SPQR Today

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

My Great Good Friends,

How did the Bard put it: “…full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

So BHO says he has two lines of attack:

Congressional action re renewing assault weapons ban, etc. However his Majority Leader in the Senate says he won’t propose legislation which could not get past the House. The House, where a Republican majority says it’s DOA. So, Senator ‘Vegas’ Harry leaves his President turning in the wind.

Executive fiat actions. I read all 23 and when I was finished I re-read them thinking I must have missed something. It was pabulum, pabulum chewed be a sow and pooped, then run over by a truck, a big truck. Nothing but mush there, nothing.

In order:

1. ‘Issue a Presidential memo’
2. ‘Address legal barriers’.
3. ‘Improve incentives’.
4. ‘Direct the AG to review’.
5. ‘Propose rulemaking’.
6. ‘Publish a letter’.
7. ‘Launch a national safety campaign’.
8. ‘Review safety standards’.
9. ‘Issue (another) Presidential memo’.
10. ‘Release a report’.
11. ‘Nominate an ATF director’.
12. ‘Provide first responders with training’.
13. ‘Maximize enforcement efforts’.
14. ‘Issue (yet another) Presidential memo’, this one to the CDC.
15. ‘Challenge the private sector’.
16. ‘Clarify Obama Care’.
17. ‘Release a letter’.
18. ‘Provide incentives’.
19. ‘Develop model plans’.
20. ‘Release (another) letter, this one re Medicaid.
21. ‘Finalize regs re health benefits within Obama Care’.
22. ‘Commit to mental health parity regs’.
23. ‘Launch a national dialogue’.

I kid you not. That’s it;

Issue (3), Address, Improve, Direct, Propose, Publish, Launch (2), Review, Release (3), Nominate, Provide (2), Maximize, Challenge, Clarify, Develop, Finalize and Commit.

MOLON LABE,

-ATN

My Great Good Friends,

My missive on the hypocrisy of political opposition to gun ownership touched upon the absurdity of defining a weapon’s lethality based on appearance.

There have been a number of questions to this point, and, leave it to Good Buddy Emil to source the dispositive answer.

Please open http://assaultweapon.info and pass the word.

View the original post here.

-ATN