NEW YORK (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Thursday cut ratings on all three major U.S. automakers deeper into junk status, citing expected losses due to higher gas prices and a weakening U.S. economy.
Reuters
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Bike and Pedestrian Path Revitalizes Small Town
150-mile trail for biking and hiking between Pittsburgh and Washington DC creates economic vitality in a small East Coast town.
"An economic impact study conducted in 2007 determined the trail is generating $12.5 million in revenue and pouring more than $3 million in wages into trail-side communities."
Pittsburgh Gazette: The unexpected growth of business along the Great Allegheny Passage
The Public Will Reduce Gasoline Prices By Driving Less
Why Are Gasoline Prices So High? Experts give 3 reasons: 1) Supply & Demand, 2) Speculation and 3) Drop in Value of the Dollar. World production is around 86 million barrels of oil per day and consumption is at about 85 million barrels per day. The USA uses about 20 million barrels of oil every day. We import about half to 60 percent of our oil. Do the math. China and India will only use more oil and unless production is increased, the price will continue to rise. AAEA will be promoting coal-to-liquid instead of offshore drilling as the best method for increasing domestic oil supplies.
Airlines, trucking and heating oil industries believe speculation in the markets, particularly by institutional investors who do not intend to receive delivery of oil are at least partly responsible for high oil prices. Congress is having trouble defining speculation in a form it can legislate to try to regulate illegitimate and legitimate hedge trading. Experts guess that speculation can account for 40-60 percent of the current increase in the price of a barrel of oil.
When the value of the dollar falls, the nominal dollar prices of internationally traded commodities, like gold, rice, and oil, must increase because more dollars are required to purchase the same quantity of any commodity. Accordingly, a weak dollar should signal higher commodity prices. And it does. For example, if the dollar had held its January 2001 value against the Euro, oil would have traded at about $76 a barrel in May 2008. This is almost $50 below the price that crude oil was trading at in May 2008. Accordingly, the decline of the dollar’s value accounted for a whopping 51% of the $97 a barrel increase in the price of oil from May 2003-2008. The July euro stood at $1.57 and the yen at about 107.83. The value of the dollar makes commodities more or less attractive to investors buying oil futures as a hedge against inflation and weakness in the U.S. currency.
The public response to the +$4 per gallon gasoline price is to drive less. This though is having the effect of reducing the taxes for the Highway Trust Fund, which finances highway and mass transit projects. Congress will have to authorize billions to make up for the loss to maintain project schedules. Source: Cato Institute
President Bush Lifts Executive Ban On Offshore Oil Drilling
President Bush has lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling signed by his father in 1990, but that has no effect until Congress lifts its prohibitions as well. Some of the moratoria along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico have been in place for 27 years. Congressional Democrats are maintaining that oil companies already have vast areas available [68 million acres] for drilling but have chosen not to develop the federal leases they already hold. AAEA opposes lifting the ban on offshore drilling.
It does not appear that Congress will pass any energy legislation before its August recess.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Fannie Mae Freddie Mac Bail Out Bill Signed By President Bush
The House on July 23 voted 272-152 to pass the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221) that will offer up to $300 billion in assistance to troubled homeowners and throw government support behind mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Senate voted 72-13 on July 26 and President Bush signed the bill into law on July 30. The bill allows Treasury over the next 18 months to offer Fannie and Freddie an unlimited line of credit and the authority to buy stock in the companies if necessary. The law also will establish a new regulator for Freddie and Fannie and overhaul the Federal Housing Administration. The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday estimated the potential cost of a rescue could be $25 billion. CBO has estimated there is probably a 50% chance that Treasury would not need to step in but also concluded there is a 5% chance that Freddie and Fannie's losses would cost the government $100 billion.
The FHA could insure up to $300 billion in new 30-year fixed rate mortgages for at-risk borrowers in owner-occupied homes if lenders agree to write down loan balances to 90% of the homes' current appraised value. Lenders would also agree to pay upfront fees to the FHA equal to 3% of a home's appraised value. Borrowers must agree to pay an annual premium to the FHA equal to 1.5% of their new loan balance. They must also agree to share with the government any profit they realize from selling or refinancing.
The FHA could insure up to $300 billion in new 30-year fixed rate mortgages for at-risk borrowers in owner-occupied homes if lenders agree to write down loan balances to 90% of the homes' current appraised value. Lenders would also agree to pay upfront fees to the FHA equal to 3% of a home's appraised value. Borrowers must agree to pay an annual premium to the FHA equal to 1.5% of their new loan balance. They must also agree to share with the government any profit they realize from selling or refinancing.
Boulodr'homes
Chris sent us these pictures of his brand new home court, with a lot of nice little details, in Gastonia, NC. Which is just a bit west of Charlotte, so I'm sure we will meet him soon. Thanks for sharing!
And Gary inaugurated a great new terrain in Lincolnton (just north of Gastonia) last week, wide enough for two games. At this pace we will soon be able to hop from one town to the next without having to forego our favorite pastime.
App to School!
This week our Google Apps for Education team is attending the Campus Technology Conference in Boston. This 4-day gathering focuses on emerging technologies in higher education, both in the classroom and campus-wide. As anyone in the education field can attest, the business of teaching -- and learning -- is changing very quickly. We're continually impressed and excited by all of the innovation happening in this space. In response to a new educational ecosystem, we're also delighted and proud to see two of our Apps Education customers, Arizona State University and Abilene Christian University, recognized for their implementation of cutting-edge technologies designed to serve the next generation of students.
Google Apps Education Edition is gaining momentum: more than a million users worldwide have adopted it to embrace the possibilities of technology in education. Our great customers are at the core of our mission, which is why we're in Boston to help kick off the new school year with a few of the thousands of schools who have chosen Apps. We are also welcoming more than one dozen new universities of all sizes, from all over the country as customers of Google Apps. While at the conference, we also announced our latest endeavor to showcase some of the universities deploying Google Apps. This September, we will head "App to School" by embarking on a cross-country road trip (in a retrofitted, eco-friendly bus, of course). We're looking forward to meeting students to talk about Google Apps and hear how they're using our productivity tools on and off campus.
Since launching Apps Education Edition, we've had great conversations with CIOs at leading universities about the benefits of bringing Google technology on campus. The "App to School" road trip extends that conversation to where the rubber meets the road (pun intended): to what used to be called "end users" -- the people who actually use our technology every day. One of the things we've found to be true is that we should always focus on the individual. We hope to learn how the folks we meet are using our products in cool ways that we might not have imagined. Learn more about Google Apps Education Edition.
We look forward to seeing some of you on the bus. You can also check out our road trip route.
Jeff Keltner, Business Development Manager, Google Apps
Google Apps Education Edition is gaining momentum: more than a million users worldwide have adopted it to embrace the possibilities of technology in education. Our great customers are at the core of our mission, which is why we're in Boston to help kick off the new school year with a few of the thousands of schools who have chosen Apps. We are also welcoming more than one dozen new universities of all sizes, from all over the country as customers of Google Apps. While at the conference, we also announced our latest endeavor to showcase some of the universities deploying Google Apps. This September, we will head "App to School" by embarking on a cross-country road trip (in a retrofitted, eco-friendly bus, of course). We're looking forward to meeting students to talk about Google Apps and hear how they're using our productivity tools on and off campus.
Since launching Apps Education Edition, we've had great conversations with CIOs at leading universities about the benefits of bringing Google technology on campus. The "App to School" road trip extends that conversation to where the rubber meets the road (pun intended): to what used to be called "end users" -- the people who actually use our technology every day. One of the things we've found to be true is that we should always focus on the individual. We hope to learn how the folks we meet are using our products in cool ways that we might not have imagined. Learn more about Google Apps Education Edition.
We look forward to seeing some of you on the bus. You can also check out our road trip route.
Jeff Keltner, Business Development Manager, Google Apps
Try RVing even before you purchase your own rig
During the Independence Day Weekend – known as the 4th of July to most – we camped in northern Michigan on the Manistee River, near my hometown. It was there that I saw a few young campers, reminding me of my husband and I when we started camping in tents. Some of them had tents, some popup campers and some with nothing at all. But they weren’t left out in the cold, they were in a cabin.
Like many RV parks and campgrounds, this park offers campers without the accessories – a popup camper, travel trailer, motorhome or even tent – to spend the weekend with their camping friends or on their own, enjoying the RV lifestyle with out the investment. The camping cabins or even RV rentals at many parks are rented to the user who then brings his own items for the weekend.
Some, like Sherwood Forest Camping & RV Park in the Wisconsin Dells, rent the camping cabin basic, leaving it up to the new “RVers” to bring all their needs for the weekend, week or even longer vacation. The camping cabin provides them with a place to sleep, relax, hold their bonfires and even watch TV or use their laptop computers, if they so desire. The weekend campers use the same restrooms and showers that are available to other RVers, but they don’t haul in their own RV or tent.
Others, like Camp Bell Campground in Campbell, NY, near Finger Lakes, offer a camping cabins or travel trailer rentals. Campers can really get an idea of what RVing is like, and dip their toe in the water so to speak, before buying an RV or their own.
And for those who truly enjoy pampering of sorts, Compton Ridge Campground in Branson, Mo., offers three types of camping cabins, including its luxury cabins that include a full kitchen with appliances, a bathroom with a shower, a screened porch, a fireplace and cable TV. They also offer two other cabins for those who prefer to “rough it” just a little more.
And whether they ever do buy an RV, the weekend rentals allow you to have a great RV vacation without buying the RV. It’s a nice way to introduce newcomers, or even those who make it one trip a year and don’t want to buy an RV, to enjoy the lifestyle.
Like many RV parks and campgrounds, this park offers campers without the accessories – a popup camper, travel trailer, motorhome or even tent – to spend the weekend with their camping friends or on their own, enjoying the RV lifestyle with out the investment. The camping cabins or even RV rentals at many parks are rented to the user who then brings his own items for the weekend.
Some, like Sherwood Forest Camping & RV Park in the Wisconsin Dells, rent the camping cabin basic, leaving it up to the new “RVers” to bring all their needs for the weekend, week or even longer vacation. The camping cabin provides them with a place to sleep, relax, hold their bonfires and even watch TV or use their laptop computers, if they so desire. The weekend campers use the same restrooms and showers that are available to other RVers, but they don’t haul in their own RV or tent.
Others, like Camp Bell Campground in Campbell, NY, near Finger Lakes, offer a camping cabins or travel trailer rentals. Campers can really get an idea of what RVing is like, and dip their toe in the water so to speak, before buying an RV or their own.
And for those who truly enjoy pampering of sorts, Compton Ridge Campground in Branson, Mo., offers three types of camping cabins, including its luxury cabins that include a full kitchen with appliances, a bathroom with a shower, a screened porch, a fireplace and cable TV. They also offer two other cabins for those who prefer to “rough it” just a little more.
And whether they ever do buy an RV, the weekend rentals allow you to have a great RV vacation without buying the RV. It’s a nice way to introduce newcomers, or even those who make it one trip a year and don’t want to buy an RV, to enjoy the lifestyle.
Response to Wallerstein in ‘New Politics’
What follows is my response to Immanuel Wallerstein's article, "The U.S. in the Middle East" in the summer issue of the formidable left-wing journal, New Politics. Prof. Wallerstein (a prominent sociologist, currently at Yale, who often addresses global issues) is not as reflexively anti-Israel in the way that New Politics writers generally are, but he establishes his "radical" bona fides by skipping over important details of Israel's past and present reality anyway. I've been informed by NP editor Marvin Mandell that since he is vacationing in the French Alps, I should resubmit this, my letter to the editor, in September (I kid you not) – R. Seliger:
As a left-Zionist, I share most of Prof. Wallerstein's concerns. I am a longtime advocate for an end to Israeli settlements, for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a viable independent state for Palestinians who are not Israelis. But there were some important lacunae in his recounting of history.
Wallerstein is correct that the course of events changed radically in 1967, but Israel did not attack Egypt merely because Nasser "seemed to be assembling Arab troops for an invasion." Nasser, in fact, laid siege to Israel. He established an alliance of Arab states – including Jordan, which then lost the West Bank because its army, newly under Egyptian command, shelled West Jerusalem and the outskirts of Tel Aviv. And Nasser assembled 100,000 troops along Israel's Sinai border, expelled the UN peacekeeping force and announced a blockade of shipping to Israel's port of Eilat. At the same time, Nasser whipped Arab masses to a frenzy with bloodcurdling rhetoric about a final battle.
There was a small window of time, immediately after Israel's victory in 1967, when an Arab offer to negotiate a reasonable peace would have likely been received positively. This passed with the infamous resolution of the Arab League at Khartoum of the three "no's": No to recognition of Israel, no to negotiations and no to peace. What followed were the years of blindness, self-righteousness and territorial ambitions manifested under Golda Meir, and then more egregiously under a succession of Likud governments allied with the militant settler movement.
Wallerstein barely mentions the Oslo years, which might have borne fruit if not for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in late 1995 and a wave of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early in '96, which all-but guaranteed Likud's return to power. The professor is correct that negotiations might still have succeeded at Taba in January 2001, but the eruption of the second Intifada had already insured Sharon's election. We need not discuss the complications of Sharon's efforts at withdrawing from parts of the occupied territories unilaterally, without negotiations, which have been met by the ascendency of Hamas and ongoing attacks on Israel in the face of its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (attacks which Israel has responded to in a lop-sided way).
Olmert's efforts at diplomacy have been more energetic than Sharon's, but it remains to be seen how serious they will be. As for the role of the US, it is certainly possible that Israel will be in crisis as a result of a distancing in this "special relationship." It is also possible that
an Obama administration will pursue diplomacy skillfully from day one, as Obama himself proclaims.
Or it may develop that Israel will pull a rabbit out of its own hat, as it did when it won independence without material US support, when it secretly launched Oslo in 1991-92, and as it has recently done in reaching out to Syria via Turkey, and even to Hamas and Hezbollah for limited agreements. Israel's ongoing success as an economic and military power, even as it remains a very small and vulnerable country, continually defies expectations and confounds predictions.
As a left-Zionist, I share most of Prof. Wallerstein's concerns. I am a longtime advocate for an end to Israeli settlements, for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel, and a viable independent state for Palestinians who are not Israelis. But there were some important lacunae in his recounting of history.
Wallerstein is correct that the course of events changed radically in 1967, but Israel did not attack Egypt merely because Nasser "seemed to be assembling Arab troops for an invasion." Nasser, in fact, laid siege to Israel. He established an alliance of Arab states – including Jordan, which then lost the West Bank because its army, newly under Egyptian command, shelled West Jerusalem and the outskirts of Tel Aviv. And Nasser assembled 100,000 troops along Israel's Sinai border, expelled the UN peacekeeping force and announced a blockade of shipping to Israel's port of Eilat. At the same time, Nasser whipped Arab masses to a frenzy with bloodcurdling rhetoric about a final battle.
There was a small window of time, immediately after Israel's victory in 1967, when an Arab offer to negotiate a reasonable peace would have likely been received positively. This passed with the infamous resolution of the Arab League at Khartoum of the three "no's": No to recognition of Israel, no to negotiations and no to peace. What followed were the years of blindness, self-righteousness and territorial ambitions manifested under Golda Meir, and then more egregiously under a succession of Likud governments allied with the militant settler movement.
Wallerstein barely mentions the Oslo years, which might have borne fruit if not for the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in late 1995 and a wave of terrorist attacks in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv early in '96, which all-but guaranteed Likud's return to power. The professor is correct that negotiations might still have succeeded at Taba in January 2001, but the eruption of the second Intifada had already insured Sharon's election. We need not discuss the complications of Sharon's efforts at withdrawing from parts of the occupied territories unilaterally, without negotiations, which have been met by the ascendency of Hamas and ongoing attacks on Israel in the face of its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip (attacks which Israel has responded to in a lop-sided way).
Olmert's efforts at diplomacy have been more energetic than Sharon's, but it remains to be seen how serious they will be. As for the role of the US, it is certainly possible that Israel will be in crisis as a result of a distancing in this "special relationship." It is also possible that
an Obama administration will pursue diplomacy skillfully from day one, as Obama himself proclaims.
Or it may develop that Israel will pull a rabbit out of its own hat, as it did when it won independence without material US support, when it secretly launched Oslo in 1991-92, and as it has recently done in reaching out to Syria via Turkey, and even to Hamas and Hezbollah for limited agreements. Israel's ongoing success as an economic and military power, even as it remains a very small and vulnerable country, continually defies expectations and confounds predictions.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Ciclovia USA! (Coast to Coast Updates)
Looks like good times planned for NYC.
Nice job, StreetFilms.
UPDATE: San Francsico Ciclovia Site Launched.
http://www.sundaystreetssf.com/
UPDATE 2: Seattle joins in the fun.
USA VMT -9.6B
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May compared with a year earlier, according to a report Monday from the Federal Highway Administration.
"We have seen the longest decline in vehicular miles traveled since we started collecting this data," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters in a conference call with reporters.
CNNMoney
"We have seen the longest decline in vehicular miles traveled since we started collecting this data," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters in a conference call with reporters.
CNNMoney
ENERGY LEGISLATION in the Congress of the United States
The House passed its energy bill, the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008 (H.R. 6049), sponsored by House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, left, on May 21, 2008, but failed cloture votes in the Senate on June 10 and June 17.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's energy bill, the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 (S. 3044) failed a cloture motion on June 10, 2008.
The Senate cannot seem to get any energy legislation passed. The Republicans want to open up oil drilling everywhere and the Democrats want oil companies to explore the tens of millions of acres of leases they already have before opening new areas. The Democrats also want to curb Wall Street energy speculation, which experts blame for contributing to high gasoline prices.
A bill to prevent excessive price speculation with respect to energy commodities, also introduced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, right, on July 15th, the Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008 (S 3268), failed cloture motions on July 22 and July 25.
A House Democratic proposal to counter oil market speculation failed due to the drilling dispute 276-151. That was nine votes short of the two-thirds needed for approval because the measure had been offered under expedited rules imposed by the Democrats to avoid GOP attempts to attach an offshore drilling provision. The House bill also would have given new authorities to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to oversee oil markets, increase the agency's staff and set new requirements on certain trading. Market critics have argued that excessive speculation has contributed to the soaring oil prices.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Famous Fannys have arrived
At La Marseillaise in 2006 I visited Battezanti's huge museum tent in Marseille, bought a couple of his Fannys, and we had a very long chat about all the different models he had on exhibit. Since many people have been asking us about Fannys for their backyard boulodromes, we hooked up again and the first shipment of beautifully colored damzels arrived today. They did travel in style, by UPS Express, leaving Provence on Friday evening, arriving in North Carolina Monday morning.
Battezanti is quite a character. Fannys have become his life, and he has become an icon to all the Marseillaise players and visitors. We chatted again last week and he's very proud that one of his pieces will become a permanent exhibit at the International Petanque Museum. I plan to meet him again soon, and will make an extensive report, especially about some of the hilarious contraptions he has designed.Meanwhile my resumé is going from bad to worse:
"What do you do for a living, sir?" - "Well, I sell balls, and naked butts". Anyone ever notice what a coincidence it is that Fanny can mean "butt" in American English? As to British English... Let's not go there.
Fannys by Battezanti
Southern California Edison Solar Panel Installation Project
Southern California Edison (SCE) has begun construction of the world’s largest solar panel installation project. The project includes 150 Southern California commercial rooftops that eventually will make up SCE’s two square mile solar generation project.
During the next 45 days, SCE will attach 33,000 solar panels to a 600,000-square-foot commercial roof in Fontana, Calif. The new, clean power generated will be fed directly into the nearest neighborhood distribution circuit, strengthening grid reliability in the Inland Empire region of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. SCE expects to connect the first panels to its grid in early September, meeting peak summer power needs.
First Solar, developer of an advanced thin-filmphotovoltaic technology, has been selected as the winning bidder in acompetitive solicitation to supply the PV system for this first installation.
During the next 45 days, SCE will attach 33,000 solar panels to a 600,000-square-foot commercial roof in Fontana, Calif. The new, clean power generated will be fed directly into the nearest neighborhood distribution circuit, strengthening grid reliability in the Inland Empire region of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. SCE expects to connect the first panels to its grid in early September, meeting peak summer power needs.
First Solar, developer of an advanced thin-filmphotovoltaic technology, has been selected as the winning bidder in acompetitive solicitation to supply the PV system for this first installation.
Palestinian decries Arab silence on Darfur
This is from an editorial ("Arabs are not always victims!", July 23) in the Palestinian Al-ayyam publication, translated from Arabic by Mike Husseini of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP):
Have the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza, committed crimes that are punishable under international law?
Yes.
And does the lack of indictments against American and Israeli officials for their war crimes by the International Criminal Court detract from its right to indict Sudanese officials for committing war crimes in Darfur?
No.
... Let us, at least temporarily, put the Americans and Israelis aside. The question is: Has the Sudanese regime committed war crimes in Darfur or not? And why do we deny the International Criminal Court lawsuit, the reports of human rights organizations, and what we see with our own eyes, but believe what the Sudanese rulers say?
Personally, I think that the International Criminal Court is more honest than the rulers and judicial system of Sudan, and I think that they must pay for their crimes in Darfur. I also think that bringing them to justice, or raising a political and legal uproar over the issue, will deter other rulers in the Arab world from committing additional crimes against their people.
This is precisely the point that explains why centers of Arab political power are now worried, and why they have shown solidarity with the rulers in Khartoum. After all, the Arab peoples are ruled by armies and intelligence services, and human rights violations in the Arab world are considered fairly routine and do not create any anxiety in ruling circles unless they feel frightened of scandal or possible punishment. Therefore, the solidarity of Arab leaders with those in Khartoum has the aura of self-defense. All the rhetoric about "conspiracies against the nation," "dignity," and "sovereignty" is a crude attempt to hide behind nationalist sentiments.
But what is much more important, and what deserves contemplation and reflection, are questions like "Do human right violations and crimes punishable by law command the attention of public opinion in the Arab world?"
Yes, and no.
It is "yes" when crimes are committed by Israelis and Americans, because this validates harming them and violating their rights and dignity.
It is "no" when they are committed by the ruling regimes, or by criminal fundamentalist and rejectionist groups. And this indicates the existence of double-standards, an imbalance in values, and the continuation of an attitude of victimization.
Let us take what happened in Guantanamo and Darfur as illustrative examples.
News about Guantanamo occupies center stage in the Arab media, and Arab satellite channels pay thousands of dollars to obtain, at a great distance, the footage of metal bars and men moving behind them. Arab commentators employ every rhetorical technique to remonstrate against the violations that are committed there. And that is fine, because it is true and important.
But where is the news from Darfur? ...
The difference between Guantanamo and Darfur is that the first reaffirms a sense of victimization, while the latter incites Arabs to look at the man in the mirror, something that they don't like to do. And this, among other things, demonstrates a prevailing political culture in the Arab world of selectivity, impurity and imbalance of values. ... Click to the ATFP Web site for the full article.
Have the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Israelis in the West Bank and Gaza, committed crimes that are punishable under international law?
Yes.
And does the lack of indictments against American and Israeli officials for their war crimes by the International Criminal Court detract from its right to indict Sudanese officials for committing war crimes in Darfur?
No.
... Let us, at least temporarily, put the Americans and Israelis aside. The question is: Has the Sudanese regime committed war crimes in Darfur or not? And why do we deny the International Criminal Court lawsuit, the reports of human rights organizations, and what we see with our own eyes, but believe what the Sudanese rulers say?
Personally, I think that the International Criminal Court is more honest than the rulers and judicial system of Sudan, and I think that they must pay for their crimes in Darfur. I also think that bringing them to justice, or raising a political and legal uproar over the issue, will deter other rulers in the Arab world from committing additional crimes against their people.
This is precisely the point that explains why centers of Arab political power are now worried, and why they have shown solidarity with the rulers in Khartoum. After all, the Arab peoples are ruled by armies and intelligence services, and human rights violations in the Arab world are considered fairly routine and do not create any anxiety in ruling circles unless they feel frightened of scandal or possible punishment. Therefore, the solidarity of Arab leaders with those in Khartoum has the aura of self-defense. All the rhetoric about "conspiracies against the nation," "dignity," and "sovereignty" is a crude attempt to hide behind nationalist sentiments.
But what is much more important, and what deserves contemplation and reflection, are questions like "Do human right violations and crimes punishable by law command the attention of public opinion in the Arab world?"
Yes, and no.
It is "yes" when crimes are committed by Israelis and Americans, because this validates harming them and violating their rights and dignity.
It is "no" when they are committed by the ruling regimes, or by criminal fundamentalist and rejectionist groups. And this indicates the existence of double-standards, an imbalance in values, and the continuation of an attitude of victimization.
Let us take what happened in Guantanamo and Darfur as illustrative examples.
News about Guantanamo occupies center stage in the Arab media, and Arab satellite channels pay thousands of dollars to obtain, at a great distance, the footage of metal bars and men moving behind them. Arab commentators employ every rhetorical technique to remonstrate against the violations that are committed there. And that is fine, because it is true and important.
But where is the news from Darfur? ...
The difference between Guantanamo and Darfur is that the first reaffirms a sense of victimization, while the latter incites Arabs to look at the man in the mirror, something that they don't like to do. And this, among other things, demonstrates a prevailing political culture in the Arab world of selectivity, impurity and imbalance of values. ... Click to the ATFP Web site for the full article.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Hot couple on the courts
This "hot" couple, Gary & Shirley, - in Winston-Salem today - will soon celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary!On the adjacent court Josh & Adrian kept shooting consistently, but ... Sue (and Danny) had the last word. As always, it ain't over till it's over.
With Jimmy Ruffin in the background.
We have the perfect radio station here for us geezers: Majic94.1.
Reading at Half King
If you are near Chelsea tomorrow night (Monday) I'll be reading from the book of burgers at Half King on 23rd Street. The bar has a projector so I'll be running the 'Endless Burger Slideshow' before and after the reading. The slideshow is made up of just about every shot I took during the research phase of Hamburger America the book.
The readings at Half King are usually done by well-respected authors, not goof balls like me. I apologize in advance if the evening is not as 'academic' as you had hoped for. On the other hand, if you don't know a thing about burgers in America this may just be the event for you. I hear the burgers at Half-King are pretty good too.
Big Team at O-Ringen
Americans represented with strong numbers at the World Cup events last week. Three WC races were held in conjunction with O-Ringen, and we had 6 women and 4 men take part. Here are the ladies (Viktoria, Hillary, Kat, Sandra, Ali, and Sam) after Tuesday's race, the sprint:
The setting for the sprint was spectacular. The course started many contour lines up a ski slope and traversed the open slope for several controls, fully viewable by the hundreds of spectators. It was hard to capture on camera, but if you look very carefully you can see five controls in this picture:
The finishers were greeted by young fans looking for autographs:
We had some very strong results in the sprint, with great runs especially by Hillary and Sandra. They were 35th and 38th, respectively, earning some coveted World Cup points!
The setting for the sprint was spectacular. The course started many contour lines up a ski slope and traversed the open slope for several controls, fully viewable by the hundreds of spectators. It was hard to capture on camera, but if you look very carefully you can see five controls in this picture:
The finishers were greeted by young fans looking for autographs:
We had some very strong results in the sprint, with great runs especially by Hillary and Sandra. They were 35th and 38th, respectively, earning some coveted World Cup points!
WOC Recap
It's been a very busy month for the US Team, with a tough World Cup schedule immediately following the World Champs. And not much wi-fi! Hopefully the drought wasn't too painful. Here's a recap of results from WOC:
Sprint Qual:
A. Sandra- MP
B. Hillary- 25th
C. Sam- MP
A. Eddie- 35th
B. Ross- 25th
C. Eric- MP
Long Qual:
A. Sam- 17th
B. Hillary- 25th
C. Sandra- 18th
A. Eric- 20th
B. Ross- 31st
C. Clem- 31st
Middle Qual:
A. Pavlina- 21st
B. Viktoria- 29th
C. Sandra- 20th
A. Clem- 33rd
B. Wyatt- 34th
C. Eddie- 31st
Relay:
Women- 21st (ahead of Canada)
Men- 26th (almost...)
You can check out all the results in detail on the WOC site.
John N. Oswalt on the Myth of the Dragon
The following article is now on-line in PDF:
John N. Oswalt, "The Myth of the Dragon and Old Testament Faith," Evangelical Quarterly 49.3 (Jul.-Sept. 1977): 163-172.
My thanks to Dr Oswalt for his kind permission to reproduce this article, which provides an interesting discussion of certain elements of the OT that are often attributed to influence of the folklore of Israel's neighbours.
John N. Oswalt, "The Myth of the Dragon and Old Testament Faith," Evangelical Quarterly 49.3 (Jul.-Sept. 1977): 163-172.
My thanks to Dr Oswalt for his kind permission to reproduce this article, which provides an interesting discussion of certain elements of the OT that are often attributed to influence of the folklore of Israel's neighbours.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Petanque in Vermont
Slightly north of Montpelier, and part of the town called Calais (pronounced like "palace") you can find Adamant, a small village that - incidentally - until 1905 bore the intriguing name Sodom.And that's where Padma & his friends live and play petanque!
The group is a mix of locals and expats: Padma for instance is a landscape artist and arborist originally from Switzerland, but he went to school in France, and hence played petanque as a youngster.
And they are adamant about playing anytime, anywhere. Petanque takes them places, so to speak, and they love it. Above you see Jérôme, Padma & Peter on a conventional terrain, a driveway. And below on one of their walking trips last fall. That's when they use a red billiard ball for a cochonnet, for obvious reasons.
If the pictures are very low-res , that's because high speed internet has yet to reach Adamant. Thanks, Padma for sending them all the same!
AAEA Environmental Group Leader in Nuclear Power Support
AAEA was the first environmental group in the United States to support nuclear power starting in 2000. AAEA remains the only environmental group in the United States to support nuclear power. Nuclear power is the best technology for producing emission free electricity. It produces no smog forming gases and produces no greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Although largely unheralded by the nuclear industry, unrecognized by the media and vilified by the environmental movement, AAEA has been, and will continue to be, the environmental organization leader in promoting this solution to emission free production of electricity.
Our work speaks for itself (Select Activities):
Westchester County Board of Legislators (2004)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Five Guys Park Slope Now Open
We arrived at my neighborhood Five Guys (the whole family) on opening day only 20 minutes after opening and were greeted immediately by owner Craig offering us a high chair for our 1 year-old...WOW. Now that's the way to open a restaurant in Park Slope, home to the largest stroller mafia on the planet.
Business was brisk and the burgers were great. The physical space is larger than Craig's Montague St. location and he told me construction has already begun on his next location in Bay Ridge. I had a cheeseburger with grilled onions that was cooked through (standard practice) but was still a very moist grease bomb. The vegetarian wife loves the Five Guys veggie, which is basically a grilled cheese on a burger bun with all of the condiments. The clientele were mostly from across the street at Methodist Hospital standing in line, smiling, with scrubs and stethoscopes. It's always comforting to see an army of med-schooled doctors scarfing down burgers. The family was joined at lunch by omnipresent burger blogger Adam Kuban. I would recommend visiting his blog entry here for more details on opening day.
The comment corkboard had only been up for an hour and it already had two comments posted. Adam and I got a kick out of this one (pictured) but realized that what it lacks in grammar it makes up for in passion. We all know what this dude was trying to say (and MAN was he tryin' hard!). I'm glad I'm not the only one out there as nutz for Five Guys.
Bikes and Peds Seeking Google Maps
With the old gas-guzzler in the garage, you've got your bicycle ready and your sneakers laced up. Now all you need is a map of the quickest, safest routes for riding around town. Well, not so fast.
As more commuters consider ditching their cars to save money on gas, Internet mapping services, cities and community groups are being pushed to lay out the best routes for biking and walking — just like drivers have found online for years.
AP
As more commuters consider ditching their cars to save money on gas, Internet mapping services, cities and community groups are being pushed to lay out the best routes for biking and walking — just like drivers have found online for years.
AP
Petanque on Google Maps
An interesting discovery this morning: if you go to Google Maps and click on "Popular user-created maps" (or click on the image in this post) you get a list - ranging from Billy Joel to Nascar tracks to Apple stores and - surprise - Petanque in the USA.In reality it is not so surprising. I spend hours every day on the phone with players and potential players across the country. The question "Where can I find other players?" ranks way up there, together with "Which boules should I get?" and the # 1 classic "What's the difference between bocce and petanque?".
Let's keep the map high on the list, so more people find it, and the number of spots keeps growing. We're at close to 100 markers, and there are some nice new ones every month. Like Albion CA, Chester CT, and soon Eastlake in Seattle.
Hence an appeal to all petanque webmasters: please put it somewhere on your site with a link , like Petanque Marinière did recently. Thanks, on behalf of all the new aficionados.
H. Schenker: Obama in Israel
The Nation has been carrying out an interesting project, asking journalists based in all the countries in Barack Obama's current tour to send in reports about how he is received in each locale. This was my take. My original title was "Yes he can - in Israel too." But being editors (I know the type, being one myself), they changed the title to fit their format and the series. By the way, when I wrote this, I didn't know that Obama had also managed to meet with Noam Shalit, Gilad's father.– Hillel Schenker
“Obama in Israel: One Tough Audience”
.... Israel is one of the few countries in the world where George W. Bush would still win over 50 percent in the public opinion polls. So there is no yearning for change in the American leadership, as there is among many Americans, and with most of the people around the world.
Israeli leaders have their own tzures (problems, in Yiddish). Prime Minister Olmert is competing with Bush in America when it comes to plummeting in the polls, and the latest news about investigations into his behavior, together with the latest tractor-terror attack in Jerusalem, pushed Obama onto the side columns of the day of his visit.
A few hours before his arrival on Tuesday evening, the song they were singing in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv (where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated fourteen years ago) was not Yes We Can, but Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree. The occasion was the ending of the three-year regular army service of Gilad Shalit's military pals. The buddies of the young corporal with the intellectual, very non-macho appearance who was captured in an across the border raid by Hamas militants two years ago, convened together with his father, Noam, (who sounds like he's a supporter of the left-wing Meretz party) in the square which has hosted hundreds of thousands of Peace Now demonstrators, to lobby for government action to ensure Gilad's release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
This is a clear reflection of the fact that Senator John McCain's story-narrative as a combat officer who was a prisoner of war resonates much more easily with Israelis than Obama's extraordinary story-narrative, which includes such exotic and unfamiliar stations as Hawaii, Africa, Indonesia, Harvard and the streets of Chicago.
And yet, there has been a tremendous amount of curiosity in Israel about Obama.... Click to read Hillel’s entire piece online.
“Obama in Israel: One Tough Audience”
.... Israel is one of the few countries in the world where George W. Bush would still win over 50 percent in the public opinion polls. So there is no yearning for change in the American leadership, as there is among many Americans, and with most of the people around the world.
Israeli leaders have their own tzures (problems, in Yiddish). Prime Minister Olmert is competing with Bush in America when it comes to plummeting in the polls, and the latest news about investigations into his behavior, together with the latest tractor-terror attack in Jerusalem, pushed Obama onto the side columns of the day of his visit.
A few hours before his arrival on Tuesday evening, the song they were singing in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv (where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated fourteen years ago) was not Yes We Can, but Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree. The occasion was the ending of the three-year regular army service of Gilad Shalit's military pals. The buddies of the young corporal with the intellectual, very non-macho appearance who was captured in an across the border raid by Hamas militants two years ago, convened together with his father, Noam, (who sounds like he's a supporter of the left-wing Meretz party) in the square which has hosted hundreds of thousands of Peace Now demonstrators, to lobby for government action to ensure Gilad's release in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
This is a clear reflection of the fact that Senator John McCain's story-narrative as a combat officer who was a prisoner of war resonates much more easily with Israelis than Obama's extraordinary story-narrative, which includes such exotic and unfamiliar stations as Hawaii, Africa, Indonesia, Harvard and the streets of Chicago.
And yet, there has been a tremendous amount of curiosity in Israel about Obama.... Click to read Hillel’s entire piece online.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Eco-town debate begins in England
At least one person per household in England's planned eco-towns should be able to have a car-free journey to work, the government has said.
BBC
Summer entertaining tips
It's great to see lifestyle writers such as Kim Vallée suggesting pétanque for summer entertainment.Petanque and Picnic in the City Park
One little comment: make that 5 parts water to 1 with the pastis. Not one or two. Unless you're serving drinks to the other team ;-)
(one of Peter Mayle's game secrets)
Paris turns into beach again
The truck with sand in Brooklyn was impressive, but this is major surgery!
For the seventh year the Seine river banks are turned into a huge beach with - "noblesse oblige" - several spots dedicated for pétanque. And many other cities in Europe have since copied the "city beach" idea.
For the seventh year the Seine river banks are turned into a huge beach with - "noblesse oblige" - several spots dedicated for pétanque. And many other cities in Europe have since copied the "city beach" idea.
Petanque in Albion, CA
Here's a report from Toby in Albion, on the NW Coast of California. He's right about the court being awesome. Thanks for sharing! And thanks to all the people in area code 707 who order boules from us.
A few weeks ago you and I spoke about our Petanque group in Albion, California that meets each Tuesday Morning. We have a pretty regular group of 8 - 12 boulers each week. On Bastille Day (July 13), the Ledford House Restaurant, where our home court is, hosted an all-day event with bistro food, wine and a tournament with 16 teams from Mendocino, Albion and Willits. Of course, those reprobates from Willits swept the honors (as usual) ... Holy Cow, are they good! I will post pictures of that day and event later.
Here we are Mendocino's Finest, boules and all. The pictures are from yesterday at our weekly outing. These folks, believe it or not, are the backbone of the Mendocino Coastal Communities, even though we look like muggers, thuggers and thieves. I am the handsome guy in the red Petanque America hat.
We feel that we have the most beautiful Petanque court in America ... maybe the world. It overlooks the scenic Pacific Ocean, Salmon Cove and Salmon Point. As I mentioned before, you are always welcome to visit, we will provide accommodations and loads of scenic and cultural events.
All the best,
Toby
A few weeks ago you and I spoke about our Petanque group in Albion, California that meets each Tuesday Morning. We have a pretty regular group of 8 - 12 boulers each week. On Bastille Day (July 13), the Ledford House Restaurant, where our home court is, hosted an all-day event with bistro food, wine and a tournament with 16 teams from Mendocino, Albion and Willits. Of course, those reprobates from Willits swept the honors (as usual) ... Holy Cow, are they good! I will post pictures of that day and event later.
Here we are Mendocino's Finest, boules and all. The pictures are from yesterday at our weekly outing. These folks, believe it or not, are the backbone of the Mendocino Coastal Communities, even though we look like muggers, thuggers and thieves. I am the handsome guy in the red Petanque America hat.
We feel that we have the most beautiful Petanque court in America ... maybe the world. It overlooks the scenic Pacific Ocean, Salmon Cove and Salmon Point. As I mentioned before, you are always welcome to visit, we will provide accommodations and loads of scenic and cultural events.
All the best,
Toby
An Israeli’s ‘letter to Obama’
Yossi Klein Halevi is a center-right Israeli whose views are not generally supported by Meretz USA. But he is a bellwether of Israeli public opinion, having voted for the winner in every Israeli election since 1992. Our thanks to Lilly Rivlin, the immediate past president of Meretz USA, for sharing her thoughts and making us aware of Klein Halevi’s:
Friends, I've been thinking a lot about the Benny Morris Op Ed piece in the NY Times, and the subsequent reaction, the letters in the NYT, people discussing it. Some friends called him paranoid. I think that Benny Morris represents a significant part of the Israeli population. For those who are involved in being "Israel Watchers," for those of you who have opinions about what Israel should do, I suggest you read Yossi Klein Halevi's piece, "Dear Barack Obama," in The New Republic. And remember that this letter preceded the most recent attack in Jerusalem. Add to the mix, I am picking up in conversations with Israelis that they are taking the Iranian nuclear threat seriously. And that they will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. It would seem that applying pressure on Iran is a priority.– Lilly Rivlin
"Dear Barack Obama"
A letter from an anxious Israeli to the presidential candidate on the eve of his visit to Jerusalem. By Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, published July 19, 2008.
Dear Senator Obama,
Welcome to Israel. ...
On the surface, the Israel you will encounter is thriving. The beaches and cafes are crowded, the shekel is one of the world's strongest currencies, our high-tech companies are dominating NASDAQ, our wineries are winning international medals, and we even export goat cheese to France. But beneath the exuberance lies is a desperate nation. The curse of Jewish history– the inability to take mere existence for granted– has returned to a country whose founding was intended to resolve that uncertainty. Even the most optimistic Israelis sense a dread we have felt only rarely– like in the weeks before the Six Day War, when Egyptian President Gammal Abdul Nasser shut down the Straits of Tiran, moved his army toward our border, and promised the imminent destruction of Israel. At the time, Lyndon Johnson, one of the best friends Israel ever had in the White House, was too preoccupied with an unpopular war to offer real assistance.
We feel our security unraveling. Terror enclaves have emerged on two of our borders, undoing a decades-long Israeli policy to deny terrorist bases easy reach to our population centers. The cease-fire with Hamas is widely seen here as a defeat– an admission that Israel couldn't defend its communities on the Gaza border from eight years of shelling, and an opportunity for Hamas to consolidate its rule and smuggle in upgraded missiles for the inevitable next round of fighting.
The unthinkable has already happened: missiles on Haifa and Ashkelon, exploding buses in Jerusalem, hundreds of thousands of Israelis transformed into temporary refugees. During the first Gulf War in 1991, when Tel Aviv was hit with Scud missiles, residents fled to the Galilee. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when the Galilee was hit with Katyushas, residents fled to Tel Aviv. In the next war, there will be nowhere to flee: The entire country is now within missile range of Iran and its terrorist proxies.
Above all else, we dread a nuclear Iran. With few exceptions, the consensus within the political and security establishment is that Israel cannot live with an Iranian bomb. In the U.S., a debate has begun over whether the Iranian regime is rational or apocalyptic. In truth no one knows whether the regime, or elements within it, would be mad enough to risk nuclear war. But precisely because no one knows, Israel will not place itself in a position to find out.
As we contemplate the possibility of an Israeli military strike, we worry about the extent of support from you at what could be the most critical moment in our history. When Israelis discuss the timing of a possible attack, they often ask: If Obama wins the election, should we hit Iran before January?
True, you told AIPAC that "we should take no option, including military action, off the table." But that was the one moment in your speech that failed to convince. Last December you appeared to endorse the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which broadly hinted that Iran may not be seeking a nuclear bomb after all– a claim that may have soothed Americans worried about Dick Cheney launching another preemptive war, but appalled not only Israeli intelligence but also French and British intelligence (and that has since been at least partially retracted). In the Iowa debate, you responded to a question about the NIE by stating that "it's absolutely clear that this administration and President Bush continues to not let facts get in the way of his ideology...They should stop the saber-rattling, should have never started it, and they need now to aggressively move on the diplomatic front."
From where Israelis sit, it's clear that Iran temporarily suspended its weaponizations program– which is, in fact, the least important part of its effort to attain nuclear power– for the same reason that Muamar Qadaffi abandoned his nuclear program: fear of America after the Iraq invasion. A senior European Union official told me last year how grateful he was to America and Israel for raising the military threat against Iran. "You make our job easier," he said, referring to European-Iranian negotiations.
I am convinced that you regard a nuclear Iran as an intolerable threat, as you put it to AIPAC, and that, under your administration, negotiations with Iran would be coupled with a vigorous campaign of sanctions. And you've made the convincing argument that you could summon international goodwill far better than the current administration. No nation would be more relieved by an effective sanctions campaign than Israel. We know what the consequences are likely to be of an attack on Iran– retaliatory missiles on Tel Aviv, terrorism against Jewish communities abroad, rising antisemitism blaming the Jews for an increase in oil prices.
We worry, though, that the sanctions will be inadequate and that the Iranians will exploit American dialogue as cover to complete their nuclearization. Unless stopped, Iran's nuclear program will reach the point of no return within the early phases of the next administration. We need to hear that under no circumstances would an Obama administration allow the Iranian regime to go nuclear– that if sanctions and diplomacy fail, the U.S. will either attack or else support us if we do.
The rise of Hamas has only confirmed what Israelis have sensed since the violent collapse of the peace process in September 2000: that the Palestinian national movement is dysfunctional. The bitter joke here is that we're well within reach of a two-state solution– a Hamas state in Gaza and a Fatah state in the West Bank.
In your speech to AIPAC, you intuited an understanding of the Israeli psyche– hopes for peace, along with wariness. But our wariness isn't only a response to terrorism. More profoundly, we fear being deceived again by wishful thinking, by our desperation for peace, as we allowed ourselves to be during the years of the Oslo process. At that time, many Israelis began a painful, necessary process of self-reckoning, asking ourselves the crucial question of how Palestinians experienced this conflict, in effect borrowing Palestinian eyes. Many of us forced ourselves to confront the tragedy of a shattered people, one part dispersed, another part occupied, yet another uneasy citizens in a Jewish state.
Most of all, we allowed ourselves the vulnerability of hope. We lowered our guard and empowered Yasser Arafat, convincing ourselves that he had become a partner for peace. The subsequent betrayal wasn't Arafat's alone: Even now Fatah continues to convey to Palestinians the message that Israel is illegitimate and destined to disappear. Many Israelis have become so wary of being taken for fools again– which this generation of Jews had vowed would never happen to us– that talk of hope seems like unbearable naivete.
Most Israelis want a solution to the Palestinian problem as keenly as does the international community, and understand, no less than our critics abroad, that the occupation is a long-term disaster for Israel. The Israeli irony is that we have shifted from dreading the creation of a Palestinian state to dreading its failure. Fulfilling the classical Zionist hopes for a democratic Israel with a Jewish majority, at home in the Middle East and an equal member of the international community, ultimately depend on resolving the Palestinian tragedy. The Jewish return home will not be complete until we find our place in the Middle East.
But empowering the Palestinians requires renewing the trust of the Israeli public toward them. And that, in turn, requires some sign from Palestinian leaders that Israel's legitimacy is at least being debated within Palestinian society rather than systematically denigrated. Repeating a commitment to "peace" is meaningless: Peace, after all, can include a Middle East without a Jewish state.For many years, Israelis denied the right of the Palestinians to define themselves as a nation, considering Palestinian nationalism an invention by the Arab world to undermine Israel. We experienced our conceptual breakthrough in the 1990s. Now it's the Palestinians' turn. Admittedly, Israelis, as the powerful protagonists, could more readily develop a nuanced understanding of the conflict.
Psychologically, though, we too are the underdog: Israel may be Goliath to the Palestinian David, but we are David to the Arab world's (and Iran's) Goliath. We cannot empower the Palestinians while fearing our consequent diminishment.
You can be a crucial voice in encouraging the transformation of Palestinian consciousness. Perhaps parts of Palestinian society and of the broader Arab world would be able to hear from you what it cannot hear from us: that the Jews aren't colonialist invaders or crusaders but an indigenous people living in its land. Perhaps you can help the Middle East reconcile itself to our existence, and in so doing, help us complete our return home.
As you go through the requisite visits to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the President's House, the Israeli public will be hoping to hear, beyond affirmations of your commitment to Israeli security, that America under President Obama will understand what maintaining that security involves. We hope that you will insist on a peace based on acceptance of the permanent legitimacy of a Jewish state, and on a Middle East free of the apocalyptic terror of a nuclear Iran. We, too, need the hope that you have promised America.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a contributing editor of The New Republic and a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center.
Friends, I've been thinking a lot about the Benny Morris Op Ed piece in the NY Times, and the subsequent reaction, the letters in the NYT, people discussing it. Some friends called him paranoid. I think that Benny Morris represents a significant part of the Israeli population. For those who are involved in being "Israel Watchers," for those of you who have opinions about what Israel should do, I suggest you read Yossi Klein Halevi's piece, "Dear Barack Obama," in The New Republic. And remember that this letter preceded the most recent attack in Jerusalem. Add to the mix, I am picking up in conversations with Israelis that they are taking the Iranian nuclear threat seriously. And that they will not tolerate a nuclear Iran. It would seem that applying pressure on Iran is a priority.– Lilly Rivlin
"Dear Barack Obama"
A letter from an anxious Israeli to the presidential candidate on the eve of his visit to Jerusalem. By Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, published July 19, 2008.
Dear Senator Obama,
Welcome to Israel. ...
On the surface, the Israel you will encounter is thriving. The beaches and cafes are crowded, the shekel is one of the world's strongest currencies, our high-tech companies are dominating NASDAQ, our wineries are winning international medals, and we even export goat cheese to France. But beneath the exuberance lies is a desperate nation. The curse of Jewish history– the inability to take mere existence for granted– has returned to a country whose founding was intended to resolve that uncertainty. Even the most optimistic Israelis sense a dread we have felt only rarely– like in the weeks before the Six Day War, when Egyptian President Gammal Abdul Nasser shut down the Straits of Tiran, moved his army toward our border, and promised the imminent destruction of Israel. At the time, Lyndon Johnson, one of the best friends Israel ever had in the White House, was too preoccupied with an unpopular war to offer real assistance.
We feel our security unraveling. Terror enclaves have emerged on two of our borders, undoing a decades-long Israeli policy to deny terrorist bases easy reach to our population centers. The cease-fire with Hamas is widely seen here as a defeat– an admission that Israel couldn't defend its communities on the Gaza border from eight years of shelling, and an opportunity for Hamas to consolidate its rule and smuggle in upgraded missiles for the inevitable next round of fighting.
The unthinkable has already happened: missiles on Haifa and Ashkelon, exploding buses in Jerusalem, hundreds of thousands of Israelis transformed into temporary refugees. During the first Gulf War in 1991, when Tel Aviv was hit with Scud missiles, residents fled to the Galilee. During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when the Galilee was hit with Katyushas, residents fled to Tel Aviv. In the next war, there will be nowhere to flee: The entire country is now within missile range of Iran and its terrorist proxies.
Above all else, we dread a nuclear Iran. With few exceptions, the consensus within the political and security establishment is that Israel cannot live with an Iranian bomb. In the U.S., a debate has begun over whether the Iranian regime is rational or apocalyptic. In truth no one knows whether the regime, or elements within it, would be mad enough to risk nuclear war. But precisely because no one knows, Israel will not place itself in a position to find out.
As we contemplate the possibility of an Israeli military strike, we worry about the extent of support from you at what could be the most critical moment in our history. When Israelis discuss the timing of a possible attack, they often ask: If Obama wins the election, should we hit Iran before January?
True, you told AIPAC that "we should take no option, including military action, off the table." But that was the one moment in your speech that failed to convince. Last December you appeared to endorse the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which broadly hinted that Iran may not be seeking a nuclear bomb after all– a claim that may have soothed Americans worried about Dick Cheney launching another preemptive war, but appalled not only Israeli intelligence but also French and British intelligence (and that has since been at least partially retracted). In the Iowa debate, you responded to a question about the NIE by stating that "it's absolutely clear that this administration and President Bush continues to not let facts get in the way of his ideology...They should stop the saber-rattling, should have never started it, and they need now to aggressively move on the diplomatic front."
From where Israelis sit, it's clear that Iran temporarily suspended its weaponizations program– which is, in fact, the least important part of its effort to attain nuclear power– for the same reason that Muamar Qadaffi abandoned his nuclear program: fear of America after the Iraq invasion. A senior European Union official told me last year how grateful he was to America and Israel for raising the military threat against Iran. "You make our job easier," he said, referring to European-Iranian negotiations.
I am convinced that you regard a nuclear Iran as an intolerable threat, as you put it to AIPAC, and that, under your administration, negotiations with Iran would be coupled with a vigorous campaign of sanctions. And you've made the convincing argument that you could summon international goodwill far better than the current administration. No nation would be more relieved by an effective sanctions campaign than Israel. We know what the consequences are likely to be of an attack on Iran– retaliatory missiles on Tel Aviv, terrorism against Jewish communities abroad, rising antisemitism blaming the Jews for an increase in oil prices.
We worry, though, that the sanctions will be inadequate and that the Iranians will exploit American dialogue as cover to complete their nuclearization. Unless stopped, Iran's nuclear program will reach the point of no return within the early phases of the next administration. We need to hear that under no circumstances would an Obama administration allow the Iranian regime to go nuclear– that if sanctions and diplomacy fail, the U.S. will either attack or else support us if we do.
The rise of Hamas has only confirmed what Israelis have sensed since the violent collapse of the peace process in September 2000: that the Palestinian national movement is dysfunctional. The bitter joke here is that we're well within reach of a two-state solution– a Hamas state in Gaza and a Fatah state in the West Bank.
In your speech to AIPAC, you intuited an understanding of the Israeli psyche– hopes for peace, along with wariness. But our wariness isn't only a response to terrorism. More profoundly, we fear being deceived again by wishful thinking, by our desperation for peace, as we allowed ourselves to be during the years of the Oslo process. At that time, many Israelis began a painful, necessary process of self-reckoning, asking ourselves the crucial question of how Palestinians experienced this conflict, in effect borrowing Palestinian eyes. Many of us forced ourselves to confront the tragedy of a shattered people, one part dispersed, another part occupied, yet another uneasy citizens in a Jewish state.
Most of all, we allowed ourselves the vulnerability of hope. We lowered our guard and empowered Yasser Arafat, convincing ourselves that he had become a partner for peace. The subsequent betrayal wasn't Arafat's alone: Even now Fatah continues to convey to Palestinians the message that Israel is illegitimate and destined to disappear. Many Israelis have become so wary of being taken for fools again– which this generation of Jews had vowed would never happen to us– that talk of hope seems like unbearable naivete.
Most Israelis want a solution to the Palestinian problem as keenly as does the international community, and understand, no less than our critics abroad, that the occupation is a long-term disaster for Israel. The Israeli irony is that we have shifted from dreading the creation of a Palestinian state to dreading its failure. Fulfilling the classical Zionist hopes for a democratic Israel with a Jewish majority, at home in the Middle East and an equal member of the international community, ultimately depend on resolving the Palestinian tragedy. The Jewish return home will not be complete until we find our place in the Middle East.
But empowering the Palestinians requires renewing the trust of the Israeli public toward them. And that, in turn, requires some sign from Palestinian leaders that Israel's legitimacy is at least being debated within Palestinian society rather than systematically denigrated. Repeating a commitment to "peace" is meaningless: Peace, after all, can include a Middle East without a Jewish state.For many years, Israelis denied the right of the Palestinians to define themselves as a nation, considering Palestinian nationalism an invention by the Arab world to undermine Israel. We experienced our conceptual breakthrough in the 1990s. Now it's the Palestinians' turn. Admittedly, Israelis, as the powerful protagonists, could more readily develop a nuanced understanding of the conflict.
Psychologically, though, we too are the underdog: Israel may be Goliath to the Palestinian David, but we are David to the Arab world's (and Iran's) Goliath. We cannot empower the Palestinians while fearing our consequent diminishment.
You can be a crucial voice in encouraging the transformation of Palestinian consciousness. Perhaps parts of Palestinian society and of the broader Arab world would be able to hear from you what it cannot hear from us: that the Jews aren't colonialist invaders or crusaders but an indigenous people living in its land. Perhaps you can help the Middle East reconcile itself to our existence, and in so doing, help us complete our return home.
As you go through the requisite visits to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and the President's House, the Israeli public will be hoping to hear, beyond affirmations of your commitment to Israeli security, that America under President Obama will understand what maintaining that security involves. We hope that you will insist on a peace based on acceptance of the permanent legitimacy of a Jewish state, and on a Middle East free of the apocalyptic terror of a nuclear Iran. We, too, need the hope that you have promised America.
Yossi Klein Halevi is a contributing editor of The New Republic and a senior fellow at the Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies of the Shalem Center.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Help Requested with "The Harvester" Journal
I would like to ask your help in locating copies of the journal The Harvester. While searching for articles by F F Bruce published in this journal I was unable to locate a full set anywhere in the British Library system. Significantly both the Brethren Archive at the John Rylands Library University of Manchester and Tyndale House Library in Cambridge both lack a complete set. Leaving aside my own plans to digitise some of these articles, it is important that a this material be available to those wishing to read it and that it not be lost.
It maybe that you - or someone you know - might have some issues of The Harvester that you no longer have use for that you would be prepared to donate. I am happy to co-ordinate any donations and to forward them to the libraries mentioned above and distribute any spare copies to UK Bible Colleges. Let me know if you can help with this. If you live outside of the UK, you might want to donate spare copies you have to a library in your own country.
I've had little time to blog recently due to the summer harvest on my allotment and family commitments. I am planning to visit the Tyndale Library on 15th August to gather some more material to work on.
It maybe that you - or someone you know - might have some issues of The Harvester that you no longer have use for that you would be prepared to donate. I am happy to co-ordinate any donations and to forward them to the libraries mentioned above and distribute any spare copies to UK Bible Colleges. Let me know if you can help with this. If you live outside of the UK, you might want to donate spare copies you have to a library in your own country.
I've had little time to blog recently due to the summer harvest on my allotment and family commitments. I am planning to visit the Tyndale Library on 15th August to gather some more material to work on.
Hamburger America Test Kitchen - The Squealer
Tonight I attempted to re-create one of my favorite burgers in America, the Squealer from Tookie's in Seabrook, Texas. Tookie's has guarded secrets so I was on my own with this one. From what I can tell, bacon is ground with the beef to create a one-of-a-kind experience, a burger with the unmistakable essence of bacon mixed right in.
You have to use a grinder to blend the bacon with the beef properly, so naturally start with a good chuck steak from your butcher. I cooked 3 slices of Boar's Head bacon until browned, not crispy. I then cubed a 1 pound chuck steak and sent it all through the grinder. The bacon strips went in whole, which was a mistake because some of the undercooked bacon fat gummed up the grinder.
I scooped balls of the mixture, placed them in a hot skillet, and pressed them to the shape of the patty. The chuck I used was too lean though and the burgers came out a bit dry. I'm guessing that the bacon may have also dried out the burger as well. The result was pretty damn good for a first try. It tasted close to Tookie's Squealer, the taste of bacon very present, but needs more work. Next time, more bacon, and more beef fat.
Europetanque 2008
Europetanque d'Azur got started in 2002, thanks to Jean-Claude Muscat, a retired police commissioner in Nice. Much smaller than la Marseillaise, because it is limited to 512 triplet teams, but more international and - since there's no overlap with any other French competition that weekend -, all the French top notch players are there.For whatever reason their official website has no info at all about 2008. Empty as a bottle of pastis after the apéro... :-)
There were two US Teams this year:
Robert Pierre, Christian Triay (both LAPC) and Gérard Canabou (Boule du Desert) unfortunately got knocked out in the first round. And then went to cheer on the other team, Jean-Pierre Subrenat, Xavier Thibaud & Eric Bertin (all LBNY).
They were on a roll: in the first round they beat a local team from Nice, who were much more familiar with the big stones with tar terrain. But once they got the hang of it they were able to turn a 1 to 7 into a 13 to 8.Next they were up against the team that will represent Monaco in the World Championships in Senegal. Another win. Followed by a win against a top team that included a player from Mauritania ranked amongst the top shooters worldwide.
That brought them to the 32th finals on the Promenade des Anglais (the Champs-Elysées of Nice) to face Damien Hureau, Julien Lamour & David Le Dantec, all world champions at one time or another. They did win two rounds at one point each, for a final score of 13 to 2. Not bad at all, if you know that the Hureau team went on to win the tournament after defeating Michel Loy's team, then Grazzini/Giorgo/Piezzoli by 13-0 and then the Belgian team of Van Campenhout/Hemon/Masuy by 13-12 in the final. A final that lasted 1:40 min and was at one stage in Belgium's favor at 11 to 2...Congrats to our USA team, who at first were regarded as merely "des touristes" but at the end respected as really "des boulistes"!
Thanks to Jean-Pierre for the team photos.
And here are the winners:
Europetanque 2008
Europetanque d'Azur got started in 2002, thanks to Jean-Claude Muscat, a retired police commissioner in Nice. Much smaller than la Marseillaise, because it is limited to 512 triplet teams, but more international and - since there's no overlap with any other French competition that weekend -, all the French top notch players are there.For whatever reason their official website has no info at all about 2008. Empty as a bottle of pastis after the apéro... :-)
There were two US Teams this year:
Robert Pierre, Christian Triay (both LAPC) and Gérard Canabou (Boule du Desert) unfortunately got knocked out in the first round. And then went to cheer on the other team, Jean-Pierre Subrenat, Xavier Thibaud & Eric Bertin (all LBNY).
They were on a roll: in the first round they beat a local team from Nice, who were much more familiar with the big stones with tar terrain. But once they got the hang of it they were able to turn a 1 to 7 into a 13 to 8.Next they were up against the team that will represent Monaco in the World Championships in Senegal. Another win. Followed by a win against a top team that included a player from Mauritania ranked amongst the top shooters worldwide.
That brought them to the 32th finals on the Promenade des Anglais (the Champs-Elysées of Nice) to face Damien Hureau, Julien Lamour & David Le Dantec, all world champions at one time or another. They did win two rounds at one point each, for a final score of 13 to 2. Not bad at all, if you know that the Hureau team went on to win the tournament after defeating Michel Loy's team, then Grazzini/Giorgo/Piezzoli by 13-0 and then the Belgian team of Van Campenhout/Hemon/Masuy by 13-12 in the final. A final that lasted 1:40 min and was at one stage in Belgium's favor at 11 to 2...Congrats to our USA team, who at first were regarded as merely "des touristes" but at the end respected as really "des boulistes"!
Thanks to Jean-Pierre for the team photos.
And here are the winners:
Archconservative Bob Novak's Hit and Run
Pedestrian sent to hospital.
Bono said that the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a "Walk" signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and that Novak then made a right into the service lane of K Street. “This car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away,” Bono said.
The Politico
Archconservative Bob Novak's Hit and Run
Pedestrian sent to hospital.
Bono said that the pedestrian, who was crossing the street on a "Walk" signal and was in the crosswalk, rolled off the windshield and that Novak then made a right into the service lane of K Street. “This car is speeding away. What’s going through my mind is, you just can’t hit a pedestrian and drive away,” Bono said.
The Politico
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Benny Morris shocks us on Iran
Given the real danger of a new ugly war as a result of Iran's threats toward Israel and of Israel's counter-threats, I am ashamed of The New York Times for publishing an incendiary op-ed article by Benny Morris. Its only positive impact is to provide a window into the depth of anxiety in Israel regarding Iran, a purpose that would have been much better served in a news article. That most Israelis understandably feel so threatened requires that the international community deal effectively with Iran on the nuclear issue.
Prof. Morris is a great historian because he is ordinarily so careful about marshaling facts and evidence in relation to conclusions. Consequently, my shock was complete at reading his jump to the harshest of judgments regarding the absolute "need" for Israel and/or the US to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, and the "inevitability" of nuclear war if such an attack fails or doesn't occur, prior to Iran going nuclear.
There is a very scary assumption that Morris makes, that Iran's ruling Islamist elite is so crazed by religious extremism that they would look forward to a nuclear exchange with Israel, which some actually believe that Iran would "win" while the much smaller Israel is effectively destroyed. Apparently, there have been some statements by prominent Iranians that lend credence to such a view. But it's not the wisest course to act upon the worst possible interpretations about Iran-- which even Morris knows would mean war, even as he knows that Israel's prospects for success in destroying Iran's nuclear potential are small.
Prof. Morris is a great historian because he is ordinarily so careful about marshaling facts and evidence in relation to conclusions. Consequently, my shock was complete at reading his jump to the harshest of judgments regarding the absolute "need" for Israel and/or the US to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, and the "inevitability" of nuclear war if such an attack fails or doesn't occur, prior to Iran going nuclear.
There is a very scary assumption that Morris makes, that Iran's ruling Islamist elite is so crazed by religious extremism that they would look forward to a nuclear exchange with Israel, which some actually believe that Iran would "win" while the much smaller Israel is effectively destroyed. Apparently, there have been some statements by prominent Iranians that lend credence to such a view. But it's not the wisest course to act upon the worst possible interpretations about Iran-- which even Morris knows would mean war, even as he knows that Israel's prospects for success in destroying Iran's nuclear potential are small.
I've spent many unhappy hours over the years in dialogue and diatribe with leftist critics and enemies of Israel. One, who knows Farsi (the Persian language of Iran), has made a big deal of the notion that Iran's Pres. Ahmadinejad did not literally call for Israel to be "wiped off the map." This is how that person translates Ahmadinejad on Israel: "The Imam [Khomenei] said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time."
Reassuring, right? Even the notion that Israel is referred to as the "regime occupying Jerusalem," is an extremely hostile statement. Yet I had to tangle with this translator even on the fact that (West) Jerusalem is Israel's capital – leaving aside my understanding that East Jerusalem is legitimately regarded by most of the world as occupied.
My argument with Morris is not that his concern is wrong, but that his "remedy" guarantees a bad result.
Dram Shop in NY Magazine
If you've seen NY Magazine's 'Eat Cheap' issue already, you've seen the incredible shot of the burger at Dram Shop, a new bar in my neighborhood that didn't even register on my burgerometer. The Dram Shop recently replaced the long-time supplier of aquatic fish and aquariums to Park Slope and I didn't even know they served food. Josh 'Mr. Cutlets' Ozersky has already made plans to visit and wants me along. Wow, what a burger renaissance Park Slope is having!
The NY Magazine article tried to pin the trend of low-brow burger joint openings around NYC on the demise of the gourmet burger due to a crappy economy. They call it the 'Burger Correction'. Unfortunately, the commentary doesn't really hold up. It seems like I hear about a new gourmet burger everyday. Even a burger joint the magazine puts on their cheap eats list Wall Street Burger Shoppe has an absurd burger on the menu that has GOLD FLAKES on it! That's right, flecks of 'edible' gold (see photo) and the burger costs $150. The only sign that a weak economy may be affecting burgers is the price reduction from $175.
Dram Shop in NY Magazine
If you've seen NY Magazine's 'Eat Cheap' issue already, you've seen the incredible shot of the burger at Dram Shop, a new bar in my neighborhood that didn't even register on my burgerometer. The Dram Shop recently replaced the long-time supplier of aquatic fish and aquariums to Park Slope and I didn't even know they served food. Josh 'Mr. Cutlets' Ozersky has already made plans to visit and wants me along. Wow, what a burger renaissance Park Slope is having!
The NY Magazine article tried to pin the trend of low-brow burger joint openings around NYC on the demise of the gourmet burger due to a crappy economy. They call it the 'Burger Correction'. Unfortunately, the commentary doesn't really hold up. It seems like I hear about a new gourmet burger everyday. Even a burger joint the magazine puts on their cheap eats list Wall Street Burger Shoppe has an absurd burger on the menu that has GOLD FLAKES on it! That's right, flecks of 'edible' gold (see photo) and the burger costs $150. The only sign that a weak economy may be affecting burgers is the price reduction from $175.
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