It's hard to believe that after the recent financial collapse, which the American public seemed to pin on big business and wall street, and if anything an under active government, that on health care we still seem to love our employment based for profit for big company health insurance system.....and we hate our government getting involved.
This cultural and political consciousness runs deep. What would it take to duplicate the anti monopoly and anti big business populist movements of the past? I wish I knew.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Health Care - The Cost of Doing Nothing
Excellent Article in today's New York Times Week in Review by Reed Abelson.
Points out how predicted increases in health care costs (assuming no reforms passed) will screw the nation:
1.Total agreement among economists and health care experts that medical costs will continue to rise and outpace inflation and the average person's income over the next decade.
"It is a course that is literally bankrupting the fedral government and businesses and indivduals across the country" Peter V. Lee of Pacific Business Group on Health
2.. "It's also cramping our economic growth." Frank McArdie Hewitt Associates
3. More businesses will not offer health insurance.
4. People without health insurance will rise by one million per year.
5. Estimates 275,000 people will die in next decade because of not having insurance.
6. States will be forced to cut medicaid benefits sharply, cut community health centers and state hospitals.
The article concludes that small steps won't help much. It also sttes that if Nixon's proposed health care reform had passed, the nation would be spending hundreds of billions of dollars less per year on health care. If Clinto's plan had passed, Americans would be spending $500 billion less per year.
Should there be any urgency Here? You bet!
Points out how predicted increases in health care costs (assuming no reforms passed) will screw the nation:
1.Total agreement among economists and health care experts that medical costs will continue to rise and outpace inflation and the average person's income over the next decade.
"It is a course that is literally bankrupting the fedral government and businesses and indivduals across the country" Peter V. Lee of Pacific Business Group on Health
2.. "It's also cramping our economic growth." Frank McArdie Hewitt Associates
3. More businesses will not offer health insurance.
4. People without health insurance will rise by one million per year.
5. Estimates 275,000 people will die in next decade because of not having insurance.
6. States will be forced to cut medicaid benefits sharply, cut community health centers and state hospitals.
The article concludes that small steps won't help much. It also sttes that if Nixon's proposed health care reform had passed, the nation would be spending hundreds of billions of dollars less per year on health care. If Clinto's plan had passed, Americans would be spending $500 billion less per year.
Should there be any urgency Here? You bet!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Anti-war = anti-soldier for Vietnam?
Just saw a Rambo move end with Stallone wishing for America to love its soldiers as much as they loved their country. The common wisdom is that returning soldiers were shunned by an anti-war public leading to bitterness and scars. Who wouldn't feel horrible and betrayed if that was what you experienced as a returning Vietnam soldier.
I can say with all honesty that in nearly ten years in the Anti Vietnam war movement, I never experienced, heard, or sensed one bit of hostility to the men who fought the war. Our wish was to save not spurn them. They were brave victims of that war.
If that is what returning soldiers experienced, I can't say when or where it happened because I never saw it happen.
How to make sense of that???
Does it seem that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are already more doubtful about the war they fought, and so are less damaged by the public's ambivalence?
I can say with all honesty that in nearly ten years in the Anti Vietnam war movement, I never experienced, heard, or sensed one bit of hostility to the men who fought the war. Our wish was to save not spurn them. They were brave victims of that war.
If that is what returning soldiers experienced, I can't say when or where it happened because I never saw it happen.
How to make sense of that???
Does it seem that soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are already more doubtful about the war they fought, and so are less damaged by the public's ambivalence?
Benny from post earthquake Chile
It took 13 hours after the earthquake to hear from the family. Luckily I was asleep for the first five....Paul
Hey just letting you know were fine. Still in Chiloe far from the
quake. Neither of us even felt it, although many people around here
did. The highways closed in a lot of places and the airport is closed.
Mom is scheduled to get home Friday morning now (leave thurrsday) but
thats assuming that they dont delay the reopenings even more (which is
a big assumption). Ive only talked to a few people, so I dont know how
my friends are. A lot of buildings in Curico were destroyed and some
people died but I know very few specifics. My host family was in
Concepcion (really close to thee quake) so Im worried about them. We
are fine though, just figuring out what to do till thursday and seeing
how things come together.
Love,
Benny
Hey just letting you know were fine. Still in Chiloe far from the
quake. Neither of us even felt it, although many people around here
did. The highways closed in a lot of places and the airport is closed.
Mom is scheduled to get home Friday morning now (leave thurrsday) but
thats assuming that they dont delay the reopenings even more (which is
a big assumption). Ive only talked to a few people, so I dont know how
my friends are. A lot of buildings in Curico were destroyed and some
people died but I know very few specifics. My host family was in
Concepcion (really close to thee quake) so Im worried about them. We
are fine though, just figuring out what to do till thursday and seeing
how things come together.
Love,
Benny
roz from chile post earthquake
dear familly and friends
writing to you from Chiloe, an island quite far froom the epicenter. we are lucky to be here as we are very safe there is no evidence of the earthquake other than power wass out for awhile and we have not yet found a functioning ATM. Just now got into a hotel with a tv so we are seeing what is happening which is quite catastroprhic. We were at an eco tourist area, very remote last nite, when it struck. We did not feel anything but another guest said she did feel her cabin moving. Benny got a call from a friend in curico who told himabout the earthquake . The place where we were lost interntet and elec so we couldnt contact people. So we went kayaking and the ironic thing is this place Chepu, is known for the rivers of sunken forests which were a result of the ocean pouring into the river because of the last earthquaske of 1960 which was the worst ever recorded . When you travel here, so often there is information about the reconstruction since that earthquake.
Benny tried contacting his new host family. it is worrisome because they are in concepcion tvacationing and gettting their daughter set up for college there . It is really close to the epicenter. He only reached a worker at the family house so far whof gave vague infromation, sounding like they are "more or less ok". His town has had quite a bit of damage, As far as I understand , I think about 200 people have died in chile. It is really a modern country and they seem equipped to deal with the problems, in contrast to Haiti.
But the main corridor road North/south is closed in a lot of areas because of fallen roads and bridges. We had bus tickets to go to Santiago tonite but there will not be busses going there for the next couple days, at least. There were some bldgs. collapsed at the airport which is closed at least for 2 days. I was supposed to leave tomorrow but was given a flight for Thursday, as the first possibility. We returned to the main town , Ancud, at the north end of the island to be closer to civilization and to find out more about what is happening and try to figure out a new plan. Benny is relieved to just now hear that the new famiily is fine.
I'm wondering if we will be able to help out anywhere in the next few days. So I have at least 5 more days here in Chile...life is sure unpredictable. We are lucky that we didn't leave last nite or we could have been on a bus right by the epicenter when it happened.
Tonite we plan to go to a bar iin honor of Purim, where we will have pisco sours!
Thanks for yo0ur caring and we send love from here in Chille. rozy
writing to you from Chiloe, an island quite far froom the epicenter. we are lucky to be here as we are very safe there is no evidence of the earthquake other than power wass out for awhile and we have not yet found a functioning ATM. Just now got into a hotel with a tv so we are seeing what is happening which is quite catastroprhic. We were at an eco tourist area, very remote last nite, when it struck. We did not feel anything but another guest said she did feel her cabin moving. Benny got a call from a friend in curico who told himabout the earthquake . The place where we were lost interntet and elec so we couldnt contact people. So we went kayaking and the ironic thing is this place Chepu, is known for the rivers of sunken forests which were a result of the ocean pouring into the river because of the last earthquaske of 1960 which was the worst ever recorded . When you travel here, so often there is information about the reconstruction since that earthquake.
Benny tried contacting his new host family. it is worrisome because they are in concepcion tvacationing and gettting their daughter set up for college there . It is really close to the epicenter. He only reached a worker at the family house so far whof gave vague infromation, sounding like they are "more or less ok". His town has had quite a bit of damage, As far as I understand , I think about 200 people have died in chile. It is really a modern country and they seem equipped to deal with the problems, in contrast to Haiti.
But the main corridor road North/south is closed in a lot of areas because of fallen roads and bridges. We had bus tickets to go to Santiago tonite but there will not be busses going there for the next couple days, at least. There were some bldgs. collapsed at the airport which is closed at least for 2 days. I was supposed to leave tomorrow but was given a flight for Thursday, as the first possibility. We returned to the main town , Ancud, at the north end of the island to be closer to civilization and to find out more about what is happening and try to figure out a new plan. Benny is relieved to just now hear that the new famiily is fine.
I'm wondering if we will be able to help out anywhere in the next few days. So I have at least 5 more days here in Chile...life is sure unpredictable. We are lucky that we didn't leave last nite or we could have been on a bus right by the epicenter when it happened.
Tonite we plan to go to a bar iin honor of Purim, where we will have pisco sours!
Thanks for yo0ur caring and we send love from here in Chille. rozy
Monday, February 22, 2010
Can the music world be mean, demean?
My last chicago blues group was in NYC. I was working at the NY Dept of City Planning and living on East 7th St between Avenues C and D. I lived on the sixth floor (walkup.) The apartment was two bedrooms, was rent controlled and rent was $188. The way you got a bargain like that in NYC was to pay "key money" for a rent controlled apartment like this. Key money in this case was $500. The neat thing in this apartment was the kitchen wall had been stripped to the brick, so it looked can of old fashioned.
At a political benefit I met two young black panther party members....probably around 18, certainly under 21. They were both guitar players, one lead and other loved to play rhythm. This was unusual, since most rhythm guitar players hungered to play lead. The rhythm player was Nyle Rogers. You'll see him appear on lots of "best 100 soul sound" series on TV. He was famous for being Madonna's first producer. We played Chicago blues. I think we sounded pretty good. Well gigs were hard to come by. I remember once at an after hours club on Canal Street. This club opened at something like 2:00 a.m. after regular bars closed. I believe the place was also equipped with a gallows for some S&M nights.
So now to my last gig. We got a gig on 125th Street....most famous street in Harlem. It turned out, however, that this was way east and in Spanish (not black) Harlem. So we are excited because we had 5 nights steady work. So we set up and nobodoy's there. They say play anyway. The only people who came into the club that night walked past us with heads down, walked to the rear of the club, disappeared into a room, and came out and exited 20 minutes later. Nobody, I mean no one, even looked at us. Chicago Blues in a Latin club. No attention to music. It didn't take too long for us to figure out we werent' hired for our music, but to be window dressing covering whatever drugs were being sold in the back room. That was a really horrible feeling. I think we bailed out of the job, I bailed out of the band, and that was it for me and rock and roll. Could a musician get much lower????
At a political benefit I met two young black panther party members....probably around 18, certainly under 21. They were both guitar players, one lead and other loved to play rhythm. This was unusual, since most rhythm guitar players hungered to play lead. The rhythm player was Nyle Rogers. You'll see him appear on lots of "best 100 soul sound" series on TV. He was famous for being Madonna's first producer. We played Chicago blues. I think we sounded pretty good. Well gigs were hard to come by. I remember once at an after hours club on Canal Street. This club opened at something like 2:00 a.m. after regular bars closed. I believe the place was also equipped with a gallows for some S&M nights.
So now to my last gig. We got a gig on 125th Street....most famous street in Harlem. It turned out, however, that this was way east and in Spanish (not black) Harlem. So we are excited because we had 5 nights steady work. So we set up and nobodoy's there. They say play anyway. The only people who came into the club that night walked past us with heads down, walked to the rear of the club, disappeared into a room, and came out and exited 20 minutes later. Nobody, I mean no one, even looked at us. Chicago Blues in a Latin club. No attention to music. It didn't take too long for us to figure out we werent' hired for our music, but to be window dressing covering whatever drugs were being sold in the back room. That was a really horrible feeling. I think we bailed out of the job, I bailed out of the band, and that was it for me and rock and roll. Could a musician get much lower????
Sunday, February 21, 2010
What it takes to get health care reform
I've been meaning to write this for months, but Obama's proposal today to regulating insurance companies' ability to increase rates, reminded me of what I think it takes to pass reform. To be politically salable, health care reform has to have nearly universal benefits. During the presidential campaign it was enough to say expand coverage to those poor souls who don't have coverage. But push come to shove, when it looks like it's costing money, the public needs to see that it benefits.
Note the difference in support for Public Welfare and for Social Security. Social Security is seen as benefiting everyone. Welfare can be viewed as narrowly benefiting a smaller subset of society. Add on that either case there may issues of race and class operating in the background and you gain understanding of the public politics.
Health Care reform that can be passed in the US Congress needs to have universal benefits that are clear and tangible and appear to be worth the cost. This new proposal is not a great reform, but it does point the doable political direction.
Note the difference in support for Public Welfare and for Social Security. Social Security is seen as benefiting everyone. Welfare can be viewed as narrowly benefiting a smaller subset of society. Add on that either case there may issues of race and class operating in the background and you gain understanding of the public politics.
Health Care reform that can be passed in the US Congress needs to have universal benefits that are clear and tangible and appear to be worth the cost. This new proposal is not a great reform, but it does point the doable political direction.
music competition
I just came back from a WVU staff and faculty talent show. And wadda you know, I was second runner up. Wow, was I delighted.....because it's a pretty big cultural reach to move a Morgantown audience with 19th century jewish music on the accordion. I shouldn't assume, but I doubt if any of the judges (mostly football players) had heard Klezmer before.
The whole event was very hamisch. There were two faculty members: myself and Rich Fleisher doing his Cy Berg future comedy routine. There were 5 additional staff who were all singers....all were really quite good. The audience surprised me (snowy winter day, etc.) by probably topping a hundred. The feeling was really good, people getting up to perform because they had something from their hearts to say. All the performers were tremendously supportive of each other. a real feel good event.
I tried to remember other musical competitions. I was once in a battle of the bands in high school with a really lousy band. I don't remember much about it, but we didn't do well.
Coming up through high school age I did compete in a northern jersey music teachers annual competition. You were not awarded a place (like first, second, third, etc.) but given a grade for your performance. Somewhere in the boxed up archives I have a green and gold placque from one of those. I think I did pretty well. I remember one year I played Debussy Gradus ad Parnassum, which I had pretty well mastered, and the last movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. That's a BIG piece.. big in conception, big in sound, and lots of technical challenges. I remember that as I played for the 3 judges, I got in the zone and played through to the very last line where there was a big fermata (paus).....that's when I came to from being totally inside the music....and remembered that I had never quite mastered the furious two handed arpeggios that end the piece. Fear, panic, ohmigod. How long can I rest and stall on the fermata. What a moment of terror. Well the show must go on. I pushed on through, roared out most of the notes, and hopefully the inner voice mistakes were not to evident. I think I did tell the right musical story.
In the realm of competion.... another bitter moment in life. This was a competition that didn't happen. I was an undergraduate political science major at Haverford College. The music department announced a competition for a pianist to play a Mozart piano concerto with the college orchestra. I signed up. I got called in by William Reese, chair of the music department, who said, "How can you possibly do this, you're not a music major." I said that was true, but I wanted to try out. He kept saying I couldn't possibly be good enough to win, and I retorted, then why don't you let me audition. We went round and round. He won....he wouldn't let me try out. Another guy (Howard Pancoast was his last name) got to do the concerto. I think it was wired for him from the start. I was pissed! and still haven't ever gotten to perform a concerto. Maybe I'll take that on after my upcoming showcase, now that I'm back in the classical piano swing.
I did get to perform some nice four hands things at a number of recitals with another Haverford music faculty member. We did some Mozart and some Brahms. That was a bunch of fun.
The whole event was very hamisch. There were two faculty members: myself and Rich Fleisher doing his Cy Berg future comedy routine. There were 5 additional staff who were all singers....all were really quite good. The audience surprised me (snowy winter day, etc.) by probably topping a hundred. The feeling was really good, people getting up to perform because they had something from their hearts to say. All the performers were tremendously supportive of each other. a real feel good event.
I tried to remember other musical competitions. I was once in a battle of the bands in high school with a really lousy band. I don't remember much about it, but we didn't do well.
Coming up through high school age I did compete in a northern jersey music teachers annual competition. You were not awarded a place (like first, second, third, etc.) but given a grade for your performance. Somewhere in the boxed up archives I have a green and gold placque from one of those. I think I did pretty well. I remember one year I played Debussy Gradus ad Parnassum, which I had pretty well mastered, and the last movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. That's a BIG piece.. big in conception, big in sound, and lots of technical challenges. I remember that as I played for the 3 judges, I got in the zone and played through to the very last line where there was a big fermata (paus).....that's when I came to from being totally inside the music....and remembered that I had never quite mastered the furious two handed arpeggios that end the piece. Fear, panic, ohmigod. How long can I rest and stall on the fermata. What a moment of terror. Well the show must go on. I pushed on through, roared out most of the notes, and hopefully the inner voice mistakes were not to evident. I think I did tell the right musical story.
In the realm of competion.... another bitter moment in life. This was a competition that didn't happen. I was an undergraduate political science major at Haverford College. The music department announced a competition for a pianist to play a Mozart piano concerto with the college orchestra. I signed up. I got called in by William Reese, chair of the music department, who said, "How can you possibly do this, you're not a music major." I said that was true, but I wanted to try out. He kept saying I couldn't possibly be good enough to win, and I retorted, then why don't you let me audition. We went round and round. He won....he wouldn't let me try out. Another guy (Howard Pancoast was his last name) got to do the concerto. I think it was wired for him from the start. I was pissed! and still haven't ever gotten to perform a concerto. Maybe I'll take that on after my upcoming showcase, now that I'm back in the classical piano swing.
I did get to perform some nice four hands things at a number of recitals with another Haverford music faculty member. We did some Mozart and some Brahms. That was a bunch of fun.
If you broke it, you own it
Peace and (should I use this much maligned word) democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq depend ultimately on local governments that are seen as legitimate by their peoples. In neither case is that happening, and so even a modicum of stability is now dependent on American troops (and behind the scenes political maneuvering.)
We created both these regimes by force of arms. Both are seriously flawed. In Afghanistan the last elections were full of fraud. In Iraq, over 500 Sunnies were banned from upcoming elections. (BTW, the shiites are using a deBaathification law imposed by US to do this!)
This can't and won't work. Unfortunately Americans can either leave and watch the ensuing chaos that we created or continue to try to hold together the quicksand situations. Neither are good choices. Getting out at least removes the american forces as western bete noir. While we are in we need to use all the clout to push our fractious puppet leaders to be honest, competent, and build inclusive institutions.
We created both these regimes by force of arms. Both are seriously flawed. In Afghanistan the last elections were full of fraud. In Iraq, over 500 Sunnies were banned from upcoming elections. (BTW, the shiites are using a deBaathification law imposed by US to do this!)
This can't and won't work. Unfortunately Americans can either leave and watch the ensuing chaos that we created or continue to try to hold together the quicksand situations. Neither are good choices. Getting out at least removes the american forces as western bete noir. While we are in we need to use all the clout to push our fractious puppet leaders to be honest, competent, and build inclusive institutions.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
I thought I'd seen/heard it all
Click the title of this blog entry to get to:
Whispering Hope on the Leaf Flute. Listen past half way for a nice surprise. I think that's auto harp in the background.
Whispering Hope on the Leaf Flute. Listen past half way for a nice surprise. I think that's auto harp in the background.
Earliest memories
How early can we remember? I suspect that some of the "memories" registered in my brain may not be remembered as such, but memories of being told or seeing pictures of early events. Still they have the true look and feel of memoreis....so what's the difference. I know my daughter Nina took a course on copies, fakes, and forgeries in art, and their relationship to the "real." Maybe this is one she could puzzle out.
Anyway the very earliest memory is not visual. Let me set the stage. My mom and dad were married in 1939. In 1941 there was a baby that didn't survive 24 hours. Then I was conceived, but my father left for WWII before I was born. (Thus I have a prolific movie and photo documentary of my first 1.5 years.) With my father gone, my mother quit her school teaching job and ran my father's floor scraping business. That meant driving the truck, supervising jobs, etc....all pregnant with me. She lived in an apartment over my grandfather's grocery store on Division Avenue in Belleville, NJ. (My grandmother had already died in 1938.) Also living above the store was my aunt Marion with her son Steve, a year older than I. Two temporarily alone sisters, two toddler boys, and my grandfather. I'll bet it was pretty interesting.
Anyway, the memory (so called) is of a phone call and my mother saying my father (whom I had never seen) was back in the US, and we would see him soon. What's a word that goes beyond excited. I truly knew this was a big moment.
Memory #2 from the store on Division is me in a playpen in front of the store, and the big deal is that this was the first time I stood on my own. Now I have pictures of this, so am really a bit doubtful I could remember first standing up. Now to me this was really not anything special. I remember, however, the reaction of the adults was quite a big deal....my first retained lesson in how different perspectives can be...and how important the perceptions of others can be to me(us.) The picture in my mind (from the little curly black and white photos) is of the window of the store filled with a geometrical pyramid of boxes of white rose tea.
Memory #3 may have become one of the high points of my life. My granddaddy took me to a park by a river (I think it must have been the Passaic River.) We were doing the usual on a spread out blanket and along came a tug boat. You know how beautiful they can be....black paint, red trim, tires all around, big white wake of water following behind. We me and granddaddy got up and waved at the tug boat. And that nice captain waved back. I had no idea he might do that. That was an early moment of ecstasy! The boat, the water, our waves, his wave. It's as clear in there as if it happened today. Hmmmm....maybe I should go down to the Monongahela and see if I can scare up a tugboat to wave at.
Anyway the very earliest memory is not visual. Let me set the stage. My mom and dad were married in 1939. In 1941 there was a baby that didn't survive 24 hours. Then I was conceived, but my father left for WWII before I was born. (Thus I have a prolific movie and photo documentary of my first 1.5 years.) With my father gone, my mother quit her school teaching job and ran my father's floor scraping business. That meant driving the truck, supervising jobs, etc....all pregnant with me. She lived in an apartment over my grandfather's grocery store on Division Avenue in Belleville, NJ. (My grandmother had already died in 1938.) Also living above the store was my aunt Marion with her son Steve, a year older than I. Two temporarily alone sisters, two toddler boys, and my grandfather. I'll bet it was pretty interesting.
Anyway, the memory (so called) is of a phone call and my mother saying my father (whom I had never seen) was back in the US, and we would see him soon. What's a word that goes beyond excited. I truly knew this was a big moment.
Memory #2 from the store on Division is me in a playpen in front of the store, and the big deal is that this was the first time I stood on my own. Now I have pictures of this, so am really a bit doubtful I could remember first standing up. Now to me this was really not anything special. I remember, however, the reaction of the adults was quite a big deal....my first retained lesson in how different perspectives can be...and how important the perceptions of others can be to me(us.) The picture in my mind (from the little curly black and white photos) is of the window of the store filled with a geometrical pyramid of boxes of white rose tea.
Memory #3 may have become one of the high points of my life. My granddaddy took me to a park by a river (I think it must have been the Passaic River.) We were doing the usual on a spread out blanket and along came a tug boat. You know how beautiful they can be....black paint, red trim, tires all around, big white wake of water following behind. We me and granddaddy got up and waved at the tug boat. And that nice captain waved back. I had no idea he might do that. That was an early moment of ecstasy! The boat, the water, our waves, his wave. It's as clear in there as if it happened today. Hmmmm....maybe I should go down to the Monongahela and see if I can scare up a tugboat to wave at.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Open mike blues in Brussels
I got to go to Brussels in November to attend and present a poster on the aging workforce in Construction. My little poster was called Worn Out Workers....WOW. Maybe I should make that a group to join on Facebook. I'll bet there'd be millions of members.
Anyway on one of the last days in Brussels, I tracked down an open mike night at a "blues club." I walked in the door and was met by extraordinarily friendly bass player from north africa in dreadlocks. Yes there was a piano. Yes I could play. Then met the guy in charge.....he was a piano player expatriot from NYC. He apologized for and showed me the piano. Asked me if I wanted to play. I did. The club was full, the people were rockin', the bass player played along and I think it sounded great. MISTAKE! I think the piano guy did not like the competition. When the real open mike started up, he wouldn't let me back to play....with a variety of excuses, etc. Who said musicians weren't raving egotists.
I had a good time anyway. Nice people in the club. There was an Italian singer who was pretty dramatic. I came home with a key chain with her picture and blurb for her band. She was a kick!
Anyway on one of the last days in Brussels, I tracked down an open mike night at a "blues club." I walked in the door and was met by extraordinarily friendly bass player from north africa in dreadlocks. Yes there was a piano. Yes I could play. Then met the guy in charge.....he was a piano player expatriot from NYC. He apologized for and showed me the piano. Asked me if I wanted to play. I did. The club was full, the people were rockin', the bass player played along and I think it sounded great. MISTAKE! I think the piano guy did not like the competition. When the real open mike started up, he wouldn't let me back to play....with a variety of excuses, etc. Who said musicians weren't raving egotists.
I had a good time anyway. Nice people in the club. There was an Italian singer who was pretty dramatic. I came home with a key chain with her picture and blurb for her band. She was a kick!
Yoo and Pinochet
Judge Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge who indicted Augusto Pinochet for torutre in 1998, has opened a formal investigation of Bush lawyers Yoo and Bysbee. These were the administration lawyers who provided the legal cover for US torture. While it might seem a stretch for a Spanish judge to investigate or try a US citizen for torture, that's exactly what is mandated by the 1988 Convention Against Torture (signed by Ronald Reagan!)
On the US front, leaked information on the Justice Department's investigation of the two lawyers hints that earlier language referring the attorneys to state bars for consideration of formal discipline has been watered down. The latest draft merely describes their actions as "poor judgement."
Sooooo......
Spanish court considers torture "crime against humanity"
US Justice Dept considers torture "poor judgement"
I would love to be part of a country that consistently held to the higher moral ground on these and other issues.
On the US front, leaked information on the Justice Department's investigation of the two lawyers hints that earlier language referring the attorneys to state bars for consideration of formal discipline has been watered down. The latest draft merely describes their actions as "poor judgement."
Sooooo......
Spanish court considers torture "crime against humanity"
US Justice Dept considers torture "poor judgement"
I would love to be part of a country that consistently held to the higher moral ground on these and other issues.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How To Get our Democracy Back
An article in the Feb 22 Nation by Lawrence Lessig
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/lessig
is one of the most convincing analyses of what's going on with the Obama presidency. The thesis (from the left of course) is not so much the conservatism of the policies Obama has supported, but his lack of follow through on his campaign promises to change the way Washington does business....evidenced by:
1. Appointment of old guard inside the beltway practitioners to lead his staff. leading to:
2. His acceptance of business as usual in dealing with Congress..not challenging its pathological dependence on fundraising and he concomitant influence of big business and its lobbies to stymie anything that threatens the lucrative status quo (He argues that partisanship with its quick reference to some ideological question is the cover for campaign cash.)
Obama as quoted in this article:
both parties had allowed "lobbists and campaign contributions to rig the system"
"Unless we're willing to challenge [that[] broken system... nothing else is going to change."
By the way, this corruption of congress corrodes Americans' faith in our political system. 88% of Americans believe money buys Congress.
That cynicism leads to decreased participation and ultimately leaves the fox to guard the chickens.
Lessig proposes that Obama lost his moment by not framing this challenge even before he began to advance his political agenda. .. that we needed to remove or lessen the impact of money on our political system, particularly Congress. If he had framed the debate in this manner and then proposed citizen-funded elections and constitutional reformsto ensure legislative integrity, he might have:
a. Possibly succeeded in making transformational changes in our sick political system
b. If he failed, identify this failure as behind his inability to win his policy proposals, (rather than partisan republicans) and thus be in a stronger position to again advance the political reforms re money.
Read the article. It's better than my summary.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100222/lessig
is one of the most convincing analyses of what's going on with the Obama presidency. The thesis (from the left of course) is not so much the conservatism of the policies Obama has supported, but his lack of follow through on his campaign promises to change the way Washington does business....evidenced by:
1. Appointment of old guard inside the beltway practitioners to lead his staff. leading to:
2. His acceptance of business as usual in dealing with Congress..not challenging its pathological dependence on fundraising and he concomitant influence of big business and its lobbies to stymie anything that threatens the lucrative status quo (He argues that partisanship with its quick reference to some ideological question is the cover for campaign cash.)
Obama as quoted in this article:
both parties had allowed "lobbists and campaign contributions to rig the system"
"Unless we're willing to challenge [that[] broken system... nothing else is going to change."
By the way, this corruption of congress corrodes Americans' faith in our political system. 88% of Americans believe money buys Congress.
That cynicism leads to decreased participation and ultimately leaves the fox to guard the chickens.
Lessig proposes that Obama lost his moment by not framing this challenge even before he began to advance his political agenda. .. that we needed to remove or lessen the impact of money on our political system, particularly Congress. If he had framed the debate in this manner and then proposed citizen-funded elections and constitutional reformsto ensure legislative integrity, he might have:
a. Possibly succeeded in making transformational changes in our sick political system
b. If he failed, identify this failure as behind his inability to win his policy proposals, (rather than partisan republicans) and thus be in a stronger position to again advance the political reforms re money.
Read the article. It's better than my summary.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
More sugar less fat
Several reports indicate that as processed and prepared food (including Domino's Pizza) decrease the amounts of fat in their food, they are compensating by adding more sugar or sweetener.....kind of like eating sweet cardboard. They also note that people get used to an amount of sweetness in food and so continually crave more.
Win some, lose some
Win some, lose some
Monday, February 15, 2010
Re: Catalan and Yiddish
I got a new CD today. I ordered it after hearing a cut on a digital world music station. The CD is Omnibus by Eduard Iniesta. I didn't actually remember the ethnic origin of the music, but kind of thought maybe it was Portuguese. One very soulful song is as follows:
LENTO
"Lento,
hoje e tao lento
o movimento do mar.
E eu nao posso a calmar
o sofrimento. chorar"
Traslation:
SLOW
"Slow,
how slow
is the movement of the sea.
And I cannot calm down
the suffering, to cry."
As I read the translation, it made me think of the feeling in many yiddish poems. But I was puzzled. Wherein that dark sadness in Portuguese? Then I looked closer at the album. It's in Catalan. I rest my case.
LENTO
"Lento,
hoje e tao lento
o movimento do mar.
E eu nao posso a calmar
o sofrimento. chorar"
Traslation:
SLOW
"Slow,
how slow
is the movement of the sea.
And I cannot calm down
the suffering, to cry."
As I read the translation, it made me think of the feeling in many yiddish poems. But I was puzzled. Wherein that dark sadness in Portuguese? Then I looked closer at the album. It's in Catalan. I rest my case.
Papers I worked on
My son Benny corrected my memory of papers I worked on.....leading me to make this annotated list:
1964: Haverford Twopenny Press. This was an alternative press to the Haverford College student newspaper. We were way to the left on issues concerning the Vietnam War and governance at Haverford. I believe I was editor for one year. We printed on a long format and sold the paper for 2c.
1969: Urban Underground. This was also the name of our group of left city planners. This paper published in NYC dealt with urban planning issues. We opposed upzoning Manhattan (would accelerate moving of poor people out of the borough) and were an early proponent of banning cars from Manhattan. I recall a somewhat famous photo we staged and used on the front page with a man in a suit with briefcase (business looking guy) descending into a subway stop wearing a gas mask.
1969: Can't remember the name of the daily paper/newsletter the Wimp collective produced at Woodstock. We persuaded the organizers to fund our effort to produce a newspaper on site. The paper attacked the cooptation of rock and roll by big businesses.
1973: Pentagon Paper. Some of us working at Peace Press in Los Angeles were hired to produce a monthly newspaper concerning the Pentagon Papers trial of Daniel Elsburg and Tony Russo. The paper covered trial issues, but also publicized some of the more serious issues revealed in the Pentagon Papers. (For those of you too young....Elsburg and Russo copied and made public work by think tank Rand Corporation indicating US losing war in Vietnam and unpopular with the people there.) This duo was accused of treason for these activities, but the cases were dropped because much of the evidence against the two was top secret and the govt didn't want to reveal its sources.) It was working at this paper that I think I turned around my to that date academic writing style to be more readable. The paper was unique in that it did not just go to an anti-war constituency, but was distributed through a network of community organizations with a name something like Los Angeles Coalition for Peace and Justice.
1964: Haverford Twopenny Press. This was an alternative press to the Haverford College student newspaper. We were way to the left on issues concerning the Vietnam War and governance at Haverford. I believe I was editor for one year. We printed on a long format and sold the paper for 2c.
1969: Urban Underground. This was also the name of our group of left city planners. This paper published in NYC dealt with urban planning issues. We opposed upzoning Manhattan (would accelerate moving of poor people out of the borough) and were an early proponent of banning cars from Manhattan. I recall a somewhat famous photo we staged and used on the front page with a man in a suit with briefcase (business looking guy) descending into a subway stop wearing a gas mask.
1969: Can't remember the name of the daily paper/newsletter the Wimp collective produced at Woodstock. We persuaded the organizers to fund our effort to produce a newspaper on site. The paper attacked the cooptation of rock and roll by big businesses.
1973: Pentagon Paper. Some of us working at Peace Press in Los Angeles were hired to produce a monthly newspaper concerning the Pentagon Papers trial of Daniel Elsburg and Tony Russo. The paper covered trial issues, but also publicized some of the more serious issues revealed in the Pentagon Papers. (For those of you too young....Elsburg and Russo copied and made public work by think tank Rand Corporation indicating US losing war in Vietnam and unpopular with the people there.) This duo was accused of treason for these activities, but the cases were dropped because much of the evidence against the two was top secret and the govt didn't want to reveal its sources.) It was working at this paper that I think I turned around my to that date academic writing style to be more readable. The paper was unique in that it did not just go to an anti-war constituency, but was distributed through a network of community organizations with a name something like Los Angeles Coalition for Peace and Justice.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tough choice
Watching the tube on a Sunday afternoon...procrastinating on some work I need to do. Two movies on at the same time:
Caddyshack
Pretty Woman
Wow, what a choice...one is beautifully ridiculous, the other is ridiculously beautiful.
What's your choice?
Caddyshack
Pretty Woman
Wow, what a choice...one is beautifully ridiculous, the other is ridiculously beautiful.
What's your choice?
Friday, February 12, 2010
Why are Jews so Glum?
Some time ago, Abby and I performed some Klezmer music at our local Black Bear restaurant. A supporter and fan did come up to us and ask, did we know any songs in major keys. The answer....not really.
If you're not Jewish and have ever wondered why Jews seem to have this sad dark side, read this song with lyrics by Miriam Harel composed within the Lodzh ghetto and performed By Brave Old World "fin Geto Lodzh." I'm not sure who translated from Yiddish
WINTER 1942
My mother and father lie in the cemetery
My brother has been deported
My sister is bent over and sick
And I am crushed by hunger
Not a spoonful of food in the house
No bread, not even a carrot to be seen
I've even forgotten how to chew
And the table is empty and bare
There is no mercy from on high
The devil sits there and laughs
At the orphans and widows
Locked up in the Lodz Ghetto
I walk around like a old person
My eyes moist and red
The sky is cold and dark
And tomorrow will bring only death
That should put a stop too those who are now complaining about our West Virginia winter of 2010.....
If you're not Jewish and have ever wondered why Jews seem to have this sad dark side, read this song with lyrics by Miriam Harel composed within the Lodzh ghetto and performed By Brave Old World "fin Geto Lodzh." I'm not sure who translated from Yiddish
WINTER 1942
My mother and father lie in the cemetery
My brother has been deported
My sister is bent over and sick
And I am crushed by hunger
Not a spoonful of food in the house
No bread, not even a carrot to be seen
I've even forgotten how to chew
And the table is empty and bare
There is no mercy from on high
The devil sits there and laughs
At the orphans and widows
Locked up in the Lodz Ghetto
I walk around like a old person
My eyes moist and red
The sky is cold and dark
And tomorrow will bring only death
That should put a stop too those who are now complaining about our West Virginia winter of 2010.....
Progressive Jewish Community Weekly, Anyone????
I've had two brushes with newspapers in my left career. In 1973 or so I helped to write, edit, and distribute a newspaper (monthly?) about the trial of Daniel Elsburg and Tony Russo, who copied and smuggled to the NYTimes the Rand Corporation documents exposing we were losing in Vietnam and that our political standins were unpopular.
In 1975, I worked with Tim Reagan and Tim Nesbitt to form the Oakland Study Center which conducted investigative reporting on Oakland City politics. These were published in a local liberal weekly. Our big issues were making the Port of Oakland an economic benefit for Oakland, and making Oakland politics more representative of communities.
If you're Jewish you know that every urban and many suburban Jewish communities have weekly newspapers. These are not exactly money making machines and in some cases they are supported by organized jewish federations. They are full of pictures of rich Jews who have given money to charitable organizations, Their politics on Israel are usually derivative of the Israeli "right."
So I've had this idea for many years, but at almost 66, it's one I probably won't get to.....fund raise money to buy one of these papers in a relatively liberal community, and making it a more egalitarian, progressive, and populist paper. Why buy? I don't think you could survive starting from scratch. But most of these are the only show in town. I would probably shift the politics somewhat gradually, but considerably up the coverage of and identification of Jewish folks whose community stature is based on more than being charitable or being employed by a Jewish organization.....kind of like taking Howard Zinn's view of American history and applying it in the hre and now to a Jewish community paper. It would probably be a lot of fun, but more importantly, it could provide an alternative voice for diaspora jews which is based in the roots of their current community.
In 1975, I worked with Tim Reagan and Tim Nesbitt to form the Oakland Study Center which conducted investigative reporting on Oakland City politics. These were published in a local liberal weekly. Our big issues were making the Port of Oakland an economic benefit for Oakland, and making Oakland politics more representative of communities.
If you're Jewish you know that every urban and many suburban Jewish communities have weekly newspapers. These are not exactly money making machines and in some cases they are supported by organized jewish federations. They are full of pictures of rich Jews who have given money to charitable organizations, Their politics on Israel are usually derivative of the Israeli "right."
So I've had this idea for many years, but at almost 66, it's one I probably won't get to.....fund raise money to buy one of these papers in a relatively liberal community, and making it a more egalitarian, progressive, and populist paper. Why buy? I don't think you could survive starting from scratch. But most of these are the only show in town. I would probably shift the politics somewhat gradually, but considerably up the coverage of and identification of Jewish folks whose community stature is based on more than being charitable or being employed by a Jewish organization.....kind of like taking Howard Zinn's view of American history and applying it in the hre and now to a Jewish community paper. It would probably be a lot of fun, but more importantly, it could provide an alternative voice for diaspora jews which is based in the roots of their current community.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Layoffs....Bad for Business
From Newsweek article on why layoffs are bad for business:
Following 9/11 all airlines but Southwest laid off workers. Southwest, which has never instituted layoffs in 40 years is now the largest US airline. Former HR director at Southwest: "If people are your most important assets, why would you get rid of them?"
Newsweek describes a death spiral at Circuit City. It laid off 3400 high paid workers to cut costs. Customer service and other skills were lost. Other competitors gained ground, and it had to lay off more workers. Ultimately it filed for bankruptcy and closed.
Also, places where it's harder to lay people off, like France, have held up compariatively bettern during the gloabal economic meltdown. Workers have not lost their income and their competence, and so keep spending. Did Marx talk about that? Did Keynes?
Following 9/11 all airlines but Southwest laid off workers. Southwest, which has never instituted layoffs in 40 years is now the largest US airline. Former HR director at Southwest: "If people are your most important assets, why would you get rid of them?"
Newsweek describes a death spiral at Circuit City. It laid off 3400 high paid workers to cut costs. Customer service and other skills were lost. Other competitors gained ground, and it had to lay off more workers. Ultimately it filed for bankruptcy and closed.
Also, places where it's harder to lay people off, like France, have held up compariatively bettern during the gloabal economic meltdown. Workers have not lost their income and their competence, and so keep spending. Did Marx talk about that? Did Keynes?
Jean Shepherd
In my high school years I listened to Jean Shepherd on late night radio. So did my good friends Bob Seltzer and Bob Brewin. We were the outcasts, the underground, the (proud) eccentrics of our school, Jonathan Dayton Regional High. Our way to escape and hang out together was to be the high school stage crew. That got us out of study and hall and on our on in the auditorium and its stage. I loved the big huge handles that dimmed all the multicolor lights. We even had stage footlights that flipped up. Sometimes I ran the spotlight from the back of the auditorium. I liked putting the colored gels in the light. I can remember how hot that thing got and how it smelled when it heated up the dust lying on top when you first turned it on. I could also control the sound from back there. One time our vice principal was ranting at the kids during assembly about some misdeed(s.) I was disgusted and turned off his mike and lights. Never got caught. Claimed it was a mistake. Haha!
Well back to Jean Shepherd. He had a late night talk show every week night on WOR radio (NYC) from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. He tas a comedian, philosopher, misanthrope. He told stories of his youth, talked about cars, and got folks involved in pranks. One time he made up a book title and got his legions of adolescents to go into book stores to request a non existent book. It apparently got on the best seller list without even existing. Later he did write a book by that name. I think it was Invictus. One of his favorite sayings was Excelsior You Fathead! I've listened now to some archival mp3's. I'm not as wild about him as I was as a teenager. I can also see that he was (perhaps) a model for Garrison Keilor and other story teller humorists. Part of the appeal may have been the illicit staying up with the radio way past midnight on school nights. I can still remember my old black plastic clock radio (yes analog!) with the plastic bars and cloth grate over the speaker. The clock radio controls were tiny and hopelessly not user friendly. If you didn't have the clock set to radio, the alarm was a really horrible buzz saw whiny grrrrrrr.
For Seltzer, Brewin, and me, Jean Shepherd fueled our "looking for a place to lodge" rebelliousness. We were lurching towards the left and occasionally called ourselves socialists......without a clue what that meant. Caught between beatnik and hippie, we didn't have a categorized cultural home. We liked jazz and went into NYC to Birdland to hear jazz. Birdland had a "peanut gallery" that meant there was a non alcoholic place for young teenagers like us. One time we went down to the village with the the total intent to "pick up" some girls. Well we were sitting on a bench in Washington Square Park and some young ladies came by. Seltzer or Brewin made some "pick up" remarks. The ladies looked at us and copped to our ages, and said, "we're old enough to be your mothers!" They werent'! But they were older. We felt seriously defeated.
One last bit of teenage ridiculousness. Seltzer and I sometimes hung out in the Newberry's five and dime after school. They had lunch counter where we'd sometimes have ice cream sodas. We also had a nasty nasty prank. Remember those glass sugar shakers with the stainless cap and the little flap for the sugar. Well the sides of those shakers were completely vertical, so we could (and did) take off the cap, hold a napkin over the top, flip the shaker over 180 degrees over onto the counter, pull out the napkin, and replace the stainless top on what was now the facing up bottom. So when someone thought to lift the shaker.......sugar all over the place. Usually this was harmless, but once a lady with a fur coat did it and got quite a mess of sugar all through her coat. We felt pretty bad and never did it again.
http://www.flicklives.com/pages/n_who_is.htm
Well back to Jean Shepherd. He had a late night talk show every week night on WOR radio (NYC) from 1:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. He tas a comedian, philosopher, misanthrope. He told stories of his youth, talked about cars, and got folks involved in pranks. One time he made up a book title and got his legions of adolescents to go into book stores to request a non existent book. It apparently got on the best seller list without even existing. Later he did write a book by that name. I think it was Invictus. One of his favorite sayings was Excelsior You Fathead! I've listened now to some archival mp3's. I'm not as wild about him as I was as a teenager. I can also see that he was (perhaps) a model for Garrison Keilor and other story teller humorists. Part of the appeal may have been the illicit staying up with the radio way past midnight on school nights. I can still remember my old black plastic clock radio (yes analog!) with the plastic bars and cloth grate over the speaker. The clock radio controls were tiny and hopelessly not user friendly. If you didn't have the clock set to radio, the alarm was a really horrible buzz saw whiny grrrrrrr.
For Seltzer, Brewin, and me, Jean Shepherd fueled our "looking for a place to lodge" rebelliousness. We were lurching towards the left and occasionally called ourselves socialists......without a clue what that meant. Caught between beatnik and hippie, we didn't have a categorized cultural home. We liked jazz and went into NYC to Birdland to hear jazz. Birdland had a "peanut gallery" that meant there was a non alcoholic place for young teenagers like us. One time we went down to the village with the the total intent to "pick up" some girls. Well we were sitting on a bench in Washington Square Park and some young ladies came by. Seltzer or Brewin made some "pick up" remarks. The ladies looked at us and copped to our ages, and said, "we're old enough to be your mothers!" They werent'! But they were older. We felt seriously defeated.
One last bit of teenage ridiculousness. Seltzer and I sometimes hung out in the Newberry's five and dime after school. They had lunch counter where we'd sometimes have ice cream sodas. We also had a nasty nasty prank. Remember those glass sugar shakers with the stainless cap and the little flap for the sugar. Well the sides of those shakers were completely vertical, so we could (and did) take off the cap, hold a napkin over the top, flip the shaker over 180 degrees over onto the counter, pull out the napkin, and replace the stainless top on what was now the facing up bottom. So when someone thought to lift the shaker.......sugar all over the place. Usually this was harmless, but once a lady with a fur coat did it and got quite a mess of sugar all through her coat. We felt pretty bad and never did it again.
http://www.flicklives.com/pages/n_who_is.htm
Rye Beach Steamer
Best summer fun in 1952: About twice each summer the Becker's took the boat from Hoboken to Rye Beach for a day at the beach. I can't remember the name of the boat we called it the Rye Beach Steamer. The boat went south around the tip of Manhattan, up the East River (actually and estuary not a river,) out in Long Island Sound to Rye Beach. Approximate distance is 35 miles. Sometimes the boat stopped in Brooklyn and our friends the Nadels came aboard. Can you imagine traveling to a beach by boat? What a water day! The day at the beach was typical: sand, waves, sun, yummy food, amusement park,etc. I believe I went into my first fun house at the Rye Beach amusement park. Everything was so new and exciting. The trip back was after dark, and the boat had a band. I remember dancing with my mother. She showed me how to waltz. I remember how big she seemed, but she somehow made it flow on the dance floor. We both were really happy. On that trip I also got to buy a copper kazoo shaped like a trombone. The slide didn't work, but the kazoo part did. The kazoo was saved and kept among my childhood momentos for many years in a drawer in the basement of the Springfield house. Somehow it didn't get saved when I cleaned out the house in 1992. It's one of several things I wish I still had. Could play some mean boogie woogie tunes.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Michael Lerner on Obama and Afghanistan
Michael Lerner has a great editorial on Obama and Afghanistan in Tikkun:
http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/jan10_lerner_editorial_afghanistan
Lerner disputes Obama's speech accepting Nobel prize. Evil is not a religious/metaphysical phenomenon unto itself. Evil acts happen, but that does make the argument of an intrinsic evil human nature. Evil acts are rooted in poverty, starvation, oppression, self interest, etc.
In his Nobel speech, Obama forthrightly takes on non violence and specifically Martin Luther King and Gahndhi in arguing the necessity of war to fight evil. His example is stopping Hitler's invasions. Lerner notes that while MLK and Gandhi continenced occasions in which pacifism would not work, non violent action might have stopped or preempted Hitler if economic justice had been implemented in Europe in the 1920's or 1030's.
Lerner notes that, "at the core of our approach is a recognition that 'the enemy' is often a projection of our own worst fantasies on others, who in turn are projecting their worst fantasies on us. American leaders, like most political leaders on the planet, seem incapable of imagining how the world looks from the perspective of the hungry, the relatively powerless, or those who have been subjected to outsiders trying to impose their rgimes, economic systems and world views."
Or put more simply by Senator Russ Feingold, "I think (our presence) is increasing the extremism and increasing the resentment toward the United States."
Lerner also makes the important point that our demonization of groups like the Taliban is usually connected to our view of worldwide economic interest.and that demonization provides the moral gloss for these cruel and self interested actions.
What to do? First recognize that according to some observers in Afghanistan, only 10-15% of Taliban are ideologically morviated. The rest are "a combination of poor villagers angry at US bombing, out of work youth, former milita, drug smugglers, plain thugs, and those from the coutrside who distrust any national government, no matter whose it is. MOst of these people would put down their weapons if offered money, land, jobs, and personal security. And of course recognize that though the Taliban are not our cup of tea, it was Al Quaida who took action against the US, not the Taliban.
Lerner suggests the US go to the United Nations and seek an international force that would:
a) hold honest elections with the Taliban paraticiating
b) protect institutions of civil society
c) create safety in major cities
At the same time US should launch a Global Marshall Plan with first focus on the Middle Easte (Gaza through Afghanistan.)
US should also support regional negotiations that aim to settle disputes between India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria etc.
With Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan, relgious and spiritual progressives are dismayed and discouraged. They wish Obama would absorb the "the path to peace must be a path of peace. You can not bomb and kill your way to security.
Lerner argues for the continuing advocacy for concrete alternatives such as the ones above. This is not a time for despair but for hope and determination.
http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/jan10_lerner_editorial_afghanistan
Lerner disputes Obama's speech accepting Nobel prize. Evil is not a religious/metaphysical phenomenon unto itself. Evil acts happen, but that does make the argument of an intrinsic evil human nature. Evil acts are rooted in poverty, starvation, oppression, self interest, etc.
In his Nobel speech, Obama forthrightly takes on non violence and specifically Martin Luther King and Gahndhi in arguing the necessity of war to fight evil. His example is stopping Hitler's invasions. Lerner notes that while MLK and Gandhi continenced occasions in which pacifism would not work, non violent action might have stopped or preempted Hitler if economic justice had been implemented in Europe in the 1920's or 1030's.
Lerner notes that, "at the core of our approach is a recognition that 'the enemy' is often a projection of our own worst fantasies on others, who in turn are projecting their worst fantasies on us. American leaders, like most political leaders on the planet, seem incapable of imagining how the world looks from the perspective of the hungry, the relatively powerless, or those who have been subjected to outsiders trying to impose their rgimes, economic systems and world views."
Or put more simply by Senator Russ Feingold, "I think (our presence) is increasing the extremism and increasing the resentment toward the United States."
Lerner also makes the important point that our demonization of groups like the Taliban is usually connected to our view of worldwide economic interest.and that demonization provides the moral gloss for these cruel and self interested actions.
What to do? First recognize that according to some observers in Afghanistan, only 10-15% of Taliban are ideologically morviated. The rest are "a combination of poor villagers angry at US bombing, out of work youth, former milita, drug smugglers, plain thugs, and those from the coutrside who distrust any national government, no matter whose it is. MOst of these people would put down their weapons if offered money, land, jobs, and personal security. And of course recognize that though the Taliban are not our cup of tea, it was Al Quaida who took action against the US, not the Taliban.
Lerner suggests the US go to the United Nations and seek an international force that would:
a) hold honest elections with the Taliban paraticiating
b) protect institutions of civil society
c) create safety in major cities
At the same time US should launch a Global Marshall Plan with first focus on the Middle Easte (Gaza through Afghanistan.)
US should also support regional negotiations that aim to settle disputes between India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria etc.
With Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan, relgious and spiritual progressives are dismayed and discouraged. They wish Obama would absorb the "the path to peace must be a path of peace. You can not bomb and kill your way to security.
Lerner argues for the continuing advocacy for concrete alternatives such as the ones above. This is not a time for despair but for hope and determination.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Snow
I wonder how many facebook posts this weekend mention snow. Well how can you talk or write about anything else with a huge storm blanketing the east coast?
It does seem the world divides somewhat on this issue. As a kid, I could remember my parents responding to snow as a danger, a threat (to livelihood) and nuisance, etc. Kids unanimously saw it as:
sledding
snow ball fighting (when we in serious "hate the next block kids" mode we used ice balls)
igloo building
no school
wondrous
just messin around
I keep wondering (at 65) when I'll cross over to the adult side as represented by my parents. It hasn't happened yet. I even like (I hate to admit this) the slippery challenge of driving with snow. Now I mostly just like to mess around in the whiteness.
In Newark we had two locations for snow play. Eckert Avenue went right by my house. I remember it has a huge hill. Now that I have gone back, I see it's really a small incline. We had a lot of sled traffic on Eckert between Huntington Terrace and Schuyler Ave. If we were brave we would stop traffic on Huntington and keep going downwards to Osborne Ave. Sometimes we'd just station a lookout there to watch for cars. The big snow deal for me was if we got in a car and my father took my to Weequahic Park to a real sledding hill. If half the memory is the terror and glory of going down, isn't half the misery and hard work of trekking back up a long hill to go again. The only drawback to Weequahic Hill is that if you didn't stop yourself at the bottom, you ended up in a stream. (Now of course in WVa it's a creek.) Once I went to the stream, broke through the ice and got soaked. Somehow as sometimes happens in childhood, my father blamed me for carelessness, and that was really not fun.
When we moved to Springfield, we snuck into Baltusrol Golf Club right behind our house. There was a long thin hill up into the trees above the golf course. These hills were the very first Watchung "Mountains" off the New Jersey coastal plane. It was a really great hill. We usually built a small jump towards the bottom for extra thrills. I once went up there with my High School girlfriend Trudy. Going over that jump double decker (pretty racy, huh) she hurt her leg. Now she'd have to make up some story for her parents since they had banned her seeing me.
We were trespassing to sled at Baltusrol. We had to climb a very tall chain link fence and run like crazy across the snow covered course. They had a watchman who was noted for chasing kids. One time he did catch a bunch of his. He was pretty scary with threats of arrest, etc. In the end it was much ado about nothing. Also at Baltusrol we had a pretty good skating pond that froze over. I remember learning to do the whip there. Being on the outside with all that whip and momentum was pretty cool. We also played skate tag. One time I was chasing Ed Schnell. I hated Ed because he was one of my nemesis kids who always teased me: "Big Nose" Jimmy Durante" "Snoz" he called me. Well my chase was motivated by these bitter feelings. I couldn't seem to catch up with him, so motivated by all that anger, and without thinking, I just dived at him (like a football tackle) to tag him. I got him. His skate coming up also opened up a pretty big bloody flap of skin above my right eye. The whole thing was a huge surprise to me (and probably to him, who must have thought I was crazy.) I had to run home to stop the bleeding. I didn't get stitches, but probably should have. About a half inch lower and.....one less Becker eye.
Thank god the kids came along in Morgantown Just as taking them to the basketball game gave me an excuse to eat cotton candy the kids gave me the excuse and frequent winter reason to keep sledding. Now I had a toboggan for extra fun. We used to carom off the Richard Cohen's Hill with Nina and Adam in the rickety cracking toboggan. The hill had a two foot or so jump when it left their lawn and went into the street. We usually made it, though the landing was a bit hard on our bottoms.
We've done the big tobagan hill at Chestnut Ridge (boy what a walk up), and little hills in 1st ward park and MHS and on Jackson Street. Before the kids would go on their own, we would either sled double decker (one on top of the other) or seated in tandem. Double decker is cozy and a challenge for the top person to hang on. Sometimes the extra weight drives the bottom person's face into the snow. Tandem is a difficult to steer and in some conditions the extra weight makes the sled or toboggan not go where it's pointed. The folks in back (usually the kids) feel pretty safe. The father in front has all the responsibility plus a great view of what they might run into.
Once I did go out on my own (in Morgantown, no kids) with my flexible flyer to the Law Center Hill. That was scary as hell. The speed was tremendous and the terrain was bouncy. Ultimately I was bounced off, bent my glasses, and got pretty bruised up. Mostly I was cowed, because I'd never really been scared on a sled before. (Yes, by the way, I still have my old flexible flyer. Does anybody these days know to smooth up the skis on a metal runner sled?)
Still I'm not done. I'm not looking for the next mountain to climb, but surely for the next to sled down. Hurray!
It does seem the world divides somewhat on this issue. As a kid, I could remember my parents responding to snow as a danger, a threat (to livelihood) and nuisance, etc. Kids unanimously saw it as:
sledding
snow ball fighting (when we in serious "hate the next block kids" mode we used ice balls)
igloo building
no school
wondrous
just messin around
I keep wondering (at 65) when I'll cross over to the adult side as represented by my parents. It hasn't happened yet. I even like (I hate to admit this) the slippery challenge of driving with snow. Now I mostly just like to mess around in the whiteness.
In Newark we had two locations for snow play. Eckert Avenue went right by my house. I remember it has a huge hill. Now that I have gone back, I see it's really a small incline. We had a lot of sled traffic on Eckert between Huntington Terrace and Schuyler Ave. If we were brave we would stop traffic on Huntington and keep going downwards to Osborne Ave. Sometimes we'd just station a lookout there to watch for cars. The big snow deal for me was if we got in a car and my father took my to Weequahic Park to a real sledding hill. If half the memory is the terror and glory of going down, isn't half the misery and hard work of trekking back up a long hill to go again. The only drawback to Weequahic Hill is that if you didn't stop yourself at the bottom, you ended up in a stream. (Now of course in WVa it's a creek.) Once I went to the stream, broke through the ice and got soaked. Somehow as sometimes happens in childhood, my father blamed me for carelessness, and that was really not fun.
When we moved to Springfield, we snuck into Baltusrol Golf Club right behind our house. There was a long thin hill up into the trees above the golf course. These hills were the very first Watchung "Mountains" off the New Jersey coastal plane. It was a really great hill. We usually built a small jump towards the bottom for extra thrills. I once went up there with my High School girlfriend Trudy. Going over that jump double decker (pretty racy, huh) she hurt her leg. Now she'd have to make up some story for her parents since they had banned her seeing me.
We were trespassing to sled at Baltusrol. We had to climb a very tall chain link fence and run like crazy across the snow covered course. They had a watchman who was noted for chasing kids. One time he did catch a bunch of his. He was pretty scary with threats of arrest, etc. In the end it was much ado about nothing. Also at Baltusrol we had a pretty good skating pond that froze over. I remember learning to do the whip there. Being on the outside with all that whip and momentum was pretty cool. We also played skate tag. One time I was chasing Ed Schnell. I hated Ed because he was one of my nemesis kids who always teased me: "Big Nose" Jimmy Durante" "Snoz" he called me. Well my chase was motivated by these bitter feelings. I couldn't seem to catch up with him, so motivated by all that anger, and without thinking, I just dived at him (like a football tackle) to tag him. I got him. His skate coming up also opened up a pretty big bloody flap of skin above my right eye. The whole thing was a huge surprise to me (and probably to him, who must have thought I was crazy.) I had to run home to stop the bleeding. I didn't get stitches, but probably should have. About a half inch lower and.....one less Becker eye.
Thank god the kids came along in Morgantown Just as taking them to the basketball game gave me an excuse to eat cotton candy the kids gave me the excuse and frequent winter reason to keep sledding. Now I had a toboggan for extra fun. We used to carom off the Richard Cohen's Hill with Nina and Adam in the rickety cracking toboggan. The hill had a two foot or so jump when it left their lawn and went into the street. We usually made it, though the landing was a bit hard on our bottoms.
We've done the big tobagan hill at Chestnut Ridge (boy what a walk up), and little hills in 1st ward park and MHS and on Jackson Street. Before the kids would go on their own, we would either sled double decker (one on top of the other) or seated in tandem. Double decker is cozy and a challenge for the top person to hang on. Sometimes the extra weight drives the bottom person's face into the snow. Tandem is a difficult to steer and in some conditions the extra weight makes the sled or toboggan not go where it's pointed. The folks in back (usually the kids) feel pretty safe. The father in front has all the responsibility plus a great view of what they might run into.
Once I did go out on my own (in Morgantown, no kids) with my flexible flyer to the Law Center Hill. That was scary as hell. The speed was tremendous and the terrain was bouncy. Ultimately I was bounced off, bent my glasses, and got pretty bruised up. Mostly I was cowed, because I'd never really been scared on a sled before. (Yes, by the way, I still have my old flexible flyer. Does anybody these days know to smooth up the skis on a metal runner sled?)
Still I'm not done. I'm not looking for the next mountain to climb, but surely for the next to sled down. Hurray!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Chicken Waste
This story is not what you think....
Tonight we had several friends for Shabbes dinner. One guest is very Jewishly observant. The other couple were not Jewish. As the night went on, our guest couple were asking questions about rules of Shabbes and Kosher. This reminded me of the following story:
My maternal grandfather Manny (Emanuel) Miller lived with my family from my birth till his death in 1958. He was a gentle soul, a singer, of songs, and a story teller. I as the only grand kid present benefitted from his stories and could hear each in his repertoire hundreds of times.
When Manny was a teenager, his parents emigrated from Ukraine to South Africa. There was not enough money for all to travel, so he was left behind for a while to live in a small village with a relative. The family had a chicken that was dying. The family could not eat this chicken if it was not slaughtered "kosher." My grandfather got the task of running to the nearby village to have a "Shochet" appropriately slaughter the chicken so it could be eaten. So he told of grabbing the dying chicken by the neck and desperately running to town. Despite his best efforts, the chicken died before he got to town. And to my amazement, my granddaddy told me the potentially great food was wasted. This was a very big tragedy, given the family's poverty.
In my minds eye, I picture my granddaddy as a tall and gawky teenager, old clothes, dusty country road, chicken held by neck, trying desperately to get to town. And though I didn't understand it at the time, I somehow did and do sense the enormity of this waste. Did my grandfather get blamed? I don't know. He certainly felt responsible. Perhaps he cried.
These stories sit in my childhood memory as small fragments. I have little context, I can't picture the relatives, the house, the village. But my childhood imagination created an intense clip of memory that is so clear to me that if I didn't know better, I'd believe I actually saw.....granddaddy, chicken, road, running, running running, NO!
Tonight we had several friends for Shabbes dinner. One guest is very Jewishly observant. The other couple were not Jewish. As the night went on, our guest couple were asking questions about rules of Shabbes and Kosher. This reminded me of the following story:
My maternal grandfather Manny (Emanuel) Miller lived with my family from my birth till his death in 1958. He was a gentle soul, a singer, of songs, and a story teller. I as the only grand kid present benefitted from his stories and could hear each in his repertoire hundreds of times.
When Manny was a teenager, his parents emigrated from Ukraine to South Africa. There was not enough money for all to travel, so he was left behind for a while to live in a small village with a relative. The family had a chicken that was dying. The family could not eat this chicken if it was not slaughtered "kosher." My grandfather got the task of running to the nearby village to have a "Shochet" appropriately slaughter the chicken so it could be eaten. So he told of grabbing the dying chicken by the neck and desperately running to town. Despite his best efforts, the chicken died before he got to town. And to my amazement, my granddaddy told me the potentially great food was wasted. This was a very big tragedy, given the family's poverty.
In my minds eye, I picture my granddaddy as a tall and gawky teenager, old clothes, dusty country road, chicken held by neck, trying desperately to get to town. And though I didn't understand it at the time, I somehow did and do sense the enormity of this waste. Did my grandfather get blamed? I don't know. He certainly felt responsible. Perhaps he cried.
These stories sit in my childhood memory as small fragments. I have little context, I can't picture the relatives, the house, the village. But my childhood imagination created an intense clip of memory that is so clear to me that if I didn't know better, I'd believe I actually saw.....granddaddy, chicken, road, running, running running, NO!
Ariel Funds makes good (or sometimes it pays to go to the top)
We have saved our kids' gift money and other additions in Ariel Mutual Funds accounts. Ariel is a socially conscious investment fund. Each year we get a capital gain income statement. The actual income and thus the tax are based on the average of costs at which we bought in over time. This can be a bit complicated calculation. For Benny, Ariel has provided the average cost basis. Abby's account has been with the company before they switched their accounting system and so they have not provided the basis...and thus it has cost us money to have an accountant calculate the cost basis. They said no, their software could not handle that. I argued that they should reward loyal longstanding customers, rather than cost them several hundred dollars a year. They still said no.
Last year I zeroed out the account and then put money in, expecting that now the problem of old investments would go away. But no.....I was told that their computers only could see her as one of the group for which they could not calculate. They suggested next year I close the account completely and open a new one. I said can't you just do that for me. They also said no to that.
So I wrote a polite letter to the President of the Company. Three days later (today) I received a call from a very helpful Executive Vice President of the Company who said of course they would give me the cost basis, even if they had to compute it for me manually. They promised to call back in a few days with a detailed update. They're also sending an Ariel monopoly game. Glass half full: the company quickly responded. Glass half empty: Could not their customer service people have accomplished the same thing. On balance I'm pleased with the response and time invested by the "higher ups" to make this right. Lesson learned: it sometimes pays to go to the top.
Last year I zeroed out the account and then put money in, expecting that now the problem of old investments would go away. But no.....I was told that their computers only could see her as one of the group for which they could not calculate. They suggested next year I close the account completely and open a new one. I said can't you just do that for me. They also said no to that.
So I wrote a polite letter to the President of the Company. Three days later (today) I received a call from a very helpful Executive Vice President of the Company who said of course they would give me the cost basis, even if they had to compute it for me manually. They promised to call back in a few days with a detailed update. They're also sending an Ariel monopoly game. Glass half full: the company quickly responded. Glass half empty: Could not their customer service people have accomplished the same thing. On balance I'm pleased with the response and time invested by the "higher ups" to make this right. Lesson learned: it sometimes pays to go to the top.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Early Rejection
In the second grade (Newark) I got an intense crush on my teacher Miss Raisin. She was tall and slim and my first African American teacher. She looked and acted like an angel to me. All I actually remember about the 2nd grade experience is that Miss Raisin took the class down to Penn Station in downtown Newark to get a tour of the brand new coast to coast elegant train, the Phoebe Snow. (What's the connection with the later singer of the same name?) Anyway the train was decorated all in white and made a big impression. Can you imagine a teacher taking school kids today to see a train? or even being a new train?
Anyway in third grade, I was on safety patrol on the corner of Clinton Place and Nye Ave. A student stepped off the curb too early and refused to get back up. So I took him to report him to his teacher.....Miss Raisin. well when we both told our story he lied about what happened. Can you believe this.... she believed him. Oh boy did that hurt!
(I looked to see if I already told this story, and didn't see it, but somehow I may now be repeating myself.)
Anyway in third grade, I was on safety patrol on the corner of Clinton Place and Nye Ave. A student stepped off the curb too early and refused to get back up. So I took him to report him to his teacher.....Miss Raisin. well when we both told our story he lied about what happened. Can you believe this.... she believed him. Oh boy did that hurt!
(I looked to see if I already told this story, and didn't see it, but somehow I may now be repeating myself.)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Even the moderates get it
In the wake of the Massachusetts Senatorial defeat, three Newseek columnists urge Obama to take strong liberal/populist positions. It's not just the left that gets it!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Some Like it Hot
An article by Sandra Oliver in Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors describes how fiery pepers and garlic flavors are uncommon in New England cooking but are frequently found in tropical climates. "Why is it that when the Acadians went to Louisiana, they became Cajuns and began cooking food that would have blistered a Nova Scotian tongue" Her hypothesis is that people in tropical climes need to induce sweat. That's pretty specious to me. She doesn't explain why (according to her) people in hot dry climates (deserts) don't eat fiery food, but food with aromatic spices.
Your idea is as good as mine....?
On the topic of peppers, I was surprised to learn some time ago on visit to the Freer Gallery of Asian Art in Washington, DC, that jalapena peppers are not native to Chna (where they appear ubiquitously in cooking.) Jalapenas are native to South America and were exported to China several hundred years ago. What was Chinese cooking like before the advent of peppers?
Your idea is as good as mine....?
On the topic of peppers, I was surprised to learn some time ago on visit to the Freer Gallery of Asian Art in Washington, DC, that jalapena peppers are not native to Chna (where they appear ubiquitously in cooking.) Jalapenas are native to South America and were exported to China several hundred years ago. What was Chinese cooking like before the advent of peppers?
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