If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?

      From Alice in Wonderland

In the next few days President Obama, Harvard Professor Henry Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley will get together at the White House and share a drink. The President hopes to ease tensions he created when he commented during a press conference that the Cambridge police acted “stupidly” when they arrested his friend for disorderly conduct.

Alice having Tea with Friends

As you probably know, about a week ago Harvard Professor Gates, who is black, broke into his own house in Massachusetts after returning home from a trip to China. Police received a call about a possible break-in and Sgt Crowley, a white man, and his black and hispanic colleagues investigated.

When Sergeant Crowley knocked on the glass door of the house and requested the person inside come to the door, Professor Gates replied “is it because I’m black in America?” He then went on to say that he’d be seeing the policeman and “yo mamma” outside. From there the Professor allegedly made incessantly loud and rude comments directed at the police.

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Black September Terrorist

In 1972 the Super Bowl was still in its infancy and years from becoming the phenomena it is today. The Olympic Games back then was even more of a reverred entertainment event than it is now.  The ideals of a universal quest for peace, moral integrity, and an exalted mix of mind, body and spirit that transcended culture and inspired all who watched the Olympics on ABC Sports. 

Unfortunately, the 1972 Munich Germany Olympics now live infamously because of the murderous acts by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli athletes.

Yet before the horror of the world’s first large production terrorist attack, there was a race I watched that still is in my thoughts.  It was the Mens 800 Meters Final.  The field of runners was world class. The United States was represented by Dave Wottle, an obscure golf cap wearing guy whose strategy was to intentionally fall behind and then make a huge push down the stretch at the end.

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To those seeking a rapid path to a peace treaty, be they Israeli, American, European or Palestinian, the settlements are either an issue that needs to be resolved as part of a comprehensive agreement……or an insurmountable obstacle to peace that needs to be resolved prior to good faith negotiations.

Beitar Settlement in Occupied Territory

When people talk about Israeli settlements, they refer to residential areas inhabited by Jewish Israelis in territories occupied during the 1967 Six Day War. One of the things that makes discussing the settlements difficult is they represent different things to different groups. 

Joe Seidler is someone I met through this blog.  He very graciously agreed to participate in an experiment with me. We choose a topic to discuss, and Joe wrote a piece explaining his views, and I took the opposite side.  I hope you enjoy our different perspectives on the issue of Israeli Settlements and Peace.

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Forty Years ago today, July 20^th 1969, America fulfilled a historical fantasy that humans had dreamed of achieving since we first looked up into the night sky.

"Space, the final frontier."

Beethovan’s 9^th symphony is a work of art of enormous proportions. Einstein’s brilliant theory of relativity helps us truly understanding the reality of the universe. Gutenberg’s printing press and the internet revolution transformed information. The Old Testament/Koran/Bible helped bring us civilized society.  While eradicating terrible diseases, mapping DNA and splitting the atom are all incredible achievements…..I believe that man’s walking on the moon is by far the single most important thing that humans have ever done.

I remember the day it happened.  I was playing in the yard, and my Mother called out to me to hurry and watch the television.  She said history was about to be made and I needed to see it happen.  I responded that “I’ll just watch it on the evening news.”  Fortunately she forced me to come and see it live.

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Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution stipulates that the President shall seek the advice and obtain the consent of the Senate before his/her nominations to the federal bench assume their posts.

This week we are witness to Sonia Sotomayor testifying before Senators in her attempt to gain their consent as the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice.  She is being questioned about her judicial philosophy, about her views on specific Constitutional issues, and about her character.

In general, I am opposed to the Senate using its power to block nominees by Presidents because of political considerations. Until Democratic Senators blocked Robert Bork from sitting on the Supreme Court in 1987 because of ideological reasons, the Senate generally employed a standard of competence when consenting to Supreme Court nominees.

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Who is John Galt?” is the first sentence of Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged. The book’s title references the Greek legend of Atlas, the mythical character whose burden it was to hold up the heavens and Earth. The plot of the book revolves around what would happen if risk taking entrepreneurial business people went on strike because they believed government’s demands upon the fruit of their work had become too severe.

Did you know that the top 5% of taxpayers pay over 60% of all Federal Income Taxes?  Did you also know that Obama’s tax plan will have over half of all working Americans paying zero Federal Income taxes.  That of course means that the burden of paying for the entire society would be carried by only a minority of its citizens.

Over the past decade, prior to the current economic difficulties, it was entrepreneurial small business people who created the vast majority of new jobs. They did so not out of duty to their fellow citizens, but because they were trying to fulfill their personal economic dreams.

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Iranian President Ahmadinejad

In the book The End of History and the Last Man, author Francis Fukuyama argues that history is directional and capitalist liberal democracy is its ultimate end point.  Although widely criticized in academic circles throughout the world, I personally agree with much of his argument. 

His book came out in the optimistic years just after the Berlin Wall fell.  As we’ve witnessed in the years since the Communist Block broke apart, the disappearance of authoritarian regimes, if they are to be ultimately replaced with democratic ones, will occur over many, many years…and be a very painful process.

Importantly, there is an accelerating trend developing that I find highly disturbing.  I am referencing authoritarian governments using the illusion of democracy to earn legitimacy with its people and the world.

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I have little doubt over who the next Republican Presidential nominee will be. 

There is much hand wringing schadenfreude in the liberal media over who will step forward to help rescue the Republican Party.  With this week’s surprise announcement by former VP candidate Sarah Palin that she is resigning from being the Governor of Alaska, people are asking themselves….. could she be the one?

After John McCain chose Palin her as his running mate, she was set upon by a tour de force of the politics of personal destruction.  She was derided by the political, entertainment and media classes.  Her family was dragged into the mud, and she became the target of personal ridicule. It wasn’t her politics that was discussed and rejected.  Rather it was her as a human being that the political forces deemed needed destroying.

Part of the reason she was attacked so viciously is because she represented a terrible threat to the identity politics best represented by Democrats.  Just as Clarence Thomas, a black conservative, needed to be personally destroyed else a key demographic group in the Democratic coalition might see a personage that validated not voting in lock step for Democrats…..Ms Palin was a pro-life female and thus represented a transcendent threat to another key liberal voting block.

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Soviet dictator Jospeh Stalin was once told that the Vatican would not be pleased with one of his decisions.  He famously quipped “how many divisions does the Pope have?”

I believe history has repeatedly shown Stalin was wrong in his impression that military might is the ultimate determinate of power. Instead I believe it is ideas that drive the future and hold the greatest power when influencing the arc of history.

Today is the Forth of July.  The anniversary of the day the United States declared itself a sovereign nation. The ideals and ideas addressed in our Declaration of Independence ring as true today as on that morning in 1776 when they were officially unveiled. Although the road for America to fulfill its promise has been difficult,…….the power of the ideas embedded in our Declaration of Independence were seen as recently as a couple weeks ago in Iran.  These ideas will continue to inspire for as long as governments deny people their inherent liberty.

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Jimmy Page and Robert Plant

When I was in High School back in the late 1970’s, I picked up a guitar for the first time.  It was a great and special time for music.  My college bound son has often told me that I’m fortunate that when I was his age, the music was so much better than what is being put out these days.

Whether or not you believe that is true, there was a band….and a song, that did influence me greatly.  The band was Led Zeppelin. While there were so many great bands and musicians who were at their prime while I was in High School……Zeppelin was the group I listened to the most. One of my “claims to fame” is that during one week in 1977, when I was 17 years old, I saw all six concerts the band performed at the Fabulous Forum.

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