Home of the Brave, not the Bailout

    

I, the undersigned, oppose a government (a.k.a. taxpayer funded) bailout of the financial and automotive industries.
 
A bailout would:
 
1. Tax the struggling private sector.
2. Reward irresponsibility and decades of bad planning.
3. Penalize innovators by taking private capital away from new ideas that could give rise to fresh economic opportunities.
4. Serve special interests.
5. Be a “quick fix” – ultimately less effective than filing for bankruptcy, which would force these companies to focus, reorganize, and innovate.
6. Bankrupt taxpayers instead.
7. Precipitate a dangerous reliance on government for bailouts, handouts, and protection from customer-driven change.
 
Change is not merely a political notion. It is an economic necessity. By bailing out industry, our government sends a signal: We fear change. We cannot cope. We can’t adapt.
 
America – Land of the Free – can and will roll with the punches. We have the courage to acknowledge our failures and learn from them. We seek adventure, entering new markets engineered by strong minds.
 
May we forever be the Home of the Brave, not the bailout.
 
Signed: 

Please cut, paste, and sign the above letter and send it to your Congressmen. For easy access to their contact information, including emails, please click on this link:

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

If the site asks for your 9-digit zip code (but you know only the first 5 digits), just click on this link for easy access:

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

Each letter received is considered representative of 100 voices. 

Thank you for your grassroots commitment to the country! Let’s stay connected. Sincerely, Ruth

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Under Fire on the Homefront

     I am folding laundry in a war zone. Bullets are whizzing past my clean pajamas. Battle cries drown out music from my iPhone while a stampede of rowdy soldiers nearly overturns a basket of washed clothing.
     God, this is heaven. Well, not heaven but war, at least, is not Wii. And remember: It’s pretend.
     I’m surviving a six-kid play date: five boys, one girl, ages 7-10. They’re running around my tiny house with guns and swords and Tinker Toys. Bedrooms have become enemy bases and conventional toys have become very unconventional weapons: high-grade Lincoln Log lasers.
     The Wii, I’m relieved to say, stands alone. Dark, silent, unused, thank God. Indiana Jones, Mario, and such other modern distractions have given way to what my generation called fun: noise and physical action.
     Six kids are running around my house. One kid knocks over the cat bowl. Water mixes with meaty pebbles but I don’t care. Today, a Friday, we’re starting the weekend. Not a Wiikend. Bring on the troops!
     Should I call a truce? Beg for “indoor voices?” Should I lecture my kids on the virtues of non-violence? Hell no…
     As I suspected, their war mongering has just given way to Lego’s, and now they’re building a mini-society with real tangible toys. They’re saying things like: “Come to my store!” ”I’ll help build your house.” And “Let’s build a skyscraper to the ceiling and beyond!” Savagery has given way to civilization.
     Once in a while, try saying no to Wii – the drug, the silencer. You might have to survive a short-term war of youthful exuberance, but ultimately your kids will build their own world. A real world. Not a Wii world.
     Fold your laundry and let them go for it.

Heads in the Sand at 12,000 Feet

     From what I’ve read about the man, Peter Clyne was not naive. An expert in international law and a self-described adventurer, Clyne took on the added challenge of tax-dodging, executing a lifetime of strategic relocations throughout Europe and Africa to avoid paying up.

     Imperfect perhaps, but Peter Clyne was not naive as evidenced by his book, “An Anatomy of a Skyjacking,” published in 1973. I did a double-take when I read that date of publication: 1973.

     If you were born in the late 1960s or thereafter, you might have thought that serious sky crimes started with 9-11. You might have assumed the world was caught off-guard as, indeed, it was. But it shouldn’t have been.

     Air terrorism dates at least as far back as the 1940s. In his book, Clyne includes a chart of Aerial Piracy from 1948 to 1972. From 1948-1957, there were a total of 15 aerial piracy attempts, 13 of which were successful. The number of attempts spiked to 82 (70 successful) in 1969 and continued (albeit less frequently) into the 1970s.

     Air terrorism: Something new? Only in the eyes of the naive and misinformed.

     Precautions taken by airliners (with the exception of El Al) have been woefully inadequate. A world with prior warning rested on the tarmac while terrorists let their twisted imaginations soar. We fastened our seat-belts, a symbol of false security. They, in the meantime, devised ways of knocking us out of the nest we created for ourselves.

     And yet, there are still people cursing airport queues and security checks. They balk at removing their shoes, as if someone’s stinky socks are more lethal than plastic incendiaries at 12,000 feet. To the grumbler, to the media that faithfully airs the grumbler’s beef, and to all travelers who believe air terrorism is a new thing and possibly a passing craze, Peter Clyne would most likely wink and say: I told you so.

     In a chilling chapter of his book, Clyne writes: “Sooner or later a group of passengers will hear the usual call at London’s Heathrow Airport. You may be one of them. You will stroll through passport control, pick up a bottle of duty-free perfume and wander onto your plane … Within forty-five minutes you will be dead, and your body will be drifting towards the Channel in very small fragments. You will die on that afternoon because someone who was desperate or insane was allowed to walk onto that plane with a gun and a hand-grenade, or because the quiet little man walking just ahead of you is a terrorist, and his luggage contains a bomb. You will die because nothing whatever was done to protect you.”

     Is enough being done to protect us today? Are you doing enough to protect yourself?

     In an uncharastically naive stab at a solution, Clyne recommends an international Air Crimes Commission that would set world standards for flight safety and the punishment of air crimes. For all his foresight, Clyne (who died several years ago) apparently didn’t predict how fragmented the international community would become in its attitude toward terrorists. My recommendation: Let the talking heads of polarized nations discuss the inhumanity of profiling and the wisdom of appeasing the enemy. In fact, while they debate over who that enemy actually is, the terrorists or western culture, I advise right-minded, life-loving individuals to take security into their own hands.

     Profile — and do it guiltlessly. Look for nervous people, keep an eye out for perspiration, seek fidgeters, and look everyone in the eye. Stare if you must, and report anything suspicious to the flight crew. If speaking up causes many costly delays, all the better! Our world “leaders” are a lost cause, but maybe airlines will finally figure it out: Taking the proper security precautions makes dollars and sense.

Wallace Just Wants to Have Fuh-hun; Mike Just Wants to Have Fun.

    Mike, Mike … We know it’s great sport asking world leaders about their hobbies, kids, and taste in clothes. But why waste a breath on the fun stuff when people’s lives are at stake? For the benefit of life-loving inhabitants of Planet Earth, you might have asked Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about his role in the Office for Strengthening of Unity (OSU), ”which played a central role in the seizure of the United States embassy in Tehran in November 1979,” according to the non-profit group Iran Focus.

     (See: http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=2605)

     During a radio interview prior to your foolish appearance on “60 Minutes” last Sunday, you mentioned the reams of material you’d been reading. Did your homework include Ahmadinejad’s reputation for being a “ruthless interrogator and torturer?” Did you raise this minor issue with Mr. Ahmadinejad during the interview?

     No Mike, you did not. Instead, your feeble preparations gave the torturer plenty of air time to complain about President George W. Bush and the alleged war-mongering ways of his administration. An accomplice to Ahmadinejad’s hypocrisy, you let him whine of western “outrages” like Abu Ghraib. A competent journalist without extreme left-wing political leanings would have reminded Mr. Ahmadinejad of his own experience with abuse, torture, and terror. But Mike, alas, you passsed on the chance en lieu of proving that you and Mahmoud could share a distaste for all things Bush.

     Smiles. You and Ahmadinejad let your pearly whites sparkle for viewers worldwide. The camera focused on your smiles as if to imply that smiles are key to Middle East peace. Thankfully, some reporters are more committed to reality.

     Iran Watch notes the following, which you sadly did not. “According to the state-run website Baztab, allies of outgoing President Mohammad Khatami have revealed that Ahmadinejad worked for some time as an executioner in the notorious Evin Prison, where thousands of political prisoners were executed in the bloody purges of the 1980s.”

     But nevermind, Mike Wallace. Let’s talk about hobbies. You know, the fun stuff.

      

ABC News International is Biased

     The headlines said it all … about ABC News, not about what happened.

     Yesterday, an internationally syndicated report by Steven R. Hurst titled “Rockets Hit Lebanon Despite Cease-fire” devoted its first paragraph to describing tens of thousands of Lebanese navigating their way back home amid rubble and roadblocks, the aftermath of Israeli military attacks. In the second paragraph, ABC explained its incriminating headline: The rockets hitting Lebanon were launched by Hezbollah, not Israel (as the headline implied). Need I say more, or has ABC revealed enough about itself and its inclinations?

     Since first appearing, that report has been published on many Internet news sites, often without the after-thought of a gray, half-tone subhead appearing below the dominant ABC headline in bold black type. Perhaps the media are banking on lies to fire up their readership. The more blatant the distortion, the more people are apt to read the piece. If so, I’ll admit: I fell for their twisted ploy.

A Letter to Mr. Wallace and his Ego

         Mr. Wallace, have you no shame? Perhaps you’ve lived a life of it, and perhaps your compromised psyche helps you scoff at the freedoms I treasure, freedoms for which my countrymen and women have died and are dying, freedoms my grandmother and mother risked their lives to embrace here in our beloved “so-called free world.” Have you no appreciation of these freedoms? Obviously not. For if you did, you would have asked Mr. Ahmadinejad’s detractors for an interview too. In the name of Iran’s so-called free press, why didn’t we hear from them?

     You have done your country a grave disservice. You have portrayed a madman as a normal guy. You, in fact, are his dutiful marketing tool. My only hope is that Americans prove smarter and more grateful than you. Then, perhaps, this “so-called free world” will survive the so-called normal guy you pride yourself on interviewing. Hats off to you and your so-called achievement. I stand in so-called awe.

Why We’ll Go …

     Jews of California’s South Bay will be attending an “Israel Action Day” today at the Los Gatos Jewish Community Center. The goals are Security, Peace, and Solidarity. I doubt there will be any flag burning. I’m guessing slogans will sound nothing like Islamic vitriol against Jews, Israel, and Zionism. Albeit disappointing to the media, there will be no convenient sound-bites such as those heard at Islamic rallies: “Jews are our dogs. Jews go home. Death to Israel. Death to America.”

     The gathering will be productive, not destructive. People in attendance will write letters to Congress, make friendship bracelets for Israeli children in shelters, listen to speeches and learn. Indeed, the greater American public has something important to learn as well:

     If Jewish gatherings are smaller than Muslim gatherings it is because we Jews must weigh our participation in these events against the chance of a terrorist attack on our congregations. As the media drones on about how “the life of Muslim Americans has become increasingly difficult since 9-11,” it fails to note the silent anxiety of Jews attending religious events, participating in community gatherings, and sending their children to Jewish schools.

     I don’t recall hearing much follow-up on the murder of Pamela Waechter at the JCC in Seattle last month. Has the media extended its sympathy to Jews whose lives have become increasingly scary this summer? Nay, the life of a Jew has always been risky, and for that perhaps there’s no new news.

     To borrow a child’s simple sentiment, I’ll state the obvious: It’s just not fair.

     Why should anti-democratic people who espouse the eviction of Jews from Israel, demonstrate without fear while Jews demonstrating peacefully must worry about the wrath of their opponents? That very injustice is why my family and I will attend the JCC’s event this afternoon. I believe American Jews must make a point: We won’t give in to people who embody the antithesis of our values, which are pro-democratic, pro-free speech, and pro-peace.

     Americans who don’t understand this would do well to examine their own values.

     Many demonstrators for Hezbollah and Islam are exploiting their right to free speech, a right they don’t cherish in a democracy they don’t support. Doesn’t the broader American population feel outraged, at the very least insulted? America, of course, allows for free speech and protects free speech, as it should. Why aren’t we speaking up for ourselves? Speaking up for ourselves means standing up to them, exposing them for who they are, and repudiating the propaganda they’ve successfully fed the ignorant public for years. 

     America: Hello and wake up. If you want to beat the enemy that wants to beat you, face your fears, take pride in your right to free speech, and speak out.

ABC Radio News is Biased

     Over the weekend (8/6/06): ABC radio news reported that the Israeli military was trying something ”new” when it dropped leaflets into a Beruit suburb in order to warn civilians to evacuate prior to another Israeli air strike.

     I heard this report while driving and nearly slammed on the brakes in disgust. New? NEW? Israel has been warning civilian populations for years prior to “offensives” that are unfortunately necessitated by enemy agression. These warnings come despite the fact that “civilians” are often indistinguishable from terrorists and/or are being held hostage by terrorists, who use innocents as human shields and press fodder.

     Israel issues warnings of impending strikes because it cares about innocent lives. What other military in the world compromises its efficacy and the safety of its soldiers in order to save lives across enemy lines? Does Hamas? Does Hezbollah? 

     No one warns 20-something Israeli kids to evacuate dance clubs before suicide bombers stroll inside with bombs full of metal pellets hidden under overcoats or in knapsacks. There are no leaflets distributed on public buses prior to the detonation of explosives that maim and kill scores of Israeli men, women and children. Has anyone even politely asked Hezbollah to warn the general population of katusha rocket attacks?

     Of course not. 

     Yet, ABC had the audacity to broadcast Israel’s leaflets as a NEW tactic. Is it ignorance or anti-Israel bias? Sadly, it’s an all-out attack on the truth.

From Ramat Gan, Israel to Readers Back Home

by Ruth Littmann Ashkenazi  

  Many things in life seem to come from out of the blue, like missiles pummeling Israel. I ask Israelis what they make of the current situation and they shake their heads mournfully. "We're used to it. We're accustomed to worse," they tell me. Nevertheless, it's hard to square bombs with the scene of children splashing, laughing, and running around the water park where I am sitting right now.
  The park, located about eight miles north of Tel Aviv and 60 miles south of Haifa, reverberates with music, the gushing of fountains, and happy shrieks of day campers, dripping wet and excited. One barely stops to wonder if, above the cacophony of summer fun, the wail of an emergency siren could even be heard.
  There's no bomb shelter here. Even if there were, it certainly wouldn't be large enough to accommodate 1,000 youth. So tell me: How responsible is a mother like me, who brings her young kids to a place like this, at a time like this, on a day when something evil could literally fall from the clear and benevolent, utterly perfect blue sky?
  Then again, how much safer would we be in my father in-law's eleventh story apartment, in a car or in a grocery store, for that matter? This isn't a nation of shelter-dwellers, notwithstanding the fact that one-sixth of its population has fled the North or sought refuge in reinforced rooms, some underground. This is a nation of people who've learned to live normal lives in spite of life-threatening risks.
  I was dumbstruck yet awe-inspired by a little boy, who appeared on the Israeli network news when the bombing began. "I'm not proud of it, but I'll admit I'm afraid," he said from his home near the Israel/Lebanon border. The boy certainly didn't appear frightened. He spoke slowly and calmly to the camera. Only when the camera focused on his hands did I understand the depth of his anxiety. Clenched and white at the knuckles, his fingers were kneading an invisible ball of nerves, belying his young poker face.
  As for my own 7-year-old and 5-year-old boys here in metropolitan Tel Aviv, they're aware but seem unafraid. From time to time, I get a matter-of-fact inquiry.
  "Mommy, what happens if a missile hits our building?" my younger one has asked.
  "Not likely to happen," I say with a grin. "Don't worry about it."
  But in private, I tell my unflappable Israeli husband that investigating all options is the only responsible track to take. I call the airlines, all of them. Flights are tightly booked or cost $3,780 dollars a seat. I'm not that nervous. Not yet, at least.
  Yesterday, 7/20/06: We arrive to my brother in-law's wedding.  It is being held just outside of the city of Rehovot in an oasis of palm trees, green grass and brightly colored bougainvilleas. Illumined by candles flickering behind white mesh, the venue offers the ultimate in tropical romance and tranquility, but the supersonic fighter jets in the evening skies remind us that all is far from tranquil. An armed guard with a hand-held metal detector checks purses, bags, and people for weapons. Israeli law requires guards to be stationed at coffee shops, restaurants, pubs, wedding halls -- yet another sad reminder that terror often strikes at the happiest of times.
  At the wedding, it's clear from people's demeanors who has made the precarious journey from Haifa and further North. Those who have sat in shelters for more than a week appear pale and wide-eyed among the laughing and dancing Tel Avivians. I greet Rachel, a family member from a northern kibbutz. Just two weeks ago, she entertained my family to a veritable feast in her garden. Usually bubbly and upbeat, Rachel arrives at the wedding in despair. Hezbollah rockets are pounding her area non-stop. Her family can't eat. They can't sleep. Every missile attack feels closer.
  "You can't really understand unless you're there," she tells me.
  I spot more family members, hailing from a different kibbutz in the North. Two weeks ago, we celebrated their 13-year-old daughter's Bat Mitzvah with sumptuous food and a party. That seems like a million years ago. At the wedding, the 13-year-old and her sisters are subdued. Her younger sister, Ziv, gazes at the dance floor, where still younger children run after colorful lights beamed down to the floor from the ceiling.
  "Looks like fun," I comment.
  She nods her head in agreement, clearly longing to let loose for a while.
  Her father speaks of venturing outside of the shelter at noon each day to water his lawn, and each day he plans his escape. If a missile should be coming toward him, where would he go? Needless to say, there's no need to ask. If a missile were coming toward him, it would be too late.
  It's already too late for a lot of things and for many people who've lost their lives or loved ones. Rachel, from the North, has asked me to tell people back home what she and those around her are going through. It's no exaggeration to say that at any moment it might be too late for them to tell the story themselves. I promise Rachel to e-mail friends, family, and newspapers, too. When I turn back to the dance floor, I see little Ziv running after the brilliant blue lights beaming down from above. Many things in life seem to come from out of the blue. How I wish that peace were one of them.