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Can’t we just stay home and make money?

7 Mar

Much is being written about Iran and a possible attack. If it happens, it will be an Israeli initiative that requires U.S. military support … a pre-emptive strike designed to stop a nuke program. Obama has spoken with some caution, but the Republicans seem to want a new war. In all this, it rarely is said that both American and Israeli intelligence agencies believe Iran discontinued its nuclear program in 2003.

The New York Times wrote at least once about this, but doesn’t mention the intelligence in fresh stories. No one does. Is this yet another case of ignoring the facts to accomplish the dastardly?

Why the madness? If one can’t accept the moral arguments for peace, I hope they can accept the financial ones.

 

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Remember the Poor Immigrant

5 Mar

A zip-lock bag with a small rock inside for weight was tossed onto my lawn today. In my neighborhood, this is a standard method of advertising lawn services. What was not so standard was the pamphlet inside, which in part read: “Teofilo Sanchez Landscaping.”

I have friends who argue that immigrants, both legal and illegal, are a drain on taxes and the economy. While I really don’t know anything for sure, I always argue back that immigrants, legal and illegal, will provide the boost we need to restart our economy, and that they will become the next great wave of entrepreneurs.

It seems to me that it doesn’t take too long before a hired lawn guy earning minimum wage (or less) realizes that if he saves enough money for a mower and a truck, he can be the boss.

For all I know, Teofilo Sanchez is a Fortune 500 exec whose family came across on the Mayflower. But I will assume he is not. I will assume he is part of the new wave. I will assume that my theory (which required no insight or imagination) is coming true. I will assume that more and more marketing will target this new demographic, that the people in it will buy more houses and cars, that more will enter college, become wealthy, enter politics and lead.

This story has been repeated so many times it is a cliché. Why then is it so difficult to remember?

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Finish one war, start another

5 Feb

Remember this?

If you believe news reports, it seems likely that Israel will attack Iran in an attempt to knock out its ability to make nuclear weapons. Iran denies it has plans to build such weapons. The reports took me back to those days when we were threatening to attack Iraq because it had weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons, but we did, of course, attack.

Question for thought: If Iran truly did not intend to build nukes, would the U.S. and the Israelis acknowledge that and back off?

Second question: If you were the leader of Iran, would you prefer to be an unthreatened nation without nukes who concentrates on making money from oil, or one who plans to build nukes and has its economy destroyed by an attack from a neighbor allied with the U.S.?

If pre-emptive action is necessary, I prefer cyber war to hot war. Generally, no one dies. It also is less expensive. The downside: it invites  counter-attacks, which require not billions in military spending but only a single, clever mind.

A recent cyber attack on Iran’s reactors proved pretty successful. I assumed that was going to be the continued course of action. Seems I was wrong. I also thought the Iranian nuke problem was mostly solved by the assassinations of its top nuke scientists.

Wrong again.

Perhaps nations wouldn’t build nuclear weapons if they felt secure and unthreatened. How does one go about doing that? Religion is a logical start, but I think that was tried and actually made things worse.

Anyway, we all should brace ourselves for another major world conflict, a loss of the recent stock market gains and the fun and excitement of lining up for $5 a gallon gas.

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Class Warfare Parable

4 Feb

How many do you have?

Here is what I call a Class Warfare Parable, a simple little story that tries – and I think succeeds – in saying a lot about class. It appeared in a piece by syndicated columnist Leonard Pitts Jr., who heard it from one of his students.

This is it:

A rich white man sits with a poor white man and a poor black man at a table laden with cookies. The rich white man snatches all the cookies but one, then turns to the poor white man and says, “Watch out for that darky. I think he wants to take your cookie.”

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The 16th Century’s version of the Colbert Report

27 Jan

“A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise.”
Niccolo Machiavelli

 

I’ve made a lot of assumptions in my life, like thinking a rich man can get into heaven. Then I do something as simple as reading the Bible and learn he can’t.

Another assumption of mine was that Niccolo Machiavelli, author of “The Prince,” was a heartless cutthroat who would do anything to get ahead. “The ends justify the means” is how high school teachers summarize the book’s message. I recently read it (way too late) and don’t think that’s in there. To me, Machiavelli is a man whose spirit is wounded and disappointed by humanity’s inability to be human.

He recommends extreme harshness as a way to attain and keep power, but this comes across as a combination of satire and sarcasm. Machiavelli was the Colbert Report of his day, but no one seems to have gotten the joke.

At the end of “The Prince” the writing turns true and the author sadly pleads, begs even, for a savior who can unite and free Italy from foreign rule. Tears practically drip off the page.

I would love to hear from one other person who sees this great man as I. Without some small affirmation I’ll have to assume I am wrong.

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In need of philosopher kings

24 Jan

Socrates

 

Obama

 

Listening to President Obama give his State of the Union Address tonight, I heard the logical, rational, practical solutions to nearly all of America’s problems. One would expect Congress to rush back into session tomorrow and implement them. So why doesn’t it?

The answer may lie in an ancient Greek adage: Wise men speak; fools decide.

And if I may add something to that: They often are the same person.

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A different kind of 1 percenter

20 Jan

A friend said he is rooting against the San Francisco 49ers because he doesn’t want the people who voted for Nancy Pelosi to have the satisfaction of a Super Bowl champion.

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What keeps a dictator in power?

13 Jan

“Mercy and truth preserve the prince.”

— Biblical proverb

Providers of order, not freedom

The Bible promises good things, mainly that the wicked will fall and the righteous will stand. It says the first shall be last and the last shall be first – but it doesn’t say when.

Prophecy, it seems, requires patience.

 

Please read on, then let me know the fallacy of my musings.

The Arab world and the Arab Spring are clear examples of a great shift in a once-passive acceptance of dictatorial princes. A change of will turned passivism into activism, which the princes could not withstand. Few things are more powerful than these kinds of mass movements.

 

Even so, less-demonstrative methods also can effect change.

A wide-spread lack of confidence in a leader, one it is exhibited, can be enough to challenge a regime. Roman emperors would go to great lengths and expense to keep public opinion on their side. They supplied free bread to all citizens, as well as entertainment (the famous “bread and circuses”) and built public works to garner love, respect and reputation.

Without strong citizen support, emperors, dictators and princes risk having an ambitious second-in-command engineer a coup or even assassination.

Of course, there is no guarantee the new regime will do better in the Mercy and truth department, but there usually is an attempt at some improvement.

The strength and permanence of a dictator often lies in his or her ability to maintain order. In so many countries, order is more desirable than freedom. I was once asked by a citizen of a totalitarian country, “Does you wife have the freedom to walk safely and unthreatened down a city street, alone, at 3 a.m.? Mine does.”

Excellent point.

It is said that during the panic of the Depression, America was willing to accept, and even longed for, the use of dictatorial powers by the chief executive. They wanted a return to order. Fortunately, FDR refused. Americans like order but appreciate freedom much more.

Perhaps one day the Bible proverb with become prophecy and no prince will rule without Mercy and Truth. Until then, Arab Spring or not, the world will most likely have many more dictators than it needs.

Your thoughts, please.

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The hidden scope of war

3 Jan

The horrors of war are easily depicted in photographs of violence and inhumanity. Recently I saw another kind of war photo. In some respects, its relative tranquility was more unsettling than battlefield scenes.

The aerial picture was of trucks, perhaps hundreds of them, all carrying fuel. They were not moving. Rather, they were creating a monumental traffic jam on an expansive thoroughfare through Karachi, Pakistan. They owned the road. Only two or three other cars can be seen.

Their fuel was going to feed our war in Afghanistan. With so many trucks about, it was difficult to believe this part of the city could be concerned with anything else.

I found it startling to see that much fuel assembled in a single moment, in a single day, for a single purpose. It reminded me of Herodotus’ report on the massive Persian army that invaded Greece. In his account, he relates how the camping soldiers would routinely drink three or four rivers dry.

An exaggeration for sure, but, like the truck photo, a telling description of war’s magnitude.

The photo I saw was in the Dec. 19 Bloomberg Businessweek.  It sent three thoughts coursing through my mind:

What incredible resolve, determination and expense it takes to wage war.

  1. Americans can never know or measure the effects, good and bad, that the non-violent side of war has on a primitive economy and its culture, or what happens when it suddenly goes away.
  2. If the U.S. didn’t have to move all those fuel trucks across the world, how many more roads, bridges and schools could be built at home, and would Social Security and Medicare even be a problem?

One photo did this to me. I suggest you take a look and maybe read the accompanying article, “Convoy of Chaos.” Please comment and criticize.

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A scheme for making politics civil

26 Dec

I consider my local congressman a friend, even if I don’t agree with all his party’s policies. I’m especially opposed to its extreme wing, which at present seems to dominate. Its traditional philosophy is sound and sensible but was retired sometime ago.

When I saw my local congressman at a Christmas party, we both bemoaned the state of the nation, the ineffectiveness of Congress and the horrid, incivility of politics. In a fit of frivolity, my friend the congressman suggested I run against him. He said we could both vow to wage a polite, positive campaign.

On the hustings, in full public view, we could hug and ask about each other’s families.

Such a campaign would surely get us viral national press coverage and perhaps start a moment that would alter, if ever so slightly, the face of politics.

I, of course, wouldn’t have a chance of winning.

He, with his organization, experience and a redistricting that went squarely in his favor, would kill. No bother. My goal, and part of his, would be to establish a template for a rational, thoughtful campaign that would seriously address the issues. There would be no pandering, and no ripping the other person or distorting his views.

We wouldn’t go big with discovered evidence that one of us may have, at one point in our lives, been mean to a dog.

We issue complements and acknowledge each other’s intelligence, competence, moral character and desire to help the nation.

If publicity came, it could rally people around us and have other candidates make the same pledge.

It is a very tempting idea. If I were a self-sufficient man, and I am not, I would quit my job and surely do it. It would bring inner satisfaction and an authentic sense of purpose.

I worry about our nation, our people, our economy, our will, our unity and our place in the world. This plan, hatched with laughs at a party, would take me off the sidelines and allow me to at least do something about all that.

A nice dream.

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