So much going on . . .

I know it appears that I have not been doing much for the last several weeks, but, like the north east US about 2 weeks ago, I have simply been snowed.

I am not going to bore you further with excuses, and also, no promises about doing better in the coming weeks.

But there is stuff going on that you might want to keep up with.

My most cherished source of news and entertainment is undoubtedly comedy central's terrible twins, Stewart and Colbert. Don't phone our house between 8 and 9 pm Mon - Thurs, because we are catching up on "last night's hoots!" and often also the best, most critical and honest, of all interviews in the media.

Probably the most important of these was the recent appearance of John McCain on the daily show. John Stewart did what the rest of the media has not managed to do, and that is ask McCain to address Iraq issues in an honest and forthcoming way. McCain resorted to the usual sound-bites and catch-phrases that pass for answers with the conventional talking heads. However, on the issue that "calling for an end to US involvement in Iraq" amounts to "not supporting the troops", Stewart and the audience held McCain's "feet to the fire". I hope I can find a link to this for you to watch it on the web. (As of the evening of Apr 30, no sign of the whole segment on the web, but Jon Stewart was interviewed by Bill Moyer about the McCain interview. You will find more clips from Stewart and Moyers interview that you may also want to view, but come back for the next link below.)

The McCain interview reminds me of Stewart's encounter with
Tucker Carlson, (on Crossfire during the run up to Bush vs Kerry) when he berated Carlson and the rest of the conventional pundits, news and talk-show hosts and interviewers for not doing a decent job asking politicians the tough questions, and demanding meaningful answers. (This I have tracked down, but I warn you that you view these links at your own risk, comedy central is on cable, and I am not sure all expletives will be suitably "bleeped". ) The encounter also recalls what Pieter Dirk Uys, a satirist of South African politics, likes to say about his material, most of which he "gets from the government". He gets so much, he doesn't pay taxes like the rest of us, he calls what he pays "royalties".

Truth is, it is a shame that the media cannot address the issues in a way that moves the proceedings forwards effectively - but that, one might say, is really the job of the politicians. Then again, who elects them?

Finally, there are a few other recent news items of interest:

1 Kibbutz Degania has gone into "private ownership".

2 Kinsley had an article with some great insights on
US partisan politics, reading almost like a script from John Stewart or South Africa's own Pieter Dirk Uys.

Look at this: "until recently, there was no shortage of politicians proudly claiming the label "conservative." Now, the only serious presidential candidate who calls himself a conservative is former Governor Mitt Romney--and he clings to the label because, based on his record, he obviously isn't one. Senator Sam Brownback, who calls himself a conservative and actually is one, isn't considered serious for that very reason. Meanwhile, Senator John McCain, who is serious, calls himself a "commonsense conservative," thus implying that most conservatives lack common sense. This is even more insulting than George W. Bush's "compassionate conservative" of 2000 election because common sense is considered, by conservatives, to be a specifically conservative virtue. Unlike, say, compassion."

3 I will add some commentary to my prior post about moderation in the Middle East. Who would have thought there would be a strange connection between discussions regarding the US position in the Middle East and the 90% consensus regarding man's likely contribution to climate change?

When you are done with that, I must direct you to another planet undergoing precipitous climate change! The EC Forum's antiglobal warming science fiction correspondent has just sent me this link: melting of the Martian polar ice. He says it is surely due to the rovers man sent to explore the Martian surface. Funny, I thought we sent radio-controlled, battery- powered micro-units. But of course, now I know Nasa sent up a fleet of SUV's proving Hummers can go anywhere! (Try whistling Dixie!)

Moderation in the Middle East - maybe "Yes"!

Egypt sends message to Hamas - could there be change in the wind?

A report from the Jerusalem Post.

Moderation in the Middle East . . . ?

Here is an interesting report I first saw in the New York Times - Week-in-Review.

Read it and chew on it - there are some interesting connections and insights to be had.

The author is David Brooks - "A War of Narratives "
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Update - Wednesday, April 18, 2007 9:31:00 PM

Point #1 - why would Arabs with moderate views, even if strongly held, want to stand up and declare themselves? To set themselves up as targets for the extremist elements? Before there can be any progress, there has to be stability. Even a fairly large moderate center can be nullified by enough militants on "the fringes". There just isn't a reasonable basis for moderation to hold sway in most, perhaps all, countries in the Middle East for the foreseeable future. And though they appear "moderate" to us, to their own people, they will look like radicals of the extreme left.

Update April 29, 2007
Point #2 - notice how the Arab academics took the postion that various publications in the US prove that their "narrative" is right -
As in:

"Speaker after speaker triumphantly cited the work of Stephen Walt, John Mearsheimer and Jimmy Carter as proof that even Americans were coming to admit that the Israel lobby controls their government."

Point #3: Notice the similarity between point number 2 and the anti "climate-change" lobby?

Yup - quoting a isolated professor from MIT that no consensus exists about climate change is like quoting Jimmy Carter on Israel's failure to make peace with the Palestinians.

Give me a break! Huh?