December 30, 2008
Israel and Forgiveness
The Jews never stop making everyone they can, all over the world, apologize for the Holocaust. Especially the Germans. As Norman Finkelstein has bravely pointed out, mining the Holocaust also has made some Jews very rich. Much more importantly, however, the Holocaust story helps Jews worldwide to keep their thumbs on the political scales. Yet for all the forced apologies, for all the monetary blackmail, and for all the political coercion there's one thing I've never, ever seen from the Jews: Forgiveness.
On the BBC website, just to take one example, Rabbi Albert Friedlander artfully explains that, for metaphysical reasons, it is impermissible for Jews to forgive anyone for the Holocaust. Now, such ideas should give pause. They are not the ideas of a religion whose bona fide stands up to serious scrutiny but seem more, from a certain point of view, like organized hate-mongering.
December 26, 2008
On Vacation
After about three years of producing the EP Podcast and not missing a single week I reckon I'm due for some vacation. And, to be honest, I need a little rest. Not to worry: the EP Podcast will be back on Friday, January 16th. Between now and then I'm sure I'll write a few blog posts. And I'll still be around DC and available by email. I hope everybody has a great New Year and I'll see you soon!
December 25, 2008
A Human Christ
Here's a very interesting book
Sean-Paul's Travels
Brother Sean-Paul, over to The Agonist, has been doing something very few people (I should say, very few Americans) do anymore: traveling on a shoestring through the hinterland of the far abroad. Sort of a walk-about. After meandering through Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam he's settled in for a bit at Lake Toba, Indonesia. Somehow he manages to find internet access and has been blogging about his experiences, posting snapshots, and also contributing occasional essays to his local San Antonio, Texas newspaper and appearing sporadically on The Young Turks show. Sean-Paul's plans may change at any time but he's headed, slowly, towards the sub-continent and on to North Africa. I don't follow any other travel blogs except the annual Everest approaches (in season), which is to say I thoroughly enjoy his writing, I find it thought provoking, and I commend it to you. And my sincere thanks, Sean-Paul, for sending many loyal Agonist readers over to the EP Podcast!
December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas!
Thanks very much to all of you out there — even the silent ones — for being part of this community, amorphous though it may be. Your presence is much appreciated. And thanks for taking me on a wild ride that's changing my life. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a wonderful New Year. Which there's no doubt we can be happy under trying (perhaps most especially under trying) circumstances. God bless!
December 19, 2008
A Changeling For All Seasons
At this point in the game we can give Mr. Obama a grade for his main Cabinet appointments: a "D+." If not for a couple names that are pretty good it would be an "F." The large majority are lackluster, a few (Clinton, Gates) abominable. What on earth does he think he's doing, I wondered — until he selected Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. Now everything becomes clear: it's not about religion, it's not about political ideology, it's about organizing. Mr. Obama admires Mr. Warren's business to business marketing approach; what works so well for an evangelical California mega-church, or the Communist Party, i.e., a cell structure, surely can work for Mr. Obama's coalition. Content becomes irrelevant.
December 14, 2008
Other Podcasts
Several listeners have asked that I compile responses from the EP 2008 Survey re other podcasts that people like. It took a bit longer than I'd expected to do this but here they are, taken from 48 responses most of which listed several podcasts. I tried to put these together as accurately as I could but there may be an error here and there. And the way I've alphabetized them is probably not library approved. The numbers in parentheses indicate how many people mentioned that particular podcast. I haven't double-checked names or added links, but I hope this is helpful. And, as I say, I find it very interesting. Thanks again to all who completed the Survey!
December 10, 2008
Finnish Delight
Five of five stars. Buy The Man Without A Past while you still can from Walmart, as it doesn't seem to be available anymore from Amazon or most other DVD vendors. An excellent Christmas gift during this time of belt-tightening. Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki circumambulates an existential meditation on who we are when we forget the details, due to amnesia. For some this would be a strange movie but I find it charming, beautiful, keenly observant, and most sympathetic. Also droll. It has a heroine from the Salvation Army and it ends well. What more could one ask?
December 8, 2008
Slavery's Dead Hand
The life and times of people in America two hundred years ago were closer in character to Elizabethan England than to American society today. And as the pace of social change increases, so too do those differences. The mental horizons of an educated man in Philadelphia in 1787 could encompass the Mongol hordes, European wars of religion, and the bankruptcy of Spain (it being the first modern nation state to ever declare bankruptcy, in 1557), but would probably go blank before today's bureaucratic state apparatus, instantaneous world-wide communications through the internet, and the unchallenged ubiquity of corporate power. An eighteenth century Philadelphian, indeed, would have found the discovery of anthropic climate change far more alien than Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. †
December 4, 2008
EP 2008 Survey Results
First, a big Thank You! to everybody who completed the survey. I find it extremely helpful to know more about who's out there, who 'the community' is made up of, who I need to keep in mind.
This year 62 people completed the EP survey (compared with 101 last year from a somewhat smaller listener base). Probably Thanksgiving week was not the best time for it. Oh well. Obviously, it's not a scientific survey as the sample isn't random. Not being a statistician I'm not sure how best to assess the survey's validity but my sense is that the past two years' surveys, despite being non-scientific, nevertheless were surprisingly accurate and I'd expected (hoped) that this one might be at least somewhat accurate as well. There are a couple of rough checks that tend to confirm its accuracy and at least one that tends to contradict it, so let's consider those factors for a moment...
December 2, 2008
The "Long Tail"
WiReD's editor Chris Anderson came up with a spiffy theory in 2004: that the internet makes possible novel behaviors including in particular people's ability to match their needs to yesterday's products. This "long tail" revolutionizes internet marketing. Businesses will "sell less of more." Anderson wrote a book, presented at Davos, and has been lunching off his brainstorm ever since. At least until recently, when a number of empirical observations, including from Google, shot the theory down. It is, to be blunt, totally bogus, a figment of Anderson's imagination.
