Well, once again, the so-called Supreme Court of the United States of America has shown it is the judicial arm of the Republican Party.  In its latest ruling, Hobby Lobby, a for-profit corporation can deny women certain contraception coverage in its employer-provided health plan on “religious grounds.”  Let’s not even get into the discussion of separation of church and state which Republicans ignore when it suits their purpose, nor the hypocrisy of Republicans’ ranting about government encroaching on citizens’ private lives (conception would seem to me to be something really private in peoples’ lives).  Let’s just consider a hypothetical new case brought before the Supreme Court.  Let’s say a Muslim family is the single owner of a privately owned, for-profit manufacturing company that makes toys.  It is such a prosperous company that it runs three shifts round the clock.  It employs 15,000 Americans.  However, It expects all employees on all shifts to report for work on December 25 and the employees, predominantly Christian, file a law suit saying that it is their most important holiday and they should get the day off.  By requiring work on that day, the plaintiffs contend, their religious freedom is being curtailed. The Muslim family retorts that based on their “religious grounds” it is not a holiday and they have no obligation to give Christian employees the day off.  Oh, this toy company also prohibits employees’ bringing ham sandwiches into the building also on “religious grounds.” Silly isn’t it, but that’s essentially what the Supreme Court did. Assume an exceptionally good female employee of Hobby Lobby wants to use contraceptives, specifically one the Hobby Lobby family objects to.  She does not share her employer’s religious beliefs.  However, in this instance she is subjected to the employers beliefs and denied something included in a United States law (yes, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act as law) because of “religious belief.” You can see where I am going.  What’s the next thing for-profit corporations will use “religious grounds” to avoid complying with a law they don’t like.  This, once again, is not a question of “Democrats waging a war against religion,” as the Republicans are wont to say.  It is a question of the political right in collaboration with a conservative-loaded Supreme Court endorsing and imposing Christian religious beliefs on others who not share them. 

Well until something else comes along to capture American media attention, (like another Malaysian airplane disappearance) we will be hearing endless theories, opinions, commentaries, interviews and unsubstantiated conjecture about the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.   We now have the conflict between the “we never leave one of our soldiers behind” and “he was a rotten deserter who cost lives looking for him” and “we’ve encouraged Al Qaeda to take more prisoners” and “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” and all this mess is President Obama’s fault because he did not give Congress 30 day’s notice before trading Berdahl for the Guantanamo prisoners.  Let’s imaging this scenario:  President Obama says to Congress, “I want to make a trade for Guantanamo prisoners for Sgt. Bergdahl” (Congress has known about the negotiations for a few years.)   So Congress has 30 days to approve or deny this.  Now here’s what probably would have happened.  House Republicans would have said they would not even consider it unless there was a clause in the release repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).  And any discussion over Sgt. Bergdahl’s release would have to be done within the framework of the new Republican instigated Benghazi hearings.  Of course, all this is standard Republican procedure to thwart everything Obama proposes and obstruct any progress on anything in the U.S. KinderCongress.  So let’s say ten days pass after Congress is asked to decide on Bergdahl’s release and nothing is done which most certainly would have been the case.   So Al Quada posts a You Tube video showing Bergdahl being beheaded with the captions saying the U.S. delayed the prisoner transfer showing bad faith and the only thing to do was kill Bergdahl.  Then the Republicans in the House would be screaming that it was all Obama’s fault because he did not take immediate, bold action to get Bergdahl back and John McCain would insist if he were President he would have bombed the shit out of Al Qaeda to get Bergdahl back and forget about all this diplomacy crap.

 And that, children, is today’s lesson in how absurd politics are in the United States of America.

In my last blog post, I expressed my opinion that the Supreme Court has lost its credibility and that it has become an instrument of Republican policy, specifically the insidious ways it is working toward establishing a state religion which is expressly prohibited by the Constitution.  In that post I included the disclaimer that I am not a legal scholar.  Today’s blog post is an extract from the New York Times column by Linda Greenhouse who teaches at Yale Law School and is a legal scholar.  She agrees with my position.

“Nor was there any crossover (Republican judges voting with Democratic judges) in the Town of Greece decision earlier this month, authorizing sectarian invocations at local government meetings. Opening the doors to greater public expression and observance of religion is another central part of the Roberts court’s project. Here, the court has moved a bit more slowly. Three years ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit invalidated the practice of public prayer at county board meetings in Forsyth County, N.C. Local clergy members were offering prayers that just happened to be laden with Christian references. The Supreme Court declined to hear the county’s appeal.

But the pause was just temporary. The Town of Greece case didn’t differ from the North Carolina case in any meaningful way. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had found the steady diet of Christian prayer at town board meetings to be an unconstitutional establishment of religion. This time, the justices agreed to hear the appeal. Since it was obvious that the majority’s goal was to overturn the Second Circuit’s decision, it was no great surprise that the 5-to-4 opinion did so.

But Justice Kennedy’s opinion for the court was startling nonetheless for its obliviousness to the impact that sectarian prayers can have on those citizens for whom prayer before a government meeting is not “a benign acknowledgment of religion’s role in society” (to quote the opinion) but an affront. “Adults often encounter speech they find disagreeable,” Justice Kennedy said dismissively. This from a justice who in his majority opinion in a Florida death penalty case on Tuesday emphasized the right of a convicted murderer to be treated with “dignity” by having his intellectual deficit assessed meaningfully rather than mechanically. The Constitution’s “protection of dignity reflects the Nation we have been, the Nation we are, and the Nation we aspire to be,” Justice Kennedy wrote on Tuesday, overturning a death sentence. I was left to wonder about the dignity of the two women who sued Greece, N.Y., on the claim that the price of conducting their business with the town board should not include having to listen to Christian prayers.

The country didn’t need to have the religious culture wars reignited, but thanks to the court, that’s where we now are. Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian-right group that represented the victorious town, has taken out newspaper ads praising the decision’s “far-reaching implications” and offering its “model prayer policy” that people can press on their local governments. The Supreme Court’s “O.K. to pray” is being quickly and unsubtly turned into a right to pray. The Alliance’s reference to a “long-standing, important tradition of public prayer” isn’t accurate, at least as to its client; the Greece town board observed only a moment of silent prayer until 1999, when for unexplained reasons, the board started inviting local ministers to pray out loud.”

To read her whole column go to   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/opinion/greenhouse-polar-vision.html?ref=opinion

And it came to pass that the once great democracy, the United States of America, saw its Supreme Court become, rather than the upholder and defender of the Constitution and the law, the subservient lackey of the Republican Party just as that Party had become the subservient lackey of the wealthy and powerful. This, of course, is my cynical way of saying the Supreme Court has totally lost its credibility.  I am referring to the latest politically influenced decision that town meetings are constitutionally allowed to open their sessions with prayer.  The Chief Justice stated that prayer is only “symbolic” so it’s no big deal and the other right wing justices said there is a historic precedence because legislative sessions have opened with prayer since the beginning or our nation.  Neither of those arguments have anything to do with constitutionality. (You will recall it was a 5-4 decision split along party lines, not legal lines.) I make no pretenses to being a legal scholar.  But I would like to offer my interpretation of the United States Constitution.  (By the way, the Constitution does not specify requirements for being a Supreme Court Justice.  No age nor citizenship rules are stated not even the requirement to have a law degree so I guess I am qualified.)  Since most Americans have never read the Constitution, here’s what it says about religion: First Amendment—“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  And in the Third Article of the Constitution itself it says: “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”  In plain language this means that the government cannot establish an official state religion, you can practice any religion you want and candidates do not have to adhere to a specific religion to qualify for office.  But, in a rather devious way, the Republican Party is attempting to establish an official national religion and many Republican politicians are touting their qualification for office by being “devout Christians.”   You might ask, is prayer before a town meeting the establishing of a state religion?  Not in and of itself, but what if you are Jewish, Muslin, Buddhist, atheist or agnostic and your town meeting is asking the blessing of “our personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” You might find that objectionable.  In an oblique way, the local government is imposing a religion on you.  And if you believe a woman has no right to have an abortion and you believe contraceptives are a sin because of your personal religious beliefs and if you push the government to impost yours beliefs, and if the government complies with your demands, then the government is effectively imposing the establishment of a state religion which is specifically prohibited by the Constitution. Of course, the only “government” that would impose those religious restrictions would be Republican. We will find out how much sway the religious Republicans hold over the Supreme Court when it will decide whether an employer can deny insurance coverage for contraceptives or abortions on the basis of religious beliefs.  If the Court allows that, it will, in effect, be another step towards establishing a state religion, which, of course, is against the Constitution.

For those who have been following the op-ed columns and political magazines over the past few months—both left and right—some startling revelations have emerged that appear to be shaking the foundations of our self-righteousness.  We have begun to realize that the only people who think Americans are “exceptional” are Americans.  Nobody else does.  It is finally sinking in that we were not ordained by God to create the entire world in our image and we can’t tell every other nation on earth what to do and expect them to comply. We have been “spearheading” the Israeli-Palestinian “peace talks” since I had a 32-inch waist and we all know how successful they have been.   The confrontation with Putin is really somewhat ludicrous.  Our position seems to be that if we invade sovereign countries, overthrow their governments, arm rebels, create chaos and mayhem  in “our national interest,” that’s okay, but if Russia does it, we “condemn” such actions and sternly warn there will be “grave consequences” for doing acts we have already done. Then our rusting Republicans, lead by their doddery-old-man-in-chief John McCain, predictably insist the president is not doing enough.  Enough what?  First there’s not a whole lot more sanctions and stern warnings he can do and only McCain seems to want us to get into another war.  Secondly, European business interests heavily involved in Russian trade are not exactly supporting those economic “sanctions” whoever proposes them.  Now if trying to accept that we do not rule the world weren’t trauma enough, we have to face the destruction of some of our cherished national myths here at home.  On April 22, 2013, I posted on my blog: “If any of you still believe we live in a democracy, I have bad news for you. All of us were taught since grade school that in a democracy our elected government is supposed to uphold the will of the people.  This no longer applies to the United States.”  Admittedly, this did not have much of an impact since nobody listens to me.  But, just recently, a new study by Princeton researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page concluded that America has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.  They write, "the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy."  In other words, what the voting American citizen wants does not matter, what the wealthy and powerful elite want does.  Unless you are really stupid you already knew this but now we have a serious research paper to prove those of us who are not stupid were right all along.  Perhaps the cruelest cut of all is the realization that good old American unfettered, profits-over-everything capitalism is causing more worldwide harm than good.  French economist Thomas Piketty’s new book “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has just caused an uproar.  If you are a liberal, you think it will scare conservatives to death because it basically says the wealthy are getting wealthier not by doing any thing to earn money but because of the money-generating assets they hold.  So we are regressing into a society where great wealth comes from inheritance and not from actually doing or producing anything.  Conservatives, on the other hand, are going hysterical over Piketty’s idea of world taxation on the wealthy and perhaps having to admit that the American myth that great wealth is earned by anyone willing to work hard enough is phony. Of course, predictably the conservatives are calling Piketty a “Marxist” hoping there are enough Americans old enough to know what they mean by that.  But there are also some voices on the right that think capitalism is no longer doing its job. Arthur C. Brooks, president of the right wing American Enterprise Institute, wrote an op-last week stating: “But while free enterprise keeps expanding globally, its success may be faltering in the United States. According to research from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, men in their 30s in 2004 were earning 12 percent less in real terms than their fathers’ generation at the same point in their lives.”  In other words, the rich keep getting richer and free-enterprise capitalism is not doing much for anyone else.  Brooks also concludes, “The solution does not lie in the dubious “fair share” class-baiting of politicians. We need to combine an effective, reliable safety net for the poor with a hard look at modern barriers to upward mobility. That means attacking cronyism that protects the well-connected. It means lifting poor children out of ineffective schools that leave them unable to compete. It entails pruning back outmoded licensing laws that restrain low-income entrepreneurs. And it means creating real solutions — not just proposing market distortions — for people who cannot find jobs that pay enough to support their families.”  By the way, I repeat this is from a right-wing commentator. So listen up Americans, you are not exceptional, you do not live in a democracy and free market capitalism is screwing you.

 

Anyone following the political scene over the past year of so will have noticed rumblings that Capitalism, as we know it, is not working for the betterment of the country and, for that matter, the world.  The wealth disparity in American has been well documented.  Every day we are fed an endless stream of examples of how economically miserable so many Americans are.  Republicans—at least those trying to be somewhat realistic—are using phrases like “re-branding the party’s image,” “reaching out to minorities and women,” etc.  I am waiting for someone to resurrect the old Republican oxymoron, “compassionate conservatism.” As long as Capitalism functions only to make the rich richer and keep the poor economically stagnant or worse, the free enterprise system is no longer working in our so-called “democracy.”  Now before you conclude this is just left-wing griping, read this op-ed piece written by Arthur C. Brooks, president of the right wing American Enterprise Institute.

Capitalism and the Dalai Lama

By Arthur C. Brooks, a contributing opinion writer, is the president of the American Enterprise Institute.

APRIL 17, 2014

WHAT can Washington, D.C., learn from a Buddhist monk?

In early 2013, I traveled with two colleagues to Dharamsala, India, to meet with the Dalai Lama. His Holiness has lived there since being driven from his Tibetan homeland by the Chinese government in 1959. From his outpost in the Himalayan foothills, he anchored the Tibetan government until 2011 and continues to serve as a spiritual shepherd for hundreds of millions of people, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.

Very early one morning during the visit, I was invited to meditate with the monks. About an hour had passed when hunger pangs began, but I worked hard to ignore them. It seemed to me that such earthly concerns had no place in the superconscious atmosphere of the monastery.

Incorrect. Not a minute later, a basket of freshly baked bread made its way down the silent line, followed by a jar of peanut butter with a single knife. We ate breakfast in silence, and resumed our meditation. This, I soon learned, is the Dalai Lama in a nutshell: transcendence and pragmatism together. Higher consciousness and utter practicality rolled into one.

That same duality was on display in February when the Dalai Lama joined a two-day summit at my institution, the American Enterprise Institute. At first, his visit caused confusion. Some people couldn’t imagine why he would visit us; as Vanity Fair asked in a headline, “Why Was the Dalai Lama Hanging Out with the Right-Wing American Enterprise Institute?”

There was no dissonance, though, because the Dalai Lama’s teaching defies freighted ideological labels. During our discussions, he returned over and over to two practical yet transcendent points. First, his secret to human flourishing is the development of every individual. In his own words: “Where does a happy world start? From government? No. From United Nations? No. From individual.”

But his second message made it abundantly clear that he did not advocate an every-man-for-himself economy. He insisted that while free enterprise could be a blessing, it was not guaranteed to be so. Markets are instrumental, not intrinsic, for human flourishing. As with any tool, wielding capitalism for good requires deep moral awareness. Only activities motivated by a concern for others’ well-being, he declared, could be truly “constructive.”

Tibetan Buddhists actually count wealth among the four factors in a happy life, along with worldly satisfaction, spirituality and enlightenment. Money per se is not evil. For the Dalai Lama, the key question is whether “we utilize our favorable circumstances, such as our good health or wealth, in positive ways, in helping others.” There is much for Americans to absorb here. Advocates of free enterprise must remember that the system’s moral core is neither profits nor efficiency. It is creating opportunity for individuals who need it the most.

Historically, free enterprise has done this to astonishing effect. In a remarkable paper, Maxim Pinkovskiy of M.I.T. and Xavier Sala-i-Martin of Columbia University calculate that the fraction of the world’s population living on a dollar a day — after adjusting for inflation — plummeted by 80 percent between 1970 and 2006. This is history’s greatest antipoverty achievement.

But while free enterprise keeps expanding globally, its success may be faltering in the United States. According to research from Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, men in their 30s in 2004 were earning 12 percent less in real terms than their fathers’ generation at the same point in their lives. That was before the financial crisis, the Great Recession, and years of federal policies that have done a great deal for the wealthy and well-connected but little to lift up the bottom half.

The solution does not lie in the dubious “fair share” class-baiting of politicians. We need to combine an effective, reliable safety net for the poor with a hard look at modern barriers to upward mobility. That means attacking cronyism that protects the well-connected. It means lifting poor children out of ineffective schools that leave them unable to compete. It entails pruning back outmoded licensing laws that restrain low-income entrepreneurs. And it means creating real solutions — not just proposing market distortions — for people who cannot find jobs that pay enough to support their families.

In other words, Washington needs to be more like the Dalai Lama. Without abandoning principles, we need practical policies based on moral empathy. Tackling these issues may offend entrenched interests, but this is immaterial. It must be done. And temporary political discomfort pales in comparison with the suffering that vulnerable people bear every day.

At one point in our summit, I deviated from the suffering of the poor and queried the Dalai Lama about discomfort in his own life. “Your Holiness,” I asked, “what gives you suffering?” I expected something quotably profound, perhaps about the loss of his homeland. Instead, he thought for a moment, loosened his maroon robe slightly, and once again married the practical with the rhapsodic. “Right now,” he said, “I am a little hot

American right-wing Christianity is just as noxious and dangerous as radical Islam is in other parts of the world.  Our so-called Christians haven’t yet sent suicide bombers into gay bars and abortions clinics but wallowing in their self-righteousness and adamantly believing they are the exclusive interpreters of “god’s will” they are attempting to impose their theology on the entire country.  It’s too bad our politicians who rant at the dangers of radical Islam won’t do anything to control the religious fanaticism going on here in America.  On the contrary, some politicians campaign on how devoutly “Christian” they are.  Texas is doing everything it can to shut down all abortion clinics and State Senator Dan Patrick, in his bid for Lieutenant Governor declared he’s running as “a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third.” Christian-conservative-Republican, I can’t imagine a more horrendous combination. But that’s Texas. The queen of the Tea Party Michele Bachman recently admonished Arizona Governor Jan Brewer for vetoing a law that would have allowed anyone because of their “religious beliefs” to refuse service to gays.  What is so terribly frustrating to many people, myself included, is that these “Christians” can’t seem to see the contradiction between what they say and do and the moral principles of their professed religion.  Maybe they should pay more attention to what their Jesus Christ actually said rather than apply their own interpretations of the Bible to justify their prejudices, bigotry and hatred (anti-gay, anti-black, anti-women, anti-Hispanics).  Yes, I know, I will get screaming comments from right-wingers insisting they are not bigots.  I don’t believe in the tooth fairy either.  You need not be a theologian to recognize that radical American Christians endorse policies that go against the same people their spiritual role model Jesus told them they should protect and support—the sick, the hungry, the weak, the poor.  The word “hypocrisy” comes to mind.  Considering the way the hypochristians interpret the Bible, it is not surprising that they would also distort the constitution.  No matter how many times you tell them the Constitution only guarantees the right to practice any religion you want but not the right to impose your religious beliefs on others they simply ignore it.  The Constitution says nothing about when life begins nor sexual orientation.  What is even more ludicrous is the contention that Christians in America are being “persecuted.”  To my knowledge we haven’t thrown anybody to the lions recently.  In their wacky logic “persecuted” means not making laws according to what they are absolutely certain is the way god wants it.  The aforementioned Texas state Senator Patrick asked in the debate over the abortion clinic law, “How would God vote tonight if he were here?”  Fortunately there is hope.  Recent Pew Research indicates the younger generation, the “Millennials”, tend to be independent politically, non-affiliated religiously, more tolerant, more inclusive and more liberal.   So perhaps the Christian-conservative-Republican will eventually disappear and, hopefully, never be resurrected.  Amen.

Recently I purchased a new TV.  That in and of itself is not much of a major life event.  But it reminded me of a lunch I went to 52 years ago in London.  The guest speaker was the president of Ferranti, Ltd., a British electronics firm, and I was covering it as the correspondent for Electronic News.  Why would my new TV remind me of a lunch that long ago?  The speaker, whose name I can’t remember, talked about the great strides electronics would make in the coming years.  I don’t recall much of the many non-existent things he predicted except for two.  He said one day we would have telephones that would work without wires.  He was referring not to cell phones but phones you could walk around within your home.  Even those were unheard of in those days.  Then he announced, (and I shall paraphrase from memory) “Someday we will have televisions that you can hang on your wall.”  The British well-mannered audience noticeably muffled a guffaw.  Now remember, in the 1960s televisions were big bulky things many of which were built into massive pieces of furniture.  The TV I just discarded is 12 years old, weighs about 85 pounds, is 19  inches deep and has a cathode ray picture tube.  (See photo.)  My new TV is an inch and a half thick and weighs about six pounds.  But back to my luncheon.  As a young enthusiastic reporter I thought I had a “big story.”  I could see the headline “British Electronics Executive Predicts the Future.”  I raced back to the office and whipped my story off by trans-Atlantic cable (there were no satellites nor Internet in those days).  When the next issue came out my story was not on the front page, in fact, it was not in the paper at all.  Highly chagrined, I called the editor to ask why a sensational story like mine didn’t make the paper.  His reply was essentially, “Are you kidding!  We are a respected, serious electronics newspaper.  If we put out a story about TVs hanging on the wall we’d be the laughing stock of the industry.” Can you imagine someone predicting that you could watch TV on a mini-screen mounted on your eyeglass frame?  Are you kidding?

 

Michael Sam, a six foot two, 260 pound defensive lineman and potential NFL player, just “came out” as gay.  The most shocking thing about his admission is that so many people consider it shocking.  “My God he is a football player!” they weep and wail and wring their hands!  (And probably gnash their teeth but we will get to biblical references later.) Would it shock them to learn there are gay doctors, lawyers, bank tellers and auto mechanics?  The issue here is that a lot of people in our country —especially white males--have this image of football players as the epitome of masculinity so a gay football player seems to go against their great American “values” (whatever they are any more).   Not only do these guys have to deal with learning that a big, talented male athlete who is capable of viciously slamming an opponent to the ground is gay, they also have to deal with their so-called “faith.”  You know, God says homosexuality is a sin, an abomination and all that and how can you argue with God?  Okay you’ve heard the familiar rebuttal to biblical homophobia that the Old Testament also declares that adulterers should be stoned to death.  Considering our statistics on divorce rates, probably half the adult population in the Unites States would be in serious trouble under Leviticus 20:10.  Doesn’t it strike you a bit absurd when God gets involved in whether someone is fit to play in the NFL?  Fortunately, the vast majority reaction has been very supportive of Sam especially among football players.  I guess the supportive people also read the Bible.  Remember John 8:5 when the scribes and Pharisees brought the adulteress to Jesus and pointed out Moses’s law said she should be stoned to death and Jesus replied, “Ok the one without sin should toss the first stone.”  Looks like Sam would be one of Jesus’s draft picks.  Can you imagine what the reaction would be if one of the bearded males in that revered example of masculine American culture Duck Dynasty came out as gay? 

The New York Times had a few startling revelations this morning.  One story reported that the Russians leaked a recording of a phone conversation between two American diplomats.  Can you imagine a national government listening in on the phone conversations of another country? Atrocious.  The United States has every right to be outraged.  Another story (deep inside on page A15) noted the ranking House Republican woman, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, is being investigated for possible campaign spending irregularities.  She gave the official Republican response to the State of the Union address.  If you managed to stay awake for all ten minutes of it you got her entire autobiography, and the promise that the Republicans had a plan to make every American life peachy creamy without saying how.  Anyway, she is being investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics.  What I found interesting is that such an Office exists.  “Congressional ethics” strikes me as an enormous oxymoron.  One editorial bemoaned Russia’s repressive government. The phrase that caught my eye was “charges against those demonstrators are baseless and more evidence of “Putin’s way of getting revenge” on his critics.”  Politicians extracting revenge?  Shocking.  At least he could have been more subtle and shut down a bridge leading to Sochi.  And finally, John Boehner expressed doubt that there will be immigration reform during this Congress.  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) laid the blame for the immigration reform impasse on, guess what, the Affordable Care Act. 

For two days I suffered from NCSD (No Computer Stress Disorder).  Fortunately it was just a mild case since it involved only my desktop computer which was being repaired.  I still had a functioning iPhone, iPad and netbook otherwise I don’t know how I could have gotten through 48 hours without email.  It made me realize just how critical electronic devices have become to my daily life.  I have a few friends who refuse to use a computer, have no email, no smart phone, do not participate in social media and one, incredibly, has no answering machine.    I sometimes envy them for their electronic isolation but I cannot imagine myself returning to the days of typewriters, letters requiring stamped envelopes and telephones wired to the wall.

But I feel I am in a technological wasteland.  I am stuck somewhere between the analogue and the digital, embracing a bit of each, comfortable with the former and trying to fully understand and participate in the latter.  Yes, I confess I use facebook, (mainly to keep track of my grandchildren’s sometimes appalling behavior and it’s also relatively easy).  I have no idea how to use twitter, linkedin, flickr, chrome, cloud, pinterest, google+ and all the other things I am constantly being invited to join by giving them my email address, sex, birth date, marital status and establishing yet another password.

However, all this has made me realize the future is rushing by me and I can’t seem to catch up with it.  My two-year-old granddaughter, like all two-year-olds, is learning how to say words.  Among her first pronouncement were:  “mommy,” “daddy,” “more,” “all done,” “no” and “iPad.”  She is quite capable of turning on the device, touching the icons for Elmo, Cookie Monster, The Wheels on the Bus and her other favorite videos.  She’s takes pictures on her mother’s iPhone and once called me on mine by accident.

Kids today find it incomprehensible that we older people feel that so-called “intuitive” apps are confusing and intimidating.  When visiting my ten-year-old grandson, he amuses himself by watching my ineptitude at playing the video games he tries to teach me.  Once we downloaded a game he wanted to try on my iPad and within five minutes he knew exactly how to do it.  After we both played it several times he pointed out that his highest recorded score was 11,508 and mine was six.  I must also confess my 16-year-old granddaughter taught me how to text.

There could be a perfectly good reason why my grandchildren catch on to these e-things and I don’t. Perhaps Richard Dawkins, noted British evolutionary biologist (and famous atheist) was on to something when he coined the word “meme” in his book The Selfish Gene.  A meme is like a gene in that it passes ideas and cultural phenomena from one generation to the next.  The most useful intellectual traits evolve by natural selection much like biological evolution.  

Obviously, I do not have the video game meme and quite possibly my grandson, who has certainly got it, will pass it on to his offspring who will be even better at wielding the X-Box, playing Wii’s and understanding the latest iPhone apps.

According to some meme theory proponents, memes that are no longer useful will become extinct.  It is conceivable then,  that Google’s current successful experiments will lead to the day somewhere in the distant future when no one will know how to drive a car.   But, without doubt,  future generations will be unbelievably good at playing video games.

If you are over five years old and live in America you have heard of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare).  Even if you have absolutely no idea what it is, you most certainly have an opinion about it.  Republicans have convinced you it is the worst thing that has happened in the history of the world, or Democrats assured you it is a wonderful opportunity for millions of uninsured Americans to acquire health insurance.

            The Republicans have been brilliant in lambasting the ACA without exactly explaining why it is so bad (and also not proposing an alternative) and the Democrats have been singularly inept at explaining and launching it.  So the result is that just about everybody doesn’t understand anything.

            But let’s limit this discussion to one issue.  The Republicans have, in pursuing their attack against the ACA (they voted to repeal it over 40 times), tried to convince perfectly healthy young people—dubbed the “young invincibles”—that they are being ripped off by the government and forced to buy health insurance they don’t need. 

As an “old vincible” I can guarantee those healthy young people they are going to need health insurance if they live long enough.  (Of course, if they intend to die in the near future the Republicans may have a point.)

Actually, the “government” already requires citizens to purchase insurance and punish them if they do not.  If you drive a car, most states require you to purchase accident/liability insurance otherwise you can’t register your car and drive it.  So state governments require you to get insurance or they penalize you by not permitting you to drive.

There is another insurance the private sector forces you to buy--home owners insurance.  All banks require you to purchase home owners insurance otherwise they won’t give you a mortgage.

But let’s get back to the Republican argument that the “young invincibles” are being forced to pay for the health care of the sick old fogies (which eventually they will become but they don’t know that yet). 

I have been a home owner for over 30 years and during all that time I have paid county taxes.  A portion of those taxes goes to pay for the school system to educate the children in the county.  For all of those 30 years I have never had a child in the school system so why should I be required to pay taxes to educate the children of the “young invincibles”?  Because, the local government requires me to do so although I get no benefit from those taxes.

A basic principal of insurance is you pay for it in the hope you will never need it.  You pay for car accident/liability insurance but if you never have an accident you pay for the accidents of those who do.  You pay for home owners insurance but if your house never burns down you pay for those whose houses do.  You pay country taxes even if you have no children in order to educate the children of those who do.

But that principal of hoping you never need the insurance you pay for does not apply to health insurance because sooner or later you are going to get old and feeble and sick and get cancer or heart disease or diabetes or Alzheimer’s or something equally dreadful and you are most certainly going to need it.   So since you will absolutely need health insurance at some point in the future, what you pay now to treat the current old fogies, the young invincibles of the future are going to be paying for you. 

Look at it this way.  You can’t wait to buy life insurance until you die which you certainly will.

In his magnificent essay “Here is New York,” E.B. White said there are three New Yorks—one for the native born, another for the commuter who works there and leaves each night and the third for people who come from somewhere else in quest of something.  I’d like to add a fourth—the visitor who feels like a resident.  In 1955, my father became a commuter New Yorker when the family moved to Hartsdale and he worked in the Graybar building above Grand Central Station.  In 2000 my wife and I became one-week “residents” of New York when we bought a time share across the street from Carnegie Hall.  So each time I visit the Big Apple I feel both the excitement of the tourist enjoying all the wonderful things to do and see and the comfort and confidence of a resident who knows how to use the subway system.

New York is always exciting, occasionally scary and sometimes emotional.  My wife and I visited the city two weeks after 9/11.  We had already booked our trip and refused to cancel it.  We smelled the acrid smoke that still drifted over lower Manhattan and saw the layers of ash on the sidewalks and buildings blocks away from ground zero.  Last week we visited the 9/11 Memorial.  It is both beautiful and sad.  Having been there right after the destruction, the pristine memorial fountain-pool and the soaring new buildings had a special meaning for me.

 

New York is more than the theater and museums we enjoy each visit, it is also eating.  As a professional food photographer who dearly loves consuming my subjects, I consider eating one of NYC’s greatest attractions.  For me, NYC is an enormous food court.  On this trip, I revisited some favorite restaurants and discovered a couple new ones.

Encore restaurant performances this trip included Robert on the ninth floor of the Museum of Art and Design and P.J. Clarke’s.  Robert offers excellent food and a fabulous view of Columbus Circle. We always visit the museum first.  Exhibits change often so there is always something new.  This time the exhibits featured advanced technology in art and I finally found out what 3D printing really is.

 

 

 

 

If you like classical music, the New York Philharmonic holds open rehearsals on Thursday mornings at Lincoln Center (go to www.nyphil.org for information.)  You get to see an actual rehearsal of the current performance for $20.00 at 9:45 a.m.  Just across the street from Lincoln Center is P.J.Clarke’s which I believe makes the best Reuben sandwich in the world.  I had it again this time.

 

Now to this trip’s restaurant debuts.  My good friend Phil Dorian who was my college roommate and is now a New York theater critic (www.sceneonstage.com) introduced us to Iguana (240 West 54th St.) and Etcetera Etcetera (352 West 44th St.)

 

Iguana is upscale Mexican where they make a great avocado dip at the table and offers perhaps the best corn chowder I have ever eaten.   Etcetera Etcetera is upscale Italian where my wife had a beautifully done Cornish hen and I had a perfectly creamy risotto (only Italians can make good risotto).  Sorry, I forgot the camera that night which is a terrible admission for a photographer.

 

Two friends I have done Community Theater with down south, Craig Mark Wells and Camrus Johnson, are now in New York aiming at bigger theatrical horizons.  They introduced us to one of their favorite hangouts, Patzeria—Family and Friends (311 West 48th St.).  We all got together for breakfast one morning and I must say the owner and staff were really like, well, family and friends.

 

 

Sometime we just come upon a new restaurant by chance.  After visiting the 9/11 Memorial, we went looking for a restaurant on the Bowery that a magazine said had great raw clams--one of my favorite things.  Unfortunately, after walking a half hour in the rain we found it and it was closed for lunch.  So another 15 minutes in the rain and we found Gemma, (335 Bowery) that looked like a trendy Italian eatery. My wife had butternut squash ravioli and I had a grilled eggplant sandwich (Italians also know how to do eggplant and we confirmed the chef is from Sicily).

 

Our biggest breakfast find was the Cosmic Diner (888 8th Ave.)  We wanted a big breakfast on the Sunday of our departure that would hold us until we got home late in the day.  We found it.  Our Cosmic brunch included three eggs Benedict and potatoes, a Bloody Mary or Mimosa, orange juice and coffee all for $17!  What a deal!

 

But, of course, New York does not exist by food alone.  It does have a great theater menu.   We saw five shows:  “After Midnight”—starring Fantasia.  Terrific music from the Duke Ellington, Cotton Club era and blow-your-mind dancing.  “Pippin,” an extravaganza where Cirque de Soleil meets Broadway musical, magic show and then some.  “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” an entertaining combination of Downton Abbey, British farce and Gilbert and Sullivan with an amazing performance by Jefferson Mays playing the part of seven murder victims. “Outside Mullingar,” from the playwright who wrote the gripping drama “Doubt.”  Very disappointing, boring, with an outcome you can predict in the first ten minutes and you don’t care how the characters get there.   “Machinal” a play written by Sophie Treadwell in 1928 but surprisingly contemporary.  Rebecca Hall gives an incredible performance of a troubled woman who murders her husband to set herself free from an oppressive hum-drum life. 

And finally the museums.  Two museums we always visit are the previously mentioned Museum of Art and Design on Columbus Circle and the International Center of Photography (1133 Avenue of the Americas).  The exhibits change often and this time the ICP featured Lewis Hine who pioneered documentary photography, covering early immigration on Ellis Island, child labor and the construction of the Empire State Building.  He did the famous shot of the workers having lunch on a girder high above the city. (Strangely, that shot is not in the show.)

Once you’ve seen all the dioramas at the New York Museum of Natural History you’ve seen them all because they don’t change.  A dinosaur is pretty much the same from year to year.  But the museum does special exhibits like the one we saw called “Poisons.”  Everything you ever wanted to know about poisons from Socrates to Snow White, snakes and spiders.  After a couple hours studying toxic substances (which included alcohol) we went back to our time share for cocktails. It was a great week.

 

As we enter the New Year, two states, Washington and Colorado have legalized the sale and use of marijuana.  Since this is America, where we can’t seem to agree on anything, this has raised a large controversy ranging from outrage on one extreme to “oh, get a life” on the other.  What to do with marijuana in our society has been debated for years and now that some states are decriminalizing it (which is contrary to Federal law) my personal opinion is that we are doing it entirely the wrong way.  Over 30 years ago when I was a marketing executive we had a client that is a large tobacco company.  At one of those legendary three-martini lunches we discussed the “weed.”  The client told us very matter-of-factly that his company would like to see marijuana legalized and that it would not only be good for his industry but also good for the country.  The tobacco industry was—and still is—in the perfect position to take on the manufacture of “marijuana cigarettes.”  Our client pointed out all the advantages.  His industry would make lots of money.  On the other hand, total manufacture and sale nationwide would be carefully controlled and the quality and strength of the commercialized product would be standardized.  (Rumor has it that the Washington and Colorado joints will be considerably more powerful than the pothead stuff of the 60s.)  And finally, the state and Federal governments would get a huge amount of tax revenue.  Consider, it costs about 20 cents to manufacture a pack of cigarettes.  The last time I was in New York City, I saw a sign “Marlboros $13.00 a pack.” That’s a lot of tax for the packs.  You have heard all the emotional arguments:  Kids starting on marijuana will become crack addicts.  We are putting people in jail for long periods just for possessing marijuana overcrowding our jails.   For some reason, the legalization of pot is considered by many a moral issue which did not hold up in the case of alcohol.  Remember prohibition? People were going to drink whether the moralists liked it or not so it spawned all sorts of crime and mayhem. Then the mobs made money on booze, now the governments do.  It always amazes me how stupid our policies can be and how we fail to adopt the most rational, workable solutions (see health care which is another issue).  In the case of marijuana, go for the free market solution that conservatives so dearly love.  Turn over manufacture and distribution of marijuana cigarettes to the tobacco industry and let the government regulate it and reap the tax benefits.  How’s that for a compromise?--the conservatives get the privatization of marijuana and the liberals get regulation and more taxes.  Maybe I should become a political advisor.

Today we celebrate the arrival of a new year.  We also acknowledge the ending of an old one.  Every media outlet, whether print or electronic, likes to review the past year and make predictions about the next.  One of the reviews most media make of the year past is the names and stories of prominent people who expired.  I am always pleased when I am not on that list.  Although it would be nice to be a prominent person I am pleased to not qualify under the second requirement--I did not expire.  Considering the cancerous events I have experienced in the last few years missing the expired list one more time is no small accomplishment.  Going into the New Year I am optimistic at least about my longevity.  According to statistical studies, the life expectancy for an American male is 78.7 years and I have not yet used up my allotment.  So, I am looking forward to another year.  Unlike the media, I am not going to make any predictions because I want to start the new year on a positive note. No matter how rotten the past year was, we always like to think the next year will be better. So I will start my new year on an optimistic note until, of course, the U.S. Congress reconvenes.  Oh well optimism will be fun while it lasts and hope springs eternal.  Happy (but don’t count on it) New Year.  

Like most people I thought it was cool to say “I never make New Year’s resolutions because I never keep them,” but I thought I’d be un-cool this year and make one.  I am going to start blogging again and shoot for one or two episodes a week.  The year ended on an uplifting note.  Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly assured us Santa Claus and Jesus are white, John Boehner acknowledged his radical right wing is causing his party problems, noted intellectual Phil Robertson declared he dislikes gays but that’s okay because he loves Jesus and our dysfunctional Congress passed a kind of budget, sort of.  So in our current American Idiocracy, politics, religion, health care, cancer and stupidity in general should provide endless opportunities for commentary.  Happy New Year! http://rasersedge.blogspot.com

We Americans can create controversy and conflict about anything and everything.  The latest issue to raise our collective blood pressure is that major big-box retail stores are going to open on Thanksgiving Day. Wow! This has now become occasion for uproar, protest and yet another chance to demand an emotional, patriotic defense of our way of life.  After all, Thanksgiving is the greatest of all family American holidays when, by tradition, we are supposed to get together as a family, be happy and overeat. For some people, opening big retail stores on Thanksgiving Day surpasses Obamacare as the worst thing to happen in American history and a threat to our values (whatever they may be anymore). One women interviewed on a “news” program declared that in protest she will not shop on Thanksgiving and not even shop in those stores forever unless she required necessities. Huh? She implored everyone to join her in refusing to shop on Thanksgiving Day. Fat chance. All these people wringing their hands over the horror of big stores opening on Thanksgiving is a perfect example of how distorted our collective psyche has become.  We cherish some idea of great immutable American traditions, like Thanksgiving, as if they really mean something.  Then we find out that all our so called values are illusions and have been distorted to be money making machines (like Christmas by the way).  So, here is the reality.  Big stores are in business to make money and they care not about you or American traditions or how much they pay their employees who have to work on holidays or whether you shop there or not because others will and the loss of you doesn’t mean a damn thing.  By opening on Thanksgiving Day they make more money.  Period.  So if you are all in a snit about big stores opening on Thanksgiving Day, stay home.  It’s that simple.  Happy Thanksgiving!

You probably have heard the mayor of Toronto explained the reason he sniffed coke cocaine was because he was in a “drunken stupor.”  I suppose you could call that “politician logic” as it establishes a wonderful argument for all politicians.  Just think, for example, George W. Bush could have said, “I got us into the Iraq war because I was in a drunken stupor.”  Or President Obama could have said, “I told everybody they could keep the health insurance they have because I was in a drunken stupor.”  And how could you argue with such honesty.  Hey, this means when politicians do stupid things it is okay as long as they did it while in a drunken stupor. Drunken stupors are bad; bad actions while in drunken stupors are acceptable.  Makes perfect sense.

When we moved in to our subdivision on Amelia Island, Florida, 11 years ago, our neighbors told us we were a “target” neighborhood for Halloween. We learned what that means is that even though we do not have many children who actually live in our subdivision, it is a quiet, low-traffic, non-gated community with nice people who give treats to children on Halloween.  In other words, in the great American tradition, we are ripe for exploitation and extracting a profit, in this case measured in candy and other treats.  So parents figuring it’s a good deal, import their kids in vans to our subdivision for the evening. 

When I was a kid, (and I know people hate seniors talking about the “good old days,”) those of us between say five and 12 years old walked around our own neighborhood  dressed in costumes and our neighbors played the “Oh who is this little ghost?  Is that little Billy?” And we giggled and got a piece of candy.

Now today where I live, Halloween has become the candy/treat extraction industry.  We know absolutely none of the kids who come to the door since they have been imported from elsewhere by their parents, we can’t play the “Oh who is this?” game?  The kids just walk up hold out their bag and when prompted by their parents standing in the background mumble “say thank you,” and scoot off.

No one will really believe this today, but our parents didn’t come with us.  The 12-year olds escorted the younger kids because everybody in the neighborhood knew everybody else.  Now the parents transport their kids to neighborhoods where nobody knows them and I seriously doubt some of those parents’ motives.

Last night, Halloween, four toddlers in strollers showed up at out door pushed by their very fat parents. (Fat, in America, seems to be the new “attractive” but that is a different subject.) The oldest baby was 18 months and the youngest was sucking on a bottle of milk so it was really young and had no idea of where it was nor what was going on.  Now do you think the parents of those kids were trying to give them an enriching holiday experience or were they looking for a stash of candy for themselves?

Between 6:00 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. we gave out 100 treats my wife bought, to 100 kids we did not know and who do not live any where near us, then we turned out the lights and shut down Halloween.  I think I should add, this time for good.

The Republicans have shut down the government because their extortion plan did not work.  In the opinion of two out of three Americans, shutting down the government over Obamacare was a dumb thing to do.  Coincidently or not, the enrolment in the Affordable Care Act opened the same day the government closed which prompted a Facebook friend to declare “now the left wing Propaganda Wars begin.”  Interesting.  The right wing Propaganda Wars have been waging ever since the ACA (a.k.a. Obamacare) became law.   (Yes, Tea Partyers it is the law.)  Ever since the law passed, Republicans have been telling us Obamacare is a “train wreck.”  It is a “disaster.”  It’s a “job killer.”   Some Congressmen have soared to new heights of hyperbole.  One said, “The worst thing that could happen to America.”  Another shreiked, “we’re discovering new horrors every day,” and yet another added, “it’s the greatest threat our country has even known.”  In philosophy, rhetoric and logic, these are called “fallacious arguments.”  They are meaningless. They appeal to your fears and ignorance because they give you no information about why Obamacare is all these horrible things. Unfortunately, a lot of people fall for them. I believe what my Facebook friend was expressing is the right wingers’ fear that as enrolments in the ACA go forward, Americans will discover that it might actually be good for the millions of people who can’t get health insurance because of pre-existing conditions or can’t afford it because premiums are too high.  It will be interesting to see if Americans will see through the right wingers fallacious arguments and recognize them for what they are, bullshit.

To avoid thinking about Syria, I have decided to think about my cancers.  Both subjects are equally distasteful but the cancer is a bit closer to home.  Just like the Syrian situation, I am waiting to see what’s going to happen with the cancer.  I have my next PET/CT scan in a few weeks so the apprehension and tension sweeping America over whether to invade Syria is also playing out with me inside my neck.  Interestingly, the possibility of “military action” (again) in the Middle East and the invasion of esophageal cancer (again) in my throat have produced for me the same kind of mind games.   In both cases it comes down to the same questions.  We attack Syria or we don’t.  The cancer comes back or it doesn’t. It we do and it does, what happens next?  If we don’t and it doesn’t, what happens next?  Of course, for me the best case scenario is we stay out of Syria and the cancer stays out of me.  But as an optimistic pessimist might say:  Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.  So I am bracing for a new war in the Middle East and the return of the esophageal cancer.  From previous experience in both cases, we know the results can be disastrous.  Our adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused a lot of pain, misery and suffering.  I can say esophageal cancer does the same thing.  So I hope we stay out of Syria and… you finish the thought.