Vox Singuli - My Singular Voice

The humiliation of Barack Obama

2011-09-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama gets on the Netanyahu Express and vetos the Palestinian vote on self determination. A sad day for those who believe in the ideal of our American founding.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/09/2011919102245537768.html

We once stood for something...something great, noble and just...that shining city on the Hill....But no longer....Our policies seem more and more to be dictated through the political calculus of a Presidential election.

Imagine if LBJ had decided to hold off on civil rights legislation to maintain the Democrat (Dixiecrat) hold over the South. Obama by vetoing the Palestinian attempt at self determination has just done the equivalent. His reasons are obvious. Clearly he is worried about the election and the potential demagoguery from the Right about him siding with his "Muslim" bretheren over our loyal (not) Israel ally.

And clearly Florida 2012 must have been considered in his calculus. But neither matters.

Obama blinked and his blinking will embolden those who hate him anyway.

The greatest pre Battle speech in the history of warfare

2011-02-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

Henry V, before the Battle of Agincourt. The St. Crispins day speech from the play Henry V, by William Shakespeare...is it any wonder that 400 years later the Bard continues to delight....such absolute mastery of the language, such glorious poetry.

(Henry is reputed to have given a speech before the battle but it was not so glorious....he reminded the English Army that the French would spare the nobility and hold them for ransom if they lost but would not extend the same privillege to the common man, so he urged them to fight for their lives)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAvmLDkAgAM

This is Kenneth Brannagh in the role of King Hal...

Youth and Technology in the Middle East

2011-02-20T07:26:00.000-08:00

The combination of youth (60% of the Middle East are under 30) and technology are what I think is truly driving this wind of change in the area. While there are elements of sectarianism like the protests in Bahrain, I also believe that this is largely a secular fueled movement. Will it continue to be secular - Im not sure but one can hope. What gives me hope that this is the real thing is that there is no anti Americanism being seen in the streets...

The power structure in the region cannot combat with the ubiquitousness of information and social media (remember the time when the dictator just had to take the radio station in order to control the insurgency, the P2P nature of social media is fundamentally anti dictator...), the youth know how to handle the technology in innovative ways, the old farts and the mullahs dont...what the Old guard still has is military might and money...overcoming that (like what happened in Egypt) is the key to this bug catching on...

(next Stop...Sub Saharan Africa that has the same youth demographics and a cold war style government structure of strong men)

Amazing how change can be fostered in the middle east without a full scale invasion under false pretenses and $1 trillion in expenditure to the US tax payer

Saudi Preoccupations

2010-06-20T05:11:00.000-07:00

The world has real problems like hunger and global warming and a major Islamic country is still debating whether some 1300 year old rules re the mixing of genders is relevant??? Rules written when people didnt know basic things like the germ theory of disease, the law of gravity or the heliocentric theory?

It is bad enough the entire Arab world just doesnt read much (more books get translated in Spain in one year than have been transalated into Arabic in the last 100 years) and havent contributed anything meaningful to global culture in the last 500 years.

How can anyone take Saudi society seriously?

What next - a Saudi Arabia wide argument to determine if schizophrenia is caused by jinn as Mohammed - PBUH believed? Or how about a debate to determine if human beings were spontaneously created from clotted blood as Mohammed - PBUH also believed.

When we move off the internal combustion engine what is the house of Saud going to do? Then they wont even have money anymore...the only thing that makes the world even take notice of them? All they will have left is their conservative backwardness and discomfort with modernity

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See BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6681511.stm

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and read this for further context (This article could be from The Onion but sadly its not):

Riyadh: Saudi women plan to turn a controversial fatwa (religious ruling) to their advantage and launch a campaign to achieve their long-standing demand to drive in this conservative kingdom.
If the demand is not met, the women threatened to follow through the fatwa which allows them to breastfeed their drivers and turn them into their sons.

The campaign will be launched under the slogan: "We either be allowed to drive or breastfeed foreigners," a journalist told Gulf News.

Amal Zahid said that their decision follows a fatwa issued by a renowned scholar which said that Saudi women can breastfeed their foreign drivers for them to become their sons.
"As every Saudi family needs a driver, our campaign will focus on women's right to drive," she said.

The controversial fatwa, which was regarded as both funny and weird, issued recently by Shaikh Abdul Mohsin Bin Nasser Al Obaikan, member of Saudi Council of Senior Scholars and adviser to the king, has sparked a debate in society.

The renowned scholar said Saudi women can breastfeed their foreign drivers for them to be become their sons and brothers to their daughters. Under this relationship, foreign drivers can mix freely with all members of the family without breaking the Islamic rule which does not allow mixing of genders.

Breast milk kinship is considered to be as good as a blood relationship in Islam.
"A woman can breastfeed a mature man so that he becomes her son. In this way, he can mix with her and her daughters without violating the teachings of Islam," the scholar said.
‘Ridiculous and weird'

Al Obaikan based his fatwa on a Hadith (saying) of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) which was narrated by Salim, the servant of Abu Huzaifa.

Later, Al Obaikan clarified that his fatwa was being distorted by the local media which ignored the condition that the milk should be drawn out of the woman and given to the man in a cup to drink.

Speaking to Gulf News, a number of Saudi women condemned the fatwa. Fatima Al Shammary was quoted by the local Arabic daily Al Watan as saying the fatwa was "ridiculous and weird".
"This fatwa has become a hot topic of debate among women. Is this is all that is left to us to do: to give our breasts to the foreign drivers?" she said.

Another Saudi woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, questioned: "Does Islam allow me to breastfeed a foreign man and prevent me from driving my own car?
"I have not breastfed my own children. How do you expect me to do this with a foreign man? What is this nonsense?" she said.

Another woman said the fatwa should also apply to the husbands who should be breastfed by housemaids. By doing so, all will be brothers and sisters," she said.
Hamid Al Ali, a journalist for an electronic newspaper, recalled that an Egyptian driver who had a crush on a female teacher he drives to school asked her to breastfeed him. When she retorted angrily, he said: "I want to be your son."

Saudi writer Suzan Al Mashhadi sarcastically asked Al Obaikan: "Do the women have to breastfeed the driver in the presence of their husbands or can they do this alone?"
"Who will protect the wife if the husband entered the house unexpectedly and found his wife breastfeeding the driver?" she asked.

April 4th, 1968....42 years ago

2010-04-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Early morning, April 4th, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky, free at last, free at last, they took your life but they could not take your pride....In the name of love, what more in the name of love.

Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2.

It was 42 years ago, that he was silenced. Slowly but surely the United States is realizing Dr. Kings dream that if we are to be a great society it is also imperative that we be a just society. So despite the greed on Wall Street and despite the setbacks of the last decade, the "moral arc of the universe continues to bend towards justice" as he so aptly stated in the "How long -Not long" speech after Selma. On the 42nd anniversary of his death, I am still optimistic that we are building a nation that will truly live up to the words that announced its birth in the Declaration of Independence.

And finally to remember him....here is his mountaintop speech, the day before he died...so beautiful and so prophetic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1L8y-MX3pg&feature=player_embedded

How long, Not Long

2010-03-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

So this week President Obama achieved something that 6 US Presidents have attempted and failed by passing (almost) universal healthcare. The bill is big, clunky and very imperfect but it is by any measure a great political achievement for this President.

This week also marks another momentous event in US history...It is the 45th anniversary of Dr Kings march on Selma....We have come a long way as a country from that terrible time but watching Congressman John Lewis walk through the tea partiers (some of them calling him the n word) as he mounted the steps of the Capitol yesterday I felt an element of deja vu.

While this time around there were no dogs, or racist white policemen with batons and water hoses like in 1965, the seething, over the top anger of the crowd felt eerily similar to that bloody sunday when he attempted to cross the Pettus Bridge. 45 years ago John Lewis was beaten to within an inch of his life, this time he was just called the n word...Now thats progress for you.

It was great to see Obama leading again and being inspirational. He has given Progressives some hope and if the job numbers improve even a little bit he is going to have a good year...I must say when the Yeas passed 216 at well past midnight I did my own little private fist pump and wondered if Teddy Kennedy was smiling down on us from his perch on high (purely metaphorically of course) and raising a glass of fine Scotch and toasting his old pals in Congress.

So in this moment of Liberal triumph its an appropriate time to share Dr Kings...How Long....Not Long speech given on March 25, 1965 in Montgomery, Alabama, a few days after his successful Selma march. It is imho his third best speech (after I have a Dream and I have seeeeen the Promised Land speech given the day before he died)....I just love his face in this clip, the resonant, sonorous beauty of his voice and the power of his delivery....and ending with the Battle Hymn of the Republic....Goosebump time!!! (and to think he was only 35 years of age.....)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAYITODNvlM&feature=related

The End of A Terrible Decade

2009-12-29T06:05:00.000-08:00

When historians look back on the first decade of the new century I think they will conclude that it was one of the worst ten year periods in recent history. Nothing good really happened. We entered the decade with so much promise on Jan 1, 2001. The world was becoming a place where borders didn't seem to matter, technology was king, jobs were plentiful, stock market riches were trickling down to the middle class and optimism about the triumph of capitalism, secularism and globalization was high. We exit this decade where almost none of these sentiments exist.

So what happened? Stupid policies that pitted ideology over common sense, hubris and a lack of integrity, all combined to help end the party. Certainly the election of George W Bush and the implementation of his policies (Remember the "Deficits don't matter, Reagan proved that" quip by Dick Cheney) were big contributors to the current malaise facing the United States.

But like most big problems there is plenty of bipartisan blame to go around. The seeds for this current problem were sowed in the previous decade under Clinton, where the Democrats in their desire to be considered pro-business, helped gut financial laws and regulatory bodies with glee, spurred on by their friends on Wall Street.

The Democrats dithering and weak opposition during the Bush years (they gave him a pass on Homeland Security, on Iraq and the tax cuts) also contributed to us ending up in the hole we are currently in.

I am quite pessimistic at this point in our nations history. The infighting and partisanship has gone so far that devising a sane policy is no longer possible. (We don't even agree on the facts - how can we agree on policy?). If this democracy is to survive, if capitalism itself is to survive we have to stop this self destructive behavior or playing gotcha (the immense hypocrisy unveiled by the Right over the underwear bomber is a great example. BHO has basically treated this guy the same way as Bush and Ashcroft treated Richard Reid....but because its Obama, everyone on the right is having a conniption).

Should I have hope? I don't know. I just don't see the intellect or the will in our current set of politicians to make it happen.

My daughter arrives

2009-10-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

Diya Rachel...my lil angel arrived today...about 9 days late....She weighed in at 8 lbs 6oz. Mom and daughter doing well.

Obama and the Nobel?

2009-10-10T09:03:00.001-07:00

The "free pen" explanation from Sullivan's site. I'm still not buying any of it. Its just too damn Machiavellian and I don't think the Committee is so manipulative. Maybe they are just more in tune with what the world thinks and hopes (we in the US have been steadily broken down by the summer of hate and pettiness that we just lived through, tea baggers, 9-12 movements etc). Our reaction of disbelief could also be because Americans don't have a sense for how non Americans think about our Presidents. (Remember Bush was very popular in Albania!! - no one including Bush would have believed it but Albanians loved him there. Similarly I remember hearing that Maronite Christians in Lebanon also loved Bush at very high numbers)

Although Obama's domestic and foreign policy achievements are approximately nil in the last 10 months, could the Nobel Committee just be reflecting what the world community feels and hopes? The fact that he even exists has a "Prozac effect" on the rest of the world. He helped cure a great and abiding Depression brought about by the Bush-Cheney years (Obama is at 88% popularity in France???? I mean do they even hold Jerry Lewis in such high esteem??). Perhaps the restoration of America prestige and the hope that America can move from chauvinism to being a fair arbiter again is a powerful enough achievement to give him the honor?

Or an alternate theory....the Nobel Committee are like tween girls at a Jonas Brothers concert and will do anything in their power to elevate their idol esp. if they can get him to come to Copenhagen again :)

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/obama-gets-a-free-pen.html

Democracy in trouble?

2009-08-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

An anti Obama, protester (Kenneth Gladney) goes to a St Louis townhall to protest Obama's health care reforms. He gets into a fight with someone at the town hall and gets badly injured. It is found that he does not have health insurance (as he is recently laid off and presumably cannot afford COBRA) so he now resorts to begging for donations so he can pay to get treated???

http://www.cynical-c.com/?p=13923

No this is not from The Onion.....This is reflective of the intelligence of the people who are protesting healthcare reforms in the US.

It is quite evident that these people are not acting in their best interest? It would seem that these protesters are acting emotionally and behaving in a way that seems to support their inherent prejudices. This has happened many times in the last 8 years

For example, Kerry was a war hero but the GOP were able to cast doubt on his bonafides through Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth PAC. Ditto for Georgia Democratic Senator Max Cleland who lost three limbs in Vietnam. Since both Kerry and Cleland are Liberals, gullible people are led to believe that any war record that they may have cannot be legitimate. (Because after all Liberals "hate" America). Therefore they are marginalized and discredited and because the mainstream media is reluctant to take strong stances on any accusation (perhaps its the desire to be fair and unbiased or perhaps its a desire to foster a fight to improve ratings). So we get the ridiculous situation where someone like George W Bush (a clear draft evader and layabout in the 1970s) gets to have his service in the Alabama air guard equated to a decorated war hero who won 7 medals in Vietnam.

So many poor white Southerners supported the Bush tax cuts and Death (Estate) Taxes although they had no reason to do so as they obtained no benefits from that support. Since they were poor they paid very little in income taxes anyway and since they were poor the estate tax didn't apply to them (as it kicked in at $5m). Although they would have presumably benefited more if the taxes (on the rich) was redistributed to them via the federal government they still voted for Bush in droves because he was a "Christian" and spoke to their inherent prejudices and fears (gay marriage, illegals, abortion etc)

If a democracy depends on an informed electorate then the US is fucked. I am starting to believe that Democracy as a form of govt maybe way over rated. However the words of the imperialist and racist Winston Churchill echo in my head...."Democracy is the worst system except for all others".

How about meeting half way and having democracy without universal suffrage? Maybe only those who can pass a general knowledge, civics and IQ test get to vote. (This would exclude at least 50% of the overall population and probably 90% of the Southern population which would be a damn good thing!!)

Dev Rajakumar RIP

2009-08-21T09:50:00.000-07:00

My team mate, co worker Devaprasad Rajakumar drowned in Algonquin Park last Sunday. He was one of the nicest people to be around and he will be missed. The saddest part of this story is that Dev was scheduled to fly home to Bangalore last Sunday but he decided to postpone his return to Monday to make the trip with some of his friends. Dev was only 30 years old......I had just seen him two weeks ago when I was in the Toronto office....Life is fragile. My thoughts and prayers are with Dev and his family....One cannot imagine what they must be going through.....

The trouble with Good

2009-04-19T10:35:00.001-07:00

A brilliant article that nicely outlines the advantages of utilitarian vs emotive thought and attempts to explain why we perceive certain situations (whether it be the war on drugs, gun control or the Israel-Palestinian solution) the way we do!

http://lesswrong.com/lw/bk/the_trouble_with_good/

Oh Happy Day

2009-01-20T15:29:00.000-08:00

What a great and historic day. It felt great to be alive and great to live in the United States. We got in to DC on Monday night and right away one could sense the buzz. The lobby of the hotel was full of people who had come from all over the country just for the event. When we went for dinner, PF Changs was packed to the gills and in the background one could hear the conversations. It was all pretty much about one topic. (No surprise there!)

We woke up at 5 and were at the subway station by 6 AM. It took us two hours to get to the Mall (a trip that typically takes about 30 minutes). The train was packed. Excited conversations permeated the air. The guys beside me were from NY, the Hispanic couple behind me were from California. I even saw a Canadian flag or two. Talk was about last minute pardons and whether Bush could pardon himself or do blanket pardons of anyone involved in the torture program prior to an indictment etc.

Once we got there the impact of being 2 people in a sea of 2 million became evident. We were carried around like flotsam on this sea of humanity. Somehow the tidal currents were not in our favor and the riptide of people kept pushing us out further and further until we arrived at 15th street a good mile and a half from the Capitol and at the Northwest corner of the Washington Monument. It didn’t really matter though. We were there and the moment was sweet and our hopes were high. After 8 dark years of ruinous rule one could feel a palpable sense of hope emanating throughout the crowd. The boil that had bothered us through our long and dreary winter was finally going to be lanced. A new dawn was on the horizon.

The mood was joyous but not boisterous. It was not the joy of winning a superbowl but a quiet and beautiful joy that I've actually never experienced before. It was also a uniting joy. Older more conservative generations and the young united in a common purpose.

For me it was sweet to be amongst my peeps. People generally of the belief that Bush and Cheney did little good (inferred from the vociferous boos when he was introduced and the singing of the "nah nah, Hey Hey goodbye" song etc). People of the belief that Bush and Cheney with their mendacious, molestation of our Constitution committed some serious crimes against the American people and ruined our international reputation.

My regret was that I did not have a tape recorder. There were so many older African Americans in the crowd. I would have loved to have interviewed them and capture their responses. Some other people did just that.

The emotions were building. The spirit of MLK seemed to be present everywhere. I knew when the moment came, when Barack finally placed his hand upon that Bible, I would shed a tear. It was inevitable and when the moment finally came at 12.05 Eastern time (by my watch) I did. I shed a tear and thought of all the ones who went before, who made this moment possible. I thought of MLK of course and Rosa Parks' dignified "No" that started it all, of Emmet Till and his indescribably painful death at the hands of a white mob, of Freedom Riders and the four little girls who died a fiery death in the 16th street Baptist church in Birmingham. I thought of JFK and RFK and their courage to stand up to Bull Connor and George Wallace, those unrelenting agents of hate. I thought of barking dogs and water hoses and the vicious beating that John Lewis endured. All of this pain was unnecessary but it made the eventual victory even sweeter.

Rick Warrens prayer was more of a speech, than a prayer but a splendid one indeed. Let there be no doubt that God is in the public square in this great nation. The next time a conservative manufactures a crisis about a war on Christmas or the lack of God in our national discourse, point them to the Mall on Jan 20, 2009. So many of the heads were bowed in quiet reflection while Rick Warren prayed. This is a god-fearing nation whether you like it or not. Ending it with the Lords prayer and a direct call to Jesus in his many names "Haysoos", Yeshua etc would also have sent a reassuring message to evangelicals especially those that did not vote for Obama. (Not sure whether the ACLU will concur :)

Pastor Lowery's benediction was the bomb though. Now there is a man (87 years young) with some serious style and panache….He ended with asking the crowd for an Amen three times and they complied with a roar.

Then the day took a challenging turn. DC is not set up to handle an influx of 2 million. Is any city really? The waits to get back to the suburbs were horrendous. We waited in line 2.5 hrs at L'Enfant Place station. People were collapsing from a lack of air and heat exhaustion (They turned off the air in the mall it seems). Visions of the New Orleans superdome during Katrina briefly flashed through my mind. But all was eventually well. The national guard was present along with helpful Transit authority cops. The crowd was extremely well behaved and helpful, passing bottles of water and still generally in good spirits. We finally boarded the train and got back to McLean, VA around 6 PM and caught up on all the things we missed during the day on TV.

The day before the great day..

2009-01-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow Barack Hussein Obama will place his hand on the Bible and take the oath of office from Chief Justice Roberts. I will be in the crowd watching and will probably be in tears. His elevation to the highest office was something that even true believers like me doubted (mainly because we just did not want to be crushingly disappointed like 2004). But he pulled it off!!!

It is such a relief to finally have a serious, thoughtful and intelligent man as President. For 8 years we have allowed the Office to be tarnished by a mediocre man, who with his reverse Midas touch, managed to turn everything he touched into ashes. We wish Bush godspeed as he travels to Crawford and we pray that he finds fulfillment doing the things he does well such as clearing brush, jogging and walking his dog.

We got to Washington 4 hours ago. The city is abuzz. You can just feel it in the air. At dinner people are talking about tomorrow and strangers are asking me if I am going to the mall. Its a beautiful time to be here. Finally after the long darkness, after the vicious adn divisive partisanship of the last 8 years, hope has come to us.

We wake up early tomorrow to catch our subway downtown....Hope to get in around 6 am and get a good seat. Will post more tomorrow evening

The Glories of XVIII th Century France

2009-01-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

We spent our last day in Paris reliving the glory of 17th and 18th century France…..Versailles Palace although aging definitely gives one a sense of how fantastic it must have been when the Sun King walked its corridors. Some interesting trivia….apparently after WW I it was in terrible disrepair and JD Rockefeller made a huge contribution to fix it up….consequently there is a plaque in the welcome hall commemorating his generosity from the people of France….(there has been such great support between France and the US historically that it is so unfortunate that there has been this animosity in the last decade…hopefully this is a temporary thing)

The Louvre was generally underwhelming….This was my third visit to the Louvre but my first as an adult and my first since the addition of the IM Pei Pyramid (I hated it initially but after about forty minutes staring at it, freezing to death (-12 degs C today) as we waited to get in, it did kinda grow on me and I began to appreciate (slightly) the juxtaposition of this supremely modern object against the classical style of the Louvre's facade - I still think it is an acquired taste though….the first reaction for me was to say "what the hell were they thinking?")….

I was actually quite bored with the Louvre after an hour…there only so much nude Greek anatomically correct male marble statues and paintings of the baby Jesus suckling at Mary's exposed bosom that one can take before tuning out completely…..After a while to make it more interesting I would look at a painting from afar and try and guess what the scene was depicting……since most scenes in the neo classical period are either from the Bible, the Iliad or the Odyssey I got a few right but after a few attempts even this…..my made up version of "Louvre Pictionary" also started to lose its thrill…..The one thing I did love was when sometimes the artist would take great leaps of imagination and throw in something surreal…..like depicting Job at the foot of the cross on Golgotha for example…..or the boy David carrying Goliaths severed head that seemed to be the size of a boulder and as big as David's entire body….

I won't comment much on the Mona Lisa other than to say that its always struck me as completely boring and an unworthy symbol of Leonardo's consummate genius…...I've also never understood the general publics fascination with the painting…..

Venus de Milo is more interesting…..from the rear…I was unaware that she is showing some serious crack…..clear proof that the Greek sculptors had hip hop influences :) (what was missing was the semi exposed Tommy Hilfiger or CK Boxers though)

We hit the Egyptology section which was more interesting especially the non mummy and non sarcophagus exhibits….I found the Egyptian furniture, jewelery and women's toiletry kits (tweezers, combs, brushes etc) extremely fascinating since these were typically about 2500 to 3500 years old (i.e. they were made when Abraham was alive - just to put their age in perspective :). I fully expected the Rosetta stone to be part of the collection (since it was Napoleon who found it during the Egyptian invasion) but was politely told it was in the British Museum (damn British….they steal everything from everybody!!)

I am actually pleasantly surprised the French are not as unfriendly as I expected…in fact on average they are quite friendly and helpful (another stereotype blown :). I find that it’s the French folks that work in the hospitality business that are terrible in my opinion…most of them should not work in the hospitality business period...…they are cold and completely indifferent to the customer….

And for my final observation of useless trivia :)….….most French cabbies (based on a highly non empirical casual observation by myself and my lovely wife) seem to be white Frenchmen…..hardly a minority to be seen driving a taxicab!!!!….This is probably the first advanced country I've visited where the cabbies are native born folk and not immigrants (actually not Indian or Pakistani to be honest)…I'm assuming its got something to do with the taxicab unions perhaps….or maybe we are just imagining things!!

Spain is next…..

New Years Eve at the Eiffel Tower

2009-01-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

So we spent New Years eve at the Eiffel Tower….it was beautiful but strangely the fireworks lasted only about two minutes (budget cuts in the City of Lights perhaps?). They did light up the tower a beautiful blue and had some funky lights going up and down (reminded me of the thrill running up Chris Matthews leg :) - sorry lame political joke!!!)

The crowd was raucous and totally drunk. We took the Metro from our place towards the Arc D'Triomphe and the subway car was getting more and more crowded…They started singing football songs in the car and stamping their feet and I was getting a bit jittery as visions of British soccer hooligans flashed through my head. We got to the station at the Arc (Charles De Gaulle - Etoile) and that’s when we saw the full extent of the crowds and kinda decided it was not worth it so we took the train back to Bir-Hakeim which is the stop for the Eiffel Tower and got off there and watched the show from there.

Prior to going out for the evening we attended vespers and caught a bit of mass at Notre Dame…It really is a magnificent building and the vespers were just gorgeous….sung by a Chinese girl who was probably 5 ft 5 inches in her heels but her voice (mezzo soprano) filled the building (I'm guessing the knave is at least a 100 - 125 meters long)…..anyway the vespers were so beautiful we want to go back for matins tomorrow if we wake up on time:)

The mass was celebrated by a priest from Africa and all the attendees were tourists with cameras (except for the first two rows in a 300 row church). The Catholic church in the US imports priests from Kerala and the French import it from their old African colonies it seems. The guy looked about 21 years old. Clearly the Catholic Church is having trouble with the membership drives both in the pews and in the pulpit in France just like every where else.

Paris is surprisingly full of Indians and Sri Lankans (we had dinner at a Greek Restaurant run entirely by desis :). They all speak French and almost no English which was a bit shocking. I'm assuming that hearing the brothers mangle their beautiful language must cause the good professors at the Sorbonne or La Societe Francaise to probably want to attack them with their croque monsieurs

Paris...the most beautiful city in the world...perhaps

2008-12-30T19:41:00.000-08:00

We have been here about 48 hrs. The flight from Detroit was pleasant. The weather is cold (-5 degrees C) but no snow. It is a bitter cold though - feels like Ottawa at - 15 degrees C. We have done some sightseeing - Pantheon, Invalides, Arc D'Triomphe, Champs Elysee, Napoleons tomb and the Eiffel Tower. We are staying in the Latin quarter. Even though Paris is just gorgeous, we are both kinda disappointed with the experience to date. It is phenomenally expensive and the weak USD is not helping (0.66 Euros to the USD).

I am convinced that France as a nation is how do I say this politely…umm…rather backward…I am finding that I am looking down my nose at my Gaullish hosts (ironically a privilege that used to belong to the French for most of civilization).

The hotel rooms are the size of my bathroom (although it’s costing me $165 Euros a night). The internet connection is free except it boots you after 2 minutes. So I get on quickly open up a bunch of sites, download email from my Sapient Outlook, work off line and then log in again to send. If the send takes more than 2 minutes then I log in again…..and the TV….is 14 inches and has 6 channels all French….no CNN, no Beeb no nothing…..not even Al-Jazeera for chrissake!!! (I'm going mad not being connected to the world)

Oh and Heat is optional in most restaurants. You cant pay for Metro tokens with a credit card. You need exact change and the change machine is usually broken. Theres not a Frenchman in sight to help you either :)

My last serious visit to Paris was as a 14 year old when we spent a week here with the family as my dad (a big Napoleon fan) took us traipsing around Paris following in the footsteps of his hero. The big change that I can remember is the vast numbers of Arabs that are present everywhere. I actually like it. The food choices are so much more interesting as a result of the Middle-Eastern / North African / Turkish influx. The choice of halal crepes brought a smile to my face. Kipling was wrong…the twain of east and west have met me thinks :)

So what's good about Paris?

The coffee is fantastic (probably the best in the world…no surprise there). But most importantly I am just overwhelmed by being immersed in historic France and all its contributions to the progress of western thought. We cross streets named Rousseau and Hugo and Montesquieu and Coulomb and Marie Curie and Ampere and Joule and Braille and the list goes on and on and on……To be reminded of Frances contribution to the advancement of mankind and to the European Enlightenment which I adore is a rather overwhelming feeling. This was once a great and serious nation and arguably the most influential culture in history (or at least western history). We enjoy so many of our freedoms today because Frenchmen had the courage to stand up to the twin tyrannies of the Nobility and the Church.

I am also surprised as to how much Paris looks and feels like Washington DC. I know George Washington commissioned a French architect (Pierre L’Enfant) to build the capital city but the similarities are very clear. The Washington Mall looks so much like the Champs de Mars. Both malls have phallic symbols at one end. France has the Eiffel Tower and the Mall has the Washington Monument (subliminal advertising perhaps :). The bridges across the Seine look very similar to the bridges across the Potomac.

More to come...

It could be morning again in America

2008-11-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we could wake up and say that it is morning again in America. We could shake off the malaise of the last 8 years and move away from the fearful path that we have been on and move on to a road that can once again cause this nation to aspire and dream and take on the challenges of the world with enthusiasm and hope.

We may finally have a person in the White House who the country and the world may give a chance to do just that. Someone who by his very definition and background is an agent of change and a glass ceiling breaker.

It will also be a proud day for African Americans. 350 years after their ancestors first arrived in this country as slaves, a black man would stand poised to become the President of the United States (albeit a man who is not a descendant of slaves but who's children and wife are)

Obamas achievement will be the quintessential American Dream encapsulated in a single high profile life. This is the kind of story that inspires the "tired, the weak, the huddled masses, the wretched refuse of the teeming shores" to embark upon the tempest filled voyage to live and discover this great land that we all love.

Barack Obama's ascension to the highest echelons of power will show to the world that America, despite the last 8 years, is still in John Winthorp's words the shining city on the hill. It is still the groundbreaker, it is still good, it is still an example that inspires and it is still unlike any other country in the world. If Barack can be President then my son or daughter could one day be President. His achievement reiterates the possibility that in America anything is possible.

And if he does not win. He would still have gone where no one like him has gone before. He has showed us the way. MLK only saw the promised land but did not get there with us. Barack has taken us to edge of Canaan and has now sipped upon the milk and honey. It will remain either for him in 2012 or someone else to finally reap the harvest.

My sincerest hope for this country and for history is that harvest time will be now and not in four more years.

So tell everyone you know who is eligible to vote to get out there this Tuesday and vote. And until then those of us who have been disappointed for so long, those of us who have patiently waited through the long wintry night can but pray and hope for the sunshiney morrow.

Greenspan Shrugged

2008-10-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

This past week Alan Greenspan made a shocking admission. He admitted that a cornerstone of his economic faith, namely the belief that unfettered, laissez-faire capitalism may NOT be a net good to society. This admission by the high priest of monetarism, the "money changers, money changer" is on the magnitude of the Catholic Church changing its position on gay marriage or abortion.

Greenspan finally admitted to something that he had been incessantly warned against during the 90s, namely that carte-blanche deregulation would cause the individuals that particiapte to get greedy and do risky things in the short run that would eventually threaten the viability of the system in the long run.

But should we believe him?

This is a man who suckled at the teat of Ayn Rand. He was part of her inner circle and was so close to her that he was privy to proofs of Atlas Shrugged before it was published. One would think that any follower of Ayn Rand, the same woman who found virtue in selfishness and weakness in altruism, would (if they were true believers) be able to predict that individual hubris would triumph over the needs of the community on the whole.

Therefore when Alan Greenspan admitted under questioning by Rep Henry Waxman (D-California) this week that he was shocked that the bankers selling risky derivatives would throw it all away just for their own personal enrichment I actually think he revealed a lot more than just this late in life epiphany.

If he was not lying to Rep Waxman, then I think it revealed that he never really understood the philosophy espoused by his mentor or thought through its consequences.

Perhaps the venerable oracle of the Fed Reserve was not as sagacious as his demeanour implied.

The Beauty Queen and The Fruit Fly

2008-10-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

"ummm aaah US Americans are ummmmah...." remember the Miss South Carolina beauty queen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww who gave us that eloquent answer when asked what could we do about the fact that Americans couldnt find the United States on the map...well I think Ms Palin made an equivalent science gaffe this past week when she criticized the allocation of funds to fruit fly research in her usual derisive and dismissive "Roseanne Barr" voice.

Any 11th grade Science student would know that the humble fruit fly (Latin: Drosophila Melanogaster) is the entity of choice for basic experimentation in the genetics area because it has unusually large chromosomes which are easily manipulable and detectable under even a simple light microscope.

I certainly knew that based on my 11th grade Biology experiments in Mr Hutton's science class back in 1983 in a humble publicly funded school in an Ottawa suburb, when we bred fruit flies and experimented with theories of dominant genes and recessive genes and such......

.....and even if you assume a former sportscaster / beauty queen should not know basic science (because Lord knows the dumbass believes humans shared the earth with dinosaurs since she does not believe in evolution and reads Genesis literally) you would think that her speech writers and her "science advisor" would keep her out of this pitfall....but alas and alack...the McCain campaign once again shows they are a bunch of amateurs....from the Hagee endorsement onwards they have showed incredibly bad judgement and it just continues.

Makes one long for the days of Senator Danforth Quayle....and the "potatoe"

From the Audacity of Hope to the Embracement of Mediocrity

2008-10-05T13:20:00.001-07:00

Parents around the US regardless of their political affiliation can probably look upon the careers of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, Condi Rice and Kay Bailey Hutchinson and say that they would love for their little boys or girls to emulate them. These people are true glass ceiling destroyers. As Americans we are proud that we live in a country where people like the aforementioned can rise from humble origins to the heights of power based entirely on their innate capabilities, hard work and discipline. Anyone of these people would inspire us common folk by the sheer audacity of their own hopes. They understand the common man because they arose from families of "commoners" (to use a British term) but they are not necessarily common. In fact their talents and cerebral agility make them extraordinarily uncommon.

This however is not the case with Sara Palin. This is a woman who is extraordinarily ummmm....common. She has not really done anything worth mentioning that would qualify her to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. There is no public record of her spending even a minute thinking about anything important to this country or the world. Her choice was pure politics and McCains embrace of her is the final sellout of a former maverick and highly regarded contrarian. He has basically bowed to convention and joined the forces that he tried his whole life to beat.

The American people have seen over the last 8 years what can happen to the country when they elect someone who pushes his ordinariness as a qualifying attribute for the highest office. The country is too complicated and the world too dangerous to allow a rube to wield the reins of power. Americans more than anyone should now understand that curiosity is a necessary condition for the Presidency. This curiosity about the world is revealed in ones reading, writing and travels. In Sara Palins case the writing (no public record of any of her writings on any matter of importance to the Presidency) and travel (she only got her first passport in 2007) is non existent and the reading based on her vacuous answers in her interviews and her debates is probably also non existent.

Sara Palin's elevation is the final act in the embracement of mediocrity and anti-intellectualism which we have allowed to permeate our national politics and thinking. Therefore one hopes that this Hail Mary pass that McCain has thrown either ends up as a fumble or an interception. If Sara Palin scores a touchdown and achieves the vice presidency then the meltdown that the country has faced in the last 8 years will look like a Sunday morning stroll by comparison.

The upcoming week...

2008-10-05T08:15:00.001-07:00

I predict its going to get really really ugly....McCain is going to bring up the Bill Ayers connection (total BS....$200 donation in 2001) and Obama should bring up the Keating 5 connection...all this is worthless anyway because I feel that a fundamental shift is occurring which is making Obama's race less relevant in the heartland states....I just checked my 401 K and its down about 20%....In a few days Americans will be getting their Q3 401K statements and its going to play nicely for the Dems.

A major screwup

2008-10-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

When Tina Fey aka Sara Palin or "Para-sailin" or whatever her name is referred to General David McKieran as General McClellan on two ocassions in the debate Joe Biden didnt take her up on the mistake. Amazing restraint and clearly Biden stuck to the playbook which was to not do the Al Gore "sigh and condescend" strategy. Great discipline.

Socialized Investment Banking?

2008-10-03T08:36:00.001-07:00

For years Republicans have railed against all things socialist...medicare, affirmative action and Barbara Streisand :)...BUT it seems they are willing to look the other way when it comes to the Feds salvaging that great bastion of unfettered capitalism....Investment Banking.

It seems that if you actually catch pneumonia and need hospitalization and you don't have insurance then the GOP will say you are on your own (or you could borrow the money on your high interest credit card to save your life) BUT if your friendly neighborhood investment bank catches chronic, existential financial pneumonia (because of a series of bad investment decisions) then the Feds will jump over backwards to ensure that the patient is saved at taxpayer expense.

The same sector that asked for self governance and no government interference is now willing to prostitute itself to the entity it hates most ie the Federal government in order to save itself.

The same Congress that can never seem to find the money to do things like fix roads, inner city schools, inspect shipping containers for nukes, provide health care to all citizens, provide more college loans, save the citizens of New Orleans from Katrina seems to magically find the money when it is for the Iraq War ($1 trillion) or Wall Street bail outs ($700 Billion and counting).

Where did they get the $700 Bn from? The Chinese?

Slouching towards Gomorrah or bouncing, perkily towards Armageddon?

2008-10-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

I know Republicans around the country are breathing a collective sigh of relief that Palin’s head didn’t explode last night but to say that she has passed the test and is now ready for the highest office (as David Brooks asserts this morning in the NYT) is patently ridiculous.

What we saw last night was candidate Bush 2000 in drag…..a plain speaking, naïve, folksy, rube who would probably be great to go to a ballgame or share a beer with, but completely unfit to represent the United States on the world stage.

If last nights debate was for electing the mayor of a second tier American city, like say Cleveland or for electing an Alderman for a south side of Chicago ward then I would think she passed the test but nothing above that.

The water carriers of the GOP in the MSM and on FOX are already touting her "great", "feisty" performance and this spin will shape public opinion in the next few days.

My favorite part of the debate was Palin’s attempt to absolve Bush of all sins by saying it was the past and that if Obama believed in change he shouldn’t be looking backwards…..(Of course if you are a Democratic President and you are involved in a murky land deal from 10 years before you enter the WH, that nets you a paltry $100K profit then its ok to get a special prosecutor and spend 4 years and $100Mn of taxpayers money investigating it but if you are a Republican President and you recklessly take the nation into a $1 trillion dollar war of choice and then screw it up beyond all belief then it’s a mistake that requires one to forgive, forget and move on?)

I guess personal responsibility is a value that only Democrats have to adhere to in national politics.

I will never understand the anti-intellectual streak that seems to run deep in the American body politic. I will never get the "aw shucks populism" that now seems to be a necessary criteria for someone to run successfully for President. (Reagan may have been a populist but he was also an intellectual by todays standards). I guess its become necessary that we want our President to look and act and talk like the schlepps that we are.

It is now more likely that we will NOT end up slouching towards Gomorrah as Robert Bork predicted but rather bounce, perkily all the way into Armageddon with Tina Fey carrying the flag….….or is it wearing the lapel pin of the flag on her common sense every day business suit.

We will find out soon enough!

American Hubris

2008-07-20T05:00:00.001-07:00

The good book tells us of the perils of false pride and the sure come uppance that one will realize at the end of a prideful life. The current problem in the US housing mortgage industry is probably a great example of what can happen when a lemming like mentality in our business leaders, coupled with arrogance, pride and hubris of the American legislators and consumers all coalesce to form perfect storm conditions for the serious economic hurt we are experiencing.

The banking industry was reformed during the Great Depression. The economists of the New Deal came up with some very reasonable checks and balances to prevent banks from becoming diversified financial entities that could play in retail, commercial, mortgage and investment banking. They did this to prevent a failure in one sector cascading through the US economy and causing an overall run on the banking sector. Additionally we also saw the creation of the FDIC in 1933 which insured deposits up to 100K per institution.

These common sense laws lasted for about half a century which is remarkable given the amount of money that the Finance lobby throws around in Washington DC. They started to unravel in the 80s and picked up steam in the 90s. The end result is that we have several of the conditions that existed prior to the New Deal back in the economy.

Historically the viability of mortgage lending was to ensure that the principal and interst was returned. This is how banks made money and stayed in business. They lent money against an asset, charged interest and recovered principal.

All this started to change when banks realized that they could lend money and then sell of the mortgage as a financial instrument on the bond market. Banks therefore stopped worrying about a borrowers ability to pay back the loan since a large portion of the risk of repayment was now being shifted to the bond market investors.

Therefore banks decided that they could maximize profit by charging huge lending fees up front and also by asking very few questions from the borrower so as to obtain as many borrowers as possible. This worked like a charm for a few years. Eventually the chickens came home to roost as the borrowers started defaulting and the bond and banking sector took the hit we are currently experiencing. So far all major US banks and underwriters have been affected. The most serious ones have been Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and IndyMac.

Additionally the FDIC which has a very noble purpose (ie to reassure depositors) is actually being abused by bank management. Because at some level the bank managers know that the Feds will bale them out should things get really bad they take on additional and unnecessary risk. This has been evident in the decisions that they have taken.

One of the reasons this has happened is because of the move towards large scale deregulation of the financial sector which started in the Reagan years and accelerated under the GOP dominated Congress after 1994. The New Deal watchdogs were essentially made largely toothless. No one should be surprised that the smart Harvard and Stanford MBAs that run Americas businesses would expose this loophole, book stellar profits and reap handsome bonuses. Its common sense - anyone would have done it. It goes to show that business left unregulated will eventually (like Enron) go too far.

As Gordon Gecko said so cynically in the movie Wall Street....Greed is Good. The question is who exactly is it Good for. It has certainly been good for many people at the top of the American economic ladder and it was briefly good for those middle and low income Americans (of questionable credit) who for a brief moment tasted their slice of the American pie and lived the American Dream of home ownership.

This has sadly turned to dust and now we have a Katrina size clean up to fix the sins of our excesses. In a country which is largely anti-intellectual and pays no heed anymore to history (because we just don't teach it at our schools) we are bound to keep repeating the mistakes our ancestors made. Our collective memories are so narrow, so short and so transient.

One of the solutions of these kinds of problems is better History and Civics education in our schools - an informed voter is after all a useful voter and the best bulwark against hubris.

Last night was a great night but I wont use the H word

2008-06-04T04:59:00.001-07:00

350 years after the first slaves arrived in this country

143 years after the Emancipation Proclamation

53 years after Brown vs. Board of Education

45 years after MLKs "I have a Dream" Speech AND

44 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act

......This country finally has a black man as the nominee for President of the United States of a major political party......

Not only has a barrier been crossed in this country...it also represents that for the first time ever a black man has been nominated for the highest office in ANY majority white country (Peru had Fujimori who was of Japanese origin).

All our European detractors (umm like France) who regularly lecture us on our politically incorrect behavior and our supposed racial boorishness need to take notice of this event. None of their countries have come even close.

It is a proud day for this country. After the darkness of the last 8 years and the shame and ridicule that Bush has brought us we are at the threshold of a new era.

To paraphrase Jawharlal Nehru's Freedom at Midnight speech to mark this event...

"A moment comes which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, then an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finally finds utterance"

There I lied....I used the H word....

Peace

"Great Scott" McClellan

2008-05-31T07:05:00.001-07:00

So a Bush insider finally spills the beans on these guys...the blatant marketing of the war, the use of a national tragedy for despicable political ends, the secrecy, the crushing of the Wilsons for blowing the story....all revealed from someone deep inside the Bush circle. What George Bush and Dick Cheney have done to our country is unconscionable. They can no longer dismiss Scott McClellan with the casual "disgruntled employee" approach they took when Richard A Clarke and Paul O Neill both wrote their tell all books. This is serious stuff and will have an impact in Novemeber.

Al Qaeda waning

2008-05-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

This week CIA chief Michael Hayden made headlines with his statement that support for AlQaeda in Iraq was waning...while this is fantastic news for our troops in Iraq from a long term threat perspective this is a red herring. The guys that have the ability to hit the US homeland are not Al Qaeda in Iraq but the Al Qaeda in Pakistan. These bad boys have prospered under Bush' misguided policy for the last 5 years. OBL is still alive and so is Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Who knows how many thousands of jihadis have been created to join forces with these people against the United States and the western way of life we stand for. Only time will tell

Some thoughts on the IPL

2008-05-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

If Test Cricket is a Kurosawa, Bergman or Satyajit Ray movie with deep plots, complex characters and sometimes tragic endings and if ODIs are more Jerry Bruckheimer or Scorsese then the IPL 20/20 format of the game is pure "dishoom-dishoom" Bollywood.

It is a spectacle engineered to be entertainment with the sad result of not actually being entertaining….at least "not entertaining to me"

Those of us who grew up watching and playing a game where clunk of bat on ball was rewarded with a smattering of applause as it crossed the boundary line and the opposition slip fielders saying "nice shot old boy" are in for something of a shock.

IPL is NBA meets Rio Carnival…..every shot is celebrated in a similar manner to the citizens of Ayodhya cheering Rama's return with Sita from Lanka. There is a mad euphoric quality about the whole deal. Firecrackers go off, people break into unbelieveable merriment for any edge through the slips that goes for four. There is no strategy other than to hoick the ball around.

If the ODI version killed the outswinger then I can safely say that the 20/20 version of the game has killed every other ball except - short of good length on off and middle and slightly leaving the batsman. Any other trajectory is pretty much hit (or attempted to be hit) to the boundary. This version has effectively also killed the maiden over. (In fact I recommend a rule change that if a bowler bowls a maiden his team should get an extra 5 Runs) Even an astute practitioner of the art of bowling like Glenn McGrath is happy to only conceed 10 runs or so an over.

The on field interviews are funny. (This is where the TV commentators actually ping the on field captain who has some device in his ear and is asked for his realtime comments). The articulation of some of the team captains make Azhar sound like Barack Obama.

The Cheerleaders are also rather wooden. Pretty girls wearing skimpy outfits and carrying pom poms (and a few guys albeit without skimpy outfits - Thank God)but unlike the classic US version they are very un-athletic. There are no pyramids, no back flips and actually not much cheering either (its probably the 40degree C heat) other than an anemic wave of a pom pom during aforementioned edge through slips.

Ok so enough of the slamming what is good about the IPL?

Well for the first time in crickets history it allows very good first class cricketers to make a decent living even if they do not have the chance of representing their country. (A decent first class player with very little test representation or none at all can probably earn about 1 crore ($200K USD) a year not including endorsements).

It does bring people who are international rivals onthe field together on the same team. That dynamic is fantastic. For example who would ever have thought that Ponting and Saurav would ever be mates.It also reprsents the future of cricket.

Old fuddy duddys (like me) lovers of the classic version of strategy and patience are out. At least with the ODI version there was some method to the madness. Some skill and concentration and technique required of the batsman to best a bowler if he had his tail up.

IPL is cricket not just for the masses but for the masses of the sub Continent. Like Bollywood movies it is escapism of the most absurd degree.

The success of the IPL is also symptomatic of the larger rise of India and its integration into the world. The Indians have learned marketing from the Americans and they are now running with the concept. In a few years the IPL will be bigger and richer than any US or European professional sports league.

The baton is being passed and we are watching the transition. Indians work hard and now have disposable income. They want to spend that income and what better way to spend it then on the ultimate Indian obsession.

California Supreme Court says Gays have right to marry

2008-05-16T04:33:00.000-07:00

Finally. California becomes the second state in the Union (after Mass.) to allow gay marriage. This is not judicial activism by men in black robes. The judges were all elected by landslides (69% and over). The California Legislature passed 2 bills allowing gay marriage which were struck down at the ballot box and the executive Gov. Schwarzenegger has agreed to abide by the SC decision. So all three branches of government are in agreement.

Of course the right will fight this and will take it to ballot again in November (they already have a million signatures) but I think this time they wont win at the ballot. Its time we grew up as a nation. Its time we realize that our fellow citizens who are gay have a right to unions and a right to protection under the law. The gay couple who lives down the road from me does not threaten my heterosexual marriage. Its silly to say that. Its the same argument that racists used to prevent miscegenation in the South. It is truly fitting that this bill passes a few days after Mildred Loving (Loving vs. Virginia 1967) breathed her last. We are slowly overcoming and regardless of what the bigots on the right say we are becoming a more just and less prejudiced society.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080515/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage

Bill O Reillys Flipping out is now a rap song

2008-05-16T04:32:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j2YDq6FkVE

Some people have too much time on their hands...funny though

When a blowhard gets cut down

2008-05-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

Today a very angry and very right wing blowhard named Kevin James (not to be confused with the roly poly and pleasant Kevin James, the actor on King of Queens) was on Hardball with Chris Matthews)...He was yelling, screaming and practically foaming at the mouth about Obama and appeasement....Chris Matthews like a surgeon weilding a scalpel completely lacerated him and got him to admit that he knew not what he was talking about.

These days the Right seem more and more to be complete ciphers about history....first Dana Perino (Bushs WH spokesperson) didnt know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was, Bush himself didnt know the difference between Sunni and Shia and now this fool didnt know what exactly was the crime of appeasement

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/15/kevin-james-appeaser/

The Neural Buddhist

2008-05-13T04:42:00.000-07:00

"Neural Buddhist" - I think this is an appropriate title for my current mindset about God and religion. Ironic that it takes a staunch conservative like Brooks to articulate such a liberal view of God belief. The advance of Science Brooks posits will end belief in the Bible but not in God...

"First, the self is not a fixed entity but a dynamicprocess of relationships. Second, underneath thepatina of different religions, people around the worldhave common moral intuitions. Third, people areequipped to experience the sacred, to have moments ofelevated experience when they transcend boundaries andoverflow with love. Fourth, God can best be conceivedas the nature one experiences at those moments, the unknowable total of all there is."

Well put...esp. the second point....and heres the full article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13brooks.html?em&ex=1210824000&en=787e405a3a54e904&ei=5087%0A

The American People and their Intelligence

2008-05-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

I know you will accuse me of being elitist after reading this post but I think I have had enough of the political discourse in this country...it is just downright stupid on both sides. I think the reason why the level of the debate is so stupid is that the American people are stupid and politicians being opportunists need to play to their constituencies.

This gas tax holiday debate is the breaking pt for me.

Having had to hear all the pandering from both sides and the simplistic thinking, whether it be "they hate us because we love freedom" or whatever I’m realizing that I’m more in love with the idea of America than America itself...ie I am in love with the idea that was put forth in the Bill of Rights and The Federalist Papers.....the implementation of the grand American experiment leaves a lot to be desired

This disillusionment with our politics, which I thought could not go lower after the swift boat attacks at Kerry is being sorely challenged in the Dem primaries as Hillary morphs into a more right wing version of Maggie Thatcher with a Mike Tyson streak of underhanded fighting (I think she will one day reach across the podium and bite the guys ear off.

Sometimes I think I will eventually leave America and go live somewhere else for awhile. I came here so idealistic, so full of belief in our system and I thought that belief was unshakeable. It is amazing that eight years of Bush, Cheney and Rove have managed to do to my American Dream. One part of me knows that America is greater than these three cynical individuals and they will eventually be treated the way history always treats bad guys but my patience is wearing thin.

Some thoughts about Dr King

2008-04-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

I was probably twelve years old and still living in India when I first saw a piece of the "I have a dream" speech. It must have been around 1979 or so and Muhammad Ali was visiting India. It was a big deal. The Champ was past his prime but had a huge following in the country. We who had grown up singing the song 'Black Superman" by Johnny Wakelin were very keen on seeing our hero finally in person.

The Champ made headlines when he kissed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the cheek. Public displays of affection in the land of the Kama Sutra were unknown then and kissing a female Prime Minister was so beyond our experience that no one really knew how to react. But he charmed us all with his smile, his sense of humor in press conferences etc.

As part of his visit, Doordarshan, the state owned TV channel (Ali was flabbergasted that we had only one TV channel btw) carried a biographical piece about Ali and the Civil Rights movement and his stance against the Vietnam War etc. It was in that documentary that I first saw and heard a few sentences of "I Have a Dream"

I was hooked. There was something about the power of the words, the timbre, the look on Dr Kings face as he addressed the marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial - even though the clip only lasted a few seconds - it made a deep impression on me.

I went off to the British Council Library (the Indian Libraries were dumps in those days, with moth eaten damp books) to try and find out more. I got a piece of the speech and proceeded to start to memorize it (The part from...."it is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream" to "Free at Last, Free at last, Great God Almighty We are Free at last"). It took me a while and I am proud to say I can still pretty much repeat it verbatim.

I found it so ironic that it took a Hindu (Mahatma Gandhi) to put into action Jesus' teachings of "Turn the Other Cheek" in order to confront the injustice of British Colonialism and to overthrow British rule in India. And then an African American Christian pastor from Georgia took the lessons of Gandhi and used it to confront injustice and oppression in the United States twenty or thirty years later.

We are all connected....we are all part of the human fabric. Words that inspired an American movement also inspired a 12 year old Indian boy in Chennai and actions by an Indian man in the early part of 20th Century inspired a great American leader to stand up with courage and confront the evil of racism in the United States.

40 years since the dream died...

2008-03-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

in the immortal words of Bono...

One man come in the name of love , One man come and go One man come here to justify One man to overthrow

In the name of love What more in the name of love? In the name of love What more in the name of love?

One man caught on a barbed wire fence One man he resist One man washed on an empty beach One man betrayed with a kiss

In the name of love What more in the name of love? In the name of love What more in the name of love?

Early morning - April Four 4 shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life But they could not take your pride

In the name of love What more in the name of love? In the name of love What more in the name of love?

*********************************************
Martin Luther Kings Dream will never die as long as good people have hope.

William F Buckley dies at his desk....

2008-02-27T17:39:00.000-08:00

What a fitting way to go. At his desk writing. His cook found the great man dead probably with characteristic red ball point in hand. The man who pretty much invented modern conservatism in America. The conservatism of small government, fiscal responsibility and big ideas.

Confidant of Reagan and Goldwater, founder of the National Review, author of over 40 books and host of Firing Line on PBS for 29 long seasons.

Buckley espoused the type of Conservatism that even a Liberal like me could respect (although not necessarily agree with). It was intellectually coherent and in the pages of his books beautifully argued (with really really big words). The prose was spectacular and the ideas were grand (albeit not always right - for example he was opposed to the US participating in WW II and to Civil Rights).

It was a conservatism that did not use the word Liberal as a slur because he implicitly understood that as a Conservativesthe essential principle he was conserving was Liberalism. Conservatives who read Thomas Paine and John Locke and the French "philosophes" with a world view informed by pragmatism and libretarianism. Elitist it may have been, although he famously quipped he would rather be governed by the first two thousand people listed in the Boston phone book rather than the Board of Harvard University.

A great teacher has left us. A man who through his writings made America think and inspired a movement is now gone.

Loving Bill Less

2008-02-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

I didnt think there was anything that would cause me to like Bill Clinton less or have ill feelings towards him. But for me I think his "fantasy" comment on Obamas Iraq record and his dismissive "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina too" after Barack soundly trounced Hillary in SC did it for me. Such incredible hubris, such incredible arrogance. I am sure Hillary is not happy with his behavior either as she must realize that it is Clinton who has pushed many commited Liberals away from Hillary into the arms of Obama (well to be honest I was never going to choose Hillary over Barack but Bill made it a certainity with his boorish comments).

Go Barack Go Go Go!!!!

2008-02-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

A spectacular run.....he is so close to clinching it. He seems relaxed but those of us who love him, are tense. A clean sweep since Super Tuesday with the exception of New Mexico where Hillary won by one point. She will win Ohio but Texas will be close. Either way she needs to win over 60% in Texas to beat him on the pledged delegates and that aint happening.....so we may have our first black nominee of a major party in the 232 year history of this country. And barring a major national security event between now and November our first Black President.....About time.....

The House that Reagan built

2008-02-03T14:18:00.000-08:00

I for one am tired of the homilies the GOP candidates are making to the Gipper. Lets see RR is the greatest Republican President in the last 50 years but yet his governing record is anathema to numerous closely held GOP positions.

1. The GOP today hates Amnesty...well Reagan presided over the 1986 Amnesty that gave almost 2 million illegal aliens a path to citizenship

2. The GOP today will never cut and run from a fight.....well Reagan pulled the marines out of Lebanon as soon as 241 of them were killed in Beiruit

3. The GOP today believes in balanced budgets.....well we know Reagan was the second greatest spender in US history (Dubbya is number one) and left the largest deficit in US history when he left office

So on at least the three great pillars of GOP core values the Gipper comes up short.

So Reagans achievements are - Grenada and some great speeches. I cant give him sole credit for defeating Communism. He shares credit with John Paul and Gorby...both of whom played equal or greater roles in tipping over the rotting Soviet system

How much do they hate John McCain?

2008-02-03T14:08:00.000-08:00

They hate him so much that Ann Coulter says she is going to vote for Hillary if McCain is the GOP nominee...(Dr James Dobson has already said that he will stay at hom if McCain is the nominee).....The GOP is losing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erMa0F_DCJE

Why does the right hate Hillary so much?

2008-02-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

It is an interesting question. She hasn’t really done anything that would justify the level of hate spewed by the Rush Limbaugh’s and the Faux News’ of the world. She tried to get universal healthcare through Congress in 94 (a noble effort) but it failed. She apparently fired some staff members during Travelgate and was supposedly high handed with staff in the White House when she was first lady. Either way even if these things are true there is nothing in her record that justifies the level of hatred for her from the Right. She has stood by Bill although he has been a cad. She has raised a fine daughter in Chelsea. She is a smart, caring woman. She has been one of the most moderate to right of center Democrats in the Senate. Ken Starr spent 80 million investigating her and Bill and found not one piece of evidence of questionable conduct during the Whitewater, Vince Fosters death etc. All he found was a stained blue dress. Could they just hate her because she is their worst nightmare come true….a SMART WOMAN who has the balls to stand up to their petty prejudices?

The Man that killed the GOP – “Macaca”

2008-02-03T11:45:00.000-08:00

I am calling the current GOP mess and division the Maccaca / YouTube syndrome If it wasn’t for the George Allen comment referring to the young Indian American as “Macaca” (a North African racial slur meaning monkey) and for YouTube subsequently making the video ubiquitous all throughout 2006 then George Allen would likely have been the coalescing force that would have kept the Republican party whole. Instead we have this factitious mess where the front runner (McCain) is greatly disliked (almost hated) by the base (because of his perceived anti tax, and pro campaign finance and immigration stances).

So once again we Indo-Americans although small in number (2 million at last count) have had an influence that is not commensurate with our numbers in the country we have chosen as our home (I am being tongue in cheek so please no "delusions of grandeur" rebuttals)

Evolution and the Catholic Church - Celebrating the greatness of John Paul II

2008-02-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

I have known for a few years now that John Paul II supported evolution as consistent with Gods divine plan ("Truth cannot contradict Truth") as outlined in his 1996 encyclical (below)

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm

What I didnt know was that he was expounding on a position that Pius XII had taken as early as 1950. Essentially the Catholic Church for more than 50 years has supported the theory of evolution as long as certain conditions were met. The most important condition is that although the human body may have evolved from less complex predecessors through mutation and natural selection the "soul was implanted by God"

I think that this is a most reasonable belief (compromise). It is indeed surprising that American Protestantism (especially the Baptists and their ilk) cannot come to terms with this logic (and the indisputable scientific proof that man evolved from less complex creatures over millions of years). Rather they read Genesis literally and spend 25Mn on Creation Museums.

A friend of mine was recently challenged by one of her fellow doctors in the Bible belt that no division of Christianity supports Evolution. I guess she should inform this gentleman that at least two leaders (both staunch Conservatives) of the largest Christian
denomination in the world i.e. Roman Catholicism with 1 billion followers supported this theory.

This is another reason to love John Paul (besides defeating the evil of Communism and having the courage to journey to the wailing wall and ask forgiveness from the Jews for the lousy way Christians have treated them for 2000 years he also reconciled science and faith).

He really did make the world a better place.

Best Quote about Guilianis Implosion!

2008-02-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

The small man in search of a balcony finally fell of it…..RIP Rudy. The country took a close look at you and realized what NYC always knew – you’re an asshole!!!

And also Guiliani will go down in history as the man who spent the most money to get exactly one delegate....$60 M. Makes Romneys 2m on the Ames straw poll a bargain by comparison

Is there something about Massachusetts that breeds fake people?

2008-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

What is it about Massachusetts that makes people fake...Senator Kerry the Duck Hunter in the 2004 campaign (a man who conducted his entire first date with Tereza in French – nothing wrong with that but its not something a regular American guy – which is what Kerry was trying to paint himself as - would do) and Romney the NRA member who has been hunting twice in his entire life, figuratively “marched” with Dr King, broke down crying and praising God at the side of the road when Mormons belatedly allowed "negroes" into their church in 1979, a man who thinks Gitmo is too small and needs to be doubled, was always pro life in action but pro choice publically etc....what a crock....the only time Romney sounds half way sincere is when he speaks about money and business...Romney is a Rockefeller Republican trying to reinvent himself as a Bible thumping backwoods southerner . It just does not work and the American people are smarter than he gives them credit for

Is Sherri Shepherd the dumbest person on TV?

2008-01-17T03:51:00.000-08:00

The co host of The View on ABC thinks that the "world may be flat", that Christians were there at the "beginning" and is older than everything including Judaism. The Greeks threw the Christians to the Lions etc. The fact that something so stupid is allowed to raise a child must qualify as child abuse. Poor Jefferey (her son). Heres the part on Evolution and the Flat Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehWv_qlKxSg

Barbara Walters and Whoopi sound just a little less stupid....

So I went to my first campaign event ever

2008-01-12T15:09:00.000-08:00

Sen John McCain was visiting an adjoining town to the one I live in as part of his Michigan campaign. It was great to see him. I got within 5 feet of him but never shook his hand. He is a small man. Not more than 5 ft 6 inches or so.

What was really interesting was the crowd. 99.9% white. The only non whites in the audience were either Asian women (probably 2) married to white guys or adopted black children of white couples. (There was a handful of reporters who were not white either). There were probably 1200 people in the high school gymnasium.

Other than a few Ron Paul hecklers it was an orderly event. McCain did his usual stump speech. He talked about Islamic fascism ("The biggest threat of our time'), The Surge ("its working my friends and David Petraeus should be Times man of the Year"), jobs for Michigan ("The old jobs aint coming back"), nuclear power (as an alternative to dependence on Middle Eastern oil) and reducing taxes. It was a good speech. He cracked four or five really funny jokes and that was it. He definitely does not look as old in person as he does on TV. He did not take any questions.

He has always been one of my heroes (although he dropped a little bit in my esteem when he refused to criticize Bush on Iraq (just Rumsfeld) and when he went to Liberty University to meet Falwell) and I always wanted to see him in person.

I wonder if he will get the nomination. The GOP likes to give guys their turn when they have waited long enough (like Bob Dole). McCain certainly has. The only problem with McCain is that his age (71 years) just has to be a factor when compared to the spring chicken junior Senator from IL.

I think he is a great man, a great hero and a real patriot. I wish he had spoken a bit about Gitmo and torture and a sane Immigration policy but he stayed to the safe stuff. He also took some pokes at Putin ("when I looked deeply into his eyes I saw three letters K - G - B" - which really was also a dig at Bush ).

Yes We Can

2008-01-10T05:56:00.000-08:00

What a speech. I did not think that he could top the Iowa victory speech but he has blown it out of the water. The intonation and the cadence of MLK coupled with the hope and charm of Bobby Kennedy. Now he just needs to become the nominee and get elected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe751kMBwms&feature=user

"You can be the majority that leads the nation out of the long political darkness"....."In the unlikely story that is America there has never been anything false about Hope"

AND THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE!!!

"It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation, it was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail towards freedom through the darkest of nights, it was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westwards against an unforgiving wilderness, it was the call of workers who organized, women who reached for the ballot, a President who chose the moon as our new frontier and a King who took us to the mountain top and pointed the way to the Promised Land"

It gives me goose bumps just hearing it!!!!

L'Affaire Harbhajan

2008-01-08T03:38:00.001-08:00

What a dreadful story. For those of you who dont follow cricket. During Australias last tour of India. Andrew Symonds, a cricketer of mixed race, was booed by fans who made racist comments and depictions about him (think Simian). The BCCI in my opinion did a horrible job of damage control (I would have banned those spectators for life from ever visiting a BCCI venue as per how European Soccer authorities have targetted professional hooligans). Fast forward many months India is now in Australia. During the second test at Sydney, India does a horrible job on the fifth day and inexplicably loses the test. There were some terrible umpiring decisions against India (ironically by a black Umpire - Steve Bucknor - who is one of the best in the game). In the subsequent melee, (the Indian fans at the SCG went ballistic), Harbhajan Singh is accused by Symonds of calling Symonds a monkey again. He is suspended and the BCCI is considering suspending the tour.

This has released an unprecedented amount of introspection by the Aussies. Many ex Australian players (Greg Matthews, Shane Warne etc) have come out and said the Aussies are arrogant, immature and bad sports. Either way this has been a huge embarrasment for India. I think that the underlying racism that is in most Indians towards blacks came out (Certainly with the crowd). I dont know what Harbhajan said to Symonds. The TV footage would indicate he was trying to apologize to Symonds for the crowd.

Harbhajan is not very proficient in the English language so its anyones guess what he was intending to say and what exactly came out.

Blair Converts to Catholocism

2007-12-22T10:24:00.000-08:00

This news is shocking indeed...I wonder how far we would have to go to find a Catholic (ex) Prime Minister of England.....Disraeli was Jewish. Clearly his wife Cherie (who is Catholic) has had an influence on him. This is huge news I think. I am pretty sure the PM has a say in the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury. So good thing he waited to get out of office before doing it.

Japans hidden Christians

2007-12-22T08:13:00.000-08:00

The Portuguese tried to Christianize Japan in the mid 16th Century. After some initial success the religion was banned in the early 17th century. However certain pockets survived in the remote Islands and is present today as "Kakure Kirishtian" - Hidden Christianity in Japan. They have evolved into a very unique form of the religion that has elements of Shintoism and Buddhism in it. A fascinating story indeed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071219/lf_nm/japan_christians_dc

Jim Cramer Loves Canada

2007-12-20T05:17:00.000-08:00

Jim Cramer, the madman of MSNBC's "Mad Money" was on Tim Russert this weekend and I was blown away by his over the top endorsment of Canada. Right on the money. Canada is doing well because the politicians there are worried about substance. In America we are worried about whether Mitt Romney believes in the Lord Jesus or whether the Bible is inerrant or whether Obama is Osamas adopted child or whether Rudy Guiliani supports the concealed handgun law because "guns dont kill people, just rednecks with guns"....:) - you know...the important stuff. Here is the transcript.

RUSSERT: You also mention a country—Canada. Buy Canada.
CRAMER: These are always hard for Americans to admit. Canada was a stepchild for a long time. The dollar used to be king. The loonie, as they call it in Canada, is king. Any Canadian mineral stock, oil stock or bank stock is—I hate to say this, Tim—better than American.
RUSSERT: Why?
CRAMER: More fiscally conservative country, a country that has very little inflation versus its tremendous resource base, and a country that is very supportive of the stock market. Everybody’s invested up there, and their stocks are assessable, they look like ours, but they’re—most of the companies are better run. The Canadians finally are being recognized for what they are, fabulous capitalists.
RUSSERT: Why? It’s right across the border. How could they be so much better?
CRAMER: Well, they’ve got a government that is much more prudent than our government. They are a country that is not addicted to debt. They are not letting others pay their bills for the government. We do all these things. They don’t have a big deficit. They’re us in 1955.
RUSSERT: Prudent.
CRAMER: They’re prudent. We’re not.
RUSSERT: Why aren’t we?
CRAMER: We are unwilling to raise taxes. They raise taxes all the time. No one gets fired or gets unelected because they raise taxes.
They are not afraid to pay for their own bills. They have courage. Their politicians have courage. They are not afraid to stand up and say, we’ve got to pay for it ourselves.
RUSSERT: You’re not going across the border are you?
CRAMER: No, no. But I think people should recognize there’s a reason why the Canadian dollar is worth more than ours. They have politicians who bite the bullet. We don’t. No one is willing to take any sort of responsibility here. Up there, it’s responsibility, prudence and a notion that we’re reckless. And I’ve got to tell you, they’re pretty right.

How important is identity?

2007-12-19T18:36:00.000-08:00

Fareed Zakaria presents an idea to the rest of America that I think any Immigrant instinctively knows is right. Our perspective when it comes to understanding the world outside America is unique and nuanced because for a long amount of time many of us were not American or did not live in America. This gives us an ability to understand the impacts of policy in a far more realistic way than a native born American with limited world exposure (ie the majority of the US population). I found myself in violent agreement with his thesis. Good read.

The Power of Personality
"When I talk to people in a foreign country, no matter how strange, they are always familiar to me"

I never thought I'd be in this position. There's a debate taking place about what matters most when making judgments about foreign policy—experience and expertise on the one hand, or personal identity on the other. And I find myself coming down on the side of identity.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/78157

Say it aint so Roger.....

2007-12-16T08:20:00.001-08:00

If the Mitchell report is right and Roger Clemens used performance enhancing drugs and if Barry Bonds is convicted in the current perjury case before the courts, then both the greatest pitcher and the greatest slugger of the last 20 years will not get into the Hall of Fame.

Sen. Mitchell talks about the hundreds of thousands of children who look up to these players as role models. Therefore I feel that the damage has already been done. These kids have grown up with the super muscled MacGwires and Bonds and have seen what steroids can do to a players ability on the field. It can raise a good player to great and this will be a huge incentive for these kids to play follow the leader. No other baseball scandal whether it be Pete Rose or the Black Sox were an existential type threat to the game. We have seen the glory of steroids with 70 homerun seasons and 3.0 lifetime ERAs....now we need to see the punishment.

Sen. Mitchell does not think that they should be criminally punished (and I agree). However Major League Baseball and the sports writers need to impose some kind of punishment. I think keeping them out of Cooperstown will serve as a start. The other punishment should be to asterisk their records (The Baseball equivalent of a Scarlet letter) and possibly even have their career records stricken from the books. That would be a powerful statement to young players that steroid use has serious consequences.

And finally almost all of this has happened under Bud Selig's reign and it would be highly unjust if he doesnt bear some of the resposnsibility for allowing Americans pastime to be so permanently tarnished.

Too Much God?

2007-12-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Since I'm just a dumb immigrant I am getting very confused about whether the election next November is to elect the Commander in Chief or the Pastor in Chief of this nation.

While I have never been in a Papal Conclave I am pretty sure that the College of Cardinals in the Vatican probably has less references to God during their election of a Pope. This is getting downright silly. If Huckabee becomes President how different is the United States from a theocracy like Iran? You will have an ordained Baptist preacher as the head of Government. A Christian Ayatollah in the White House!!!!

Sure he likes Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd but he also reads Genesis literally. Isn't it a great shame that the country that has become synonymous with the separation of church and state may have a man of the cloth at its head (small chance but possible).

While Romney's speech was inspiring and soaring I also felt it highly improper. Why does a political candidate have to state on National TV in a highly publicized speech, in the 21st century for God sakes....that he "Believes that Jesus is his Lord and Savior and is God incarnate" - I cannot imagine a single western country where any politician will feel the need to make that statement. (In fact I am reasonably sure that those kind of statements might even be rare in non western countries).....To me that was the Christian equivalent of Romney shouting Allahu Akbar.

Maybe when those Godless communists in China (or some country that does not believe that Jesus is their Lord and Savior) seriously kicks some Jesus / God fearing American ass the US will ratchet down this God talk a bit. There is this unstated notion that Americans are exceptional, a favored people, perhaps even one of the lost tribes of Israel. This is the sin of pride and we all know what the good book says about pride going before a fall.

I love the fall

2007-11-21T04:42:00.000-08:00

The cool crisp air, the smell of leaves burning, the colors, the light, the feeling that this is natures last hurrah before the onslaught of winter. Heres a poem I wrote in 1992 when I was at my friends cottage in Quebec.

Summers gone away my love

And the leaves begin to fall

As slanting light becomes pitch night

We await the winters call

The autumn breeze stirs my heart

And makes me long for you

By harvest moon, the fleeting loon

Flys south in skys of blue

The raindrops on the orange leaves

Are natures tears of sorrow

For autumns here and the winters near

And we will all be gone tomorrow

The Great Wall

2007-11-11T09:48:00.000-08:00

I saw another one of the must see places on my list of life time must see places. The great wall. Me and my Tibetan guide the same girl Xian that I met at Tianamen went to see the wall at Si Ma Tai the most remote part of the wall from Beijing. It is almost 2.5 hrs by car. There are nearer walls (at Ba Da Ling and at Mu Tian Yu) but Xian advised against going there. Turned out to be a great decision, When we got to Si Ma Tai it was almost deserted. It was really awesome. Walking the wall is like climbing a steep mountain. How the Chinese built something so magnificent almost 600 years ago is beyond belief. In a sense the great wall was one of the first "Networks" - the Chinese used flags and flares to pass signals along its length. In addition, they also used it to quickly transport troops and horses. So it served both as an actual highway and an information highway. Pretty damn awesome.

Pudong and Puxi

2007-11-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

So Shanghai has two main regions, the east known as Pudong and the west known as Puxi (pronounced Poo-See). Everytime someone asked if I had been in Puxi it kinda made me grin. It was just too funny...Pu-"Dong" and Pu-"Seee"...sometimes you cant even make up stuff like this...

In the heart of the Peoples Republic

2007-11-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

So I am in the capital of the Peoples Republic...now this feels more like Communist China. You are more likely to see citizens wearing traditional Chinese clothing, more likely to find exotic food like snake on a restaurant menu and the Red Army is everywhere unlike Shanghai which as you know from my earlier posts was almost identical to Chicago in look and feel. I was in Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City yesterday...just standing there trying to remember how 1989 must have felt...the image of the student in front of the Tank....

While I was there I was approached by three students from NationalUniversity who wanted to practice their English on me. At first I thought it was a some kind of scam but it turned out to be genuine. They served as my tour guides for the rest of the afternoon. It was delightful. One of the girls was Tibetan. Needless to say this was too good an opportunity to pass up for me so there in the shadow of Chairman Mao's smiling visage I had a big discussion about Tibet and the 1958 annexation and such. Surprisingly it was only me who was arguing for a Free Tibet...the TIBETAN was completely OK being Chinese....(I was told that most Chinese are unaware that China annexed Tibet by force. Apparently they are taught in school that the oppressed peasants invited the Communists in to free them from feudalism....I guess the winners of history get to write history even if its not true)

I was impressed with their knowledge of current events both Chinese and international. Several of the questions I asked I'm pretty sure that the average American University student would have no clue about. Of course they were completely ignorant of almost all western authors (ALTHOUGH THEY ARE ENGLISH MAJORS :)...I found that quite funny actually..even with 3 to 4 years of English they are not yet at the pt of reading English books...they read magazine articles...

How often does one get to tell a University Educated person who is majoring in English about a fella named William Shakespeare for the first time....:)))

Where we shine?

2007-11-06T18:52:00.000-08:00

India does English so much better than China. In China I have to show a card with the mandarin characters to the cabbie to get anywhere. The only words I know in Mandarin are Neehaa and xiexie (shishi) - means welcome and thank you. I'm sure with my accent I'm probably insulting the cabbies mother or something.

I think Chinese are good doers - Indians are good thinkers. This maybe the divide. I'm not saying Chinese cant think and Indians cant do...I think its an affinity or a propensity...Indians all want to be like Brahmins - just think and do pujas and attend Bharatanatyam recitals. .......perhaps its in our DNA.

George was recounting an interesting story. He doesn't eat seafood. He was visiting a distributor in some small town. He gave strict orders, several times to the distributor that he couldn't eat sea food...he arrives in small town and sees that dinner is a variety of fish, prawns and other delights. Obviously feeling a bit put off that his host has ignored his multiple requests he does not eat the food. The host comes up and asks what is wrong why aren't you eating the food. George says he doesn't eat sea food to which the host says "Sea food - this is all River Food, We specially make River Fish, River Prawns etc"

That my friends is the best story Ive heard that sums up the huge language issue in China.

China Infrastructure

2007-11-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

apparently India spends 6% of GDP on Infrastructure and China spends 21%....the results are obvious....why would Indian politicians not spend more on infrastructure.....it provides jobs, has a high rate of return for the country by attracting more FDI. I guess I dont get it

When I was in Bangalore I read a newspaper article that a delegation from Delhi was coming to Bangalore to learn about garbage collection. However having just seen uncollected garbage on 100 feet road in Indira Nagar (suburb of Bang.) I was a bit puzzled as to why Delhi would want to learn this skill from a city that clearly did a crap job of collecting its garbage. I guess mediocrity is all relative.

Might have been a better idea for the Delhi delegation to go to Bangkok, Singapore or Shanghai to learn about garbage collection perhaps.

Reconnecting in the globalized world...

2007-11-06T18:30:00.000-08:00

So after 23 years I reconnected last night with my best buddy George from grades 7 thru 10 back when I lived in Chennai...I saw him last in 1984......he lives and works for Pepsi in Shanghai....thank God for Facebook and email and other technological marvels that we found each other and were able to meet face to face....aint globalization wonderful.

Can Freedom and good civic sense coexist in the developing world?

2007-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

I am starting to think that it is socialism that may have taught the Chinese good civic order which we Indians seem to lack. (perhaps the public exercise drills, everyone wearing a blue uniform etc under Chairman Mao?) The civic behavior I am seeing is close to what you see in the west i.e. orderly lines and a respect for the law. What is ironic is that the Chinese achieved this with a communist dictatorship and we haven’t been able to do it with 60 years of democracy. Maybe freedom and orderly civic behavior are mutually exclusive at least in the developing nations.

China - My first impressions

2007-11-05T07:46:00.000-08:00

I have been in China for a little more than 24 hours and the obvious differences with India are everywhere. Shanghai feels like a US city. In fact it looks and feels like Chicago (just without Lake Michigan or the EL). There are some absolutely stunning skyscrapers all over the city. No old dilapidated Victorian era buildings like India, no obvious poverty on the streets, no animals, no paan spitting and no auto rickshaws. Also no honking of horns – that was also really surprising. I just assumed a city of 13 million people would have a lot of irate drivers but the traffic flows in an orderly way similar to any modern western city.

There are still a number of bicycles even on the highways (believe it or not) but surprisingly those are the only two wheelers on the road. I have seen no motorbikes or scooters yet. The roads are excellent and the Chinese drive them like they are on a speedway. My cabbie that drove me to my hotel had the speedometer at 120 – 130 Km/h the entire drive. The cabbies also give receipts and go by the meter. There are non meter cabs but that’s only if u don’t want to stand in line for the city cab (they are 2 to 3x city cab fare)

The GM China people I met are also pretty no nonsense and focused on the job. The GM India people had more of a “babu” approach to the job with lengthy chai and lunch breaks etc.

Life in a western Town....no apologies to Dream Academy...

2007-10-31T04:17:00.000-07:00

I'm in Baroda aka Vadodara in western India. This is the ancient Indian princely state that most recently has been famous as the hometowns of Indian cricketers Anshuman Gaekwad and Nayan Mongia. I also think my best mate Arjan made some runs here at some time in his Ranji career but I digress. Baroda is Bad...no, scratch that....its bloody awful. There really is no other word for it. I assume this must be an example of a Tier 3 city in India.

It is depressingly poor. It is FULL OF FRICKIN COWS. And the state is a DRY state. So at the end of the day when you want to get a drink to try and forget Baroda you CANT EVEN DO THAT. (Apparently all of Gujurat is dry...probably because its the birthplace of Gandhiji I assume).

I have been kinda spoiled because my last 10 visits to India have only been to major metros (with the exception of Mangalore in 97 which was crappy too). One gets the feeling in the major metros that India is moving forward....in Baroda one gets the feeling that India is stagnant or moving backwards. Then when one makes the realization that more of India is represented by the Barodas (or worse) full scale depression sets in.

I am travelling with my ferang GM colleague on her first visit to India and I must say I am pretty damn embarrassed. A frickin camel drawn cart crossed our car on the toll highway on our way back from GM. Then the COWS in the city eating garbage, the shanty towns and the street dwellers living in cardboard boxes....suddenly the lustre of India Shining dims appreciably and the "Incredible India" ad campaign that ITDC is doing rings real false...

Why is India so expensive?

2007-10-30T02:53:00.000-07:00

India is a pretty hostile place for a North American. In general the roads are awful, the crowds are ridiculous, the weather is sultry and sticky and Indians have no concept of western public niceties like queuing up etc....its all pointed elbows and survival of the fittest.

And now you can also add expensive. Not just normal expensive. Think Manhattan or London expensive.

Here I am travelling Bharat on my company's tab and even then I get this visceral reaction to the prices. Am I paying through the nose because I'm "Umrikan" - apparently not because there is only one rate now in India - foreigners and Indians pay the same.

Any five star is minimum $300-$350 USD a night. Now I can get an equivalent hotel in a first class US or European city (not shit holes like Chennai, Bangalore and Baroda) for the same amount or less. These hotels will come with a real view - ie a view of San Francisco Bay or the Manhattan skyline. In India I have a view of a "chawl" or someone urinating on the side of the road or a cow leaving a steaming pile of shit in middle of the road.

How can Indian hotels get away with this? Its easy. Supply and Demand. Every one is coming to India and there are only a limited number of good hotels so they are jacking up prices. I heard Windsor Manor in Bangalore is charging Rs 24,000 a night...not for a suite but for a room. At a 40 rupee dollar that is $600 USD a night. Utterly and totally ridiculous.

Bombay Sensex corrects and recovers

2007-10-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Bombay Sensex corrected and lost over a thousand points one day and then recovered most of the loss the next day. Fortunes are being made in this country left right and center. Land is the ultimate investment. The way things are going here you can double your return on land and real estate in under three to five years. I don't know how much of a bubble this is. I think logic will state that it cant go on forever but you also have 1.1 billion people stuck in a country only 1/3rd the size of the US. It stands to reason that they will want to start buying property now that their call center and software development jobs are finally turning them into middle class consumers with the normal middle class desire to own a home.

Bangalore Indias Software Capital

2007-10-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

My first visit to Bengoluru in almost 11 years. (Cities in India that used to have beautiful names that just rolled off the tongue now have these hideous new ultra authentic Indian names as the local governments wrap themselves in the faux tricolor of state language primacy....Chennai, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata, Kochi, Qulum, Thiruvanathapuram etc).

The weather is fantastic after the stickiness and dust of madras....but the traffic oh my god the traffic. The town was basically built because the Brits in Madras couldn't handle the Madras summers so they needed something more pleasant.....so this was a summer holiday town in the British Raj that has turned into India's third most populous city (53 million population) after Bombay and Delhi

The infrastructure is not that great for the Silicon Valley of India. The power in my rather expensive service apartment ($120 USD a night) fluctuates at least 10 times a day causing my wireless modem to lose connection. The Internet is slow. Mobile wireless in India is 230 kbps (Reliance Mobile service that I have). The fixed wireless is better 11 Mbps (which is a quarter what I get back home).

It doesn't really matter though. The country lurches forward and seemingly upward. The bars and clubs in both Chennai and Bengoluru are fantastic. The restaurants are superb also and so are the malls.....Lifestyle is equivalent to a mid level department store in the US....say a Target.

Meeting Rahul...a dream come true

2007-10-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Today I met Rahul Dravid the recently resigned India cricket captain and one of the genuine nice guys of world cricket. He is an impressive fellow. Very nice, very humble for someone so accomplished. There have been many famous duos in cricket on both the batting and bowling sides but very few trios. I think its safe to say that the most famous and important batting trio in cricket since the 3 Ws is - Sachin, Saurav and Rahul (of course Stanners will disagree on this point so Im waiting for his response :) - please post on the blog so every one else can benefit from your insight).

Rahul has the highest test batting average of any Indian cricketer at 57.25 runs per inning and is one of only three Indian batsmen (and the sixth player in cricket history) with over 10,000 runs in ODIs (Saurav and Sachin are the other two) . He is also only the third Indian to have more than 9000 runs in test cricket (Sunil G and Sachin are the other two).

I met Rahul at his moms art exhibition. She is a talented artist altho her style is not something I am too crazy about. I dont think she uses a brush but I think she actually uses a piece of wood to dab the paint on the canvas (I was unable to detect brush strokes on the canvas. Her paintings are mainly focused on women figures it would seem with mainly rural type settings

Phir bhi dil hai hindustani???

2007-10-18T03:29:00.000-07:00

The ties that one has to ones homeland and hometown are through family. With the demise of my dad six years ago and my brother last year - the ties back to Chennai and India are so much weaker. With the sale of our last property this year our commercial ties are gone too. Its at many levels so disheartening. Immigration 25 years ago was just the act of moving my physical body to Canada and then the US.....my heart was still in India. However the events of the last few years are seriously challenging that. Being in Madras without my brother (this is my first visit after his death) was very unsettling. There was always a confidence (because of his connections) that was so reassuring especially since the first few days in Madras are always alienating and hostile. I am not even sure I want to really visit again.

Welcome to India

2007-10-16T02:49:00.000-07:00

Ive been in India two days. I feel the buzz. Stuff is happening. Traffic is worse. Its all going to get much much more horrible when Tata's brings out the Rs 1 lakh ($2500 USD) car next year. Any Indian who is currently on a two wheeler is going to buy the car. There really is no solution for Indian cities other than abandoning them and building new ones from the ground up. Madras airport actually does not look too bad. I mean it still smells of phenol and is gaudy and very third world looking but the chairs are comfortable, its clean, the Immigration and customs guys are very welcoming (unlike the US) and your baggage gets to the belt in about 20 minutes. Not too shabby. Jyothi, Kavi and Kreeps came to the airport to pick me up

Rudi - Judy - Bizarro Love

2007-09-23T05:33:00.000-07:00

Rudi Guliani, the leading Republican candidate for President was speaking to the NRA this week. In the middle of this address to what is a core constituency of the GOP his cellphone rang. Rudi took the call. It was his third wife, Judy Nathan calling from London. What followed was either the most staged public display of affection since Al Gore tongued Tipper on stage or proof perhaps that Americas mayor is completely henpecked or just that he is a plain ol' weirdo. Here is the event. You draw your own conclusions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB0qjvi9kLE

Mordern Satire - From A Modest Proposal to Jon Stewart

2007-09-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

A Modest Proposal was a very popular essay written by Jonathan Swift - author of Gulliver's Travels and probably one of the greatest satirist of the English language - to shock London society into thinking about the devastation that the English absentee landlords had brought to Ireland.

I first came across this in my Grade 12 English Lit class with Mrs. Cheung. And reading it again after almost 21 years I realize it has not lost its impact on me.

Where is satire and irony today? I would say the mantle has been passed from the print medium to TV. From Swift to Jon Stewart to Stephen Colbert...

So here is Swifts A Modest Proposal

http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html

Luciano Pavarotti takes his final bow

2007-09-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Le Roi est Mort.....Luciano Pavarotti arguably the greatest tenor ever is no more. A voice that I have always believed is one of the more definitive proofs of the existence of the divine has left us for good. There are times when the sum of the beauty of the world measurably diminishes and the passing of this Maestro is one such moment. We will never hear him live again but thank God for audio recordings.

Listen to his rendition of Schuberts Ave Maria conducted by Zubin Mehta. The power of his voice is just unbelievable.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2uYrmYXsujI

And here is Luciano singing with U2....a really nice take on the same Ave Maria with beautiful anti war words penned by Bono.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v2-XIauB37U&mode=related&search=

Stranded Carpenter in Bahrain to Fly Home to India after 25 years (from Gulf Daily News)

2007-09-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

An Indian man, stranded in Bahrain because he had no legal documents to prove his citizenship, is leaving in December under the government's general amnesty after working here for 25 years. Gopalakrishnan Achari, 52, came to Bahrain on March 27th in 1983 to work as a carpenter with a construction company.He says that he worked for the company for three-and-a-half years on a BD60 basic salary and then had to seek employment elsewhere after it started losing money and he wasn't getting paid.He also claims his sponsor gave his passport and legal documents to immigration officials, but that he could not retrieve them since no one knows their whereabouts.Indian Embassy officials had provided him with a letter to obtain a certificate from his panchayat(village court) stating that he is an Indian citizen."I obtained the certificate from my village and the embassy has provided me with the out pass," said Mr Achari."My passport and all other legal documents were taken by my sponsor a few months after I reached Bahrain. "I had to live on loans from friends as I had no fixed job."However, I am happy as I can now see my family after25 years. I thank the government and the embassy for providing this opportunity."Mr Achari has three brothers and three sisters, all married and settled in Ernakulam, Kerala.Two friends of Mr Achari, Sunil Kadri and Vivian Mascarenhas helped him get the relevant legal documents and promised to pay the ticket expenses too.

******************
Why do the gulf employers insist on keeping the passports of the third world citizens they employ? The WTO should make this practice illegal. They don't do it for Americans and Brits and Canadians and other first world citizens..just for poor people from the third world.....Its completely coercive and racist.

Handling Adultery...Mohammed vs Jesus

2007-09-05T10:10:00.001-07:00

Muslims portray Mohammed as the perfect man. Here is a good comparison of his actions versus Jesus when faced with a similar problem. You decide who's actions were more moral - the perfect man or Jesus.

(For the record I am agnostic and do not endorse or follow any religion)

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Mohammed and the Adulteress (The woman from Gamid - from the Hadith of Sahih Muslim 4206)

There came to him (the Holy Prophet) a woman from Gamid and said: ‘Allah’s Messenger, I have committed adultery, so purify me.’ He (the Holy Prophet) turned her away. On the following day she said: ‘Allah’s messenger, why do you turn me away? ... By Allah I have become pregnant.’ He said ‘Well, if you insist upon it, then go away until you give birth.’ When she was delivered she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag, and said ‘Here is the child whom I have given birth to.’ He said ‘Go away and suckle him until you wean him.’ When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand. She said ‘Allah’s Apostle, here is he as I have weaned him and he eats food.’ He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims and then pronounced punishment. And she was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they stoned her.

Jesus and the Adulteress (From the Gospel of John, Chapter 8)

1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. 3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst 4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 9 But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."

********************************

I think I (and I would posit most people regardless of the religion they belong to) would prefer Jesus interpretation and actions in this case to Mohhammeds. Mohammed’s approach is harsh and barbaric, Jesus approach is sublime and merciful. This story sums up neatly the difference between Islam and Christianity. Until we understand the Islamic mindset of utter submission to the will of Allah and his laws we are never going to understand Muslims and will never win the war on terror or whatever the heck we are calling this ongoing clash of two civilizations.

Bush already thinking about the lecture circuit

2007-09-05T09:53:00.001-07:00

A new book on the Commander in Chief, 'Dead Certain" by Robert Draper was released last week. (I am still reading it). In this book Bush is already starting to think about how much money he is going to make on the lecture circuit. Bush has said a lot of dumb things in the last 7 years but to talk about his post Presidency activities and the amount of money he is going to make ("the old man makes $75,000 a speech") while he is still sending young kids off to Iraq to get killed just shows how much of a cocoon the guy lives in. If it weren't so tragic it would be laughable.

Bush "Crying Baby" strategy for Iraq

2007-09-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

Bush strategy is to keep the troops till April and then draw down next year.....he will use any underhanded means and spin to do that. Why April....well in April the major rotations end and the troops will be coming home anyway. This means come next spring they will start saying that benchmarks are being met and the troops are now ready to come home. This will give the GOP candidates for President the ability to say that they got the troops home. After the troops leave the full blown blood letting will start and it will be the successors (probably a Democrat) problem. So just as a baby sitter hands over a crying baby to its parents after a difficult night and hightails it Bush is counting on doing this to his successor. This way Bush ensures his own personal legacy. He can state that as long as he was in charge there was no widespread sectarian blood bath..NO KILLING FIELDS........Chris Hitchens says that the apt comparison for Iraq is not Vietnam but Cambodia....with the Sunni and Shia militias being closer to the Khmer Rouge rather than the Vietcong.....Chilling indeed if what Hitch says is true

Gen. David Petraeus "Kodak Moment" next week

2007-09-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

The cognoscenti all seem to be in agreement that the generals report will be positive on the workings of the surge and that Petraeus will ask for time to April 2008 to crush al-Qaeda and quieten down the insurgents. (I am positive its not working from a holistic perspective though...yes Anbar Province is safer and yes Ramadi is now walkable without wearing a Kevlar jacket or being accompanied by a platoon of Marines...woo hooo). What is really telling is the non partisan GAO report indicates only 7 out of 18 key benchmarks have been met so far.....the Petraeus Report will perfume the pig but a pig is still a pig even if it smells nice temporarily.

Larry Craig like Luca Brazzi sleeps with the fishes...

2007-09-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

The GOP leadership wasted no time in dispatching Sen Larry Craig. The three term Senator resigned yesterday after finding that all support, moral or political had dried up from his fellow Republicans. The White House and Sen Mitch McConnell the minority leader distanced themselves from him faster than you can say "gay republican". Sen McConnell went so far as to call his behavior "disgusting".

What is particularly interesting is that David Vitter is still in the Senate. Here is a guy who admitted to having sex with prostitutes - ie a clear felony. Craig on the other hand pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for public lewdness. Why the double standard?

I think it ultimately comes down to the type of sex. Had Craig got caught soliciting heterosexual sex he would still be in the Senate. This is really the anti-gay streak in the GOP coming out rather than a sudden desire to act either ethically or morally.

Republican hypocrisy - Top 10

2007-09-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

One of my brothers maintains that all politicians are hypocrites...and I agree. However there is a version of hypocrisy within the GOP that I believe is particularly egregious. There has been a literal parade of so called family values and holier than thou Republicans who are getting exposed for some extremely poor behavior recently. Is this just bad luck or is there a deeper malaise that is surfacing in the Republican Party? Here are some of their greatest hits on the hypocrisy charts in the last 2 years.

1. Newt Gingrich admitting to the Rev. James Dobson that he was having an affair WHILE he was leading the charge against Clinton during Monicagate.

2. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana who was sent to Congress initially to replace Congressman and speaker elect Bob Livingston in 1999, when Livingston was exposed as having had numerous extra marital affairs. At that time Vitter pledged a new type of honesty and morality. Well he was exposed as being a frequent visitor of a high class Washington brothel. (Needless to say Congressman Vitter was one of the loudest baying hounds during Monicagate also).

3. Senator Larry Craig from Idaho who was very strong on opposing gay marriage pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for lewd conduct....the lewd conduct being soliciting gay sex in an airport bathroom.

4. Congressman Mark Foley who was chairman of the sexual crimes against children commission was exposed as having inappropriate contact via email with several underage male interns and pages in Congress. He was also accused of stalking these "children".

5. House Speaker Tom "the Hammer" Delay, a law and order, fire and brimstone fundamentalist if there ever was one brought down by his tawdry associations with lobbyist Jack Abramoff that led to him accepting gifts from the lobbyist that he did not declare (including a 100K jaunt to play golf at St Andrews in Scotland)

6. Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska - his house was raided by the FBI after one of his associates fingered him as a key receiver of graft.

7. Rev. Ted Haggard - a key Bush Lieutenant during the 2004 election to rally evangelicals was exposed as having had an affair with a male prostitute and also having "experimented" with crystal meth.

8. Rush Limbaugh - the voice of the "disenfranchised white male" - exposed as having been addicted to prescription drugs and buying them illegally. This is the same Rush Limbaugh who stated for years on his show that the government should throw the book at all drug dealers and users and lock them all up (no therapy for users) if they wanted to solve the drug problem in this country.

9. Jack Abramoff the disgraced lobbyist who hired Ralph Reed the former President of the Christian Coalition to rally evangelicals to help close down an Indian casino chain (To prevent the corruption of our society). It was exposed that Abramoff was actually representing a competitor Indian Casino and was not particularly interested in saving Americans from gambling away their life savings.

10. Ralph Reed for knowing about Jack Abramoff''s plan of duplicity and still going through with it

Jack Warner announces retirement

2007-09-01T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sen Jack Warner (R-Va), the senior Senator from Virginia and my favorite GOP politician is calling it quits after 30 years in the Senate. This is indeed a great loss of experience for the nation as a whole. It is also a singular opportunity for the Dems to add another Senate seat (Va used to be a red state until Jim Webb proved otherwise in 2006) in 2008.

Senator Jack Warner was everything the current GOP party is not. Bipartisan, secular, global, smart, erudite and urbane. With his mane of white hair (mostly intact), his great choice in clothing, his star power (he was married to Liz Taylor and dated Barbara Walters for a while) and his knowledgeable and able leadership as the Armed Services Committee chairman he was a formidable politician and the closest thing we have to an "eminence grise" in the Senate. In recent times he has come out and stated his disappointment for the way this Administration has prosecuted this war. His concerns made headlines.

He will be missed indeed.

Rove Gone, Gonzo Gone, Who next?

2007-08-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

Turd Blossom (aka Karl Rove) and Fredo Corleone (aka Al Gonzales) have now officially left the building. Bush continues to do some house cleaning as he tries to save the last 17 months of his Presidency in the hope of actually achieving something and trying to pull his "legacy" out of the historical sewer.

The odds are against him though. Iraq is going to be in an all out blood bath as the al-Hakims and al-Sadrs fight it out. Maliki will probably throw in the towel by the end of the year or get himself killed. With Bushs luck, al-Sadr and the Mahdi Army is probably going to win and we would have succeeded in getting in power (after Hamas) our second populist theocracy in the Middle East.

Dang...now that's the kind of result that can make a nice boy from Crawford reach for his holster and invade Iran this winter....

Obamas big screwup

2007-08-09T03:42:00.000-07:00

Anyway you look at it...Barack was wrong to state publicly that he would strike within Pakistani territory to get Osama with or without President Musharaffs cooperation. Hillary is looking more and more Presidential day by day. Her response to the issue was so much more mature and nuanced. Her sound byte that the Senator from IL wants to talk to our enemies and bomb our allies was also brilliant. Maybe Obama needs some more experience?

Bonds breaks Hank Aarons Record

2007-08-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

Barry Bonds crossed Hank Aarons most home runs records last night when he hit home run number 756. My feelings are mixed. I am happy for Barry but unhappy at his methods for achieveing this fantastic record. If he did not take steroids he would still have been in the top 3 or 4 players of his generation. By taking steroids he has become the greatest player of his generation but at the cost of his integrity. Will there be an asterisk against his home run number like Roger Maris' 61*......I do not know but its a crying shame that such a great player had to resort to artificial means to break this greatest record in baseball. The real test is going to be whether he gets into Cooperstown on the first ballot.....I think he will. Lets check in 5 years..

For Hillary a Proposal...

2007-07-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

Anna Quindlen thinks that Hillary should have "a sense of history, a sense that this election is bigger than just one woman's ambitions" and make it her "business to persuade Barack Obama to be her running mate".

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19762038/site/newsweek/

It is an interestingly bold idea but I dont see it happening. HRC has lived in the shadow of a charismatic "black" man for the last four decades and I just dont see her making the same mistake twice. She will choose Richardson me thinks....

Hindu Prayer in the Senate...

2007-07-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

A Hindu priest opened the Senate session this week with a Hindu prayer. Three protesters from the gallery shouted him down and had to be forcefully removed by the Sergeant at Arms. This was the prayer...not very threatening imho.

"We meditate on the transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of the heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19729245/

Benedict makes a point

2007-07-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

Pope Benedict has reasserted the primacy of the Catholic Church as the only true Church of Jesus Christ on earth. He uses the logic of tracing Bishop succession all the way back to Peter the head apostle upon whom Jesus conferred his earthly mantle in the Gospels when he said "Thou Art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my church" - (of course Jesus or the writers of the Gospels were being tongue in cheek....Peter means stone or rock in Hebrew), as the source for the Roman churchs legitimacy over all others.

When Benedict was Cardinal Ratzinger and headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (an organization formerly known as the Inquisition office) he published this original document. This reassertion is a republishing of the original document. Clearly since the original document was published under John Paul II leadership we can assume that it had the sainted mans tacit if not explicit sanction.

Either way in this age of increased ecumenism this is a very bold statement but not surprising. The Pope is very conservative. He takes the Protestant schism although 500 years old very seriously. He is more lenient with the Orthodox schism however just calling them defective (rather than false) because they fail to recognize the primacy of the Roman prelate.

I am just stunned that in this mordern day and age any global religious leader can make such an unequivocal statement that they have the monopoly on truth. He still encourages inter faith dialog but it is clear that he not only views other interpretations of Christianity to be untrue but also harmful to the doing of Christs work on earth.

Why the Democrats must resist the urge to impeach Bush or Cheney

2007-07-10T04:04:00.000-07:00

The impeach Bush and Cheney bandwagon is gathering steam. This week the latest poll numbers (http://www.americanresearchgroup.com/) show about 45% of Americans in favor of impeaching the President and about 55% in favor of impeaching the Vice President.

The Democrats should not make a move to impeach the President and the Vice President unless a clear crime that meets the "high crimes and misdemeanors" standard is discovered.

The GOP of course had no such qualms about moving to impeach Clinton for the fairly harmless crime of lying under oath about a personal sexual relationship. Clinton's crime certainly did not pass the high crimes and misdemeanors standard. While it is true that the Presidents Iraq policy has caused the death and injury of over 30,000 Americans, Congress should not seek to criminalize the President over his bad (make that disastrous) management of a war. Bush and the GOP should pay a price at the ballot box for that

The founders allowed for impeachment only when the very fabric of the country's democracy is under threat due to corruption in the executive office. It is NOT to be used to get rid of an unpopular chief executive. Although this Administration trumped up the reasons for war, instituted torture, lied to the American people and used the biggest tragedy in American history for political gain, democracy is still thriving in this country. Just look at the election results of last November.

I predict that the election results of November 2008 will not only serve the same result as impeaching the President and the Vice President but will also cause the GOP numbers to shrink even further in Congress. So the Democrats should be patient. Revenge after all is a dish best eaten cold.....

China executes, Bush commutes....

2007-07-10T03:40:00.000-07:00

China executed the former head of its Food and Drug Administration agency, Zheng Xiaoyu, for taking bribes and gifts valued at $832,000 USD. Some of the drugs that the Chinese FDA fradulently approved during Mr. Zhengs tenure caused the deaths of about 10 Chinese citizens.

While the sentence seems abnormally harsh even by the low human rights standards of the Peoples Republic, it seems ironic that while China executes officials for dereliction of duty, the President of the United States has commuted the prison term of a man who not only revealed the identity of an active CIA agent but also perjured himself to a grand jury while trying to cover up that leak.

Of course this man is no ordinary man. He is part of a cabal of Washington insiders who have for the last six years set this country on a disastorous foreign policy course. Their policies have mired the United States in a desert hell hole in a war that it cannot win and have caused the deaths of at least 3500 Americans and over 100,000 Iraqis.

He, the cabal and its leader (aka the US Vice-President) continue to thumb their noses at both the legislative and judicial branches of the United States as they go about their business unapolgetically, shamelessly conducting their phony, ill thought out and horribly executed war.

Bush commutes Libbys sentence

2007-07-02T15:54:00.000-07:00

Bush has balls....and nothing really to lose. At 27% in the polls he really has no where to go but up. So he commuted Scooters 30 month prison sentence.....wow!! Scooter will still have to pay his $250 K fine and serve two years of probation but thats it.

So now we know the price for Libbys silence to protect Cheney from going to prison. 231 years ago the US overthrew an English king named George....I think next year the American voter will have to do the same.

Chai Party in Boston coming right up...

A real gem

2007-07-01T05:43:00.000-07:00

“The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.”

The late senior Senator from New York - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

And to think Hillary Clinton is now filling this great mans seat...

Why Cheney is my favorite Dick?

2007-06-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

This article from the NYT sums it up rather well...."Reviewing this record — secrecy, impatience with government regulations, backroom dealings, handsome paydays — it dawned on us that Mr. Cheney is in step with the times. He has privatized the job of vice president of the United States.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/opinion/03sun2.html?em&ex=1181188800&en=6211b9e15972c8a2&ei=5087%0A

Chris Matthews has stated on Hardball in the past that "Cheney represents the first time that US has had a Prime Minister" - it would be a great idea to make the Veep into a Prime Minister except that irritating little document(aka the US Constitution) doesn't give the Veep any power other than President of the Senate.

So much for John Nance Garner's quote that the Veep job isn't "worth a pitcher of warm spit"

Iraqi girl stoned to death

2007-05-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

This is just too horrifying to watch. I don't want to blame Islam because these kinds of actions predate Islam. This is tribalism at its most horrific. What it shows is that the people we are trying to democratize are really so far away from the basic tenets of decent human behavior that democracy is a pipe dream. This girl belonged to the Yazdi clan in Kurdistan. They are not Muslims per se but follow tenets of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The girls crime....she was dating a Sunni Muslim.

I personally couldn't get through a few seconds of it because I felt physically ill. What is reprehensible is that the police men in the video are watching and doing absolutely nothing.

Throughout the Islamic world especially in Jordan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq honor killings happen with alarming frequency. Surprisingly we don't hear of honor killings in Malaysia and Indonesia. I think south east Asian Islam is more temperate than its Middle Eastern / Pakistani counterparts. More diluted perhaps because the followers are more influenced by the pacifism of Buddhism and Hinduism or maybe they are just less tribal.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/liberation-by-digby-video-is-shaky-but.html

My favorite American women

2007-05-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

Ive been thinking about this. In an era where Hillary Clinton gets so much of the airwaves who are the women that I instinctively like when I see them on TV or read about them. Women who have something to say and say it well. Its an ecclectic list indeed...In order...

1. Sandra Day O' Connor - because of her grace, her eminence and her scholarship
2. Madeline Albright - Divorced mother who got a PhD and became our first female Sec of State
3. Oprah - No explanation needed....for seeding the world with the next generation of women leaders....for turning adversity into prosperity and darkness into light
4. Melinda Gates - smart, focused, the brains behind the greatest act of philanthropy in the history of the world
5. Laura Bush - for her poise, her panache and her Job like faith to stay married to the biggest horses ass in recent American history
6. Nancy Pelossi - Madame Speaker - For engineering the 2006 victory, for standing up to Dick and Bush (Shes #1 on the Hottest Granma list :)
7. Cokie Roberts - The female Edward R. Murrow. The voice of reason and reasonableness. A great writer, news woman and wonderful mom and grandmother
8. Venus and Serena Williams - Oodles of talent, great attitudes, changed the game forever
9. Meg Whitman - for taking ebay from a nice idea and making it an icon of the web
10. Maya Angelou - for making words sing and caress my heart

Hillary does not make the list because I think she is actually a man!!!!
Condi doesnt make it either because Presidential lap dogs is a whole other post

Carters amazing back flip

2007-05-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

First he showed he had some cajones by saying it like it is..."This Administration is the worst in history" to the BBC....then he recanted the very next day and said that he was taken out of context because he was referring to President Bush's foreign policy when contrasted with Richard Nixons.....What crap......... Here is what he said....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18759682/

He probably chickened out when his advisors told him that it was not kosher for an ex President to diss a sitting President even though the incumbent is Dubbya....He should not have recanted......dumb move. Makes him even more irrelevant.

The girls on The View get serious

2007-05-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

not a discussion of Sanjaya's hair or the last Lost episode........a real good debate. Unsure where Rosie gets her 655K dead Iraqi number from but an excellent discussion. No wonder the GOP establishment have put the word out to silence Ron Paul. He is making us think....Cheney cannot have that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6SfmXigHpE&eurl=

Jerry Falwell (1933-2007)

2007-05-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

There are three events that got Christians involved in national politics and handed the South to the GOP. The first was Nixon's decision in 1968 (the so called Southern strategy) to woo disaffected (and racist) Southern whites after the Democrats passed through the Civil Rights Bill and the Great Society Reforms in the 1960s, the second was the passing of Roe vs. Wade in 1973 by the US Supreme Court and the third was the creation of the Moral Majority by Jerry Fallwell and Paul Weyrich in 1979 to organize religious voters.

In my opinion the organized entry of evangelicals into national politics completely changed the political game in the United States and so in that sense Jerry Falwell is one of the most important politicians (although he never held public office) in the history of the United States.

I think that Jerry Falwell represented sometimes the best that America has to offer (private enterprise, faith, charity, education and dialog across the aisle) but most times represented an unforgiving hard heartedness that would likely have made the founder of his religion very unhappy with him.

His statements the day after 9/11 to Pat Roberston that the US deserved the attack (because of our support for Abortionists and gays) was particularly galling. To his credit he apologized the very next day and blamed "fatigue" for the mis-statement. His fight throughout his life to cast the first stone on issues like gay rights (not marriage just simple gay rights) also was troubling while his stand on desegregation and civil rights (he initially opposed it) in the 60s and his opposition to sanctions against the apartheid government in South Africa in the 80s was downright shameful.

He was a humble country pastor who through force of will and conviction of his ideas rose to the national stage. Once he grabbed the national microphone, he used it to lower the wall between church and state and make other Christians like him realize the awful power of their voting franchise and their voting bloc. His movement definitely elected Reagan in 1980 and probably elected Bush 41.

In that sense he acted as an innovative capitalist in our marketplace of ideas. He debated his ideas publicly and allowed people to make up their minds (of course he also threatened them that God would eternally damn them should they not see it exactly his way).

I disagreed strongly with almost every thing he stood for, but the addition of his voice to the national dialog showed that Democracy and the First Amendment still work in this country.

Rest in Peace.