MORE THOUGHTS ON THE HAMAS-ISRAEL CONFLICT

First, here's a short, interesting piece by journalist/author Jeffrey Goldberg about Nizar Rayyan, a top Hamas official killed recently in Gaza by an Israeli missile. This helps understand some of the basic issues in the Hamas-Israel conflict.

Second, I've thought a lot today about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, and it's important to understand that this is war between two countries (assuming it's OK here to call Gaza a country). It's not a "conflict;" it's not a "military action;" for all practical purposes this is a war between two governments.

The death and injury toll of civilians in Gaza is a terrible reality of war. The toll is higher than it might otherwise be because of the population density in Gaza and the intergration of Hamas military structure within the urban areas. I believe that the Israeli military is doing it's best to avoid civilian casualties; however, a high toll is inevitable in this situation.

I've thought about the on-going U.S. and Allies war in Afghanistan against the Taliban, and the similarities of situations with the Israel-Hamas war. Al-Qaeda attacked the United States in 2001, prompting the U.S. to attack Afghanistan because the Afghan government was harboring Al-Qaeda. The initial missile and bomb attacks ("Operation Enduring Freedom") killed and wounded many (thousands) Afghan civilians, and there is still a mounting toll of casualties of Afghan civilians in this war seven years later. (Civilian casualty figures are estimated by a variety of groups and individuals; the consensus appears to be that several thousand civilians have been killed directly in the war, with uncounted numbers dying as a result of injuries and indirect causes such as disease, displacement, starvation, etc.) There have been media reports over the past year or so of incidents of civilian casualties in Afghanistan resulting from U.S. missiles/bombs - the official U.S. response has been that the incidents are under investigation.

Israel lives with self-sworn enemies next door or nearby: Hamas in Gaza; Hezbollah in Lebanon; Iran a missile flight away; and Syria. At least the first three of these have directly sworn to eliminate Israel, "wipe Israel off the map," "kill all Jews," etc. Hamas has been launching rockets and mortars into Israel for the past several years. So why does it shock people that Israel has decided to fight a direct war against Hamas in Gaza?

Finally, I have to write a bit about geopolitics. To do this, I have to step away from emotional and moral concerns and distress about people being killed and injured in this war, and look dispassionately at the politics of the situation. An article in the Sunday New York Times is a good place to start this thought process, if you want to do a bit more reading. The Israel-Hamas war has to be taken within the context of regional politics. In one view, Israel is a proxy for the United States, and Hamas is a proxy for Iran, with each proxy being supported militarily by the larger sponsor. An open war between the U.S. and Iran would plunge the world into chaos; a war betwen Israel and Hamas is much more containable. A loss by Hamas would be a major setback to Iran and it's regional ambitions; a loss by Israel would certainly shift the balance of power in the region.

I don't support war as a way to resolve conflict, although there are times when it is inevitable and necessary. The victims of war are the citizens of the fighting countries, and they are generally not the ones who decide to wage the war. The destruction and human suffering in Gaza and Israel is painful to watch from afar, and it's easy to sit here in my easy chair and opine about the situation. But I also can't sit here and ignore the one-sidedness that always seems to spring out of the woodwork when Israel is involved. I don't think for a minute that Israel has totally clean hands in this decades-old conflict - I've posted about this a number of times over the past few years. What is clear now is that Hamas has provoked the present chapter of this war, and has brought down upon it's own citizens a horrendous level of violence.

I hope the violence ends very soon. I hope that Hamas loses it's grip on Gaza and more rational people find a path towards peace. I also hope that Israel makes positive steps towards resolution of this 60 year old conflict in a way that benefits all Israelis and all Palestinians (see my previous post). I hope this doesn't turn out to be a lose-lose for everyone.

I know, I'm a dreamer, but there is no other way.

THE WAR IN GAZA

Open warfare has once again broken out in and around Israel. This time the fighting is between Israel and Hamas, and civilians on both sides are caught in the line of fire. I have many thoughts about this, both from the perspective of the present round of violence, and a broader historic and future perspective.

And for clarity - I am a secular (atheist) Jew and have visited Israel a few times, and parts of the West Bank once. One of the trips was a Journey of Peace, from which I posted to this blog (use the search function for the term "Israel.")

The present round of violence - There is no question that Israel has the right to defend itself against constant attacks by Hamas and other factions from within Gaza, or anywhere else. Over the past several years, since Israel pulled out of Gaza, more than 10,000 rockets and mortars have been launched from Gaza into civilian areas of southern Israel. The targets have been either random or specific civilian sites including schools and hospitals. The physical, psychological and economic impacts to the people of the region have been very great; deaths and injuries have been minimized by warning systems and bomb shelters. Israel's response to this constant barrage has been mostly restrained, using economic pressure (blockades, sanctions, etc.) and limited military actions - against military targets (yes, there have been civilian casualties, because the Palestinian rocket launchers typically hide in residential areas).

I think every one of us would agree that if someone started launching rockets into our neighborhood, we would expect our government to take decisive action immediately to end it!

Is the military response by Israel too much? This is a tough one to answer from where I sit. The information I've seen is that Israel has targeted military and government (Hamas) installations, and has tried to warn civilians in Gaza to get away from any military or government sites because they are targets. I believe that Israel does not target civilians (unlike Hamas and other terrorists), but there have been civilian casualties (I refuse to call these unfortunate persons "collateral damage."). I do support the suggestions that Israel call and maintain a 48-hour cease fire, asking Hamas to cease launching rockets into Israel in order to get discussions going to build a truce.

Can Israel or Hamas "win" this battle? No. Hamas cannot defeat Israel in a war. And, short of complete annihilation of the people in Gaza, Israel can only achieve a lessened amount of violence against it from within Gaza, with an accompanying strengthening of resolve of Palestinians, particularly the young, to fight "the oppressor."

The situation is an ongoing cycle of violence that seems to have no end. The fact that Hamas has the stated goal of eliminating Israel as a main part of it's mission is a major roadblock to peace.

Is there hope for the future? I'm not a citizen of Israel or Gaza or the West Bank, so these are armchair musings based on my study of the situation and my few visits there. I do think that there are some positive steps that can be taken for a better future for all people in the region.

• Mutual respect for each other.
  
• Israel - A civil rights movement is needed in Israel to provide Arab Israelis equality and greater integration into Israeli society. Prejudice against Arabs in Israeli society needs to be identified and eliminated.
  
• Gaza and West Bank - the teaching of anti-Semitism in schools and mosques, as well as on TV and in other mass media, has to end.
  
• Education.
  
• Gaza and West Bank - accurate history and geography of the Middle East need to be taught in schools; Israel (not "the Zionist Entity") exists and needs to be shown on maps; the histories of the Jewish people, the Palestinian people, and the region are complex and rich, and should be a focus of education
• Israel - the history and claims of the Palestinian people need to be recognized and taught, including an objective history of the creation of the modern Israel within the context of world politics and local realities at the time
• State Building - the West Bank.
  
• Israel - Israel's future will be best served by helping establish a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank (based on the pre-1967 border). Building of Jewish settlements and outposts in the West Bank should be halted immediately, and existing ones either disbanded or traded with the Palestinians for land of equal value inside Israel. Israel should work closely with moderate Palestinians and their leadership to forge a lasting peace based on mutual respect, security, and economic cooperation. Israel and other nations should be encouraged to invest in West Bank economic ventures, education and infrastructure development.
• West Bank - Palestinians need to end fighting between political factions and find common ground based on building a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank. A vision of statehood needs to reject extremism/terrorism and hatred of Israel and work towards cooperation with Israel for mutual benefits.
  
• Jerusalem. Control of Jerusalem is a major and contentious issue between Jews, Muslims and Christians. The Old City (within the walls) contains important sites for these and other religions, and each group has important historic ties to the City. The Old City of Jerusalem should be re-established as a World City - perhaps a Heritage Site - under the auspices of the United Nations, and administered by a board of atheists. The remainder of Jerusalem should be divided between Israel and the Palestinian State based on negotiations. (Yes, this idea is way out there!)
  

I focused above on the West Bank because the present leadership there is more moderate and willing to work towards peace with Israel. Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist groups in the region do not want peace with Israel - they want to destroy Israel and kill Jews. The present open warfare between Hamas and Israel is a lose-lose proposition for both sides, and the human toll is unacceptable. Implementing the items above, or something similar, can change the future by moving in positive directions and demonstrating that people on all sides of the conflict can learn to live in peace and work together towards a better world.

There are once again many public anti-Israel demonstrations in the United States and around the world. I find it strange, and frankly disheartening, that there have been no public demonstrations in the U.S. against Hamas as they launched thousands of rockets and mortars into civilian areas of Israel over the past few years. Where were the demonstrations and letters to editors when Palestinian suicide-bombers and shooters killed and injured hundreds of Israeli civilians? I'm afraid there is at best a double standard in the liberal community - and at worst an ugly strain of anti-Semitism.

Let's be clear - Hamas, Hezbollah and others of their ilk are not "freedom fighters" - they are terrorists. The Palestinian people have legitimate grievances with Israel, but terrorism and violence are not acceptable tools. Israeli military strategy, like the current U.S. military strategy that relies on massive air power ("shock and awe") is also not acceptable. The State of Israel has, in my opinion, lost it's moral compass and needs to change direction. The 40 year occupation of the West Bank, and the continuing land grabs by Israeli Jews, as one example, needs to end now.

The present violence in Gaza will end, just as it did in Lebanon a couple of years ago; unfortunately, the toll in lives and property will be high, and the result will be the same tension that existed before - a status quo between armed camps waiting for the next round of violence. This is a failed paradigm, a cycle with no end. There has to be a better way.

DRILL BABY DRILL - NUKE BABY NUKE

The fallacies of drilling or nuking our way out of our petroleum addiction have become quite evident, now that the hot air phase of the elections is over. The idea that we can solve the fuel problem by drilling new oil and gas wells off the coasts of the USA has a number of problems, primary of which is the simple fact of market economics (geeze - now I'm sounding like a free market Republican). If you've been paying any attention at all, you've certainly noticed that the price of gasoline at the pump is below $2 per gallon and still falling (dare I ask why we were paying over $4 per gallon a few months ago?), because the price of oil by the barrel has been in free-fall. The oil companies have suspended any thoughts of new drilling because - yep - the price of oil is too low to create the obscene profits they're used to, and want.

But wait, you say, isn't nukaler power the answer to our problems? It doesn't pollute, it's quiet, it's safe..... Well, one of the basic laws of ecology is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. In addition to safety and security issues, a major problem with nuclear power is the waste it generates, material that remains dangerous for a very, very long time. As discussed in a New York Times editorial today, there is still not a national repository for nuclear wastes, as ordered by Congress in the 1980's. "Tens of thousands of tons of spent fuel and military waste" are sitting around in temporary storage around the country waiting for the national repository to open. The Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada - the only one that has been pushed forward since the 1980's order - appears to be doomed by a combination of politics and technical issues. And oh, by the way, as designed, it is too small for the amount of waste that is now waiting for a place to go.

Using a controlled nuclear reaction to boil water for steam turbines has always seemed to me to be a bizarre and dangerous technology. Actually using a technology that generates extremely toxic waste that lasts for millennia, and deferring the decision to future generations about how to safely dispose of the waste is more than bizarre - it is simply irresponsible and immoral.

As citizens, we actually have some power here. When gasoline was over $4 per gallon, we drove our cars less, and also drove down the price of gasoline (supply and demand theory). Now that the price has fallen, let's not go back to our old ways, let's continue to use the gas guzzlers less. And the demand for electricity (i.e. more nukes)? Conservation has not been a part of the Cheney energy policy, but small to moderate increases in the amount of electricity each of us conserves, coupled with real conservation policies from the Obama administration, will literally speak truth to power.

It's up to us folks, and the time is now. Power to the People!

IF THE SHOE FITS

Certainly you've seen the video of an irate Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad today. (If you didn't, go to You Tube.) Now, I don't really condone throwing shoes, or anything else for that matter, at people, particularly world leaders; however, I have to admit that this was the best laugh I've had in some time.

Now if only we could get a court of law to throw the book at him.....

(And I really hope the shoe-pitching journalist wasn't dragged out back, tortured and shot, or rendited to Guantanamo.)

[Note - December 15: I heard a news clip this morning of President Bush making light of the incident: "Really, it didn't bother me; and if you need the facts, I think it was a size 10." Nice - but this is one of the things that bothers me about this self-proclaimed compassionate conservative, his lack of compassion and humility. Perhaps he could have used the incident as a moment to express that yes, he understands the pain and suffering of the Iraqi people caused by this war, and his hopes are with them for recovery and reconciliation, etc., etc. But this is too much to ask from the present leader of the free world.]

HERE'S TO LESS

HERE'S TO LESS

Our lives are filled with things. We're overwhelmed by possessions we own but do not treasure. Stuff we buy but never love. To be thrown away in weeks rather than passed down for generations.

Perhaps it will be different now. Perhaps now is an opportunity to reassess what really matters. After all, if everything you ever bought her disappeared overnight, what would she truly miss?

A DIAMOND IS FOREVER

The De Beers Family of Companies

[The above is a full-page advertisement in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Except for the last sentence, it reads like something I might have written on this blog as a protest of consumerism. This is slick copy writing! Never mind that the "value" of diamonds is created by the total control of the supply and market by the De Beers company, and by a brilliant advertising campaign. Ah yes, all she really needs are some diamonds, and everything else will be Okey Dokey!]

THE LATE GREAT AMERICAN AUTO INDUSTRY

News flash from the U.S. Senate: it's the auto workers union that's going to be the cause of the demise of the Big Three. Oh give me a break!!!!

I've thought a lot about the auto industry bailout, and (with apologies to our Detroit-area relatives) I'm leaning towards saying "goodbye and good riddance!" I've made lists in my mind - reasons to bail them out in one column, reasons to not bail them out in the other column. The "bail them out" column really has only one item - avoiding massive lay offs of working people, people who have no control over the decisions made by the automobile industry. The collapse of the American auto companies will be disastrous for working people and the economy, but I think there are ways the new administration can organize a recovery.

The "don't bail them out" column has a long list. For decades, the American automobile companies, now known as The Big Three, have made business decisions intended to do one thing - increase and protect profits. Yes, this is the goal of business, to make a profit. But the auto industry profits, for the years that the companies made them, were based on massive hidden costs to American taxpayers - and people around the world. The Big Three built their profits on death and destruction, the resulting costs of which have been borne by everyone living on the planet. The automobile, as I've discussed in several previous posts over the last few years, became the central feature of our society, it's use dominating and dictating the realities of urban design, transportation and commerce. America became addicted to foreign oil, our cars and trucks spew millions of tons of carbon dioxide and poisons into the air and water, and thousands of people are injured and killed in auto accidents.

The American auto industry has fought tooth and nail against almost every proposed safety standard, fuel efficiency measure, and emission standard. And they're still at it, challenging the new State of California emission standards in court because they claim that they can't meet them. This is, of course, more of the same BS for which the auto industry is famous. And in the meantime the climate changes more quickly, asthma and other respiratory illnesses are on the rise, and our roads get more gridlocked than ever. None of this is a news flash, we've all known about these problems for years. And yet the Big Three have continued to tell Americans that what we want is bigger and faster cars, behemoth trucks and SUV's, all designed to use gasoline as if it's an unlimited, benign and cheap resource.

So why should we, the taxpayers, bail out these greedy companies? The executives at GM, Ford and Chrysler have made bad decisions, and their chickens have come home to roost. Isn't that what it's all about, we're told, free market, market forces, trickle down, and all that other capitalist mumbo-jumbo? Hey fellas - you snooze, you loose.

There's an aspect of the proposed bailout that isn't discussed: if the government loans these guys money so they can stay in business, who's going to buy their cars and trucks anyway? We are in a recession (yes, it is now official - duh), many thousands of people are losing their jobs, their homes, their savings and retirement funds. Car dealers are going out of business, and new cars from Asia are sitting in giant parking lots in west coast ports with no buyers in sight.

I think this is a giant lemons-to-lemonade moment in U.S. history, and I'm hoping our political leadership undergoes a miraculous transformation and actually does the right things. We need to plot a course away from the automobile as the centerpiece of our culture, and become a more sustainable society. We need to rethink the most basic assumptions about our culture and our economy, and make wise choices that will push us in new directions. There are plenty of jobs to be had in a green economy if we have the backbone to make some tough choices, roll up our collective sleeves, and rebuild an America that makes sense.

I, for one, am tired of being pushed around by big companies with fleets of lobbyists and attorneys and over-paid executives who decide how my world should be - for their profit. To the Big Three I say - get out of the road, the times they are a'changin, and you guys are just in the way.

SILK FACTORY: THE VIDEO

Here's the video that goes with a previous post about Suzhou Silk Factory Number 1, in Suzhou, China.

A COMMUNITY MOMENT

There are certain events that bring people together; brief moments of community that connect people with those around them. Such a moment was tonight's sunset that created a sky filled with gloriously blazing red-bottomed clouds against a darkening blue sky.

I left the house for a quick walk to the store for a few needed items, and a parked car was blocking the sidewalk at the corner - how rude. But as I walked around the car, I noticed a young woman in the drivers seat with her cell phone in hand - held up in front of her eyes. She was taking a picture, so I turned to see what the subject of the photo might be, and froze in my tracks in wonderment. I called my wife to tell her to go out on the porch and look, then walked on towards Hawthorne Blvd. When I got to the next corner, many people on the crowded street were looking to the west, and probably 1 out of 5 were snapping photos with their cell phones. Parents were pointing to the sky to show their children, and people were talking to each other - stranger to stranger - about this incredible display that nature had provided just for us to enjoy.

My cell phone photo doesn't really convey the breathtaking beauty of this brief moment. And, of course, a photograph cannot do justice to the moment of community that I shared with my neighbors.

I wonder how many people, and in how wide a geographic area shared that moment of community. I'm guessing many thousands of people; and you know what? I bet we were all kinds of people in terms of age, race, gender, politics, and religion (or not) watching and marveling at that sky. These are the moments of community that make Earth a small village - wouldn't it be nice if we had more?

NEWS ROUNDUP, NOVEMBER 29, 2008

- The Next Big Bailout? Keep your eyeballs on the impending credit
card market crash. Lenders are tightening up offered credit, raising
interest rates, and offering fewer incentives. Mail offers to new and
existing customers are on pace to drop below 8.4 billion pieces.

An interesting thought about the above is the effect on fuel
consumption and global warming: assume each mailing is 1 ounce (very
conservative assumption), the reduced number above would represent one
half billion pounds (250,000 tons) less mail to be transported, with
related less fuel used, fewer emissions, etc. I say: right on!"

- And the bailout of banks? Seems like the Treasury stratigery is to
give money (uh, purchase shares) to the bigger, more solid banks that
don't really need it, in an effort, it seems, to encourage them to
acquire their weaker competitors - ah, free market capitalism. The
criteria are a mystery. Some banks that have not asked for bailout
money have been approached by Treasury and asked to apply for it, and
who can resist free money? Umpqua Bank of Oregon was approached, and
will be getting a quarter of a billion dollars, even though they don't
really need it. And Bank of America has just increased their share of
one of the major banks in China (owned by the Chinese government) to
about 20% - some analysts think this is a bit tacky after B of A
accepted big money from the bailout fund.

- Consumerism Gone Wild. The death by trampling of a Walmart employee
by a Black Friday sale-crazed mob in New York is difficult to
comprehend. These uber-consumers gave up Thanksgiving to wait in line
for the store to open early in the morning, and then broke through the
doors before the opening because they couldn't wait any longer. This
tragedy is a sad commentary on the values of many of our fellow
citizens, and another sad reminder that consumerism as we know it is
an illness that must be cured.

- The Tragedy in Mumbai. How can one make any sense of terrorism other
than to conclude that these are evil acts perpetrated by evil people.
We have perhaps become so desensitized to this now common form of
brutality that the "every day" bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan kind
of roll off our minds as just another one of those incidents. But the
magnitude, brazeness and cold calculated brutality of the Mumbai
terrorists shocks us into a recognition of the ugliness of the real
world. I intend to write soon about the aspects of the human species
that often lead me to conclude that Mother Nature made a fatal error
in the evolution of Homo sapiens.

CHINA: ON THE SILK ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING

Silk Factory Number 1 has operated inside a non-descript building in a Suzhou neighborhood since the 1920's. Inside the entrance from the street, visitors can tour a small museum telling the history of the silk trade and the process of silk making. Live silkworms methodically eat mulberry leaves on an open tray, and real historic looms and other equipment are displayed in a museum setting. Visitors can then wander through the factory, peeking over the shoulders of workers - mostly women - and poking cameras at and around them as they sort cocoons, cook them in warm water to kill the pupae and loosen the strands, and deftly coax silk strands from cocoons in warm water as machines that look like they just leaped of the page of a history book about the industrial revolution spool the silk. After additional processing, the silk is woven into cloth on several old card looms. The final stop on the tour is the sales room, where purchases can be carried with or shipped to your home.

The remarkable thing about our visit to Silk Factory Number 1 was how unremarkable it seemed within the context of China. Now, at the end of a three week trip, I'm trying to sort out the complex threads of our experiences, like finding the one loose end of silk strand in a cocoon and carefully unraveling it to make whole cloth.

The People's Republic of China is at once fascinating and overwhelming, charming and intimidating, enigmatic and complex and yet simple. It has to be seen, felt, heard, smelled and tasted in order to have any chance of being understood. As visitors, we realized that understanding could only be gained by meeting and building friendships with people - certainly not a new concept, but an essential one.

The following China posts will not be written during our visit as I had planned. My trusty pocket PC was mostly useless as an internet reporter's device because I rarely found wifi access (2 Starbucks stores allowed brief interludes of connectivity - all praise globalization). The very modern American-owned hotels in Beijing and Shanghai, as well as the older Chinese hotel in Xian all had internet access, but only wired - doesn't work with a wireless device. A few hours before leaving China from Shanghai, Hotel Manager Kim explained that China is still catching up, and wifi would probably be very common within a year or so. China is, after all, a developing nation.

NOVEMBER 5, 2008 - AN HISTORIC DAY FOR AMERICA AND THE WORLD!

November 5, 2008, in the early afternoon, my cell phone alerted me to a text message. It was from one of our sons: "Wow. Yes we DID!" It could only mean one thing - Barack Obama won!! Our exclamations and tears of joy and relief let our guide, Jessie, know that Obama had been elected President of the United States. She told our driver, Mr. Wu, the news in Chinese, and he nodded and smiled as he threaded the car through Beijing traffic towards the neighborhood where we hoped to find the French wine bar next to the Hutong Pizza place, where American journalists and others would be watching the election returns. We did get to the bar, just after Obama finished his acceptance speech, and we watched CNN with jubilation and awe as they ran a montage of scenes from the Obama acceptance. What pride for America we have. Look what the people have done! About an hour later, we looked at each other in amazement as we strolled the expansive Tien an Mein Square, looking at the monuments to the heroes of the birth of modern China, and Mao. How wonderfully strange to be here, on this day, celebrating within ourselves and with each other for a gentle revolution in our home country. This truly is a small world. I'll always remember November 5, 2008 as the day the people of the United States took back our country from those who would destroy it, and started out on a path to a new time for America and the world.

A NEW TAKE ON BEING PATRIOTIC

I recently stumbled into a conversation between three women friends,
Meg, Kaia and Sherry, who had decided that patriotism should be replaced
with matriotism, thus resulting in a better world.

Immediately realizing the delicate nature of my position in this
discussion, my brain raced for the correct words (as much as a
wine-soaked male brain can race). "That sounds like a good idea," I
mumbled, "but wouldn't natriotism be even better?"

Whew! Nice save, for once.

TERRORISM, SOCIALISM, COMMUNISM, and FASCISM

The McPalin Campain, sensing imminent defeat at the hands of the Obama forces, has resorted to the most vile name calling and subliminal hate mongering that we've seen since, well, since the same people ran the G.W. Bush campaigns. These labels are pronounced from the podia by McPalin surrogates and by the candidates themselves. The messages: Obama is a terrorist (and a Muslim one, at that); Obama is a socialist; Obama is a communist. Media journalists interview McPalin supporters at campaign rallies and air statements such as "he's an Arab," "he's a socialist," "he's a communist," etc.

What's really going on here?

Terrorism is defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as "the unlawful use of -- or threatened use of -- force or violence against individuals or property to coerce or intimidate governments or societies, often to achieve political, religious, or ideological objectives."

William Ayers was a terrorist, based on the above definition, no question. But what about abortion clinic bombers, violent protesters, and others who do similar things? According to Governor Palin - well, watch the interview yourself. And let's not forget the U.S. invasion of Iraq - "Shock and Awe" - in which the U.S. government invaded a sovereign nation without provocation and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, including civilians. Terrorism?

Socialism is defined as any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.

So let's get this straight - Barack Obama is a socialist because he advocates increasing income taxes for wealthy folks, thereby advocating collective or government ownership of the means of production? Huh? Um, don't look now, but the U.S. government has just taken over - as majority shareholders - some of the largest insurance companies and financial institutions in this country. Both McCain and Obama voted for these takeovers (disguised as bailouts): they're both socialists, I guess.

Communism is defined as a system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social order in which all goods are equally shared by the people.

See above re: socialism. And this is what the Bush administration has been all about, except that the definition has to be tinkered with a bit to read: "...all goods are equally shared by the (rich) people." Where is McPalin on this one? Lock step with the Bushfolk.

Here's another term of interest in this discussion: fascism.

Fascism is defined as a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

Are we there yet? A close look at the past eight years under Cheney-Bush, using the above definition, leads one dangerously close to concluding that we've been on the road to fascism. One need only listen to the speeches of Lord Darth Cheney, look at the domestic spying authorized by Bush, the use of kidnappings and secret prisons, the suspension of habeus corpus, the labeling of anyone who does not meet the administration's definition of "patriotism" as a traitor, to get chills of a bleak future for America. And now we have McCain and Palin stirring up fears of race, Arabs, Muslims, socialists and commies....

A McPalin administration is a chilling prospect for America, a prospect founded on fear and suspicion. An Obama administration offers a prospect of hope for changing the direction of this country towards the ideal that we all believe in. Which do you choose?

I choose the Obama path, and if this makes me a terrorist, socialist, communist - well, so be it.

DEAR AMERICAN CITIZENS....

....please vote, as if your life depends on it. IT DOES!

HOW THE TROUBLE ON WALL STREET PLAYS ON MAIN STREET

The myriad pundits and bloviators in the media frequently talk about the crisis on Wall Street as it is felt on Main Street. Well, what is the reality on Main Street? To answer this question, readmyopinion's roving reporter, George Poppet, talks to people on Main Street.

SECRETARY OF STATE COLIN POWELL ENDORSES OBAMA

If you have not heard Secretary Powell's endorsement, watch and listen to it here. This is perhaps the most powerful and comprehensive endorsement of Barack Obama yet, from a prominent Republican. What this represents is that thinking people, from all parts of the political spectrum, realize that a President Obama is our best hope and chance to put America back on track. Included in Secretary Powell's endorsement are critically important statements that someone with authority and credibility has needed to say for a long time about the Muslim-bashing going on in the McCain campaign.

Colin Powell says it all.

THE CHINA CONNECTION

Son Eric's book, Marketing that Matters, now available in Chinese!

MOBILE BLOGGING

In my quest for eternal blogging, I am attempting to blog from my
mobile device (a HP iPAQ). If you are reading this post, it means I
figured it out. The next trick will be to do this from China, where I
hope to have wi-fi access from some locations. Will the Great
(fire)Wall of China allow this?

BAILING OUT THE CRAP MERCHANTS

Uncle Lou coined the term "crap merchants," and used it judiciously for certain types of companies and people. The term sprang immediately to mind when this economic collapse really kicked in a few weeks ago and the politicians started arguing about what to do. And oh what a scene it was and is - lots of chickens running around with their heads cut off (which I guess is the same as a bunch of politicians running around with their hair on fire).

700,000,000,000. Seven hundred billion. Wow! Dollars. $$$

Where does all this money come from? Will it really get paid back? Is this really going to fix anything? Questions.....questions.....

People in this country are rightly angry and nervous - even frightened - about the economy falling to pieces around us. What galls many of us the most is the fact that many of the executives in charge of the failing companies have been taking home huge salaries and benefits, even as their empires collapsed. Will these people - the Crap Merchants - be punished or held accountable for the results of their unbridled greed? We'll see.

In the meantime, many Americans are or will be suffering as their retirement funds shrink, their homes are foreclosed, their jobs disappear, and the cost of living continues to escalate in the face of shrinking real income. The growing anger of the American public will surely be felt at the polls on November 4, and let's hope the result makes a difference.

THE LATE, GREAT, UNITED STATES

I've thought a lot about this post, and I've probably written pieces of it before. But what I want to do here is try to summarize these thoughts into something that is at least somewhat coherent. It could be long, but probably not long enough.

I think historians will see 2008 as a "perfect storm" of events in the history of the United States of America; game-changing events in the course of world history. Much has already been written along these lines by authors much more knowledgeable than I; however, this blog is my outlet to the world, my one chance to put something out there that a few people - or many - might read, thus putting my marker onto the pages of history. So here goes.

I've often said that the United States is a post-developed nation. George H.W. Bush said, when the Soviet Union collapsed, that the United States had "won the Cold War." We didn't win that geopolitical ideological conflict - the Soviet Union lost first. I believe that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the beginning of the decline of America from the world's remaining Superpower to where we are today, a crumbling power with an uncertain and uncharted future.

What are the symptoms of this decline? They are many, and I'll list only a few that quickly come to mind:

• erosion of individual freedoms
• a straying from the rule of law towards authoritarianism
• outright violations of the Constitution by elected officials
• a decline of morality - both institutional and individual
• a decline in civility between people and between nations
• a marked crumbling of infrastructure: bridges, roads, water and sewage treatment, etc.
• an over-reliance on and over-extension of military resources
• an inability to respond to and rebuild from natural disasters.

What are the causes of this decline? Again, there are many - here are a few:

• greed, of the pure unbridled kind
• corruption
• hate, particularly of "the other:" immigrants, women, people of color, homosexuals
• fear, and the use of fear by people in positions of power as a means towards their ends
• meanness and rudeness
• resistance to change, and unthinking clinging to the old ways
  

The above causes perhaps more aptly are attributed to individuals, but I think they inform the actions of our public and private sector leaders and the institutions they control. One need only examine the recent directions of our laws and courts, our foreign policies, the measures implemented in the guise of "security," the misguided and often patently illegal actions of government to understand the new directions this country has taken. Our government spends colossal sums of money on unwinable wars under the battle cry of "we won't surrender; we will fight on to victory." And "victory" is both undefined and unattainable under the present world view of our government.

The United States of America is a nation adrift in a sea of change. We are barely a united country - just look at the red and blue map of the 50 States showing the presidential voting pattern. We are increasingly a nation of camps; red and blue, left and right, native and immigrant, elite and "Joe six-pack." We are leaderless in a time when leadership is the only thing that will save us.

The world around us, the sea of nations and changing cultures upon which we are adrift has tides and currents and swells and tsunamis of change that we must understand if we have any chance of charting a new course towards the future. The present contest between political parties, being fought by John McCain and Barack Obama, represents a game-changing decision by Americans. Obama represents the recognition that America is adrift in uncharted seas; McCain represents the inability and refusal to recognize that things are different now, and we only need to maintain a steady hand on the tiller to stay the course on which we've been.

This is not to say that the election of one man over the other will change the game. The reality is that the American consciousness needs to change from a pre-twenty first century view to a view of the future. It's the old business mantra of looking through the windshield at the road ahead, instead of watching where we've been in the rear view mirror. As citizens of the United States, we need to understand, to truly internalize, that things are different now, the game has changed, the rules have been rewritten, and we are no longer guaranteed the spot at the top.

What is the United States of America of the future? Will we be a relic of global power, still trying to rule the world by throwing our military might around? Or will we be a new kind of super power in a new world? We Americans are a remarkable and strong-willed people. Our diversity strengthens us. Our founding principles underly our basic goodness, even though we often stray from it. Many, if not most people in the rest of the world want to be more like us than they want to be less like us. We have to lead by example, not brutal strength.

I'm not hopeful about this kind of paradigm shift change happening. I do think that the only slim chance we have is if a new national leadership emerges that openly and honestly confronts the state of the world and our role in it. We need a national discussion about who we are and who we want to be, a discussion that permeates the every day lives of every citizen, of all ages. And we need leaders who can articulate the terms of the discussion, draw out the threads of reason, and build the framework of a new America. It's a tall order - is anyone willing to take it on?

If you read this far - thanks. Comments are welcome.