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Posted on August 03 2008 : 10:28 PMI finally took the plunge. I am decided to port my site from it's current technology base to Wordpress. The port is not yet 100% complete, but you can see the results here. All new posts will go there, but this old site will stay live until I've finished converting all the links etc. Read More... 
Posted on July 27 2008 : 08:40 PMThe Jerusalem Post is an English newspaper in Israel, which is politically aligned with the Orthodox settler movement. When Obama was in Israel, he sat down for an interview with them, a relatively unfriendly "audience." No one in my quadrant of the political spectrum is ever going to be elected President. So my key criteria for a "good" President are: compassion, worldliness, intelligence and political savvy. Obama seems to have all of these in abundance. Although I don't agree with many of the details of his positions, the more I hear him speak the more impressed I am. He is the savviest and most intelligent politician the Democratic party has produced since Bill Clinton, and I mean that as a compliment. He may not be super progressive, but he seems to be on the correct side of the fence on all important issues. And the more I see him, the more I feel he has the same human empathy and care for people that Clinton did. Read More... 
Posted on July 14 2008 : 07:00 PMI have mentioned several times on this blog my deep affection for the New Yorker. My mom started subscribing to it when she came to this country in 1946 and it has always been in her home. On my iPod I have several New Yorker podcasts, both fiction and non-fiction and they are truly inspiring. I love reading the magazine, and I whole-heartedly agree with publisher Si Newhouse's reverential reference to it as "The Only." So I was quite taken aback by all the controversy surrounding the Obama cartoon.. I find this cartoon pretty amusing and not the least bit tasteless, but I would be the first to admit my tastes are not quite conventional. What I do find totally tasteless is the controversy surrounding it. Since I originally wrote this piece the controversy got even more out of hand, so I have substantially updated it. Read More... ( 6465 bytes in body) 
Posted on July 13 2008 : 07:18 PMFrank Rich has an extremely well-articulated piece on why torture is not just immoral, but dangerous. Read More...
Posted on July 08 2008 : 06:38 PMI have a very nuanced view on the use of psychoactive substances. My drug of choice is caffeine delivered via coffee, and I do enjoy wine and the occasional scotch and soda. But in general I don't see the necessity or benefit in "enjoying" life through a drugged haze. Read More... ( 1374 bytes in body)
Posted on June 24 2008 : 10:53 AMAs this article clearly points out! In another measure Iraq is number one in the world (just turn the list upside down). Fortunately, Israel improved this year and went from number 3 to number 5! USA isn't doing too bad either. Read More... 
Posted on June 14 2008 : 11:53 PMFor once, a NY TImes article that actually interviews Palestinians. Read More...
Posted on June 10 2008 : 01:02 PMThis article sounds just like something I would write. Read More...
Posted on June 06 2008 : 06:44 PMRemember when Bush & Co used to claim they have no interest in permanently staying in Iraq? Remember when right after the invasion, Bush addressed the Iraqi people and said the US will leave as soon as possible? Stack that up on the high pile of all the other lies of Bush & Co. OIL is forever. Read More...
Posted on June 02 2008 : 01:53 PMThe Hagee story keeps getting worse. No surprises here. I am very reluctant to trot out the "anti-semite" label, but Hagee is a classic case. The fact that Lieberman continues to defend the man, is a reflection of his utter moral bankruptcy. On other fronts, some good news. Bad press on the Fulbright scholarship fiasco seems to have helped. Read More...
Posted on May 30 2008 : 09:46 AMDetails in this article. Just to get some facts straight: it was Fatah that attempted a coup d'etat (with US aid) against Hamas, not the other way around. In other news, the US and Israel (along with other luminaries such as China, Russia, India and Pakistan) are among the handful of countries not signing a treaty banning cluster bombs. Read More...
Posted on May 24 2008 : 11:38 PMIn the Jewish Bible, idolaters are often referred to as worshippers of wood and rock. This is a way to mock the beliefs of pagans, since no intelligent person can actually believe a piece of wood or rock shaped by the hands of man, is in fact a god. Such a belief would have an inherent logical contradiction - it would mean a man could create a god, so how is the god more powerful? More sophisticated pagans obviously don't actually think of the stone or wood idol as a god, but as a manifestation on which to focus their worship. No doubt less sophisticated pagans do believe the idol is the god itself, which made idol worship an easy target for the authors of the Bible. More than just an object of ridicule, idol worship is considered one of the most morally reprehensible sins in Judaism, one which Jews are enjoined to die rather than commit this sin. I have often referred to the Orthodox right wing settlers as idol worshipers - they worship the wood of the Shulkhan Arukh (literally the Set Table, the authoritative anthology of Orthodox Jewish law and practice) and the stone of the land of Israel. To see their idol worship in action, one need only read this article from the Washington Post, describing these fools defending Hagee's words. Read More... ( 11046 bytes in body)
Posted on May 23 2008 : 05:33 PMUnlike many who opposed the Iraq war, I don't blame the neo-cons for the war on Iraq. Nor do I believe that the U.S. foreign policy is dictated by Israel, as many others contend. These opinions are mostly found in socialist left wing and libertarian circles. If you read the comments sections on various political news sites and blogs these positions are loudly vented. Usually, as on libertarian-leaning sites like Digg, they are given thumbs up by the "audience." [One reason I don't allow comments on this blog is to avoid the infantile verbiage such sections usually contain]. There is often an undertone of anti-Jewish feelings in the many diatribes which espouse these positions. Basically, the underlying argument goes: the Jews rule the world to the detriment of others. McCain is often seen as another tool of the neo-cons. His close relation to Joe Lieberman gives this argument credence. My opinon on all this is obviously quite different. Read More... ( 10243 bytes in body)
Posted on May 21 2008 : 09:20 PMRehavam Ze'evi was the last person to get up in front of the Israeli Knesset and compare those who negotiate with "terrorists," as being equivalent to Neville Chamberlain's appeasing Hitler. Ze'evi was part of Israel's radical right and led a party that advocated the "transfer" of Arabs out of Israel, as the solution for ending the Israel/Palestine conflict. He also was famous for saying on the floor of the Knesset "every Jew is worth a thousand Arabs." Of course, in his reference to appeasement, Ze'evi was referring to Rabin and his negotiations with Arafat and the PLO. In Ze'evi's eyes, the fact that Bush advocates a two state solution and see's Arafat successor Abbas, as a "partner" in peace, would make Bush another Nazi-lover. Read More... ( 7407 bytes in body)
Posted on May 11 2008 : 12:02 AMPilpul [which probably derives from the Hebrew word pilpel-- pepper] refers to a technique of Talmudical study. To find out what pilpul has to do with Obama, we need to go on a bit of a side track. More beneath the fold. Read More... ( 7670 bytes in body)
Posted on May 01 2008 : 12:30 PMI know there is more important news around (like Myley Shmyley's bare shoulder/scary Incest Father/scary Angry Black Man). So it is not surprising that this little tidbit from Hillary Clinton got so little comment: “I want the Iranians to know, if I am the president, we will attack Iran. And I want them to understand that, because it does mean that they have to look very carefully at their society, because at whatever stage of development they might be with their nuclear weapons program in the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them.” Read More... ( 945 bytes in body)
Posted on April 25 2008 : 01:20 PMWatch this video. Thanks to the blog owner Roberto Lovato for sharing something so beautiful. Read More...
Posted on April 11 2008 : 10:46 PMI know I seem to be harping on this topic, but it truly annoys me how the US media totally ignores this issue. Another article in the Guardian about alleged KLA war crimes. Read More... ( 1501 bytes in body)
Posted on April 03 2008 : 09:16 PMA while back I did a piece on Kosovo's "declaration of independence." I am particularly appalled by the double standard applied by Western governments, who give the Kosovo government leadership, members of the criminal KLA, a pass. Today's NY Times had an article about several KLA leaders who were acquitted by the UN War Crimes Tribunal. The main reason they were acquitted was because of witness intimidation, which essentially undermined the prosecution's case. But what was truly disturbing, and reinforces the points I made in the previous article, was this line: "The case against Mr. Haradinaj was fraught with difficulties from the start. Western diplomats tried to dissuade Carla Del Ponte, who was the chief prosecutor, from indicting Mr. Haradinaj, arguing that he was a respected political leader who played an important role in stabilizing Kosovo." Read More...
Posted on March 30 2008 : 09:04 PMThe big lie of Bush and Co is meant to cover up a horrifying truth: the endless suffering of the Iraqi people caused by the US invasion. Calling this invasion a criminal act doesn't properly describe the vast injustice of every day the US stays in Iraq. The Guardian, a UK newspaper, provides us with a bit of insight into what is really happening. A series of film snippets by an Iraqi photo journalist, Ghaith Abdul-Ahud illuminates a little bit of the heart-breaking truth that is the war in Iraq. Read More... ( 2018 bytes in body)
Posted on March 28 2008 : 10:02 AMLike many people I suppose, I always assumed Goebbels first articulated the propaganda technique we now call "the big lie." According to this article, that isn't the case. However, his definition is quite apt: "...the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous." This definition exactly fits the big lie being promulgated by Bush & Co and the media regarding the "success" of the US "surge" of troops in Iraq. In the face of all the bombings, killings, fighting and unmitigated violence that gets reported on a daily basis, the lie just gets repeated over and over. What is ridiculous is that anyone with a modicum of intelligence can believe this absurd claim. Patrick Cockburn gives a more nuanced view of the situation in Iraq, in an interview over at Democracy Now: "This month, we’re probably going to have 1,500, 1,600 civilians killed. So, you know, in a sense, things have got better. We’ve gone from 3,000 to 1,600. But, you know, we’ve gone from 100 percent bloodbath to 50 percent bloodbath, but it’s still a bloodbath, so I think it’s really ludicrous for Vice President Cheney or Senator McCain to say, you know, we’re on the verge of victory, things are good. " Read More...
Posted on March 19 2008 : 12:12 AMSometimes I feel that most people relate to political conflicts like some sort of baseball competition. If you are on "our" team, you are a "good" team. If you are on the other side, you are a "bad" team. Perhaps I am genetically defective - I never was a fan of any particular sports team. Part of me can understand fandom (my kids call me an Apple fanboy). But to take a sports fan approach to politics just seems totally insane to me. Yet reading the news over the past few days, makes me feel like this sports metaphor has been carried to some surreal extreme. Read More... ( 6507 bytes in body)
Posted on March 18 2008 : 11:14 AMThe BBC has this article about the horrific conditions in Gaza. The article contains an astonishing quote from an Israeli spokesmen, justifying Israel's refusal to let a young cancer patient leave Gaza for treatment in Egypt: "And when we got on to the subject of seriously ill patients being allowed out of Gaza for treatment, he told me that, while some patients had been let out, it was his view that terminally ill ones posed a potential danger to Israel." "They had nothing to live for, he suggested, so they might blow themselves up and become suicide bombers." Read More...
Posted on March 09 2008 : 02:15 PMAlthough I am an optimist by nature, the depth of ugliness to which human beings can go, never surprises me. Humans often try to distinguish ourselves from animals. I would say that the only distinction between humans and animals, is that we are the only species that is intentionally cruel. Read More... ( 11579 bytes in body)
Posted on March 04 2008 : 10:39 AMIn an incredibly timely work of investigative journalism, David Rose over at Vanity Fair has dropped a bombshell: it was Condi who pushed Fatah into their disastrous confrontation with Hamas in Gaza. Chalk it up to another big "win" for U.S. meddling in other country's affairs. Read More... ( 3424 bytes in body)
Posted on March 01 2008 : 01:41 PMNever underestimate the stupidity of politicians. The Israeli public, at least, seems to have learned the lessons of the last Lebanon war, as polls indicate the majority of Israelis favor negotiation over confrontation with Hamas. But Israeli politicians seem hell-bent on going to war. For anyone who has any illusions about the efficacy of that approach, read my "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions" series (see right side bar). While some of it is specific to the Lebanon war, the gist applies to the conflict with Hamas as well. Read More... ( 2000 bytes in body)
Posted on February 24 2008 : 07:23 PMThe NY Times had a piece today, about Nader's entrance into the race and the reaction of the other presidential candidates. I found the comments section more interesting than the article itself. While I rarely comment on US politics (there are tons of blogs on that topic) this piece riled me up. A copy of my comment to the site may be found below. As a an aside, the US political system at the Federal level probably has the least representative democracy of any Western country. When I lived and voted in Israel there was always a party that supported my views (no matter how "extreme") and was represented in the Knesset. I never felt my vote was wasted and that it didn't have a voice. That is never true in the US. Read More... ( 3154 bytes in body)
Posted on February 19 2008 : 05:58 PMThe US courts are trying to censor Wikileaks. Apparently not too successfully. Read More... 
Posted on February 19 2008 : 12:24 PMYesterday while reading AMNY I saw an article about Kosovo. As with the so-called "Cedar Revolution" and "Orange Revolution" there was the obligatory picture of a pretty girl sitting on someone's shoulders and waving a flag. Given the parallels my skeptical nature kicked in. While knowing very little about the issue, I began to wonder what is really go on. My skepticism was only reinforced by the unseemly haste with which the US and it's EU lapdogs recognized the newly "independent" Kosovo. Not that I have a high opinion of Putin et al, but this story seemed much richer than the euphoric news reporting of "suffering Kosovars free at last." So I decided to follow the mythical advice of Deep Throat (and it is a myth) and follow the money. Read More... ( 5354 bytes in body)
Posted on February 15 2008 : 03:23 PMIf you are interested in listening to truly intelligent, thoughtful and insightful news coverage, then get yourself podcasts from the Left Business Observer. The host, Doug Henwood is not your typical monomaniacal lefty and his shows are always thought provoking and go way beyond "Socialism good, Capitalism bad" type discussions. Read More...
Posted on February 11 2008 : 12:28 AMCaptain Renault's famous statement sums up in one pithy saying all the hundreds of pages of verbiage of the Winograd report: the Israeli political leadership and the IDF command gambled with the lives of Israeli soldiers and citizens -- and lost. Somehow both the political elite and the "man in the street" seem to be "shocked" at the findings. According to Haaretz, the IDF has already learned the lessons of the war. Ehud Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi (the chief of staff) are in charge and they will "clean up" the mess. Lessons have been learned! Measures have been taken! The usual suspects have been rounded up! What a sad farce. Read More... ( 8589 bytes in body)
Posted on February 03 2008 : 07:03 PMImagine a mainstream U.S. paper writing an analysis as intelligent as this. Be sure to read the news articles linked from the opinion piece. Read More...
Posted on January 27 2008 : 04:25 PMUri Avnery, as usual, eloquently states exactly what I was thinking. Read More... ( 4562 bytes in body) |
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  Cost of the War in Iraq
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"Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz -- Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace" -Benito Jurez
"It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." -Eleanor Roosevelt "Let them call me a rebel and welcome. I feel no concern from it. But should I suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul" -Thomas Paine | |
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