Category: Prose

My Great Good Friends,

What a confusing week: Sunday had a presidential candidate celebrating the Communist International’s May Day, yesterday someone wished me a ‘May the 4th be with you’, and today I’m torn between Cinco de Mayo and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

AnyHowitzer once I worked out my wardrobe (shawl over poncho, yarmulke under sombrero) things went smoothly.

It is interesting (as the media jammers on about our Judeo-Christian country and the 6 MM dead) to note each anniversary decade official government archives are sequentially opened and scholarly analysis is revised, incorporating objective original source material, versus the recollections of traumatized survivors or self serving Nuremberg defendants.

The community of academic historians take note and reflect the refined insights. But apparently the media talking heads don’t. For example; for decades the brass plaque at the Auschwitz gate stating the number of Jews executed there was 4 MM, has been replaced with one stating 1.5 MM. And still the 6MM.

More confounding is the incessant repetition of the phrase ‘Judeo-Christian’.

Obviously the epistemology of the competing theologies is above my pay grade, however the socio-political effect of what we used to call the three Abrahamic mono-theisms is knowable.

I wondered why was it, and when was it, that this phrase became accepted a’priori in our civil discourse to describe American values? Certainly it’s ahistorical. Judaism and it’s plagiarized lineal descendant Islam share the common eastern tenants of secular and religious authority simultaneously residing in a priestly / political / judicial class, requisite religious professions for civil participation, a divine warrant for violent proselytizing, ethnic cleansing, etc. All of which are anathema to professed Christian values.

If historically ‘Judeo-Islamic’ makes more sense than ‘Judeo-Christian’ how and when did the latter work it’s way into the American lexicon?

Using the New York Times’ content analysis algorithm (chronicle.nytlabs.com) to search every article published in ‘The Great Grey Lady’ since 1860 it appears the term entered common parlance when first used publicly by Senator Goldwater and President Eisenhower. The 1950s were a period of emerging anti-Communist / anti-semitisim and the term (originally formulated by the National Conference of Christians and Jews) became part of a prophylactic campaign to keep American’s hostility for the Soviet Union’s Jewish founders and their domestic spies from tainting the view of patriotic Jewish Americans.

Frequency of usage spiked again post 9-11. I suspect this time to parse Islam from the cultural gravitas of ‘the three Abrahamic mono-theisims’ terminology dominant for the prior 50 years.

So, a well intended and successfully orchestrated social construct, but is it theologically valid?

| Theologian Arthur A. Cohen; “The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition” (Commentary Magazine 1969) vis the “theological impossibility of a Judeo-Christian tradition …. the Jews expected a redeemer to come out of Zion; Christianity had affirmed that a redeemer had come out of Zion, but that he had come for all mankind not just the Jews. Judaism denies that claim.”

| Israeli Orthodox Theologian Eliezer Berkovitz; “Judaism is Judaism because it rejects Christianity, and Christianity is Christianity because it rejects Judaism.”

| And the Big Man of Jewish theology himself ….. Maimonides, for whom there was no overlapping magisterium between christian and Jew, although there was between Islamist and Jew; “The Christian peoples, in all of their varied sects, are worshiping idols forbidden to us. While Islam, although ‘mistaken’, is monotheistic and thus can not be constructed as idolatrous.”

| Finally, lest you think Maimonides’ 12th century dogma has undergone some sort of Reformation, current Jewish serious theology (versus the: we’re like you just funnier sitcom image) Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook who, 900 years after Maimonides, is respected by most Orthodox Jews and revered by religious Zionists has written; “With Christianity and it’s concepts one should share nothing, not even what seems good or beneficial … it is only by distancing ourselves from Christian concepts, and by implementing the absolute refusal to gain any benefit from their ideas that our own intellects and sense of self will become pure.”

Discuss amongst yourselves: How can a concept which was unknown to The Founders, was politically contrived to avert a domestic pogrom, and is ontologicaly ridiculous, be any part of our definition of America?

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Some have suggested my quite since last summer’s Pink Floyd dust-up is down to a lull in the ground war. In fact it is the opposite; there has been so much action on the BDS front that I have been hoping for an interim culmination of some sort to assess the state of play.

Happily the pace and rate of activity show no signs of deceleration so we may as well re-engage the conversation now. Some of the whirlwind has been hysterically funny, some heart breakingly sad. But, on balance, directionally positive for the movement globally.

First the fun stuff. Worthy of Robert Smigel’s “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog” ambushing idiot interviewees, a young woman approached attendees waiting on line to enter the AIPAC conference. Soliciting their views on “Donald Trump’s racist and homophobic statements” such as; “migrants being like a cancer”, “building a wall is to protect us from wild beasts”, etc., the cringe inducing reversals from how disgusting attendees said the statements were (when they thought they had been made by “that Nazi Trump”), to their convoluted rationalizations of the same statements when they were shown to have in fact been made by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, are fucking hysterical.

Even professional funny-men are getting in on the act. To hear Danny DeVito question why Sen. Clinton: “In NYC – where the Israeli lobby is big – and everybody talks about Israel, Bernie stood up for the Palestinians. (She) couldn’t even just say there was excessive force in the Gaza attacks. No. She couldn’t. It’s getting sticky because you don’t want the same thing to happen there that happened in South Africa. You don’t want that.”

An actor / producer channeling Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu almost restores my faith in the old Hollywood of Bob Mitchum and Steve McQueen.

AnyHowitzer, in the more serious hues of the cultural spectrum there have been numerous declarations of support by artists from Alice Walker and Brian Eno, to Russell Banks and Sting.

As was the case in the BDS anti-aparthide South African campaign, long term change comes from a shift in the cultural zeitgeist, which at the tenth anniversary of the BDS Israel campaign, is well under way.

Progress is also being marked by political impact. Quoting Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni; “BDS is moving and advancing exponentially.” And, Israeli Parliament Member Ayelet Shaked described BDS as “the greatest threat faced by our country.”

With appreciation to cultural giants like Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello and Carlos Santana for their support, a political effect has more immediate impact than the cultural ones.
And politically the BDS anti-aparthide Israel campaign is driving high profile zionists bat shit crazy:

Netanyahu: “declaring war on BDS.”
Sheldon Adelson / Haim Saban: “pledging $10MM for anti-BDS action on college campuses.”
And my personal favorite, Yair Lapid (ex Finance Minister): “the people behind BDS ‘did’ 9/11.”

Finally; economic impact. As you might imagine it’s tough to get honest government figures on BDS’s economic impact from officials who are frothing at the mouth, so I’ll rely on a Rand Corporation study as reported in the Financial Times illustrating how powerful the nonviolent BDS movement is becoming:

“…. there are signs that Israel’s disquiet over BDS is genuine. This week an Israeli financial newspaper exposed a leaked government report estimating that BDS could cost Israel’s economy $1.4B per year. The Rand Corporation, the US think-tank, says the costs could be more than three times higher: $47B 0ver ten years, inclusive of lower exports from the nascent EU labeling policy for goods produced on occupied land.”

And so it goes. The Stoic’s virtues of Wisdom, Courage, Justice and Moderation can apply to a movement as well as an individual, and are prevailing over Likud’s oppression, violence, hatred and zealotry in spite of their American enablers.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Always curious about the intersection between politics, culture and media manipulation, my interest was peaked when a friend explained Hannukah as a “Festival of Lights”. Sounding more like a GE bulb commercial than a religious raison d’être, a bit of research was in order.

I came across the video record of a lengthy round table discussion between Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris where the first cause is nailed by the recently deceased polemicist Christopher Hitchens as: “The moment in history when everything went wrong. Where the human race took its worst turn.”

To quote Hitch at length:

“If one could nominate one absolute tragic day in human history, it would be the occasion that is commemorated by the vapid holiday now known as ‘Hannukah’. In the pathetic hope of a celebration that coincides with Christmas, here is the terminus to which banal “multiculturalism” has brought us. But there was nothing remotely multicultural that induced Judah Maccabeus to re-consecrate the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 BC, and to establish the date which the soft celebrants of Hannukah now so emptily commemorate. The Maccabees, who founded the Hasmonean dynasty, were forcibly restoring Mosaic fundamentalism against the many Jews in Palestine and elsewhere who had become attracted by Hellenism. These true multiculturalists had become bored with ‘the Mosaic law’, offended by forced circumcision, interested by Greek literature, drawn by the physical and intellectual exercises of the gymnasium, and rather adept at philosophy. They could feel the pull exerted by Athens, even if only by way of Rome and the memory of Alexander’s time, and were impatient with the stark fear and superstition mandated by the Pentateuch. They obviously seemed to cosmopolitan to the votaries of the old Temple – and it must have been easy to accuse them of “dual loyalty” when they agreed to have a temple of Zeus on the site where smoky and bloody alters used to propitiate their unsmiling deity of yore. At any rate, when the father of Judah Maccabeus saw a Jew making a Hellenic offering on the old alter, he murdered him. Over the next few years of the Maccabean “revolt” the assimilated Jews were slain, forcibly circumcised, or both, and the women who had participated in the Hellenic liberating dispensations suffered even worse. Since the Romans preferred the violent and dogmatic Maccabees to the less militarized and less fanatical Hellenized Jews who had shone in their white togas in the Mediterranean sun, the scene was set for an oppressive alliance between the old garb ultra-Orthodox and the imperial Roman governorate. This relationship was eventually to lead to Christianity and ineluctably to the birth of Islam…. We could have been spared the whole thing.”

An enlightened, Hellenized, assimilated Jewry, not tethered to the site of an already destroyed temple, without a dogma which repressed intellectual inquiry or a political governance controlled by religious leaders would have been a wonderful force for good. In contrast now we are burdened with an apartheid state where the dog of parliamentary rule is wagged by the tiny tail of fanatics in matters small (the weekly arrests of Jewish girls for attempting to pray at the Wailing Wall) and large (attempting to bring on Armageddon). Should this infinitesimal minority (less than 200,000) in the fanatical settler cult succeed in their stated goal of destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque it is difficult to imagine an alternative to a nuclear exchange.

Ironic that a splinter fringe of fundamentalist Messianic Jews, who historically opposed the Zionist movement, (now aided and abetted by American Christian fundamentalists) manipulate the Israeli government to fulfill an apocalyptic prophesy to bring their Messiah. If Hitch was correct and this is where human history went wrong, to bad he’s not around to see if, in the process, he identified the cause of the end of human history as well.

So “Happy” Hannukah, I guess.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Not likely The East Hampton Independent will publish my letter to the editor.

I thought you might enjoy it, anyway…

-ATN

Editorial Board The Independent,

I thoroughly enjoyed your editorial ‘A Lesson in Democracy‘, (11-04-15).

Your focus on Roger Waters at the Bay St., and the protests his support of the BDS (Boycott Divest Sanction) Israel movement drew, was even handed and an appropriate illumination of our local perspective. ‘Local’ to include your statement “our Jewish community that has done so much for local charitable causes”. However, to broaden our view beyond the Hampton’s micro demographic to a national perspective may be helpful.

For example a number of the protester’s signs stated “Israel is not an apartheid state”. Unfortunately the concept is a bit to complicated to be employed correctly on a placard. Specifically in international law, the meaning was defined by the International Conference on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1973 ratified by the full body and applied continually to illuminate religious restrictions on civil participation within Israel proper as well as racial restrictions imposed in the occupied territories.

So, when Secretary of State Kerry stated Israel risked becoming “an apartheid state” he was merely and gently suggesting to an American audience what the world already accepts.

To venture slightly beyond Sag Harbor; the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church voted to divest itself of equity holdings in corporations whose products are used by Israel in the occupied territories. Joining the Friends Fiduciary Corp. (U.S. Quakers) and the Mennonite Central Fund Committee, the Presbyterians are expanding upon their 2012 biannial Assembly decision to boycott products made in the Palestinian territories. Other main-line religious institutions are at various stages of participation in the BDS movement. For example the United Methodist Church has announced it’s divestment of G4S Corp which provides security systems and holds operating contracts in Israeli prisons.

Lest anyone think this is merely a concern of the religious and academic communities, there are times the breadth of support for the BDS movement is actually humorous. I recall a week when Lauryn Hill (nee:The Fugees) announced her tour boycott and Barclays announced the completion of it’s Elbit Systems holdings divestiture. Hip-hop Divas to Merchant Banks define a fairly large tent.

Other times the announcements are incredibly serious. The September 7th press briefing by F. Mogherini, EU Foreign Policy Director, at the annual meeting of the 28 EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg announced the requirement imports now obfuscatingly labeled “Made in Israel” will be changed to “Origin of Goods from the Territories Occupied by Israel since June 1967”, effective this week. Thus the full EU will join Britain, Denmark and Belgium in the clear identification. And, given the EU is Israel’s largest trading partner ($32 B in 2014), no small thing. As well as following on the EU’s ban on the European Investment Bank making loans to Israeli banks (Leumi, Hapoalim and M Tefahot among others) which do business in the occupied territories.

Finally, to illustrate a context in which to evaluate the Bay St. protesters; Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu opined at the Russell Tribunal that Israeli apartheid is worse than the horrors visited upon South Africans by the white supremacist regimes. The Archbishop speaks with the authority of having acceded to Nelson Mandela’s position of moral leadership of the BDS Israel movement founded on their shared memory of Israel being the largest supplier and often the sole nation willing to ignore sanctions to sell military and police weapons to the pre1994 South African apartheid government.

Keep up the excellent reporting,

Anthony Niosi

My Great Good Friends,

Gentlemen – Honor bright – hand to God – “If I’m lyin’ I’m dyin'” no BS, the following is 100% true.

Sunday I joined good buddies Steve Vaccaro and John McHugh on the outdoor pistol range at the Maidstone Gun Club. John excused himself shortly after I arrived and I invited an elderly gentleman, who had been watching John and Steve, to shoot with Steve and I in the next round.

The ‘game’ was five holster drawn shots, individually timed, with one point for each of the five quickest awarded, however only shots on target (8 1/2″ by 11″, at 21′ included in the tallying for points).

I lent the elderly gentleman a .45. He slowly made his way to the shooting position, set his arm-braced cane aside adjusted his position in an attempt to hear the shot timer’s buzzer, cleaned off his glasses, mentioned that he was 82 years old and his youngest daughter was older than Steve, asked what would be considered a decent time, and proceeded to kick the living shit out of Vaccaro.

Photos to follow…

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

I would commend to your attention the artistry of JB Brown whose Penguin Grips creates, bespoke for any 1911 model, from exotic wood beautiful hand made grips.

My WC full frame is now sporting Arizona Ironwood Burl and my WC compact has California Buckeye Burl.

Without a doubt the finest I have ever seen.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Big election tomorrow, and, lest anyone think the opinions of 47 Republican Senators, recycled neo-cons, evangelical Christians, Likud lunatics, or messianic Orthodox settlers (which we are inundated with daily by Fox News) are representative of the wider view of civilized nations, note this cartoon which appeared in The Times of London:

The Sunday Times Netanyahu cartoon may illustrate the barbarity in a way even Sean Hannity’s viewers can comprehend. Although possibly not, inasmuch as they seem to think ‘Israeli – American’ ( as in: I-A security, I-A interests, etc.) is one word.

Consider; as of the signing of the Oslo Accords there were less than 200,000 illegal ( as adjudicated by the Israeli Supreme Court ) settlers, today there are over 500,000.

You should care because these zealots live (die?) to bring on Armageddon which for them means their Messiah, their rapture, and an end to this miserable existence. However we, who scoff at their Bronze Age myths, will still be caught up in the nuclear exchange they avow to precipitate following Deuteronomy’s injunction to cleanse ‘their’ land of all Gentiles. Which will have the unfortunate concomitant effect of no more Kobe steaks, vodka martinis, Ferraris, Yankee games, or sex on the beach for those of us enjoying this life, versus praying for the next one.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Snowed in, I’ve been watching old school broadcast TV. Actually it is not too bad, and I’ve noticed an interesting advertising trend.
The most ubiquitous hook to come from Madison Avenue since ‘new and improved’ and ‘testing proves testing works’: Apparently a sweet spot has been discovered in the eternal quest to separate the credulous from their money.

Having deconstructed the elements common to each of these successful campaigns I am now looking for a tear jerky cause, or disease, or some pathetic downtrodden minority (preferably from an unpronounceable war torn region), or, a third world natural disaster in a picturesque location, so we too can begin soliciting those lovely credit card numbers.

Any suggestions?

Critical Elements:

• $19.00 per month.
• Swelling Ennio Morricone music.
• A logo blanket ‘gift’ for each new subscriber.
• A non-actress looking actress portraying Wife / Mother / Daughter, whatever.
• Somebody’s got to break down in tears.

Please confine your suggestions to original opportunities. However, novel combinations of extant campaigns may be acceptable. For example: Marlo Thomas for abused animals with PTSD whose parents can’t afford their cancer treatment. Or, Sally Struthers sings Lilith Fair anthems for dolphins caught in tuna nets who need land mine related surgery performed by border crossing French Doctors looking for free vacations.

For legal reasons please leave aside those low hanging fruit already being exploited by the $19.00 per month crowd:

• St. Jude’s Hospital
• Animal Rescue League
• Humane Society
• USO
• Shriners Hospital

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Since year two of the current administration I have argued in numerous letters that this would be the most even-handed projection of American policy in the middle east since Bush I.

Admittedly my opinion was based upon private discussions and a nuanced reading of the tea leaves to parse the administration’s public declarations of support for Israel from the partially visible actions of the DOS and the DOD.

From small things (Bibi ushered from the WH via the back door) to large (neutering the biannual joint defense exercises) it was obvious this administration was not going to be pushed by the Israel first lobby or their friends on Capitol Hill (which as Pat Buchannan coined the phrase 30 years ago is; “Israeli occupied territory”) into subordinating America’s interests to Israel’s.

Anyllanwitzer, with no further campaigns to consider, the administration’s true policy can now be read in the Times not the tea leaves.

It has been a fun debate (and profitable, if you recall a prior letter on five years of betting against the phony tough assuring me Israel was about to bomb Iran) but I now consider the matter settled.

Recently I was challenged by my good friend Nancy to look beyond the ‘current’ hostility (she being too young to remember that fat fuck Ariel Sharon gleefully watching the slaughter at Sabra and Shatila, which awoke my consciousness thirty two years ago) to explain the historic perspective.

Obviously Nancy’s challenge is way above my pay grade, however I came across a video of a lengthy round table discussion between Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris where the critical first cause is nailed by the recently deceased polemicist Christopher Hitchens as: “The moment in history when everything went wrong. Where the human race took its worst turn.”

To quote Hitch at length:

“If one could nominate one absolute tragic day in human history, it would be the occasion that is now commemorated by the vapid holiday now known as ‘Hannukah’. In the pathetic hope of a celebration that coincides with Christmas, which itself is an annexation of a pagan solstice celebration, here is the terminus to which banal “multiculturalism” has brought us. But there was nothing remotely multicultural that induced Judah Maccabeus to re-consecrate the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 BC, and to establish the date which the soft celebrants of Hannukah now so emptily commemorate. The Maccabees, who founded the Hasmonean dynasty, were forcibly restoring Mosaic fundamentalism against the many Jews in Palestine and elsewhere who had become attracted by Hellenism. These true multiculturalists had become bored with “the Mosaic law”, offended by forced circumcision, interested by Greek literature, drawn by the physical and intellectual exercises of the gymnasium, and rather adept at philosophy. They could feel the pull exerted by Athens, even if only by way of Rome and the memory of Alexander’s time, and were impatient with the stark fear and superstition mandated by the Pentateuch. They obviously seemed to cosmopolitan to the votaries of the old Temple – and it must have been easy to accuse them of “dual loyalty” when they agreed to have a temple of Zeus on the site where smoky and bloody alters used to propitiate their unsmiling deity of yore. At any rate, when the father of Judah Maccabeus saw a Jew making a Hellenic offering on the old alter, he murdered him. Over the next few years of the Maccabean “revolt” the assimilated Jews were slain, forcibly circumcised, or both, and the women who had participated in the Hellenic liberating dispensations suffered even worse. Since the Romans preferred the violent and dogmatic Maccabees to the less militarized and less fanatical Hellenized Jews who had shone in their white togas in the Mediterranean sun, the scene was set for an oppressive alliance between the old garb ultra-Orthodox and the imperial Roman governorate. This relationship was eventually to lead to Christianity and ineluctably to the birth of Islam…. We could have been spared the whole thing.”

An enlightened Hellenized assimilated Jewry, not tethered to the site of an already destroyed temple, without a dogma which repressed intellectual inquiry or a political governance controlled by religious leaders would have been a wonderful force for good.

In contrast now we are burdened with an apartheid state where the dog of parliamentary rule is wagged by the tiny tail of fanitics in matters small (the weekly arrests of Jewish girls for attempting to pray at the Wailing Wall) and large (attempting to bring on Armageddon). Should this infinitesimal minority (less than 200,000) in the fanatical settler cult succeed in their stated goal of destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque it is difficult to imagine an alternative to a nuclear exchange.

Ironic that a splinter fringe of fundamentalist Messianic Jews, who historically opposed the Zionist movement, (now aided and abetted by American Christian fundamentalists) manipulate the Israeli government to fulfill an apocalyptic prophesy to bring their Messiah. If Hitch was correct and this is where human history went wrong, to bad he’s not around to see if, in the process, he identified the cause of the end of human history as well.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

We all know the center can’t hold and entropy ultimately rules, but the speed with which we are abandoning the respect, esteem and even memory of our foundational national character is heartbreaking.

From the founding of Rome in 753 BC to the fall of its last capital Constantinople in 1453 Roman values, their self-image, their national character, permeated the then known world.

We, as the first and only global empire in history to selflessly commit itself to the betterment of all humanity, are abandoning the precepts which made us great, cohesive, and the envy of the world in a mere two hundred years. A fleeting moment in the sweep of history.

A colleague sent me the essay below as a reminder on this 4th of July of who we were and what we once considered American Character.

Thought you too might enjoy it.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.

Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well-educated,

but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if
they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and
Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson,Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was
destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It’s not much to ask for the price they paid.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

Why I enjoy the bsa merit badge days, in spite of the weather: Good kids excited to learn and all having fun. They offered to pitch me a tent which i declined, preferring my comfy bed…

Actually I would prefer a root canal!

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

For years we have been listening to Israeli’s leadership threaten ( with the false bravado of those who know themselves to actually be impotent ) military action to stop Iran’s nuclear programs. And, beginning about four years ago, after a luncheon with General Petraeus where these threats were discussed, I began laying six month rolling wagers with pro-Israel vicariously phony tough loudmouths and have cleaned up.

{ Aside to Jack : Your radio station owning friend is zero for three years and has not paid up. ]

Well now comes Mr. Edward Snowden, and irrespective of your opinion of his motivation, no one has challenged the veracity of the documents he has leaked.

Documents which put a little sharper point on the Obama Administrations motivation for being the most even handed on Middle East policy since the first President Bush.

Where I could only site events like Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence for espionage against us on behalf of Israel, or the Israeli’s combined air and sea attack on the USS Liberty killing 34 crew members ( 31 sailors, 2 Marines and 1 civilian ) and wounding 171 others, or their squandering a solely US strategic advantage by employing a Stuxnet precursor, , or misappropriating US intelligence for their bombing of Osirak ( which by the way, was the public reason Admiral Inman, then second at the CIA, stated for limiting shared intelligence to within 250 miles of their border) to support my contention, now thanks to Mr. Snowden we have this:
From the FY 2013 secret congressional budget justification for intelligence program funding:

“To further safeguard our classified networks, we continue to strengthen threat detection capabilities across the Community.
We are investing in surveillance and offensive CI (counterintelligence) against key targets; China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and Cuba.”

So, in spite of AIPAC buying Congress, it looks like the Obama Administration understands our ‘allies’ are to be judged by their actions not their lobbyists and apologists.

And, thanks to a pro Zionist media the naïve continue to take my bets.

Have a Great Holiday Weekend, and remember: Labor without Capital is just a Hobby.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

In the widening gyre of scandals and cover ups the Obama administration’s (post Newtown Connecticut massacre) focus on gun control seems to have attenuated. Well, not for me.

Recently in Texas, I found refreshing campaign advertising reminding voters the candidate had supported broadening concealed carry opportunities ten years ago and the concomitant reduction in all categories of violent crime since.

Coincidently the time frame coincides with the City of Chicago’s prohibition on gun ownership, and interestingly the increase in violent crimes there is in proportion to the Texas experience. Just in the opposite direction.

So, while there is a lull in the hysteria I thought I would share a few conclusions from an authoritative study.

The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy ( Vol. 30, pgs. 650 – 685 inclusive ) has recently published an article entitled “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?”

Interestingly comparisons across domestic jurisdictions; i.e., the 40 States where qualified citizens may obtain handgun permits versus the others, mirrors supra national statistics in all OECD countries. For example, Luxembourg where handguns are banned has a murder rate of 9.01 per 100,000 persons. Which is eleven times Norway’s ( 36% of population armed), nine times Germany’ (30% of population armed) and seven times Denmark’s ( 19% of population armed).

Even more dramatically Russia, (where extremely stringent gun controls are effectuated by a police state apparatus) has a murder rate of 20.54 per 100,000 versus Luxembourg’s 9.01 used in the comparisons above.

The study concludes the decisiveness of social factors are orders of magnitude more compelling in murder rates than the availability of weapons.

The study also debunks the often repeated allegation that availability of weapons increases suicide rates. I will not bore you with another statistical citation from the report because the contention is one of the fucking stupidest examples of liberal dogma extant.

Imagine some poor soul so desperate they have decided to take their own life. The statistics on their use of weapons confuses cause and effect. If he or she did not have a gun would they magically be restored to sanity, or would they find a knife, or bridge, or car, or bottle of pills ?

In addition to sociological cross jurisdiction comparisons the article also utilizes longitudinal data. For example:

In the late 1990s, England moved from stringent controls to a complete ban on all handguns. Hundreds of thousands were confiscated from owners law abiding enough to turn them in to authorities. The ban’s ineffectiveness was such that by the year 2000 violent crime had so increased that England and Wales had Europe’s highest violent crime rate, far surpassing the United States.

Anyhowitzer, thought you might like to know the Harvard Journal article is available.

Best Regards, enjoy the long holiday weekend, and remember; Labor without Capital is just a Hobby.

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

A question I recently asked of New York City Mayoral Hopeful John Catsimatidis.

I don’t remember what his answer was. Which doesn’t matter. He didn’t win.

-ATN

“Sir, Without revisiting the chaff of disturbed children getting to their mother’s firearms, or the wisdom on ‘gun free zones’ which become ‘free fire zones’ like hospitals, theaters, temples, schools etc., topics which have been discussed ad nauseum, would you please address one very specific point:

When you are Mayor will you harmonize NYC’s hand gun carry laws with the rest of NY State?

Meaning, I know many of the men in this room, and in fact have wing shot with many of them both here and abroad. Many have military, national security or law enforcement experience and would pass any check no matter how rigorous, so I am not asking what criterion you endorse.

Simply; Will a permit issued from any county of NYS, be afforded the reciprocity every other county extends to permits issued from our city’s five counties?

Thank You”

My Great, Good Friends,

As we have often discussed, the perception of Israeli apartheid as conveyed via the American media is quite different from what is portrayed in the rest of the West. Alienating us from allies and potential allies.

To that point: The attached cartoon appeared in last Sunday’s Times of London, hardly a skin head, neo-Nazi publication.

Watching AIPAC talking points being spewed at Senator Hagel during his confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense, it was heartening to see, in the President’s choice of a nominee, an administration which puts America’s geo-political interests in the Middle East first.

-ATN