Creating Illusion

Yesterday while awaiting the "blizzard" of 2009", Laura and I went to see the new Bob Marshall film, Nine.

You may have seen this musical theater piece on Broadway distinguished by several memorable songs, great dancing and based on the Italian film maker Federico Fellini's life and times.

Bob Marshall also directed the film version of Chicago a few years back and his work is wonderfully clear.

The story line deals with Fellini creating the world of The Italians as he wanted people to imagine they were; not who they truly were in the 1950s. Fellini wanted the world to see the Italians as glamorous, sexy, amorous and above the mores of morality of the time. Fellini in fact was a tortured, abused, selfish, creative genius(funny how often those words are attached to the term creative genius)who failed at all the female relationships he had. He was at the same time adored, forgiven, tolerated, and pampered by all of the women in his life. Most of them simultaneously!

Like Fellini, Marshall creates a wold of illusion. An illusion within the illusion. How? By casting some of the most beautiful women in the Hollywood genre, and this is the illusion, who are actresses and not musical theater people.

Judy Dench pulls it off because of the material she has to work with. She also carries the story line along with Daniel Day Lewis who is superb. And then, Sophia Loren, well, playing Sophia Loren: several close ups, a bit of dialogue, charming but beneath the dignity of an 80 year old super star. No one else can sing, some look like they can dance but all in all not up to the demands of musical theater.

Why, one could ask, bother to direct beautifully, choreograph superbly, shoot film perfectly, costume people handsomely and do it with people who can not sing and dance?

Think if the likes of Donna Murphy, Chita Rivera(in the role of his mother), Kelly O'Hara, Audra Mc Donald, and even Karen Akers(from the original cast)had the major roles. They can all sing, dance and act.

So Marshall and Harvey Weinstein went with the box office draws($)instead of musical theater talent asking those they did cast to create the illusion that they have musical theater talent!! Ludicrous.

Go to see and let me know what you think.

Inconvenient Truth?

We all know the term climate change. We also know that there is a debate underway as to whether it is real or not. To date it seems it is being acknowledged as real.

A November 24,2009 Wall Street Journal piece sheds some concerning light on the subject, the organizations and the scientists involved.

Who can we trust folks?

Please read the following WSJ piece and let me know what you think.



"The two MMs have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a Freedom of Information Act now in the U.K., I think I'll delete the file rather than send to anyone. . . . We also have a data protection act, which I will hide behind."

So apparently wrote Phil Jones, director of the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) and one of the world's leading climate scientists, in a 2005 email to "Mike." Judging by the email thread, this refers to Michael Mann, director of the Pennsylvania State University's Earth System Science Center. We found this nugget among the more than 3,000 emails and documents released last week after CRU's servers were hacked and messages among some of the world's most influential climatologists were published on the Internet.

The "two MMs" are almost certainly Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick, two Canadians who have devoted years to seeking the raw data and codes used in climate graphs and models, then fact-checking the published conclusions—a painstaking task that strikes us as a public and scientific service. Mr. Jones did not return requests for comment and the university said it could not confirm that all the emails were authentic, though it acknowledged its servers were hacked.

Yet even a partial review of the emails is highly illuminating. In them, scientists appear to urge each other to present a "unified" view on the theory of man-made climate change while discussing the importance of the "common cause"; to advise each other on how to smooth over data so as not to compromise the favored hypothesis; to discuss ways to keep opposing views out of leading journals; and to give tips on how to "hide the decline" of temperature in certain inconvenient data.

View Full Image

Associated Press
A satellite image of Tropical Storm Ida. Some climate researchers claim that an increase in tropical storms is proof of anthropogenic climate change.
Some of those mentioned in the emails have responded to our requests for comment by saying they must first chat with their lawyers. Others have offered legal threats and personal invective. Still others have said nothing at all. Those who have responded have insisted that the emails reveal nothing more than trivial data discrepancies and procedural debates.

Yet all of these nonresponses manage to underscore what may be the most revealing truth: That these scientists feel the public doesn't have a right to know the basis for their climate-change predictions, even as their governments prepare staggeringly expensive legislation in response to them.

Consider the following note that appears to have been sent by Mr. Jones to Mr. Mann in May 2008: "Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. . . . Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same?" AR4 is shorthand for the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change's (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report, presented in 2007 as the consensus view on how bad man-made climate change has supposedly become.

Read a Selection of the Emails

Climate Science and Candor

In another email that seems to have been sent in September 2007 to Eugene Wahl of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Paleoclimatology Program and to Caspar Ammann of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Climate and Global Dynamics Division, Mr. Jones writes: "[T]ry and change the Received date! Don't give those skeptics something to amuse themselves with."

When deleting, doctoring or withholding information didn't work, Mr. Jones suggested an alternative in an August 2008 email to Gavin Schmidt of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, copied to Mr. Mann. "The FOI [Freedom of Information] line we're all using is this," he wrote. "IPCC is exempt from any countries FOI—the skeptics have been told this. Even though we . . . possibly hold relevant info the IPCC is not part of our remit (mission statement, aims etc) therefore we don't have an obligation to pass it on."

It also seems Mr. Mann and his friends weren't averse to blacklisting scientists who disputed some of their contentions, or journals that published their work. "I think we have to stop considering 'Climate Research' as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal," goes one email, apparently written by Mr. Mann to several recipients in March 2003. "Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers in, this journal."

Mr. Mann's main beef was that the journal had published several articles challenging aspects of the anthropogenic theory of global warming.

For the record, when we've asked Mr. Mann in the past about the charge that he and his colleagues suppress opposing views, he has said he "won't dignify that question with a response." Regarding our most recent queries about the hacked emails, he says he "did not manipulate any data in any conceivable way," but he otherwise refuses to answer specific questions. For the record, too, our purpose isn't to gainsay the probity of Mr. Mann's work, much less his right to remain silent.

However, we do now have hundreds of emails that give every appearance of testifying to concerted and coordinated efforts by leading climatologists to fit the data to their conclusions while attempting to silence and discredit their critics. In the department of inconvenient truths, this one surely deserves a closer look by the media, the U.S. Congress and other investigative bodies.

Should We Be Worried about Islam?

If you listen there is a debate going on: Is Islam a mainstream religion with millions of peace loving believers, or, is it a violent political movement determined to rule the world under Sharia law?

Some say the religion has been hijacked by extremists. Some say that, regardless, the core values preach, even demand, spreading Islamic beliefs at all costs in any way possible.

Some suggest that simply through immigration Europe will continue to absorb an ever-growing Muslim population who choose not to integrate into the host societies and even lobby for Sharia rule rather than host-nation rule in their isolated communities.

It is estimated that there are upwards of 13 million Muslims in the European Union: 5 million in France, 3 million in Germany, 1.6 million in the UK and 1 million in Spain. Some individual cities in these countries have a 20% Muslim population-Marseilles, France and Rotterdam.

All, by the way, invited or allowed in as workers to do the jobs the indigenous people no longer wish to do. There is a more cynical view as to how and why the populations are growing in Europe which Bruce Bawer explains in his book, While Europe Slept.

While this may sound similar to the U.S undocumented worker problem, those folks hope to be documented and to become a part of the American dream.

Most countries, including the U.S., are very cautious less any one is offended in dealing with religious and cultural issues around Islam. Interesting to see the NY Times, the BBC as well as other main stream media carefully choose words and opinions that are Politically Correct, non-racist, multi culture prone and often leave the reader or listener wondering why is the tail wagging the dog here?

If Muslim assimilation into host cultures, where religion is kept out of government, is not acceptable or contrary to Islamic doctrine, the question is whether the spread of Islam and Sharia law by peaceful means(immigration) undermines the cultures of Europe and the U.S.

I have recommended in past blogs that we each do our own research in many areas to determine fact from fiction.

In this case I suggest it is imperative that one understand what is going on and whether we are threatened. I recommend two books by Bruce Bawer: While Europe Slept and his latest, Surrender. There are several books written by current Islamic scholars: Malise Ruthven, Christopher Caldwell and Tariq Ramadan to name a few that I am reading to get the Islamic's side of this story. I shall recommend them in a later blog after I have read them.

Mean time, you may wish to Google these writers to begin your own research.

If you have not read Tom Friedman in Sunday's NYTimes, you may wish to start with his column that is reproduced below.

OP-ED COLUMNIST
America vs. The Narrative


By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: November 28, 2009
What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?

Here’s my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is. But the more you read about his support for Muslim suicide bombers, about how he showed up at a public-health seminar with a PowerPoint presentation titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam,” and about his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni cleric famous for using the Web to support jihadist violence against America — the more it seems that Major Hasan was just another angry jihadist spurred to action by “The Narrative.”

What is scary is that even though he was born, raised and educated in America, The Narrative still got to him.

The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books — and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes — this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand “American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy” to keep Muslims down.

Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny — in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan — a narrative that says America is dedicated to keeping Muslims down is thriving.

Although most of the Muslims being killed today are being killed by jihadist suicide bombers in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, you’d never know it from listening to their world. The dominant narrative there is that 9/11 was a kind of fraud: America’s unprovoked onslaught on Islam is the real story, and the Muslims are the real victims — of U.S. perfidy.

Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes — the Taliban and the Baathists — and to work with Afghans and Iraqis to build a different kind of politics. In the process, we did some stupid and bad things. But for every Abu Ghraib, our soldiers and diplomats perpetrated a million acts of kindness aimed at giving Arabs and Muslims a better chance to succeed with modernity and to elect their own leaders.

The Narrative was concocted by jihadists to obscure that.

It’s working. As a Jordanian-born counterterrorism expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said to me: “This narrative is now omnipresent in Arab and Muslim communities in the region and in migrant communities around the world. These communities are bombarded with this narrative in huge doses and on a daily basis. [It says] the West, and right now mostly the U.S. and Israel, is single-handedly and completely responsible for all the grievances of the Arab and the Muslim worlds. Ironically, the vast majority of the media outlets targeting these communities are Arab-government owned — mostly from the Gulf.”

This narrative suits Arab governments. It allows them to deflect onto America all of their people’s grievances over why their countries are falling behind. And it suits Al Qaeda, which doesn’t need much organization anymore — just push out The Narrative over the Web and satellite TV, let it heat up humiliated, frustrated or socially alienated Muslim males, and one or two will open fire on their own. See: Major Hasan.

“Liberal Arabs like me are as angry as a terrorist and as determined to change the status quo,” said my Jordanian friend. The only difference “is that while we choose education, knowledge and success to bring about change, a terrorist, having bought into the narrative, has a sense of powerlessness and helplessness, which are inculcated in us from childhood, that lead him to believe that there is only one way, and that is violence.”

What to do? Many Arab Muslims know that what ails their societies is more than the West, and that The Narrative is just an escape from looking honestly at themselves. But none of their leaders dare or care to open that discussion. In his Cairo speech last June, President Obama effectively built a connection with the Muslim mainstream. Maybe he could spark the debate by asking that same audience this question:

“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.

The Tuna Fish Sauce

Well, Thanksgiving is over, we may have eaten too much or just enough and now we move toward the Chanukah, Christmas, New Year celebrations with more drink, food and company. At the end of the day, it is really about being with people we may love but hopefully at least like.

Some thoughts for us to consider to make the holidays personal:

Let's give something meaningful to each other that is not "just bought". Perhaps a treasured book, scarf, piece of jewelry, art work or CD.

Cook a meal for some one(s)especially to honor your friendship.

Offer to relieve someone of a task for some period: caring for an elder, walking a dog, washing windows, do the laundry.

Make a gift. Try baking. It is easy if you follow easy recipes.

Arrange to visit the recipient to spend several hours over time reading from a favorite book of poems, or a classic novel.

Arrange a visit to a museum, cinema, library or a trek through a woods followed by a small meal.

You get the idea. Something done personally, from the heart not the wallet will mean so much not only to those who receive; but will fill you with the spirit of this time of year.

If you decide to cook, I offer my father's recipe for tuna fish sauce as promised:

Ingredients: Serves 4

2 tins of Italian tuna fish packed in oil. Each tin should be 5 to 10 ounces.
1/2 of a small red onion.
1 large clove of garlic.
1/4 teaspoon thyme, fresh or dry.
2 28 oz tins San Marzano chopped tomatoes. Please try these. Simply the best!
1 table spoon of red wine vinegar.
1 table spoon of virgin olive oil. May not be needed if the oil from the tuna tins is ample.
1/4 tea spoon cayenne pepper flakes.
1 pound of dried pasta, preferably linguine.

Cooking:

Use a 4 quart heavy sauce pot that takes heat well on the open flame.

Open the tins of tuna. Hold the lid of the tin over the contents so you can pour the excess oil into the sauce pot.

Fork the tuna into a mixing bowl and gently break it up.

Open the tins of tomatoes, pour into another mixing bowl. Add thyme, cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

Chop the garlic and red onion finely either by hand or in food processor.

Saute the onion and garlic over a medium flame, in the sauce pot with oil from the tuna tins. The bottom surface of the pot should be thoroughly coated with oil. If not use all or some of the table spoon of olive oil.

When the mixture is lightly browned, add the table spoon of red wine vinegar. When you do this, hold the pot lid at the ready to be quickly placed on top of the pot. The mixture will sputter and spray all over if not quickly covered. Lift off the stove for a minute to allow the mixture to calm.

Place the pot back onto the flame, remove the lid and add the tuna. Use a wooden spoon to mix the tuna and saute.

After a few stirs add the tomatoes, stir the mixture and bring to a boil.

When at a boil, lower the flame to simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Boil water for the pasta, cook, drain. In a large ceramic bowl or the pot the pasta was cooked in, add several scoops of the cooked tuna sauce. Add the pasta, stir with a wooden spoon until the pasta is thoroughly coated.

Spoon into deep pasta bowls, add tuna sauce to the top and serve.

The meal can be started or ended with a plain arugala and pear salad and crusty baguette.

Happy Holiday Season Everyone!

Responses to "LBJ or Gandhi" Blog

Several people commented on the recent blog. I have asked their permission to reprint the comments without attribution.


COMMENT
No one is giving him a chance ...8 years of a president who didn't even think and all anyone does is knock someone who takes more than a month to make a decision. I have no idea if Obama is a man for the times but next week he will have been in office 10 months....it takes that long to get anything this big moving an inch. I know people on his advisory teams...they say he is decisive and not so interested in consensus...Weren't you the guy who counseled me on trying to reach consensus with that Senior Management Team?????. I actually think he has done a lot in 10 months...maybe not everything we wanted but 10 months...c'mon 10 months

COMMENT
If only the republicans had remained in office, none of the issues you mention would be so horrendous. I have worked long and hard for where I am financially. I refuse to see my tax dollars go to any one who did not earn them as I did. This country is founded on the rights and ability of the individual to survive without government interference. And that is what it is, interference. We are not and never have been meant to be a socialistic society.

COMMENT
Ted,

You have become a political commentator and are spending much of your time being aggravated. I admire your fortitude. I have decided that the politics of this country have become dysfunctional and there is little likelihood that we will solve the problems that confront this nation in a rational manner, if at all.

1) re:will be no effective reforms of Wall Street
2) re: will be no financial policy to provide jobs or to have prevented the huge job losses that have already occurred. (See OpEd in today's Times about what Germany did to prevent huge job losses).
3) re: will be no climate control policy.
4) re: will be no alternative energy policy
5) health plan, if and when it gets passed, will fail to provide health care equal to the 36 nations in the world that provide better health care than the U.S. Obama is raising taxes over 5% on wealthier people when other countries health care costs half as much.

It is all too aggravating for me to deal with. I see no solution to the problem other than to tune out. I will read the headlines and will not get involved. Life is too short and I do not believe much can be done about the problem.

I hope your attitude is more constructive and that you along with others can make a difference. I am out of here.

Some final thoughts. One, is that all three comments as well as my blog are meaningful, legitimate points of view. Thank you for sharing and I think if we do not voice our concerns, council together and try to create change that benefits our citizenry, we will have only ourselves to blame for the country we become.

Do read Paul Krugman's column(mentioned above) on the Op Ed page of Friday the 13th NYTimes about what Germany has done to create jobs.

And finally, I think that next week I shall publish the recipe for my father's fabulous tuna fish pasta sauce! Have a great weekend. Today is Laura and my 10th wedding anniversary

LBJ or Gandhi?

I think that by now you know that I am not a political ideologue. I simply wish to make some observations about the status of things in the U.S. as I see them.

Could any one else in the presidency other President Obama do any better? I have no way of knowing. I do ask, however, where are we with the Obama administration and what is the over all strategy?

If I have a concern it is this: does this president have the inner fortitude that, Lincoln, FDR, Truman and LBJ had to get done what each believed believed in?

It appears our president is more Gandhian than Teddy Roosevelt.

If that is correct, is appeasement,consensus building and compromise the correct strategy for where the president said he wanted to go? And how change and hope would be executed?

Read the record to date and decide for yourself. Below are the questions that need be answered:

1) Regulation of the financial industry to prevent future melt downs. Not even close.
In fact the people who led us into the debacle are still in charge: Summers, Bernanke, Geithner etc
2) Stimulus? They have not been able to explain what happened to the original $750 billion dollars. Hint: ask AIG and Goldman Sachs

3) The Wars? Oh me! I predicted in August that by year end these would be Obama's wars. Well, I was wrong, it only took to November for that to happen. Who owns the wars? What are the strategic objectives that require the US to be in either place? What are the exit strategies for either place. This last question is at the heart of the matter.

Today, the administration spun the ultimate disinformation since Bush/Rove: "The president told his security team that the four options they had presented for dealing with Afghanistan are not good enough" Good enough for what? The current Ambassador to Afghanistan said today "send no more troops until Karzai fixes the security and corruption issues in his government and country". Hello? Could any thing be more clear than that?

The spin today is that the Pres is being very careful. BUT THE REALITY MAY BE THAT HE DOES NOT HAVE THE GUTS TO CONFRONT ISSUES. He seems to think that if he waits and does not confront, he will find a solution without pissing any one off.

Is there a fatal character flaw that needs and wants approval when decisive action is required?

4) Immigration? Off the table

5) The economy. It is all about jobs! To whom is that a mystery? Answer:to the administration.

6) Health care Insurance reform? Without the competitive option and tort reform, the insurance industry gets 40 or so million more subscribers than they had before the reform. Come on, folks! By the way I am not saying who is right or wrong on this issue. Merely an observation that we have not created a situation where the industry needs to worry about their competitive future.

7) Jobs and the Economy? The Washington lobbyist have won again. The entrenched industries have won. 10% unemployment seems to be ok with every one.I have not heard the President say "this is not acceptable. Therefore I am doing the following......" The way FDR would have done and in fact did. The real unemployment number is closer to 18%( please read why else where)The spin is that the unemployed will be with us at least through 2011. Do you think that is acceptable?

And so the record of this presidency unfolds. I am very concerned as I know you are. The question is does "cool' trump effectiveness and execution? Answer: you tell me!

The Stars are Realigned ?

Have you noticed a change in your perspective and in those around you lately? Do you notice a more positive feeling ? In the last few months did there not seem to be many challenges for us personally, in the village, city, country and world? So many issues that needed our attention many of which we had no control over?

Some said it was the planets in retrograde: colliding, overlapping or overpowering one another. Others said that God(s) were more angry with us than usual, still others that we are not supposed to be happy by some design of nature, God(s) or the universe.

Let me ask ? Do any of the above reasons seem real when you see them in the stark reality of the written word?

I offer a different perspective. The time period mentioned above is subjective. One can pick any time and decide whether things are going well or not. That said, try this: WE CREATE OUR OWN REALITIES.

Here is how we do it:

EXPECTATIONS: THOSE OUT COMES WE DESIRE OR EXPECT
LEAD TO
PERSPECTIVE: THE WAY WE VIEW A SITUATION BASED UPON PAST EXPERIENCE AND OUT COMES
LEADS TO
PERCEPTION: THE MENTAL ROAD MAP OF HOW TO PROCEED IN A GIVEN SITUATION
LEADS TO
BEHAVIOR: WHAT YOU DO
LEADS TO
REALITY: THAT WHICH YOU AND OTHERS EXPERIENCE
LEADS TO
OUT COMES: THAT WHICH YOU GET


Okay, what if you don't like the out comes? Change either your EXPECTATIONS or if you are courageous, CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE-THE WAY YOU VIEW A SITUATION!

Last evening I attended the 10th anniversary celebration of Breakthrough New York's success. Check them out at www.breakthroughnewyork.org.

A young Wesleyan University student described her experiences growing up in the New York City area among poor and downwardly mobile people with out hope. For example, both her father and uncle were murdered on the streets of their neighborhood within a year.

She decided that she could change her reality by changing her perspective. She found Breakthrough New York and went to work. Over the next few years she created POSITIVE EXPECTATIONS, CHOSE A PERSPECTIVE FOR SUCCESS, CHOSE A POSITIVE PERCEPTION AND FINALLY, WINNING BEHAVIOR.

You had to be there folks to hear this story to understand the strength this and all humans have. She ended with a quote that said, in essence, it is not so much your out comes that determine your life; but what you do with the out comes.


Think about it folks, we do create our own realities which is more acceptable than thinking the stars, Gods, universe or worse yet the tyrants of the world are in control.

Tom Friedman Today

In case you did not read this today, Mr. Friedman nails it








Don’t Build Up
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: October 27, 2009
It is crunch time on Afghanistan, so here’s my vote: We need to be thinking about how to reduce our footprint and our goals there in a responsible way, not dig in deeper. We simply do not have the Afghan partners, the NATO allies, the domestic support, the financial resources or the national interests to justify an enlarged and prolonged nation-building effort in Afghanistan.


Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman
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I base this conclusion on three principles. First, when I think back on all the moments of progress in that part of the world — all the times when a key player in the Middle East actually did something that put a smile on my face — all of them have one thing in common: America had nothing to do with it.

America helped build out what they started, but the breakthrough didn’t start with us. We can fan the flames, but the parties themselves have to light the fires of moderation. And whenever we try to do it for them, whenever we want it more than they do, we fail and they languish.

The Camp David peace treaty was not initiated by Jimmy Carter. Rather, the Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat, went to Jerusalem in 1977 after Israel’s Moshe Dayan held secret talks in Morocco with Sadat aide Hassan Tuhami. Both countries decided that they wanted a separate peace — outside of the Geneva comprehensive framework pushed by Mr. Carter.

The Oslo peace accords started in Oslo — in secret 1992-93 talks between the P.L.O. representative, Ahmed Qurei, and the Israeli professor Yair Hirschfeld. Israelis and Palestinians alone hammered out a broad deal and unveiled it to the Americans in the summer of 1993, much to Washington’s surprise.

The U.S. surge in Iraq was militarily successful because it was preceded by an Iraqi uprising sparked by a Sunni tribal leader, Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, who, using his own forces, set out to evict the pro-Al Qaeda thugs who had taken over Sunni towns and were imposing a fundamentalist lifestyle. The U.S. surge gave that movement vital assistance to grow. But the spark was lit by the Iraqis.

The Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, the Israeli withdrawals from Gaza and Lebanon, the Green Revolution in Iran and the Pakistani decision to finally fight their own Taliban in Waziristan — because those Taliban were threatening the Pakistani middle class — were all examples of moderate, silent majorities acting on their own.

The message: “People do not change when we tell them they should,” said the Johns Hopkins University foreign policy expert Michael Mandelbaum. “They change when they tell themselves they must.”

And when the moderate silent majorities take ownership of their own futures, we win. When they won’t, when we want them to compromise more than they do, we lose. The locals sense they have us over a barrel, so they exploit our naïve goodwill and presence to loot their countries and to defeat their internal foes.

That’s how I see Afghanistan today. I see no moderate spark. I see our secretary of state pleading with President Hamid Karzai to re-do an election that he blatantly stole. I also see us begging Israelis to stop building more crazy settlements or Palestinians to come to negotiations. It is time to stop subsidizing their nonsense. Let them all start paying retail for their extremism, not wholesale. Then you’ll see movement.

What if we shrink our presence in Afghanistan? Won’t Al Qaeda return, the Taliban be energized and Pakistan collapse? Maybe. Maybe not. This gets to my second principle: In the Middle East, all politics — everything that matters — happens the morning after the morning after. Be patient. Yes, the morning after we shrink down in Afghanistan, the Taliban will celebrate, Pakistan will quake and bin Laden will issue an exultant video.

And the morning after the morning after, the Taliban factions will start fighting each other, the Pakistani Army will have to destroy their Taliban, or be destroyed by them, Afghanistan’s warlords will carve up the country, and, if bin Laden comes out of his cave, he’ll get zapped by a drone.

My last guiding principle: We are the world. A strong, healthy and self-confident America is what holds the world together and on a decent path. A weak America would be a disaster for us and the world. China, Russia and Al Qaeda all love the idea of America doing a long, slow bleed in Afghanistan. I don’t.

The U.S. military has given its assessment. It said that stabilizing Afghanistan and removing it as a threat requires rebuilding that whole country. Unfortunately, that is a 20-year project at best, and we can’t afford it. So our political leadership needs to insist on a strategy that will get the most security for less money and less presence. We simply don’t have the surplus we had when we started the war on terrorism after 9/11 — and we desperately need nation-building at home. We have to be smarter. Let’s finish Iraq, because a decent outcome there really could positively impact the whole Arab-Muslim world, and limit our exposure elsewhere. Iraq matters.

Yes, shrinking down in Afghanistan will create new threats, but expanding there will, too. I’d rather deal with the new threats with a stronger America.

Music, Music, Music

Since October 1, life has been full of beautiful music. Some performed by Laura Federici in her Weil Recital Hall debut, then again over the last two weekends in her role in Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito. On Sunday afternoon we went to see the final performance of an Argentinian musical based on the tango, called Tangurea. Talk about excitement. We could not contain ourselves for an hour and a half of dancing bliss and some of the most passionate music played on the planet: the music of the tango. Finally last evening we heard Renee Flemming and Susan Graham in Strauss's The Rose Cavalier at the Met Opera House. All splendid and very successful.

There is so much good music available every where in the world and I urge you to get out and hear it. Music sooths the soul, mind and body like no other balm. It need not be classical; only good.

I am amazed at how many homes I go into that are not filled with good music or books. This is not a criticism, merely an observation. Have you found that? Is your home filled with some art form? If so please share it with our readers here. Make recommendations.

Finally exhausted, Sunday evening we watched a Netflix film called, " I served the King of England". A Czech film with English subtitles that is extraordinarily good.

Takes place in Eastern Europe in the run up and after WWll.

Stunning character development and explanation of the culture of the era.

With all the horrors going on in the world today, please find time to be good to your self and enjoy some of the inspiring things in life

The Value of Relationships

When I began this blog I promised not to preach nor have my own opinions too visible. I hear from those who read the blog that they are comfortable with what I have presented to date. I am pleased as well that readership is growing and that I am able to publish your thoughts too. So please feel free to send me things you want to share.

This has been an extraordinary week for appreciating relationships.

My wonderful nephew and niece, Michele and Robert Federici, showed us how to define parenting, love, caring, courage and personal strength. Deb Philips hosted and executed a funeral service for a close friend and once again showed how to express love to the world. I contacted Rob Berkley and asked him to support a scholarship I am sponsoring at his personal cost. He never even blinked and said yes.

Laura Federici continues to amaze and please us with her artistic skill with her wonderful performance in the Mozart opera, La Clemenza di Tito.

After the performance, a gang of us went to have food and drink to celebrate her success. I ordered hundreds of dollars of food and wine only to find that the restaurant did not accept a debit card. I leaned over to another of my life's mates, Joan Ginsburg, and asked, you have $200? She did not interrupt her conversation, merely reached into her wallet, took out the cash, handed it to me and continued to tell her story.

Two hours prior to Laura's performance, I attended a 50 year reunion of some 40 or so classmates and fraternity bothers. A man, Roger Elowitz, found all the people, organized the event, created a website to honor us and then hosted and emceed the evening. People came from all over the U.S. and guess what? No one had changed very much. Sure they appeared older but the spirit and charm of what had brought us together 50 years ago is still very evident: the value of relationships and love.

On Monday, Addie & Gary Tomei, Lawrence & Margaret Ryan-Paolella and I journeyed to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. We have known each other well over 50 years and wished to continue the momentum of the Saturday evening class reunion. The love, respect,good will and hysterical laughter at no one's expense evidenced as we traipsed through the gardens, ate our way through China Town in Brooklyn, coffeed and desserted in Bensonhurst's Italian section was incredible. Eight hours together in a Prius for the journey was not enough.

On Tuesday evening, Margaret & Lawrence arranged for Laura and I to accompany them to the 22nd season premier of Steven Blier's, "New York Festival of Voices". An important New York classical music scene that presents some of the best classical music singers in the world. Mr. Blier is related to Margaret so we also had the joy of meeting him after the performance. Get this, folks, Steven is mid forties, a power in the U.S. music scene, the impresario of the NY Festival of Voices, the piano accompanist for the ensemble as well as many of the world's leading singers, translator to and from English of many of the pieces presented and confined to a wheel chair. Muscular dystrophy ravishes his body but not his mind nor spirit. Talk about love, relationships, appreciation of people, I urge you to go to their website, pick a performance and spend an evening with him and the ensemble.

Some finals notes of love and caring this week. Daughter Yoanna called me cause I said I had a bit of a stomach thingie, wished to stay away from Laura this week so I would not contaminate her( La Clemenza performance this coming Saturday)and asked me to come stay with the Connecticut Federici clan for some care and feeding. "Every one here is sick so what's one more virus" is what she lovingly said.

Anna and Chris Wyant welcomed 7.5lb Lilly into the world. Jack Kreisberg turned 7! and Fred Henry celebrated his 72 birthday today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRED! A pretty good week, folks, if you are paying attention. I bet if you looked at your week you could find as many wonderful things as I have just taken you through. I know, stuff happens, but I(and so should you please), always remember the good things.

The Nobel Peace Prize

The President says he is humbled and surprised at the award. He freely admits that the gap between his rhetoric and accomplishments is huge. The banking system is still running a muck e.g.Citigroup just sold its energy trading business rather than renege on the $98mm bonus it promised the head of the operation.

Barney Frank is gutting his consumer protection legislation in order to produce a bill that will pass. Not only pass; but appease the bank lobby and conservative democrats.

Treasury, the Federal Reserve and all the "watch dog agencies" continue to allow the financial industry to behave as they did before the meltdown instead of applying existing law and true over-sight. Unemployment will clearly go to 10-12% and last through 2010. Any one see any of the $700 billion stimulus money to date?

We remain in Afghanistan despite the fact that every occupying nation since Alexander the Great has failed to tame that place. An aside: one probelm is that no one seems to get that Afghanistan is not a country in the conventional sense. It is a loose federation of tribes led by strongmen with no allegiance to anyone but themselves and those they need to survive. Central Government, as we know it, is corrupt and ineffectual. We shall see this become Mr Obama's war very shortly.

Healthcare Over-haul? Let's Make Sense. Without competition,it seems that the Insurance Industry lobby has won the day. Coops either private or state run have not been studied fully and their success or failure determined. So why create a federal plan based upon inconclusive evidence? The only plan we have seen work on a national basis is Medicare. And it is not bankrupt nor about to be bankrupt despite what the fear mongers say. We must,however, stop using its revenues to fund other congressional projects!

The issue is that here again the administration is walking away from Tort Reform, Cost of Drugs and other major drivers of cost for any system in order to produce some acceptable legislation. It appears that Incrementalism is the strategy of choice for the Obama administration.

So much to do, so many competing agendas, yet a prize for being a man of peace. Perhaps it is as the Wall Street Journal and The NYTimes report: applause for the absence of George Bush in the world and a desire on the part of the Europeans to encourage the diplomatic efforts of the current president.

In any case,it seems he did not lobby for it and it was freely given. Let us respect our president be proud of this recognition of America and take him at his word: it is a call to action.

"Art of Communications" Guest Response

One reader of the blog responded in a thoughtful way. It follows for your consideration:

I come out on the side of progress, but always with the reservation and the question I ask myself....Will my life be better or worse with the “new” product...because a product it is, and one that we must buy or rent . Economies need an endless supply of new products to keep the consumer spending and happy, and the wheels of economies well oiled....
That is the western way of life...
I will just relate an experience I had a week ago regarding communications...
I went to the post box and retrieved a genuine lettre, with lovely foreign stamps, addressed to me (my full name spelled out), street address, city and country, all there....I cannot tell you the pleasant sensation that washed over me as I held this unfamiliar object in my hand....
I rushed upstairs so that I could discover its content and it’s author...
Well, it was a two page lettre from a dear old friend who teaches at Harvard, and certainly works with technology. The lettre so beautifully written on linen stationary from a hotel in the Italian Alps, and so wonderfully composed that I was deliriously happy and so inspired that I sat down immediately to respond in kind. It took approximately an hour or so of my time to compose and carefully pen my response. That too made me feel....well wonderful??? I took it to the post office the very next day to send it on its journey across the sea, with the hopes that my friend will have the same enjoyment when she receives my post.
I have an entire file box filled with correspondence of the past. When I say correspondence, I do mean those lettres that could qualify as prose, as short stories and poetry....So inspired are their contents, that I could never bear to just toss them away....I began reading some of them, and I can say unequivocally, that I enjoyed reading them as much as I did when I first opened them., they are in a way history, my history..I expressed a little “Ahhh,” and then returned to answering e-mails on the computer, thinking about the publication of lettres between famous and accomplished persons that we, even anonymously, love to read.
I think all of the above is to say that yes, resoundingly, progress should never be ignored, but embraced and refined, but not necessarily at the cost of losing, forgetting or obliterating that which has merit and keeps us in touch with human feelings and emotions.

The Art of Communications?

Much is being said about the new forms of communications and how they do or do not help us to speak and relate to one another. Some complain that nothing worth while can be said in 140 characters-Twittering. Blackberrys enslave us. Facebook supplants real relationships and texting makes us illiterate.

Consider the history. Socrates, it seems, objected to writing in part because this invention eliminated the need to exercise memory.The telegraph, some call Twitter the 21st century version of the telegraph, caused Henry Thoreau to scoff in the 1840s "Maine and Texas may have nothing to say". Three decades later Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, declined to buy the patent rights for the next new thing, the telephone, because it provided no permanent record of a conversation. In 1880, Western Union declined as well asking"whether any sensible man would conduct his business by such a means of communications".

When the typewriter came into wide spread use in the 1930s, The New York Times editorialized against the machine arguing "it usurped the art of writing with one's own hand" It also will give rise to untrained authors flooding the world with opinions they have not the experience to hold. Sounds like the knock on today's bloggers.

When I was lobbying the congress for AT&T in the eighties asking for the right to introduce cell phones to America, I argued that expansion of the cell phone would not be to the detriment of other means of communications. I showed Members the power and what the technology would bring. I used a precursor back then of today's Smart phone. Those industries against the expansion included the newspaper, television and radio industries. Why? Revenues, my friends, revenues.

Turns out the newspaper industry was right as they see their ad revenues fade to the Internet and all manner of PDAs. The TV and Radio industries seem to be holding up. Revenues and the demise of an industry, however, has never been and never will be a reason to block technological growth.

History also teaches that the embedded industry tries to block, complain about,seek protection from and ultimately attempt to own the next new communications thing.

The lecture circuit industry of the 18th and 19th centuries, complained about the introduction of large newspapers. newspapers complained about the growth of radio, radio railed against the growth of TV and they are all worried about or trying to own a piece of the Internet.

Folks, embrace it. In my experience there are only two things not diminished by growth,change or being given away: love and knowledge. There is an endless supply of both.

This Guy Gets It!

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

"My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events.... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein"





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Have the Feeling Something is Wrong?

and you not sure what? Well,there is something wrong. My sense these last few weeks is that most of the people I work and play with are in some heightened state of agitation. Some more than others but all worked up. Careers, money, marriages, relationships, family pressures, all over the lot. More than usual? I think yes.

Each person has a reason that seems cogent but when you drill down on it, I think it may be because they have forgotten who they are. Forgotten what they are trying to accomplish in this particular life time and slipped into the "I" mode.

Perhaps we should all breath deeply, do yoga and get in touch with the inner being. Perhaps we should stop coming from FEAR and come from LOVE. Fear brings out all the worst instincts and behaviors. "I" must win. "I" am threatened, "I" am not appreciated. "I" need and deserve to be richer, more famous, more loved: I, I, I.

Can you step back from this behavior and thinking? Yes,if you decide to react from LOVE, one can never be threatened.

In the end, we each create our own reality. If I am not happy with my reality, I am free to change it. Are you?

Who is Lying?

Are you trying to follow the health care reform debate? Can both the Democrats and the Republicans both be telling the truth? Are both groups lying? Are death panels contemplated?, Will the billions cut from Medicare and the plans being formulated result in less care for the elderly? Will illegal immigrants get free health care? Will a government sponsored health care company really be competitive to the existing providers? Is such a company the first step toward a single payer government run provider and then to socialized medicine? Are the French, Swedish, Canadian systems working?

Have I missed any thing?

Guess what friends, I don't have the answers. I will say this however, we best do our own research, decide what direction to go in and TELL SOME ONE WHO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. If you don't do your own research, you will be influenced by the demagogues on radio and TV who are not researches or even decent journalists. Make no mistake they are entertainers. They each, left or right, are in business, on air and in your homes to stir you up and have you think they have the answers. Or in one case, has uncovered a link between some politician and a communist, socialist, or conservative group and is exposing the agenda! What horse shit!

We are lazy, we Americans. Just want to go about our lives and not get involved until our ox gets gored. Then we react.

Come on folks, do the research, make up your own minds. Stop listening to those around you who spout what they have picked up from the media, entertainers, or politicians.

Challenge: ask the next person you are in contact with and health care reform comes up, how and where they got their information?

Hmmmmm!

The best Summer of all!

Why? Because it was bitter sweet. Filled with stress from family health issues, joy- being in Slovakia, Laura preparing for major roles in wonderful productions ranging from Mozart's Clemenza di Tito to 21 st century scary stuff. I have already sent out info so I won't do it here except for the poster for one:

Empire Opera presents
La Clemenza di Tito
by Wolfgang A. Mozart

Two Performances:
Saturday, October 10 and 17, 7:30PM

Advent Lutheran/Broadway Church
2504 Broadway at 93rd Street

NYC

Directed by Nicole Lee Aiossa
Susan Morton, piano


Cast

Tito: Patrick Hogan, tenor

Vitellia: Heather Michele Meyer, soprano (10/10)

Susannah Stayter, soprano (10/17)

Sesto: Parker Burton, counter tenor

Servilia: Maria Alú, soprano

Annio: Laura Federici, mezzo soprano

Publio: Dennis Blackwell, baritone



Tickets - $20

www.empireopera.org

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That said. The joy of seeing The Boys going to school. Yeah, Nicolino began kindergarten and Adriano nursery school. However, Adriano says he is in first grade and in fact 6 years old!

Now on to politics or what passes for politics these days. Here is what I think: America is still a deeply racist country. Whether you think the economic bail out, or health care reforms that the present administration is wrestling with are going in the right direction, it is sad that the rhetoric is peppered with racist hatred having little to do with the merits of any proposal.

The political parties are running true to form: Republicans forgetting the last 8 years of deficit spending, wars, disinformation and no ideas to move us forward. the Democrats in disarray, fighting among themselves, no ideas to move us forward and unable to win the day. Really sad.

The hate mongers on radio and TV rule the day and there is not a ray of sunshine beaming through that will change direction. President Obama is trying to be too many things to too many ideologies and has yet to show any back bone for what he believes.

Where are the Linclons, Roosevelts and Trumans when we need them?

Have a nice day

So much Happening, it can take your breath away!

This past weekend was so special. There was a two day birthday celebration for Rob Berkley at places such as Union Square Cafe and Shun Lee Palace. Rob has the unigue quality of finding then holding the dearest people on the earth close to him. I met four of his life friends who gathered at Union Square to regal Rob and eat tuna burgers: Union's signature dish.Don't miss a lunch or dinner there. It is one of New York City's best restaurants.

In the evening at Shun Lee, more special people yet not the same as the lunch crowd. Deb had prearranged a ten course Chinese dinner that was perfection. Another land mark restuarant on East 55th, not to be missed either.

What a tapestry of personalities, accomplishment and love! Deb, Rob's wife, organized and orchestrated the events and is herself a most special person. Be sure to see their website at www.groupmv.com to see who they are and what they are accomplishing in life.

In between celebrations, Laura and I shuttled to NYP Hospital to do breakfast runs for young Mathew Federici and his parents each early morning. Matt has been there several weeks due to surgery and some post operative complications. To see his face light up when the french toast or pancakes are unpacked is a joy. Laura, we hope, made the final breakfast run this morning as we hear that the boy leaves for home today. What an ordeal and what parents!!! Laura, by the way, took the 5:47 am train from Center Moriches to make the breakfast run. You know, when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Michele and Bob have each and sometimes both spent every night in the hospital ensuring not only proper care but dispensing love and comfort. They have set the bar high on parenting this trip. By the way, when I use the phrase " ensuring proper care", it is not idle. Even in a world class facility such as NYP Hospital, there are major foul ups that can easily kill you, no exageration.

A visit with the Conecticut Federicis filled us with more love and joy as we spent Sunday with Nicolas and Adrien and their wonderful mom and dad. A great dinner prepared by Yoanna and Drew, time at the Greenwich Beach and a fabulous ferry boat ride across the Sound and home to Center Moriches finished the day. A one hour ferry ride across LI Sound where we read the Times and chilled.

Speaking of dinners, Laura prepared lamb burgers this weekend(believe it or not we spent Friday at home) that were superb. Here is the recipe: it is called MEGUEZ

1 POUND GROUND LEAN LAMB
3/4 TEA SPOON GROUND CUMIN
1/2 TEA SPOON THYME
1/8 TEA SPOON GRATED NUTMEG
1/2 TEA SPOON HOT RED PEPPER FLAKES
1 TEA SPOON MINCED GARLIC
1 TABLESPOON OLIVE OIL
1 TABLESPOON BUTTER, MELTED

1.IN A MIXING BOWL COMBINE THE LAMB,CUMIN,THYME,NUTMEG, RED PAPPER, AND GARLIC.
2.SHAPE WITH YOUR HANDS INTO 4 PATTIES. DONT SQUEEZE TOO TIGHLY, LET THE AIR FILL THEM
3.COOK ON A GRILL OR SKILLET 3-4 MINUTES EACH SIDE DEPENDING ON HOW RARE YOU LIKE THEM. TRY THEM THEM MEDIUM RARE IF THE LAMB IS FISRT CUT.
4.BRUSH LIGHTLY WITH MELTED BUTTER AND SERVE ON A SEEDED BUN.


MORE LATER THIS WEEK

Home

We left Slovakia on Sunday morning and blessed our GPS device all the way to Vienna, an hour and a half drive. If you want to know about stress free driving especially in a foreign country, try the GPS. We call our voice navigator Richard. He took us out of the driveway in Smolenice, turn by turn,into the rental car parking lot in the Vienna airport. Greatest invention since the computer.

On Saturday, the village held its annual fair complete with food, music, folk art, crafts and camaraderie. Most of the village turns out as well as people from surrounding villages and the capital, Bratislava(about 45 minutes drive).In the evening there was an out side concert on the grounds of the Palffy castle open to all and free of charge. I have video that I will include later on.

I have gotten into Christopher Moore novels that are hysterical. Having read Lamb, I was reading Fool on the plane. I had to stop reading because I was actually laughing out loud uncontrollably. Get these two to start with and just relax into his preposterous set ups.

I will take some time to reflect on the trip and share some insights in future posts. Meantime, think about a visit to this part of the world. Unspoiled, unused and friendly. The house in the village can be a jump off to all of central and eastern Europe.

Ah, the Joys of Village Life

Laura and I have spent the last week visiting relatives, hiking the small Carpathian mountains, touring the cities of Bratislava(capital of Slovakia),Modra, Trnerva and the spa village of Piestany. We visited as well the castles at Cerveny Kamen(Red Stone) and the Palffy Castle in Smolenice. The Palffy and the Lichtenstein families(yeh, you got it, the Lichtensteins of the country) owned most of Slovakia,and the Czech Republic. They were close to the ruling Maria Theresa who descended from King Stephen( circa 1000) of the Hungarian Empire. While they were not in line for the throne,they were made enormously wealthy by the ruling dynasty in Vienna because of their skills as defenders of the empire.Good to be king, No?

By now those of you on Face Book have seen the photos that Mae Henry( our niece) posted so I will include only a few here later on.

Since we are in the foothills of the Carpathian mountains,the weather is cool(not I hear Like NYC), has been dry and very pleasant to move around in.

The charm of this holiday is the time spent with family both American and Slovak. Technology, mainly the internet, has totally closed the gap between our cultures and people. The living lesson here is that we can all be aware of what each and all of us are doing at any given time through the internet. Therefore, our words and actions matter more than perhaps any time in the past. This starts, as I have seen through the eyes and thoughts of the people of the small village of Smolenice, commenting on what the German, English and American governments did over the weekend.

So, dear friends, Let's Make Sense, stay aware that We are All One, in my opinion.

Like to hear your thoughts.



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Headed for Slovakia

Laura and I travel to Smolenice, Slovakia today to join our American and Slovak families in celebration of Laura's parents 50th wedding anniversary.

There are 15 or so American and 30 or so Slovak relatives who will gather for weekend long events. The American clan will stay at the house that Laura's parents own and may be seen at www.penzion-agnes.sk/en/ The house has been in the family for some 300 years and was totally renovated (imperceptibly from the outside) in 2008. Six bedrooms, 4 baths and lots of room to roam around both in and out side.

Thirty minutes from Bratislava, two hours drive from Vienna, this central location will serve as a place to relax, connect to family and see some of Eastern Europe.

My favorite thing to do is to stay for a few days at a near-by spa in Piestany. An old world facility situated on a small island in the middle of a river that flows by on either side. The river and Island supply the spa with thermal waters, heated healing mud and various minerals used to restore health. Massage, baths, you know the drill. Best of all it is very civilized and Eastern European which means the bar is always open, the afternoon teas feature Viennese pastries so you get to set the body back to normal after purifying it all day long. Makes no sense, right? Try it, it makes absolute sense. As Mark Twain said, "how do you know you have had enough if you have never had too much".

While the Slovak culinary experience is some what forgettable, that all changes when Laura and I arrive and hit the local butcher, veggie and bread markets all within walking distance of the house. Ah, the village life! More from Slovakia including some recipes.

Questions for this Week.

How should an American discuss the current political debate going on in the country today with out alienating friends, families and colleagues?

Perhaps you have run into this dilemma. I have and it becomes heated and uncomfortable very quickly. The following paragraph sets up the debate as I understand it:

The USA is going through its usual historical transition from one presidency to another. This transition is different because we are also going from a conservative(some would say neo con) perspective to a more progressive perspective(some would even call it liberal)

The party who has just left control is trying desperately to redefine itself in time for the mid-term elections in 2011-2.

The Obama administration has staked out major areas to change or address:a declining economy which they say is exacerbated by and includes: the cost and inclusiveness of our health care system, creating jobs, and, assuring that the banking system survives and is regulated properly. Finally, they want to reduce the impact of negative climate change and the US dependence on foreign oil.

These are also know as fix the bank/wall street debacle and create new positive core values in the financial sector. Insure 47 million Americans without health care. And, oh by the way, if you loose your job, have a previous health problem and/or can not afford today's insurance cost, you can not be rejected from health insurance.

And lastly, let's prevent any further climate change destruction of our planet.

I think I have it.

The questions are: One, should you discuss these issues and how do you do so without crashing into the opposing attitude of friends, family and colleagues who may think differently than you. And how do you avoid being labeled as liberal, conservative, progressive, neo con, far right, far left, centrist?

Interesting no? There is a tried and true way to avoid conflict: simply never discuss politics, religion or social issues with any one. Well, come on, that does not work so I have developed a question when the conversation goes toward the political/social debate mentioned.

It is: Do you feel in any way responsible for your fellow man? You can of course peel that back to neighbors, fellow-Americans, Europeans, etc. If the answer is yes or no, and it reflects your philosophy, you are home free, If what you hear does not reflect your philosophy and you are not really skilled at conversation perhaps best to move on. If,however, you are up to a confrontation, go for it but remember i told you so!

Like to hear what you think

Thanks

Ted

Federici Thoughts

Welcome to my blog. I intend that what I present here will be insightful and useful . The thoughts I will offer are informed by my experiences. Some will be fun, some spiritual, some about food, music, current events. In short what ever moves me and I have something to offer.