FRIDAY, December 31, 2004

It happened a few years ago.  That was the time when, having attended a live docu-drama at the Garde Theatre in New London which reviewed important events of the last 75 years, I decided that living through it once was enough.  Events of recent years have reinforced that judgment: 9/11 and its consequences; the death of our first child, Maura, last year; the never-ending Presidential campaign....  And so, I have no interest in reading summaries of 2004.

Onward and upward.  To put it another way: the most important day of our life is...TODAY.  Yesterday is gone.  Tomorrow is a hope.  Today is real and all opportunity.

But just in case tomorrow comes, HAPPY NEW YEAR, and 'til we meet again' within the four corners of Rapid Response.     Thank you for your continuing interest.

GS

THURSDAY, December 30, 2004

• The Democrats are still carping at President Bush, this time for allegedly not reacting fast enough to the tsunami disaster.  But the President was fast enough to have Colin Powell  address the issue immediately on TV; to have an aircraft carrier group immediately dispached from Japan to the area to give hands-on support; and to begin the transfer of funds to affected nations.  More action has come and will come.  Meanwhile, can Democrats be non-partisan about anything?
• In recent days I have been writing about Justice, Freedom and Democracy, subjects entirely suited to the Christmas season...and to any season.  Recently, I was sent the transcript of a presentation, made by Dr. Myron Schoenfeld of New York: "Is Democracy for Everyone?"  An excellent review of the history...and the currency...of democracy in the world, this presentation is available on this web site, under "The Involved Citizen - Society.  It's worth your time and consideration.

WEDNESDAY, December 29, 2004

• The tsunami stories are heart-wrenching; and this is just the beginning.  Why is it that some people in the world, as in South Asia and in Central Africa, are destined to suffer, and suffer?  I sure don't know.  But I know that such disasters, and even the periods between the inevitable disasters, represent great opportunities for the wealthier nations of the world to do good...and often to do well in the process.  The immediacy of today's T.V. and other reportage shows so clearly how we are a one world community, people to people.  America must do its utmost at this time, as President Bush has today promised, despite the fact that we, who provide 40% of all the world's food and cash aid to needy peoples, have been called "stingy" by a representative of that bulwark of responsiveness...the U.N.  Fine.  Whether in war or in peace, we'll do our own thing.  All others are welcome to participate...or not.
• Meanwhile, the stories of greed, subterfuge and fraud from the corporate world continue to pock-mark the news.  Today's WSJ has yet another relevant article ("Opinions Labeling Deals 'Fair' Can Be Far From Independent", by Ann Davis and Monica Langley, p1).  When is our federal government, Republican or Democrat, going to require fiscal and tax fairness from the business world?  Such action would provide much-needed funds for activities other than as rewards for greed, subterfuge and fraud.
• On a "lighter" note, we find nearly daily articles on rampant obesity anywhere American culture has been injected; and we also learn that none of the touted diet regimens are supported by any scientific evidence that they work, as reported in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine. Well, I tell you what I'm gonna do.  Very shortly this web site will highlight a new public service recommending the only eating and life-style approach that has worked for over two thousand years: the Mediterranean Diet and life-style.  This will be a product of Mediterranean Diet Enterprises, Inc., our latest effort to do good while doing well.  Stay tuned.

MONDAY and TUESDAY, December 27 and 28, 2004

This Christmas Season "has me in its spell".  Earlier this week we wrote about Peace; then we decided there could be no peace without Justice.  Now, how can there be justice for people whose God has given them the ultimate gift...free will...without the Freedom to exercise that free will?  And what is the only structure for societal organization that has been shown to be most capable of promoting freedom? Democracy.Thus, America's desire to export democracy, strengthened to a mission of self-defense after 9/11, is the only logical game plan if we seek peace, for ourselves and for the world.  Against us are alligned minor players, like the Uzbek leader who prohibited any opposition parties from participating in the recent "election" because "there is no real opposition".  There are serious opponents like the Osama bin Laden and the Sunnis in Iraq, and the mullas throughout the Islamic world who distort Islam for their own ends.  And there are dangerous opponents like the Old Guard of the USSR who still control, autocratically, enough nuclear power to destroy the world.  But what choice do we Americans have, except to pursue this game plan of promoting democracy, sometimes at the expense of demoting its opposite number in other areas of the world?  Fortress America has long since been bridged.  And this is not "empire building".  It is simply self-defense.  So, let's stay the course.  However difficult, the alternative is much worse...and irresponsible.

GS

SUNDAY, December 26, 2004

More on the subject of Christmas before we go on to other matters. "Peace on Earth, Good Will to All" is the goal we all strive for.  But Peace has never come, and will not come, without Justice.  So long as "survival of the fittest", or its modern iteration - pure free enterprise and total reliance on market forces - continues to be the rule of the "haves", the desperate have-nots will allow not a moment's peace.  The latest of so many examples of this historical fact is described in an article in today's NYTimes ("Europe's Muslims May Be Headed Where the Marxists Went Before", by Craig S. Smith, Wk 7).  Thus, the choice for the world, if it wishes to survive, is not between Capitalism and Communism...but between injustice and justice.  There is enough to go around.  So, where are the statesmen when we need them?  Or are they all merely "persons held upright by equally opposing forces"?

• How about the article on "cancer stem cells"?  ("Dark Side Of Stem Cells: Scientists See Them As Hidden Force In Cancer", by Gareth Cook, The Day today, Region, pD4).  So far, these deadly cells cannot be distinguished from other stem cells.  And yet, not a word of caution regarding the hype about the beneficial uses of stem cells.  As has probably become the case with the FDA's role in protecting the public, bad politics produces bad science.  More than ever, "Caveat emptor"...let the buyer beware!
• There was a time when I belonged to the ACLU.  But that was long ago and far away, before that group devolved into merely a shill for its most far-out members.  Witness its fevered efforts to eliminate Christmas from the nation's psyche ("Policies That Duck Religion Toss Christians To Secular Lions", by Don Pesci, The Day today, Voices and Views, pC3).  As stated recently in this section, the time is rapidly approaching for Christians...and for those of other Faiths as well...to stop turning the other cheek. This kind of extreme secularism is rapidly becoming a aggressive cancer in our national body.

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, December 24 and 25, 2004

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

This is another time when personal observations seem unnecessary in view of excellent sentiments expressed in other sources.   See "The Promise of Christmas", The Day editorial, Friday, Sept. 24, 2004, Opinion, pA6.  See also the encouraging article in the same edition, pA7, entitled "Muslims Respect Jesus As A Prophet", by Ibrahim Hooper.   In fact, this latter article has caused me to make a New Year's resolution that I am not likely to break: after reading "In Search Of Paul", by Crossan and Reed (Harper San Francisco, 2004), I will buy and read the Koran.  The hope for us all in these dangerous times lies in getting back to basics...and to basic truths.

GS

FRIDAY through THURSDAY, December 17 through 23, 2004

Another interruption.  I went to visit my grandsons in Ohio.  But the work of an "Involved Citizen" goes on.

• The Columbus Dispatch editorial on Saturday, Dec. 18 addressed the issue of election mechanics, especially in a State like Ohio which tends to run close elections.   Previous comments in this section have issued the same concerns and cautions.  We got away with the developing crazy quilt of elections machines one more time; but our luck can't hold.  Especially troubling are the digital election computers that produce no paper record.  Now, that's crazy.
• Nearing the end of the year, we read about another crazy practice: "flexible health savings accounts" wherein the participant eather uses or loses his money at the end of each year...prompting a predictable year-end binge of unnecessary "health" spending.  Every day, in every way, a wasteful nation.  The bill has to come due sometime.
• The FDA is in trouble...and so are we all.  Perceptions being as important as facts, the public is seriously questioning its trust in this vital function.  What can it do to reverse the current trend?  1) Develop workable mechanisms for tracking drugs after they hit the market; 2) Remove the financial connections that have developed in the last decade between the drug industry and the FDA; 3) Require drug companies to release all resuits of all tests that they do on a drug under evaluation; 4) Eliminate the current practice of marketing directly to the public even before peer-reviewed articles on the subject have been published; 5) Increase control of generic drugs...and promote them where they are viable alternatives; 6) Obtain repeal of the 1994 federal law that prevents the FDA from oversight over the alternative medicine market...laughingly allowed as "food supplements" but with serious side effects; 7)Restrict the amount of money the drug companies can spend on marketing.  All this can be justified under the government's police powers concerning the health and safety of the public.  But nothing will happen without a loud public outcry.  I'm listening.....
• What's up with Conservatives?  They oppose Immigration Law reform; they oppose the No Child Left Behind Act; they oppose the McCain-Feingold election fund raising and spending law; they oppose the Medicare drug cost initiatives.  We have seen, so many times, how a little power can distort common sense through arrogance (most recently with the sagas of Bernard Kerik and John Rowland).  We trust that George W. Bush is sufficiently comfortable with himself and with his "compasionate conservatism" so as to avoid such over-reaching.
• Each year there are more and more efforts to defile Christmas, through books, movies, TV, and through a suffocating political correctness.  Christians usually suffer all this in silence.  But we may be getting to a critical mass that will require a robust response...like a boycott of appropriate interests.  Talk about the power of prayer....
• Iraq.  It hurts...and then it infuriates.  Secretary Rumsfeld continues to dismiss serious questions about his stewardship of this military effort with non-responsive replies.  He did express one substantive...and wrong-headed...opinion this week, when he said that we don't have more troops in Iraq because we "don't want to seem like an occupying power" and are waiting for the Iraqi people to take over their own burden.  Meanwhile, a canvass tent the size of three football fields, on a base that received at least 30 mortar attacks in the past, is allowed to provide a constant target of over 500 troops and workers without protection.  Where does negligence end and recklessness begin?

THURSDAY , December 16, 2004

There are many times when a source says it all, at least for the time being.  Two stories are so addressed in today's WSJ, Opinion, pA16.

• The signs of reversion of Russia toward the bad old days: "Russia On Trial", written by an attorney for Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former CEO of Yukos oil company.
• An argument in favor of voluntary personal accounts for part of a worker's Social Security taxes: A Personal Matter, by N.Gregory Mankin, Chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.  The devil may be in the details...but the concept is sound.

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, December 13 through 15, 2004

• ENOUGH ALREADY!  The Scott Peterson case continues to titilate the press, if not the public.  But consider this: since California reinstituted the death penalty about a decade ago, there have been 10 executions; there are now over 600 inmates there on death row awaiting execution while their appeals go on; it is estimated that, if Peterson loses all his appeals, he will face execution, in rotation, in 27 YEARS!   How's that for "cruel and unusual punishment"...and gross governmental malpractice?
• In another "slap my own head" category: an Islamic apologist was recently heard on WNPR to speak approvingly of a "sacred hatred" that Muslims are allowed to have.  I know little about the Religion of Islam; but that's no part of any religion I know.
• This next is about the ACLU and similar groups that try constantly to read "Freedom from Religion" into the U.S. Constitution.  They are now opposing efforts to allow (not require, as they allege) other theories regarding the origin and development of the universe besides the theory of evolution - like the theory of intelligent design - to be taught in schools.  As has already been pointed out by others, to prohibit any reasonable theories of science and knowledge to be taught in schools is perpetrating a fraud on students, and is the height of arrogance and totalitarianism.
• Bad news - Good News. Bad News: "China is bent upon and will achieve gross military and economic parity with the U.S.", perhaps in the next decade.  (See "Beyond the Rim", by Mark Helprin, WSJ, Monday, Dec. 13, 2004, Opinion, pA16).  Good News: India has renewed a warm relationship with the U.S. that has not existed for decades.  We may well need that kind of friendship, as with Japan and perhaps with Indonesia, to maintain a balance of power on the Pacific Rim...a vital strategic requirement for us.  (See "'Old' Europe, Make Way for New Delhi", by C. Raja Mohan, WSJ today, Opinion, pA20).
• Syria and Iran are seriously meddling in Iraq's internal affairs, and President Bush has cautioned both countries to stop those activities.  We hope that he has some credible leverage to use on them.  (See "Serious About Syria?", WSJ Editorial, today, Opinion, pA20).  We can't afford more loss of face in that part of the world than has already resulted from our sloppy handling of the post-war Iraq efforts to date.   Nor can we afford to give up our hard-won influence and presence in the Middle East...and at the back door of the Far East.  This will, of course, require a credible Military.  Secretary Rumsfeld and President Bush, are you there?
• Medical Malpractice Reform.  The President today has declared the passage of legislation curbing "economy-damaging lawsuits" (including class action, asbestos, and medical malpractice cases) a high priority: "I am passionate on this subject".  (See Reuters article, Politics, today).   For more on the medical malpractice issue, and its direct effects on the availability and quality of health care, see Health Law Issues on this web site.

SATURDAY and SUNDAY, December 11 and 12, 2004

• Viktor Yushchenko.  It would appear that he is the first new victim of the bad old days of the Kremlin.  Of course, I've drawn the conclusion that President Putin's Ukrainian bet against Yushchenko was rigged.  But this savage?  You see, anyone who wanted this candidate dead could have done it very rapidly, either by a bullet, a bomb or one of many immediately lethal poisons.  Rather in this case, having chosen Dioxin, his enemies wanted to maim him for life.  This agent is not only highly toxic, but its effects are cumulative, including a disfiguring "chloracne", bone marrow depression, liver disease, various cancers, and possible injury to future children.  Comrad Putin, now I also have looked into your soul...and President Bush had better take another look!
• "Insurgency in Iraq".  That term has long seemed inappropriate for what is now going on there.  How about "civil war"?  How about "invasion" from surrounding countries?  And how about the Arab neighbors and fellow Muslims considering something more than the Israel - Palestine issue, vital as that is to the stability of the region?  How about democracy, supression of terrorist sources in their own countries, and helping to stabilize Iraq after the overthrow of a dangerous despot?  On all these other vital issues, Secretary of State Powell was stiffed during the recent meeting with representatives of 20 Arab states in Morocco.  What a neighborhood.  Too bad for them that they drew us into that morass on 9/11.  Always better to defend ourselves in their neighborhood than in ours.
• On the local scene, three articles in today's The Day warrant comment. Steve Slosberg wrote about the details of carrying out the death penalty, but missed the point.  WHAT ABOUT JUSTICE?  The article on another forum about public schools read like a class from Sociology 101, and it missed the point: WHAT ABOUT READING, WRITING AND MATH?  (Panel, by Dan Pearson, Region, pD7).  And the article, like others, about the Fort Trumbull eminent domain issue, confuses the point by discussing the New London problem in the same context as the nationwide examples of gross abuse of this valid statutory power.  I believe that the Institute for Justice has made the same mistake by selecting New London's case to bring to the U.S. Supreme Court.  And that is why I believe that they will lose and that New London's actions will be upheld.

FRIDAY, December 10, 2004

• Secretary of State Powell has criticized some NATO members (especially France and its current lap-dog, Germany) for refusing to join the NATO training mission in Iraq.  So, why is President Bush bothering to visit Old Europe to "mend these breaches"?  Rather, just wait until they need us again; they will be back.  Just let us not forget that "these dogs won't hunt".
• More on the state of our Military.  The WSJ today reports that, despite everything, "the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines all met their recruiting goals for the year that ended September 30" (Editorial, pA14).  What does that say about their "recruiting goals"?  The same thing it says about the fiction that military comanders in the field were satisfied with their deployed manpower in Iraq in the last year.  The truth lies in the article in the same edition, same page, by retired Army Colonel Andrew J. Bacevich entitled "Overextended".
• On the Peterson murder trial, if the conviction was largely on circumstantial evidence, the jury will come back with life imprisonment.  Meanwhile, remember that he was convicted of  double murder of mother and fetus.  Enough of the fictions of the pro-abortion gang.
• The recurring issue of Federal law vs State prerogatives is again in the news.  Many states provide members of the Press with protection for safe-guarding the identity of informants...but Federal law does not.  As with the issue of medical use of marijuana, this matter should be resolved by the U.S.Supreme Court asap.  For all its warts, the Press needs this protection to do its vital job in a democracy.
• More on the Education Profession, the only group allowed to do raw research on humans.  A classic example throughout recent decades has involved the teaching of mathematics.  For a case in point, read: Science Journal, by Sharon Begley, WSJ today, Marketplace, pB1.  To quote the National Research Council: "In no other field are personal experience and ideology so frequently relied on to make policy choices, and in no other field is the research base so inadequate and little used."
• More on that "defective, unreasonably dangerous" product called computer software, especially Windows-based PC's.  See Walter S. Mossberg's article yesterday in the WSJ, Marketplace, pB1. It continues to seem that "an Apple a day" can keep the computer doctor away.
• Locally, Utopia...the business group that proposes a nearly billion dollar entertainment development complex between the Mohegan and Mashantucket cash cows in Southeastern Connecticut...continues to get short shrift despite doing everything right and having no viable competitors.  Could the problem be with the name?  After all, a dictionary definition is: "a visionary, impractical system of political or social perfection".  Not too encouraging.  But then, Atlantis may have been recently found.  Can Utopia be far behind?

THURSDAY, December 9, 2004

• The structure of our Military is again in the news this week, but everyone continues to ignore the elephant in the living room.  The page A1 article in the WSJ makes no mention of it.  Secretary Rumsfeld avoided it in his glib reply to a pressing issue raised by a soldier at his "town-hall" meeting with Iraq-bound troops in Kuwait.  The military recruiting provision in the "No Child Left Behind" law is just a start, including highschool Junior ROTC programs.  And learning about the 5,000 military deserters who have gone to Canada to avoid going to the Middle East just begs the question: when are our leaders going to get serious about "shared sacrifices" and re-institute a fair draft?  This subject has been discussed in this section several times before now (check out our search engine on [the Home Page of] this web site for specifics).  The politicians won't touch it.  The Military would rather deal with self-motivated volunteers rather than poorly educated conscripts.  But the needs of this country are not getting filled - neither in Iraq nor for the future - except through the rubber band and paper clip process currently in effect that has been unfairly treating our forces currently under arms...and that has contributed to the 1,000 plus military dead and 10,000 plus injured.  President Bush, it is time to use some of your political capital and do the right thing.
• Meanwhile, the political fix seems to be in with regard to the base-closing process...at least as relates to the critical naval submarine base in New London - Groton, Ct. and the inevitable connection to the primiere sub building facility in the country, Electric Boat Co.  See "Magazine's Findings On Sub Base Are Questioned", by Robert A. Hamilton, The Day today, pA1.  There is enough pork to satisify the appetites of our elected officials without jeapordizing our national security...but that is just what is at stake when politics is allowed to play a hand in this process.  This should be a concern of all citizens, and not only to residents of affected regions.  "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country".

MONDAY through WEDNESDAY, December 6 through 8, 2004

The news regarding Muslims [see article immediately following this Rapid Response offering] doesn't seem to get better.  It looks like this will be the 21st century counterpart to the "cold war" of the later 20th century: to break the back of Islamic Fundamentalism just as one would destroy by fire a house racked by smallpox.  The hope is that most Muslims are moderates and susceptible to democracy.  In my mind, all this gives even greater legitimacy to our efforts in Afganistan and in Iraq.  And there may have to be more to come.

GS

London Times - Dec 04, 2004

Stoned to death...why Europe is starting to lose faith in Islam
By Charles Bremner

Islamic fundamentalism is causing a 'clash of civilizations' between liberal democracies and Muslims

DAYS before she was due to be married, Ghofrane Haddaoui, 23, refused the advances of a teenage boy and paid with her life. Lured to waste ground near her home in Marseilles, the Tunisian-born Frenchwoman was stoned to death, her skull smashed by rocks hurled by at least two young men, according to police. Although the circumstances of the murder are not clear, the horrific “lapidation” of the young Muslim stoked a French belief that the country can no longer tolerate the excesses of an alien culture in its midst.

A few days ago, pop celebrities joined 2,000 people in a march through Marseilles denouncing violence against women, particularly in the immigrant-dominated housing estates. The protest against Islamic “obscurantism” and the “fundamentalism that imprisons women” was led by a group of Muslim women who call themselves Ni Putes ni Soumises (Neither Whores nor Submissive).

The movement, which emerged three years ago to defend Muslim women, is spawning similar groups across Europe, supported by a mainstream opinion that has recently abandoned political correctness and wants to halt the inroads of Islam.

From Norway to Sicily, governments, politicians and the media are laying aside their doctrines of diversity and insisting that “Islamism”, as the French call the fundamentalist form that pervades the housing estates, is incompatible with Europe’s liberal values.

The shift is not just a reaction to exceptional violence such as the Madrid train bombings, or the murder of Theo van Gogh, the anti-Islamic Dutch film-maker, by a Dutch-Moroccan. It stems from a belief that more muscular methods are needed to integrate Europe’s 13-million strong Muslim community and to combat creeds that breed extremists and ultimately, terrorism. With mixed results, governments are trying to quell the scourge by co-opting Muslim leaders to promote a moderate European Islam.

In Germany, with its three million — mainly Turkish — Muslims, and France, with its five million of mainly North African descent, television viewers were shocked when local young Muslims approved of Van Gogh’s murder. “If you insult Islam, you have to pay,” was a typical response.

“The notion of multiculturalism has fallen apart,” said Angela Merkel, leader of Germany’s Christian Democrat opposition. “Anyone coming here must respect our constitution and tolerate our Western and Christian roots.” Italy’s traditional tolerance towards immigrants has been eroded by fear of Islamism. An Ipsos poll in September showed that 48 per cent of Italians believed that a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West was under way and that Islam was “a religion more fanatical than any other”.

Similar views can be heard across traditionally tolerant Scandinavia — and no longer just from the populist rightwing party’s such as Pia Kjaersgaard’s People’s Party in Denmark. The centre-right Government of Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has equipped Denmark with Europe’s toughest curbs on immigration, largely aimed at people from Muslim countries. In Sweden, where anti-Muslim feeling is running high and mosques have been burnt, schools have been authorized to ban pupils who wear full Islamic head-cover, although the measure comes nowhere near France’s new ban on the hijab in all state schools.

In Spain, with a rapidly rising population of nearly a million Muslims, the backlash has been less visible despite the bombings, but thousands demonstrated in Seville this week against plans to build a mosque in the city centre. The Government has also won approval by sending 500 extra police to monitor preachers and Muslim associations.

Police across the EU are closely watching prayer meetings in makeshift mosques in cities and housing estates, and media accounts of the jihadist, anti-Western and anti-semitic doctrines of the imams are fuelling public anger. In Germany, pressure is growing for sermons to be preached in German rather than Turkish or Arabic. Hidden TV cameras recently broadcast an imam in a Berlin mosque telling worshippers that “Germans can only expect to rot in the fires of hell because they are nonbelievers”.

The debate over the limits to free speech is loudest in France, which now acknowledges the failure of its “republican” approach to integration whereby immigrants were supposed to blend harmoniously into society and not exist in separate communities.

Dominique de Villepin, the Interior Minister, is deporting foreign imams who support wife-beating and other uncivilised practices. This week the Government moved to ban a Lebanon-based television channel for anti-semitic broadcasting. The left wing, which long shunned criticism of Islam as the stock-in-trade of Jean-Marie le Pen, the far-Right leader, now denounces the “totalitarian”, anti-feminist, antisemitic doctrines of the fundamentalists. Jacques Julliard, a leading left-wing commentator, said the Left’s longstanding tolerance had been used as “an agent for the penetration of Islamic intolerance”.

Some on the Left have also taken strong exception to the concept of “Islamophobia”, a supposed sin defined by EU anti-racism watchdogs as akin to anti-Semitism.

The French consensus was symbolized by the 80 per cent public support for the head-scarf ban, which started with little trouble in September. While many Muslims felt stigmatized, the Government took comfort from the approval of the ban by a substantial minority of the 10 per cent of the population that is of immigrant origin.

Among them is Fadela Amara, a Muslim town councillor from Clermond Ferrand, who heads the Ni Putes, Ni Soumises movement. “The veil is an instrument of oppression that is imposed by the green fascists,” she says. Mme Amara, who led the Marseilles march, advocates an “open Islam, an Islam of French culture a bit Gallic around the edges”. This is also the aim of the state, which two years ago created a national Muslim Council to promote moderate mainstream Islam. The council was set up by Nicolas Sarkozy, the then Interior Minister, who now heads the UMP, President Chirac’s centre-right party.

M Sarkozy has just caused a stir by going a stage further, proposing that France’s rigorously secular state fund the building of mosques. “Whether I like it or not, Islam is the second biggest religion in France. So you have to integrate it by making it more French,” he said. To general dismay, however, the national council is coming increasingly under the effective control of radicals.

Reluctantly, some intellectuals have lately concluded that the model for Europe should be the US. On Tuesday a writer for Libération, the French left-wing daily, noted that immigrants in the US threw themselves into “the American dream” and prospered. “There is no French, Dutch or other European dream,” she noted. “You emigrate here to escape poverty and nothing more."

SUNDAY, December 5, 2004

• Liberals and morality.  They just don't get it.  No matter how much execrable content continues to fill our movie and TV screens, how many anti-Christmas shows and movies are produced, and how many brave articles are written boasting that the results of recent national elections were just a flash in the pan, things have changed from the last thirty years, folks.  You went too far; and the tide has turned.  Adjust, or disappear as a political and social force for decades to come.  (See "The Battle Is Over; But The War Goes On", by Michelle Cottle, Time, Dec. 6, 2004, Essay, p128).
• Public Education.  There's another area where the bankrupt old guard, epitomized by teachers' unions, keeps fighting a heartless rear-guard action.  Every effort continues to be made to de-rail the movement toward school choice - the only hope for removing the cancer that afflicts that vital function of our society.  See "State Backslides On Promise Of School Choice", by Robert Buckingham, The Day today, Perspective, C1; see also "Education's Broken Promises", ibid., pC2.  See also the many other articles on this web site on this sorry subject.
• The Death Penalty.   Lord forgive me if I'm wrong, but I believe that should be part of society's armament against those who would destroy it.  However,  so many questions have been raised regarding its application in many specific instances, whether due to the availability of new forensic techniques (eg. DNA testing), or to inadequacy of defense, or to prosecutorial misconduct, that I believe there should be a nationwide moratorium on executions in all but the most clear-cut cases until these issues are resolved.  The U.S. Supreme Court may be arriving at the same conclusion.  See "Rulings In Texas Capital Cases Try Supreme Court's Patience", by Liptak and Blumenthal, The Day today, Nation, pA11.
• Here is a new saying worth remembering, attributed to Bernard Kerik, the newly nominated head of the Department of Homeland Security; "What gets measured, gets done".
• More fuel for the FDA and pharmaceutical fires.  Despite all the noise about the new "fat drug"...reported to do every good thing but grow hair...there are no peer-reviewed reports yet published to evaluate the claims.  Such direct and unregulated access to the public is distorting the development of valid and trustworthy information on which both physicians and patients can make informed choices.  And another thing: should not the SEC have something to say about the impact of such claims on share values and the manipulation of same?
• Athletes and anabolic steroids.  I'm shocked, shocked!  Just how stupid do all these sports people think we are?  Very Stupid.
• Finally, a local issue.  New London, Ct. began with 6 1/2 square miles, had a third of that taken in the construction of I 95, with half of the remainder in the hands of tax exempt organizations (three colleges, hospital, churches...).  Now comes a report that Fishers Island, part of New York that should still be part of Connecticut, is unhappy with its N.Y. connection.  Something about "taxation without representation". (See "Fishers Island Is Looking Toward Connecticut Shores", by Tom Clavin, NYTimes, today, Connecticut, pCt4).  Here's an opportunity for this city to expand to an area already closely tied to us in business, education and travel connections; and also an opportunity for the residents of Fishers Island to become part of "a hip little city".  Sounds good to me.  Let's go for it!

FRIDAY and SATURDAY, December 3 and 4, 2004

• Important developments in the Middle East.  Ariel Sharon seems intent on getting his plans for Israel, even at the expense of having to form a unity government with the Labor Party.  And Hamas has reversed decades of insistence on the destruction of Israel, and now agrees to enter discussions regarding a State of Palestine involving the West Bank and Gaza.  Is one allowed to believe again?
• Donald Rumsfeld will continue as Secretary of Defense.  This means to me that President Bush is willing to accept that the "buck" for the many errors made in Iraq following the end of formal hostilities there stops at his desk.   What a mess.  There is "resolve"...and there is stupid stubbornness in the face of developments.  And now there is no election to hide behind.  A disappointment.
• More on Health Savings Accounts...I warned you.  See "Your New Health Plan", Business Week, Nov. 8, 2004, p88.
• Enough for the heavy stuff.  If you want a real break from the usual news, subscribe to the Cody Enterprise (codyenterprise.com).  There you can regularly read such fare as: "Extending Grizzly Zones A Ridiculous Idea" (Monday, Nov. 15, 2004, Opinion, pA4); and "Game Accidents Rise In Winter" (same issue, pB1).  There we read: "As big game animals migrate out of the mountains to lower elevation wihter ranges, the frequency of deer, antelope and even elk on the highways increases.  Travelers need to pay special attention."  Isn't that refreshing?  (My family and I spent a lot of time over a 15 year period among the mountains around Cody, Wyoming).

THURSDAY, December 2, 2004

"More Americans Waiting To Marry" (by Genaro C. Armas, The Day today, pA1).  Certainly true, from the experiences of our own families and friends.  And not a bad idea, considering the broader educational and career opportunities available, and also considering that the parents of these young Americans had a divorce rate of about 50%.  But wait: there is a worrisome message to be found in the internal facts supporting that finding.

• Many of these "singles" are living together before marriage, despite the finding that such practice actually increases the likelihood of subsequent divorce;
• Many women are not marrying until their later thirties.  Meanwhile, their "biologic clock is ticking" and their sexual activities are promoting - among other things - the likelihood of infertility problems through infection and immune mechanisms when they are ready to conceive.
• In 2003, nearly 35% of all births were to unmarried women, with the figure much larger for blacks.
• Now a majority of children are being raised in one-parent households.  The "best interests of the child", the talisman of the law regarding kids, are certainly not being attended to this way.
• We also read today that U.S. HIV cases now total nearly 1 million, with an estimated 40,000 new cases each year.

GS

WEDNESDSAY, December 1, 2004

• So far, so good.  In Iraq, it appears that the election will not be delayed.  And the U.S. may even send another 10,000 troops there to improve security.  In Ukraine, the direction is toward a proper resolution of the critical stalemate there.  It's also encouraging to read that a heavyweight like Zbigniew Brzezinski agrees with the importance of and stakes in that issue ("Imperial Russia, Vassal Ukraine", WSJ today, Opinion, pA10)   But it's not over yet.
• On the same page in the WSJ is the real story regarding Iran.  Neville Chamberlain would be proud of our fearless European allies and their constant penchant for appeasment.  And so, regarding our "friends'" criticism of America's foreign policy in recent years, I cannot improve upon President Bush's comment upon arriving in Canada this week.  "President Bush on Tuesday thanked Canadians who waved a welcome to him 'with all five fingers....'" (Elisabeth Bumiller, NYTimes News Service).
• The Dutch people were occupied by Nazi Germany for several hard years during WW2.  Did they as a result also say "never again", teaching their children and grandchildren the value of independence...but to and beyond the point of irresponsibility?  Holland is a country where hard drugs have been available from candy-like dispensers for years.  Also for years, they have made physician - assisted suicide legal, even desireable.  Today we read that a hospital in the Netherlands has been performing euthanasia on terminally ill infants, and that the Dutch are debating euthanasia for terminally ill patients "with no free will" (The Day, World, pA2).  They may have learned too well from their Nazi occupiers.
• Good news:NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is resigning. I can only assume that the self-defeating course that organization has followed in the last decade was partly of his doing.  Now maybe the "advancement of colored people" can finally be seen as achieveable mainly through true integration into the total community...as has been true of all other minorities in this country...and not through their own form of separatism.
• Did you see the WSJ editorial yesterday calling for a "Kofi break"?  And today a knowedgeable U.S. Senator is also calling for the resignation of the U.N. Secretary-General.  Good idea.  But, in fairness, let's see what a report on the future of the U.N. ordered by him one year ago has to say.  It was reportedly released today.   More to follow.