I recently read a post that was in awe about a foreign economy. The author was impressed at the success of socialism in Europe. I too would prefer to live in Europe to o our current Bush league version of the US. But, in the long term I think the the US and Europe are both in trouble.
Adam Smith rules; capital will move toward the best economics. This is even true at the level of nations marketing themselves. For example, it is cheaper, as I understand, to build cars in Canada despite the high Canadian wages. Canada is doing better than the US .. in no small part because their socialism is more efficient at heath care, education and retirement. If the state is paying for the cancers, that makes it easier for Daemler to build cars there.
BUT, the flies in this ointment are Sino-Indian. Despite a lot of stuff about the new economy, most jobs still come from manufacturing something (and yes, the Big Mac is a manufactured item). We are in real danger of our capital and Europe's as well being concentrated in China or India simply because the capital is more efficient there.
If this occurs, the US and Europe will be increasingly left with low capital investment type jobs. If we don't fix the US education system the jobs here will be making big Macs because the shipping costs from Shanghai are too high. A few % of Americans will be buying those burgers and trying to live in our extentended suburban slums because they can't afford to buy condoes n Seattle..
Education, however, can never employ more than a few percent of a society ... with one exception: education for capital management .. can you spell Suisse? Switzerland lives off of capital management ... banks and dysfunctional drug companies that now do their research in the US.
Similarly we can fantasize that Microsoft will always keep their capital, and high capital jobs, in Redmond, but why would Beijing or Delhi share that fantasy? As their own capital grows, it seems clear that they will want these jobs too and, if their model of state-capitalism succeeds why would they not buy and move Microsoft?
This is not a new idea. Before he became a bad guy, liberals across the world praised Mussolini for his version of state capitalism, Mussolini indeed made the trains run on time and brought jobs to Italy.
Fascism may be our future!
Monday, August 28, 2006
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Saturday, August 26, 2006
Why be Jewish?
This was done in response to a colleague's questioning the lack of values in contemporary university or Jewish education. He was esp. concerned with the latter.
I am however, much more dyspeptic toward the Torah than you. Like the Quran, the Torah reflects its age. It is a wonderful root and I worry about the tree surviving unless the root is cared for. We need to Lubavitchers and Charedi. But, they do not nourish the traditions, the branches and fruit that have grown out of the tree for the last 1000 years or so.
It is that tree ..Spinoza, Gompers, Alinsky, the Mississippi three, Einstein, and yes, modern Israel, that I see as important. I see that tree as fragile. In the USA, Judaism is becoming too like the Judaism of fin de siecle Germany. Other than the charedi, what do we stand for other than bagels and Israel?
In my youth, we led the civil rights movement, we created the pivotal literature of the time.. and founded modern science. Today's American Jewish youth seem to have no noble goals. Where is Ginsberg when we need him and why are so many of the Bush team vin unsere?
In my opinion this is, in part because, we teach the wrong things .. including Torah. The Torah should be taught as what it is .. a historical document of great import for the world. Kids should learn about the authors, the role of Josiah and the effect of Babylon. The conflicts of the Hasmoneans and mystery of the great council should be staples of Jewish education leading up to the Pharisees and the confrontation with the Greeks and Romans that gave us ... the modern European world!
Kids should honor Hillel and Ben Zakai so they, the kids can understand who Paul was an how weird, form a Jewish sense, Paul's creation of Jesus was. The kids should learn about central Jewish ideas .. not a simply revealed in the Torah but as evolved by our great men and women.
And then we come to modern times. Jews have won more than 20% of the science Nobels yet no Hebrew school kid can name 1! The Mississippi three are, if anything, white kids. Contemporary Jewish writers? I guess I can name Krugman and Friedman but no one is aware of their "roots." Spinoza might as well still be in cherem and the Ramban .. wasn't he Saladin's doctor? How many Hebrew School kids can name three Jewish Nobelists or describe the Jewish role in Civil rights, labor or South Africa?
Jewish history neglects "our" role in Andalusia, German liberalism, even our role as soldiers in WWII is neglected.
So kids get the Jewish version of the old testament stories, are taught a sort of JudeoChristianity, and visit Israel.
Why be Jewish?
I am however, much more dyspeptic toward the Torah than you. Like the Quran, the Torah reflects its age. It is a wonderful root and I worry about the tree surviving unless the root is cared for. We need to Lubavitchers and Charedi. But, they do not nourish the traditions, the branches and fruit that have grown out of the tree for the last 1000 years or so.
It is that tree ..Spinoza, Gompers, Alinsky, the Mississippi three, Einstein, and yes, modern Israel, that I see as important. I see that tree as fragile. In the USA, Judaism is becoming too like the Judaism of fin de siecle Germany. Other than the charedi, what do we stand for other than bagels and Israel?
In my youth, we led the civil rights movement, we created the pivotal literature of the time.. and founded modern science. Today's American Jewish youth seem to have no noble goals. Where is Ginsberg when we need him and why are so many of the Bush team vin unsere?
In my opinion this is, in part because, we teach the wrong things .. including Torah. The Torah should be taught as what it is .. a historical document of great import for the world. Kids should learn about the authors, the role of Josiah and the effect of Babylon. The conflicts of the Hasmoneans and mystery of the great council should be staples of Jewish education leading up to the Pharisees and the confrontation with the Greeks and Romans that gave us ... the modern European world!
Kids should honor Hillel and Ben Zakai so they, the kids can understand who Paul was an how weird, form a Jewish sense, Paul's creation of Jesus was. The kids should learn about central Jewish ideas .. not a simply revealed in the Torah but as evolved by our great men and women.
And then we come to modern times. Jews have won more than 20% of the science Nobels yet no Hebrew school kid can name 1! The Mississippi three are, if anything, white kids. Contemporary Jewish writers? I guess I can name Krugman and Friedman but no one is aware of their "roots." Spinoza might as well still be in cherem and the Ramban .. wasn't he Saladin's doctor? How many Hebrew School kids can name three Jewish Nobelists or describe the Jewish role in Civil rights, labor or South Africa?
Jewish history neglects "our" role in Andalusia, German liberalism, even our role as soldiers in WWII is neglected.
So kids get the Jewish version of the old testament stories, are taught a sort of JudeoChristianity, and visit Israel.
Why be Jewish?
Saturday, August 12, 2006
"Aryan" Mythology in the Mosque?
YESTERDAY, schools in the American south and, of course in Hitler's Germany, taught a mythical view of the "white race." In this view the people of Northern Europe, somehow destined to become the true Christians, descended from an ancient and nobel root. Mixing the fruit of that root with inferior seed merited a 12 letter word, "miscegenation." The worst of European racism, the KKK, the Aryan nations, and the Nazis based their most odious policies on these mythical beliefs.
Do such beliefs exist in Islam? In one vital way the answer is no. One of the glories of Islam was the Prophet's teaching that all Muslims are one people. Indeed he taught that at one time in the past all people were Muslims and knew the truths of the Quran. Once a person reverts to Islam. the Quran teaches, there must be no distinctions based on race. Of course, as we all see today, the implications for those of us to blind or arrogant to accept Islam may not be so kindly.
Nonetheless, there is within Islam a teaching eerily similar to White racism and that teaching too is antisemitic ... or to be more linguistically correct .. attempts to strip Jews of their Semitic heritage .
TODAY's Islamic school in Seattle teaches that Arabs are a true ancient people, while Jews are a false people comprised of Europeans and others who have usurped the Jewish heritage. For what it is worth, modern genetics shows that Arabs and Jews are pretty much the same people, likely descended from the Semitic tribes of North Arabia back some 10,000 years. However, a large part of "Arab" included people who are descended form non-Semitic North African peoples.
This only matters if you are teaching your children to make racist decisions about others. There is much more in the Quran itself where Jews are depicted as siding with the (nonMuslim) Arabs against the Prophet, as rejecting his message (why not?), and as trying to poison him (in revenge for Jews he killed in battle). To cap it all, the Quran teaches that Jews exulted on the purported death of Jesus, " That they say (boasting): We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah." , But they killed him not nor crucified him. Only likeness of that was shown to them” (Al-Nisa’ 4: 157),
The only purpose of the following text is to deprive Jews of our heritage.
This is based on text taken today from the web site of the Idris Mosque in Seattle. The author of the text is Jamil Abdul-Razzak.
Origins of the "Arabs"
"The indigenous people of Palestine were Arabs for over 5000 years. They migrated from the Arabian Peninsula and lived in the land of Canaan or Palestine"
This is utter nonsense. Semites, including many peoples, did arise in Arabia, but were no more "Arabs" then they were Hittites. Moreover, amongst early peoples of Canaan there were non Semites, esp. including the sea people .. the "Philistines" of the bible. These people were related to the Greeks, Minoans, etc and it is THEIR name that is the basis for the term "Palestine".
"The Israelites, progeny of Jacob, remained in Egypt and assimilated with the Egyptian population. In 1290 BC, Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) led his followers out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. Prophet Moses received revelations from Allah (God) which he inscribed into the Blessed Torah."
Perhaps. Archaeology says this is unlikely. What we KNOW is that Semites, (I guess in the Muslim mind all Semites are "Arabs") moved into Egypt and eventually established their own Pharonate as a people called the "Hyksos." The Pharaoh of the Torah and Quranic story, Ramses II, may have conquered the Hyksos and driven them from Egypt.
"In 586 BC the Babylonian army invaded Canaan and took the Jews to Babylon and placed them in captivity. During the years of captivity (586-539 BC) the Jews reconstructed from memory the Torah which is different from the original Torah."
By this time Canaan had ceased to exist and the people conquered by the Babylonians were know as Hebrews. Modern Palestinians, if they really have ancient roots would be the descendent of Jews.
The same essay on the Mosque's web site claims that the Torah was written in Babylon from imperfect memories. This is nonsense. Whether the Torah was really revealed to Moshe, it was finalized in pre-Babylon Israel under King Josiah.(ruled 640–609 bce). Jews have been literate for a very long time and it would have been as bizarre for the Jews of 620 bce to restrict the torah to oral transmission as would have been 620 AM for Muslims not to write down the words of the Prophet. Still, the effect is to dismiss the Jewish holy book. Imagine the Islamic anger if the Jutlands-posten, along with the Muhammad cartoons, had replayed the Salmon Rushdie claim that the "satanic verses" of the Quran represent errors in the Prophets thinking?
To make matters worse, Mr. Jamil Abdul-Razzak teaches us that Jews are not true Jews (as opposed, I guess to all Arabs, regardless if their ancestors were .. as in the case of all North Africa, NOT Semitic at all.
Origins of the "Jews"
In 539 BC, King Cyrus of the Persians "conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from captivity. At this point we may say that the Israelites are descendants of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, and the Jews are the followers of Moses. This means not all Jews are Israelites or all Israelites are Jews."
This is an essential aspect of Arab antisemitism .. the claim that most of us are false Jews.
"Throughout the history, the Jews and Israelites coexisted with the Arab and Muslim majority in peace and harmony for hundreds of years."
Tell this to the Romans who defeated THE PEOPLE of Palestine in the JEWISH WARs.
Tell it to the Jews who suffered pogroms in Palestine in the era of a Muslim Majority.
Tell it to the Jew in Turkey who died after the Muslim world republished the charges of our drinking blood.
Tell it to the Jews of Arabia who were expelled from their ancient homes by the third caliph, Omar.
The saddest part of this all is that Jews and Arabs are ... beyond religion ... still the common descendents of the ancient Semites. Our religions share essential beliefs, as long as neither one denigrates the other simply for accepting or not accepting M. as a prophet. Can God really care which prophets a man follows if the man leads a moral life?
How can peace live with such bigotry taught to children?
Do such beliefs exist in Islam? In one vital way the answer is no. One of the glories of Islam was the Prophet's teaching that all Muslims are one people. Indeed he taught that at one time in the past all people were Muslims and knew the truths of the Quran. Once a person reverts to Islam. the Quran teaches, there must be no distinctions based on race. Of course, as we all see today, the implications for those of us to blind or arrogant to accept Islam may not be so kindly.
Nonetheless, there is within Islam a teaching eerily similar to White racism and that teaching too is antisemitic ... or to be more linguistically correct .. attempts to strip Jews of their Semitic heritage .
TODAY's Islamic school in Seattle teaches that Arabs are a true ancient people, while Jews are a false people comprised of Europeans and others who have usurped the Jewish heritage. For what it is worth, modern genetics shows that Arabs and Jews are pretty much the same people, likely descended from the Semitic tribes of North Arabia back some 10,000 years. However, a large part of "Arab" included people who are descended form non-Semitic North African peoples.
This only matters if you are teaching your children to make racist decisions about others. There is much more in the Quran itself where Jews are depicted as siding with the (nonMuslim) Arabs against the Prophet, as rejecting his message (why not?), and as trying to poison him (in revenge for Jews he killed in battle). To cap it all, the Quran teaches that Jews exulted on the purported death of Jesus, " That they say (boasting): We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah." , But they killed him not nor crucified him. Only likeness of that was shown to them” (Al-Nisa’ 4: 157),
The only purpose of the following text is to deprive Jews of our heritage.
This is based on text taken today from the web site of the Idris Mosque in Seattle. The author of the text is Jamil Abdul-Razzak.
Origins of the "Arabs"
"The indigenous people of Palestine were Arabs for over 5000 years. They migrated from the Arabian Peninsula and lived in the land of Canaan or Palestine"
This is utter nonsense. Semites, including many peoples, did arise in Arabia, but were no more "Arabs" then they were Hittites. Moreover, amongst early peoples of Canaan there were non Semites, esp. including the sea people .. the "Philistines" of the bible. These people were related to the Greeks, Minoans, etc and it is THEIR name that is the basis for the term "Palestine".
"The Israelites, progeny of Jacob, remained in Egypt and assimilated with the Egyptian population. In 1290 BC, Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) led his followers out of Egypt and into the land of Canaan. Prophet Moses received revelations from Allah (God) which he inscribed into the Blessed Torah."
Perhaps. Archaeology says this is unlikely. What we KNOW is that Semites, (I guess in the Muslim mind all Semites are "Arabs") moved into Egypt and eventually established their own Pharonate as a people called the "Hyksos." The Pharaoh of the Torah and Quranic story, Ramses II, may have conquered the Hyksos and driven them from Egypt.
"In 586 BC the Babylonian army invaded Canaan and took the Jews to Babylon and placed them in captivity. During the years of captivity (586-539 BC) the Jews reconstructed from memory the Torah which is different from the original Torah."
By this time Canaan had ceased to exist and the people conquered by the Babylonians were know as Hebrews. Modern Palestinians, if they really have ancient roots would be the descendent of Jews.
The same essay on the Mosque's web site claims that the Torah was written in Babylon from imperfect memories. This is nonsense. Whether the Torah was really revealed to Moshe, it was finalized in pre-Babylon Israel under King Josiah.(ruled 640–609 bce). Jews have been literate for a very long time and it would have been as bizarre for the Jews of 620 bce to restrict the torah to oral transmission as would have been 620 AM for Muslims not to write down the words of the Prophet. Still, the effect is to dismiss the Jewish holy book. Imagine the Islamic anger if the Jutlands-posten, along with the Muhammad cartoons, had replayed the Salmon Rushdie claim that the "satanic verses" of the Quran represent errors in the Prophets thinking?
To make matters worse, Mr. Jamil Abdul-Razzak teaches us that Jews are not true Jews (as opposed, I guess to all Arabs, regardless if their ancestors were .. as in the case of all North Africa, NOT Semitic at all.
Origins of the "Jews"
In 539 BC, King Cyrus of the Persians "conquered Babylon and freed the Jews from captivity. At this point we may say that the Israelites are descendants of Israel, the grandson of Abraham, and the Jews are the followers of Moses. This means not all Jews are Israelites or all Israelites are Jews."
This is an essential aspect of Arab antisemitism .. the claim that most of us are false Jews.
"Throughout the history, the Jews and Israelites coexisted with the Arab and Muslim majority in peace and harmony for hundreds of years."
Tell this to the Romans who defeated THE PEOPLE of Palestine in the JEWISH WARs.
Tell it to the Jews who suffered pogroms in Palestine in the era of a Muslim Majority.
Tell it to the Jew in Turkey who died after the Muslim world republished the charges of our drinking blood.
Tell it to the Jews of Arabia who were expelled from their ancient homes by the third caliph, Omar.
The saddest part of this all is that Jews and Arabs are ... beyond religion ... still the common descendents of the ancient Semites. Our religions share essential beliefs, as long as neither one denigrates the other simply for accepting or not accepting M. as a prophet. Can God really care which prophets a man follows if the man leads a moral life?
How can peace live with such bigotry taught to children?
What is taught in the mosque?
Freedom House, an institution created by Eleanor Roosevelt and others to promote inter-community tolerance undertook a project to determine what was taught in American Mosques in the post 9/11 era. Muslim volunteers went to 15 prominent mosques from New York to San Diego and collected literature disseminated by Saudi Arabia (some 90% in Arabic).
The result is a report of at least one part of what is taught in the mosque:
The results surely rival what might be found in a far right Christian church in the dim reaches of Idaho or Alabama ... except that this porn comes from the largest Mosques in the largest American cities.
Some points in the Wahabi literature:
Muslims must:
*
Muslims must avoid churches accept to convert others "that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel."
*
Islamic law must prevail FOR ALL, not just Muslims: women must be veiled, punishments for infidelity are draconian, apostates from Islam "should be killed".
* Israel was created by a conspiracy of liberal protestants and Jews as a wedge to destroy Islam.
*
Muslims should not associate with non Muslims: "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law."
*
Citizenship: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways."
*
Prepare for war against America: "To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government."
There is more and I strongly recommend that one read this report with an open mind to two thoughts. First, one hopes that this is only one sort of literature available in the Mosque. Second, imagine what would happen if the US government sponsored similar documents to be distributed to Christian minorities in Muslim lands?
The result is a report of at least one part of what is taught in the mosque:
The results surely rival what might be found in a far right Christian church in the dim reaches of Idaho or Alabama ... except that this porn comes from the largest Mosques in the largest American cities.
Some points in the Wahabi literature:
Muslims must:
*
Muslims must avoid churches accept to convert others "that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel."
*
Islamic law must prevail FOR ALL, not just Muslims: women must be veiled, punishments for infidelity are draconian, apostates from Islam "should be killed".
* Israel was created by a conspiracy of liberal protestants and Jews as a wedge to destroy Islam.
*
Muslims should not associate with non Muslims: "Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law."
*
Citizenship: "It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways."
*
Prepare for war against America: "To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government."
There is more and I strongly recommend that one read this report with an open mind to two thoughts. First, one hopes that this is only one sort of literature available in the Mosque. Second, imagine what would happen if the US government sponsored similar documents to be distributed to Christian minorities in Muslim lands?
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The Blogs Nominate Their Democrat
Nate Lamont beats Lieberman in Conn. Democratic Senate primary.
This could be a pivotal event if it leads the progressive movement to a tighter commitment to acting as a political party. All too often Move-On has come across as a negative voice rather than supporting a winnable effort.
To me the big issues now. other than whether Lamont can beat Lieberman (I suspect he will) is who Lamont is. As of now we know less about NL than we did about GWB when he ran for Pres. NL is an affable son of traditional wealth who claims to be a likeable liberal (sorta like a mirror image of a compassionate conservative).
Lieberman never impressed me. As a Jew I was excited that one of us was finally running for the near-White House but I was disappointed by this little, shrill man who seemed to lack much n the way of interesting ideas. Put Lieberman and Obama or Lieberman and Hillary on a balance and the tilt would be the other way.
I hope there is a lot more to Lamont than a simplistic opposition to the war or reflexive response to the Bushies! I especially wonder where he stands on knee jerk liberal issues. For example, where does he stand on immigration? NAFTA? charter schools? reparitions?
However that happens, it would do the country a lot of good to refressh the left with a new, strong political party. At worst, the Blogoleft could be an effective counterbalance to the Churchedright.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
A Great Muslim Site
It was heartening to read the posts and comments on this site .. Alt.muslim.
It would indeed be wonderful if some new insight and peace came of the tragedy in Seattle.
On the other hand, this link is to an in depth review by Freedom House of Wahabi materials used to teach in American mosques. Frightening.
It would indeed be wonderful if some new insight and peace came of the tragedy in Seattle.
On the other hand, this link is to an in depth review by Freedom House of Wahabi materials used to teach in American mosques. Frightening.
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