We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Arlo Guthrie, lefty hatemonger and anti-war activist extraordinaire, has become a (gasp!) Republican.
Doc's List of Great Lefty Hatemongers:
Weathermen — Advocated anarchy, mayhem and violence
SDS — Advocated anarchy, mayhem and violence
SLA — Advocated anarchy, mayhem and violence
Arlo Guthrie — Advocated walking into a military recruitment center, singin' a bar of "Alice's Restaurant", then walking back out
Great hatemongers, all.
But now that Arlo is officially one of the good guys, we'll allow him to preach his virulent, scathing, anti-war screed to the world. God help the ears of any poor recruiting sergeant should someone actually walk in and pull off such a stunt. It sounds a bit cruel to say, but most people don't sing very well.
For another Guthrie tune (and me seriously screwing with your head when it comes to his politics), please...
Living among outspoken, educated liberals who worship at the altar of diversity, yet react with shock and horror when confronted by opposing viewpoints, is a constant challenge. It’s especially difficult for someone who enjoys a good verbal joust even more than sports junkies love watching steroid-enhanced musclemen bash each other while chasing a pigskin ball.
There are apparently sharp differences among commentators on the Gaza ceasefire. Regardless, the Gaza thanksgiving lesson is that Israel and its supporters have far more to be thankful for, and hopeful for, than does Israel's enemies.
On the one hand are those who say that Israel accomplished its primary objectives: degrade Hamas’ rocket and terror capabilities, retain good will of the Western governments that are usually so offended by Israel’s defense measures, establish self-interested constructive relations with the Islamist rulers of Egypt and not undermine the frail not-attacking PA in the West Bank.
On the other hand are those who say that Israel should have launched the ground operation in to Gaza to further punish and eradicate the threats from there and further degrade Hamas’ capabilities, and that the ceasefire agreement is toothless at restraining future Hamas re-arming and attacks.
Emotionally and militarily I lean toward the second hand. As a practical matter I lean toward the first hand. Anyone who has participated in or observed house-to-house fighting knows its brutality and costs in lives, including our own. This time, I don’t think it was worth another Israeli soldier’s life, as little as I care for the surely much heavier Hamas toll or that on the Gazan civilians who back Hamas. Then, regardless of the public words of any ultimate ceasefire agreement, I don’t think that they would hold water unless Hamas were to actually commit to the actions, and non-actions, necessary to their fulfillment.
Meanwhile, we do not know whether Egypt has committed to or will increase its relatively minor blocking of tunnels into Gaza. We do know that President Obama has committed to increasing support to blocking arms imports to Gaza and to increase funding for more Iron Dome anti-rocket defenses. We do know that aside from bluster the Arab states and Turkey were inactive. They could really care less about Hamas, particularly as far as it is allied with Iran. Even Iran, aside from attempted new smuggled weapons, was inactive, as was its other cats paw in the area Hezbullah in Lebanon.
So, regardless of which side of the debate you take, or another, I think the lesson from Gaza is to give thanks for what we have accomplished.
Israel was not weakened but will continue on to successfully defend its right to exist. Since 1948, when Israel’s fate seemed more dire, to now, Israel has managed to survive and prosper. There’s little reason to believe that will change. The Arab states have not prospered nor advanced. As their oil wealth fades and is substituted from US, Israeli, alternative energy, and other sources, their influence or importance will fade. Hamas has created a stinkhole in Gaza, except for those at the top of the regime and its favors who live luxuriously and will pay the price eventually as impoverished Gazans take their measure.
As to those in the West, the decreasing number of dreamers, who propose trading land or rights for peace, their illusion is thinner than ever, at least until there is a miraculous transformation among Arabs. The necessity of strong security measures cannot be denied by any honest peace-hawks.
There’s much to give thanks for, far more than regrets, on this Thanksgiving.
Thing is, domesticated turkeys — the farm-raised ones we eat — are plentiful. And fat. So fat they can’t really fly. (As God as his witness, Arthur Carlson from WKRP in Cincinnati believed otherwise.)
Some things truly are timeless.
I actually remember this, because for weeks afterward every time someone dropped an item, they'd say something like, "As God is my witness, I thought ball point pens could fly."
Happy Thanksgiving, all. Keep an eye out for any low-flying helicopters.
My Thanksgiving prayers (and many of my prayers), begin with "Lord, help us be fully grateful and thankful to You for being a companion and guide in our lives in good times and in hard times."
These half-crazy Puritans had little to be thankful for materially, yet thankful they were on the chilly shore of Cape Cod Bay. Brownscombe's The First Thanksgiving:
And now Cape Cod, this summer. What would those Pilgrim forefathers have thought of this sight?
Re-posted from last year. I add in 2012: No matter what the circumstances, whatever you have is to be given thanks for, and someone else always has less, and they may surprise you that they give thanks for that.
Wednesday night, my son Jason and I were greeters at our synagogue for the annual Interfaith Council Thanksgiving Service, which brings together ministers and congregants from many varying religions. A real eye-opener for Jason as he met people, US born and from all corners of the earth, all sharing thanks for our bounty and generosity. The service ended with all standing to sing "America the Beautiful." (I wish they'd also added Emma Lazarus' poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty.) I hadn't read all the words to "America the Beautiful" in many years. So, like me, as we celebrate Thanksgiving, you may want to refresh your memory.
America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates, Melody by Samuel Ward
O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stress A thoroughfare of freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for halcyon skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the enameled plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till souls wax fair as earth and air And music-hearted sea!
O beautiful for pilgrims feet, Whose stem impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till paths be wrought through wilds of thought By pilgrim foot and knee!
O beautiful for glory-tale Of liberating strife When once and twice, for man's avail Men lavished precious life! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till selfish gain no longer stain The banner of the free!
O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!
Anthony is the Reuters Social Media Editor, integrating the “ambient wire” that exists on social networks, where news now breaks before anywhere else, into Reuters platforms. He's also host of Reuters TV's "Tech Tonic" and a Reuters columnist.
This is the kind of media bias that must be exposed. In this case, with impact. Thanks to Honest Reporting. (free online subscription)
5:48 pm: At the beginning of the day, I noted an ugly tweet by Reuters’ Anthony De Rosa. One response to De Rosa was sufficiently embarrassing and, uh, viral enough to make the wire service’s social media editor remove his tweet.
Just Put the F*cking Turkey in the Oven and go take a walk. She's right. Turkey does taste like cardboard unless you charcoal-and-wood grill one, in which case it tastes like semi-smoked cardboard. I'll only eat the dark meat of the thighs and legs, where there is flavor and juiciness.
Two of my kids are going down to see Dylan in Brooklyn tonight with pals. I'd go myself, but I am working. My kids find Bob kind of fascinating. I love it when my kids are around and they decide to go off and do things together. Feels good to know that they will be there for eachother in the future when I fade from the picture.
It also makes me feel good to know that Bob is back in New York tonight, his old stomping grounds. He'll never quit. Like a true Yankee or an old bluesman, he'll work until he drops. It pleases me to let the youth use my tickets.
A ceasefire is supposed to start tonight. There doesn't appear to be anything that will ensure a lasting peace. Whether and how long it lasts is really up to Hamas.
I am now using a radical, new cleaning solution for my LCD monitor:
Windex.
Yes, yes, I can hear your gasps of shock and bewilderment from here. Windex contains ammonia, which will make your LCD screen dull and flat. I and countless other computer gurus have been warning you about it for years.
Except there are three problems:
1. My monitor screen is already dull and flat. That is, it's not glossy at all. Glossy screens are terrible indoors, showing off every reflection from every light in the room.
2. What's not mentioned is how many applications it takes of ammonia to make your screen dull and flat. By my estimation, roughly 10,000 times.
3. LCD-friendly products don't work worth shit.
There's a reason Windex contains ammonia; it actually works when it comes to removing grime, filth, tobacco stains, and the spittle resulting from impulsively laughing out loud during one of Dr. Mercury's political posts.
The 'safe' alternatives, like Windex Wipes and using a half-and-half solution of vinegar and water just don't work very well. I've used two types of 'wipes', two 'safe' liquid spray cleaners, plus gone the vinegar route, but none of them got the screen dazzlingly clean with just a few wipes. There are always a handful of spots that have to be specifically 'scrubbed', and at that point I think it's possible you're actually doing more damage to that specific spot (with all the additional abrasion) than if you'd just given it a quick bath of ammonia and no scrub at all.
And that's just the first rule I'm breaking.
Another recommendation is to use a soft cloth, rather than a paper product. I tried both a diaper and an old t-shirt and thought they were both terrible. They smeared, as much as anything else, and since whatever you're wiping with has to be turned frequently, I ended up paying an overly amount of attention to making sure I had a clean spot for the next wipe.
Since I already have a roll of Charmin 'baby-soft' TP nearby for cleaning my glasses, I just use it for the monitor as well. Unlike the non-disposable cloth, you don't pay any attention to getting a clean spot on the wad of TP you're holding; you just wipe a few times and toss it. Like the ammonia, it's true that the slight additional abrasiveness from using a paper product might dull your screen over time — assuming you clean it 10,000 times.
And that's still not the end of my dastardly crimes.
This artist just released an album using biblical instruments trying to re-create the music in the Temple in Jerusalem. Remember, the first pilgrims were Jews going there to give homage to G-d. Hence, "halleluja".
Dunkin Donuts is a Yankeeland item which has begun to colonize the world. Mediocre coffee, mushy donuts which are not really fat-fried and have no crunch, but half-decent daily bagels. Also, "Breakfast sandwiches" made of God-knows-what warmed-up plastic-wrapped thawed-out food-like substances.
People like Dunkin anyway. It's familiar, predictable, comfortably mediocre. A welcome sign to see on a cold, sleety night of driving in the middle of nowhere. Clean bathrooms. A Dunkin franchise is a cash cow for the franchisee. I know a Greek immigrant who now owns five of them. He's rich. He is fortunate in having a loyal, smart, and pleasant mostly-Hispanic staff. A few Pakistanis too.
I haven't had one of their too-sweet and mushy donuts in years, but once in a while I'll have a toasted bagel. I only like fried donuts.
Bob Rosenberg opened the first one in Quincy, MA in 1949, and the first of thousands of franchises the following year in Worcester.
In 2006 the parent company was acquired by a consortium of private equity firms: Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group, and Thomas H. Lee Partners. Heavy hitters, for a humble donut shop. Dunkin' Donuts is the world's leading baked goods and coffee chain, serving more than 3 million customers per day. Dunkin also bought Baskin Robbins a while ago, which is why you sometimes see the two carbohydrate outlets under the same roof.
Rabbi Bill Berk, who retired from a large Reform congregation in Phoenix to lead educational cultural tours in Israel, is definitely a liberal -- by US or Israeli standards -- politically. Regardless of liberal or not, almost all Israelis are unified in supporting the Israeli actions in Gaza. That may come as a shock to many Western liberals who have become accustomed to taking positions negative toward Israel.
Below is Bill Berk's "Letter To My Old Friend" in the US who wrote to him criticizing Israel's actions against Hamas in Gaza. Berk's old friend wrote him (as Berk summarizes):
1. Israel has its boot on the neck of Gaza in too many ways; 2. Nothing will stop Hamas rockets--you can’t kill your way out of the mess in the Middle East; 3. Netanyahu is like George Bush—a thoughtless bully.He is jerking us like “political poodles on a leash.”In other words he is manipulating the Israeli people including thoughtful people like me; 4. Israel is losing all its friends except for right wingers and the “Christian TeaParty.”
Below, Bill Berk demolishes those ignorant assertions. Berk's rebuttal is comprehensive, and provides better understanding than you'll see in most of the Western media.
“[F]inally, beginning in 1949. . . you and your employer will each pay 3 cents on each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. That is the most you will ever pay.”
What unites all of these stories is the growing failure of America’s local associations — civic, familial, religious — to foster stability, encourage solidarity and make mobility possible.
This is a crisis that the Republican Party often badly misunderstands, casting Democratic-leaning voters as lazy moochers or spoiled children seeking “gifts” (as a certain former Republican presidential nominee would have it) rather than recognizing the reality of their economic struggles.
But if conservatives don’t acknowledge the crisis’s economic component, liberalism often seems indifferent to its deeper social roots. The progressive bias toward the capital-F Future, the old left-wing suspicion of faith and domesticity, the fact that Democrats have benefited politically from these trends — all of this makes it easy for liberals to just celebrate the emerging America, to minimize the costs of disrupted families and hollowed-out communities, and to treat the places where Americans have traditionally found solidarity outside the state (like the churches threatened by the Obama White House’s contraceptive mandate) as irritants or threats.
Before that article in Salon, this mother was allowed to believe that her staying off the dole had some honor in itself-- some validation of her identity-- and it allowed her to survive her hardships. Now she is forced to swallow that these people are not merely as good as her, but more valuable-- they get an article, they get defenders like you, they are praised for their intrinsic human value, and all she gets is mocked, belittled, "she's too stupid to know what's good for her!"-- all she can do is comment on their life-- and her small act of rebellion is to at least use the space to tell the world she exists. Rage is her defense that keeps her intact while the world seemingly ignores her.
Israel is a democracy, with rights of free speech, petition, and protest. The tiny number of far left Israelis are vocal and often ally with radical Arab-Israelis. In this video today, they held a protest in Jerusalem against Israel bombing Gaza. Then, they scurried away as soon as the air raid siren went off that a rocket may come in from Gaza.
From the Comments to this Youtube video:
these were a group of redical lefties and arabs inside of israel (jerusalem) who protested agains israel and showed support in gaza people..when the siren hitsuddenly nobody supports terror and starts running.
Almost a year ago, I commented on a tax 'solution' which I think could work here in the U.S.
Here we are, post-election, and what are we hearing from Republicans? Astonishingly little pushback, almost no effort to 'obstruct' (not that were ever obstructionist, in my opinion), and a generally held agreement that taxes have to rise because that's what the election was all about.
I doubt the commentary would be vastly different if Romney had won, but the focus on tax increases versus spending cuts would probably be significantly altered. I also don't think that's what the election was all about, either. But that's the meme.
Can the Tobin Tax rise from the dead?
Still, where do we go from here? Every day, we hear that "something has to be done before we fall off the fiscal cliff."
It is sad that so much of what Hanson is describing in this article is coming to pass. While Obama exploited the tribalism to get elected and re-elected, he is not the cause of such divisive politics. One only has to work in a university environment to see where such a racial spoils system is fully entrenched and how counter-productive it can be.
There is no longer a left or liberalism in America. There is only a politics of victimhood that looks on all allocation of employment, college admissions, rewards of any kind as a spoils system to be divided based on formulas that favor formerly underrepresented groups. Visit any website offering jobs of any kind at a university and it will advertise that they are favoring women and minorities.
This is not unfamiliar to anyone who was part of the new left in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The people who had worked so hard to end segregation, create vast new opportunities for women and had pushed for a more human rights oriented foreign policy allowed their movement to be taken over by those who sought to use their cause to fuel their own personal ambitions. That is how a movement with humane ideals could degenerate so quickly into a collection of interest groups promoting their own aggrandizement at the expense of the common good.
“Causes begin as movement, develop into businesses and end up as rackets.” This quote or some similar wording is attributed to Eric Hoffer and I believe that it represents what we are seeing transforming America. The Democratic Party did not create this mess but it has cynically exploited it to gain the presidency where it rewards its supporters by filling the federal bureaucracy and judiciary with advocates for the racial, gender and ethnic spoils system.
Within days of the election we have seen Democratic Party appointed judges vote to void the Michigan law, Proposal 2, by which Michigan voters reaffirmed the racial neutrality of the fourteenth amendment. And we have seen the EPA refuse to allow Iowa farmers to use their corn as food and feed grain because environmental extremists demand that it be turned into ethanol. While clearly, this policy is supported by those with an economic interest in it, it could never be allowed without the support of a “sustainability” movement that is incapable of considering the overall economic consequences of its environmental extremism.
The future is not promising. Title IX extremists will now use it to attack American science, attempting to create gender equality of numbers in engineering and physics the way it creates equal numbers of athletes receiving athletic scholarships. In the process it will create an entire new bureaucracy of regulators and compliance officers who will be paid to ensure that college admissions, scholarships and assistantships, post-docs, conferences, speakers at national meetings and the like are assigned to assure that the number of females is greater than or equal to the number of males receiving such rewards. And when people try to resist it, the armies of regulators and compliance officers will respond by declaring that such resistance is a war on women and is evidence that the problem is that we don’t have enough regulators and compliance officers.
I am a generally optimistic person but it is hard for me to see how this is going to end in anything but disaster.
Interesting premise, but one which goes back to the ancient Greeks. At the family homestead on Thanksgiving evening, we do three things: take a long walk with the dogs, put football on one TV and a movie on another. It's my turn to pick a film.
To illustrate the credible range of debate or discussion within the Jewish community, excluding the left-fringe J Street's usual meowing for a mythical peace with those who adamantly and violently refuse peace, please read this short column by a professor and the reply by another. I favor the reply, because dire realities cannot be wished away.
Hamas fired off more Iranian rockets toward Jerusalem. One landed in a West Bank Palestinian village.
Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Jerusalem on Tuesday landed in the Gush Etzion area Tuesday, with one hitting an open area of a Palestinian village in the West Bank, police and the IDF reported. It was unclear if the rocket caused any damage or injuries, although AFP reported Palestinian paramedics were making their way to the scene.
Hamas not only tries to kill Israeli civilians but doesn't care about killing fellow Palestinians.
Meanwhile, to continue the report linked above:
Meanwhile, the IDF embarked on a series of major strikes in the Gaza Strip, striking 11 terrorist cells and 30 concealed rocket launchers in Gaza, and engaged in a wave of artillery strikes, an IDF Spokesman's Office statement said.
One of the strikes hit a rocket launching cell responsible for firing on the Jerusalem area.
The IDF said it also struck an apartment used as a hideout by a senior Hamas official, as armored vehicles and artillery units continued to directed fire at Hamas targets.
Hillary is on the way, to talk in Ramallah with the PLO. Gee, that will do a lot of good, since for Hamas and the PLO each other are enemies. She'll be in Jerusalem, presumably to muscle Israel into not launching a ground operation in Gaza to eliminate more rats. Then she'll visit Egypt, whose "mediation" sits on a table etched with anti-Israel statements. Soft diplomacy yields to soft-headedness. At least, one Associated Press reporter called out the State Dept. spokesperson on ignoring Turkey's calling Israel a "terrorist state" at the same time considering giving the faux-NATO partner US Patriot missiles along its Syrian border.
I am now using a radical, new cleaning solution for my LCD monitor:
1850 travel ad. Drive carefully, readers, this holiday weekend. We cannot afford to lose a single one of you.
