Dr. Sen Sentenced to Life Friday in India

45% of Indian children suffer from malnutrition.

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"Civil rights groups and academics in India and the US have called on India's government to free a leading public health specialist and human rights activist, Dr Binayak Sen.

"He was sentenced to life in prison last Friday for helping Maoist rebels.

"Dr Sen was found guilty of carrying messages and setting up bank accounts for the rebels, who are active in large areas of central and eastern India.

"Activists say the evidence against Dr Sen was "manufactured".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12084785

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Amnesty International among other leading human rights groups have condemned India for its vicious attack on a doctor who treated poor people, including those 45% of its children suffering from malnutrition.

India is a mixed bag, still haunted by its Caste system which divided people into stratified separate classes per wealth and poverty:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India

You might mention this situation to some of those representing our credit card and other financial institutions calling from India.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Dying Right

The Republican "death panel" stuff is pure and simple c--p.

All of us are mortal, i.e. going to die some way. Probably the best way to go is suddenly with little or at least short-lived pain. Such usually sends one into shock which blocks the pain. Sudden death -- stroke, heart failure, accident -- is hard on our loved ones. But even harder is a slow dragged out death from such as cancer or MS in their final stages. Caring doctors do not prolong this process -- but not all care.

I recall a couple, dear friends of ours who died quite young several years apart. His death was due to leukemia -- his doctor dropped him as a patient when his insurance ran out. She developed lung cancer which was only discovered in the late stages. It spread rapidly and particularly painfully to her spine. My wife and I were startled when her family left suddenly (parents and daughters). The next day when we returned to the hospital we found her heavily sedated (unconscious) with no evidence of fluid or food support. We asked her doctor why not and he said she could have lasted quite a time. He had obviously decided it was time to let her go and she had died when we returned the next day.

Obviously now we need to let terminal patients and their families deliberate with their doctors as to whether to fight on to the bitter end or let death come. This happened with a person very dear to me. She was unconscious with blood on the brain -- she had stopped talking in mid sentence when her heart and breathing suddenly stopped. This happened two more times and the doctors explained that this would repeat. It did several weeks later and she died peacefully.

The Republicans would try to block humane medicine. It is no one's business how quickly one dies but those personally involved in consultation with their doctors.

There are right and wrong ways to die. I have seen both.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Rescued by Mentors

I happened to catch a fragment of a program the other day in which the interviewee was arguing that our experiences in early childhood shape our adult lives -- in contrast to the genetic explanations of personality and adult behavior.

It set me thinking as to how fortunate I had been most of my life to have ben rescued by mentors. When I was about 4 I developed what was diagnosed as rheumatic fever which attacks the heart. The family doctor immediately ordered a regime that prevented me even from walking. A kindly British nurse cared for me -- carrying me out to a cot on warm days. She taught me numbers and also the preliminaries of reading with extreme kindness.

My first through third grades were blessed by a school experiment having the same teacher carry on the three years with her classes. Miss Loretti who became Mrs. Batista along the way was a superb and loving teacher. My education continued with much mentoring by fine teachers and granted me an exchange year in a British "public" (code for expensive private school) where I also had fine and caring teachers -- except perhaps for the one who would throw a book at us if he caught us not paying attention.

I think all the mentors that I had throughout my Ph.D. gave me the guts to challenge injustices wherever I encountered them -- despite the risks involved in challenging authorities which included several college presidents among others.

In these rough times I imagine many are avoiding conflicts which are threatening to their well-being.

This may be the major threat to our nation now.

Bring on more Bradley Mannings!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Republicans Look to Be in Disarray?

I suspect that we are in for an interesting two years as the Republicans try to get their act together. Are they conservatives, moderates, some ungodly shifting combination of same.

It looks to me as though Obama has gotten off to a fast start. I am holding my breath as to whether the START treaty with Russia will get the 67 votes it probably needs to pass -- with one of our Dems unavailable due to sudden surgery. But otherwise Obama has done pretty well. No more discrimination against gays in the military. The Republicans bought no tax burdens for the ultra rich -- I suspect that they will regret that as it blows their cover so far as whom they support in this fair land. Once they have control of the House, I hate to imagine what trick or treats they will attempt. None, I assume, that Obama can't veto.

I see no plausible Republican candidate to run against Obama. All he has to do now is to expose the Republicans for what they are -- very greedy people who give not a damn for the bulk of us.

There is time now to tell things as they are. Our job problems lie more with our major competitors -- particularly the Chinese -- who can sell cheap. They have no real worries about poverty or benefits in their country. India is about as bad.

We need to get ourselves out of two or three ridiculous wars, but I imagine that we shall be doing that this next two years.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Our Australians at Polar Opposites

[Ironically the most powerful voices in America today seem to be those of Australians -- Murdoch and Assange. The former has taken over the bulk of our radio and TV media and is doing his best to cover-up American abuses. The latter is doing his best to expose the same. Below are fragments on each from Wikipedia websites.

This truly is a battle royale. Assange has just been released from solitary confinement and faces rape charges in Sweden and death threats from American pols and others. Murdock has been buying up and corrupting American media as he did earlier the British. It is fascinating that their voices are more powerful than those of most Americans. Murdock's Fox News is a case in point. More than any other living figure he has divided Americans into extreme positions, liberal versus conservative. He has no compunctions over lying and distorting basic facts which he reduces to crude (and emotionally appealing) slogans, e.g. 'Cutting the taxes of the ultra rich will create jobs'. Since he now controls much of our media it can repeat such over and over so that the bulk of our population begins to believe it. Americans are running scared and will listen to any voice that promises to rescue them with more money. Needless to say such are fictions, not facts.

On the other side Assange is apparently not only under attack by the Murdock team but also key members of the Obama administration. Which will kill or jail him first?

If one stops to think about it for a moment we are living in a time of madness. Ed Kent]

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"Assange founded the WikiLeaks website in 2006 and serves on its advisory board. He has been involved in publishing material about extrajudicial killings in Kenya, for which he won the 2009 Amnesty International Media Award. He has also published material about toxic waste dumping in Africa, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay procedures, and banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer.[10] In 2010, he published classified details about US involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then, on 28 November 2010, WikiLeaks and its five media partners began publishing secret US diplomatic cables.[11] The White House has called Assange's release of the diplomatic cables "reckless and dangerous".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

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"Beginning with one newspaper in Adelaide, Murdoch acquired and started other publications in his native Australia before expanding News Corp. into the United Kingdom, United States and Asian media markets. Although it was in Australia in the late 1950s that he first dabbled in television, he later sold these assets, and News Corp.'s Australian current media interests (still mainly in print) are restricted by cross-media ownership rules. Murdoch's first permanent foray into TV was in the USA, where he created Fox Broadcasting Company in 1986. In the 2000s, he became a leading investor in satellite television, the film industry and the Internet, and purchased a leading American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. He and his media are leading backers of conservative causes."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Innocent African American Men in Prison?

The issue that concerns me here is not the huge % of our prisoners who are African Americans, but how many of these are innocent?

I have been robbed by African American men three times -- once on the subway and once when a man snuck in our open front door one hot summer day the grabbed my billfold and my wife's purse sitting by the front door. My wife saw him from the end of a long hall and alerted me. I went in fast pursuit -- out a back door to our building which caught me up with him racing up the hill towards Broadway. I pursued him and found my billfold around the corner he had just turned. Unfortunately for him he then rushed down the next street towards Riverside Park where at the corner was a police patrol that permanently guarded one of our elected officials. I yelled to them that I had been robbed. He jumped over a wall into the park. The police caught him near the river. In our meeting in court he greeted me like an old friend. However, I could not testify that I had seen him with my wallet. My wife was too far down our hall to identify him. So the end result was a short sentence -- I happened to sit down next to him at a local diner about six months later. We recognized each other and he took off. A nice lady found my wife's purse several months later jammed between some rocks near the Hudson River and kindly returned it to us. Needless to say he was no genius -- that greeting when they brought him into court!

The second occasion on a subway a man sat own next to me and demanded my money. I pretended not to have understood him, so he yelled the demand again which resounded through the half full subway car. He said he had a gun in his pocket and all those there looked the other way and I gave him the $20.00 in my billfold. I had the train stopped and the police asked whether I wanted to ride with them to look for the man. I said that there was no reason to because I would not be able to recognize him. I was watching his pocket and his face was distorted. No way I could pick out the robber.

The third experience was on a train to Philadelphia with my wife for a holiday visit to her mother. I was carrying an old a battered billfold, so I had given all my stuff in it for her to carry in her purse and kept only a $20.00 bill in case we somehow got separated. One guy bumped me hard and apologized while the other extracted my billfold from my pocket. I immediately realized what had happened -- we were near Newark by then. They had moved to another car, so I had the train conductors announce that a pickpocket team was working the train. Half an hour later they passed me by and we smiled at each other. I could not be completely sure they were the team, so did not seek to have them arrested -- was glad to have gotten rid of the old billfold.

There was actually a minor fourth incident on a crowded bus when I felt a guy trying to pry loose my billfold. I told him to quit it. He got out at the next stop.

Had I been a vindictive person I could have modified the stories a bit and claimed that these guys were the perps. But I was a legal philosopher and did not want to have people convicted by error. I fear that this is not always the case when one hears of people identifying people they only saw in a dark parking lot from a considerable distance away. In one particular well publicized case the man was not picked up at the scene, but from a lineup and convicted of murder despite his claims of innocence and friend's that he was at another location at the time of the shooting.

My wife and I lived in Harlem for several years and she particularly did decades of community service there. We were both aware that it is sometimes difficult to recognize people across race and ethnic lines, even if one knows them pretty well. Neither of us had any crime problems during our Harlem years.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

The Rich Get Richer . . . ?

Things do not look good -- either for those of us not wealthy or the nation as a whole. We are over committed financially to the wrong things -- the rich rather than those in desperate need of help, wars that have no end or ends that can be justified. Obama's comments on Afghanistan said not a word about our security agencies' skepticism about our prospects there which contrast sharply with the military boasting reinforced by Obama. I can understand his impulse not to undermine our troops with his comments, but . . .

WikiLeaks will have more to say about such things and presumably coming up -- the corruption of many of our economic institutions -- public and private. Stealing seems to be the name of the game. When caught the rich get fines and the poor, prison sentences.

I had the good fortune to have an honest investment counselor as a father and he taught me to trust no one connected with Wall St. He had anticipated the Depression and gotten as many of his clients as possible out of the market. Some of the smartest stayed in and were slaughtered by the crash.

We seem to be repeating the same pattern of which I imagine Obama ix fully aware. Needless to say he will be blamed for our economic disasters. That is the Republican way of dodging responsibility.

Julian Assange is the bad guy for telling it as it is. If they don't get him killed, they will figure some way to get him into solitary confinement as they have done with Bradley Manning.

But there are too many knowledgeable people to hide the facts. We are in for an interesting two years!
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Sold Out by the GOP?

Obama, I suspect, is at his lowest popularity rating now, but if you check out the Washington Post/ABC polls below, you will find that he is still ahead of the Republicans.

American suffering is going to be great this next two years. The 13 month extension of assistance to those out of work does not include the 99ers who have already reached the maximum beyond which the benefit does not apply. Our job competition is with nations willing to trash their own workers with low wages and lack of benefits to produce goods at a rate which we cannot match with our current labor standards.

In contrast the Republicans seem bent on increasing the income of our richest Americans with lowered tax rates and no 'death' penalty estate taxes.

Perhaps the Republican House will do something to keep supporters on board, but I think such foolish greed will not sell again. The numbers simply are there now on record. Even some of our billionaires are not buying this gross manifestation of greed. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and others have spoken out and will presumably continue to do so. What more could the Republicans promise the ultras -- a House of Lords in place of the Senate?

Obama may not have gotten all the pieces in place, but it looks as though he has given the Republicans the rope necessary to hang themselves. Manifestly he is a decent guy with a fine family. I will let others fill in the blanks as to what it means to be a Republican now.

The Post-ABC poll tells us how things are now - "public not yet sold on GOP." I suspect the next stage -- when the shock of the election wears off -- will be that the public feels totally conned by the GOP.

On with the 2012 Election Campaign . . .

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Breaking News Alert: Post-ABC poll: public not yet sold on GOP
December 14, 2010 5:03:15 PM
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"Republicans made major gains in the November elections but they have yet to win the hearts and minds of the American people, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

"The midterm elections – where Republicans gained 63 seats to take control of the House of Representatives and added six seats to their Senate minority – were widely seen as a rebuke to President Obama. Still, the public now trusts Obama marginally more than congressional Republicans to deal with the country’s main problems in the coming years, 43 to 38 percent. And when it comes to who has taken the stronger leadership role in Washington, it's an even divide: 43 percent say Obama, 42 percent the GOP."
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Bad News!

I feel some sympathy for Obama trying to figure how to cope what almost seems to be a new major problem each day.

To run down the list:

Our economy is in a mess -- deep recession with debts, both national and individual.

The current wars and threat of yet another offer little likelihood of good results. Iraq may well degenerate into a civil war between its three disparate ethnic/religious communities -- Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis.

Afghanistan has degenerated into an unending slaughter both of Americans and Afghans.

God only knows what Iran plans to do with its nuclear expansion. Will Israel launch an attack? Other nations in the area would like us to do that.

The recent election has brought to the fore the know nothings. One can only guess what they will be up to. We can be pretty sure they will not be assisting Obama whom they would like to replace with one of their own. But they have no equivalent of an Eisenhower who ended off the Korean war -- while letting the CIA get away with murder here and there -- particularly Iran where it destroyed an embryonic democracy and brought back the brutal Shah.

Greed and self-interest seem to be the dominant flow of Americans -- while debts and needless deaths of those who cannot afford medical care mount.

And need one add that American education is being devastated to put us at a growing disadvantage with our competitors?

Our society seems to be degenerating between a small segment of ultra rich versus the poor and middle income majority beset by financial decline.

The only good news is that we and our European confreres are no longer is a position to exploit our former 'colonies' which are now developing their economies and ways of life on their own -- for better or worse.

The only thing left for us to do is to show regrets and humility for the wrongs we have done and begin to close down our more than 700 military bases scattered around the globe which we can no longer afford and which are powerless anyway.

What more can one say as our Republican House does its best to make things worse?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Confessions

These are some things that I did in my life that I deeply regret. The first good lesson came when I was in first grade. My mother used to drive me to school and then pick me up for lunch. One day I was slow to get ready and late to school. I told my beloved teacher -- first through third grades -- that my mother had been the one slow getting started. To my horror that day my mother took my teacher as well as me to where we were going to have lunch and the truth came out. I learned that lying to save oneself does not pay. And I have tried tell the truth since with the only exception of protecting someone else who had confided something to me that he/she did not want shared.

My next mistake was joining a Yale senior society. I did so to please my father, a Yale grad. Skull and Bones -- Buckley's home base as well as Bush's -- broke the rules and promised me a place several days in advance of the official invitation date. I chose to join the more liberal competitor -- Scroll and Key. I was not comfortable there and finally horrified that a dean who had been a member violated basic rules by providing us with the private materials of potential student candidates. I quit. Free at last!

On another occasion a woman who had been a friend of many of us asked if I could send her $25.00 -- she was ill with Multiple Sclerosis. We were hard pressed with family debts at the time and I did not respond. I was horrified to learn that she had committed suicide shortly thereafter.

More recently I regret casting the deciding vote on tenure against one of our excellent teachers at Brooklyn College. She would have been far superior to the candidate with which we ended up.

Any who follow my blogs or comments know that I care deeply about the honesty and decency of my country. I nearly became a member of the military when Eisenhower stopped the Korean war just in time for me to resign from the NROTC.

Having been a child of WW2 I am all to aware that some wars are justified, but not many. So I am for peace-making except when we have no other alternative. I know that the Iraq war was deadly wrong and have mixed feelings about the Afghanistan mess where women are at risk from the Taliban.

When I get things wrong, I try to correct my errors. But I also try to be well informed so that I don't make too many.

And so it goes. I am sure there are other wrong doings that will come to mind as soon as I post this.

To end this on a happier note I had the first dream about my beloved wife who died August 22, 2009. We did not talk, but I saw her in the distance -- we had fallen in love as young teens and married as soon as she completed college. We shared a rich and full life. She was an example for me never to be forgotten.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

This Is Important: The Unemployment Insurance Extension Does NOTHING For The 99ers

http://www.businessinsider.com/does-the-unemployment-insurance-extension-help-the-99ers-2010-12

I had assumed that Obama's deal to extend unemployment pay outs would rescue the estimated 2 million 99ers who will have run out of support during the next two months. With a Republican House controlling finances, I see no help for these people apart from private organizations which are themselves struggling for funds in the face of the recession.

With the poverty rate somewhere around 59 million and increasing, both older and young people unable to get jobs, I don't know what is going to happen to millions cut off from assistance -- a good number of these presumably (formerly) middle class and really inexperienced with basic survival tactics. I expect that our crime rates will increase -- ranging from shoplifting to armed robberies. And I dread the likely increase in the suicide rate as people simply give up.

Were I able to get out and about, I would be joining protest groups. But age and health keep me at home. For several years I supported two elderly ladies in a two family house in Vermont who could no longer pay rents, but the costs were about $1,000 a month, so I sold the house after one died and I was sure that the other was secure living with a sister. My income is mainly from Social Security and pension funds that are secured, but not unlimited.

Imagine the elderly widow without children or near relatives who struggles home from a shopping to discover the locks changed on her doors and her treasured possessions scattered on the sidewalk? Among other things elderly people often have difficulty finding, let alone filling out forms for such things as food stamps. And food stamps are insufficient to feed people anyway. And they are being cut:

Lean Times: Food Stamp Recipients Face Cut in Benefits
By Gianna Palmer on Dec 11th, 2010

http://theuptowner.org/2010/12/11/lean-times-food-stamp-recipients-face-cut-in-benefits/

Many years ago I explored theology as a career because our churches were taking the lead with ending segregation, helping people in need, etc. But I was warned by my teachers (e.g. Reinhold Niebuhr) that Billy Graham was leading the church towards self-interest rather than help to others. Check out the Palin and Fox news versions of Christian duties towards one's fellow humans -- and Graham's son, Franklin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Graham

I dread the next two years.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Evaluating Teachers?

By chance two solid studies on evaluating teachers have been published within several weeks of each other. What is clear is that the present system of awarding lifetime tenure to teachers after only two years of service is both unfair to new teachers and to students stuck with incompetent ones.

Tenure for beginning college teachers usually requires 5 to 7 years in the classroom and includes student evaluations in the tenure assessment. Personally I loved teaching and my students responded with their appreciation. I chose this as my life's work although I could as well have become a journalist or joined the foreign service -- both of which interested me and for which I was qualified. I was one nervous cat during my first semester of teaching at Vassar College and then the barriers came down and teaching became a great joy. I am a blogger now which is a way of carrying on teaching in retirement.

What changes, then, should we make in selecting teachers?

1) We must end automatic lifetime tenure after only two years. That is insufficient time for beginners to get their feet on the ground and it locks in incompetents. College tenure for beginners requires five to seven years of learning and evaluation. The same standard should apply to lower level teaching.

2) We must get rid of incompetent teachers either through early retirement or assigning them to non teaching roles.

The teacher union power figures such such as Randi Weingarten who retired July 31, 2009, "did right by her members", the New York Daily News said. What turned me off was her deal with Pataki in which she supported his race for NY Governor in return for massive increases in salaries and benefits for teachers. She was a deal maker -- but for teachers and not their students.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randi_Weingarten

What Works in the Classroom? Ask the Students

"Financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the two-year project involves scores of social scientists and some 3,000 teachers and their students in Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas; Denver; Hillsborough County, Fla., which includes Tampa; Memphis; New York; and Pittsburgh."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/education/11education.html?ref=todayspaper

Brown Center on Education Policy at Brooks

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/reports/2010/1117_evaluating_teachers/1117_evaluating_teachers.pdf

We are in for a chaotic two years of budget cutting with the Republican victory in the House (and also many state legislatures).

Hopefully America will not fall down the rabbit hole of educational failure where it used to be the global leader. The system is now a disgrace. Our dropping rankings in math, science, reading, etc. are a major threat to our national welfare. Perhaps we should shut down some of our 737 (or more) military bases and redirect the savings to education?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_bases
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Lest We Forget -- We Shall Have a Republican House for Two Years

Obama can veto Republican bills, but he cannot ensure funding for those in desperate need of help. I am disconcerted by the blah, blah, blah of Democratic pols who seem not yet to have taken in the fact that they lost the last election.

The only check on the Republicans is pointing out their favoring the ultra rich -- which Obama's tax deal with them manifests in bold letters.

There will be much games playing this next two years and Obama is our leader. It is time to give him the support he needs. He is presumably smarter than any of our other Democratic pols, judging from their current nonsensical conduct. Hopefully enough Republicans will be equally foolish which will scuttle their party in the eyes of the public.

Let's see what games they will try to play? Medicare needs some house cleaning to block unnecessary procedures which add to doctor benefits, but Social Security only needs adequate tax support to keep it functioning.

We need to fund education adequately if we are going to keep up with the global competition that is sapping our jobs (i.e. China). A budget freeze on education is not exactly going to achieve that end.

A good life insurance investment would be on the 45,000 each year who are dying needlessly from lack of medical care they can afford. Perhaps the Republicans prefer such early deaths to ease our budgets?

Students who can't get jobs or pay back their student loans had better spend a bit of time figuring who is getting what and why -- and vote accordingly.

Again, we are living in interesting times. Help!
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Defending Bradley Manning

According the Wikipedia report:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Manning

Bradley Manning had a troubled childhood with the separation of his Welsh mother and American father which led to his return to Wales. According to the Wiki report he is a troubled young man.

However, he has graphically demonstrated that in this age of internet communications there are no secrets and that whistle blowers in the military and in other fields have outlets through which to share their concerns with wrong-doing.

Some are now arguing that he should be prosecuted and given a life sentence or even executed.

But let us get things clear here. Manning is no terrorist. He has murdered no one. Any harm that he has caused people is far exceeded by the killing and maiming done by others in states at war or otherwise in turmoil.

What Manning deserves is not punishment, but help with his personal problems. We do as much with others who have done things objectionable -- if at not such a massive scale. He has become a symbol of doing the right thing in the face of the offensive doings of others -- individuals or governments.

I assume that there are many others now ready to follow his lead.

Let us not forget, either, that he is a very young man who will only be turning 23 on December 17.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Our Democratic 'liberal' pols don't seem to have caught on

Our Democratic 'liberal' pols don't seem to have caught on the the fact that the election handed over control of our economy to the Republicans.

The one caution that smart Republicans face is that they are the party controlled by and favoring the ultra rich. They know that they will face this fact with the next election and whether they have obviously sold out the middle income as well as the poor -- so they are willing to negotiate with Obama: favor not taxing of the ultras, but yielding some help to the unemployed, i.e. a 13 month extension of unemployment funds.

We shall presumably see the Obama/Republican dance continuing for the next two years. Assange has been arrested but his next wave of exposures -- presumably of banks as well as pols -- is soon to come. Check out Bank of America and Citgroup Among others:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/20/news/companies/bank_of_america/

The Republicans can once again be held responsible for unemployment -- they will control the monies now. And Wikileaks has shown how easy it is to make such information generally available and presumably will do so and set an example for other whistle blowers. We live in a new era in which secrets can no longer be kept. Both governments and people with other powers are now under scrutiny. One of my classmates suggested that medical records are private and I asked him how he knew that?

"FBI retains access to medical records under the newly reauthorized Patriot Act--- changes addresses of some patients for confidentiality concerns, but many doctors worry they don't go far enough." [Edited slightly. Ed]

By Amy Snow Landa, amednews correspondent. March 27, 2006.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/03/27/gvsb0327.htm

To cite an old Chinese proverb, we are living in interesting years.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]

Giving Obama a Rough Time?

As I read the commentaries today nearly all of them are giving Obama a rough time: why did he freeze federal salaries for two years? Does he really think he can persuade the Republicans to drop their tax break for the superrich? etc., etc. About the one positive report in my emails today is the DAVID E. SANGER piece in the NY Times Week in Review ("Cables Depict Range of Obama Diplomacy").

It is pretty obvious that the Republicans are bent on destroying Obama and helping the superrich lobbyists rather than rescuing Americans in dire trouble -- losing homes and facing hunger for themselves and children -- and dying needlessly because they cannot afford a doctor. Presumably Obama will have to compromise to keep unemployment monies flowing as long as possible. Our employment situation is not going to improve radically because our global competitors -- particularly China -- are grabbing jobs with minimum supports of their workers and fiddling their currency.

Thank God Obama is smart, young, healthy, and has a happy family!

I think it is time that our opinionated media start taking seriously the massive problems which Obama inherited from previous Republican regimes which sabotaged government regulations and allowed huge profits to corporations while gutting our economy. I don't know how many people there are that could juggle hand grenades and cluster bombs while keeping our nation moving in the best possible direction.

We will shortly be having some bad bank news from Wikileaks. 149 have failed in 2010 so far and guess who pays the damages, i.e. for replacement public employees and guarantees of balances up to $250,000?

Bank of America is rumored to be the next Wikileaks revelation. The following Washington Post article today is not encouraging:

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 5, 2010

"When Bank of America agreed to buy Countrywide Financial for $4 billion in January 2008, the bank's chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis, called it a "one-time opportunity."

"When this opportunity knocked, however, it blew the door down. More than two years after the acquisition, Bank of America has taken write-offs of $5.5 billion because of troubles at Countrywide. And the losses are still mounting.

"Now, instead of celebrating its improved profits and stronger capital base, the bank is trapped in a "Groundhog Day"-style routine of fending off crisis."

For the rest of the report:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120400056.html

Could it be that we may need to bail out this monster and those with their monies tied up in it? Such news would not be good -- 14 MILLION loans?
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Hebrews Versus Hellenes on Homosexuality

The ancient Hebrews were opposed to gay relationships, but not the Hellenes who saw loving relationships -- particularly between older men and younger ones -- as a form of sponsorship:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_ancient_Greece

There are echoes of this in characterizations of Plato/Socrates.

I find no Google source which gives a good explanation of the conflict between Greek and Hebrew values. However, I recall my Old Testament teacher in divinity school maintaining that the Hebrews were afraid that young Jews might get involved with the Greek temple prostitutes.

Needless to say the Hebrew tradition has dominated the major Western religions -- Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. However, there was a time when Oxbridge dons were not allowed to marry and British higher education -- as well as gender divided British public schools -- tended to follow the Hellenic model. I recall my fellow students at Uppingham being impressed that I had a girl friend. One told me that our headmaster had cautioned students about gay behavior which was offensive to Americans. Some senior students were permitted to choose younger ones to do chores for them. These latter were called "fags" from which, I assume, this term derived. The prettiest of the young ones were usually most in demand.

There was some sadism involved as well, as young students accused of some wrongdoing were not infrequently aroused from sleep in the dormitories and ordered to bend over their beds so that they could be beaten by the seniors -- I was known as "old soft slipper," as I did not approve of hurting kids. For lesser offenses a slipper was used, while a cane was the weapon for more egregious ones.

The lists of noted gays and the evolution of attitudes towards homosexuality over the millennia is quite impressive:

http://jclarkmedia.com/gaybooks/chronologicalsurvey.html
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Caring Facts Versus Abusive Opinions

As one who was trained in theology as well as philosophy, I am influenced by the examples of two of our great humans of the past who were both executed by their jealous establishments -- Jesus and Socrates:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates

I am not a religious believer, but I do ardently support the ideals of both our human heroes of the past. Jesus argued for the poor and Socrates (at least in Plato's account) challenged false opinions and sought the facts as they could be discovered in his time.

I was somewhat bemused to see the contrast between the two major political events in D.C. before the recent elections -- one spieling Christian stuff. The other challenging current political lies.

Needless to say, Christians all too often declare their personal saintliness while the institution of Christianity has been the most brutal and destructive of the three major Western religions. Check the history of wars, burnings at the stake, etc.

I am watching now the attacks being mounted against Julian Assange:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

There are those who would jail him, too -- our Secretary of State?

Personally I see Assange as a sort of dual Jesus and Socrates. He is exposing the uglies with basic facts. The young man who seems to have been his major source is being threatened with life in prison -- for exposing the gross abuses of humanity in our wars.

How ironic. History looks to be repeating itself.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Obama Should Hang Tough and Let the Republicans Expose Themselves

The Republicans are threatening to block essential legislation unless the super wealthy get another tax break.

IMHO Obama should stick to his guns on this one and let the Republicans hang themselves:

1) We need the proposed treaty with Russia not only to keep the peace in the Middle East, but to get our troops into and out of Afghanistan:

http://rt.com/usa/news/us-to-supply-troops-in-afghanistan-via-russia/

2) We need to continue support of those out of work or we will be facing this spring TWO MILLION more hungry and evicted from their homes:

http://www.39online.com/news/local/kiah-unemployment-benefit-fight-story,0,2216111.story

3) We need the extra taxes from the superrich to reduce the budget deficit -- Gates, Buffet and others have so recommended:

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/billionaires-buffett-gates-tax-us/story?id=12259003

4) We need to use public monies to mend our infrastructure before more bridges fall, people are poisoned by their water supplies, dams give way with heavy flooding, etc., etc. Such would both save lives and create jobs:

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/08/infrastructure_numbers.html

This list is not exhaustive. The Republican conservative program is brutal on all fronts. We have per a Harvard medical study 45,000 dying each year because they could not afford to see a doctor:

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/

Our education system is falling apart.

Obama has nothing to gain by playing ball with these types. They need to be exposed for what they are so that somewhere near at least 50% of our eligible voters do so. Without voters voting we are no longer a democracy.

He must choose whether we are to be a democracy or plutocracy ruled by CEOs in their own interest.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Holidays Are Rough When the One with Whom One Shared Them Is Gone

This is probably my most personal blog, but perhaps it will be helpful to others who have lost a loved one. My dear wife who died August 22 '09 and I met as young teens at a conference our parents were attending. We fell in love and at our next meeting four years later, decided that we would get married. And we did as soon as she graduated from college and we headed off for a year of studies at Oxford.

Fortunately she did not suffer in anticipating death, as she was unconscious during her last few weeks in the hospital. She had had excellent medicine. But I had always figured that I would be the first to go and was shocked at her loss.

I am particularly reminded of her when the big holidays come along -- Thanksgiving and Christmas. I try not to think of her too much as such thoughts bring inevitable sadness. Her public service was great and she was honored for it both before and after her death. From where I sit at the computer, I see a half dozen awards to her service from our local politicians -- Morningside Heights and lower West Harlem where she fought Columbia to protect the residents and businesses there from expulsion -- our graduate student institution!

The lesson that I learned from her death is that we are all mortal and should do our best to help others while we can. Health keeps me at home, so I blog out of my background as a social, legal, political philosopher. I get about 100 informative email reports each day on matters that one does not often find on TV. I pass along the best of these with comments.

All three of my children are helping others and greatly miss their talks with their mother.

I assume we shall weather the recent election and hope that some good things emerge as a consequence of it. Yes, I greatly appreciate Wikileaks for telling us things as they are. Perhaps the reports will encourage peace, rather than war? We shall see.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]