Monsanto – Part 2 August 28, 2014August 28, 2014 100 MOVIE QUOTES Here, in 10 minutes, 100 iconic moments in film. Naturally, five of them are from “Casablanca.” Inexplicably, the “true love” clip from “The Princess Bride” is not included, nor any of the others. And for my money, they took the wrong clip from “Moonstruck.” Where was, “Old man, you give those dogs another piece of my food and I’m gonna kick you til you’re dead”? Where was, [Ronny Cammareri, anguished:] “I’m heeee-ya!” [Loretta Castorini, not missing a beat:] “Yo late!“? I have actually met people who’ve not seen “Casablanca,” “Moonstruck,” or “The Princess Bride.” (No: really!) Well, that’s why God invented Netflix. Buttercup: I fear I will never see you again. Westley: Of course you will. Buttercup: But what if something happens to you? Westley: Hear this now: I will always come for you. Buttercup: But how can you be sure? Westley: This is True Love. You think this happens every day? And yes, they got in “Dr. Strangelove,” another of my top ten — President Muffley: “This is the War Room! You can’t fight in the War Room!” But where was, “Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you keep it a SECRET. Why didn’t you tell the world? EH?!” And for that matter, where was “Dr. Zhivago?” (“Oh, look, Uri — Verikino!”) (Or, simply, as pen begins to scratch at the top of the blank page with near-frozen fingers . . . “Lara!”) Engineer: If they were to give me two more excavators, I’d be a year ahead of the plan by now. Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago: You’re an impatient generation. Engineer: Weren’t you? Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago: Yes, we were, very. Oh, don’t be so impatient, Comrade Engineer. We’ve come very far, very fast. Engineer: Yes, I know that, Comrade General. Gen. Yevgraf Zhivago: Yes, but do you know what it cost? There were children in those days who lived off human flesh. Did you know that? Well, did you? I say again: Netflix. Have a great (very) long weekend. MONSANTO – Part 2 Earlier this month I posted a remarkable letter by a young, idealistic entrepreneur defending his decision to sell his company, The Climate Corporation, to Monsanto. Here, in the New Yorker, Michael Specter continues the theme, profiling a renowned Indian environmentalist. . . . Shiva, along with a growing army of supporters, argues that the prevailing model of industrial agriculture, heavily reliant on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fossil fuels, and a seemingly limitless supply of cheap water, places an unacceptable burden on the Earth’s resources. She promotes, as most knowledgeable farmers do, more diversity in crops, greater care for the soil, and more support for people who work the land every day. Shiva has particular contempt for farmers who plant monocultures—vast fields of a single crop. “They are ruining the planet,” she told me. “They are destroying this beautiful world.” . . . But guess what? As you keep reading, you begin to realize that she may not be the Mother Teresa of agriculture. . . . Hundreds of millions of people, in twenty-eight countries, eat transgenic products every day, and if any of Shiva’s assertions were true the implications would be catastrophic. But no relationship between glyphosate and the diseases that Shiva mentioned has been discovered. Her claims were based on a single research paper, released last year, in a journal called Entropy, which charges scientists to publish their findings. The paper contains no new research. Shiva had committed a common, but dangerous, fallacy: confusing a correlation with causation. (It turns out, for example, that the growth in sales of organic produce in the past decade matches the rise of autism, almost exactly. For that matter, so does the rise in sales of high-definition televisions, as well as the number of Americans who commute to work every day by bicycle.) Shiva refers to her scientific credentials in almost every appearance, yet she often dispenses with the conventions of scientific inquiry. She is usually described in interviews and on television as a nuclear physicist, a quantum physicist, or a world-renowned physicist. Most of her book jackets include the following biographical note: “Before becoming an activist, Vandana Shiva was one of India’s leading physicists.” When I asked if she had ever worked as a physicist, she suggested that I search for the answer on Google. I found nothing, and she doesn’t list any such position in her biography. . . . Not at all. “It is absolutely remarkable to me how Vandana Shiva is able to get away with saying whatever people want to hear,” Gordon Conway told me recently. Conway is the former president of the Rockefeller Foundation and a professor at London’s Imperial College. His book “One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?” has become an essential text for those who study poverty, agriculture, and development. “Shiva is lionized, particularly in the West, because she presents the romantic view of the farm,” Conway said. “Truth be damned. People in the rich world love to dabble in a past they were lucky enough to avoid—you know, a couple of chickens running around with the children in the back yard. But farming is bloody tough, as anyone who does it knows. It is like those people who romanticize villages in the developing world. Nobody who ever lived in one would do that.” Indeed . . . “She is very canny about how she uses her power,” Lynas said. “But on a fundamental level she is a demagogue who opposes the universal values of the Enlightenment.” It may be that the current Monsanto is mistakenly despised and that there is something to be said for genetically modified organisms. The all-encompassing obsession with Monsanto has made rational discussion of the risks and benefits of genetically modified products difficult. Many academic scientists who don’t work for Monsanto or any other large corporation are struggling to develop crops that have added nutrients and others that will tolerate drought, floods, or salty soil—all traits needed desperately by the world’s poorest farmers. Golden Rice—enriched with vitamin A—is the best-known example. More than a hundred and ninety million children under the age of five suffer from vitamin-A deficiency. Every year, as many as half a million will go blind. Rice plants produce beta carotene, the precursor to vitamin A, in the leaves but not in the grain. To make Golden Rice, scientists insert genes in the edible part of the plant, too. Golden Rice would never offer more than a partial solution to micronutrient deficiency, and the intellectual-property rights have long been controlled by the nonprofit International Rice Research Institute, which makes the rights available to researchers at no cost. Still, after more than a decade of opposition, the rice is prohibited everywhere. Two economists, one from Berkeley and the other from Munich, recently examined the impact of that ban. In their study “The Economic Power of the Golden Rice Opposition,” they calculated that the absence of Golden Rice in the past decade has caused the loss of at least 1,424,680 life years in India alone. (Earlier this year, vandals destroyed some of the world’s first test plots, in the Philippines.) It’s a long article, but if you eat food, worth reading in full. . . . In a recent speech, Shiva explained why she rejects studies suggesting that genetically engineered products like Pental’s mustard oil are safe. Monsanto, she said, had simply paid for false stories, and “now they control the entire scientific literature of the world.” Nature, Science, and Scientific American, three widely admired publications, “have just become extensions of their propaganda. There is no independent science left in the world.” Monsanto is certainly rich, but it is simply not that powerful. Exxon Mobil is worth seven times as much as Monsanto, yet it has never been able to alter the scientific consensus that burning fossil fuels is the principal cause of climate change. Tobacco companies spend more money lobbying in Washington each year than Monsanto does, but it’s hard to find scientists who endorse smoking. The gulf between the truth about G.M.O.s and what people say about them keeps growing wider. The Internet brims with videos that purport to expose the lies about genetically modified products. Mike Adams, who runs a popular Web site called Natural News, recently compared journalists who are critical of anti-G.M.O. activists such as Shiva to Nazi collaborators. The most persistent objection to agricultural biotechnology, and the most common, is that, by cutting DNA from one species and splicing it into another, we have crossed an invisible line and created forms of life unlike anything found in “nature.” That fear is unquestionably sincere. Yet, as a walk through any supermarket would demonstrate, nearly every food we eat has been modified, if not by genetic engineering then by more traditional cross-breeding, or by nature itself. Corn in its present form wouldn’t exist if humans hadn’t cultivated the crop. The plant doesn’t grow in the wild and would not survive if we suddenly stopped eating it. When it comes to medicine, most Americans couldn’t care less about nature’s boundaries. Surgeons routinely suture pig valves into the hearts of humans; the operation has kept tens of thousands of people alive. Synthetic insulin, the first genetically modified product, is consumed each day by millions of diabetics. To make the drug, scientists insert human proteins into a common bacteria, which is then grown in giant industrial vats. Protesters don’t march to oppose those advances. In fact, consumers demand them, and it doesn’t seem to matter where the replacement parts come from. When Shiva writes that “Golden Rice will make the malnutrition crisis worse” and that it will kill people, she reinforces the worst fears of her largely Western audience. Much of what she says resonates with the many people who feel that profit-seeking corporations hold too much power over the food they eat. Theirs is an argument well worth making. But her statements are rarely supported by data, and her positions often seem more like those of an end-of-days mystic than like those of a scientist. . . .
Suing The President August 27, 2014 It’s just this stupid. Four minutes. You really have to watch. (Stephen Colbert.) Your thoughts, as always, welcome.
Sunscreen August 26, 2014August 25, 2014 WHAT YOUR SKIN LOOKS LIKE UNDER ULTRA-VIOLET LIGHT Yes, of course I should have posted this at the beginning of the summer not the end, but it’s too good to wait until next summer . . . and some of you lay poolside — or ski — even in the winter . . . so watch this. Short, surprising, persuasive. You may find yourself beginning to wear sunscreen much more consistently. Which would be smart. (But could you please not use the spray-on kind? First off, I hate breathing it in — so please apply it downwind from me, wont you? — and it could even be bad for you. But also, did you notice that most of it just shoots off into the air? How wasteful is that?) QCOR John Leeds: “It seems odd you never follow up about QCOR on your board. Yes – I know you sold. But you usually update about any stocks that were tips. This one continued into a merger and closed up 80% or so from where you sold. Why not tell your readers and keep them informed?” ☞ And while we’re at it, ITMN, that I gave up on three years ago, seems to be getting bought out at more than triple the price. It was up 20 points yesterday alone. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
Filming The Forbidden City August 25, 2014 So what did YOU do on your summer vacation? This Kiwi filmed the Forbidden City with a drone, then talked his way out of jail. THAT story is perhaps even better than the four-minute video. All here. Enjoy. (Thanks, Victor.)
Deli Men August 22, 2014August 21, 2014 SUCCESS! Jim Batterson: “Wow. I am as impressed as you are at the wonderful results of Success Academy, and I understand that it is a model within the public school system entirely publicly funded. But it is also perceived as a ‘private school,’ albeit within the public school system, and accentuates the problems of the rest of the public schools. It reinforces the Republican argument for vouchers to allow all parents the freedom to get their children out of the public schools and into the (hereby demonstrably superior) private school model. . . . I know, I know, I know: $4,000 a year tuition voucher will not let a poor family send its children to Lawrenceville or Foxcroft, it is more like a tax credit for rich parents who already send their children to private school. Nevertheless, the argument will be made.” ☞ The argument may be made, but as you say, it’s a really poor one. Charter schools are public schools. Zero tuition — and in the case of the Success Academy schools, zero testing requirements to gain admission. Enrollment is by lottery, and almost everyone in the neighborhood enters that lottery. The more proven ideas and methods traditional public schools can borrow from successful charters, the better. (Not all charters are successful, by any means.) And the more successful charters are allowed to expand, the better as well. Success Academy has gone from 1 school to 22 with 7 more coming on line this year, if memory serves. If it keeps going like this, one day every lottery entrant might win. BELGISTAN John Carroll: “The thing that governs all of your commenters [on Muslim rule in Belgium by 2030, as described in these 5 minutes], perhaps without their being aware of it, is the Sykes-Picot Agreement. In 1918 the Ottoman Empire was defeated. The whole region around what we now call Palestine-Syria-Iraq existed under the Ottoman Caliphate and Empire since 1453, and in 1920 the Sèvres treaty partitioned all that to satisfy the British and the French (and the Russians). An example of an implication of this is to be found in a reference to ‘ISIS.’ The second ‘s’ in ‘ISIS’ is not ‘Syria,’ it is ‘al Sham.’ Usage of ‘Syria’ is European in origin. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is moving to redress what he perceives as the colonial arbitrariness of the borders of Syria, and establish ISIS as a caliphate. Mixing together Sharia and ISIS points to an awareness of some sort of movement, and I would suggest that across the Muslim Brotherhood, al Quaeda, and ISIS there is a goal of reestablishing a Caliphate to succeed what was torn apart in 1920. “The citation of Dr. Arieh Eldad in Monday’s post is an interesting one. Dr. Eldad was a representative in the Knesset, and established the Otzma LeYisrael party. When he states that ‘the war between Jews and Muslims in the Land of Israel is not a territorial conflict,’ his use of the term ‘Land of Israel’ negates that claim. In fact Dr. Eldad is quite vocal about dedicating his time to preventing the creation of a Palestinian state. He is also forgetting that many of the people whose land he is seeking to settle on are Christians. In 2006 Dr. Eldad complained that when he was injured in a confrontation with the Israeli police that he ‘was being treated like an Arab.’ “The main problem with the Dr. Eldad citation is that it plays directly into what is not solving the conflict, and it refers back to the Sykes-Picot Agreement. You have really got to wonder who did due diligence for the Zionists when they decided to make Palestine the national home for the Jewish people instead of Uganda. No matter how miserable one regards the the people living in Palestine as being, they had a frame of reference for five hundred years, and even if you possess the nod of the Abrahamic god, and merit compensation for suffering elsewhere, and dispossess people to create a superior civilization, it would seem reasonable to anticipate some ill will. Demonstrating the inferiority of these non-Jewish inhabitants, their moral deficiencies, their dysfunction, is not going to make them compliant.” AND NOW . . . . . . try the pickles! Have a great weekend.
Success — Part 5 August 21, 2014 So much of our country’s future is tied up in the education of its kids — especially those at-risk kids most likely to become unwed teen parents, perpetuate a cycle of poverty, and generally drain rather than enrich the social weal. And so it’s worth trumpeting the latest test scores of the 22 Success Academy charter schools that I’ve been writing about here, here, here and here. Whatever flaws there may be in testing, it’s handy in real life to be able to read and multiply. What’s more, the discipline and commitment required to excel at whatever tests are set probably carry over to broader life skills. (Success Academy schools have nothing to do with developing the tests. They’re just subject to taking them like all the other schools.) And so . . . behold the highlights of the 2014 New York State exam results. Remember: their students come from the tough neighborhoods that usually bring up the rear in any ranking. The Success Academy network ranks in the Top 1% of all 3,560 New York State schools in math. If the network were a single school, it would rank 7th. ■■ Four of New York State’s top 10 schools in math—including the #1 and #2—are part of Success Academy. ■■ Success Academy ranks in the Top 3% of all New York State schools in English. ■■ In math, the network outperformed two of the city’s four gifted and talented programs that serve students from across the city — where admission depends on acing an entrance exam. ■■ At Success Academy Bed-Stuy 1, where 95% of scholars are African American or Latino, the math pass rate was 98%—with 80% receiving an advanced, Level 4 score. The ELA pass rate was 81%. ■■ At Success Academy Upper West— one of the city’s most diverse schools—100% of scholars passed the math exam. The test takers are 32% white, 20% multi-racial, 18% African American, 14% Hispanic, and 5% Asian. ■■ 96% of scholars at Success Academy Harlem Central — the school that lost its co-location last February — passed math and 63% passed ELA. ■■ At Success Academy Bronx 2, located in the nation’s poorest Congressional district, 99% of scholars are proficient in math. They rank second in the state. ■■ Success Academy eighth grade scholars — who were first graders when the network’s first school opened in 2006 — excelled on both exams: 97% passed math and 94% passed ELA — more than triple the citywide average for eighth graders (30%). ■■ 93% of Success Academy scholars eligible for free or reduced-price lunch passed the math exam, compared to 35% of all students citywide. ■■ Success Academy (82% poverty rate among test takers) outperformed schools such as PS 6 on the Upper East Side (6% poverty), PS 87 on the Upper West Side (12% poverty), and PS 321 in Park Slope (11% poverty). ■■ 62% of Success Academy scholars eligible for free or reduced-price lunch passed the ELA exam, compared to 29% of all students citywide. ■■ In ELA, Success Academy outperformed schools such as PS 3 in the West Village of Manhattan (17% poverty) and PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights (22% poverty). ■■ English Language Learners at Success Academy not only far exceeded their peers statewide, but also outperformed non-ELLs across New York ■■ English Language Learners at Success Academy were more than 8 times as likely to pass the math exam than ELLs statewide (91% vs. 11%). ■■ ELLs at Success were nearly 14 times as likely to pass the ELA exam than ELLs statewide (41% vs. 3%). ■■ ELLs at Success Academy outperformed the state’s students who have never been ELLs by 53.5 percentage points in math (91% vs. 38%) and 8 percentage points in ELA (41% vs. 33%). Did I mention that 82% of these young Success Academy scholars qualify for free or reduced-price lunch (because they come from low-income households)? . . . that 11.4% are students with a disability? . . . that 10% either are or were learning English as a second language? . . . that 71% are African-American and 19% Hispanic? . . . that all are chosen at random from anyone who enters the admissions lottery? . . . and that in Harlem 90% do enter a charter school lottery (80%, the Success Academy lottery)? Bad charters should be closed; mediocre ones, improved or closed. But the ones that actually work — like these 22? Full speed ahead! This is public education at its best. We don’t have a child to waste.
The Market Is A Barometer August 20, 2014August 19, 2014 I had a thought. If the stock market is a barometer, not a thermometer — it measures investor expectations about the future — what economic weather was it predicting in March of 2009? With the Dow at 6,500, was it saying . . . “The future looks bright?” That . . . “Savvy investors fear no Depression?” Or was it saying . . . “OMFG! There really may be no way out of this one. The Dow could drop further still. To zero, even, as shareholders are wiped out and bondholders become the new owners. Boy, do we ever need a steady hand at the tiller. And even then — even with a Ronald Reagan! — it’s no sure bet we get through this without a full-out Depression.” That, in fact, is what I think it was saying. And here we are, with housing prices having rebounded a good bit (we don’t want them all the way back to top-of-the-bubble crazy levels any time soon, do we?) . . . with the $1.5 trillion deficit outgoing President Bush handed incoming President Obama having been slashed by two-thirds . . . with the economy much weaker than it would have been if the Republicans had not blocked The American Jobs Act (borrowing at record-low rates to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure) . . . but growing nonetheless . . . and with the Dow nearly triple that March, 2009, low. And yes of course Fed chairs Ben Bernanke and now Janet Yellen deserve a load of credit, as Paul Volcker did back in the Reagan years — hurray for competence! But when Mitch McConnell says — in prepared remarks, no less — that “By any standard, Barack Obama has been a disaster for our country,” does it not make you cry to think he could actually be reelected? (My money is on Alison.) And that if we don’t all lean into fighting the Koch brothers — simply by taking the time to vote in a midterm, unaccustomed as many of us are to doing so — Mitch McConnell could actually lead the Senate? And determine its agenda? And preside over its next Supreme Court confirmations? What the market barometer seems to be telling me is that — despite unprecedented obstruction — this President has, in economic terms (whatever you may think about the “social” issues), been a tremendous success. Would you cut and paste and send this to everyone you know? And ask them to do the same? Because if those who’d like to see the economy kicked into high gear by revitalizing our infrastructure just vote 70-odd days from now in the midterm . . . unaccustomed as so many are to doing so . . . and if students who’d like to be able to refinance their federal loan interest rates just vote . . . and minimum wage workers who’d like a 40% raise just vote . . . and those who’d like to see universal background checks (including more than 70% of NRA members!) just vote . . . and those who believe the House climate-change subcommittee should not be chaired by a climate-denier just vote . . .and those who favor the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform package the Senate passed and the President hopes to sign just vote . . . and those who believe women, not the government, should be allowed to control their own health care decisions and that LGBT Americans should be accorded equal rights . . . if all these people — or even just an unusually high percentage of them — take the time to be sure they’re registered and then just vote*, the Republican death grip will be broken and we will be able to move forward. And today’s pricey Dow will prove a barometer indeed. (Should the stock market have treated you well these last five years, use this link. But the main thing, if this message resonates with you, is to cut and paste and spread the word. Or just forward the link.) *Democrat, because Democrats favor all these things. And if you can’t bring yourself to go that far, then express your horror at what the Party of Abe-and-Teddy-and-Ike has become by just staying home. One day, you will get your party back. It can’t come soon enough.
Patience and Pacing August 19, 2014August 20, 2014 PACE YOURSELF Long-time readers may recall a post on this topic from April, 2003 — when 42-inch TV’s cost $4,999. These being the lazy, crazy days of summer, I re-post it here: Have you tried PriceGrabber.com? It seems like a good site to visit before making a significant purchase. The range of prices on the amazing Casio Exilim EX-M2 digital camera – which can attach sound to your photos and short videos and play Beethoven’s Ninth – is a low of $309 to a high of $399. The prices on a 42-inch Panasonic Plasma TV – which I gotta tell you I am dying one day to own – ranged from $4,999 to $3,526 after allowing for tax and shipping to my zip code. The mini-countertop portable dishwasher that Office Depot delivers to your door for $296.79 is yours, delivered, for $189.48 from Wal-Mart. Remember when you actually had to let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages? And, before that, actually walk? We didn’t realize it at the time, but life was hell. Comparison shopping could take all day. (All that said, remember that the cheapest plasma TV of all is not to buy one. That’s my brand. I know you only live once, but I have always believed in pacing myself. An annoying young man once wrote, ‘A luxury once sampled becomes a necessity. Pace yourself! Tease yourself with anticipation. Ease the fingers of your aspiration up the inner thigh of your cupidity. Tickle your fancy.’ . . . ‘Of course money buys happiness!’ he concluded. ‘But both will last longer if you remember the importance of foreplay.’ So I’m waiting a few months more. As to countertop dishwashers – would it kill you to rinse your fork and plate in the sink and then wipe them clean on your shirt sleeve?) Tomorrow: How Come You All Know So Much about Vlad the Impaler? PATIENCE Nineteen years ago I bought shares in Texas Pacific Land Trust for $4.35. I forget where I read about it — Barron’s? Forbes? — but my notes at the time, entered in Managing Your Money, bless its little antiquated soul, read: “Three shares = 1 acre, plus they have perpetual royalty income and grazing. They just keep buying back shares with the excess over their dividend. Stock is worth $60.” Friday, with the stock up from $4.35 to $188.40, I gave 500 shares to some good cause. This is not typical of my investing success. I could give example after example of investments made decades ago that are today worth nothing. Dozens of examples! Scores of examples! Seriously! But I do believe that, in the right circumstances, patience — it being in relatively scare supply — commands a premium. Which brings us back (of course) to Borealis. How long, O Lord, must we continue to wait? Another two years? Five? Or will it be ‘never’? I don’t know. I do know that if the odds are 50/50 that five years from now the company will be valued at $500 million or $2.5 billion, it’s worth a lot more than today’s $45 million market cap. So, being young at heart and possessed of (or in this case, by?) the happy gene, I sit with a smile and wait.
Well, HERE’s Something We Never Have To Worry About August 18, 2014August 18, 2014 PLANETARY COLLISION Did you know that Pluto’s elliptical orbit means that sometimes it’s actually closer to the sun than Neptune? Barely 3.2 billion miles away. At which point, 11 months from now, our little New Horizons spacecraft launched from Florida January 19, 2006, and zipping along at 56,000 miles an hour, will do some fly-by photography, like a really expensive Go Pro. But looking at the orbits of these two celestial bodies (one, a planet, one a dwarf planet) — scroll down to the second illustration on this page to see the orbits — it appears they are bound sooner or later to collide. Good news! They never will! There’s at least one big thing you don’t have to worry about. (But if you have time, check out the New Horizons site. Quite the acrobat, it flew close to Jupiter not just for photos but to get an extra gravitational boost en route that shortened the cruise time by about three years. Lots to look and marvel at. Thanks, Tom!) HOW TO WASH A CAT John Seiffer offers this. Please direct all hate mail to him. BELGISTAN – #2 Tom Martel: “Andy, where have you been? This story/video was originally aired on Mar 15, 2012, on the Christian Broadcast Network. This issue is a big story all over Europe. Those promoting Sharia Law are of the same thinking as the ISIS in Iraq, Syria, Turkey Brotherhood, etc. Remember, the battle of Tours, where Charles Martel drove the Muslims from Europe in the battle of Tours in 732 AD? Distant relation I hope, haha.” Jan: “To some people I am probably one step away from being a flaming Commie, supporting the Liberal party of Canada. But it seems to me the ‘Christian’ right in the US is as anxious to impose their values on the general population as the nutcase in the video is to impose his version of sharia law on the rest of the world. How else to explain the crusade to criminalize abortion, restrict access to birth control, refuse to treat LGBT citizens as equals, gerrymander electoral districts, etc. etc.? How many people are aware that Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world or that there are more non-Arabic Muslims that Arabic ones? In my opinion the terrorism being exported from the Middle East in the name of Islam is more about tribal conflict and regional instability (which George Bush has much to answer for) than religious crusade. The CBN has more of these ‘news reports’ about the invading hordes in France among other places, and I find them repugnant with their manipulation of facts and images. Sorry to rant on like this but I strongly feel that these people don’t deserve any more publicity than they have already managed to garner for themselves. Thanks for letting me vent!” Janet: “Have you seen this?” From: Dr. Arieh Eldad: I was instrumental in establishing the Israeli National Skin Bank, which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. This skin bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where I was the Chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply skin for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among Arab families when the women are suspected of having an affair. We supplied all the needed Homografts for her treatment. She was successfully treated by my friend and colleague, Prof. Lior Rosenberg and discharged to return to Gaza. She was invited for regular follow-up visits to the outpatient clinic in Beersheva. One day she was caught at a border crossing wearing a suicide belt. She meant to explode herself in the outpatient clinic of the hospital where they saved her life. It seems that her family promised her that if she did that, they would forgive her. This is only one example of the war between Jews and Muslims in the Land of Israel. It is not a territorial conflict. This is a civilizational conflict, or rather a war between civilization & barbarism. It’s from 2008, and largely true. Snopes has the rundown. The liberal in me (and in Canadian Jan, above) immediately wonders: how awful must life in the refugee camp have been to lead a woman — presumably not enticed by the prospect of 72 virgins — to blow herself up to free her people? According to a top CIA Mideast specialist, Bin Laden’s motive was not religious zeal or a hatred of Western civilization. “Bin Laden [was] precise in telling America the reasons he is waging war on us. None of the reasons have anything to do with our freedom, liberty, and democracy, but have everything to do with U.S. policies and actions in the Muslim world.” None of which for an instant justifies suicide bombings or 9/11 or Arafat’s tragic rejection of the 2000 peace accord. In my admittedly non-expert view, it’s he and Hamas that the people of Gaza have largely, most recently, to blame for their awful situation . . . which both sides should be seeking urgently to improve.
Belgistan August 15, 2014 JP MORGAN A letter to the editor of the Madison, Wisconsin, Cap Times (thanks, Janet) — Dear Editor: I’m a longtime admirer of Dave Zweifel, but when he says in his article “How the GOP has changed for the worse” that “Jamie Dimon is the new J.P. Morgan,” I must offer a friendly demurrer. J.P. Morgan was not one of the robber barons. He was an honest, compassionate and colorful character who happened to have a knack for making money. He gave much of it to hospitals, schools and museums. When he died, he was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When one of his lovers, before he was married, got engaged, he gave her a generous check as a wedding gift. After the panic of 1907, he organized a syndicate of bankers to rescue the economy from collapse, using the government’s own deposits in the banks. My favorite story about him is the time a visiting clergyman didn’t have time to get to the train station. Morgan told him, “Don’t worry, the train runs right behind my estate. We’ll just go flag it down.” When the conductor learned why his train had been stopped, he informed Morgan in colorful language that that sort of thing was not done. “Who do you think you are?” the conductor asked. “Well, I’m J.P. Morgan, and I happen to own this railroad.” “Well, I don’t give damn! You may own the railroad, but you don’t know anything about trains.” J.P. replied, “You’re absolutely right, sir. I assure you it will never happen again.” signed / John Morgan, Madison, WI BELGISTAN The scariest thing to me about these 5 minutes is how very calm and “rational” the interviewee seems as he predicts the ascendance of Sharia Law in Belgium and then Europe and beyond . . . and not so long from now. Chilling . . . and challenging to know how to react. All thoughts welcome. Have a great weekend.