Film: West Bank Story by Ari Sandel

A very-well done 30 minute comedy musical film.

(Audio) Book: Holy Cow by Sarah Macdonald (Broadway Books 2004)

In her twenties, journalist Sarah Macdonald backpacked around India and came away with a lasting impression of heat, pollution and poverty. So when an airport beggar read her palm and told her she would return to India—and for love—she screamed, “Never!” and gave the country, and him, the finger.

But eleven years later, the prophecy comes true. When the love of Sarah’s life is posted to India, she quits her dream job to move to the most polluted city on earth, New Delhi. For Sarah this seems like the ultimate sacrifice for love, and it almost kills her, literally. Just settled, she falls dangerously ill with double pneumonia, an experience that compels her to face some serious questions about her own fragile mortality and inner spiritual void. “I must find peace in the only place possible in India,” she concludes. “Within.” Thus begins her journey of discovery through India in search of the meaning of life and death.

Holy Cow is Macdonald’s often hilarious chronicle of her adventures in a land of chaos and contradiction, of encounters with Hinduism, Islam and Jainism, Sufis, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians and a kaleidoscope of yogis, swamis and Bollywood stars. From spiritual retreats and crumbling nirvanas to war zones and New Delhi nightclubs, it is a journey that only a woman on a mission to save her soul, her love life—and her sanity—can survive.

See Holy Cow. I listened to the Audio reading of this book, which was excellently read by Kate Hosking.

A-to-Z Guide to Political Interference in Science (Union of Concerned Scientists)

I am one of the signatories to the Scientists' Statement on Scientific Integrity.

See the clever, elegant and thorough A to Z Guide to Political Interference with Scientific Advice which documents why this is needed.

Film: Eva and the Fire Horse (directed by Julia Kwan, 2005)

This is a delightful film about youth, the coming-of-age of children of immigrants, imagination, and family. Highly recommended.

Video: Frontline: Living Old (Miri Navasky, Karen O'Connor, Nov 21, 2006, 60 min)

Producers Miri Navasky and Karen O'Connor's touching and insightful documentary program for the PBS/WGBH Frontline series, Living Old, examines how the United States is coping with an increasing number of 85-year-old to 105-year-old seniors, who need assistance that in general, neither their children nor the medical community can provide.

Besides the interviews with the anging, their children, there are amazing interviews with numerous medical professionals.



This program is available for purchase on DVD. It can also be watched online, and you can learn more about the issues, at the program website.

Very highly recommended.

Book: American Theocracy (Kevin Phillips, Viking Adult, 2006, 480 pages)

This is an extended historical essay, very carefully researched, which explains how certain economic interests (especially big oil and financial services) are interacting with a Biblical worldview common among many Americans, and leading to all the symptoms which have led previous great powers to sharp declines after long periods of supremacy. Absolutely fascinating!

Film: Shut Up & Sing (Directed by Barbara Kopple & Cecilia Peck, Weinstein Company & Cabin Creek Films, 2006)

The filmmakers travel with the country music trio the Dixie Chicks for three years - from the peak of their popularity as the darlings of country music through the now infamous anti-Bush comment made by the group's lead singer Natalie Maines in 2003 and the political firestorm that resulted - raising questions about freedom of speech and the negative consequences it sometimes has.

As we see the resistance from country music radio stations in the US South to playing their music during the War in Iraq solidify, we see it begin to affect these artists and their manager; we also see them grow from just musicians into honest independent heart-felt citizens. Two of the Dixie Chicks are sisters who have been giving concerts since age 12; now in their mid-thirties, they decide they will not choose between self-censorship and their goal of Arena-scale musical tours.

Highly recommended.

Film: Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollack? (Picturehouse, 2006, Harry Moses)

This is a humous and compelling documentary! At one level it is about the art market. At another level it is about some amazing people. See it if you can.
Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollack?.

Film: An Unreasonable Man (about Ralph Nader) (Henriette Mantel & Steve Skrovan, 2006)

An Unreasonable Man follows the 40-year-long career of public interest attorney turned two-time Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader, bringing the insights of two dozen insiders who worked with him, for him, against him, and sometimes both for-and-against him at different times. The film is trying to explore several themes: What makes Nader tick? Are his recent Presidential runs advancing or detracting from the pro-citizen policies he articulates? How do third party candidates get treated by the press and by the two main parties? His most passionate defenders and his most ardent detractors are here, speaking candidly to the filmmakers.

Neither filmmaker had ever made a documentary, but this one is extremely thought-provoking... Try to see it when it comes to your town, or wait for the expected release on DVD in 2007.

Film: Encounter Point (2006, Ronit Avni, Just Vision)

is playing at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville NY on November 5 and November 6.

Film: 51 Birch Street (Doug Block, Copacetic Films, 2006)

51 Birch Street is a documentary that wasn't set out to be made until after 90% of the footage was shot for other purposes. Filmmaker Doug Block had been capturing little bits of video at all the usual family events, and decided to continue doing some of this with his retired parents at their home in Port Washington, New York. But a series of unexpected events leads him to learn, at age 50, some things about his parents that he had never known.

As he learns more about their lives, he captures a great deal about the dynamics of marraige, life in the suburbs, cultural shift over 60 years, all seen through what happened from his parent's immediately post-World War II courtship through a move to Florida at age 83.

What makes this such a powerful film is the honesty of his parents, their friends, his sisters, his spouse, and especially of Doug himself. This is a film that most people will identify with. Very highly recommended.

Film: Quinceanera by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmorland (Sony Pictures Classics, 2006)

This is a film about 3 months in the lives of young Mexican-American teenagers in Los Angeles, and about the awkward transitions made as they dabble with sexuality, see classism, and are drawn towards materialism and modernity while their more traditional parents distrustfully judge their move away from tradition. The need for acceptance and understanding by these teenagers is paramount, and often it is found in the most surprising places.

The powerful music and the fabulous acting are what make this such a compelling and touching film. For a story blending coming of age and the immigrant experience, you are well advised to see
Quinceanera.

Colorado resort operator to invest heavily in wind power

CNET News.com reprinted the August 2, 2006 report by the New York Times on the Vail Resorts decision to support wind-generated power going into the national grid equivalent to all electric power they use. Renewable Choice Energy will act as agent on behalf of Vail Results. See Colorado resort to invest heavily in wind power, and Ski with the Wind.

June 17-18: Clearwater Festival - Croton-on-Hudson, New York

I highly recommend attending this music, story-telling, arts, food, dance and environmental event


.


A few opportunities to volunteer at the festival will remain open -- make sure to apply ASAP.

Film: An Inconvenient Truth takes on the Climate Crisis and What We Can Do

An Inconvenient Truth (2006, Participant Productions, directed by Davis Guggenheim, featuring former-US Vice President Al Gore) is an engaging presentation of

1. the evidence that human-induced climate change is already well underway,


2. what causes it,


3. what is consequences would be if climate change is allowed (by inaction) to continue accelerating, and


4. what steps (many rather easy) are feasible for individuals, businesses and governments to take to slow it.

It sounds dry, but because of the fabulous footage from all over the world, animations, and the personal history that Gore recounts, showing how this topic came to seem to him as a major moral issue, this is a compelling and important experience. (The film includes scenes from some of the 1000 talks at Universities and to Civic Groups that Gore has given on this subject since being denied his bid for the Presidency in 2000).

A portion of the film proceeds are being donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection. Very very highly recommended.

Film: The Real Dirt on Farmer John by Taggart Siegel (2005)

THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN (2005, 82 min) by Taggart Siegel is the award-winning true story of third-generation American farmer John Peterson’s hero’s journey of success, tribulation, failure and rebirth, through his childhood in the ‘50s, the tumultuous ‘60s, the hippie-influenced ‘70s, and the farm-crisis ‘80s, culminating in his transformation-based creation of a biodynamic, organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm serving 1500 families in the Chicago area with weekly fresh produce.

John Peterson's honesty, breadth of perspective, and his good fortune to have film clips from many of the periods of his life all make this an amazing story. The film has won many many awards. Very highly recommended.

US Congress to Vote on COPE Telecom Bill - Net Neutrality At Stake!

Costa Rica Rainforest Canopy Adventure

Dream Forest Canopy near Quepos/Manuel Antonio lets you travel above the rainforest, sliding along zip lines between raised platforms. My cousin Maurice is one of the company principals. I haven't done this myself, but it sounds amazing.

Concerts: Holly Near & John Bucchino

Singer/Songwriter/Activist Holly Near and Songwriter/Pianist John Bucchino are on tour, and I was fortunate enough to hear their fabulous concert in Manhattan. Recommended!

John Kamm's Mission by Frank Langfitt (NPR, Apr 20)

John Kamm's Mission is the story of a US Business Lobbyist who has used his connections in China to win the release of numerous Chinese political prisoners.

How the US moved to Alternative Energy Sources 2006-2056

How the US moved to Alternative Energy Sources, 2006-2056 is an inspiring 4-minute video.

SlamNation: A Film by Paul Devlin (1998)

SlamNation is a documentary of the 4-day National Poetry Slam held in Portland Oregon in 1998. Very enjoyable!

A Year to Live, A Year To Die

A Year to Live, A Year to Die was reported by Mary Beth Kirchner on National Public Radio on March 27, 2006. Mixing her interview with widow Rebecca Peterson with the excerpts from the audio diary that her dying husband Stewart Selman had recorded during his year-long decline from brain cancer, this 22 minute 49 second piece is touching and truthful.

The Little Coffee Plant that Wouldn't Die

The Little Coffee Plant that Wouldn't Die is a National Public Radio report by Robert Krulwich that aired on March 28, 2006. (6 min, 22 seconds; or read transcript on the web).

Film: Live & Become / Va, Vis et Deviens (Radu Mihaileanu, 2004)

Va, Vis et Deviens, or Live and Become is the Epic story of a young Ethiopian Christian refugee whose mother sends him to Israel at age 9, telling him to pretend he is a Jew, and what happens to him over the following 18 years. This is a beautiful and touching film on so many levels: the clash of ancient and modern cultures, coming to terms with racism, the refugee and immigrant experience, magnificently filmed and with a fabulous ensemble cast. Very highly recommended.

NY State Veterans Depleted Urananium/Hazardous Chemicals Testing/Registry/Care Act A9116

On Tuesday February 7th in Albany, New York, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (D-Bronx) hosted a press conference to introduce Bill A9116.

The bill assumes commits the New York State Adjutant General (presumably with assistance from the Department of Health) to finding causes and sources of illnesses that returning soldiers from overseas conflicts experience, when those soldiers at New York residents, and for enabling care for those illnesses of NY returning soldiers.

Similar bills are now law in Connecticut and Louisiana, unfortunately because the US Department of Defense and the US Veterans Administration are stonewalling veterns who return from Iraq will illnesses, although there is extensive evidence that theese veterans have contracted Radiation Sickness as a result of the large amount of depleted uraninian that US Forces are exposed to during their Iraq duties.

Following an article in the New York Daily News in 2004, briefings by some vets were held on Capitol Hill, but so far with little effect. Here is an excerpt from a letter by one national guard member, Herbert Rudolph Reed, that was sent to our Representatives before the 2005 briefing in Washington:

My NG Unit, the 442nd Military Police Company, Orangeburg, New York Armory, served in Samawah, Iraq in 2003. Our base and living area was within a railway yard, in this town which was a “burial” site for radioactive Iraqi tanks partially destroyed in the First Gulf War. Trenches were dug. The vehicles and equipment, “hot” with radioactivity from U.S. depleted uranium shells which had incapacitated them, were covered with desert sand. That sand where we camped was tested with Geiger counters by the Dutch military who were supposed to replace us when our deployment was over. They pronounced the area “uninhabitable.”

That highly contaminated desert sand was used to form traffic islands in the local roads we traveled. Our mess tent was next to the road. The microscopic particles of uranium, still radioactive of course, were continually blowing around for us to inhale and also ingest when we ate and even talked. Every morning we broom-swept the layers of brown dust which had settled on the floor. The train yard itself, where we slept every night for months, held abandoned flat cars with wrecks of Iraqi tanks sitting on them.

These tanks, I know now, contained uranium particles in a thick layer of “dust,” the product of the intense burn of the dense depleted uranium shells which had penetrated the tank armor and incinerated the occupants. Uranium oxides particles are microscopic and in the form of jagged molecules which, easily inhaled, lodge in the lungs, the kidneys, and eventually settle in the bones. Their active alpha rays steadily destroy adjacent cells including stem cells in the bone marrow and DNA strands.

I must emphasize here that I have learned all this after serving in Iraq. While serving there, none of us knew the danger we were in. I had never heard of depleted uranium. The U.S. Army had sent us
there with out mentioning the radioactivity, let alone supplying us with protective equipment.

When we returned to the United States, we of the 442nd had no ideas why we experienced sleeplessness, skin rashes, muscle and joint aches, enlarged thyroids, burning urination, blood in urine and stools, headaches, difficulty breathing and gum disease. Then we received our positive test results, funded by the Daily News, done in a German laboratory with an advanced mass spectometry testing process sensitive to the various isotopes of uranium, unlike the crude full body tests done by the VA. We learned that these symptoms, lumped into the phony category of “Gulf War Syndrome,” are in reality the symptoms of radiation poisoning. My positive test included U236, which, like U238, is only found in processed uranium. not in nature. One of us, Gerard Matthews fathered a beautiful baby girl with a specific anomaly, missing fingers, which is found now in Iraqi children and in at least one girl whose parent grew up next door to a DU weapon fabrication plant in this country..

Before we called Juan Gonzales of the Daily News, we tried to get answers to our illnesses through military channels. One of us, a medic, had heard of depleted uranium as a health issue. We approached the Medical staff at Fort Dix to inquire about a test for exposure. They promised to check with Walter Reed Hospital and notify us immediately upon receiving a reply. In one week we were summoned to a meeting.

At that meeting I lost all respect for the military after having given nineteen years, nine months and twenty days of faithful service to my country. We were told there was no test to detect depleted uranium in a human body. Our own word of mouth research had discovered the existence of an unmarked door in the basement of an unmarked building which led to a special unit set up to test soldiers suspected of being exposed to depleted uranium. Several members of our unit went to Washington and asked to be tested but were refused. We immediately contacted our Senators, Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer. Senator Clinton had served on the Armed Services Committee. She expressed interest in our plight and held a press conference on the subject. At this point, we began to receive more cooperation from the VA.

We were amazed by what we learned. The Department of Defense had issued after the first Gulf War several Army Regulations (ARS) on the subject of depleted uranium’s danger to human health. These were endorsed by the Armed Services Committee including Senator Clinton. Those regs have never been followed in this present Iraq War although uranium munitions are being delivered all over the country by Abrams tanks, armored vehicles, A-10 Warthog planes, missiles. Every soldier was supposed to receive a full physical prior to being sent to a combat area, including blood and urine tests which would be repeated upon return to civilian life to identify contamination.

For example, Army Regulation 700-48, Headquarters, Department Of The Army, Washington, D.C. September 16, 2002, was the result of Major Douglas Rokke’s mission to clean up the initial radioactive debris from the First Gulf War. It states in part that
1) Military personnel “identify, segregate, isolate, secure, and label all RCE--radiologically contaminated equipment.
2) Procedures to minimize the spread of radioactivity will be implemented as soon as possible.
3) Radioactive material and waste will not be locally disposed of through burial, submersion, incineration or abandonment.”

It also mandates that the Commander, U.S. Army will “provide general awareness (of radioactive materials) to all soldiers who are currently entering or in the U.S. Army.” We are living proof that none of this has been done. Directives are arrogantly ignored that require the United States DOD officials to provide prompt and effective medical care of all exposed individuals (Medical Management of Unusual Depleted Uranium Casualties-Pentagon 10/14/93.)

Here we have 12 year old information that could have prevented others from becoming contaminated, and it was concealed. We have not been protected from this radioactive poison. Our government is riskng its own troops and the human gene pool. I think this is a crime and requires a full investigation. Ten of our ill “Daily News Vets” have retained counsel and filed a notice of claim against the United States Government that we will file a lawsuit in Federal Court.

Will we never learn from our mistakes? All who have served in these contaminated areas, which now includes Baghdad, Fallujah and the Western towns being bombed this June will not know why they are sick or where to turn for help. I think we are only asking for what was promised us when we joined our Armed Forces to serve our country. We think it is time they held up their part of the bargain, and we will not wait another thirty years before they tell the TRUTH.

Congress, the governmental arm of the people, must be a vehicle for exposing and changing this truth. There are too many lives at stake, and we are talking about future generations, about men and women having children and then grandchildren with deformities and cancers, their genes altered forever. Do we really need this? Don’t we have enough diseases we cannot cure now? A crime is being perpetuated against our soldiers and future generations. I pray that you as members of Congress get on board, support our day in Washington by attending our briefing and by helping us make this best kept of all criminal secrets known to all Americans. If you support the truth, you will support the troops.

NY Theater: The Light in the Piazza (Craig Lucas, Adam Guettel, dir by Bartlett Sher)

I was tremendously impressed with the acting, staging, scenery, story and music of "The Light in the Piazza", a musical based on a late 1950s novella by Elizabeth Spencer that began as a story in The New Yorker magazine. Victoria Clark's performance, as the American mother revisiting Italy over the summer with her 20-something daughter, Clara (played by Katie Clarke) is excellent. It is a summer that transforms both of them.

Very highly recommended.

See Lincoln Center Theater website.

Film/Video: WinterSoldier (1971, re-release 2005, 95 min)

I saw a fascinating and disturbing documentary, called
Winter Soldier (Winterfilm Collective including Barbara Koppel, Robert Fiore, Rhetta Barron, Michael Lesser, USA, 1971, 16mm to BetaSP, 95 min.) .

Chronicling the extraordinary Winter Soldier Investigation conducted by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in Detroit during the winter of 1971, Winterfilm Collective (18 filmmakers) shot footage of more than 125 Vietnam veterans (including a very young John Kerry) that gave eyewitness testimony to war crimes and atrocities they either participated in or witnessed.

The testimony given was occuring about one month after the US Media started covering the charges against Lt. Calley and others for the My Lai massacre, and a critical question was "Is this a rare exception, or more widespread throughout our troops?".

Virtually unreported by the media, WINTER SOLDIER is the only record of this historic gathering, a turning point in American history. Shown at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals and lauded throughout Europe, it only opened briefly in Manhattan, and was broadcast for a single showing on New York's WNET Television.

Then it was not seen anywhere else in North America after 1972. It was too painful for the American public to see how a combination of bad army policy (centered on body counts) and fear were causing some of our field troops in Vietnam to become callous to the point of criminality. At the same time, since 85% of American troops were not out in the field, but doing support work at supply depots, communication hubs, helicopter repair sites, many of the troops did not know or experience what was going on.

Thirty-five years later, the veterans' courage in testifying and their desire to prevent further atrocities and regain their own humanity makes WINTER SOLDIER an unforgettable experience.

The recent abuses of prisoners of Abu Ghraib, and in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo have sometimes been reported as unprecedented. The voices of the veterans in Winter Soldier attest that they were not. The difficulties of Americans in distinguishing between Viet Cong undercover militants and simply distrustful Vietnamese villagers, and the disasterous consequences, is beginning to repeat in Iraq, where Improvised Explosive Devices have scarred enough of our troops that they also struggle to distinguish, in a second or two, undercover insurgents from simply distrustful Iraqi civilians, and sometimes make the wrong choice.

If you can see this film, which is playing sporadically around the US, please do. Otherwise, I believe a DVD version will become available in January.

National Public Radio did a story about the plans to re-release the film which includes some audio excerpts - View/Listen (reported by John Kalish, 7 min).

Vice President Cheney should resign

This is a letter to the Editor I wrote today.
When a private-sector executive, or a not-for-profit executive, or a university or hospital executive hires and retains a chief-of-staff who violates the law, the Board of Trustees usually expects the Executive to tender his/her resignation; because they are responsible for supervising the people who work for them.

Vice President Dick Cheney is the person that hired and supervised Scotter Libby. In my analogy, the people of America are the Board of Trustees. I expect Vice President Cheney to resign.

This is not a hair-splitting issue. The US Senate impeached President Clinton for his sexual improprietaries with an intern, a matter of no great historical consequence. If Vice President Cheney does not resign, then Senators Schumer and Clinton must begin the process of impeaching the Vice President. He clearly played an active role in deceiving the American people as to the true reasons the US chose to invade Iraq. Trying to discredit Ambassador Joe Wilson's report was one of these actions.

This deception of the American people, to me, is close to treason. Over 2000 American service men and women and tens of thousands of Iraqis perished; and resources were diverted from the true effort against Jihadist Terrorism around the globe.

Its time for a new, honest, Vice President -- one who can be straight with the American people.

Sincerely,
Robert J Schloss

Winning the Oil Endgame (Rocky Mountain Institute)

The United States could eliminate the need to import oil and natural gas from unstable overseas suppliers AT A PROFIT, with about 20 years of change that would create jobs and strengthen our agriculture sector. The change would primarily be to the transportation sector. This book explains how, and a 4-page executive summary is available online.

Film: Good Night, And Good Luck (George Clooney & Grant Heslov, Warner Independent, 2005)

Good Night, And Good Luck is a brilliantly filmed, acted, and written story of 5 years in the life of CBS Television News Reporter Edward R. Morrow and his team. Based on actual events, and including some archival footage, this is one of the best films of 2005 and possibly of the last 5 years. Not to be missed!

Science of the Earth: Sea Ice Decline Accelerates

Scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the University of Washington reported on September 28th that four the 4th year in a row, Arctic Ice mass declined, and in an accelerating trend. See their Web Press Release.

Documentary: Paperclips (2004)

Paperclips (directed by Joe Fab and Elliot Berlin, Johnson/Ergo/Miramax) is a sweet film about a middle school in Tennessee, in a poor town mostly full of white protestant families, which has an after-school club to learn about the Holocaust. Following 3 staff members, a handful of 8th graders, and some reporters who learn about their project to collect 6 million paperclips, one for each Jewish victim murdered by the Nazi's, the 4-year window into this project which was is in the film contains many twists and turns, and shows what happens when adults and youth begin to confront the uglier side of history. Highly recommended.

Gulf Coast Hurricane Relief - Donating Beyond the American Red Cross

Despite the billions of dollars that the US Federal Government will distribute for mitigation of the suffering and destruction caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, private moneys are needed throughout September and October. You can channel this through many organizations, especially the American Red Cross, or through these channels.

Mazon

In the Metro-NY area,
UJA-Federation Katrina Relief.

Cartoonists Imagine Republican Strategies for Disaster Assistance

Ted Rall's Bushist Disaster Relief is one of my favorites.

Jen Sorensen's Slowpoke cartoon "The Bush Administration Responds to Katrina" is also insightful. See Slowpoke Comics Cartoon Achives

Garrison Keillor on College Majors and Cultural Chatter, including Blogs

When I was in college, the smart people were going into engineering, which had solid long-term prospects, and only we dweezils majored in English, and look what happened: Engineers are being laid off, America is losing its capacity to manufacture things, but every day we out trillians of words about ourselves, bloggers blogging, floods of memoir, day-dreaming, carpet-chewing, and when the Chinese repo men eventually come to collect on our debt, they will find a nation of highly articulate self-aware people who can't change an oil filter but maintain wonderful websites. A nation of English majors.

(Garrison Keillor)

Reinhold Neiburh Quote: Saved by hope, faith, love, forgiveness

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,

Therefore, we are saved by hope.

Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;

Therefore, we are saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.

Therefore, we are saved by love.

No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;

Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

                  Reinhold Niebuhr

How Lousiana spent its FEMA grant to plan for evacuation of New Orelans

From John Tierney's NY Times column "From FEMA to WEMA" of September 20th:

In 1997, Congress gave FEMA $500,000 and ordered it to develop a comprehensive plan to evacuate New Orleans. The agency passed on the money to Louisiana, which used it instead to study building a new bridge. As Rita Beamish of The Associated Press reported on Sunday, FEMA didn't bother making sure a plan was drawn up - an aide to James Lee Witt (FEMA director under President Clinton) said its job had just been to pass on the money.

Number of Category 4 and 5 Hurricanes Doubled In the Last 35 Years

Scientists at Georgia Tech and the National Center for Atmospheric Research reported in the journal Science that, while Sea temperatures rose between 1970-2004, the number of Category 4 and 5 Hurricanes Doubled In the Last 35 Years. Details are in a National Science Foundation Press Release.

Film: Innocent Voices by Luis Mandoki (2004, US Release 10/14/05, Europe Release Jan 06)

Innocent Voices realistically tells the true story of an eleven-year-old boy caught in the middle of the civil war in El Salvador in the 1980s. The bravery of this child and the valiant struggle of his mother to prevent him from being recruited into the Salvadoran Army is a testament to the courage of parents and children who are victims of armed conflicts globally.

        Very highly recommended!

The Hobart Shakespeareans - A Documentary by Mel Stuart (P.O.V.)

PBS's program P.O.V. (Point of View) is currently showing the fabulous documentary
The Hobart Shakespeareans. It follows one year in the life of a Los Angeles 4th grade class, taught by Master Teacher, and Shakespeare enthusiast, Rafe Esquith. The film showcases how one teacher's uncommon commitment and resourcefulness have opened up worlds of opportunity for his "disadvantaged" students — and perhaps have demonstrated a way forward for America's beleaguered public education system. Very highly recommended.

Double Super-Secret Background by Mark Fiore

Double Super-Secret Background is a 3-minute animated political cartoon. Unfortunately, it's true.

Paul Krugman in NYTimes: A Can't Do Government

New York Times op-ed page columnist Paul Krugman writes A Can't Do Government which reinforces what everyone knows... State and Federal Governments did not use all the resources they had immediately before and immediately after Hurricane Katrina. Some people (mostly poor, mostly African-American) will die because of this. There must be a political price to be paid for this by the Republican party....

Experts: New Orleans disaster was predicted (Reuters)

I highly recommend the Reuters report of September 2nd.

"Virtually everything that has happened in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck was predicted by experts and in computer models, so emergency management specialists wonder why authorities were so unprepared".

See News.com for the story.

Film: Campfire / Medurat Hashet by Joseph Cedar (Israel, 2004)

At the center of the film 'Campfire' is the Gerlik family of Jerusalem in 1981: mother Rachel, an attractive 42-year old widow, drawn to Religious Zionism; and her two daughters, rebellious 18-year-old Esti and innocent but awakening 15-year-old Tami who participates in the Bnai Akiva religious youth movement. The acting by Michaela Eshet (Rachel), Maya Maron (Esti) and Hani Furstenberg (Tami) is superb, and supported by Moshe Igvy (playing Yossi) and an ensemble of excellent actors, these are real characters who are all trying to grow while recovering from the death of their husband/father.






Very highly recommended.

Katrina Hits New Orleans: Bush has some responsibility for loss of life, in two ways

We are all horrified to see the loss of life, and extensive property damage, in Louisiana, Mississipi and nearby states from Hurricaine Katrina.

What escapes me is why the media is not pointing out that Global Climate Change models have been predicting that the build up of "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere was certain to cause more frequent and more severe storms, and that President Bush has opposed any mandatory actions by US industry to reduce emissions.

At the same time, unfortunately, some people who could have been rescued will perish, because the National Guard has too many of their folks in Iraq. This point is documented in Norman Solomon's article The National Guard Belongs in New Orleans and Biloxi. Not Baghdad..

It is good that the American Red Cross, UJA-Federation and many others will be trying to get critical assistance to those people whose homes have been ruined or damaged. But rigid and foolish thinking in Washington DC means that there are far more such citizens than there might have been.

Katrina won't be the last severe storm. Will Washington, and the American people, wake up in time to prepare for, and maybe avert, future disasters?

Medical Researcher who survived the Holocaust makes huge donation to Medical Research

A press release - Remicade Co-Inventor And NYU Professor Of Microbiology Jan Vilcek, M.D., Ph.D. Pledges $105 Million To NYU School Of Medicine - announcing one the single largest gifts ever to academic medical research, is also insight into how fortunate we all are that some European Jews survived the Nazi Holocaust and had the courage to leave stagnant Communist economies and come to the West.

According to a profile
in the New York Times by Richard Perez-Pena published on August 12th:

His Jewish family survived the long German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the Holocaust. Though they were forced from their comfortable apartment in Bratislava, and into a succession of smaller ones, they were, at first, passed over when many of Czechoslovakia's Jews were deported to concentration camps. When the campaign to round up and exterminate Jews intensified, they fled the city for the countryside.

"I spent the last year of the war with my mother in hiding, and my father somehow made his way through the front lines to the Russian Army," he said. "I was 11 at the time, and it still seemed like an exciting game of some sort. I was aware of the seriousness of the situation, but not completely."

The people who hid him were strangers in a village. "They were among those exceptional people who took great risks for others," he said. It was an experience, he added, that left a powerful impression about the value of helping people.

Years later, when Czechoslovakia was under Communist rule, his parents - his mother was an ophthalmologist and his father worked for a coal mining company - wanted him to become a doctor.

"I resisted it at first," he said. "I would have preferred another profession, but in a Communist country, the law was out of the question and economics was out of the question, because they were both too politicized."

After becoming a doctor and a research scientist, in 1964, when he was 31, Dr. Vilcek and his wife decided to escape.

"In those days you could not really leave, legally, so my wife and I received permission to visit Vienna for a weekend," he said. "We were able to get out that way, and we did not go back." In 1965, they settled in Manhattan, where they have lived ever since, and he went to work at N.Y.U.

Thank you, Dr. Vilcek!

A Declaration of Progressive Principles adopted March 2005

A Declaration of Progressive Principles drafted by members of The Principles Project, is a concise one-page statement of values which, in my opinion, should be animating forces in United States' National Priorities.

SF MOMA's Taking Place Photography Exhibition

Taking Place: Photographs from the Prentice and Paul Sack Collection can be seen through September 6, 2005 at San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art. These photographs were collected over many years by my cousin.

2 Studies Supporting Observed & Expected Climate Change

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104326 reports on a study by Inez Fung of the University of California at Berkeley showing that Fossil Fuel combustion emissions would be expected (based on a computer simulation) to reduce how much carbon the earth can sequester. This would mean that increases in carbon gases in the atmosphere would probably accelerate over time.

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104325 reports that Kerry Emanuel of MIT has determined that in the last 30 years, hurricaines have grown significantly more fierce, especially when they form over warmer waters.

You would like to think these kinds of studies will convince the US Executive Branch, as well as the laggards in Congress and in industry, that policies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases are important to put into effect as soon as possible.

Resources for Jewish Experiential Education

I had the pleasure to study for 4 days with Hazzan Richard Kaplan, and if you have an interest in the use of song as a prayer form and get the chance to learn with Richard, don't miss it. See kaplanmusic.com.

If you want an experience of immersion in nature, community, learning and spirituality, you would do well to spend a weekend or week in Accord, New York at Elat Chayyim. See www.jewishretreatcenter.org.

Quote for July - Raymond Williams

To be truly radical is to make hope possible, not despair convincing.
 
   -- Raymond Williams

TerraPass: Carbon Dioxide Offsets for Vehicles Address Global Climate Change

I am thrilled to be a member of TerraPass, a program in which I pay $40 (because of the type of car I drive, fees range from $30 to $80) per year and my money, pooled with that of other TerraPass members, buys carbon dioxide emissions offsets from industry that correspond to the amount of greenhouse gases that my car emits each year. This constructive action was conceived as part of a class at The Wharton School of Business in the University of Pennsylvania, and 9 of those students are working out of an office in California, investing the money that comes in from TerraPass buyers in projects that reduce emissions.



My car and your car each emit roughly 10,000 lbs of carbon dioxide each year.



But once you enroll in TerraPass...



TerraPass members finance projects that reduce industrial carbon dioxide emissions...



which helps our environment.

Dr. Sugata Mitra's "Hole in the Wall" brings the Internet to very poor Indian children

For the last 8 years, an interesting experiment in allowing slum-resident children in India to teach themselves how to use the Internet, and what that does to their aspirations, confidence and school behavior, has been conducted by NIIT and its chief of research, Dr. Sugata Mitra. For a fascinating 9 minute video by a reporter who visited in 2002, Rory O'Connor which aired on PBS' Frontline/WORLD, see India - Hole in the Wall.

Trends in Science & Technology in USA are not good

The latest National Bureau of Economic Research report written by Richard Freeman, shows that science and engineering degrees outside the US are increasing while those inside the US are decreasing. See this report by Reuters via CNET.

Simultaneously, the Fiscal Year 2006 Federal Budget continues to shift money away from basic science and only into applications for defense and homeland security. See this overview from the American Assocation for the Advancement of Science. When an administration begins an extensive overseas military operation and at the same time reduces income taxes for the wealthy, while starting with a budget deficit, the result can only be a severe budget crunch. But we may be paying for these errors for generations in the future economic development of the United States.

Film: Seeds - a documentary film (Merge:Media, 2004)

I attended the New York premiere of a documentary made by Marjan Safinia and Joseph Boyle about participants in the 2002 session of the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Maine, which hosts 12 to 16-year-olds from regions of conflict around the world. The film has some extremely powerful moments. See Film web site.

Photo

Here's a photo taken on May 25th.

Books: Zen and the Art of Making a Living, The Tao of Abundance

Laurence Boldt has written some literature, wise and practical books. I like to recommend these two in particular:

• The Tao of Abundance


• Zen and the Art of Making a Living

My Favorite Quotes

I've put online my collection of favorite Quotes.

White House Official Rewrites Reports of Gov't Scientists on Climate Change (New York Times, June 8th)

Andrew Revkin's article Official Played Down Emissions' Links to Global Warming in the New York Times June 8th edition documents how White Employee Phil Cooney altered the text of 2002 and 2003 reports on Climate Change issued by the US government, so that the direct sense of the scientific assessment was watered down indicating far more uncertainty than actually exists. He did this late in the reviewing process so that scientists did not see the changes until the reports were issued.

See also Joint Science Academies Statement: Global Response to Climate Change.

Nicholas D, Kristof: Uncover Your Eyes (Darfur) (New York Times)

Amazing lack of bold action by US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and US President George W. Bush on Darfur, Sudan. See Uncover Your Eyes from the June 7, 2005 issue of the New York Times.

Film: Mad Hot Ballroom (Marilyn Agrelo, Amy Sewell, Sabine Krayenbuhl, Claudia Raschke-Robinson)

This amazing documentary about 5th graders in 3 schools in New York City, and their teachers, is a delight. High Recommended!

See www.paramountclassics.com/madhot.

The Genographic Project: National Geographic, IBM and Scientists Study Human Migration over the last 60,000 years

See The Genographic Project, a National Geographic and IBM Research-led study of Human Origins and Migrations, which will be collecting DNA samples from many indigenous groups as well as from a broad sample of the public in developed regions. Population geneticists, anthropologists, linguists, and original peoples' advocates have enthusiastically joined in this study, which has significant protections for privacy. If you contribute your DNA sample, you will receive a password to a web site where over time, more and more details of how your DNA compares to that collected from various peoples in regions of the globe will be specified.

Darfur: Lives Destroyed by Physicians for Human Right

There is a 5 minute long web movie about a visit to Darfur in early 2005 by a delegation from Physicians for Human Rights. See http://www.phrusa.org/sudan/flash/.

TV-B-Gone - $15 universal remote turns off all TVs

Mitch Altman of San Francisco is a strong supporter of the idea that there are better things to do with your time than watch television, and that when other people watch television more than a little bit, they are probably being seduced into a kind of consumer passivity that just isn't good for the strength of community and democracy.

He created and is marketing a $15 device the transmits all the turn off codes used by all the television manufacturers, called TV-B-Gone, and many of its users have had no problems turning of televisions in laundromats, restaurants and bars. For more information, see tvbgone.com.

Bill of Media Rights

Many of the organizations who believe, as I do, that a diverse and de-centralized media, including multiple streams of funding, is a requirement for having democracy actually work, prepared a proposed Bill of Media Rights. If you agree with this, there is a Web sight where you can join me in becoming one the signers.

10 Forgotten Crises in the World, according to 100 relief professionals

AlertNet, the news service operated by the Reuters Foundation serving those who work in the area of relief and their supporters, surveyed 100 of the world's leading relief professionals, humanitarians, activists and media-watchers, and asked them what stories need more coverage.

This was a good question to ask, because although the media provided extensive coverage of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, in terms of number of people effected, it was in fact an unfortunate, but relatively limited, event. In fact, deaths due to poverty, hunger, water-contamination and preventable disease dwarf those from the Tsunami, from the 9/11/2001 Attacks on New York and Washington, and all the stories swamping the media from the Middle East conflicts and so on.

They wrote up the list of 10 stories that these experts feel are underreported, releasing it on March 10, 2005, and I recommend that you take a look. FACTSHEET: Top 10 Forgotten Crises, and Congo War tops AlertNet poll.

100 Days of Action to Stop Genocide in Darfur, Sudan

I am an enthusiastic supporter of the Genocide Intervention Fund's efforts to raising the voices of American's in order to have our government contribute to the financial support of a much expanded presence for African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan. Please consider joining in the 100 Days of Action between now and July 16th.



For more information about what is happening in Darfur and what you can do, look at www.savedarfur.org.

Book Review: Atrocities in Plain Sight - review by Andrew Sullivan

The January 13, 2005 issue of the New York Times included this review of two books by Andrew Sullivan, senior editor at The New Republic and a columnist at Time Magazine. He reviewed
THE ABU GHRAIB INVESTIGATIONS
The Official Report of the Independent Panel and Pentagon on the Shocking Prisoner Abuse in Iraq.
Edited by Steven Strasser.
Illustrated. 175 pp. PublicAffairs. Paper, $14.

and

TORTURE AND TRUTH
America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror.
By Mark Danner.
Illustrated. 580 pp. New York Review Books. Paper, $19.95.

In scandals, chronology can be everything. The facts you find out first, the images that are initially imprinted on your consciousness, the details that then follow: these make the difference between a culture-changing tipping point and a weatherable media flurry. With the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the photographs, which have become iconic, created the context and the meaning of what took place. We think we know the contours of that story: a few soldiers on the night shift violated established military rules and subjected prisoners to humiliating abuse and terror. Chaos in the line of command, an overstretched military, a bewildering insurgency: all contributed to incidents that were alien to the values of the United States and its military. The scandal was an aberration. It was appalling. Responsibility was taken. Reports were issued. Hearings continue.

But the photographs lied. They told us a shard of the truth. In retrospect, they deflected us away from what was really going on, and what is still going on. The problem is not a co-ordinated cover-up. Nor is it a lack of information. The official government and Red Cross reports on prisoner torture and abuse, compiled in two separate volumes, ''The Abu Ghraib Investigations,'' by a former Newsweek editor, Steven Strasser, and ''Torture and Truth,'' by a New York Review of Books contributor, Mark Danner, are almost numbingly exhaustive in their cataloging of specific mistakes, incidents and responsibilities. Danner's document-dump runs to almost 600 pages of print, the bulk of it in small type. The American Civil Liberties Union has also successfully engineered the release of what may eventually amount to hundreds of thousands of internal government documents detailing the events.

That tells you something important at the start. Whatever happened was exposed in a free society; the military itself began the first inquiries. You can now read, in these pages, previously secret memorandums from sources as high as the attorney general all the way down to prisoner testimony to the International Committee of the Red Cross. I confess to finding this transparency both comforting and chilling, like the photographs that kick-started the public's awareness of the affair. Comforting because only a country that is still free would allow such airing of blood-soaked laundry. Chilling because the crimes committed strike so deeply at the core of what a free country is supposed to mean. The scandal of Abu Ghraib is therefore a sign of both freedom's endurance in America and also, in certain dark corners, its demise.

The documents themselves tell the story. In this, Danner's book is by far the better of the two. He begins with passionate essays that originally appeared in The New York Review of Books, but very soon leaves the stage and lets the documents speak for themselves. His book contains the two reports Strasser publishes, but many more as well. If you read it in the order Danner provides, you can see exactly how this horror came about - and why it's still going on. As Danner observes, this is a scandal with almost everything in plain sight.

The critical enabling decision was the president's insistence that prisoners in the war on terror be deemed ''unlawful combatants'' rather than prisoners of war. The arguments are theoretically sound ones - members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not party to the Geneva Convention and their own conduct violates many of its basic demands. But even at the beginning, President Bush clearly feared the consequences of so broad an exemption for cruel and inhumane treatment. So he also insisted that although prisoners were not legally eligible for humane treatment, they should be granted it anyway. The message sent was: these prisoners are beneath decent treatment, but we should still provide it. That's a strangely nuanced signal to be giving the military during wartime.

You can see the same strange ambivalence in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's decision to approve expanded interrogation techniques in December 2002 for Guantánamo inmates - and then to revoke the order six weeks later. The documents show that the president was clearly warned of the dangers of the policy he decided upon - Colin Powell's January 2002 memo is almost heart-breakingly prescient and sane in this regard - but he pressed on anyway. Rumsfeld's own revocation of the order suggests his own moral qualms about what he had unleashed.

But Bush clearly leaned toward toughness. Here's the precise formulation he used: ''As a matter of policy, the United States Armed Forces shall continue to treat detainees humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva.'' (My italics.)

Notice the qualifications. The president wants to stay not within the letter of the law, but within its broad principles, and in the last resort, ''military necessity'' can overrule all of it. According to his legal counsel at the time, Alberto R. Gonzales, the president's warmaking powers gave him ultimate constitutional authority to ignore any relevant laws in the conduct of the conflict. Sticking to the Geneva Convention was the exclusive prerogative of one man, George W. Bush; and he could, if he wished, make exceptions. As Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee argues in another memo: ''Any effort to apply Section 2340A in a manner that interferes with the president's direction of such core war matters as the detention and interrogation of enemy combatants thus would be unconstitutional.'' (Section 2340A refers to the United States law that incorporates the international Convention Against Torture.)

The president's underlings got the mixed message. Bybee analyzed the relevant statutes against torture to see exactly how far the military could go in mistreating prisoners without blatant illegality. His answer was surprisingly expansive. He argued that all the applicable statutes and treaty obligations can be read in such a way as to define torture very narrowly. Bybee asserted that the president was within his legal rights to permit his military surrogates to inflict ''cruel, inhuman or degrading'' treatment on prisoners without violating strictures against torture. For an act of abuse to be considered torture, the abuser must be inflicting pain ''of such a high level of intensity that the pain is difficult for the subject to endure.'' If the abuser is doing this to get information and not merely for sadistic enjoyment, then ''even if the defendant knows that severe pain will result from his actions,'' he's not guilty of torture. Threatening to kill a prisoner is not torture; ''the threat must indicate that death is 'imminent.' '' Beating prisoners is not torture either. Bybee argues that a case of kicking an inmate in the stomach with military boots while the prisoner is in a kneeling position does not by itself rise to the level of torture.

Bybee even suggests that full-fledged torture of inmates might be legal because it could be construed as ''self-defense,'' on the grounds that ''the threat of an impending terrorist attack threatens the lives of hundreds if not thousands of American citizens.'' By that reasoning, torture could be justified almost anywhere on the battlefield of the war on terror. Only the president's discretion forbade it. These guidelines were formally repudiated by the administration the week before Gonzales's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee for confirmation as attorney general.

In this context, Rumsfeld's decision to take the gloves off in Guantánamo for six weeks makes more sense. The use of dogs to intimidate prisoners and the use of nudity for humiliation were now allowed. Although abuse was specifically employed in only two cases before Rumsfeld rescinded the order, practical precedents had been set; and the broader mixed message sent from the White House clearly reached commanders in the field. Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, in charge of the Iraq counterinsurgency, also sent out several conflicting memos with regard to the treatment of prisoners - memos that only added to the confusion as to what was permitted and what wasn't. When the general in charge of Guantánamo was sent to Abu Ghraib to help intelligence gathering, the ''migration'' of techniques (the term used in the Pentagon's Schlesinger Report) from those reserved for extreme cases in the leadership of Al Qaeda to thousands of Iraqi civilians, most of whom, according to intelligence sources, were innocent of any crime at all, was complete. Again, there is no evidence of anyone at a high level directly mandating torture or abuse, except in two cases in Gitmo. But there is growing evidence recently uncovered by the A.C.L.U. - not provided in Danner's compilation - that authorities in the F.B.I. and elsewhere were aware of abuses and did little to prevent or stop them. Then there were the vast loopholes placed in the White House torture memos, the precedents at Guantánamo, the winks and nods from Washington and the pressure of an Iraqi insurgency that few knew how to restrain. It was a combustible mix.

What's notable about the incidents of torture and abuse is first, their common features, and second, their geographical reach. No one has any reason to believe any longer that these incidents were restricted to one prison near Baghdad. They were everywhere: from Guantánamo Bay to Afghanistan, Baghdad, Basra, Ramadi and Tikrit and, for all we know, in any number of hidden jails affecting ''ghost detainees'' kept from the purview of the Red Cross. They were committed by the Marines, the Army, the Military Police, Navy Seals, reservists, Special Forces and on and on. The use of hooding was ubiquitous; the same goes for forced nudity, sexual humiliation and brutal beatings; there are examples of rape and electric shocks. Many of the abuses seem specifically tailored to humiliate Arabs and Muslims, where horror at being exposed in public is a deep cultural artifact.

Whether random bad apples had picked up these techniques from hearsay or whether these practices represented methods authorized by commanders grappling with ambiguous directions from Washington is hard to pin down from the official reports. But it is surely significant that very few abuses occurred in what the Red Cross calls ''regular internment facilities.'' Almost all took place within prisons designed to collect intelligence, including, of course, Saddam Hussein's previous torture palace at Abu Ghraib and even the former Baathist secret police office in Basra. (Who authorized the use of these particular places for a war of liberation is another mystery.) This tells us two things: that the vast majority of soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere had nothing to do with these incidents; and that the violence had a purpose. The report of the International Committee of the Red Cross says: ''Several military intelligence officers confirmed to the I.C.R.C. that it was part of the military intelligence process to hold a person deprived of his liberty naked in a completely dark and empty cell for a prolonged period to use inhumane and degrading treatment, including physical and psychological coercion.''

An e-mail message recovered by Danner from a captain in military intelligence in August 2003 reveals the officer's desire to distinguish between genuine prisoners of war and ''unlawful combatants.'' The president, of course, had endorsed that distinction in theory, although not in practice - even in Guantánamo, let alone Iraq. Somehow Bush's nuances never made it down the chain to this captain. In the message, he asked for advice from other intelligence officers on which illegal techniques work best: a ''wish list'' for interrogators. Then he wrote: ''The gloves are coming off gentlemen regarding these detainees, Col. Boltz has made it clear that we want these individuals broken.''

How do you break these people? According to the I.C.R.C., one prisoner ''alleged that he had been hooded and cuffed with flexicuffs, threatened to be tortured and killed, urinated on, kicked in the head, lower back and groin, force-fed a baseball which was tied into the mouth using a scarf and deprived of sleep for four consecutive days. Interrogators would allegedly take turns ill-treating him. When he said he would complain to the I.C.R.C. he was allegedly beaten more. An I.C.R.C. medical examination revealed hematoma in the lower back, blood in urine, sensory loss in the right hand due to tight handcuffing with flexicuffs, and a broken rib.''

Even Bybee's very narrow definition of torture would apply in this case. Here's another - not from Abu Ghraib:

A detainee ''had been hooded, handcuffed in the back, and made to lie face down, on a hot surface during transportation. This had caused severe skin burns that required three months' hospitalization. . . . He had to undergo several skin grafts, the amputation of his right index finger, and suffered . . . extensive burns over the abdomen, anterior aspects of the outer extremities, the palm of his right hand and the sole of his left foot.''

And another, in a detainee's own words: ''They threw pepper on my face and the beating started. This went on for a half hour. And then he started beating me with the chair until the chair was broken. After that they started choking me. At that time I thought I was going to die, but it's a miracle I lived. And then they started beating me again. They concentrated on beating me in my heart until they got tired from beating me. They took a little break and then they started kicking me very hard with their feet until I passed out.''

An incident uncovered by the A.C.L.U. and others was described in The Washington Post on Dec. 22. A young soldier with no training in interrogation techniques ''acknowledged forcing two men to their knees, placing bullets in their mouths, ordering them to close their eyes, and telling them they would be shot unless they answered questions about a grenade incident. He then took the bullets, and a colleague pretended to load them in the chamber of his M-16 rifle.''

These are not allegations made by antiwar journalists. They are incidents reported within the confines of the United States government. The Schlesinger panel has officially conceded, although the president has never publicly acknowledged, that American soldiers have tortured five inmates to death. Twenty-three other deaths that occurred during American custody had not been fully investigated by the time the panel issued its report in August. Some of the techniques were simply brutal, like persistent vicious beatings to unconsciousness. Others were more inventive. In April 2004, according to internal Defense Department documents recently procured by the A.C.L.U., three marines in Mahmudiya used an electric transformer, forcing a detainee to ''dance'' as the electricity coursed through him. We also now know that in Guantánamo, burning cigarettes were placed in the ears of detainees.

Here's another case from the Army's investigation into Abu Ghraib, led by Lt. Gen. Anthony R. Jones and Maj. Gen. George R. Fay:

''On another occasion DETAINEE-07 was forced to lie down while M.P.'s jumped onto his back and legs. He was beaten with a broom and a chemical light was broken and poured over his body. . . . During this abuse a police stick was used to sodomize DETAINEE-07 and two female M.P.'s were hitting him, throwing a ball at his penis, and taking photographs.''

Last December, documents obtained by the A.C.L.U. also cited an F.B.I. agent at Guantánamo Bay who observed that ''on a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18 to 24 hours or more.'' In one case, he added, ''the detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night.''

This kind of scene can also be found at Abu Ghraib: ''An 18 November 2003 photograph depicts a detainee dressed in a shirt or blanket lying on the floor with a banana inserted into his anus. This as well as several others show the same detainee covered in feces, with his hands encased in sandbags, or tied in foam and between two stretchers.'' This, apparently, was a result of self-inflicted mania, although where the mentally ill man procured a banana is not elaborated upon.

Also notable in Abu Ghraib was the despicable use of religion to humiliate. One Muslim inmate was allegedly forced to eat pork, had liquor forced down his throat and told to thank Jesus that he was alive. He recounted in broken English:

''They stripped me naked, they asked me, 'Do you pray to Allah?' I said, 'Yes.' They said 'F - - - you' and 'F - - - him.' '' Later, this inmate recounts: ''Someone else asked me, 'Do you believe in anything?' I said to him, 'I believe in Allah.' So he said, 'But I believe in torture and I will torture you.' ''

Whether we decide to call this kind of treatment ''abuse'' or some other euphemism, there is no doubt what it was in the minds of the American soldiers who perpetrated it. They believed in torture. And many believed it was sanctioned from above. According to The Washington Post, one sergeant who witnessed the torture thought Military Intelligence approved of all of it: ''The M.I. staffs, to my understanding, have been giving Graner'' - one of the chief torturers at Abu Ghraib - ''compliments on the way he has been handling the M.I. holds [prisoners held by military intelligence]. Example being statements like 'Good job, they're breaking down real fast'; 'They answer every question'; 'They're giving out good information, finally'; and 'Keep up the good work' - stuff like that.'' At Guantánamo Bay, newly released documents show that some of the torturers felt they were acting on the basis of memos sent from Washington.

Was the torture effective? The only evidence in the documents Danner has compiled that it was even the slightest bit helpful comes from the Schlesinger report. It says ''much of the information in the recently released 9/11 Commission's report, on the planning and execution of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, came from interrogation of detainees at Guantánamo and elsewhere.'' But the context makes plain that this was intelligence procured without torture. It also claims that good intelligence was received from the two sanctioned cases of expanded interrogation techniques at Guantánamo. But everything else points to the futility of the kind of brutal techniques used in Iraq and elsewhere.

Worse, there's plenty of evidence that this kind of treatment makes gathering intelligence harder. In Abu Ghraib, according to the official documents, up to 90 percent of the inmates were victims of random and crude nighttime sweeps. If these thousands of Iraqis did not sympathize with the insurgency before they came into American custody, they had good reason to thereafter. Stories of torture, of sexual humiliation, of religious mockery have become widespread in Iraq, and have been amplified by the enemy. If the best intelligence comes from persuading the indigenous population to give up information on insurgents, then the atrocities perpetrated by a tiny minority of American troops actually help the insurgency, rather than curtail it.

Who was responsible? There are various levels of accountability. But it seems unmistakable from these documents that decisions made by the president himself and the secretary of defense contributed to confusion, vagueness and disarray, which, in turn, led directly to abuse and torture. The president bears sole responsibility for ignoring Colin Powell's noble warnings. The esoteric differences between legal ''abuse'' and illegal ''torture'' and the distinction between ''prisoners of war'' and ''unlawful combatants'' were and are so vague as to make the abuse of innocents almost inevitable. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote for the majority of the Supreme Court in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld that ''the government has never provided any court with the full criteria that it uses in classifying individuals'' as enemy combatants. It is one thing to make a distinction in theory between Geneva-protected combatants and unprotected Qaeda operatives. But in the chaos of a situation like Iraq, how can you practically know the difference? When one group is designated as unworthy of humane treatment, and that group is impossible to distinguish from others, it is unsurprising that exceptions quickly become rules. The best you can say is that in an administration with a reputation for clear lines of command and clear rules of engagement, the vagueness and incompetence are the most striking features.

Worse, the president has never acknowledged the scope or the real gravity of what has taken place. His first instinct was to minimize the issue; later, his main references to it were a couple of sentences claiming that the abuses were the work of a handful of miscreants, rather than a consequence of his own decisions. But the impact of these events on domestic morale, on the morale of the vast majority of honorable soldiers in a very tough place and on the reputation of the United States in the Middle East is incalculable. The war on terror is both military and political. The president's great contribution has been to recognize that a solution is impossible without political reform in the Middle East. And yet the prevalence of brutality and inhumanity among American interrogators has robbed the United States of the high ground it desperately needs to maintain in order to win. What better weapon for Al Qaeda than the news that an inmate at Guantánamo was wrapped in the
Israeli flag or that prisoners at Abu Ghraib were raped? There is no escaping the fact that, whether he intended to or not, this president handed Al Qaeda that weapon. Sometimes a brazen declaration of toughness is actually a form of weakness. In a propaganda war for the hearts and minds of Muslims everywhere, it's simply self-defeating.

And the damage done was intensified by President Bush's refusal to discipline those who helped make this happen. A president who truly recognized the moral and strategic calamity of this failure would have fired everyone responsible. But the vice president's response to criticism of the defense secretary in the wake of Abu Ghraib was to say, ''Get off his back.'' In fact, those with real responsibility for the disaster were rewarded. Rumsfeld was kept on for the second term, while the man who warned against ignoring the Geneva Conventions, Colin Powell, was seemingly nudged out. The man who wrote a legal opinion maximizing the kind of brutal treatment that the United States could legally defend, Jay S. Bybee, was subsequently rewarded with a nomination to a federal Court of Appeals. General Sanchez and Gen. John P. Abizaid remain in their posts. Alberto R. Gonzales, who wrote memos that validated the decision to grant Geneva status to inmates solely at the president's discretion, is now nominated to the highest law enforcement job in the country: attorney general. The man who paved the way for the torture of prisoners is to be entrusted with safeguarding the civil rights of Americans. It is astonishing he has been nominated, and even more astonishing that he will almost certainly be confirmed.

But in a democracy, the responsibility is also wider. Did those of us who fought so passionately for a ruthless war against terrorists give an unwitting green light to these abuses? Were we naïve in believing that characterizing complex conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq as a single simple war against ''evil'' might not filter down and lead to decisions that could dehumanize the enemy and lead to abuse? Did our conviction of our own rightness in this struggle make it hard for us to acknowledge when that good cause had become endangered? I fear the answer to each of these questions is yes.

American political polarization also contributed. Most of those who made the most fuss about these incidents - like Mark Danner or Seymour Hersh - were dedicated opponents of the war in the first place, and were eager to use this scandal to promote their agendas. Advocates of the war, especially those allied with the administration, kept relatively quiet, or attempted to belittle what had gone on, or made facile arguments that such things always occur in wartime. But it seems to me that those of us who are most committed to the Iraq intervention should be the most vociferous in highlighting these excrescences. Getting rid of this cancer within the system is essential to winning this war.

I'm not saying that those who unwittingly made this torture possible are as guilty as those who inflicted it. I am saying that when the results are this horrifying, it's worth a thorough reassessment of rhetoric and war methods. Perhaps the saddest evidence of our communal denial in this respect was the election campaign. The fact that American soldiers were guilty of torturing inmates to death barely came up. It went unmentioned in every one of the three presidential debates. John F. Kerry, the ''heroic'' protester of Vietnam, ducked the issue out of what? Fear? Ignorance? Or a belief that the American public ultimately did not care, that the consequences of seeming to criticize the conduct of troops would be more of an electoral liability than holding a president accountable for enabling the torture of innocents? I fear it was the last of these. Worse, I fear he may have been right.

US Legislation to Support: Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act

Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joe Lieberman (D-CT) have introduced the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act.

If you are a US voter who is concerned about Global Climate Change, which I think you should be, this is a good time to contact your own Senator and urge them to support this bill.

Creative Startup Business: Elekson - Electric Fabrics

The May 25th article on CNET News.com, by Michael Kanellos, Start-up promotes electric clothes, backpacks is worth a read.

Helladeck: The Musical

My son, Daniel, who is a student at Oberlin College, played an essential role as music director, keyboardist, and assistant director when the original musical comedy "Helladeck! The Musical" was presented in November 2004.




A studio recording of the music is in preparation. Daniel was kind enough to let me post a 69 second recording of one of the songs, Bake Sale. The Music was composed by Melanie Closs; Lyrics by Charlie Sohne;
performed by Miriam Drapkin, Rachel Jacobs, Jess Ingram-Bee,
Melanie Closs, Charlie Sohne. Recording produced by Kevin Alexander.

TorahCurrents online

My cousin, Eli Kavon, has contributed several thought-provoking mini-essays to TorahCurrents. If you are looking for content about how Jewish tradition may impact with real-world modern political and cultural issues, this site is worth a look.

Film: Watermarks by Yaron Zilberman

Watermarks (2004, Kino International w/Cinemax-HBO, 84 minutes) is a fabulous film. Director Yaron Zilberman locates eight women in their 80s who were part of the exclusively-Jewish HaKoach Swimming Club in Vienna in the 1930s, which had mamy of Austria's and some of the world's most talented women swimmers, and who now live in Israel, England and the U.S. He asks them what they remember from their youth. He invites them to a reunion back at the pool in Vienna where they used to practice, but they are not sure if they want to go.

As the swimmers talk to him about their memories, show him photos, and share the direct honest communication that is the hallmark of elders who have grappled with some of deepest tragedies of the 20th century, and who have lived in multiple cultures, the film segways between scenes shot in the present and film shot in the 1930s cover many universal issues. We see them grapple with how much to share with a younger generation. This is a great film!

Public Affairs Documentary Videos on PBS: FRONTLINE

For 20 years, WGBH television in Boston has been commissioning an excellent series of investigative documentaries on public affairs, as part of its series FRONTLINE. Now some of these shows can be viewed in streaming mode over the Internet.
See FRONTLINE on the Web.

Film: It's About Time by Eilona Ariel and Ayelet Menahemi

In Israel, Jewish time coexists with secular time, and a storied past confronts an uncertain future. It adds up to Israeli time, the subject of this delightful documentary in which dozens of diverse voices combine to create a superbly crafted, funny, and ultimately profound mosaic.
Karuna Films. 2001. 55 min. Israel, in Hebrew with subtitles. See Karnua Films.

Film: Turn Left At The End of The World by Avi Nesher

              




Avi Nesher's Israeli-blockbuster-film "Sof HaOlam Smola" (2004) (which has also screened in France as "Au Bout Du Monde A Gauche" and is now touring U.S. Jewish Film festivals as "Turn Left At The End of the World" is an extraordinary film.

It is set in a Negev Desert Development Town in 1968, where immigrants from Morocco from the 50s find new immigrants from India arriving to live across the road from them.

The story is full of quirky and comic and neurotic characters, trying to navigate the unplanned-for frustrations, setbacks, temptations, insecurities and culture shock attendant upon the life of immigrants in a remote place, and speaking in Hindi, English, Arabic, French and Hebrew.

There are many interwoven stories in the film, but it pivots around two 17-year-old girls and their parents. One is Sarah, from India, played by Liraz Charchi, who on her first day in town meets Nicole, from a Moroccan family, played in an amazing performance by Neta Gerti. (This was their first feature film for each actress). They are tempermentally and culturely very different, but are drawn to each other. It is their stormy friendship, and their coming of age story, which is the central narrative. Very highly recommended. See Sof HaOlam Smola.

I was fortunate to see this with Director and Co-Writer Nesher discussing the film after it was shown. Nesher has produced and directed in Hollywood and in Israel many times, and spent some of his teenage years as an Israeli immigrant in New York City. While conceptualizing the film, he met with nearly 800 people who had lived in these Negev development towns to research the story, and then shot the film in a very tense 8-week period as the American-led War in Iraq began in March and April 2003, unsure if their set outside the town of Dimona would be the target of Iraqi Scud missiles. His cast of actors came from France and India as well as Israel.

Negotiations are underway with American Distributors and this may get to release to general Art Movie Houses in the future.

Flying lanterns light up skies, make record books

Interesting report from China Daily: Kongming Lantern Festival made it into the Guinness Book of World Records after the weekend of November 22, 2004, when 1,888 flying lanterns were released into the night skies over the city of Wanning in Hainan.

The event, also known as the Sky Lantern Festival is held annually, and dates back to the Three-Kingdoms period (220-280 AD). One of the famous prime ministers of that period, Zhu Geliang, who is called Kong Ming, invented the flying lantern for use in military communications.

Similar to the fire balloon, the lantern remains airborne as long as its
flame continues to burn.

Book: The Post-Truth Era: Dishonesty and Deception in Everyday Life by Ralph Keyes

Ralph Keyes has a written a book that goes through many sectors of society: business, politics, literature, academia, entertainmnet... and recounts how often respected and secure participants have lied about their past. Making the case that culture has changed so that people who lie no longer feel that they are violating a moral or social agreement, he argues persuasively that the cost to society, and to those who habitually "spin" with respect to their own self-esteem, is large. An important and disturbing book. See The Post-Truth Era.

Book: The Price of Loyalty: George W Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill

Ron Suskind's book, written with and about former US Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O'Neill, provides insight into how President George W. Bush does and does not engage with the issues, does and does not engage with his cabinet members, and does and does not engage with his political team. It is a fascinating insider account, and now very timely because O'Neill, along with Alan Greenspan, were attempting to make the case for some reforms of US Social Security but based on US Government fiscal discipline; a discipline which was totally undermined by irresponsible tax cuts simultaneous to a hugely expensive military engagement in Iraq. See The Price of Loyalty.

Book: Defending Israel by Martin Van Creveld

Martin Van Creveld is a professor of history, focusing on military strategy, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In this 2004 volume (Thomas Dunne Books, ISBN 0-312-32866-4, 188 pages), he makes the case, based on military needs, for Israel to do three things.

First, to construct a barrier wall along the Green Line between pre-1967 Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

Second, for the Israeli military to deploy some forces that need to be at a distance from enemy terroritory at sea, in the Mediteranean.

Third, for Israel to withdraw completely from Gaza and from the West Bank.

The book also discusses Weapons of Mass Destruction and their role in the region, why Israel can survive without water resources from the West Bank, using high-technology sensors and electronics in defense, and numerous other specific concerns.

Film Worth Seeing - What the Bleep Do We Know?

How would you make a film about big topics: What is reality? What is consciousness? How is the mind and body connected? What powers do human's have that most of us are trained, because of the civilization we live in, to ignore? How does memory affect attention and perceiption?

You could have interviews with people (science commentators, philosophers, theologians) who are writing provocative books about these subjects. You could use computer animations to illustrate things (like neurons) at the scale that we normally do not see them. Or you could follow a week in the life of a typical anxiety-ridden American worker!

Or you could blend all three of these in a creative collage/narrative, which is what filmmakers William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vincente did, and the result is one of the most unique films of recent years. There isn't a single focused point of view about the big question in these films, but there is a "field" in the set of views that goes "below the surface" of everyday person-to-person and person-to-world interaction. See http://www.whatthebleep.com or watch the trailer, (2 minutes 10 seconds) at
http://www.whatthebleep.com/trailer/alt.trailer.wm.high.html