David Harris recently had a thought-provoking article on Huffington Post (link), entitled "It's not about Israel." I received a copy by mail and then checked the site to be sure that what I received had not been selectively edited. It had not.

Before I go further, let me say that I hold no animosity toward Arabs as a whole, nor toward the Islam religion. One of my sons is hosting a Moslem girl from Indonesia as an exchange student for a year. She's a delightful person who has sung in church choirs and plans soon to participate in a Jewish Passover seder. When I lived in Toledo I had many contacts with business owners who were Arabic immigrants; on average they were more fair and conscientious in their dealings than the majority of entrepreneurs.

Looking back 500 years, it was Moslems who preserved ancient writings and employed medical knowledge handed down from the Greek and Roman empires. Continue...

You can come out from under the bed now.

Who would want to live under Soviet-style communism? I certainly wouldn't. Supposedly that was "socialism": USSR = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It would be more accurate, however, to describe the Soviet system as one of state-governed feudalism. The brutality and deprivation suffered by citizens of the USSR is one of the main reasons that "socialism" has become such an effective scare-word for many. Continue...

Words can't begin to describe the plight of the people of Haiti, a close neighbor in the Carribean. You surely know by now: Countless thousands lie buried in rubble, dead or dying, even more are homeless, hungry, thirsty, in need of medical attention. My wife and I made a special contribution via the internet last night; I'm asking you to do the same. If you can afford a large gift, well, I can't think of a worthier and more urgent cause. If all you can afford is the minimum $10, by all means, do your part.

To my knowledge, no one I have ever known is in Haiti, but we are all humans, and I personally thank you for anything you choose to give. Please do it NOW. Here's the link:

Red Cross for Haiti

1: Any promises by pompous politicians to "get tough on crime"; we already pay around $500 per household to keep people behind bars. Let's try getting smart instead of getting tough for a change. 2: Related topic. Hysterical reports about ex-convicts committing nasty crimes. Yep, it happens. People who have no criminal records do nasty things also. I'd love to hear some reports about how many ex-cons are busy doing their jobs, paying their bills, and raising their children. 3: Any more poppycock claims that President Obama isn't an American citizen or that 90% of the people in prison are illegal aliens or climate change is a socialist hoax. 4: Detailed reports of the naughty bedroom frolics of politicians and preachers, followed by tearful proclamations of remorse. Persons of either gender who provide this fodder for unimaginative paparazzi should learn to say "none of your damned business!" or else keep their knees together or zippers up, as the case may be. The voyeurs among us can pay for their fix at the porn shop rather than relying on Fox News. Continue...

The treatment of women in some eastern nations shocks and disgusts me. How can a society with any sense of honor permit such horror, I wonder. How can the males of such a society dare to call themselves men, while condoning unspeakable atrocities against women. Sometimes criminal punishment prescribed by law in those countries is also shocking. Then at times the two meet, in a way that doesn't seem all bad. Take what some fiends in Pakistan did recently to a young woman in revenge for a marriage proposal rejection.

Fazeelat Bibi, 22, was a pretty, fun-loving girl, whose cousin, Sher Mohammed, wanted to marry her. He came with relatives to ask her family's permission. Continue...

Probably not. Of course, one can make the argument that China did not deserve the Olympics either, re its record on human rights, the environment, Tibet, and umpteen other reasons. One could just as easily make the argument that the Olympics is not an award for good behavior, and that the committee has to be most concerned with choosing a venue that promises the world a good show. Unfortunately, for someone who loves Chicago, I think America's most beautiful big city could be faulted on both counts.

In many ways, Chicago often comes across like a miniature police state. Mayor Richard M. Daley hasn't blatantly ignored the law as much as his father, Richard J., aka Boss or King, did regularly, and to my knowledge he doesn't run a miniature KGB like Chicago's infamous Red Squad of yesteryear. But as States Attorney of Cook County he turned a blind eye to police corruption and abuse, and as mayor he hasn't done nearly enough to put criminal cops in prison, or to put foot patrols on the street in high crime areas, or to use the enormous power of the City of Chicago to end conditions in the Cook County Department of Corrections that are reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition. Taking action against a Chicago police officer for blatantly criminal acts invites a prolonged campaign of retribution, and in one case the head of the union that represents the officers virtually announced publicly that he was putting out a contract on the complainant. I believe his words were "xxxx had better move out of Chicago."

Not nearly so grievous, but just as symptomatic of a city government with a police state mentality, is the city's ability to hand out parking tickets at will, and citizens' inability to have a wrongfully issued ticket cancelled. If my information is correct, the city collects thousands of dollars in unwarranted fines every month by ignoring motorists' proof that a ticket was improperly issued or that they were not the offender. I was the victim of that game myself a few years ago, when I got notices about unpaid parking fined for a BMW, although I kept sending copies of my registration showing that the license plate issued in my name was for a different make of automobile.

If deciding on a venue for the Olympics were up to me, I might be concerned about visitors from around the world being arrested for the grievous crime of not speaking English, or a journalist from some country we don't like being arrested and tortured into a confession for murder, or just in general causing those who come to the Olympics to be subjected to rude, surly treatment.

What about the other aspect of the decision, the city 's ability to put on a show for the world? Well, friends, if the city can't put on a good show for the Olympic committee, how can it put on a show for the world? It would be typical of the Powers That Be in Chicago to go to Copenhagen with a sense of entitlement, poorly prepared, and unorganized. In how many cities is it headline news that the public schools will be able to open on time? The late columnist Mike Royko claimed that at the beginning of the first of Chicago's paralyzing snowstorms each winter, the Department of Streets and Sanitation would look up and say "What's that white stuff coming down? Do you suppose we should do something about it?" That probably describes the level of Chicago's preparation for the big show in Copenhagen.

There may have been some very influential people there. Certainly the most popular man in the world, one Barack Obama, did what he could. But it was the city that called the shots. "Da wunnerful city of Chicago." "Da mare" wanted the Olympics, and that should have been enough. Like da mare wanted to close Meigs Field, Chicago's lakefront commuter airport, and aviation authorities didn't jump to do his bidding fast enough. So da mare sent Bulldozers in the middle of the night to plow up the runways, with no advance notice to the commuter airlines or to owners of the planes that were parked (and consequently marooned) there.

Chicago is a great city, but the political machine that runs the city is much too full of itself, and seriously needed a reality check. Will this do the job?

I hope so. Or maybe da mare will decide he can send some police thugs and Bulldozers to Rio and bring the Olympics here the old-fashioned Chicago way.

I frequently get emails reporting, often erroneously and always
histrionically, about all the evils of the French and British and
essentially demonizing everyone who isn't wrapped in an American flag.

In this news report, the anti-Israeli fulminations of the Iranian
president were met by a walkout of western diplomats, most notably
British and French.

So far I haven't received any commentary about this from that other 
group, who are, I believe, basically good people, even if they don't 
know the difference between belligerence and patriotism. I've never 
thought that their messages said very much about the British or French 
or Germans or whomever they were hating at any particular moment. But 
I've often thought they said a lot about why so many people,  even 
among our allies, detest Americans.

Recently a friend of mine forwarded to me a slide show comparing the slaughter of Jews during the Holocaust to the treatment of Gazans by Israel. Photos of SS troops were paired with photos of Israeli soldiers, concentration camp fences were paired with military checkpoints, and so on. Continue...