|
 
January 5, 2009
 First it was photos of Mr. Obama golfing in Hawaii while Gaza burns. "We only have one President at a time," his minions solemnly explained. So no comment. Never mind that he's chosen to talk quite a bit already about other things. Now this: a reported $300 Billion in tax cuts as part of his "stimulus" plan. So, OK, the message is that he does talk when he's pursuing Republican policies in synch with W. And the word "change" in Mr. Obama's lexicon must mean "I will give the Republicans whatever they want and without any negotiation." It's none too soon to begin drawing conclusions.
January 1, 2009
 One thing I most like to remind myself of is that human beings are still a very primitive species. Written records only emerged five or six thousand years ago, perhaps several thousand years earlier if one liberally considers assorted pot-scratchings. Edison patented the light bulb only a hundred and twenty nine years ago. If we manage to not destroy ourselves, and our planet, five or ten thousand years from now should be an exciting time — and it's that sort of scale that makes me optimistic. Although we haven't yet made "official" contact with intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations I think we should also take some comfort from the speculation that there are many, many other worlds at a stage of development roughly comparable to our own. On some of them, they're probably having arguments about health care policy, too... In other words, we're not alone and I would guess that somewhere (Dreamland?) there's an "owner's manual" for the planet, if we have the wit to find it.
December 30, 2008
 The Jews never stop making everyone they can, all over the world, apologize for the Holocaust. Especially the Germans. As Norman Finkelstein has bravely pointed out, mining the Holocaust also has made some Jews very rich. Much more importantly, however, the Holocaust story helps Jews worldwide to keep their thumbs on the political scales. Yet for all the forced apologies, for all the monetary blackmail, and for all the political coercion there's one thing I've never, ever seen from the Jews: Forgiveness.
On the BBC website, just to take one example, Rabbi Albert Friedlander artfully explains that, for metaphysical reasons, it is impermissible for Jews to forgive anyone for the Holocaust. Now, such ideas should give pause. They are not the ideas of a religion whose bona fide stands up to serious scrutiny but seem more, from a certain point of view, like organized hate-mongering.
Continue reading "Israel and Forgiveness"...
December 26, 2008
 After about three years of producing the EP Podcast and not missing a single week I reckon I'm due for some vacation. And, to be honest, I need a little rest. Not to worry: the EP Podcast will be back on Friday, January 16th. Between now and then I'm sure I'll write a few blog posts. And I'll still be around DC and available by email. I hope everybody has a great New Year and I'll see you soon!
December 25, 2008
 Here's a very interesting book . And one of the authors, Rev. Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., has agreed to do an interview, though we don't yet have it scheduled. I just got the book from Amazon yesterday — it's massive, mostly text, and will require some study. This is not, therefore, a book review. (Though I'd note the book is getting rave reviews from top rank figures in the theological community.) The authors' thesis: early Christianity, understood through the art of its liturgy, was about paradise on earth. It took a thousand years before the iconography of Christ that we think of today began to emerge — the obsession with atoning death and redemption through violence, i.e., Christ on the cross. Imagine that: A thousand years of Christianity without the crucifix! What the heck are today's Christians worshiping then? And why did they turn to an iconography of death? As I say, a very interesting book.
 Brother Sean-Paul, over to The Agonist, has been doing something very few people (I should say, very few Americans) do anymore: traveling on a shoestring through the hinterland of the far abroad. Sort of a walk-about. After meandering through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam he's settled in for a bit at Lake Toba, Indonesia. Somehow he manages to find internet access and has been blogging about his experiences, posting snapshots, and also contributing occasional essays to his local San Antonio, Texas newspaper and appearing sporadically on The Young Turks show. Sean-Paul's plans may change at any time but he's headed, slowly, towards the sub-continent and on to North Africa. I don't follow any other travel blogs except the annual Everest approaches (in season), which is to say I thoroughly enjoy his writing, I find it thought provoking, and I commend it to you. And my sincere thanks, Sean-Paul, for sending many loyal Agonist readers over to the EP Podcast!
December 24, 2008
 Thanks very much to all of you out there — even the silent ones — for being part of this community, amorphous though it may be. Your presence is much appreciated. And thanks for taking me on a wild ride that's changing my life. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Which there's no doubt we can be happy under trying (perhaps most especially under trying) circumstances. God bless!
December 19, 2008
 At this point in the game we can give Mr. Obama a grade for his main Cabinet appointments: a "D+." If not for a couple names that are pretty good it would be an "F." The large majority are lackluster, a few (Clinton, Gates) abominable. What on earth does he think he's doing, I wondered — until he selected Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Now everything becomes clear: it's not about religion, it's not about political ideology, it's about organizing. Mr. Obama admires Mr. Warren's business to business marketing approach; what works so well for an evangelical California mega-church, or the Communist Party, i.e., a cell structure, surely can work for Mr. Obama's coalition. Content becomes irrelevant.
Continue reading "A Changeling For All Seasons"...
December 14, 2008
 Several listeners have asked that I compile responses from the EP 2008 Survey re other podcasts that people like. It took a bit longer than I'd expected to do this but here they are, taken from 48 responses most of which listed several podcasts. I tried to put these together as accurately as I could but there may be an error here and there. And the way I've alphabetized them is probably not library approved. The numbers in parentheses indicate how many people mentioned that particular podcast. I haven't double-checked names or added links, but I hope this is helpful. And, as I say, I find it very interesting. Thanks again to all who completed the Survey!
Continue reading "Other Podcasts"...
December 10, 2008
 Five of five stars. Buy The Man Without A Past while you still can from Walmart, as it doesn't seem to be available anymore from Amazon or most other DVD vendors. An excellent Christmas gift during this time of belt-tightening. Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki circumambulates an existential meditation on who we are when we forget the details, due to amnesia. For some this would be a strange movie but I find it charming, beautiful, keenly observant, and most sympathetic. Also droll. It has a heroine from the Salvation Army and it ends well. What more could one ask?
December 8, 2008
 The life and times of people in America two hundred years ago were closer in character to Elizabethan England than to American society today. And as the pace of social change increases, so too do those differences. The mental horizons of an educated man in Philadelphia in 1787 could encompass the Mongol hordes, European wars of religion, and the bankruptcy of Spain (it being the first modern nation state to ever declare bankruptcy, in 1557), but would probably go blank before today's bureaucratic state apparatus, instantaneous world-wide communications through the internet, and the unchallenged ubiquity of corporate power. An eighteenth century Philadelphian, indeed, would have found the discovery of anthropic climate change far more alien than Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. †
Continue reading "Slavery's Dead Hand"...
December 4, 2008
 First, a big Thank You! to everybody who completed the survey. I find it extremely helpful to know more about who's out there, who 'the community' is made up of, who I need to keep in mind.
This year 62 people completed the EP survey (compared with 101 last year from a somewhat smaller listener base). Probably Thanksgiving week was not the best time for it. Oh well. Obviously, it's not a scientific survey as the sample isn't random. Not being a statistician I'm not sure how best to assess the survey's validity but my sense is that the past two years' surveys, despite being non-scientific, nevertheless were surprisingly accurate and I'd expected (hoped) that this one might be at least somewhat accurate as well. There are a couple of rough checks that tend to confirm its accuracy and at least one that tends to contradict it, so let's consider those factors for a moment...
Continue reading "EP 2008 Survey Results"...
December 2, 2008
 WiReD's editor Chris Anderson came up with a spiffy theory in 2004: that the internet makes possible novel behaviors including in particular people's ability to match their needs to yesterday's products. This "long tail" revolutionizes internet marketing. Businesses will "sell less of more." Anderson wrote a book, presented at Davos, and has been lunching off his brainstorm ever since. At least until recently, when a number of empirical observations, including from Google, shot the theory down. It is, to be blunt, totally bogus, a figment of Anderson's imagination.
Continue reading "The "Long Tail""...
November 30, 2008
 Let me put it this way: if Obama had selected Hillary as his vice-presidential candidate I wouldn't have voted for him. I'm not quite sure what I would've done but probably I wouldn't have voted at all, for the first time since 1984 (Mondale having been a dope and Ferraro a joke). I guess I feel strongly that the Clintons are never to be trusted. And that applies to Hillary at the State Department.
Continue reading "Hillary Agonistes"...
November 26, 2008
 One of Obama's serious character deficiencies seems to be that he believes he's smarter than everybody around him. I wonder whether that helps to make him comfortable by being unaware of others' ideological, venal, and frankly criminal motivations. In any case, despite — or perhaps because of — his delusions of brainy superiority he has accepted a charmingly naïve view of establishment virtues, particularly those accruing to the foreign policy and national security establishments. And, probably due to his lack of experience with the Federal bureaucracy, he also seems to believe that, when he is president, people will do what he tells them to do. These two cognitive errors have produced a situation where, by naming only creatures of the establishment to his foreign policy and national security staff, not a single one of them will think to question currently prevailing assumptions. Nor will they allow creative career bureaucrats to suggest alternatives. Moreover, if Obama were to push his staff to rethink things they would collectively resist. Just looking at who he's surrounded himself with, it's easy to predict, already, that the first year or two of Obama's presidency will be a foreign policy disaster.
Continue reading "Foreign Policy Failure Foretold"...
November 24, 2008
By Werther*
 Amid a collapsing financial structure and the Bush regime at ebb tide, news from Iraq is so yesterday, like security moms and color-coded alerts from the Department of Homeland Security. Occasionally, however, bulletins appear apparently out of nowhere that re-focus our attention on the hidden forces behind official U.S. foreign policy.
Continue reading "More News from Nowhere"...
November 23, 2008
 Electric Politics — amazingly — is coming up on its third year. The very first EP podcast appeared in early January 2006; subsequently, slightly more than one podcast appeared per week, on an erratic schedule, until I shifted to the current weekly podcast schedule in late April 2006 with the regular Friday morning show (and occasional 'in-between' shows). Since then I have not missed a single week of production. Wow! Knock on wood, the EP podcast will be around for quite a few more years. To continue to improve the show and better serve you, the EP audience, I've been taking a non-scientific survey at approximate yearly intervals. Please help by taking the EP 2008 survey, here. This survey will remain open until Tuesday, December 2d. Once complete, I'll report a summary of the findings. Thanks very much for participating!
November 22, 2008
 The basic problem with the U.S. economy is that we don't make things — usually high tech things — that can be exported. Consequently we live off foreign borrowings. In the long run that's unsustainable: either the situation will correct itself through gradual adjustments or we'll have a crash. Not a little crash, like we're having now. A Great Depression style crash. In a big picture view trade imbalances are part and parcel of income and wealth inequalities, tax policies that encourage looting of the American economy through offshoring and financial speculation, and misguided Federal spending priorities, so logically those things need to be fixed first. But heuristically it's critical to understand the basics of international financial plumbing. Unfortunately, not many people do. That's why I'm greatly encouraged by Barack Obama's (reported) choice of Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary, by far the best choice for a cabinet position that he's made to date.
Continue reading "The Current Account Deficit"...
November 21, 2008
 The guys who wrote the U.S. Constitution couldn't — obviously — anticipate every contingency, nor were they perfect draftsmen. As written, for example, where the Constitution provides (Article II, Section 1, para. 6) for replacing a newly elected but not yet inaugurated president, in case of death or incapacity or other reasons of both president elect and vice president elect, it has the sitting Congress make the replacement, a Congress that may well have been repudiated by the people in the same election that had chosen the new president. The 20th Amendment, ratified in January 1933, fixed that, making the new Congress the one responsible. Similarly, an electoral college tie thrown into the House would, as fixed, appertain to the Congress most recently elected. Straightening out such procedural issues was a necessary and important part of the larger purpose of the 20th Amendment: to change the date of the presidential inauguration from March 4th to January 20th, thereby lessening the damage through inaction from excessively long presidential transitions during crises — as had happened between James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln during the outbreak of the Civil War and between Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the Great Depression.
Continue reading "Amending the Constitution"...
November 17, 2008
 When they've been flush with cash Detroit auto makers have increased executive compensation and dividends, as opposed to, for example, Japanese auto makers who reinvested in better, more fuel efficient technology. Detroit executives, the poor cousins to Wall Street, in recent years seized every easy way to enrich themselves at the expense of workers and customers. For these executives to cry foul in the current crisis is the height of hypocrisy. And the idea of just forking over a bunch of taxpayer money so that they can keep doing what they're doing would produce no good results. On the other hand the U.S. can't afford to lose its auto makers. The solution is pretty obvious: nationalize the firms that want help, entirely replace management, retool for high-tech, high efficiency cars and trucks, and sell them cheap. Keep union benefits as they are (or increase them) and bring unions into a partnership with the new management, intending Detroit to be a template for helping other unions around the country. Since we have socialism for Wall Street then we should sure have it for working people too.
|
 
December 26, 2008
 Detroit must have a guardian angel. How else to explain being the beneficiary of Bush's one and only correct decision of the past eight years? Detroit, the car-makers, the unions — all woven into our national experience and we'd be much poorer without them. To get a feeling for some of the history I turned to Dr. Kevin Boyle, author most recently of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age (a National Book Award winner for nonfiction). It was kind of Kevin to take time to talk with me, I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot. Total runtime an hour and seven minutes. Yes, for solidarity with labor!
December 19, 2008
 It's fair to say that nobody knowledgeable about interrogations has ever produced a single example of torture working — either in the historical record or in contemporary experience — quite apart from consideration of the ethical implications. But proponents of torture find it all too easy to claim secret successes. So it's extremely helpful to hear once again the bright line admonition, never torture, from a seasoned interrogator who led the interrogation team in pursuit of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, at the time perhaps the deadliest man in Iraq. In his just published book, How To Break A Terrorist, written under the pseudonym of "Matthew Alexander," he describes the chase that culminates in Zarqawi's targeted killing. It's a lively read (I couldn't put it down) and most worthwhile. While I come at the issues with some different perspectives I salute "Matthew" for his unflinching determination to treat all detainees humanely and to interrogate them with kindness. And for his willingness to leave active duty and speak up for his beliefs. It was a pleasure and an honor to talk with "Matthew" and I hope his message gets heard. Total runtime an hour and eleven minutes. Think like a detective. [Graphic by Matt Mahurin, for fair use.]
December 12, 2008
 We tend to view FDR's economic revitalization efforts during the Great Depression in Keynesian terms, i.e., that government is the big spender of last resort. If not, however, for the advent of WWII, some Great Depression public works programs might well have evolved into permanent and prominent features of our economic landscape. As indeed the concept of public works has evolved elsewhere. To get a better perspective on what FDR did I turned to Nick Taylor, author of the recently published American Made. It was kind of Nick to talk with me about this extraordinarily interesting material which has so much relevance today. Total runtime an hour and nineteen minutes. Think outside the box!
December 5, 2008
 Micro-activism gets results. Take coal, for example, where a lot of loosely affiliated local activists are achieving what large environmental groups cannot: making coal a non-viable economic proposition for state and local governments, taking most proposed new coal plants off the drawing boards, and expediting the closure of old ones. To explain, I turned to Ted Nace, of Coalswarm. Ted is also a very successful entrepreneur, author, and free lance journalist. See Gangs of America for his latest book — a history of the American corporation in concept and in practice — which you can download for free (otherwise $25 at Amazon). Most highly recommended. Total runtime an hour and twenty four minutes. Despair not!
November 28, 2008
 Journalists, like diplomats, self-select into two groups: the large majority, those who hang around most of the time with people like themselves, and those who get out and about, make friends with the locals, maybe learn the local language. Anand Gopal of the Christian Science Monitor is the latter type, once even growing a beard and donning mufti to travel in Taliban controlled areas in Afghanistan's south. Kudos to him! I'm very grateful for his insights and I hope we can talk again, and that he stays safe. Total runtime fifty six minutes. No visa required.
November 21, 2008
 As prospects for radical reform slip away the silver lining may be that Barack Obama reacts quickly when burned by mistakes. But in early days he could waste a lot of time, energy, and political capital (the latter somewhat unrecoverable) doing things the establishment way. For a check on Obama's honeymoon with the left I turned to the tough, realistic and insightful Bill Fletcher, Jr. of Black Commentator. Bill believes this is a long term game and that we've still got a lot of potential influence. I agree. It was a great pleasure talking with Bill and I hope to have further conversations with him. Total runtime an hour and one minute. Be patient!
November 14, 2008
 One chokes when one sees so many Clinton staffers taking up jobs in the new Obama administration (not to mention rumors that Hillary herself may be offered a cabinet position). The word despair comes to mind. Yet give credit where credit is due. Having accomplished the impossible, Obama now faces even bigger challenges — and as they say, in crisis, opportunity. Our duty is to keep pushing him to the left. For a positive take on the election I turned to the brilliantly commonsensical John Stauber. It was great to talk again with John and I learned a lot. It's helpful to be reminded of Obama's strengths. Total runtime an hour and three minutes. Enjoy!
November 7, 2008
 Here's an optimistic look at nuclear nonproliferation. Dr. Jeffrey Lewis, the eponymous Arms Control Wonk, believes the stage is set for significant progress, and what he's saying makes sense to me. I sure hope he's right, and I hope the new Obama administration seizes the opportunity for some relatively easy deals. It was great to talk with Jeffrey and I hope I can tap his expertise again. Total runtime forty eight minutes. Look on the bright side! ☮
October 31, 2008
 No doubt the Republicans will cheat. No doubt the Republicans will try to deny the vote to as many potential Democratic Party voters as they can. No doubt the Republicans will lose. The only question is by how much. To get some of the flavor of the campaign I turned again to Amy Sullivan, a correspondent for Time magazine, who's got the knack for politics. Without predicting Tuesday's results we talk about the campaign so far. It was a treat to talk again with Amy and I hope we can revisit America's political future when it becomes a bit more clear, perhaps following the inauguration. This is a shorter interview, with a total runtime of thirty eight minutes. Enjoy!
October 24, 2008
 For better or for worse Russian history plays out over an extraordinarily long scale. And, with all due respect, it's probably fair to say that Russian society has not yet made it into modern times, existing, as it were, in a kind of parallel world. One with great flashes of innocence and genius. More's the pity, then, that America so poorly understands Russia and, particularly, seems overly disposed to thinking that it is the enemy. To try to put things into a better perspective and fill in some of the blanks I turned to E. Wayne Merry, one of the most perceptive U.S. experts around. It was very kind of Wayne to take the time. Total runtime an hour and twenty seven minutes. Enjoy!
October 17, 2008
 What a wonderful world! So why is it that often people don't find themselves free to exercise their natural curiosity about things? When reputable — indeed, extraordinarily distinguished — scientists began to question whether HIV causes AIDS the backlash was stunning. Yet, to me, as a non-scientist, the skeptics make a lot of sense. And I question the establishment's explanation for why nobody has actually isolated an "HIV" virus. Perhaps the more radical case that HIV doesn't, in fact, exist, is right. What a thought! To get a graceful and philosophical, even poetic, look at what's going on I turned to the courageous independent journalist Celia Farber. I very much enjoyed talking with Celia and hope she'll be a return guest, perhaps on other subjects as well. Total runtime an hour and fourteen minutes. Prepare to be amazed.
October 10, 2008
 Yes, we have a financial crisis. But more fundamentally we have a jobs crisis: we don't have a healthy, modern industrial base and, in particular, we aren't making enough advanced industrial things to export. In short, our consumption is based on borrowing from abroad. And that can't go on indefinitely. To talk about both the immediate crisis and the larger structural problems I turned once again to Paul Craig Roberts who is always a source of great practical wisdom. Total runtime an hour and fifteen minutes. Shave and a haircut, two bits.
|
