According to the very first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, the USA is a secular state. The Supreme Court has always interpreted that as an establishment clause. The government is never supposed to take sides in religious matters. So, the question arises: Why is December 25 a state holiday? December 25 is the date selected by the Roman Catholic church as the birthday of Jesus Christ, an obscure Jewish heretic who was later seized on to found a new religion. Most protestant sects follow that date. Eastern Orthodox churches use a date two weeks later. Therefore, December 25, like Easter (which is not a US holiday), is a purely religious holiday which should be ignored in all official ways by the US government. It is clearly unconstitutional on its face for December 25 to be a government sanctioned holiday. That is my starting point because making that date a holiday sends exactly the wrong message.
As a third generation Jewish atheist (only a small percentage of people belonging to various Jewish ethnicities actually practice the Jewish religion) born and raised in the USA, I have always viewed Xmas as an alien culture which this society tries to impose on me every year. I don't watch Xmas movies (except for "Bad Santa"), and I detest Xmas songs. I listen to the radio a lot, but between Thanksgiving and December 25, I change the station or turn it off a lot. Yesterday, I was listening to one of my favorite music programs on KPFA in Berkeley. The DJ, a friend of mine, played one Xmas song after another, and I turned off the radio. I wish I could get a No Xmas app for my radio, but then it would be silent a lot at this time of year.
What we have here is a conflict between the right of people who want to sing or play Xmas songs, which is guaranteed in the constitution, and my right not to have to listen to them. If there were a completely secular radio station, I could exercise my right and listen to it, but, if such a station exists, I've never heard of it. What do I really want? I want more sensitivity from people celebrating their religious holidays to the fact that not all of us want to share their religion or their holidays. If you are going to do a show of all Xmas songs, say so frequently, and I'll change the station or turn my radio off immediately. Obviously, I cannot completely escape the religious expressions of my religious friends, but I should be able to minimize it and I should have a choice whether to be drenched in it or not. Oddly, I'm not offended in the same way by gospel music, but that is because I know I have the option to listen or not, to sing or not. In December, that option is generally not offered and I find the assumption that December 25 is significant for everyone to be extremely offensive.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
The Misguided Left Attempt to Mobilize Support for President Obama
President Obama is under constant attack from the far right for the Affordable Care Act and many other actions of his administration. Some leftists are now calling on us to support him against that attack. That call is irresponsible and makes no sense. During the great depression, much of the left gave support to FDR who was genuinely wringing concessions from the rich and powerful in order to save capitalism. That made sense. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Obama. Obama is a right of center Democrat who seems to see his job as to wring concessions from the poor and downtrodden in favor of the rich and powerful. A strong majority of Americans in poll after poll support single payer healthcare. Obama responded with the Affordable Care Act which was crafted by insurance companies, came out of a conservative Republican think tank, and implemented first in Massachusetts by Mit Romney. The ACA is a piece of crap. It makes a few improvements, such as pre-existing conditions and coverage for adult children, but it doesn't address the hundreds of billions in profit and waste, including unnecessary administrative costs, siphoned out of our healthcare dollars by the insurance companies. Obama deserves no credit for passing the ACA, even if its rollout had been smooth as silk. In fact, the misguided left has made it easy for Obama to capitulate to the right because it has given him support instead of confrontation. The Occupy movement showed that confrontation could shift the discourse and put pressure on the government. Instead of learning that lesson, some in the left continue their huge mistake of supporting Obama in 2008 and 2012. If we are to have any influence on the direction of the USA, we have to be bold in fighting for our ideas. We cannot do that and at the same time support a president who shows no sign of having a single progressive bone in his body. Our response to the ACA should be to raise the demand to expand Medicare to all. Our response to the ongoing financial crisis should be to demand the takeover (not bailout) of failing banks and other financial institutions and the prosecution of criminal financiers. Our response to calls for austerity, such as cuts to Social Security and Medicare, should be to call for increased taxes on the rich and the corporations. These are all very popular ideas among the American public. One of the jobs of the left is to articulate and to fight for those ideas. It is not our job to be co-opted by the moribund Obama administration.
The Brainwashing of Israel and the Spillover into the United States
Israeli universities separate Jewish history from the rest of history, and it is not subject to the normal kind of scholarly review which is customary at universities. This is because the Jewish history they teach is based on false myths which are easily refuted. That would be bad enough, but this same falsified history is also taught to Israeli schoolchildren. Israeli education authorities have even tried to impose this falsified history on their Palestinian citizens, though this has so far been resisted. As a result, the Israeli public, and especially its youth, have beliefs which are ahistorical, racist, and very dangerous. In ancient history, for example, Israeli Jewish history teaches that the Romans exiled the Jews. In fact, there is zero historical evidence that such an exile ever occurred, and it would have been totally out of character for the practices of Roman rule. By and large, the small number of Jews who left ancient Palestine did so as merchants. The vast majority of Jewish communities in the world were descended from converts, for which there is ample evidence, such as the mass conversions in ancient Yemen, in the 9th century Khazar empire, and by Berbers in north Africa, some of whom went to Spain. However, the most dangerous falsification is that which treats Palestinians as foreigners in Israel because this underlies the strong and growing Israeli movement to continue the theft of Palestinian land and for expulsion of more Palestinians from Palestine, whether in the West Bank or inside Israel. Even Palestinian nomads in the Negev, who are not only Israeli citizens but who, along with the Druze, serve in the army are being displaced by the tens of thousands even as I write. Only a tiny group of Jewish Israelis opposes these acts and exposes the blatant lies at the root of Israeli education. Another way to put it is that Israelis are educated to believe in delusions, and the result is a psychotic society, which is willing to take extreme measures to carry out its government's insane policies.
Let's shift gears now and note that Israeli psychotics like Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have broad access to the media in the United States. That spreads the brainwashing to the American public, who generally believe many easily refuted myths about Israel. One of the most blatant effects is that the fact that Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons combined with a very aggressive military policy against its neighbors is almost totally ignored in the US media. It never comes up, for example, in the current coverage of the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Note that existing US law prohibits any aid to a country with nuclear weapons and does not sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which is clearly the case with Israel. That coverage is filled with easily refuted claims. For example, Iran offered an even better deal in 2003 when it completely halted its nuclear weapons program. That deal was rejected. Nobody has claimed, let alone produced any evidence, that Iran currently has a nuclear weapons program. Therefore, the heavy sanctions imposed on Iran have really had no purpose or effect except to feed the false narrative which comes from Israeli and Western governments and the media. This insanity would be dangerous enough if it only affected public opinion, but much more dangerously it is used as the rationale for insane government policies. It is well past time for responsible citizens to educate themselves and their fellows and reject the nonsense which passes for analysis and history spewing from all this brainwashing.
Let's shift gears now and note that Israeli psychotics like Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have broad access to the media in the United States. That spreads the brainwashing to the American public, who generally believe many easily refuted myths about Israel. One of the most blatant effects is that the fact that Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons combined with a very aggressive military policy against its neighbors is almost totally ignored in the US media. It never comes up, for example, in the current coverage of the negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program. Note that existing US law prohibits any aid to a country with nuclear weapons and does not sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which is clearly the case with Israel. That coverage is filled with easily refuted claims. For example, Iran offered an even better deal in 2003 when it completely halted its nuclear weapons program. That deal was rejected. Nobody has claimed, let alone produced any evidence, that Iran currently has a nuclear weapons program. Therefore, the heavy sanctions imposed on Iran have really had no purpose or effect except to feed the false narrative which comes from Israeli and Western governments and the media. This insanity would be dangerous enough if it only affected public opinion, but much more dangerously it is used as the rationale for insane government policies. It is well past time for responsible citizens to educate themselves and their fellows and reject the nonsense which passes for analysis and history spewing from all this brainwashing.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Films
A friend of mine gave me this idea by publishing a list of films he saw last year. I'm going to list some of the more obscure but great films I've been finding on Netflix for my reference and for the use of others. Here goes.
Akira Kurasawa (all his films are great)
The Bad Sleep Well 1960: Toshiro Mifune creates mayhem in a large corporation after his father dies.
Stray Dog 1949: Toshiro Mifune plays a young police detective whose gun is stolen on a bus.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams 1990: Eight short stories including one about a nuclear power plant explosion ("They said it was safe. They lied to us.")
Madadayo 2000: about a retired professor.
Drunken Angel 1948: Toshira Mifune is a young doctor who tries to save a gangster.
Other directors:
Kolya 1996: a Czech cellist ends up caring for a 5-year-old Russian boy.
Cinema Paradiso 1988: a boy in love with the movies. However, this version has about an hour cut from the full film, which I have still yet to see.
Gate of Flesh 1964: Japanese prostitutes band together during the US occupation after WW II.
Comizi D'Amore 1964: Pier Paolo Pasolini documentary about love and sex in Italy.
Mama Roma 1962: Pasolini film about a prostitute trying to leave that life.
Accatone 1961: Another Pasolini film about the dark side of life.
Oedipus Rex 1967: Pasolini's take on the Greek story.
The Hawks and the Sparrows 1964: Another Pasolini classic
Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die 1981: Documentary about the murder of Pasolini in 1975
Brokedown Palace 1999: American teens become entangled in smuggling drugs in Thailand
Free Zone 2005: Natalie Portman gets a tour of Jordan with an Israeli cab driver
Teorema 1968: Pasolini has Terence Stamp visit a wealthy Italian family and seduce each one.
Day for Night 1973: Godard plays a director making a film with Jacqueline Bisset and Jean Pierre Leaud
Elevator to the Gallows 1957: Louis Malle directs Jeanne Moreau in a suspense thriller
The King of Masks 1999: Chinese performer buys a child to learn his skills
Goodbye, Lenin! 2003: a woman falls into a coma before the Berlin Wall comes down and wakes up afterward
La Bete Humaine 1938: Jean Renoir directs Jean Gabin as a murderer trying to cover up his crime
Pepe le Moko 1939: Jean Gabin is a criminal on the run in Algiers
Onegin 1999: English version of Pushkin's masterpiece
Dangerous Beauty 1998: story of a courtesan in 16th century Venice
Divided We Fall 2000: Czech couple shelter a Jewish concentration camp escapee
Underground 1995: Yugoslavs continue making arms in an underground factory because they are not told that the war ended.
Elena and Her Men 1957: Jean Renoir directs Ingrid Bergman as a Polish beauty who drives men mad
Le Corbeau 1943: Clouzot manages to make a searing film under Nazi censorship.
The Saga of Gosta Berling 1924: the Swedish film that made Greta Garbofamous
Akira Kurasawa (all his films are great)
The Bad Sleep Well 1960: Toshiro Mifune creates mayhem in a large corporation after his father dies.
Stray Dog 1949: Toshiro Mifune plays a young police detective whose gun is stolen on a bus.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams 1990: Eight short stories including one about a nuclear power plant explosion ("They said it was safe. They lied to us.")
Madadayo 2000: about a retired professor.
Drunken Angel 1948: Toshira Mifune is a young doctor who tries to save a gangster.
Other directors:
Kolya 1996: a Czech cellist ends up caring for a 5-year-old Russian boy.
Cinema Paradiso 1988: a boy in love with the movies. However, this version has about an hour cut from the full film, which I have still yet to see.
Gate of Flesh 1964: Japanese prostitutes band together during the US occupation after WW II.
Comizi D'Amore 1964: Pier Paolo Pasolini documentary about love and sex in Italy.
Mama Roma 1962: Pasolini film about a prostitute trying to leave that life.
Accatone 1961: Another Pasolini film about the dark side of life.
Oedipus Rex 1967: Pasolini's take on the Greek story.
The Hawks and the Sparrows 1964: Another Pasolini classic
Whoever Says the Truth Shall Die 1981: Documentary about the murder of Pasolini in 1975
Brokedown Palace 1999: American teens become entangled in smuggling drugs in Thailand
Free Zone 2005: Natalie Portman gets a tour of Jordan with an Israeli cab driver
Teorema 1968: Pasolini has Terence Stamp visit a wealthy Italian family and seduce each one.
Day for Night 1973: Godard plays a director making a film with Jacqueline Bisset and Jean Pierre Leaud
Elevator to the Gallows 1957: Louis Malle directs Jeanne Moreau in a suspense thriller
The King of Masks 1999: Chinese performer buys a child to learn his skills
Goodbye, Lenin! 2003: a woman falls into a coma before the Berlin Wall comes down and wakes up afterward
La Bete Humaine 1938: Jean Renoir directs Jean Gabin as a murderer trying to cover up his crime
Pepe le Moko 1939: Jean Gabin is a criminal on the run in Algiers
Onegin 1999: English version of Pushkin's masterpiece
Dangerous Beauty 1998: story of a courtesan in 16th century Venice
Divided We Fall 2000: Czech couple shelter a Jewish concentration camp escapee
Underground 1995: Yugoslavs continue making arms in an underground factory because they are not told that the war ended.
Elena and Her Men 1957: Jean Renoir directs Ingrid Bergman as a Polish beauty who drives men mad
Le Corbeau 1943: Clouzot manages to make a searing film under Nazi censorship.
The Saga of Gosta Berling 1924: the Swedish film that made Greta Garbofamous
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The Politics of the Ridiculous
The history of the United States is a history of political strife, often bitter arguments about what to do and which way to go. While the current period may not be unique historically speaking, it might have reached a level of division which is a new low water mark. I am referring to what I think is the fact that many Americans, perhaps a significant majority, believe that the program of the right, as represented by the Republican Party, is simply ridiculous.
The media and the Democratic Party treat Republican "ideas" as if they are somehow viable alternatives, but we, the people, see them as total nonsense and lacking in either factual basis or rational underpinning. Let's start with the economy. The mantra is that the budget cannot be balanced without cutting "entitlements," Medicare and Social Security. The first nonsense here is that the United States does not have unmanageably large budget deficits. That is just a fact and one which they make no attempt to refute. The second nonsense is the idea that Social Security has any relationship to the budget deficit. It doesn't, and everyone knows that it doesn't. Concerning Medicare, it's well-known that moving to a comprehensive single-payer system which cuts out insurance company profits and negotiates much lower costs for prescription drugs would address most, if not all, of the issues of our runaway medical costs. Finally, we can certainly reduce budget deficits by slashing the bloated military budget and ending the ridiculous war in Afghanistan. Such steps would actually increase our national security and not diminish it. On taxes, although they successfully fought a holding action, the ridiculousness of Republican talk of "job creators" is so obvious that they had to give in on modest tax increases for the superrich.
Let us next look at global warming. The Republican attack on science has made them a laughingstock. Not only do they block investment in green technology, but they also use their rejection of science to try to deny rights to women such as the right to choose whether to continue a pregnancy or not. The chair of the House Science Committee is so ill-educated on science that he spouted total nonsense during the 2012 campaign.
We have had many figures who make careers in exposing the ridiculous from Mark Twain and Will Rogers to George Carlin to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But that can be undone when ridiculous ideas are treated as if they are sensible by the news media, not just Fox and CNN but also NPR. To report on ridiculous assertions and not say they are ridiculous is irresponsible and isn't journalism at all. To report on claims which are obviously contrary to well-known facts and not to say so is to engage in partisan journalism. Responsible journalists, when confronted with policians saying ridiculous things, should also expose the ridiculous. Our national political discussions have sunk to a low level, indeed, when the ridiculous is treated as if it were serious.
The media and the Democratic Party treat Republican "ideas" as if they are somehow viable alternatives, but we, the people, see them as total nonsense and lacking in either factual basis or rational underpinning. Let's start with the economy. The mantra is that the budget cannot be balanced without cutting "entitlements," Medicare and Social Security. The first nonsense here is that the United States does not have unmanageably large budget deficits. That is just a fact and one which they make no attempt to refute. The second nonsense is the idea that Social Security has any relationship to the budget deficit. It doesn't, and everyone knows that it doesn't. Concerning Medicare, it's well-known that moving to a comprehensive single-payer system which cuts out insurance company profits and negotiates much lower costs for prescription drugs would address most, if not all, of the issues of our runaway medical costs. Finally, we can certainly reduce budget deficits by slashing the bloated military budget and ending the ridiculous war in Afghanistan. Such steps would actually increase our national security and not diminish it. On taxes, although they successfully fought a holding action, the ridiculousness of Republican talk of "job creators" is so obvious that they had to give in on modest tax increases for the superrich.
Let us next look at global warming. The Republican attack on science has made them a laughingstock. Not only do they block investment in green technology, but they also use their rejection of science to try to deny rights to women such as the right to choose whether to continue a pregnancy or not. The chair of the House Science Committee is so ill-educated on science that he spouted total nonsense during the 2012 campaign.
We have had many figures who make careers in exposing the ridiculous from Mark Twain and Will Rogers to George Carlin to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But that can be undone when ridiculous ideas are treated as if they are sensible by the news media, not just Fox and CNN but also NPR. To report on ridiculous assertions and not say they are ridiculous is irresponsible and isn't journalism at all. To report on claims which are obviously contrary to well-known facts and not to say so is to engage in partisan journalism. Responsible journalists, when confronted with policians saying ridiculous things, should also expose the ridiculous. Our national political discussions have sunk to a low level, indeed, when the ridiculous is treated as if it were serious.
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