

More partition noise

2006-10-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

Adeed Dawisha spoke about partition on NPR. I don't think he goes far enough; like most 'faces,' he's thinking 1-3 years instead of the unfair, ugly realities of Iraq. Still and all, brave of him to talk about partition.

The Case for Partition

2006-10-24T08:05:00.000-07:00

As conditions in Iraq worsten, and "stay the course" suddenly never meant what it said (how can four words, four syllables, mean something other than that?), it's time to look at real ways out. As someone who has spent considerable time dealing with the clash of cultures, I'm going to do a Jonathan Swift and modestly propose the following (not new) idea: Divide to Conquer.

Splitting Iraq into sectarian sections is both a hard and easy thing to do. But with a little thought, and consideration of consequences, it is doable.

Who Gets the Loot?
There are six partners in this land grab, each with a stake:

The people of Iraq get the thing they need most: stability, security and no further ties to Western governmental control
Iran gets Eastern Iraq, from the south, including the swamps, up through to the Bagdhad area. Lots of oil, lots of Shi'ites.
Here's the tough one: the Kurds get their own state consisting of Northern Iraq, up to the Turkish border. Yes, this has lots of implications, eeach with their problems. They get oil, but a land-locked dependence on their neighbors. See discussion below.
Syria's piece of the pie is an odd slice. Below the Kurdish area, but above where Jordan gets their slice.
Jordan? They get the southwestern portions of Iraq, bordering Saudi Arabia and what would be Iran. This would serve as a neutral buffer between the radical Islamic empires, and provide Jordan with much-needed leverage in the Middle East: access to oil.
The US and the EU have huge stakes in a stable Middle East. Rather than have areas under rule of chaos, this split would ensure that each stakeholder had something to gain by ensuring stability -- and a lot to lose by failing in that mission.

Iraqis
Okay, let's face it: there never was a true Iraq. The Brits did a bang-up job on screwing up land ownership after they conquered the Ottoman Empire, and we are still living the results of their bungling from India to Iraq to Israel. The sun has finally set on the British Empire, but the fires are still burning.

The "Iraqi people" are no more homogeneous than the Palestinians or Israelis. While the latter were nominally bound closer together than the Palestinians ever have been, it's safe to say that the Israelis of today are so diverse they could not now do what they did in 1948.

Aaanyway, they deserve the peace and stability that comes from living among their co-religionists and clans. Let 'em live apart if they can't live together.

Iran
Sometimes you should give a coveter what they want. Add some more oil, and a few million more civilians, and many hundred square miles, and you get a distraction that should keep the Iranians busy for at least a few years. And who wants to have militant armies under someone else's control? Let the Mahdi armies learn who the real top dogs are.

Kurds
The favorite Arab punching bags, after Israelis, these folks already have experience running their own land. Upside: pretty instant stable tribal government. Downside: country envy from Turkish Kurds. Solution: Give Turks EU membership under the stipulation they leave the Kurds alone. This might not be stable in the 10-15 year time frame, but if Turkey manages to up its standard of living and provide real economic and social development opportunities for its large Kurdish minority, they can come up ahead in this delicate game. But they'll need to grow up (and get some help from Western countries) in getting over their Kurdistan fetish.

Syria
My favorite next enemy. This has the downside of giving Hizb'allah a direct land connection from Iran, but it gives the Syrians a new export: oil. I expect it will have the salubrious effect of making Syria less interested in the religious politics and strings that current relationships with Iran bring along with weapons. Syria is a pragmatic dictatorship, and religious messes with that paradigm. As there aren't any large populations in that area, they're able to expand eastward without large local problems. Of course, they can always pull another Hama.

Jordan
The only rational government in the Middle East, it still is the last hope for stable government. At least, unless the US decides to "help" them out. Giving them oil would be a huge blessing. They have a seaport, a relatively effective government, good relationships with almost all countries in the area, a roughly British, Western court system and a good track record of education and economic development. They need the oil more than any other (remaining) nation except Israel.

US & EU
These countries need to "get out of Dodge." Any meddling, any interference, will be punished, no matter how well the actions are intended. Americans hand out candy? Kill the kids for collaboration. Brits give the Iraqi army a free hand? They're at fault for Iraqi-inspired atrocities.

Loose Threads
No, it's not that simple. And yes, it's unfair: so is life. Bad people may win, and good people might lose on the micro basis. But in the macro, this is a more stable solution than the status quo or any delusional "free and democratic state" that Cheney, Bush, Inc. might conceive in their K Street back offices.

Baghdad
Let's start with the ugly, 800-pound oliphant. All the Arab states are so hip about Jerusalem being an international city, let 'em practice on Baghdad. Multinational force, a place for the meeting of minds and common area interests. Set up parks, cultural museums, safe havens for families to come to and not worry about their stressful lives back in their (new) homes. A regional stock exchange. A duty-free trading zone. Think Qatar, only with a San Antonio river walk.

The Great Migration
Yes, people will have their lives uprooted and ruined. That's already happening. Barbers are killed for violating Islamic law by cutting hair one way -- or the other. Shi'a and Sunni bullies are already performing the very act of Transfer they Israeli's forbidden from doing. And getting an organized transfer will shed less blood than what's happening now. (Now children! Keep your hands and AK-47s to yourselves!)

How Could we do this? Especially after Everything We've Invested!
Just watch. The dead can't complain. The wounded won't be back. The money's gone to graft, mud and corporate America. Partition neatly gets around the Republican agenda of getting out of Iraq with a resolution (victory having been declared as a premature statement). Dems will love the amount of real humanitarian aid that can now be funneled to build a new country (Kurdistan) as well as help create an oasis out of Baghdad's ruins.

What's next?
I don't know. Call your congressman/parlimentarian. Organize. Start thinking about how the details could be worked out. There's a Nobel Peace Prize in it for whomever can turn this bloodbath around.

Educators and Idiots

2006-10-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

Education is a complex business. It's complex because, to run a school district, a superintendent (CEO) or school board member (corporate board member) must know how to manage people, budgets, priorities, politics, bureaucracies and a community often at odds with itself in terms of needs, desires and purpose.

So it's fun to hear about people interested in running local or state school districts who clearly have not had their meds properly balanced. Like the genius who wants students to learn to stop bullets with textbooks. Or school boards that want to put religion in, and not worry about the intricacies of church and state – or basic literacy as an important part of the learning experience. The latter helped found an amazing new religion, based on the same sane, solid principles as that of Intelligent Design: please read their dogma or join.

In real life, people with sane, common sense give suggestions to leaders. In our wonderful Amerikan world, people with about as much sense as rutabaga make pronouncements in the hoped they are better liked.

We would be best served by asking future politicos -- and especially school board members and superintendents -- to prove their sanity.

From the Mouths of Smaller, Intelligent Humans

2006-10-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

Me: That's so stupid!
Him: What?
Me: This professor said compared Bush to Hitler.
Him: That's so stupid! Hitler was smart! Hitler was evil!
Me: (reaching for the keyboard...)

So Many Crises, So Little Brain Power

2006-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. Wars in the Middle East. Political idiocy and upheaval in the States. A regime change for Thailand, one coming up for Cuba and England. North Korea either blew up a lot of dynamite or has joined the atomic club, which is not a good thing for Planet Earth.

But these are all trivial. The real story is Darfur. This is where global rubber meets the road. This is where all can see how nations of the world work when there isn't a question of what's going on, or who is at fault. Where there are no Jews to blame: it's Muslim on Muslim rape, torture, murder and genocide. It's at the rate of a child, a family, a town.

As a global community we are failing the test. I predict that Rammadan, and the 'Eid Feast that concludes it, will be no different than the months before: innocent die, governments watch and the evil continue to do their work. And we can't expect better outcomes for Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or even the US Congress if we, as individuals and as nations, don't stand up and do the right thing. Stop. The. Genocide.

2006-07-20T16:52:00.000-07:00

Despair works best
when it has no reason to.

Weather Report

2006-07-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

This is a cross-post; normally I'd be putting posts on the Middle East on my other blog, Hadofeq ("the pulse" in Hebrew).

I was reminded of the children's book "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" listening to the news on Israeli radio this morning (18ooZ). "The frequency of missile strikes seems to be on the upswing," he said. "Missiles landed in..." and he rattled off a list of twenty villages and towns. That Tiberias was hit speaks to the continued existence of longer-range bottle rockets in Hizballah's hands.

"Residents are advised," he continued, "to stay away from torn or down electrical lines. Also, keep away from electrical substations if they have been hit by missiles." All delivered in calm, mid-alto tones.

"Two sailors killed have been identified," he said earlier in the broadcast. "For the information of Sailors, seas will be fairly rough," ended the weather report.

A postscript: in the three minutes it's taken me to write this, two more missiles have hit Tveria. At this point reporters and witnesses alike seem more calm, reporting damage and continued 'kor ru'ach' -- mental calm, in the target zones that were my home.

Sometimes You Just Want to Look Up...

2006-07-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

... and not see incoming rockets.

Sun fire patiently touch
planents
a rain lights clouds
hopes
the silky moon
beyond
desired love

A Backdrop to News from Israel

2006-07-12T14:19:00.000-07:00

Poetry.com has a daily 'Poetry in Motion' contest. Here's mine for today:

beneath paint-brushed golden summer days
I found silky
sunrise
filagree
in my last harvest rain.

Why Are There so Many Mean People?

2006-07-07T20:59:00.000-07:00

I was perusing Yahoo's question engine. That's a service where users submit questions, and then people at large answer them. Stephen Hawking posed a question recently, and I answered it as best I could. Afterwards I trolled for other questions to answer. One in particular caught my eye: "Why are there some many mean people?"

There wasn't any context for the question, but it got me thinking. There are a lot of people that act selfishly or inconsiderately. I get cut off on the highway daily. People--even my children--leave their messes for me to clean up. I get calls from people that clearly don't care how insulting they are in tone and/or language.

The question brought me up short, though. Are there so many mean people? What's our gauge? After all, this site showcases a positive side to news on the planet. To act as a foil for all the negative news.

Bad news sells. Mean people are obvious. A customer support axiom says that if you help someone with a problem, that person will tell one other person about their great experience. But if you irritate or upset a person, that person will tell at least ten more people. Perhaps that's why there's a presumption that there are a lot of mean people.

Perhaps, however, there is another side to this. Our brains are wired for survival, to be wary of danger. Scientists know we can tell the difference in lighting of a single lumen. Movement spotted by a single rod or cone in the eye can trigger 'catching' our attention. On a lower rung of Maslow's hierarchy, this is a survival factor.

I believe spotting the mean people around us is an equally important survival factor. Mean people, stories of meanness and the visual and aural cues to mean activity flag us. We want to know about these people, because They. Are. Trouble. In the Maslow structure, recognizing mean people is just a step above making sure you've got fresh water and shelter.

So, there may seem to be a lot of mean people out there, but that's just your survival instinct looking out for you. The nice ones don't catch your eye, and I'm betting they are in the majority!

Head Held High, Onto the Gallows

2006-06-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

Yes, Tom DeLay has exited. As he said, 'stage right.' As in 'conservative?' Yes. As in, correct? No, I think. Like Richard Nixon, the appearance of honor in the face of retreat is no different. He may wave the peace sign, may declare his innocence, but just because he's left on his own power doesn't mean the handcuffs and ignominities of a body cavity search are not far behind.

He has shown us the depths to which politicians will sink to delieve the depravity of peer pressure. And his eventual contributions to the underpaid prison labor of our Great State of Texas will bear the final truth to his mealymouthed exhortations of honesty in the face of Truth.

-Media

2006-05-30T19:00:00.000-07:00

I'm watching Liz Taylor's discussion with Larry King Live, hearing all the horrible things said about Elizabeth Taylor, and being bombarded by Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's new baby.

It's amazing, with the millions being killed in Congo, the many hundreds of thousands in Darfur, AIDS, hunger, poverty and reality, that a sleazy photographer can make over a million dollars by taking a picture of a newborn baby and its parents against the family's wishes. Or that a movie star, whatever her history, is declared dead, insane, or demented.

In the NPR-sponsored project, "This, I Believe," people, famous and plebian, talk about what moves them, what is at the core of their belief. I believe in the baselessness of the commercial media, their ability to search for the paying story, no matter how base, so long as it sells.

Fortunately, I also believe in the concept of 'Tikkun Olam,' the fixing of the world. I believe that for every despicable, amoral, money-grubbing person, there is at least one person trying to solve an important problem facing the world.

I hope the good guys win. And I hope Elizabeth gets to enjoy her new career, and Angelina and Brad their new son, without having to deal with vultures masquerading as 'the press.'

Leonardo Would be Having a Good Laugh

2006-05-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

The furor over the movie version of the Da Vinci Code is pretty funny. Calling a book of fiction heresy strikes even religious Catholic friends of mine as funny.

"Oh, yeah, we keep our albino monks under SPF 200, but for a good contribution into the plate I can let you talk with one," one friend said. [5/21 postscript: There is a monk named Silas @ the NYC office!]

My writing groups are up in arms about the poor quality of the writing as well. There are analytical pages about Dan Brown' questionable style and grammatical manglings.

I think a good escapist movie is a great thing to see. And no one ever accused Barbara Cartland of amazing writing.

Entertainment should not be confused with reality. No matter how close some morons might believe the resemblance.

Fear and Pressing in Central Texas

2006-04-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

I'm off to a business trip tomorrow and wanted to treat myself to dry cleaning and pre-ironed shirts every morning while away, so I took my load on Tuesday to my local dry cleaner. I dumped the pile of shirts and pants on the counter.

The attendant looked at the pile, then mournfully at me. "Sir," she said, with a Mexican accent, "I can take your clothing, but it won't be ready for at least four days."

The sign outside read "same day cleaning," and the usual turnaround was about 36 hours. I cocked an eyebrow.

"It's the pressers," she said. "They left Monday morning and never came back." She pointed to a "Help Wanted" sign displayed prominently in the window. "No pressers at all. We just got back Saturday's dry cleaning. Don't just take my word for it," she said as I thanked her for my candor and scooped up my clothes, "is everywhere. Everyone running."

Two other dry cleaners also had help wanted signs, and I stopped by the next day, hoping to avoid expensive hotel cleaners, with my load at a local family chain. They too had a 'Help Wanted' sign on the door.

"Any chance of getting this done by Friday?" I asked.

The clean-cut young man behind the counter nodded confidently. "Not a problem," he said. "After five today if you liked."

"So you've got no problems with pressers?"

"Nope," he replied. We're doing just fine."

I left lighter in arms and full of hope. Came back this afternoon to pick up the clothes.

"You still have the sign up," I said to the young Hispanic woman behind the counter. "How's the work in the back?"

She shrugged.

Then another young man, from the same owning family I think, wriggled past her in a vain attempt to catch an incoming phone call. He was sweating, and there were people crawling all around the hanging rails of bagged laundry in the next room.

"I'm glad you were able to keep your workers," I said to the man. "I had problems at other stores."

He gave me a tired look. "It's quiet in the back right now," he said. "There's no one working in the back. And the conveyor belt is broken, so we have to pull everything off by hand." He wiped sweat from his face. "But we're only down two pressers for tomorrow and," he pointed at the sign, "maybe some others will come back."

I assume by "others" he means 'low-paid, hiding from the INS' kind of others, and not the unemployed citizen or eager high schooler others.

"Don' worry," my cashier said as she handed me the bill. "My sister come back tomorrow."

"One down," the man said. "I just have to find one more."

The rumors around town are rife with planned raids at public schools, illegal immigrant detention camps south of Waco, and general fear.

I wonder if my pre-Holocaust parents felt similarly to the missing pressers. At least I'm pretty sure their end will be less certain than that of my parents.

A Joke...

2006-04-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

Q: What do you get when you hire a right-wing commentator and a reporter to the White House?
A: A Common Porter. Someone to shoulder the burden of "Message of the Day" for a debased chief executive.

When Bullshit Calls Journalists Listen: Iranian Superweapons

2006-04-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Journalists are wimps.

Iran, the country that doesn't have the spare parts to keep its thirty year old aircraft in the air, has superweapons! Missiles that can't be tracked, can avoid radar, yet are MIRVed. Torpedoes that fly underwater at over 200MPH, also sonar-evading. Read about it in any major media outlet!

While Teheran has 'created' its own fighters, tanks, missiles and other weaponry, the reality is that they have adapted (read repainted for the most part) North Korean technology. Guns for oil... just like Kuwait, Saudia Arabia and now Iraq.

Just a few weeks ago the papers broke the story about how Saddam Hussein had kept the fiction of weapons of mass destruction alive not for the ears of warmongering Bush klansmen, but for his own people, to keep them in fear of what he'd done to the Kurds.

And now the mass media is doing it again, with silence, with acceptance, instead of with jeers. The country that can't support keep its own planes in the air, the country where millions of its citizens in mud brick houses, a country that hasn't had an original thought since the corrupt Shah was ousted, a country that looks to North Korea for even slight technological achievement, is assumed to have leapfrogged all the advanced technology research centers of the world?

Reporting this idiotic pap, in this way, plays right into Bush administration hands that would rather ratchet up the fear, for internal political purposes, than portray Iran as the pathetic hotbed for suicidal radicals that is really is.

So what if this is a real threat? Where' the news media analysis to support that? How do we assess such developments? From Karen Hughes' situation room? From Rumsfeld's office? From unnamed sources in the Bush administration? Me, I'd rather hear an analysis by a report who has spoken to real rocket scientists, or to non-factional experts in the field. Instead we hear translated half-quotes from Iranian television and their military press office releases.

Journalism isn't just about the scoop interview or the 'first to the presses.' It is about analysis of the data, the credibility of the source and the 'big picture.' Even if embedded reporting is sexier. Try harder, folks, try harder!

[A side note: In preparing this blog entry I researched over one hundred separate articles. The vast majority, as you can read through these links, all hark back to the same AP piece written by Ali Akbar Dareini, their Iranian reporter. They were retouched or lightly edited for the end news outlet. Perhaps there aren't anywhere near as many journalists as we think...]

Languaged stetted, ASAP?

2006-02-18T07:07:00.000-08:00

There have been some pieces in the news lately about the crossover of IM and text message 'speak' into English. The cries of purists are amusing (kind of like the minority Canadian Quebequa wanting all signs in their province in French), especially since English is the original bastard language; just ask anyone who grew up with a rational language structure how hard it is to learn English!

We've architected English, verbed nouns, mashed words and done everything possible to give Americans more words than every not to know. When I recently had a co-worker talk about polyhierarchical taxonomies, she and I were the only ones in the room (with a group of college grads and educators) that could even parse the concept. Of course, anyone ever stopped for speeding knows what a radar gun is.

So now, IMHO, we LOL, sometimes even ROTF, in <3 with these book new words. To be added to lasers and scuba gear.

Hebrew, a language with a paltry 150,000 purely Semitic words compared to English, has been conjugating acronyms for millenia. Prime Minister Golda Meier used the phrase "Zabash'cha' to create the word 'it's your problem' from Ze Haba'aya Shel'cha.' When referring to a deceased person, Hebrew-speakers will say "Zahl" after their name, or "Zatsal," meaning 'blessed be their memory' or 'blessed be that holy person's memory' respectively.

English, with its incredible palette of words and phrases, changes slowly, word meanings generally outstripping new words. But as technology speeds memetic infection, each new communication facet will bring its own changes to work, culture and vocabulary.

Check out The-Ping for a short discussion on technology, linguistics and a universalist vocabulary.

H5N1 to 0

2006-02-17T17:28:00.000-08:00

I think it's clear that the H5N1 "bird flu" is coming and is, in fact, here to stay. It's longevity and continuing spread remind me of the West Nile Virus more than a seasonal influenza.

While I am sure that the avian kingdom is in no danger, and that this is not the dinosaur die-off of the eon, I'd like to point something out: we're breeding for failure.

When I lived in Upstate New York, near Binghamton, the hilltop around our house was mostly fallow fields and woods. There was a flock of turkeys that had made its home on our property. I think 'herd' when I say 'flock,' because they were mostly ground-bound, and took some kind of odd joy in running in circles around our house just after dawn.

Okay, they're not the most brilliant birds, but compared to the ones I worked with when living on a kibbutz, these were Einsteins. The latter were SO dumb that when it was going to rain we had to bring them inside, because while they, like their wild counterparts, would face the sky and open their beaks to drink, they lacked the part of the gene involving closing said orifice before they drowned. If they didn't first fall over from the absurd weight in what humans call the turkey breast. These were the 'Pomela' Andersons (or Loni's) of the bird world.

When H5N1 hits, it's the wild birds that will bear the brunt of the illness. We humans will safely ensconce our stupid, bred-to-be-eaten meat puppets in hermetically sealed havens (where, after x number of weeks, they'll be taken out back and metaphorically shot). This will further reduce the spread and tenacity of the affected wild species, and further weaken our already shaky wild ecology.

Don't get me wrong: I'm a firm believer in eating whatever can't argue its way out of the cooking pot. But I am concerned that in this mechanist society, where everything gets turned into a time-and-motion industry to push for the bottom dollar, that we are selling the global gene pool short when breeding for eatability instead of viability.

I'll pay more for bigger bones, smaller "breasts" and healthier, more sturdy, animals. Ones that more relate to the ones that charged around my house at dawn than the ones, raised in cages, that are as close to sessile as animals can get.

Now I'm Confused...

2006-02-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

Inflamatory cartoons have sent the Muslim world into a tizzy, if not frenzy. Non-Muslims insulting the Prophet Mohammed is seen as a horrible, terrible thing.

So what's with the suicide bombers killing fellow Muslims in mosques, on holy days? Where's the anger? Where's the lashing out against terror? Where are these imams with their folders filled with cartoons now? Will the Sunni declare a holy war against the Shi'a? (No, wait, that's already been tried.) And if not, then why not? Could it be that it's okay for Muslims to blow each other to gobbets, while entire continents be held accountable for the acts of deluded Danish cartoonists?

This is a clash of Western vs. radical Muslim culture. Not Muslim, as the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims are law-abiding, honest, peaceful people. But in our culture, radical fascism is met with legal action. In countries harboring or pandering fanatics, radicals are used as fuel for their unholy fire against rational, human conduct among -- and within -- nations.

Cartoonish Behavior

2006-02-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

Yah, it's offensive, blah, blah, blah. There's almost too much media reaction to the original offense -- except for the insane response by legions of enraged primitives. Thanks, Richard, for use of the cartoon.

Muslims are as wise, and dumb, as good and as bad as any other religion. Islamic rule has been tolerant, has fostered the sciences and has created art forms that are as breathtakingly beautiful now as when they were created many centuries ago. Now that I've gotten your attention (or at least confusion), lets deconstruct what's going on.

Muslim laws apply to Muslims. Otherwise Jews would get upset about non-Jews eating non-Kosher, Hindi would massacre anyone coming out an American McDonalds, and Southern Baptists would really Crusade to convert non-believers by forcing everyone to adopt their moral standards. Oops, that latter's already happening... Shi'ites have pictures of Mohammed, as do other Muslim sects. I guess it's not as much fun to torch one's own embassy.
Protesters, at most charitable, are being manipulated. Less charitably, they're taking any excuse to rage against The Machine. Danish imams went on a pilgrimage to other Arab nations, taking with them portfolios not only of the offending, but also of much more henious ones that were never published, ones with bestiality, just to name one ugly. This was a calculated terrorist attack, one that has resulted in several deaths by this writing, millions of dollars in damage to innocents' property, and uncounted millions in lost revenue by companies that probably despise the cartoonist even more than some Arab nations. The French, who have been far less sympathetic towards the inroads Islam has made, and the plight of the millions of young Muslims discriminated against for generations, seemed to have escaped this directed wrath for the most part.
Terrorist countries are using this incident for their secular gains. Get serious, Assad -- your idea of a good time during Ramadan is more along the lines of a trip to Paris than a delicious fast during the summer heat. Syria is a secular dictatorship, run by a clan in the same manner as the Saud family runs Saudi Arabia. Not like the Jordanian Hashemites, who have the good sense to run the country as if it were a democracy in terms of how they treat their subjects. So Syrian "protests" are no more spontaneous than their Syrian handlers allow. Because Hamma, as Thomas Friedman pointed out, still rules: cross an Assad and you get dead quickly and brutally.
Glass houses, stones. Oddly enough, one doesn't hear many protests about the almost continuous stream of vituperative calumny and calls for the genocidal murder of, for example, Jews. Oh, right, I forgot: we don't count. The cartoons (pictures are good for the vast majority of illiterate Arab Muslims) are the perfect medium to showcase the Jews and their sins.

Okay, picture time.

The Bomb Cartoon	Nope, not gonna put it up again. I agree with the Muslims on this one: ugly, nasty and negative. But there were others that I have a different view, so here is an exemplar below.
	Is this Mohammed? Not according to the caption. Is this an insult to Islam, saying that too many men have martyred themselves in the name of Islam? I'd see this being printed in any of the secular or non-fanatic Islamic countries, including Egypt. I agree: too many people have died as martyrs. Period.

Yes, there were more cartoons. Like compulsive haters, I could put up a whole pack of these, and just keep people wound up (but Spongebob should do for this rant).

The point of all this is freedom. Western freedom to express ones views, and the freedom of terrorists to use whatever is at hand to advance their instilling terror in others.

The more terrorists and their uneducated lackeys burn things, the more they rant, the more irrational they behave, the more they distance themselves from the community of nations.

Maybe Iran wants this. I think Iran needs this. Remember Salman Rushdie and the death sentence imposed against him? Iranian. Certainly Iran is benefiting from this. (Note to self: how bad are the protests in Saudi Arabia relative to terror-held countries?)

Western nations need to keep centered on the freedom of speech, the value of real democratic freedom, and a careful, watchful eye on a part of the world that really doesn't like any of us very much.

A Plea for Filibuster

2006-01-26T18:54:00.000-08:00

Last week I found a bumper sticker for my car. "The last time we mixed politics and religion," it said, "people were burned at the stake."

Yes, I bought it. No, I don't think we're near there -- yet. But I am scared (a serious step up from worried) that President Bush and the religious right are at the cusp of controlling all three bodies of government. Judge Alito is a penultimate, if not the final plank in this ship of nightmares.

There are 11 states where women need to be rich, have friends, or be very brave in order to have even Roe-protected, first trimester abortions. As the father of a young teenager, I agonize now over whether I'd need (as opposed to want) to know about my daughter seeking an abortion. And what is at stake here is the freedom for me, as a parent, to decide that agony.

As a writer of fiction, of political commentary and on the Middle East, I look up articles and download information from the darker side of the Internet. I e-mail people that I don't know that I'd want to meet in real life. These communications feed my art. I suspect that they are also grist for the NSA mill, and the basis for assumptions they might then make about people I know. And their friends. And others.

Cartoon by Richard Bartholomew

It's because of my passion for freedom, for an unbiased judiciary, that FISA makes sense. And precisely for the same reason that Judge Alito's penchant for fawning at the office of the President makes be believe that he is not the right choice to be one of the nine among equals, to sit at the country's highest bench.

Let's not kid ourselves; a liberal candidate is not in the cards. And a wise and balanced (or is it 'fair and balanced'?) conservative is a better choice than a wild-eyed game changer.

I guess the core of my concern is that Samuel Alito is not his own man, does not represent the American citizen, and would not give the individual the rights they deserve especially in the face of the corporate Goliath.

Please help stop Judge Alito from assuming a throne from which he will help rule for the rest of his life, against the People's common and secular interests.

SSDY (Same Stuff, Different Year) -- Almost

2005-12-31T19:30:00.000-08:00

First off, a happy and productive new year to all. This is year two of the blog, and, owing to feedback and posting interests, I've split my 'Pulse' blog into three:

The Pulse, discussions regarding politics and personal life,
HaDofeq, Middle Eastern-related political and personal posts, and
The Ping, technical and technological posts

I'll be doing political, social and personal commentaries on this blog. So, without further delay, let's start the New Year off with a list of things recently realized:

Getting out of Iraq is akin to stepping out of a crocodile's mouth -- after he's shut it. Elections only prove that ink works on fingers in that part of the world. But don't take my word for it...
If they're not troops, and it's electronic, I guess Posse Comitatus doesn't count and we can chase after those sneaky reporters instead of worrying about the silly NSA cuties.
So long as your spouse doesn't get paid to do nothing, a politician's spouse can be paid any amount so long as he or she is not absolutely immobile
Indians really are givers, and the White Man hasn't lost his touch at taking
We seem to be helping al Qaida along in its mission to extend it's terror reach
We're investigating the former House Majority Leader DeLay (check this out!) and current Senate Majority Leader Frist for financial improprieties, and investigators will be working in 2006 in a target-rich environment as they try and tabulate just how much bribery and graft has gone on since our nation's checks and balances were thrown off kilter.
The laws enacted by an outraged Congress after Watergate have been broken by a President who can't be bothered follow the laws (after all, we're trying to catch terrorist law-breakers!). Watch the US ignore the protests from the judicial bench!
The Average American, with crushing credit card debt and no appreciable rise in their standard of living is no better off now than before Bush and his criminal cronies took power. We are sinking into debt at a rate that boggles the imagination; check out these graphs:

To the left is a graph of the US national debt (up-to-date).

The chart to the right is a drilldown of the national debt for the year 2000, the year the Bush administration stole into office.

I have a cure for any despondency this entry may have caused you: talk to your neighbors, co-workers and friends about the issues. Don't let this administration turn away yet another fiasco into more looting opportunities. Refute, respond and admonish people spreading falsehoods. And most of all, don't give up; the mid-term elections are coming, and many current "peoples' representatives" in Washington are going to need to file change-of-address forms before the year is out.

This is a year of action, and of change. Don't lose hope.

An important footnote: I'm honored to be able to provide an occasional cartoon commentary as drawn by the incomparable Richard Bartholomew, whose rendition of the NSA appears in this blog. He has a web site with additional cartoons, and a blog.

Q:	Veterans are important because...
A:	...Or else we would not be able to say the Pledge of Allegiance