AbleKane Adventures

Stoning to death... nothing to do with honor or justice...

2010-09-14T17:48:00.000-10:00

I wish I could say this is uncommon in the middle east. Unfortunately it is old hat.

I spoke to an Iraqi right after the string of beheading videos back in 2004 and he told me most (local) people could not understand why the West was so shocked... this kind of violence goes on all the time in the middle east. Carried out officially and unofficially. Beheadings, child abuse, rape, torture (I'm not talking about water-boarding), floggings, stonings, etc.

I watched this one reluctantly as I have seen quite enough already to last a life time... but I also feel a kind of obligation to watch. so I decided to watch it with the sound off. For some reason the chanting bothers me and stays with me even longer than the visual - although that lingers as well. This is not law, justice or anything to do with honor... it is nothing but blood lust. There are no words that can fully describe what kind of a human being can smash the head of a beautiful young girl.

Makes me ill.

Steve Schub is Satan

2010-09-10T11:08:00.000-10:00

From Steve Schub :
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4949891&id=264305883160

Friends, Romans, Arch-Nemeses! Happy Rosh Ha-SKA-Nah!
Schub here- (for now anyway.) In mere days I'm off to Dallas to play the bad guy, the Main Bad Guy, The BIG Bad Guy, the "O.G. Bad Guy", as in: The Dark Lord, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Satan himself- in the feature flick "5 Souls". (Look someone's gotta do it, and Hell, my Momma would say I've been doing the research my whole life.)
But fear not Ha-Heads, I will be flying back from Dallas on Saturday September 25th. Why? 'Cuz exactly 17 days from today- on said Saturday September 25th: HaSkaLA and "The Ska Parade's 20th Anniversary Celebration" hit The Glass House in Pomona! With The O.C. Scholars (featuring members of Reel Big Fish), Monkey, GoGo 13, Knock-Out and (as previously aforementioned)- your very own HaSkaLA!!!
The Glass House is located at: 200 W. Second St. Pomona CA, 91766. Doors are at 6pm. Showtime 7pm Sharp. All Ages! Tickets are $15.00 and Onsale Now at:
http://www.ticketfly.com/tickets/event-details/?tfly_event_id=14531
p.s. Please note: We hit the stage at 7:00pm precisely, and will be off by 7:30. Find the Event on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123496497698404&index=1

-Wanna know what HaSkaLA sounds like/looks like/smells like/tastes like? Now you can! Both visually & auditorily! Two Brand New Live Videos: "Taxman" and "Woke-Up. Wake-Up!" both directed by the great Don Adams. Come get a whiff- on our very own HaSkaLA YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/haskalamusic
And subscribe- if you dare!

-Our debut CD "HaSkaLA: Untethered & Undone"- still a "Staff Pick" at Amoeba Music in Hollywood (on rotation in the store itself) and available on iTunes at:
http://www.itunes.com/haskala

Wiffwuvanwowwiepops,
Ska'd For Life,
Schubieshake & HaSkaLA!
-----
-HaSkaLA on iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/haskala
-HaSkaLA on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/haskala
-HaSkaLA on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/haskalamusic
-HaSkaLA on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/haskalamusic
-The Home of HaSkaLA: http://www.haskalamusic.com/
-The Home of Daffy Duck: http://www.daffyduck.com/
---

H.L. Mencken, Au Contraire

2010-09-10T06:21:00.000-10:00

From Edward Cline
Posted at: The Rule of Reason: Weblog of the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism

The Rule of Reason :: Weblog of the Center for the Advancement of Capitalism

Why the Koran should not be burned… and why I hope Pastor Jones DOES burn his Koran.

2010-09-09T10:06:00.001-10:00

By Joe Kane

I hope the Pastor down in Florida burns that Koran. I wouldn’t do it… I don’t think burning books is a good idea in general, but I hope he does it anyway.

I’m very aware of the uproar that burning a Koran will cause in the “Muslim world” and I don’t care. I disagree with those who say it puts Americans at risk anymore than we already are. Islam is at war with ALL people who don’t submit to it (I learned that from the Koran.) The argument is that Muslims will be angry… but the implication is that if Muslims commit violence because their feelings are hurt then we (Americans) somehow deserve it… we brought it upon ourselves for not bowing down to the almighty irrationality called Islam. What a joke. Except it’s not funny.

It’s not funny because the so-called “religion of peace” holds the multiculturalists in the West hostage with its underlying threat of violence. Whether it’s an offensive cartoon lampooning their barbaric prophet or someone daring to burn a Koran, any and all violence done in retribution is the fault of the West.

The Lady Justice must be blushing in shame at the thought of those rigged scales. Let’s see how that works out;
- Muslims destroy World Trade Center in New York killing 3,000 people = The President calls Islam a peaceful religion, drops food packages on Afghanistan and build a mosque at Ground Zero.
- A cartoonist draws a picture = Muslims riot and murder people.
- -A man burns a book in Florida = Muslims riot, burn and plot more terrorist attacks against random Americans.

Last I heard, negotiating with terrorists is NOT an American policy. The whole idea behind burning the Koran in Florida seems to be one person’s way of saying, “Go to Hell” to the Muslims. Maybe Pastor Jones is tired of worrying about the nonsensical ravings from countries that permit and encourage honor killings, rape, mutilation, abuse of children, slavery, bigotry, tribalism and a host of other offensive and barbaric practices. The burning of the Koran is symbolic.

Having said that, I don’t believe the battle of ideas that has been waged throughout the history of humankind can be won by the destruction of books. The problem I have with burning the Koran, or any book for that matter, is that burning books cannot change ideas. Only education and better ideas can do that.

But, I understand the motivation behind burning the Koran if for no other reason than to thumb our noses at the blackmailer’s mentality that the “Muslim world” seems to have. We don’t need to be more sensitive, THEY need to know they cannot get away with initiating violence against us for ANY reason, including their poor little hurt feelings.

Once I was a Navy Man...

2010-07-19T08:37:00.002-10:00

"ONCE I WAS A NAVY MAN"!
Written for all my long ago Ship-Mates
by Jack R. Jones GM3/c, 2nd Division, USS St. Louis - CL491944-1946

I loved the sea...I liked standing on the deck during a long voyage, the taste and feel of salty ocean winds whipping in from everywhere – the feel of the giant ship beneath me, its powerful engine driving against the sea.
I remember the "Quivering" of the ship as she cuts through a heavy sea at high speed... the long rolls when a necessary course prevents heading directly into the swells. The gentle pitch when your ship is happy with the sea.

After a hard day of duty, there is a serenity of the sea at dusk, as white caps dance on the ocean waves ... I enjoyed the mysterious night sea. The glowing phosphorescence of your ship's wake in the moonlight ... the peacetime lights of the Navy in darkness... bright white masthead lights, clear green of starboard,.. and the soft red of port, followed by the dimmed stern lights... I savored the clear night sky at sea and the uncounted brightness of the stars from horizon to horizon.

The quiet nights with low talk sounds mixed in the soft noises of your ship, the "shushing" of exhaust air from the engine rooms. The sound of the waves touching your ship as she slips through the water....The whisper quiet of the mid-watch when the ghosts of all departed sailors stand with you.

I have relished the devil-may-care philosophy of a sea going sailor, the rising sense of adventure in my heart when the word is passed "Now station the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port".
Recalling at times the rough, hard work, BUT accompanying it always, the warm companionship of robust Navy talk and humor... I can still in the library of my mind smell the aroma of fresh coffee from dozens of pots in literally every division work "shack" , and who could forget the steaming galley urns practically always available to anyone who wanted a fresh cup of "Joe". I liked the clang of working steel, the ringing of a ships bell announcing the hour of the day, the strong laughter of sailors at work, and the sad foghorns.

I liked the ships of the Navy... nervous daring Destroyers, sleek Cruisers, majestic Battleships and steady solid Carriers. I like the naming of Navy ships; Hornet – Enterprise – Sea Wolf – Iwo Jima – Franklin – St. Louis – Indianapolis – Missouri – Arizona and many others named for heroes, cities and heroic events of our country.
I enjoyed the bounce of Navy music and the tempo of a Navy band, wearing "Liberty Whites" and "Dress Blues," the warm spice smell of a tropical foreign port. I shared a great many likes and even occasional dislikes with shipmates I’ve sailed with... men from the cornfields of Iowa, New York's east side, an Irishman from Boston, the pleasant drawl of the Texans, and men of the sun from California. They came from all parts of the country, farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, big cities, mountains, the prairies, all to become men of the sea... usually sooner, rather than later.

I like the legends of our Navy and the men who made them... I like the proud names of Navy heroes: John Paul Jones, "Bull" Halsey, Nimitz, Perry, and Farragut... a man can find much in the Navy, comrades-in-arms, pride in his country and people. A MAN CAN OFTEN FIND HIMSELF.

In years to come when thinking of times passed, when the uniform is stowed away for good, a man’s thoughts will occasionally return to the sea..., he will remember with fondness, the ocean spray on his face blowing from an angry sea.

There will surely and faintly come to his hearing, laughter echo's of hearty seafaring men who once were close companions. Locked on land , he will grow wistful of his Navy days, when the seas was his life, and a new port of call was always just over the horizon.

Then SOFTLY he will exclaim: "ONCE I WAS A NAVY MAN"!

HaskaLa CD and tour dates!!!

2010-06-22T18:00:00.002-10:00

From Steven Schub & The Fenwicks

All-Hail & Aloha Fen-Heads & 'Wick-heads!
The Fenwicks are proud to announce that we've just sealed our Music
Publishing deal with New York's "LoveCat Music"!
http://www.facebook.com/LoveCatMusic?ref=ts
Hence we here in Kibbutz Fenwick officially declare today to be: Not
merely the first day of Summer, but The First Day of the "Summer of Love
(Part Deuce)". What does this mean? Two things: Go make love! All done?
(Great. Now my keyboard's all sticky.) Next it means that before too/too
long you should be hearing we Fenwicks on the air somewhere! Stay tuned.
And speaking of hearing The Fenwicks, why haven't you of late? Fabulous
question Comrade!

We 'Wix are presently on a semi-extended sabbatical, albeit a working
sabbatical as it were.

Jimmie's been writing and recording on his own. Dig it:
http://www.bandmix.co.uk/jimmie-corrieri

And me? I've got a brand new West Coast Ska band called "HaSkaLA". Our
debut CD "Untethered & Undone" was released last week and you can buy it
online at:
http://www.cdbaby.com/haskala

Or from iTunes at: http://www.itunes.com/haskala
Or buy it Ol' Skool style, from an actual real-live human being, at Amoeba
Music in Hollywood and/or Headline Records on Melrose in Los Angeles.
-For fun ya can download our first single "Obscene Love-Machine Supreme"
for free from Fuse.Tv here:
http://fuse.tv/tours/warped-2010/downloads.html

-HaSkaLA is also playing the Ska Stage on this Summer's Vans Warped Tour
starting this coming Friday June 25th at the Home Depot Center in L.A. and
then on to:

-Saturday June 26th at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco
-Sunday June 26th at Seaside Park in Ventura
and
-Tuesday August 10th the Cricket Amphitheatre in San Diego
Tickets on sale now at:
http://tinyurl.com/WarpedTickets

You can find out more about "HaSkaLA" on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/haskala
And follow HaSkaLA on Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/haskalamusic
---
And believe it or not we 'Wix are now tweeting on Twitter too!
http://www.twitter.com/thefenwicks

Wishing you all a Summer of love, Love, LOVE and um, other things too...
Wiffwuvanwowwiepops,
Ska'd for Life,
Schubieshake & The Life-Luvin' Freedom-Fightin' Fenwicks!

HaSkaLa update!

2010-05-07T09:39:00.004-10:00

HaSkaLA: Steven Schub's "Danceable Bliss".
by Jeffrey Falk, Mencken's Ghost

The term “Renaissance man” may be trite and overused these days, but the phrase “Renaissance band” is not. Steven Schub is a Renaissance man (in two senses of the term, at least) who has put together not one but two Renaissance bands. The singer/lyricist and actor (you may have seen him on television—he has appeared on NYPD Blue, 24, and Sesame Street) has been the frontman of The Fenwicks, “the world’s greatest (albeit only) Afro-Celitc-Yiddish ska band” for “around 45,000 years” (as he said recently).
The Fenwicks is an East Coast band and have been in a state of semi hiatus while Schub has been living the actor’s life in Los Angeles (he has appeared in several indie films as well as the aforementioned television hits). While visiting the home of Vans Warped Tour’s founder Kevin Lyman during Thanksgiving, the thespian/chanteur, in a bit of wishful thinking, waxed enthusiastic about the state of his new, West Coast ska band, HaSkaLA (Hebrew for “the Enlightenment”).

There was one problem. He left out the not-insignificant detail that the band only existed in his mind. Which was a bit of a problem when he received an E-mail shortly thereafter listing HaSkaLA’s dates on the upcoming Vans Warped Tour. Rising to the challenge, he rectified the problem with the help of some of Los Angeles’s best musicians and ska enthusiasts. HaSkaLA is a jovial, energetic nine-piece band that can bring a jolt to the heart, a tear to the eye, and a tap to the foot of any music fan, regardless of their affinity for ska or even rock.

For those wondering if there is a meaning behind the unusual name, Schub explains in the band’s promotional material that there are a few (beyond “The Enlightenment”: “Let’s see, ya got the sound of laughter—“Ha,” the word “ska snuck in there, and our home city of L.A. HaSkaLA is about all three—laughter, ska, and bringing joy, mirth & madness to the City of Angels.”

Those familiar with The Fenwicks who were fortunate enough to be in the audience at HaSkaLA’s first show, an explosive, fluid, and compact forty-six-minute set at the Los Angeles club Molly Malone’s on April 15, could note that, while some strong currents run through both of Schub’s bands (not the least of which are the singer’s eye-catching sartorial habits, which included a bright polka-dot getup and an American flag suit this time), HaSkaLA is undeniably unique.

At a Los Angeles restaurant recently, Steven recounted some of the differences (and commonalities) between his perennial band and his new one: “Everyone [in this band] is coming from the same place in terms of sense of life; there’s a lot of joy in this band, as in The Fenwicks. I think you can tell … onstage, you can see it and feel it.” Indeed, the new band is even more sanguine, rollicking, and benevolent than the happy-go-lucky Fenwicks. Expounding on this band’s differences, he notes, “These songs seem to be simpler, and in that way, possibly more initially accessible.” He also noted that, overall, HaSkaLA’s lyrics (at least to this point) deal more with emotional topics and relationships than The Fenwicks’, which can at times be heavily philosophical and political.

The original tunes debuted that night (Beatles and Rolling Stones covers bookended the set) included: a song called “HaSkaLA” (aurally reminiscent of The Clash’s “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais”); “Neither Her (Nor There),” a breakup song with a life-goes-on twist and Schub’s trademark wordplay; and “Our Love (is a Car Crash),” in which the wordsmith compares a relationship to the titular catastrophe. The lyricist, an admirer of Objectivist and pro-liberty novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand, could not avoid more political (and topical) fare, however: “Woke-Up. Woke Up!” laments encroaching censorship and out-of-control taxation in a personal, close-to-home fashion: “I tried to read a book but the good ones had been banned/I tried to sing this song but my band has been banned.”

And then there’s “Cyrano’s Nose.” Unique among recent (if not all) popular songs, it is a boisterous, breezy rallying cry for reason, liberty, and freethought replete with literary allusions (as the title suggests) that could only have come from one man’s pen:

"Like "Invictus" William Henley's poem- Master of my Fate, I'm Captain of my Soul

'Cause my heart is bigger than Cyrano's nose, my rhymes are tighter than a Haiku poem

Life is shorter than a garden gnome. Gonna milk it, 'till the cows come home

Better than money- Better than fame

Better than playing Society's game

Better than ice cream, better than sex

I'm talking 'bout life and a song like this

If you ain't buying- you can't be bought or sold.

If you ain't lying- than you'll never grow old.

The only way out- is never opt in.

You've got your guns- I have my my pen.

Truth is on my side- let's see who wins. Who wins".

In fact, “Cyrano’s Nose” exemplifies the dichotomy busting at the heart of both Schub’s bands; it demonstrates that art and entertainment are anything but mutually exclusive. The ensemble providing the compositional and performance artistry and entertainment behind Schub’s lyrics include two guitar players (the physically-and-musically muscular Dave Mastas and the physically-and-musically lean Curtis Politt) a Berklee College of Music alumna on bass (Julie Gibbs) a protean drummer (Tony Pagano), a sometime comedian on keys (Brad Watson), and a three-piece horn section (Matthew Thompson, Danny Kay, Christine Cheung). Such a potential cacophony actually results in a seamless blend, with punchy, puissant guitar upstrokes and articulate horn solos accentuating the ska undertones.

The band does not have an opportunity to enter the studio prior to their Vans Warped Tour appearances. Fortunately, the April 15 gig (which opened, appropriately enough, with the Beatles’ “Taxman”) was recorded and will form the source for their debut CD entitled: "HaSkaLA: Untethered & Undone", with a release scheduled just in time for the tour. (The CD will be available for purchase on http://www.CDBaby.com by mid-June).

If the world’s current Endarkenment will ever transmute into another Renaissance and Enlightenment, then it will be in no small part due to Renaissance bands like HaSkaLA obliterating the false alternative of profoundness and fun with increasingly uncommon skill, melodic sensibility, and passion.
--------
For more information on HaSkLA go to: http://www.haskalamusic.com

America's Self-Crippled Foreign Policy

2009-09-27T08:02:00.006-10:00

I highly recommend reading this interview at The Objective Standard web site:

An Interview with Yaron Brook, Elan Journo, and Alex Epstein

"Mr. Journo is the editor of a new book, Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism (Lexington Books, 2009. 250 pp. $27.95 [paperback]), which contains essays by all three men. The book is scheduled for release this November. This interview was conducted orally and retains the character of an informal discussion." —Craig Biddle

Here is the link to the interview.

***

Steven Schub of The Fenwicks here...

2009-09-15T11:05:00.000-10:00

From Steve Schub:

Shalom & Aloha Comrades!

Steven Schub of The Fenwicks here, hoping this email finds you smiling... Speaking of smiling- dig this! Your very own Schuby-Doo has just been cast as the late great folk singer Phil Ochs in the film "The Chicago 8" (written & directed by Pinchas Perry- writer/director of the film "When Nietzsche Wept"). This is most insane, (and almost suspiciously auspicious), as I've been listening to Phil Ochs ever since I was a wee-lad, and as far as this boy's concerned, he was one of the greatest lyricists of all time.

As evidence, I submit to you, the lyrics to his song: "When I'm Gone".
Words to live by... Read 'em below.
In joy, mirth and joviality,

~Schubieshake

-----

When I'm Gone
Words and Music by Phil Ochs

There's no place in this world where I'll belong when I'm gone
And I won't know the right from the wrong when I'm gone
And you won't find me singin' on this song when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

And I won't feel the flowing of the time when I'm gone
All the pleasures of love will not be mine when I'm gone
My pen won't pour out a lyric line when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

And I won't breathe the bracing air when I'm gone
And I can't even worry 'bout my cares when I'm gone
Won't be asked to do my share when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

And I won't be running from the rain when I'm gone
And I can't even suffer from the pain when I'm gone
Can't say who's to praise and who's to blame when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

Won't see the golden of the sun when I'm gone
And the evenings and the mornings will be one when I'm gone
Can't be singing louder than the guns when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

All my days won't be dances of delight when I'm gone
And the sands will be shifting from my sight when I'm gone
Can't add my name into the fight while I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

And I won't be laughing at the lies when I'm gone
And I can't question how or when or why when I'm gone
Can't live proud enough to die when I'm gone
So I guess I'll have to do it while I'm here

----------

"Shalom & Aloha my Liberty-Luvin' Comrades!"

2009-08-26T10:47:00.002-10:00

From Steve Schub:

For those interested, below you'll find an excellent article by Dr. Leonard Peikoff on why Health Care is not, and can never be, considered a "Right"- as defined by our Founding Fathers. Just below that- a brief article on the kind of pro-freedom reforms, which could be, and should be implemented. Reforms which if implemented, would allow our health care to survive and flourish, by fully respecting the individual rights of both doctors and patients.
In dubious battle,
On the barricades,
Your Schubieshake

p.s.
Lastly, and just for fun, two websites I strongly recommend for high-caliber "intellectual ammunition"...
Americans For Free Choice in Medicine:
http://www.afcm.org
and
We Stand Firm:
http://www.westandfirm.org
xoxo,
SS
----

Health Care is Not a Right
by Dr. Leonard Peikoff

Most people who oppose socialized medicine do so on the grounds that it is moral and well-intentioned, but impractical; i.e., it is a noble idea--which just somehow does not work. I do not agree that socialized medicine is moral and well-intentioned, but impractical. Of course, it is impractical--it does not work--but I hold that it is impractical because it is immoral. This is not a case of noble in theory but a failure in practice; it is a case of vicious in theory and therefore a disaster in practice. I want to focus on the moral issue at stake. So long as people believe that socialized medicine is a noble plan, there is no way to fight it. You cannot stop a noble plan--not if it really is noble. The only way you can defeat it is to unmask it--to show that it is the very opposite of noble. Then at least you have a fighting chance.

What is morality in this context? The American concept of it is officially stated in the Declaration of Independence. It upholds man's unalienable, individual rights. The term "rights," note, is a moral (not just a political) term; it tells us that a certain course of behavior is right, sanctioned, proper, a prerogative to be respected by others, not interfered with--and that anyone who violates a man's rights is: wrong, morally wrong, unsanctioned, evil.

Now our only rights, the American viewpoint continues, are the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. According to the Founding Fathers, we are not born with a right to a trip to Disneyland, or a meal at McDonald's, or a kidney dialysis (nor with the 18th-century equivalent of these things). We have certain specific rights--and only these.

Why only these? Observe that all legitimate rights have one thing in common: they are rights to action, not to rewards from other people. The American rights impose no obligations on other people, merely the negative obligation to leave you alone. The system guarantees you the chance to work for what you want--not to be given it without effort by somebody else.

The right to life, e.g., does not mean that your neighbors have to feed and clothe you; it means you have the right to earn your food and clothes yourself, if necessary by a hard struggle, and that no one can forcibly stop your struggle for these things or steal them from you if and when you have achieved them. In other words: you have the right to act, and to keep the results of your actions, the products you make, to keep them or to trade them with others, if you wish. But you have no right to the actions or products of others, except on terms to which they voluntarily agree.

To take one more example: the right to the pursuit of happiness is precisely that: the right to the pursuit--to a certain type of action on your part and its result--not to any guarantee that other people will make you happy or even try to do so. Otherwise, there would be no liberty in the country: if your mere desire for something, anything, imposes a duty on other people to satisfy you, then they have no choice in their lives, no say in what they do, they have no liberty, they cannot pursue their happiness. Your "right" to happiness at their expense means that they become rightless serfs, i.e., your slaves. Your right to anything at others' expense means that they become rightless.

That is why the U.S. system defines rights as it does, strictly as the rights to action. This was the approach that made the U.S. the first truly free country in all world history--and, soon afterwards, as a result, the greatest country in history, the richest and the most powerful. It became the most powerful because its view of rights made it the most moral. It was the country of individualism and personal independence.

Today, however, we are seeing the rise of principled immorality in this country. We are seeing a total abandonment by the intellectuals and the politicians of the moral principles on which the U.S. was founded. We are seeing the complete destruction of the concept of rights. The original American idea has been virtually wiped out, ignored as if it had never existed. The rule now is for politicians to ignore and violate men's actual rights, while arguing about a whole list of rights never dreamed of in this country's founding documents--rights which require no earning, no effort, no action at all on the part of the recipient.

You are entitled to something, the politicians say, simply because it exists and you want or need it--period. You are entitled to be given it by the government. Where does the government get it from? What does the government have to do to private citizens--to their individual rights--to their real rights--in order to carry out the promise of showering free services on the people?

The answers are obvious. The newfangled rights wipe out real rights--and turn the people who actually create the goods and services involved into servants of the state. The Russians tried this exact system for many decades. Unfortunately, we have not learned from their experience. Yet the meaning of socialism is clearly evident in any field at all--you don't need to think of health care as a special case; it is just as apparent if the government were to proclaim a universal right to food, or to a vacation, or to a haircut. I mean: a right in the new sense: not that you are free to earn these things by your own effort and trade, but that you have a moral claim to be given these things free of charge, with no action on your part, simply as handouts from a benevolent government.

How would these alleged new rights be fulfilled? Take the simplest case: you are born with a moral right to hair care, let us say, provided by a loving government free of charge to all who want or need it. What would happen under such a moral theory?

Haircuts are free, like the air we breathe, so some people show up every day for an expensive new styling, the government pays out more and more, barbers revel in their huge new incomes, and the profession starts to grow ravenously, bald men start to come in droves for free hair implantations, a school of fancy, specialized eyebrow pluckers develops--it's all free, the government pays. The dishonest barbers are having a field day, of course--but so are the honest ones; they are working and spending like mad, trying to give every customer his heart's desire, which is a millionaire's worth of special hair care and services--the government starts to scream, the budget is out of control. Suddenly directives erupt: we must limit the number of barbers, we must limit the time spent on haircuts, we must limit the permissible type of hair styles; bureaucrats begin to split hairs about how many hairs a barber should be allowed to split. A new computerized office of records filled with inspectors and red tape shoots up; some barbers, it seems, are still getting too rich, they must be getting more than their fair share of the national hair, so barbers have to start applying for Certificates of Need in order to buy razors, while peer review boards are established to assess every stylist's work, both the dishonest and the overly honest alike, to make sure that no one is too bad or too good or too busy or too unbusy. Etc. In the end, there are lines of wretched customers waiting for their chance to be routinely scalped by bored, hog-tied haircutters some of whom remember dreamily the old days when somehow everything was so much better.

Do you think the situation would be improved by having hair-care cooperatives organized by the government?--having them engage in managed competition, managed by the government, in order to buy haircut insurance from companies controlled by the government?

If this is what would happen under government-managed hair care, what else can possibly happen--it is already starting to happen--under the idea of health care as a right? Health care in the modern world is a complex, scientific, technological service. How can anybody be born with a right to such a thing?

Under the American system you have a right to health care if you can pay for it, i.e., if you can earn it by your own action and effort. But nobody has the right to the services of any professional individual or group simply because he wants them and desperately needs them. The very fact that he needs these services so desperately is the proof that he had better respect the freedom, the integrity, and the rights of the people who provide them.

You have a right to work, not to rob others of the fruits of their work, not to turn others into sacrificial, rightless animals laboring to fulfill your needs.

Some of you may ask here: But can people afford health care on their own? Even leaving aside the present government-inflated medical prices, the answer is: Certainly people can afford it. Where do you think the money is coming from right now to pay for it all--where does the government get its fabled unlimited money? Government is not a productive organization; it has no source of wealth other than confiscation of the citizens' wealth, through taxation, deficit financing or the like.

But, you may say, isn't it the "rich" who are really paying the costs of medical care now--the rich, not the broad bulk of the people? As has been proved time and again, there are not enough rich anywhere to make a dent in the government's costs; it is the vast middle class in the U.S. that is the only source of the kind of money that national programs like government health care require. A simple example of this is the fact that all of these new programs rest squarely on the backs not of Big Business, but of small businessmen who are struggling in today's economy merely to stay alive and in existence. Under any socialized regime, it is the "little people" who do most of the paying for it--under the senseless pretext that "the people" can't afford such and such, so the government must take over. If the people of a country truly couldn't afford a certain service--as e.g. in Somalia--neither, for that very reason, could any government in that country afford it, either.

Some people can't afford medical care in the U.S. But they are necessarily a small minority in a free or even semi-free country. If they were the majority, the country would be an utter bankrupt and could not even think of a national medical program. As to this small minority, in a free country they have to rely solely on private, voluntary charity. Yes, charity, the kindness of the doctors or of the better off--charity, not right, i.e. not their right to the lives or work of others. And such charity, I may say, was always forthcoming in the past in America. The advocates of Medicaid and Medicare under LBJ did not claim that the poor or old in the '60's got bad care; they claimed that it was an affront for anyone to have to depend on charity.

But the fact is: You don't abolish charity by calling it something else. If a person is getting health care for nothing, simply because he is breathing, he is still getting charity, whether or not any politician, lobbyist or activist calls it a "right." To call it a Right when the recipient did not earn it is merely to compound the evil. It is charity still--though now extorted by criminal tactics of force, while hiding under a dishonest name.

As with any good or service that is provided by some specific group of men, if you try to make its possession by all a right, you thereby enslave the providers of the service, wreck the service, and end up depriving the very consumers you are supposed to be helping. To call "medical care" a right will merely enslave the doctors and thus destroy the quality of medical care in this country, as socialized medicine has done around the world, wherever it has been tried, including Canada (I was born in Canada and I know a bit about that system first hand).

I would like to clarify the point about socialized medicine enslaving the doctors. Let me quote here from an article I wrote a few years ago: "Medicine: The Death of a Profession."

"In medicine, above all, the mind must be left free. Medical treatment involves countless variables and options that must be taken into account, weighed, and summed up by the doctor's mind and subconscious. Your life depends on the private, inner essence of the doctor's function: it depends on the input that enters his brain, and on the processing such input receives from him. What is being thrust now into the equation? It is not only objective medical facts any longer. Today, in one form or another, the following also has to enter that brain: 'The DRG administrator [in effect, the hospital or HMO man trying to control costs] will raise hell if I operate, but the malpractice attorney will have a field day if I don't--and my rival down the street, who heads the local PRO [Peer Review Organization], favors a CAT scan in these cases, I can't afford to antagonize him, but the CON boys disagree and they won't authorize a CAT scanner for our hospital--and besides the FDA prohibits the drug I should be prescribing, even though it is widely used in Europe, and the IRS might not allow the patient a tax deduction for it, anyhow, and I can't get a specialist's advice because the latest Medicare rules prohibit a consultation with this diagnosis, and maybe I shouldn't even take this patient, he's so sick--after all, some doctors are manipulating their slate of patients, they accept only the healthiest ones, so their average costs are coming in lower than mine, and it looks bad for my staff privileges.' Would you like your case to be treated this way--by a doctor who takes into account your objective medical needs and the contradictory, unintelligible demands of some ninety different state and Federal government agencies? If you were a doctor could you comply with all of it? Could you plan or work around or deal with the unknowable? But how could you not? Those agencies are real and they are rapidly gaining total power over you and your mind and your patients.
In this kind of nightmare world, if and when it takes hold fully, thought is helpless; no one can decide by rational means what to do. A doctor either obeys the loudest authority--or he tries to sneak by unnoticed, bootlegging some good health care occasionally or, as so many are doing now, he simply gives up and quits the field".

Any mandatory and comprehensive plan will finish off quality medicine in this country--because it will finish off the medical profession. It will deliver doctors bound hands and feet to the mercies of the bureaucracy.
The only hope--for the doctors, for their patients, for all of us--is for the doctors to assert a moral principle. I mean: to assert their own personal individual rights--their real rights in this issue--their right to their lives, their liberty, their property, their pursuit of happiness. The Declaration of Independence applies to the medical profession too. We must reject the idea that doctors are slaves destined to serve others at the behest of the state.
Doctors, Ayn Rand wrote, are not servants of their patients. They are "traders, like everyone else in a free society, and they should bear that title proudly, considering the crucial importance of the services they offer."

The battle against socialized medicine depends on the doctors speaking out against it--not only on practical grounds, but, first of all, on moral grounds. The doctors must defend themselves and their own interests as a matter of solemn justice, upholding a moral principle, the first moral principle: self-preservation.

Dr. Leonard Peikoff is a philosopher living in Southern California, and is the founder of the Ayn Rand Institute, and the author of The Ominous Parallels and of Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. He is currently at work on his third book, The DIM Hypothesis.
-------------
Seven Simple Rules for Health Care Reform
by Richard E. Ralston
The status quo in American health care is indefensible—an expensive regulatory and bureaucratic mess. What that calls for, however, is not more layers of regulation and complicated mandates. Nor should government take over health care completely and run it as part of a political spoils system.

State government proposals have proven too expensive in California and have collapsed. In Massachusetts expenses for mandatory insurance after one year are spiraling out of control faster than budgets can be printed. New recommendations in Colorado and elsewhere are being shelved because they are also too expensive to be considered at present. The alternative is one of elegance and simplicity: adopt changes now that require no new government expense, but that remove regulatory complexity and allow freedom of choice. To achieve that end, we need to adopt a few simple rules.

The first simple rule: Make all medical services, insurance and personal savings for such expenses exempt from all federal, state and local income and payroll taxes. Those who complain about the cost of medical care and insurance must be confronted with the fact that if we cannot afford medical care, we surely cannot afford to pay taxes on the money we set aside for it.

The second simple rule: Allow an individual or corporate tax deduction equal to double the value of the service for all charity care by medical care providers. At one time America had a vigorous network of private charity care, which was largely destroyed by the government barging in. We need to restore that environment of private charity, which was more efficient, effective and compassionate.

The third simple rule: Pass legislation now proposed in the U.S. Congress that would give every individual or business the ability to purchase insurance in a national market, from insurance companies in any state. That would allow for ownership of health insurance that is more affordable and can follow individuals from job to job and state to state. The increased competition between insurance companies would restrain the cost of insurance.

The fourth simple rule: Allow the purchase of basic health insurance with high deductibles and low premiums that covers major illness or injury and annual exams, in conjunction with tax-free accounts for out-of-pocket expenses, such as deductibles. That, more than anything, would make insurance premiums more affordable for Americans who fear the financial consequences of health misfortune.

The fifth simple rule: Broaden the availability of optional coverage provided by Medicare Advantage, but allow for additional tax-deductible premiums to be paid by those seniors who elect such options. More choices from more options should be available to retirees—but not paid for by taxpayers. This would allow for expanded and more efficient coverage, and reintroduce an element of competition to those who seek to provide health care to seniors.

The sixth simple rule: Allow Medicare patients to utilize their Health Savings Accounts to pay for services from their Medicare physicians. This could bring thousands of doctors back into the Medicare program overnight and eliminate the ridiculous and unjust prohibition on those who want to spend their own money on their medical care.

The seventh simple rule: Limit non-economic or punitive damages in all malpractice or other litigation against medical providers or drug and medical equipment firms to a maximum of $250,000 (indexed for inflation). This would wring the bonanza for a few law firms out of the current ocean of litigation—and the high cost of "defensive medicine" now practiced by providers as protection against such legal extortion. The effect would be a reduction in the cost of medical care and insurance for everyone.

While these changes would result in more efficient, affordable and uncomplicated health care, achieving them will be no simple matter—thanks to those who oppose any improvements as an obstacle to massive new government controls. But we can stop new regulations, mandates, taxes, government spending and administrative agencies. We can uphold the rational alternative—freedom and personal choice—which can improve the quality and affordability of health care without government spending.

Richard E. Ralston is Executive Director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine.

The New Third Rail... by Robert Tracinski

2009-07-21T20:00:00.002-10:00

TIA Daily • July 21, 2009

The New Third Rail

Save Individual Private Health Insurance

by Robert Tracinski

President Obama is pushing hard to get his health care bill up for a vote in the next few weeks. The trademark tactic of this administration is speed. They try to achieve their agenda by ramming legislation through Congress as fast as possible—too fast for opponents to subject the bills to scrutiny, search for objectionable provisions, or develop effective counter-arguments in a public debate. Heck, Obama and his allies in Congress push through the bills so fast that congressmen and administration officials themselves don't even have time to read the damned things.

If we're able to block his health care bill, it will be because we actually got a little bit of time to read it. The folks at Investor's Business Daily did just that, and what they found right away is that Obama's bill would outlaw individual private health insurance. It was already known that the so-called "public option" for health insurance was an attempt to "crowd out" private health insurance by luring people into government-subsidized insurance, but the plan to kill private health insurance is actually much more direct: the bill bans insurance companies from writing new individual policies. Government-provided health insurance turns out not to be an "option": it's mandatory.

Killing private health insurance is the only way the left can achieve its dream of a government-run health-care system. They have to do it, because government-provided health coverage, even if it is subsidized, cannot actually compete with private insurance. Government-provided care always leads to cost-cutting—isn't that the whole stated purpose of health-care reform, to cut costs?—which always means rationing the amount and kind of care we will be provided. Given that risk, many people would refuse to go onto the government program and cling to their individual private plans instead. And this makes it harder for the bureaucrats to impose rationing on government-funded care, because they know patients in the government program will compare the quality of their care to what is available from private plans.

Private health insurance sets a kind of gold standard for the quality of care people expect—and that's a standard government-run health care has never met and can never meet.

All of the relentless propaganda about how "our health care system is broken" is an attempt to blind us to this fact. It is supposed to make us think that we are not getting the best care in the world, when we are.

I know, because my family has been a pretty significant user of medical care in the past few years. Two years ago, our first child was born, and we now have a second child on the way. In between, my wife was in a semi-serious car accident. So we've spent our share of time in hospitals and examination rooms recently, and I cannot adequately express my gratitude for the quality of care we have received.

Three experiences stand out. When my first son, Walter, was born, one of the pediatricians noticed that his heart was making a slight noise, so he sent us up for a consultation with a pediatric cardiologist. I have a decent knowledge of science, and I have a few friends who are doctors and engineers, so I consider myself a decent judge of experts. It's not too difficult to tell when you're dealing with a physician who really knows what he's talking about and is able to answer your questions clearly and thoroughly. I was very impressed with this cardiologist, who performed an echocardiogram (a high-precision ultrasound imaging of the heart) and explained that what the pediatrician heard was actually a normal sound—what he called the singing of the "heart strings" that connect opposite walls of the ventricles. It was a thorough cardiac workup that relieved all of our anxieties—with no need to get on a waiting list or ask anyone's permission or go through some arcane cost-benefit analysis.

After Sherri's car accident, she experienced some vision problems. Since she is very near-sighted, she is at heightened risk for retinal detachment, and she was afraid that the impact of the collision—she was rear-ended by a truck going about 60 miles per hour—could have broken her retina loose. So again we searched around for the best expert we could find, a very impressive retina specialist, who did a very thorough check.

More recently, we went in for an ultrasound on the new baby. If you think an ultrasound is just about getting a grainy image of the fetus, you haven't seen one lately. In this ultrasound, our physician looked at the development of the baby's internal organs and the brain (I could clearly see the cerebellum). Using Doppler ultrasound, which is able to track the direction and rate of motion, he looked at the blood flow through the baby's heart. And he performed a whole other series of measurements (the length of the femur, the circumference of the skull, etc.) which are markers for potential birth defects. It was a thorough physical check-up—way more thorough than anything I've ever had—performed long before the baby is born.

All of this offered us the reassurance that we have another healthy child on the way. This is not something we take for granted. My wife and I waited a long time to have children, and with age, the risk of complications increases. So it is an enormous benefit for us to be able to check thoroughly and be sure.

Now notice that all of these examples are, fortunately, about medical problems that did not exist. Which makes them precisely the kind of tests that would be very easy for bean-counting bureaucrats to deny on the grounds that they are not cost-effective. Not cost-effective, that is, for the government. But I didn't have to worry about what was cost-effective for the government. I only had to think about what was cost-effective for me. I was able to make the choice based on what my insurance would cover and—since I have a Health Savings Account, one of the few pro-free-market health-care reforms Congress has managed to pass—what I could afford to pay in deductibles and premiums.

My experience with the "health care system"—i.e., with my own doctors and nurses—has been a dream. I am not wealthy by any means (I am a self-employed writer, which should say just about everything right there), and I have no special connections or "pull." Yet I have had no difficulty making sure that my family receives top-quality care.

The key is that we are in control. We are able to shop around for the best doctors and the best insurance coverage, and we are able to decide if we want to spend, say, $1500 on an ultrasound or amniocentesis in order to avoid greater costs (or more tragic consequences) later on.

This system works at allowing me to protect myself and my loved ones. And that's why I am terrified that Barack Obama wants to smash it all to pieces.

A few days ago, I got an e-mail from Vern Hodgins, a long-time subscriber in Canada, who recounted a very opposite experience with Canada's health-care system. Read this carefully, because if Obama gets his way, the happy story I told above is not the future. This is:

"My wife and I relocated to a new community. For my wife, that meant finding a new doctor, which became a six-year wait. During that time, she had to do with a local outpatient clinic, which rotates its medical staff. It is rare to see the same doctor twice, which renders continuity feeble at best. As well, the rules do not allow rotation doctors to provide full physical examinations; only a family physician may do that.

"While waiting in line for a family doctor, my wife became ill. Typically, a patient gets about ten minutes with a community clinic doctor, which for my wife meant cursory examinations and referrals to physiotherapists and chiropractors.

"My wife's condition worsened and we could not do anything about it. Finally, the government granted her a family doctor. That doctor also gave her a cursory exam, diagnosed her ailment as a sports injury, and referred her to more physio and chiropractic treatment. Her condition worsened still, and still her doctor insisted it was a sports injury.

"Fed up with my dear wife whimpering her nights away in pain, I visited her doctor. The doctor's receptionist rudely rebuffed me, saying my wife had to wait in line just like everyone else because despite what I thought, she was no more or less special than anyone else.

"The next morning I described my wife's condition to a work colleague who is a doctor. Having never met my wife, and with only my description, that doctor told me to get my wife into a hospital immediately because she was certain it was a metastasized cancer.

"Sure enough, as soon as the hospital emergency staff saw my wife, they knew; it was advanced non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which had dissolved some of her collarbone. My wife had to be told her prognosis was not good, that she had to prepare for the worst. Fortunately for me, my doctor colleague, a high profile media individual, used her influence to get my wife the best specialists in the country—which, yes, meant that my wife is somewhat more special after all. She survived. She endured the most aggressive treatment regimen there is, and though she's left with considerable damage from the radiation, she's alive.

"The incompetent family doctor, who misdiagnosed, suffered no consequence. As well, my wife must keep the same family doctor unless she wishes to wait another six years or so.

"That's socialized medicine. Worse still, one may not openly criticize our system without being told to move to America if we don't like the world's finest socialized medical system. Criticizing our system is tantamount to being a global warming 'denier.' The propaganda is that effective."

Anyone can have a family doctor who makes a wrong diagnosis—but in America, you're not stuck with him. I'm a fan of the TV show "Mystery Diagnosis," which tells the real stories of people with very rare medical conditions who spend years trying to get a proper diagnosis and treatment. One of the things these patients talk about is how you have to "be your own advocate," and most of the cases are solved when the patient himself searches for information on the Internet, finds a specialist who is an expert in the disease, and seeks out that physician's advice.

But how can you be your own advocate under socialized medicine? It is outlawed, because you are no longer in control of your own health care. You have no freedom to choose a physician, or to seek out a specialist on your own, or to decide what medical tests you will pay for.

Mr. Hodgins concludes his story by saying, "In Canada, the patient is not a client; deference goes to the doctor." I don't think that's quite accurate, because I've known a few doctors who had to work under the Canadian system, and it's no treat for them, either—not for the decent ones. In Canada's system, deference doesn't go to the doctor. It goes to the state. Care is denied in order to cut costs and save trouble for the government.

The Democrats' attempt to eliminate individual private health insurance, combined with the enormous, multi-trillion-dollar price tag of their health-care bill, tells us that this is what they want for America, too. The purpose of this bill is not to save money or provide better care or—try not to laugh—provide "health choices." Its purpose is to make us dependent on the government for the most important needs of our lives.

For the political leaders on the left, the purpose of socialized medicine is control: they want us to turn to them as the saviors we have to supplicate for every need in life. For the political supporters on the left, the motive for socialized medicine is envy: the want everyone held to the same equal standard, even if it is an equally low standard, so that no one will be allowed to think that he is "special" and has a right to seek out better care.

What we need, and we need it urgently, is a political rebellion in favor of independence, which is the only real guarantee of our security and happiness. And to preserve our independence from government, we need to send the message that any legislation that even remotely threatens individual private health insurance is a red line that politicians dare not cross.

President Obama is already frightened of this issue. Late last week he tried to defuse it by responding that "If we don't get health care reform done now, then no one's health insurance is going to be secure." In effect, he's telling us that he has to destroy our health insurance in order to save it. I don't think anyone's going to find that very convincing.

For years, Social Security has been the "third rail of American politics"—an analogy to the electrified extra rail on commuter train lines. The rule has been "touch it and you die": any reform that even threatens to scale back Social Security has (supposedly) caused the political demise of the person who attempts it.

I think we should create a new third rail in American politics: individual private health insurance. If we can block Obama's health-care bill—causing Barack Obama to fail on one of the central goals of his presidency—then we will send the message: leave our health insurance alone. Touch it and you die.

That's a harsh rule for politicians, but it reflects the harsh fact that if they touch it, we die.

Steven Schub Saves the Jews

2009-06-02T22:53:00.003-10:00

By Orit Arfa
Jun 1, 2009

I was on my sofa in Jerusalem reading the opening credits of my favorite TV show, 24, looking for Jewish names to figure out exactly how many Jews “control” Hollywood. Lo and behold, I see my friend’s name: Steven Schub.

I initially met Schub through the Atlasphere. We met for coffee in Israel when he was there visiting his sister and have stayed in touch since.

On 24 Schub played an Islamic terrorist, Samir. With his fellow terrorists, he vaporized Valencia in a nuclear attack.

Steven Schub as the terrorist "Samir" in the TV series 24 (2007)

He’s probably best-known for his work in the film Caught with Edwards James Olmos and guest star appearances on NYPD Blue, and, yes, Sesame Street.

His day job is lead-singer for The Fenwicks, a 10-piece “Afro-Celtic Yiddish ska” band, but that’s a whole ’nother story.

Now he’s starring as a Jewish hero in the play “The Accomplices” at the Fountain Theater (as a guest production being performed at the Odyssey Theater) in Los Angeles.

Peter Bergson, born Hillel Kook and nephew of the famous Rabbi Kook, came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe to save Jews from Hitler’s clutches only to be met by indifference, and sometimes hostility, from key figures of the Jewish community and the Roosevelt administration.

Schub’s admiration for Bergson’s ideas and actions has lent to an inspiring and powerful performance.

Schub said over the phone (without the show’s Eastern-European accent), “I definitely have always responded to people who live what they believed, and Peter Bergson was a guy who did. He was a shining example of what one man can do — how one individual can change history.”

Schub researched the role by reading Bergon’s writings and interviewing his daughter, a political science professor at Ben Gurion University. He discovered that Bergson’s views actually bear many similarities to Rand, a great admirer of the Founding Fathers.

“He was a Jeffersonian,” Schub said, speaking not as an expert on Bergson but as an actor who dutifully researched his character. Bergson believed that all people living in Israel — Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists — should have equal rights (which for the most part they do) and he abhorred the idea of tying religious identity to national identity, believing in separation of religion and state.

He served as a member of the first Knesset, but his insistence on having a Constitution similar to America’s eventually led to a rift between him and right-wing leader Menachem Begin.

Having started out as a disciple of Vladmir Jabotinsky, founder of the Irgun — the militant Jewish army in pre-State days — he soon evolved from a Jewish Zionist to a Classical Liberal (not to be confused with today’s liberalism), believed Jewish identity needed to be reexamined, and favored the school of thought that believed Jews in the Land of Israel needed to be reinvented as “Hebrews.”

Steven Schub as Peter Bergson in "The Accomplices"

But in his day, like many Irgunists, he was written off as a fascist. Schub: “As a consistent defender of absolute individual rights, this was of course an absurd, grotesque accusation — especially as his whole life was dedicated to fighting for life, liberty and freedom. In the culture of the time however, anyone who was not a socialist or outright communist was often tagged with that epithet.”

“He didn’t fall into any Left-Right alternative. He was, or became, essentially a radical for individualism, in same way Ayn Rand or Jabotinsky was.”

What convinced Bergson most of the need to escape from Collectivist thinking were his own negative encounters with Jewish leaders as he tried to save his brethren, dramatized very well in the play. Members of the Jewish establishment tried to silence him and even deport him when he started protesting too loudly to get America to do more to help save the Jews of Europe — by bombing Auschwitz for example, or allowing more refugees in.

Except for screenwriter Ben Hecht, the Jews who supposedly “controlled” Hollywood back then didn’t use their influence to help the Jewish plight. However, legendary acting teacher Stella Adler, actors Marlon Brando, John Garfield, Paul Muni, Harpo Marx, and even Frank Sinatra did become Bergson allies.

“Instead of wasting their time fighting Bergson, Jewish leaders could have mobilized to create a tidal wave of pressure. The non-Jews were often more than glad to jump on board.”Despite it all, eventually Bergson’s efforts led to the creation of the War Refugee Board which is credited with saving the lives of over 200,000 Jews and 20,000 non-Jews.

My kudos to Bergson, whom I was glad to discover through this play, and to my friend Schub for doing such a heroic job with the role.

He sure made up for blasting Valencia.

NOTE: The Accomplices runs until June 14th, with performances Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm. Tickets are $30.00. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. (between Olympic and Santa Monica Blvd) in West Los Angeles. For reservations and information, call 323-663-1525 or go here. Every performance so far has sold out completely, so act soon.

ARI - Atlas Shrugged and the Tea Party Revolts

2009-05-13T08:08:00.000-10:00

The spark and the fire...

2009-05-04T19:27:00.003-10:00

Here's a great photo of actor/musician Steve Schub and Objectivist legend Dr. Leonard Peikoff, two people I admire greatly. Although I've never met either one officially I've been corresponding with Steve for several years and I did stand within about 20 feet of Dr. Peikoff at the premiere showing of the excellent documentary, "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life" about 10 years ago.

Someday soon (post-deployment of course) I hope to see Steve in his current theatrical performance in the play "The Accomplices."

If you have not heard Steve's music you can download them at iTunes... just search for "Fenwicks" and get ready to boogie! Dr. Peikoff has a weekly podcast where he discusses questions related to the philosophy of Objectivism.

In this time of political and economic uncertainty its good to get a dose of "the cure" that Objectivism provides. These two men are primary carriers of that much needed antidote.

Cheers!
Joe

"A Must See theatrical experience"

2009-04-30T10:38:00.001-10:00

Here's a review of the play "The Accomplices" starring Steve Schub...

"A Must See theatrical experience"

mypetard's Rating
This show is devastatingly wonderful. It does everything that good theatre
should - entertains with great actors while illuminating a shameful part
of history. I especially love that it brings up the fact that hiding from
the ugly truths of war and human rights violations are continuing today.
The eternal ? - why don't people learn from history? Special kudos to
Steven Schub as Peter Bergson as he gives such an indelible performance
with intelligence, compassion, steadfastness and tenderness that it moved
me to tears. He is one of the best I've seen on the LA theatre scene and I
can't wait to see him in another role very soon."

Man First! So sayeth the Fenwicks...

2009-04-22T05:27:00.001-10:00

From the Fenwicks:

In "honor" (and defiance) of Earth Day, dig The Fenwicks reggae inspired, Objectivist take on Environmentalism and it's anti-industrial revolution.
Our song "Man First". Available now, free for your downloading pleasure!
On MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/thefenwicks
On Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fenwicks/51093034005
On iTunes:
http://www.itunes.com/thefenwicks

Man First
Words by Steven Schub
Music by Jimmie Corrieri, Carlo Mercieri, Ken Nasta, Chris Pyle and Ed Richardson
Performed by The Fenwicks

I smell blood on your breath
I smell blood and nothing else
I smell blood on your breath
And it's mine

What is that you preach?
What is that you teach?
What is that: "One". "One". "One"?

Crawl back to your grave
Crawl back to your dark days
Crawl back to your Stone Age
To your self-made grave

I smell death on your breath
I smell death and nothing less
I smell death on your breath
And it's mine

Nature is not my Mother
And I am not her Son
Nature is not my Mother
And I am no one's Son

This my World to create
This my canvas here to paint
This my World to create
This my canvas here to paint
----------
For all things Fenwick-ian: http://www.thefenwicks.com

Pottery Bahrain...

2009-04-12T19:30:00.001-10:00

This is the Delmon pottery shop in Manama, Bahrain. We got to watch one fo the guys making pots on a wheel. Amazing store! See more on my facebook page.

Bad debt... bad governance...

2009-04-09T23:18:00.001-10:00

Going Galt... it may be time...

2009-04-02T20:42:00.000-10:00

"The Accomplices" reopens in LA...

2009-04-02T05:59:00.001-10:00

From Steve Schub:

This just in from today's "Broadway World" (see below)... xoxo, and back on
the barricades, Yer Schubieshake
-----------------------------------------------------------
THE ACCOMPLICES Comes To The Odyssey Theater This April 25th. Runs
Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm Sundays at 2pm until June14th.
The Fountain Theatre reprises last season's hit production for a limited run.
"Bottom line: A powerful play that will get your blood racing and brain
thinking, skillfully acted and directed. Schub is compelling as the
impassioned Bergson."
- Hollywood Reporter
For Tickets and Info: http://www.fountaintheatre.com/whatcoming.html

by BWW News Desk

This April, the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning Fountain
Theatre brings back last season's sold-out production of The Accomplices
by former New York Times political reporter Bernard Weinraub. The true
story of firebrand Peter Bergson, who shook up the U.S. State Department
and the American Jewish establishment in his fight to rescue European Jews
from the Nazis, is back with Steven Schub heading the cast:
"Schub dominates the stage with his intense performance as Bergson" -
Cynthia Citron, Santa Monica Daily Press. "A dynamic portrayal by Schub"
- Buzzine. "Schub smolders and explodes" -RLN News.

Helmed by director Deborah LaVine ("Lavine skillfully melds a fine cast
into a gripping production" - LA Weekly) this Fountain Theatre production,
presented in association with the Israeli Leadership Council,
re-opens at the Odyssey Theatre in West L.A. for a limited guest
engagement April 25 through June 14.
One low-priced preview takes place on April 24.

What the U.S. government and American Jews did - and didn't - do to help
Jews fleeing the Nazis is the subject of Weinraub's provocative new play
based on true events. In 1940, Hillel Kook arrived in the U.S. fresh from
the underground resistance in Palestine. Changing his name to Peter
Bergson, he sought aid for the rescue of European Jews from the Nazis.
Shocked to find himself blocked by both the Roosevelt administration and
the Jewish establishment, Bergson spearheaded an extraordinary campaign of
public rallies, hard-hitting newspaper advertisements and lobbying in
Congress in his one-man fight to save millions and end the conspiracy of
silence and inaction that continues to haunt us to this day.

"For many years this remained a little-known footnote in American
history," comments Fountain Theatre artistic director Stephen Sachs. "It's
a fascinating story that casts U.S. foreign policy during World War II in
a surprising light."

A long-time reporter for The New York Times, Bernard Weinraub was a
political correspondent in Vietnam, London, New Delhi and Washington D.C.,
including the White House, before moving to Los Angeles in 1991 to cover
the film business. It was while he was based in D.C. that he was assigned
to cover a documentary about Peter Bergson called Who Shall Live and Who
Shall Die? by the young filmmaker Laurence Jarvik. The subject stayed with
him, and a dozen years later he began work on his own play. The
Accomplices went on to win a Stellar Network award, leading to its
premiere in New York by The New Group in March, 2007 and a Drama Desk
Award nomination for Best New Play. The West Coast premiere at The
Fountain played to SRO houses for an extended, ten-week run. "Weinraub
brings a seldom-dramatized chapter of history to vivid life... a
consistently lucid and fast-paced production" wrote theater critic Don
Shirley in LA Citybeat. "GO!," agreed the LA Weekly: "a gripping
production." The Hollywood Reporter called The Fountain Theatre production
of The Accomplices "A powerful play that will get your blood racing and
your brain thinking, skillfully acted and directed."
"Steven Schub plays Peter Bergson with the zeal of a man fighting for what
he believes is right" - wrote Carol Kaufmann in Stage Happenings.

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in Bergson's story. The
Fountain re-opening is scheduled to coincide with the observance of
Holocaust Remembrance Week. That same weekend, Pierre Sauvage's
documentary short about Bergson, Not Idly By - Peter Bergson, America and
the Holocaust, premieres as part of the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival,
and this summer will see the release of Against the Tide, a documentary
narrated by Dustin Hoffman. In 2003, David S. Wyman and Rafael Medoff's
book, "A Race Against Death: Peter Bergson, America and the Holocaust"
included previously unpublished letters, including a scathing indictment
of the Roosevelt administration's inaction by a Treasury Department
official.

The mission of the Israeli Leadership Council is to fortify and enhance a
productive and continuous relationship between Israeli-Americans and the
State of Israel through community empowerment, activism and philanthropy.
This production is sponsored by Debbie and Naty Saidoff.

The Accomplices opens on April 25, with performances Thursdays, Fridays
and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through June 14. One preview
performance is scheduled on Friday, April 24 at 8 pm. Tickets are $30.00,
except the preview which is $15.00. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055
S. Sepulveda Blvd. in West Los Angeles. For reservations and information,
call (323) 663-1525 or go to www.FountainTheatre.com.

"The Accomplices" reopens in LA...

2009-04-02T05:59:00.000-10:00

The Ayn Rand Factor Revisited

2009-03-27T12:31:00.001-10:00

COMMENTARY

By Robert Tracinski

The biggest under-appreciated cultural/political story of this year is the astonishing surge in the sales of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Yesterday, I linked to the ranking page which shows the top sellers among all of the books offered through Amazon.com. As of Thursday night, Atlas Shrugged is still at #19, though TIA Daily reader Michael Ryan sent me a note to say that it climbed as high as #16 yesterday. He added: "But that understates the position, maybe by 1 or 2, because there are three separate editions, each with its own ranking."

Looking at Amazon bestseller lists in narrower categories, Atlas is currently at #6 in Literature & Fiction, and at #2 in Classics, though it was at #1 there when I checked yesterday.

As an aside, anyone who is feeling pessimistic about recent political events—and who wouldn't be?—should take some reassurance by perusing Amazon's list of the 25 top sellers in "Classics." Number 1 is Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and Other Essential Writings of Thomas Paine; #2 is Atlas Shrugged; #3 is The Federalist Papers; #4 is another edition of Atlas Shrugged; #5 is another edition of Atlas Shrugged; #8 is The Fountainhead; #10 is yet another edition of Atlas Shrugged; #13 is George Orwell's 1984; #17 is a complement to The Federalist Papers: The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates; #18 is the Cliff's Notes to Atlas Shrugged; #19 is a different edition (with a different typography) of Nineteen Eighty-Four; #20 is the collected writing of Thomas Paine; #21 is Orwell's Animal Farm.

So the defense of liberty and opposition to tyranny is the theme of about half of the top-selling classics at Amazon. In looking at the other titles on this "classics" list, I recognize many of them as commonly assigned reading for high school and college courses—which is even better, since this reminds us that The Fountainhead is now widely assigned in high schools, and that Thomas Paine and The Federalist Papers are still a common part of the curriculum. If this is the case, then the cause of American liberty is still alive and still has enormous reserves of strength.

Why are people turning to Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged? As I have pointed out, a large part of the reason is that they see the events from Ayn Rand's novel acted out in today's news.

A businessman who reads TIA Daily forwarded to me a comment he just received from his attorney:

This new plan of the administration to preemptively seize and reorganize businesses that "pose a risk to the stability of the system" is just surreal. So they want regulations that allow private property to be seized by the government by decree? These guys are sounding like the villains from an Ayn Rand novel.
Similarly, TIA Daily reader Ed Mazlish sent me a link to a blog post in which the writer describes meeting an old friend who is shutting down his successful independent law practice because of all the extra taxes and regulations he expects to get hit with by the Obama administration. He concludes:

This is the grand fault of the Obama Plan—the assumption that people will work just as hard and produce just as much even when they are effectively penalized for it. And this is where John Galt was right—that the loss of the men of the mind, the loss of businessmen, is the most fatal blow an economy can suffer….
Who is John Galt?

Why, it looks as if we all are.

What is happening is that Ayn Rand's novels have already penetrated the culture to a wide enough extent that many people have at least a passing familiarity with them—and the current crisis is stirring all of those memories and associations, causing them to re-read Ayn Rand and to recommend her to others.

How far has this gone? TIA Daily reader Sev Attarian tells me that Ayn Rand and her books featured in a skit on Jimmy Fallon's late night talk show. Apparently, Fallon is the successor to Conan O'Brien as the host of one of those late night shows that appeals to "hip" young viewers. Though Sev reports that the skit wasn't very good, he draws the right conclusion from it:

Ayn Rand and Atlas have now so permeated our culture that blatant references to her and her philosophy are beginning to trickle down to the pop culture level. To say that I'm ecstatic about this would be an understatement.
All of this is really going to upset the calculations being made at the top levels of American politics.

In particular, it ought to give the Obama administration a sense that the ground underneath them is not as firm as they thought. Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress clearly believe that the financial crisis discredited capitalism in the eyes of the public, leaving the American people open to some form of socialism as the answer. But the sales of Ayn Rand's books tell an opposite story. In the midst of this crisis, hundreds of thousands of people are turning to a book that glorifies capitalism.

Meanwhile, where are all of the socialist books on the bestseller lists?

I want to make clear that I am not talking about the effect of all of the newly purchased, newly-read copies of Atlas Shrugged. I'll get to that in a moment. For now, I am talking about the cause of the surge of interest in Ayn Rand. The fact that her books are being purchased indicates that the culture was already open to a defense of capitalism.

This was not obvious six months ago, and the left certainly had grounds to believe that the financial crisis—given the appropriate "spin"—could be exploited to give capitalism a bad name. But the sales of Ayn Rand's novels are by far the strongest indication that this didn't work—that many people were not convinced that the free market was to blame, and that they were more concerned with the massive government intrusion into the market and into their own personal finances that was presented as the answer to the crisis.

Karl Rove has an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal hinting at one of the cultural-political shifts that is driving the Ayn Rand Factor: the revival of the Old Left has revived big government versus small government as a central issue in the political debate.

Something powerful is stirring in the land, and it may not be good news for President Barack Obama, his agenda or the Democratic Party….
Suddenly…, it doesn't seem like a time of new politics and new concerns. Many Americans are anxious—and in some cases angry—about a set of old issues: deficits, taxes, and the national debt. Mr. Obama's radical budget, his administration's slapdash operating manner, and events such as the AIG bonuses have revived animosity over government's size and cost.

In response, tea parties are sprouting up, and opposition is growing to more bailouts, more spending, higher taxes and larger deficits, even among Congressional Democrats….

Mr. Obama has put front and center a set of issues—spending and taxation—that brought Republicans to power in the past and may bring them back again.

Rove casts this in terms that are too narrow, political, and partisan. The big picture is this: rather than rejecting capitalism, a significant minority of the American people have sought out a better defense of capitalism, and everyone from Rush Limbaugh on down told them where they could find it: Atlas Shrugged.

And boy howdy, are they gonna get it. That's the other shoe waiting to drop. What will happen when these hundred of thousands of new readers make their way through Atlas Shrugged? How many will be convinced to accept Ayn Rand's philosophy? How many will not accept her entire philosophy but be influenced by it? How many will be won over to the capitalist cause, or be re-confirmed and emboldened in their advocacy of free minds and free markets? Stay tuned, because we are all about to find out.

In response to the commentary I wrote on Sunday about the Ayn Rand Factor, TIA Daily reader Chad Etsell reminded me of a quote from Ayn Rand:

There is a fundamental conviction which some people never acquire, some hold only in their youth, and a few hold to the end of their days—the conviction that ideas matter.... That ideas matter means that knowledge matters, that truth matters, that one’s mind matters.
He adds: "Your 'extra' piece this weekend made me think of this quote, specifically, the point that some lose this conviction in their youth. Our education system is definitely doing it's best to precipitate that loss."

I replied: "But look also at the more positive aspect of this story. The surge in serious interest in Ayn Rand—and not just among young people (in fact, not primarily among young people, from what I can tell)—is evidence that there are a good number of people who are interested in and open to ideas well beyond their youth."

I should also note that this Ayn Rand Factor will upset a few political calculations on the right, as well. The awful National Review "symposium" on Atlas Shrugged was an attempt to once again expel Ayn Rand from the right. As Joseph Bottum—a spokesman for the religious right—put it: "William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review did the world a favor, all those years ago, by throwing the randy Randians overboard. Do we really have to let them climb back on the ship now?"

The presumptuous assumption in this analogy is that the religious right is steaming along under its own power, and we Objectivists are trying to hitch our pathetic little dinghies to their ocean liner.

But what is actually going on is the opposite. The "fusionism" championed by William F. Buckley was an attempt to take the real power behind the right—a patriotic love of liberty and of America's distinctive political institutions and attitude toward life—and to hitch onto that powerful ocean liner the dilapidated old galleons of religious traditionalism.

But when it comes time to defend American capitalism, does the rank and file of the right turn to Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell? Are they snapping up copies of 50-year-old books by William F. Buckley? No, because Buckley and the religious right never produced anything like Ayn Rand's defense of American individualism. So the rank and file is realizing that she is the thinker they need to help them cope with today's political crisis.

This is the other result we should stay tuned to see. If enough of the new readers of Atlas Shrugged take Ayn Rand's underlying philosophy seriously, that could deal a permanent blow to the "fusionists" and to the religious right's would-be monopoly on the moral foundations of Americanism.—RWT

The Anti-Industrial Coup

2009-03-26T04:12:00.000-10:00

Environmental Dictatorship by Executive Decree

by Robert Tracinski

Editor's Note: This article is based on the cover article of the March 2009 print issue of The Intellectual Activist.
We all expect that there will be a contest in Congress this year over global warming and a "cap-and-trade" bill limiting carbon dioxide emissions. After all, the government cannot impose sweeping new controls on our lives without extensive public debate and a vote in Congress that must gain the support of a clear majority of the representatives of the people.

Or can it? Yesterday, the EPA issued a "finding" that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that threatens human health and can thus be regulated under the 1990 Clean Air Act.

This is a scientific farce. How can a basic constituent of the atmosphere that all humans constantly exhale be designated a "pollutant"? Moreover, as TIA Daily reader Gretchen Riehm just reminded me, water vapor is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, yet the EPA has not yet declared dihydrogen monoxide gas to be a threat to mankind.

This is also an assault on the entire structure of representative government. Controls on emissions of carbon dioxide will reach into every nook and cranny of the economy, creating a fine network of restrictions on economic activity that will make the recent regime of bailouts, salary caps, and business seizures look like laissez-faire by comparison. But it will all be done—in effect, it has just been done—by the decree of executive agency bureaucrats, without an opportunity for public debate or a legislative vote. Sure, Congress will be invited to "participate" in drafting carbon dioxide controls, but it will do so under the threat that the EPA can simply create those controls on its own, without needing to consult the people's representatives.

Ayn Rand warned that the environmentalist movement constitutes an "Anti-Industrial Revolution," but the term "revolution" implies a broad base of popular support. Instead, this is an anti-industrial coup, a seizure of power by a small elite who seek to bypass the institutions and procedures of legitimate government.

How did this happen? Through a usurpation of legislative power by the other two branches of government: the courts and the regulatory agencies of the executive branch.

The contribution from the courts is the 2007 Supreme Court ruling requiring the EPA to regard carbon dioxide as a potential "airborne pollutant" under the 1990 Clean Air Act—a law passed by Congress almost two decades ago with no intention of regulating carbon dioxide.

The executive branch's response was a document released last year that stopped short of declaring carbon dioxide a pollutant. But it did establish the legal foundation for the next administration to plan out and implement a comprehensive scheme for regulating carbon dioxide emissions, coordinating the actions of dozens of regulatory agencies.

The title of that regulatory proposal was revealing: it was called the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the Clean Air Act. The important word here is "rulemaking." In a proper system of representative government, the word for "rulemaking" is "legislation," and only Congress can do it. But Congress long ago ceded a large part of its legislative power to the executive branch by passing laws like the Clean Air Act, which set vague goals such as "fighting air pollution" and then gave executive-branch regulatory agencies the power to make "rules" for the implementation of those goals. In effect, this was an unconstitutional grant of legislative power to the executive branch.

Having surrendered that power, Congress may never get it back. Last year, one of Barack Obama's advisors described the candidate's plans for pursuing carbon dioxide regulation when he took office.

[Jason] Grumet…said if Congress hasn't acted in 18 months, about the time it would take to draft [EPA] rules, the president should…. "The EPA is obligated to move forward in the absence of Congressional action," Grumet said.
This is what is now happening.

Under what system of government does the chief executive say to the legislature, in effect, "write the legislation I want, or else I will simply enact it by decree"? The answer: not under a system of representative government and the separation of powers. Barack Obama is proposing to govern, not in the manner of an American president, but in the manner traditionally sought by leftist strongmen like Hugo Chavez.

When global warming regulations are imposed—and given the legal framework of Monday's "finding," they are now inevitable—their ultimate cause will be decades of dishonest cultural propaganda condemning industrial civilization as a scourge to be eliminated. But the immediate cause for this massive new extension of government power is the structure of existing executive-branch power: the all-encompassing reach of the regulatory agencies, and the vast power already surrendered to them by Congress.

This is the shape of the current danger to liberty: our economic freedom is being taken away by regulatory decree, with public debate and congressional votes declared irrelevant ahead of time. It proves the adage that freedom is indivisible—that attempts to take away our economic freedom always begin and end with an attack on our political freedom.

Should Americans be allowed to import and purchase safe and affordable prescription drugs from other nations?

2009-03-25T05:17:00.002-10:00

From Boxer Wyze:

The form of this question is quite revealing and the only proper way to answer it is to untangle the deeper issues involved.

Americans, as well as any other person, should be able to purchase and/or import whatever they want as long as they are not harming anyone else. My reasoning is based on some fundamental truths that current government officials and the public in general has apparently forgotten as a whole, namely the fact that every human being has certain rights that are inalienable... among these are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The right to make decisions about what one purchases is between the owner of the property (drug company) and the individual customer.

The Constitution of the United States is clear and correct in warning against the encroaching authority of government. There is absolutely no justification for the government to restrict a person from using his own judgement in deciding who and where to buy products from, including medicine. The question as stated implies that one must be ALLOWED to make this decision for oneself... this in itself is morally and politically reprehensible...

Read full article at Helium.com

Going Galt...

2009-03-07T09:08:00.001-10:00

From Jack Crawford:

Capitalists Against Sacrifice and Taxes (CAST) is an organization that will shut down the economy for one day, April 15, to protest the idea that sacrifice and paying high taxes is good. If you are a business owner, close the doors to your establishment(s) and refuse to do business that day. If you are a sympathetic employee and want to take action, stay away from work that day. Let your boss know why you’re doing it. Give him a copy of Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand wrote, "Where there is sacrifice there is someone collecting the sacrificial offerings." Do you want to sacrifice your work, your dreams, and your life? I don’t. It is time to take a stand, to make an investment of a day, to silence those who preach sacrifice. Go to the Tea Parties that are being organized around the country instead of going to work. Do you know any like-minded friends? If not, then find some. Organize your own tea party in front of city hall or other appropriate place.

I would like you to help me do this. Please contact me if you want to help make this a success. Call 301- 938-1931 or Skypename jackdoitcrawford. This opportunity gives us a chance to make a dramatic showing of people who are really against sacrificing their values and money, and at the same time publicise Atlas Shrugged. The sales of Atlas are up drastically, a new phrase, “Going Galt” has entered the language, meaning to withdraw productive services from the rest of the world. People are getting it in some fashion and we need to be there to help educate them more, even if only to tell them what book to read.

The Ayn Rand Factor

2009-03-02T16:05:00.002-10:00

The Ideal Hostess for an Ideological Boston Tea Party

by Robert Tracinski

Last week, in his now-famous rallying cry against the Obama administration's march toward socialism, CNBC financial commentator Rick Santelli called for a "Chicago Tea Party" to protest against the rapid expansion of government.

The idea of a Boston Tea Party-inspired tax protest had already been percolating, if you will, and when Santelli gave voice to it, it emerged as a new movement. A group that calls this the "New American Tea Party" has set up a website to coordinate protests across the nation this Friday, including in Washington, DC.

The comparison to the Boston Tea Party is appropriate, because it is a reminder that the American Revolution began with a revolt against taxes—and against a government that was much smaller and less intrusive than the one we have now.

It is also appropriate because it captures the sense that the political class has been acting without our consent. The ever-changing bailout plans have been hatched by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve on their own apparently unlimited authority, backed by a blank check rammed through Congress last year with little debate. Or consider the automakers' bailout, which the Bush administration decreed after Congress had specifically refused to approve it. Or take the stimulus bill, the final version of which was pushed through the House with only ten hours to read through a thousand-page preserve of leftist giveaways and insidious new regulations.

It has been said that freedom is indivisible, and since the beginning of the financial crisis we have seen that in taking away our economic freedom, our leaders in Washington are also increasingly giving unchecked power to unelected bureaucrats and turning Congress into a mere rubber stamp.

A backlash has been brewing against this rapid expansion of government power, and this week's tea party protests are just the beginning. The American people as a whole are still largely giving President Obama the benefit of the doubt, and his approval ratings are still relatively high. But what will happen in a year or so, when it is likely that his interventions in the economy will have made things worse, rather than better? The new administration's policies have already driven the stock market down to levels not seen since 1997, wiping out more than a decade of wealth-creation. What happens in 2010, when the public finds that they're still afraid of losing their jobs, and their personal savings haven't recovered? I think we will see these protests grow and spread.

But we will need more than just a political rebellion against the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress. We will need to engage in an ideological struggle, a battle of ideas. Columnist Monica Crowley named it best early last week when she called for a "21st century Boston Tea Party" and said that we needed a "second American revolution of ideas," "of getting back to the ideals of limited government, of constitutional parameters on government power, of individual liberty, and of the free market."

But such an ideological revolution would need to be more extensive than Crowley realizes, because we have to ask: where is the intellectual ammunition for this battle of ideas going to come from? It is important to remember that a Republican administration started us down this plunge into socialism. President Bush started the bailout frenzy, and John McCain pointedly refused to defend capitalism when Barack Obama tried to make the presidential election into a referendum against free-market economics.

For the right, this taxpayers' rebellion should be seen, not merely as a way to regain some of the political power they have lost, but also as a means for the Republican Party to reform itself and revive its ability to defend the free market after a decade of Bush-style "big-government conservatism." For too long, the right has neglected the case for free markets, and they need to re-learn it. That's the revolution we need most of all.

In praising Rick Santelli, conservative author Roger Kimball asks a very good question: "do we really need to go back to economic kindergarten and relearn" the lessons of the failure of statism and the superiority of capitalism? The answer is that we never learned the fullest, deepest, philosophical reasons for the moral and practical superiority of capitalism.

Fortunately, we know where to find the free-market ideas we need, and this source is already indirectly driving the new taxpayer revolt. It's time to bring it fully out into the open.

Note that in defending his stance against the bailouts, Rick Santelli referred to himself as an "Ayn Rander"—a reference to the great 20th-century novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, who is most famous for her ideological defense of laissez-faire capitalism. (That's not Santelli's first reference to Rand; TIA Daily reader Bill Sims found an earlier one.) Similar references seem to be lurking behind nearly every expression of resistance to big government. Rush Limbaugh—whose coining of the term "porkulus" helped galvanize the right's resistance to the so-called "stimulus" bill—has frequently recommended Ayn Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged in recent months, as has conservative talk show host Glenn Beck.

In January, Stephen Moore caused a stir by arguing, in the Wall Street Journal, that the current crisis is turning Atlas Shrugged "from fiction to fact." References to Ayn Rand have even popped up at such unlikely sources as Human Events—a magazine for religious conservatives that recently published a surprisingly friendly article referring to the atheist philosopher—and even from the New York Times's safely timid in-house conservative David Brooks, who is the farthest thing from an "Ayn Rander" that you could imagine. And those who are warning that increased government restrictions will cause the nation's most productive workers to withdraw their talents have taken to calling this the "John Galt Effect," a reference to the hero—and the main plotline—of Atlas Shrugged.

It is no coincidence that the strongest resistance to a government takeover of the economy is coming from people influence by Ayn Rand. She has functioned as a stiffener of resolve and as the fountainhead of pro-free-market ideas.

I have written about this at greater length, but Ayn Rand's contribution to the philosophical defense of capitalism can be summed up in one central idea: individualism. Ayn Rand demonstrated that the ultimate source of all wealth—everything from steel mills to microchips—is the individual reasoning mind. Thus, a society that wants to prosper has to ask what is required by its thinkers and producers, the "prime movers" who originate and implement new ideas. And the first requirement of these thinkers is that they be free from coercive interference by bureaucrats, by blowhard legislators, or by federal "czars."

Ayn Rand was an individualist in the fullest sense: she regarded the unfettered individual, not just as a source of wealth, but also as an end in himself with the right to pursue and enjoy his own happiness, without being forced to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the collective. The issue, as she once put it, is not whether or not you give a dime to a beggar. The issue is whether you have a right to exist if you don't—and whether you have to buy your life, one dime at a time, from every moocher who comes along asking for a handout. She gave the clearest and most consistent "no" to that standard of morality, and clearest and most consistent "yes" to the moral rights of the creators and producers.

There has been some recent crowing about how the current financial crisis has discredited Ayn Rand's defense of the free market, as demonstrated by the defection of Alan Greenspan, who has now gone so far as to advocate the nationalization of failing banks. But Greenspan actually rejected Ayn Rand's philosophy decades ago, and he did it during the triumph of free markets in the early years of the Reagan Revolution. In reality, the current financial crisis does not demonstrate the failure of Greenspan's alleged pro-free-market ideas; rather, it demonstrates the failure of his presumption that a talented "maestro" can ensure prosperity by setting himself up as the monetary central planner of the economy.

In fact, the current crisis has vindicated Ayn Rand's warnings. And the policies of the current administration are about to do so yet again and perhaps more fully than ever before, by sacrificing more and more of the nation's productive minds to provide handouts for the beggars.

Far from facing growing rejection, Ayn Rand's ideas are the mostly unnamed fuel giving fire and confidence to people like Rick Santelli. There are many people who have a detailed practical knowledge of the superiority of markets and of the values behind free markets—but they are cowed and neutralized by the conventional altruist morality which signs our lives over to all of those moochers with their hands out. Even if they don't fully accept Ayn Rand ideas, their encounter with her writings gives them the confidence to embrace their suppressed knowledge and act upon it. She gives them the confidence to declare that they have earned their wealth and that they have a right to keep it and enjoy it.

That's the Ayn Rand factor that we are observing now—and we need more of it.

If we're going to have an ideological Boston Tea Party, a rebellion against the whole theory behind state management of our lives and wealth, then Ayn Rand is the ideal philosophical hostess.

Go to TIA Daily to learn more...

On product regulators... Yaron Brooke

2009-02-03T17:40:00.000-10:00

Update from the SchubTube...

2009-02-02T08:26:00.000-10:00

Shalom Y'all! Schub here!
So, my show "Hunter Gatherers" opened last week at the Pasadena Playhouse,
and here's what Backstage's Les Spindle had to say:
"Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's savagely funny comedy is a shocker...
sidesplitting, yet thought-provoking, electrifying... Schub triumphs as a
tragicomic nebbish struggling to rebel"...
Today's Los Angeles Times says we're a "razor-sharp, bitingly hilarious
black comedy of metaphysical dimensions"! (Whatever that is...)
Okay, so Backstage & The LA Times said it, not me, but I do think this
show is friggin' insane, hilarious and truly demented. And if you are on
my email list, you probably are too- so come on down!
"Hunter Gatherers" plays every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and
every Sunday at 7:30pm until February 21st. (except for this Sunday
because of that Football Game thingy)...
Tickets are usually $30.00 but I was able to finagle a "two-for-one"
ticket price for you, my Inner-Circle!
Simply click on: http://furioustheatre.org/
And at the check-out page, enter the promo code: "Fenwick666" for
"two-for-one" tickets.
Or call 1-800-595-4TIX (though I don't think you can get the
"two-for-ones" by phone)....
The Location is:
The Carrie Hamilton Theatre (upstairs at the Pasadena Playhouse)
39 South El Molino Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
Warning One: This show ain't one for kiddies! 'Tis chock full o' sex,
violence and other very, Very, VERY bad things...
Warning Two: Traffic to Pasadena can be brutal, please allocate sufficient
time (and valium) for traffic (or consider attending on a Saturday or
Sunday when it ain't so bad)...
xoxo,
Nebbishiously yours,
Wiffwuvanwowwiepops,
Schubieshake
p.s. The Backstage review by Les Spindle (my new best friend) below:

BACKSTAGE WEST
"Hunter Gatherers"
January 28, 2009
Reviewed by Les Spindle

When a whimpering lamb is ritualistically silenced as a prelude to a
dinner party, it's clear the gathering isn't going to be your
garden-variety schmooze-and-booze fest. Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's savagely
funny comedy is a shocker, but the amazing thing about this San
Francisco–bred work is how the playwright elicits a cockeyed sort of
empathy for the flipped-out characters who inhabit this unnerving dramatic
universe, which combines the verbal savagery of vintage Edward Albee with
the visceral brutality of Sarah Kane. In director Dámaso Rodriguez's
sidesplitting yet thought-provoking L.A premiere, the distinctive voice of
a trailblazing playwright strongly resonates.

Nachtrieb explores the thin line between civilized behavior and
animalistic demeanor that exists in humans, giving us a harrowing glimpse
at the results of people crossing this boundary when they’re backed into
an emotional corner. Neanderthal male Richard (Doug Newell) not only
believes freshly slaughtered animal flesh is required to make the
anniversary party for his friends a success; he has additional surprises
on the agenda -- including the determination to "spread his seed" among
the guests. This makes him a good match for the self-centered and
duplicitous Wendy (Vonessa Martin), who arrives with her mild-mannered
geek of a husband, Tom (Steven Schub). Tom's kindred spirit is Richard's
suppressed wife, Pam (Sara Hennessy), whose defense mechanism against the
cruelty of Richard and Wendy is to pretend it doesn't exist. Acts of
desperation lead to electrifying developments and an amazing denouement.

The tight ensemble tackles the difficult material with intelligence and
skill. The actors demonstrate terrific physical dexterity in fight scenes,
masterfully choreographed by Brian Danner. Newell pulls out all stops to
convey Richard's sociopathic leanings in a performance of impeccable
insight. Hennessy's shrinking-violet housewife is a wonderfully detailed
combination of nervous tics and subtle facial expressions denoting Pam's
repressed despair. Martin nails the arrogance and selfishness behind
Wendy's fake niceties. Schub triumphs as a tragicomic nebbish struggling
to rebel against bullies.

Design elements are likewise first-rate. This marvelous production is a
fitting kickoff to Furious Theatre's graduation from Actors Equity's
99-Seat Plan to a Letter of Agreement arrangement, now offering
substantially increased pay for its deserving actors.

Presented by Furious Theatre Company at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre, 39 S.
El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Jan. 24–Feb. 21. Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7:30
p.m. (800) 595-4849 or Furious Theatre Company.
--
http://www.stevenschub.com
http://www.thefenwicks.com
http://www.youtube.com/thefenwicks
http://www.youtube.com/stevenschub
http://www.myspace.com/thefenwicks

You, Me and Heresy... Fenwicks ROCK!

2009-02-02T08:24:00.000-10:00

No 'Footprint', No Life

2009-01-18T07:58:00.005-10:00

From The Hawaii Reporter:

By Keith Lockitch, 1/12/2009 8:59:33 AM

As environmentalism continues to grow in prominence, more and more of us are trying to live a "greener" lifestyle. But the more "eco-friendly" you try to become, likely the more you find yourself confused and frustrated by the green message.

Have you tried giving up your bright and cheery incandescent light bulbs to save energy--only to learn that their gloomy-but-efficient compact fluorescent replacements contain mercury? Perhaps you’ve tried to free up space in landfills by foregoing the ease and convenience of disposable diapers--only to be criticized for the huge quantities of energy and water consumed in laundering those nasty cloth diapers. Even voicing support for renewable energy no longer seems to be green enough, as angry environmentalists protest the development of "pristine lands" for wind farms and solar power plants.

Why is it that no matter what sacrifices you make to try to reduce your "environmental footprint," it never seems to be enough?

Well, consider why it is that you have an "environmental footprint" in the first place.

Everything we do to sustain our lives has an impact on nature. Every value we create to advance our well-being--every ounce of food we grow, every structure we build, every iPhone we manufacture--is produced by extracting raw materials and reshaping them to serve our needs. Every good thing in our lives comes from altering nature for our own benefit.

From the perspective of human life and happiness, a big "environmental footprint" is an enormous positive. This is why people in India and China are striving to increase theirs: to build better roads, more cars and computers, new factories and power plants and hospitals.

But for environmentalism, the size of your "footprint" is the measure of your guilt. Nature, according to green philosophy, is something to be left alone--to be preserved untouched by human activity. Their notion of an "environmental footprint" is intended as a measure of how much you "disturb" nature, with disturbing nature viewed as a sin requiring atonement. Just as the Christian concept of original sin conveys the message that human beings are stained with evil simply for having been born, the green concept of an "environmental footprint" implies that you should feel guilty for your very existence.

It should hardly be any surprise, then, that nothing you do to try to lighten your "footprint" will ever be deemed satisfactory. So long as you are still pursuing life-sustaining activities, whatever you do to reduce your impact on nature in one respect (e.g., cloth diapers) will simply lead to other impacts in other respects (e.g., water use)--like some perverse game of green whack-a-mole--and will be attacked and condemned by greens outraged at whatever "footprint" remains. So long as you still have some "footprint," further penance is required; so long as you are still alive, no degree of sacrifice can erase your guilt.

The only way to leave no "footprint" would be to die--a conclusion that is not lost on many green ideologues. Consider the premise of the nonfiction bestseller titled "The World Without Us," which fantasizes about how the earth would "recover" if all humanity suddenly became extinct. Or consider the chilling, anti-human conclusion of an op-ed discussing cloth versus disposable diapers: "From the earth’s point of view, it’s not all that important which kind of diapers you use. The important decision was having the baby."

The next time you trustingly adopt a "green solution" like fluorescent lights, cloth diapers or wind farms, only to be puzzled when met with still further condemnation and calls for even more sacrifices, remember what counts as a final solution for these ideologues.

The only rational response to such a philosophy is to challenge it at its core. We must acknowledge that it is the essence of human survival to reshape nature for our own benefit, and that far from being a sin, it is our highest virtue. Don’t be fooled by the cries that industrial civilization is "unsustainable." This cry dates to at least the 19th century, but is belied by the facts. Since the Industrial Revolution, population and life expectancy, to say nothing of the enjoyment of life, have steadily grown.

It is time to recognize environmentalism as a philosophy of guilt and sacrifice--and to reject it in favor of a philosophy that proudly upholds the value of human life.

Keith Lockitch, PhD in physics, is a fellow at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, focusing on science and environmentalism. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. This was first published in the Washington Times

Original article here.

Reflections on my second tour in Iraq...

2009-01-17T17:29:00.004-10:00

From my alter ego at Helium.com:

"...It is a strange place to be. The insurgents, terrorists, bad guys, whatever you want to call them are mostly killing their own people. It's difficult to understand. We in the United States don't kill each other because of religious or tribal reasons. We don't blow ourselves up just to take out a few people we disagree with. There are those who are still fighting against us, the Americans, but they are mostly the Al Quaeda transplants that come from Iran, Pakistan, Syria, etc. The average Iraqi is very tired of this war..."

Full post here.

Amazing medical regeneration technology...

2008-12-21T08:50:00.001-10:00

This is really impressive and the way of the future.

Ayn Rand said...

2008-12-13T16:26:00.002-10:00

Please be sure to note the date of this quote from Ayn Rand at the end:

"There are two roads ahead of us, with no "middle."

When the blow strikes, the statists will declare that free enterprise—the enterprise of chained, hampered, paralyzed,
terrorized, antitrust-gagged men—has had its chance and has failed, and that they, the statists, in selfless service to the "public interest," must impose on us an emergency system of totalitarian controls.

Or: when the blow strikes, all those who value America, freedom, civilization, individual rights and their own lives, will unite on a
single political program—placing the blame where it belongs—a program which will declare that statist controls have had their
chance and have failed, and that there is only one way to save a collapsing economy: to start de-controlling."

--------------------------------------------------
Ayn Rand -- The Objectivist Newsletter, July 1962

Have a Fenwicky Xmas and Ska-nukkah...

2008-12-12T16:40:00.002-10:00

From Steve Schub:

Shalom & Aloha Comrades & Compadres!

Steven Schub here, wishing you the merriest of Christmases, the
happiest of Ska-nukkahs, the rockinest of Ramadans, the swingingest of
Solstices, and the kickassedest of Kwanzaas- from me and all The
Festive Fenwicks!
Speaking of festive: I am slap-happy silly and proud to announce that I
will be starring in the Los Angeles premiere of the American Theater
Critics Association 2007 Best New Play Award winner Peter Sinn
Nachtrieb's "Hunter Gatherers" at the historic Pasadena Playhouse. The
show opens on Saturday January 24th 2009 and this thing promises to be
by far the most twisted, and insane production I've ever been a part.
Details to follow in early '09...
And now speaking of twisted and insane, why not spice up your holidays
with some high-octane auditory egg nog- ie. our "Afro-Celtic Yiddish
Ska"?

Yup! The Fenwicks are now available on iTunes!
Just click on dis: http://www.itunes.com/thefenwicks

In fact a manic, spastic World O' 'Wix awaits you- in & on your Web:

Our Site: http://www.thefenwicks.com

On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thefenwicks

On MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thefenwicks

Schub’s Site: http://www.stevenschub.com

And SchubTube on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/stevenschub

But most importantly, and in closing: Happy/happy & Joy/joy/joy to you and
all you love!

xoxo,

Schubie-Doobie-Doo-Wop & Duh Phantasmagorical Fenwicks!

Capitalism and the Moral High Ground... From The Objective Standard

2008-12-07T01:46:00.002-10:00

From The Objective Standard:

Capitalism and the Moral High Ground
Craig Biddle

Economists from Adam Smith to Ludwig von Mises to Henry Hazlitt to Thomas Sowell have elucidated the general mechanics of a free market and demonstrated the unassailable practicality of capitalism. They have shown how freer markets provide better and cheaper health care, cleaner air and water, safer automobiles and airplanes, ample food and energy, better and cheaper schools, and so on. But their arguments have not convinced the world to embrace capitalism. On the contrary, people today are condemning the system of private property as loudly as ever.

According to Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA), Americans must abandon “this simplistic notion that people who have wealth are entitled to keep it.”1 Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), addressing oil company CEOs, openly threatens to socialize their industry: “Guess what this liberal would be all about. This liberal will be about socializing. . . . all of your companies.”2 Philosopher Noam Chomsky insists that “putting people in charge of their own assets breaks down the solidarity that comes from doing something together, and diminishes the sense that people have responsibility for each other.”3

All such assaults on free markets and property rights proceed from the recognition of the fact that these key elements of capitalism enable selfishness. As Karl Marx explained: “The right of man to property is the right to enjoy his possessions and dispose of the same arbitrarily, without regard for other men, independently from society, the right of selfishness.”4 And as President-elect Barack Obama intimates, who would dare “to make a virtue out of
selfishness”?

This article is from TOS Vol. 3, No. 4.

Full article here.

Ayn Rand in Life Magazine...

2008-12-01T18:00:00.003-10:00

Ayn Rand at the National Book Awards, March 1958
taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt.

Live from the Ballroom...

2008-11-24T18:14:00.002-10:00

From TIA Daily • November 24, 2008

"Dancing with the Stars" Revives a Part of the Culture We've Been Missing

by Robert Tracinski

I frequently warn about the tendency to focus so much effort on complaining about everything that goes wrong in our culture that we don't take the time to recognize the things that go right. In that spirit, I wanted to single out one positive cultural indicator that is overdue for praise: the television show "Dancing with the Stars."

This is a bit late, I know, since the show is in the middle of its fourth year, and tonight is the finale of the seventh season. (The show airs two "seasons" per year, in the fall and in the spring.) The finale of the current season is on ABC from 8:00-10:00 pm Eastern time tonight, though they usually air a one-hour recap at 8:00 on Tuesday night.

Like I said, this is overdue. I don't think I will be introducing anyone to the show, which has been an enormous hit, but I do want to provide some context on why it is important.

I find that television as a medium is generally in a relatively healthy state—particularly compared to high-brow "serious" culture—and there are many good shows out there, which I will write about some time in the future. But "Dancing with the Stars" is particularly interesting because it resurrects a whole style of music and dance that had been, if not totally dead, at least sequestered in a nursing home, waiting to die out as its elderly audience passed away.

For those who have been living under a rock (or, like me, who don't get much time to watch TV), the show is essentially a pro-am ballroom dancing competition. "Stars" from various fields—singers, athletes, models, actors—are paired with professional ballroom dancers who teach them various styles of dance (foxtrot, tango, mambo, cha-cha, etc.). Every week the couples perform their routines on a live broadcast and get feedback from professional ballroom judges. The viewers then call in to vote for their favorite couple. A combination of the judges' scores and the viewers' votes determines who stays in the competition each week. This is why, if you haven't seen the show, the finale isn't a bad place to start. The stars have had a chance to learn a lot about dancing—and all of the incorrigible "two left feet" types have been voted off.

This format fits into a wider trend I've seen in the past decade: the revival of an old genre, the musical-variety show, but in a variation that is currently fashionable: a "reality TV" competition. See, for example, "America Idol" or "So You Think You Can Dance."

What makes this show different from the other versions of reality-TV-competition-cum-musical-variety-show is that it focuses on a style of music and dance that had largely been lost in the culture. The hippie "counter-culture" revolution of the 1960s was an usually sharp break in the culture; the products of the new counter-culture rapidly took over popular culture, and the leftovers of the old culture were simply expunged. One of the things that was expunged was big band music and its counterpart: ballroom dancing. The music was too melodic, the style of dance was too formal; it involved elegance and romance and dressing in a suit and tie; the whole thing was just too darned civilized for barefoot hippies and stringy-haired counter-culture types to coexist with.

Yes, I am old enough to remember the 1970s, and no, I do not have fond memories of the style and sense of life of that miserable era.

So big band was replaced by rock and roll and ballroom was replaced by the new modern "dance" style of jumping around wildly to a loud beat. (Rock and roll music has its merits, and I have my favorite songs and groups, but as far as I'm concerned, most contemporary rock has a beat and you can't dance to it.) Once it was fully embraced by the nihilistic counter-culture, whose goal was to overthrow and destroy every civilized value from the previous era, rock and roll was quickly pushed, by the late 1980s and early 1990s, to its dead ends: "hip-hop" and "gangster rap" (for urban blacks) and "grunge" music (for suburban whites).

Meanwhile, despite these trends—or perhaps in reaction against them—big band and ballroom have been making a slow revival. Dancing with the Stars is a culmination of that trend.

Two television shows constitute the bookends of the death and re-birth of this part of the culture. I am just old enough to remember "The Lawrence Welk Show" when it was still on the air—again, this was during the 1970s. Lawrence Welk was the last, poor leftover of big band and ballroom on their way out. A bandleader of no great artistic repute, Welk played enervated "easy listening" versions of familiar old songs. It was billed as "champagne music," because the arrangements were "light and bubbly"—hence the famous bubble machine—but it was more accurately described as "the squarest music this side of Euclid." Lawrence Welk became a synonym for making big band and ballroom seem cheesy, tired, and dull.

The whole effect is summed up by a clip of the show that I happened to see recently, in which the camera panned across the studio audience—and there wasn't a single person there under the age of 50. My grandparents and Sherri's grandparents were both regular viewers, and they were the target audience. The show was only able to stir viewers by providing them a nostalgic reminder of the music of their youths. There wasn't enough of value to spark the interest of anyone too young to associate it with old times.

No, Lawrence Welk did not kill big band and ballroom by associating them with something tired and imitative. Rather, this part of the culture was already dead, and Welk set out to preserve the remains by embalming them in a thick layer of schmaltz.

That's why I find "Dancing with the Stars" so refreshing. It has the style, not of a nostalgic preservation, but of an invigorating re-discovery. It is based on another television show from an earlier era: a British series called "Come Dancing," a pro-am ballroom competition show which had a long run on British television from 1949 to 1998. It was revived in 2004, under the title "Strictly Come Dancing," with the idea of having celebrities as the amateur competitors. The show was promptly exported to America as "Dancing with the Stars," which became an overnight sensation. And if you count its various international incarnations, it is now apparently the most popular show in the word, with local versions ranking in the top ten television shows in 17 countries.

The value that is restored by the revival of ballroom dance is a greater sense of romance and elegance, rooted in a sense of self-respect that had been wiped out by the whole counter-culture revolution. The message of the "hippie" style (and its many lingering after-effects) is that you are a slob—slouching, unshaven, and incapable of taking the effort to comb your hair or iron your shirts—and it's wrong to ever aspire to be anything but a slob. Ballroom's rejection of this mentality begins with the one thing that the "Dancing with the Stars" contestants usually find hardest: posture. Ballroom dance requires a straight, elegant, self-confident posture, and it goes on to require a self-conscious control of the feet, the arms and hands, the rise and fall of the knees, and so on. It is a refutation of the idea that training, technique, and self-control are the opposite of emotional expression—fierce pride in the paso doble, sensuality in the rumba, exuberant joy in the jive, and so on. But this is a style of dance that is incapable of expressing the self-loathing angst of the "grunge" types or the thuggish menace of the gangster rappers.

In watching the show—I came in somewhere in the third or fourth season, I think—I have noticed an inchoate sense among many of the competitors that it captures something powerfully good that has been missing. When he was voted off, actor Steve Gutenberg (who was, alas, a terrible dancer) said that the show "makes the world a better place," and participation in the contest even seems to have touched those whose whole careers are based on cynicism, people like Jerry Springer and Adam Corolla.

Having names the values that I think this show brings back into the culture, I should also mention that it is not always fully true to those values. There are occasionally lapses in taste and unwelcome intrusions from the modern counter-culture (even, briefly and forgettably this season, from the "hip-hop" culture). But this merely adds to what makes the show important: big band and ballroom are now a living part of the culture, which means that they are interacting with the other parts of the culture, good and bad.

It is not often that a part of the culture that had been lost is restored to us, at least partially. It offers hope that the same can be done with other values and ideas that have also been lost and are also desperately needed.

To subscribe to TIA Daily go to: http://www.intellectualactivist.com/

Peter Schiff was right...

2008-11-18T15:24:00.002-10:00

From the Huffingtom Post:

This Guy Predicted The Financial Crisis And Was Derided For It

Thanks to Michael Smith on the Harry Binswanger List for alerting me to this.

Defending copyrights...

2008-11-10T13:34:00.003-10:00

From The Intellectual Activist:
TIA Daily Feature Article

Defending the Creator
PRO-IP, Rights, and the Roots of Copyright Opposition

by M. Zachary Johnson

President Bush recently signed into law the "PRO-IP" bill, an act for "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property." The purpose of the bill is to enhance remedies for violations of intellectual property laws.

The law creates a copyright protection office in the executive branch of government and provides for stronger penalties for pirates. The level of the penalties is a secondary issue; the most important thing about this law is the creation of a proper authority for protecting intellectual property—and the fact that this law makes a much-needed moral statement.

Antagonism to the PRO-IP Act has focused in part on the fact that it was backed by "Big Content," including the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association, thus portraying the issue as a war between pressure groups, with the "greedy capitalists" as the ones who happen to have won. But this misses the principle of the matter, that the creator of a piece of intellectual property owns the product of his work.

If a baker bakes a loaf of bread, he therefore owns it, and anyone who wishes to acquire the bread must do so by meeting the baker's terms. The baker may set any price he wishes for it—even a high price if he so chooses. It is also within his rights to give it away for free, which he might do for promotional purposes. But in all cases, it is the baker who sets the terms for acquiring his creation. No one has the right to acquire the bread in disregard of the baker's wishes.

The same is true of music, movies, software. The fact that it is easier to copy these things does not eliminate the creator's sovereignty over his own product. The price of his work, even if it is $0, is his to set.

A major root of the opposition to copyright is the altruist morality—the premise that self-interest is evil and that sacrificial service to others is the moral ideal. This premise makes people antagonistic toward selfish rights and it makes them favor giving things away, especially when doing so is against one's own self-interest. Think for instance of the way in which the press vilified the RIAA, when it brought lawsuits against file-sharers, and threw a pity-party for the defendants. The "greedy," self-interested, profit-seeking businessmen were regarded as inherently suspicious even though they were defending the rights of music creators whom they lawfully represent, while some destitute single mother in middle America (who was not "greedy"?) was portrayed as a helpless victim, with no mention made of the fact that she engaged in theft.

What is needed is a stern reminder that the Constitution protects, not the Robin Hood type of theft, but the right of the individual to pursue his own happiness by means of his own work.

In order to grasp the concept "property rights"—the idea of ownership, which is a matter of moral justice—one must function conceptually. The same toaster has a different moral and legal status in the hands of a man who paid for it, versus the hands of a thief as he runs away. Possession is not everything, since the thief possesses it wrongly. Rights are not a matter of the physical position of the object, but of ownership—in other words, of moral status.

In the case of intellectual property, the need for conceptual thought is particularly acute. An author's right to his novel, a composer's right to his composition, a filmaker's right to his movie—these rights are more abstract still. If you buy a copy of Joe Smith's novel, you own that copy. But Joe Smith owns the particular sequence of words that are printed in that novel. So you have the right to use your copy as you wish, but you do not have the right to create a new copy of that sequence of words.

Suppose you own a copy of the book The Grapes of Wrath and also an audio-book version on CD. You own both of those physical objects, and can give the book to your mother and the CD to your brother if you wish. The author, on the other hand, owns what is common to both of those. He owns the particular sequence of words embodied in the book and the audio-book. The forms of these two things are different: one form you look at, the other you hear. But both of them are instances of the same piece of intellectual property, the same novel, The Grapes of Wrath.

Copyright is a matter not of what a monkey sees looking at a page full of words, but of what a human mind sees. Unlike a monkey, a man is able to grasp the particular meaning expressed in particular language.

So a creator's right is not per se to the particular physical instance, but to the creative content that is embodied in these objects. And the only practical way for a creator to control and profit from his work is for him to hold by right the power to decide when, where, how and under what conditions new physical instances of his creation may be made and distributed. That is the meaning of the right to copy.

These facts and distinctions have no reality for, and are completely unconvincing to, a person who does not think. Unfortunately, that category includes a very large number of Americans today. This anti-thought mentality comes about as a combination of personal lethargy and evasion—and an educational system that stultifies the mind.

A large portion of the guilt for the piracy problem lies with the American educational system. This is not primarily a matter of the content of education, but the method. For decades the dominant approach to teaching in America has been Progressive Education, which holds emotion and socialization as primary, and facts and logic as secondary—or even denounces facts and logic as repressive. Americans have been taught to be driven by emotion and to cast off thinking as a restrictive straightjacket. That is where the hippies came from.

Combine that with a lot of personal immorality—meaning refusal to think—and the result is a widespread practice of operating by whim. The practice of controlling one's own choices and behavior by reference to moral principle is completely alien to the hippie mentality. His automatized method—as a result of his own shortsighted laziness and as a result of years of schooling that encouraged shortsighted laziness—is to see something, desire it, grab it. It is the same method as a spoiled child or a pre-civilized savage.

It costs the creator nothing, these types argue, to copy one piece of software or music. What harm does it do? First of all, the very question evades the existence of anything other than that which immediately stares into the pirate's passive face: in a few mouse clicks he is able to have the content he wants. He is at best ignorant of the actual costs involved in creating the content. What about the cost of the musician's years of training, the income he gave up in order to spend the time developing his skills and creating his music, the cost of music paper, his instrument, the recording expenses? And let's not forget the cost of marketing, without which the pirate could hardly know about the content he so nonchalantly expects to take for free.

What harm does it do, at root? Man lives by the productive work of his mind. He creates and he trades his product. Trade is by mutual voluntary agreement. A unilateral taking is the opposite of a fair trade. The pirate deprives the creator not only of the relatively small amount of money to be paid for the product. He deprives the creator of his very means of living, his ability to control, trade and profit from the work of his mind. That is a crime legally, morally, and on the deepest philosophical level, metaphysically. It is a matter of the creator's ability to maintain his own existence.

What the pirate fails to grasp is that to take or "share" copyrighted content in disregard of the creator's wishes is to kill the creator's capacity to live.

The pirate's desire for the content makes him act to destroy its source.

The PRO-IP Act is one much-needed remedy. As Tom Donohue, President of the US Chamber of Commerce, stated: "By becoming law, the PRO-IP Act sends the message to [intellectual property] criminals everywhere that the US will go the extra mile to protect American innovation." It is a welcome law and a welcome message.

M. Zachary Johnson is a composer and musicologist living in the New York City area. Visit his Web site here. Or here: www.MZacharyJohnson.com

Do we need new laws and new regulations?

2008-10-28T16:48:00.006-10:00

"When the laws of the United States were codified as the United States Code in 1925, all of the titles combined occupied a single volume."

For a fascinating comparison of how greatly regulation has increased and codified law has grown in the past 90 years please visit the following link: http://extent-of-regulation.dhwritings.com/

You will be amazed by this one-page comparison.

Don't Blame Capitalism...

2008-10-19T06:12:00.001-10:00

From The Washington Post
---------------------------------------

By Peter Schiff
Thursday, October 16, 2008; Page A19

Amid the chaos of recent days, as the federal
government has taken gargantuan steps to
stabilize the financial markets, realigning
the U.S. economic system in the process, comes
a nearly universal consensus: This crisis
resulted from government reluctance to
regulate the unbridled greed of Wall Street.
Many economists and market participants who
were formerly averse to government
interference agree that a more robust
regulatory framework must be constructed to
cage the destructive forces of capitalism.

For the political left, which has long
championed the need for such limits, this
crisis is the opportunity of a lifetime.

Absent from such conclusions is the central
role the government played in creating the
crisis. Yes, many Wall Street leaders were
irresponsible, and they should pay. But they
were playing the distorted hand dealt them by
government policies. Our leaders irrationally
promoted home-buying, discouraged savings, and
recklessly encouraged borrowing and lending,
which together undermined our markets.

Just as prices in a free market are set by
supply and demand, financial and real estate
markets are governed by the opposing tension
between greed and fear. Everyone wants to make
money, but everyone is also afraid of losing
what he has. Although few would ascribe their
desire for prosperity to greed, it is simply a
rose by another name. Greed is the elemental
motivation for the economic risk-taking and
hard work that are essential to a vibrant
economy.

But over the past generation, government has
removed the necessary counterbalance of fear
from the equation. Policies enacted by the
Federal Reserve, the Federal Housing
Administration, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
(which were always government entities in
disguise), and others created advantages for
home-buying and selling and removed
disincentives for lending and borrowing. The
result was a credit and real estate bubble
that could only grow--until it could grow no
more.

Prominent among these wrongheaded advantages
are the mortgage interest tax deduction and
the exemption of real estate capital gains
from taxable income. These policies create
unnatural demand for home purchases and a
(tax-free) incentive to speculate in real
estate.

Similarly, the FHA, Fannie and Freddie were
created to encourage lending by allowing
primary lenders to turn their long-term risk
over to the government. Absent this implicit
guarantee, lenders would probably have been
much more conservative in approving borrowers
and setting interest terms, and in requiring
documentation of incomes and higher down
payments. Market forces would have kept out
unqualified buyers and prevented home-price
appreciation from exceeding the growth in
household income.

Interest rates contributed the most to
creating the housing boom. After the dot-com
crash and the slowdown following the attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001, the Federal Reserve took
extraordinary steps to prevent a shallow
recession from deepening. By slashing interest
rates to 1 percent and holding them below the
rate of inflation for years, the government
discouraged savings and practically
distributed free money.

Artificially low interest rates invigorated
the market for adjustable-rate mortgages and
gave birth to the teaser rate, which made
overpriced homes appear affordable. Alan
Greenspan himself actively encouraged home
buyers to avail themselves of these seeming
benefits. As monetary policy caused houses to
become more expensive, it also temporarily
provided buyers with the means to overpay.
Cheap money gave rise to subprime mortgages
and the resulting securitization wave that
made these loans appear safe for investors.

And even today, as market forces deflate the
credit bubble, the government is stepping in
to re-inflate it. First came the Treasury's
$700 billion plan to purchase mortgage assets
that no one in the private sector would buy.
Now it has recapitalized banks to the tune of
$250 billion, guaranteeing loans between banks
and fully insuring non-interest-bearing
accounts. Policymakers say that absent these
steps, banks would not be able to extend
loans. But given our already staggering debt
burden, perhaps more loans are not the answer.
That's what the free market is telling us. But
the government cannot abide solutions that ask
for consumer sacrifice.

Real credit can be supplied only by savings,
so artificial steps to stimulate lending will
only produce inflation. By refusing to allow
market forces to rein in excess spending,
liquidate bad investments, replenish depleted
savings, fund capital investment and help
workers transition from the service sector to
the manufacturing sector, government is
resisting the cure while exacerbating the
disease.

The United States reached its economic
preeminence on the strength of its free
markets. So far, the economic disaster
exacerbated by government policies is creating
opportunities for further government
interference, which will lead to bigger
catastrophes. Binding the country to a tangle
of socialist ideals will seal our fate as a
second-rate economic power.

Ayn Rand Avenged ...

2008-10-17T03:30:00.001-10:00

From Ed Cline at Rule of Reason:

Friday, October 17, 2008 ::

Ayn Rand Avenged

:: Posted by Edward Cline at 5:54 AM

Answering the engineered takeover of the economy by the federal government is an unprecedented cultural phenomenon: People who read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged years ago and dismissed it but now see the parallels are filled with trepidation. The people who read Granville Hicks’ review of it in The New York Times in October 1957 and agreed with his estimate of the novel, a work whose literary value he also denied, can no longer think that it was a “parable of buried talents.” People who read the novel decades ago and never questioned its truth are issuing warnings about the parallels between the novel and current events. And people who have read the novel only recently are seeing its plot unfold before their very eyes. All are now realizing that “the end is near.” But, the end of what?

Full article here

Celebrate Columbus Day!

2008-10-12T08:53:00.005-10:00

Columbus Day has long been one of my favorite holidays; maybe because it is also my birthday. When I was a kid I thought how wonderful it was to have a three-day weekend every time my birthday came around. As I got a bit older I became curious as to what the day REALLY is about and why it should be celebrated.

Columbus Day is a day to celebrate exploration, the triumph of reason and western civilization over savagery and slavery, of science over fear and superstition and of the sheer intelligence and courage of one man who overcame nature and politics to discover a new land.

One of the great modern champions of Columbus is Tom Bowden. There is an excellent interview with Mr. Bowden (below) from the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

Thanks to Harry Binswanger for sharing this on his fantastic moderated email forum for Objectivists.

Columbus was a hero

By Dimitri Vassilaros
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, October 10, 2008

Christopher Columbus could not have discovered a better
spokesman than Thomas A. Bowden.

The accomplishments of Columbus should speak for themselves.
But thanks to political correctness, the moronic multicultural mob
keeps talking them down. Mr. Bowden has been speaking
passionately and forcefully about Columbus for years.

Bowden is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights
in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to advance individual rights as
the moral basis for a free society.

"My ancestors were savages," says Bowden matter-of-factly.
Everyone can say the same, depending on how far back one is
willing to look at lineage. "It's nothing racial or ethnic; it's
historical fact."

He says that before saying Columbus deserves credit for bringing
Western civilization to the, um ... savages in the New World living
in the Stone Age.

"The genesis (of the disparagement) is that a generally evil
individual (Columbus) ruined the idyllic, peaceful and content
Indians living in harmony with nature," Bowden says. "Columbus
critics have a disguised criticism of Western civilization because
Europeans replaced Stone Age Indians. They believe that this
continent would have been better off without Europeans, that
industrial civilization is an evil that is to be lamented and regretted.

"That is the real criticism of Columbus. I reject it completely."

Indians typically were widely scattered Stone Age tribes, he says.
"They had little agriculture and lived in poverty, fear, ignorance
and superstition. They had no concept of government, ownership or
private property rights.

"Slavery was perfectly common. They would kill or enslave losers
in battle. Women and children would be appropriated by the
victors. South American Indians (Aztecs and Mayans) had more
formalized institutionalized slavery."

Well, didn't Indians at least live in harmony with nature?

"No," says Bowden. "It's more accurate to say they had little
impact on the environment because of the small number of tribes.
Man should not live in harmony with nature in the sense of simply
keeping it pristine. We live by impacting the environment. The
environment has no intrinsic value. Our civilization is more in
harmony with nature by making it serve our ends."

Well, what about all the land supposedly stolen from the Indians by
European settlers?

Indians did not own the vast reaches of land that they traveled on,
Bowden says. Ownership of land is deserved, he says. By that, he
means a settler can acquire property rights by making the land more
valuable by, say, digging it up for farming. Or to build his
homestead or business.

Columbus essentially was an explorer and discoverer bringing
Western civilization's cures, science and technology, he says. The
philosophical legal process was another gift the Europeans gave to
the Indians, he says. "Indians got all that for free."

Columbus' critics should fall down on their knees and thank the
Founding Fathers for creating a nation based on the moral principle
of the individual's right to life, liberty and, Bowden stresses, the
*selfish* pursuit of happiness.

"It's the only nation that came about in such a way. Anyone who
has humanity's interest at heart should love America," he says.

Tom Bowden will be celebrating Columbus Day on Monday.

Dimitri Vassilaros is a Tribune-Review editorial page columnist.
His column appears Fridays. He can be reached at
dvassilaros@tribweb.com or 412-380-5637.

Remembering Ed Freeman...

2008-09-29T12:00:00.001-10:00

By KBCI Web Staff

Once they were Soldiers.... And they deserve to be remembered……

You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray , Vietnam . Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.

He's coming anyway.

And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.

Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.

And, he kept coming back...... 13 more times..... and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul.....

BOISE - Idaho Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Ed Freeman has passed away.

He was 80 years old.

Freeman, who lived in Boise, died at about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday from complications from Parkinson's disease, a family member said.

Freeman was a Vietnam veteran who was honored for his heroic services. He piloted a helicopter and saved more than 30 men during the war.

His heroics grew nation wide attention when his character was featured in Mel Gibson's war movie, "We Were Soldiers." Actor Mark McCracken played the character of Ed "Too Tall" Freeman in the popular flick.

From the Department of Defense

2008-09-16T11:50:00.005-10:00

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Department of Defense announced Sept. 13 the death of two Sailors who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

- Senior Chief Petty Officer John Wayne Marcum, 34, of Flushing, Mich., died Sept. 12 from injuries sustained while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan Sept. 11. Marcum was temporarily forward deployed from his assignment at Naval Special Warfare Development Group, Dam Neck, Va.

- Chief Petty Officer (select) Jason Richard Freiwald, 30, of Armada, Mich., died Sept. 12 from injuries sustained while conducting combat operations in Afghanistan Sept. 11. Freiwald was temporarily forward deployed from his assignment at Naval Special Warfare Development Group, Dam Neck, Va.

Friewald's photo (high-res) can be found here:
http://www.news.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=64030

To All Concerned Americans:

2008-09-14T07:28:00.002-10:00

From John Lewis and Paul Saunders

This is a CALL TO ACTION.

In July the federal Environmental Protection Agency issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which details their plan to force Americans to reduce emissions of CO2 and other so-called “greenhouse gases.” This follows on an Executive Order signed by President Bush, which was made possible by a U.S. Supreme Court decisions ruling that CO2 is a “pollutant.” (!)

This plan will strip the American people of their freedom, and place them under the control of a single, all-powerful, federal agency. Industrial permits, furnace regulations, auto emissions testing, building permits, transportation, and food production—all will fall under the boot of the EPA. Environmentalists will use lawsuits to pressure the EPA to tighten an ever-shrinking noose around the neck of every American.

The EPA invites public comment—until November 11, 2008. That is the deadline for opposing this horrific, tyrannical plan.

We have prepared a cover letter, and a set of comments, that provide our reasons for categorically rejecting this plan. These documents are available on my website:

www.classicalideals.com/EPA_Ruination.htm

Scroll down for word documents of the cover letter (3 pages) and the comments (33 pages). We also offer excerpts from the EPA document, and a sample letter to the EPA, along with instructions for writing.

Read this, and act! Please spread the word. Send this website far and wide, put it on the blogosphere, copy it in whole or in part, and write a letter!

Dr. John David Lewis
Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science, Duke University
Author, Solon the Thinker and Early Greek Lawgivers
www.classicalideals.com
esse quam videri

Photoshop World...

2008-09-06T10:35:00.005-10:00

My first time at Photoshop World has been quite an eye opening experience... First, because I never realized how much I did not know about photography and photoshop. Second, I am finally beginning to realize that it doesn't matter all that much. Some of the best images I've seen this week have been shot "naturally." I'm not saying good technique and knowledge of finishing in photoshop are not important (in fact I've already started to go back and look at some of the things I can change on my own pics to make them better), but I am saying that the ones who are really successful at photography seem to be dedicated to the work as they see it... and offer something original.

I'm going to use what I'm learning here... but the main thing I'm taking away with me is a renewed inspiration for shooting things the way I want to and not worrying about what "rules" I'm breaking. More fun that way anyway.

Here is a shot I took in my room at the Luxor here in L. Vegas. I wanted to try out something with smoke and harsh light and darkness. Not wholly satisfied with it but had fun anyway - and enjoyed the cigar. :o)

JK

Comments welcome or see more at AbleKane Digital Photography

Image Copyright Joe Kane 2008

TV ‘terrorist’ plays Jewish hero on stage

2008-09-01T16:13:00.003-10:00

From The Jewish Journal:

By Orit Arfa

http://www.jewishjournal.com/bloggish/item/tv_terrorist_plays_jewish_hero_on_stage_20080812/

I was on my sofa in Jerusalem reading the opening credits of my favorite TV show, "24,' looking for Jewish names to figure out exactly how many Jews "control" Hollywood. Lo and behold, I see my friend's name: Steven Schub.

I initially met Schub through a website concerned with the work of novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand. (A quick refresher, she wrote The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, novels that glorify Individualism and Reason.) We met for coffee in Israel when he was there visiting his sister and have stayed in touch since.

On '24' Schub played an Islamic terrorist, Sabir. With his fellow terrorists, he vaporized Valencia in a nuclear attack. He's probably best-known for his work in the film 'Caught' with Edwards James Olmos and guest star appearances on NYPD Blue, and, yes, Sesame Street. His day job is lead-singer for The Fenwicks, a 10-piece "Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska" band, but that's a whole 'nother story.

Now he's starring as a Jewish hero in the play 'The Accomplices' at the Fountain Theater. Peter Bergson, born Hillel Kook (nephew of the famous Rabbi Kook), came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe to save Jews from Hitler's clutches only to be met by indifference, and sometimes hostility, from key figures of the Jewish community and the Roosevelt administration. Schub's admiration for Bergson's ideas and actions has lent to an inspiring and powerful performance.

Schub said over the phone (without the show's Eastern-European accent), "I definitely have always responded to people who live what they believed, and Peter Bergson was a guy who did. He was a shining example of what one man can do-- how one individual can change history."

Schub researched the role by reading Bergon's writings and interviewing his daughter, a political science professor at Ben Gurion University. He discovered that Bergson's views actually bear many similarities to Rand, a great admirer of the Founding Fathers.

"He was a Jeffersonian," Schub said, speaking not as an expert on Bergson but as an actor who dutifully researched his character. Bergson/Kook believed that all people living in Israel--Jews, Muslims, Christians, Atheists-- should have equal rights (which for the most part they do) and he abhorred the idea of tying religious identity to national identity, believing in separation of religion and state. He served as a member of the first Knesset, but his insistence on having a Constitution similar to America's eventually led to a rift between him and right-wing leader Menachem Begin.

Having started out as a disciple of Vladmir Jabotinsky, founder of the Irgun (the militant Jewish army in pre-State days), he soon evolved from a Jewish Zionist to a Classical Liberal (not to be confused with today's liberalism.)-believing Jewish identity needed to be reexamined, and favoring the school of thought that believed Jews in the Land of Israel needed to be reinvented as "Hebrews."

But in his day, like many Irgunists, he was written off as a fascist. Schub: "As a consistent defender of absolute Individual Rights, this was of course an absurd, grotesque accusation- especially as his whole life was dedicated to fighting for life, liberty and freedom. In the culture of the time however, anyone who was not a socialist or outright communist was often tagged with that epithet."

"He didn't fall into any Left-Right alternative. He was, or became, essentially a radical for Individualism, in same way Ayn Rand or Jabotinsky was."

What convinced Bergson/Kook most of the need to escape from Collectivist thinking were his own negative encounters with Jewish leaders as he tried to save his brethren, dramatized very well in the play. Members of the Jewish establishment tried to silence him and even deport him when he started protesting too loudly to get America to do more to help save the Jews of Europe- by bombing Auschwitz for example, or allowing more refugees in. Except for screenwriter Ben Hecht, the Jews who supposedly "controlled" Hollywood back then didn't use their influence to help the Jewish plight. However legendary acting teacher Stella Adler, actors Marlon Brando, John Garfield, Paul Muni, Harpo Marx, and even Frank Sinatra did become Bergson allies.

"Instead of wasting their time fighting Bergson, Jewish leaders could have mobilized to create a tidal wave of pressure. The non-Jews were often more than glad to jump on board." Despite it all, eventually Bergson's efforts led to the creation of the War Refugee Board which is credited with saving the lives of over 200,000 Jews and 20,000 non-Jews.

My kudos to Bergson, whom I was glad to discover through this play, and to my friend Schub for doing such a heroic job with the role.

He sure made up for blasting Valencia.

Combat Cameraman awarded Bronze Star...

2008-08-07T09:12:00.003-10:00

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Mark A. Rankin, Fleet Combat Camera Group Pacific

NAVAL AIR STATION NORTH ISLAND, Calif. – Fleet Combat Camera Group Pacific (FLTCOMBATCAMGRUPAC) presented a combat cameraman with the Bronze Star Medal during a brief ceremony here Aug. 3.

Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John T. Parker received the award for meritorious service during a deployment to Baghdad, Iraq, working with the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Arabian Peninsula from Oct. 1, 2007 to March 15, 2008 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The Kansas City, Mo. native was specifically cited for his actions while documenting operations with a U.S. Army Special Forces unit that was hit by an improvised explosive device. Following the initial explosion, Parker immediately played a crucial role in securing the immediate area and assisting with medical aid.

The official citation also recognized his bravery for “performing his duties under fire without regard to his personal safety.”
Parker credited his training and past-deployment experience for his quick response and alertness.

“I reacted just as I had been trained, said Parker. “We’re constantly preparing for these situations and when it came down to it, my muscle memory kicked in.”

While not deployed, FLTCOMBATCAMGRUPAC personnel spend numerous hours honing their professional and tactical skills in preparation for the arduous deployment schedule.

“Petty Officer Parker is an example of why we train our Navy combat cameramen who serve in hostile environments throughout the world,” said Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Cotton, FLTCOMBATCAMGRUPAC officer in charge. “We do this so that we’re able to perform our job on any platform – at sea, in the desert, in the snow, on rocky terrains, even in the air.

Parker has now completed three deployments to Iraq as well as deployments to Bahrain, Australia, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea and Hawaii since arriving at FLTCOMBATCAMGRUPAC, May 7, 2004. However, this latest deployment stands out as the culmination of his entire Navy experience.

“Not since the Vietnam era have combat cameramen been able to deploy with Special Forces units in combat situations,” said Parker. “I feel my entire career has been spent preparing for this one deployment and I’m proud to have been able to document the actions of these units and assist them wherever I could.”

The combat camera mission is to be able to deploy anywhere in the world at any time. They provide video and still documentation of combat operations, contingencies, exercises and events of historical significance.

The Bronze Star for meritorious service is the ninth highest U.S. Armed Service award.

Combat Cameraman gets Silver Star...

2008-08-07T09:07:00.002-10:00

A COMCAM Hero
Written by Specialist Sean Everette

You’ve just inserted with the Special Forces team to which you are assigned. You’re in a wadi, a dry river bed in Afghanistan, looking up a nearly sheer cliff face you have to climb to reach the mission objective. The cliff face is terraced, so you won’t have to climb straight up the whole way, but it still won’t be easy to reach the top. You and your team start the climb, and make it to a ledge about 60 feet up, before the enemy reveal themselves. Shots ring out. The kak-kak-kak of automatic weapons fire seems to be coming from every direction. Rocket propelled grenades are exploding nearby. It’s an ambush and you are caught in the middle of it. What do you do?

This is the situation in which Specialist Michael Carter found himself one day in early April. Carter, a 25V Combat Documentation and Production Specialist with the 55th Signal Company (Combat Camera), was attached to a Special Forces detachment to document their missions via photo and video in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During this situation, however, Carter performed as one of the Special Forces Soldiers he was on mission with, and his actions have earned him a nomination to receive the prestigious Silver Star. This makes him the only Combat Cameraman to receive this honor.

Carter was a part of the C2, command-and-control, node along with the detachment commander, an interpreter, communications specialist, and other team members. As the ambush began, Carter was with the detachment commander.
“We started taking fire from almost every direction. It seemed like 360,” Carter said. “And that’s when rounds started impacting… everybody just started contact, started firing.”

The two of them began to lay suppressive fire while taking cover in a nook in the cliff face. With them was the detachment’s interpreter, who immediately on reaching the nook was shot and killed just two feet from where Carter was taking cover. Carter provided suppressive fire for the detachment commander while the interpreter’s body was recovered and the two scrambled to find better cover.

The C2 node was pinned down by enemy fire. The communications specialist with the node was about 15 feet away from Carter and the detachment commander when he was shot in the arm and leg. Another Soldier made his way to the wounded commo specialist and had just begun to perform first aid when he was also shot. Under the protection of suppressive fire laid down by the commander, Carter rushed to the fallen Soldiers, and, avoiding enemy fire, recovered the commo specialist, dragging him back to cover 15 feet away. He then laid suppressive fire while the detachment commander recovered the other Soldier.

Carter again exposed himself to withering enemy fire to recover the communications equipment he was forced to leave behind when he rescued the commo specialist.

“We needed the commo guy’s radio, which was still in his bag. When we dragged him back, we didn’t get his bag. The captain and the JTAC (the Air Force communications specialist with the team) started laying suppressive fire. I ran out and grabbed the radio and brought it back.

Once he got the equipment back to the detachment commander, Carter assisted in getting communications with higher headquarters reestablished, allowing the detachment to call in Close Air Support (CAS) strikes.

Carter then moved to giving life-saving first aid to the two wounded Soldiers he and the detachment commander had rescued. This allowed the detachment medic to see to ten wounded Afghan Commandos from the Afghan detachment working with the Special Forces team.

At this point, the team had determined there were between 100 and 200 insurgents making up the enemy force. As the fire fight drug on through the day, there was a nearly continuous back-and-forth of gun fire. At one point, the enemy had closed to within 40 feet of the position Carter occupied with the detachment commander and was advancing, threatening to overrun their position. Carter again exposed himself to enemy fire and laid down suppressive fire, breaking the enemy advance and preventing them from overrunning his position.

When, towards the end of the six-and-a-half hour ambush, the team could finally begin a retreat, a new way down the cliff face had to be found. To go back the way they came would have resulted in heavy casualties.

“More people would have died… or gotten wounded,” Carter explained.
Carter joined with the team engineer to find a new path down, but it wasn’t an easy walk.

“We had to Spiderman down the cliff to find ways. There were 20 foot down straight drops. It was just a bad place to be at.”
Bad place or not, it was the only way down. Carter helped get the wounded members of his team down the cliff face while shielding them from falling debris.

“I took one [of the wounded Soldiers] down, the one who was able to walk. He wasn’t as bad off. He was still conscious,” Carter remembered. “I’d climb down first, and there were parts where he couldn’t hold [on to the cliff face], so I’d let him drop on me so I could catch him and continue taking him down.”

Carter did this with several more Soldiers, moving the wounded to the Casualty Collection Point (CCP) and going back for more. He carried the wounded commo specialist and a Soldier who had lost a leg and made sure they made it out of the fight.

By the time the medivac helicopters arrived, the fight was winding down, though CAS and gunfire was still occasionally going off. Carter assisted in getting the wounded on to stretchers, and getting them across the wadi and into the waiting helicopters.

It was days later when Carter learned he was being nominated for a Silver Star.
“I was writing up sworn statements of what happened and [one of the other Soldiers on my team] accidentally told me. I was like, ‘What? Huh? What are you talking about?’”

Carter’s disbelief stemmed from how he felt about what he did.

“My whole thing is I do what you would do for me. I’m no one special. I’m just a normal person. I just did [for my team members] what [they] would do for me.”
Despite his modest outlook on what he did, Carter is grateful for the recognition.

“Yes, I’m proud of it. Don’t get me wrong. [But] I’m a humble person. Medals and badges do not make the person.”

That may be true, but the Silver Star will let everyone else know what kind of person Michael Carter is… an American hero.

Theater Review: The Accomplices...

2008-07-22T11:14:00.002-10:00

From Steve Schub:

Theater Review: The Accomplices
Bottom Line: A powerful play that will get your blood racing and brain
thinking, skillfully acted and directed.

By Jay Reiner
Jul 21, 2008
Venue: Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles (Through Aug. 24)

Even if you’re Jewish you probably haven’t heard of Peter Bergson, a man
whose service to the Jews during the Holocaust rivals that of Oskar
Schindler or Raoul Wallenberg.

Bergson (born Hillel Kook), a committed Zionist, came to the U.S. in 1940
to help raise a Jewish army in the struggle against Hitler. As news of the
Holocaust leaked out, he changed his mission to saving the remaining Jews
of Europe. This meant persuading the Roosevelt administration of the
urgency of acting immediately in a number of areas, particularly in
assisting refugees.

The objective proved elusive, though ultimately Bergson is credited with
helping save the lives of at least 200,000 Jews. The story is fascinating
because it sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in American history,
and this includes the reaction of the American Jewish establishment, led
by Rabbi Stephen Wise.

In “The Accomplices,” Bernard Weinraub, a former political correspondent
at the New York Times, tells the provocative story in a balanced but
no-holds-barred manner that lets the uncomfortable facts speak for
themselves. In Bergson (Steven Schub), he also has an inherently dramatic
character because the man was anything but politic in the way he conducted
himself. He was abrasive, headstrong and arrogant, part of the reason the
Jewish establishment tried its best to silence him and even have him
deported. Not only were they showing their loyalty to FDR (James Harper),
they feared Bergson would alienate the president and the American people
as well.

But Bergson’s main obstacle was Breckinridge Long (Brian Carpenter), a
highly placed member of the State Department whose upper-class
anti-Semitism and control over administration refugee policy cost the
lives of many Jews. The play points out that Roosevelt was indifferent to
the plight of the Jews and only took positive action when finally forced
to by a small rebellion in his administration led by Treasury Secretary
Henry Morganthau (Dennis Gersten).

Director Deborah LaVine’s cast does a splendid job with this thorny
material. Schub is compelling as the impassioned Bergson, a man easier to
respect than to like. Harper captures Roosevelt’s patrician cadences and
steely core perfectly. William Dennis Hurley is moving and convincing as
Bergson’s immigrant colleague Samuel Merwin, a Romanian Jew who lost his
family to the Nazis. Others who appear with distinction are Kirsten
Kollender, Gregory G. Giles, Donne McRae and Cheryl Dooley.

In some ways the play unfolds like a modern version of “Antigone,” who,
following the dictates of conscience, had to fight the power of the state
to the bitter end. Only Bergson had to fight his battle on two fronts:
with the state and with his own people. Perhaps the second conflict
personally cost him more.

Cast: Steven Schub, James Harper, Morlan Higgins, William Dennis Hurley,
Brian Carpenter, Dennis Gersten, Kirsten Kollender, Donne McRae, Gregory
G. Giles, Cheryl Dooley, Stephan Marshall. Playwright: Bernard Weinraub.
Director: Deborah LaVine.

Iranian missile magic... not!

2008-07-11T16:10:00.003-10:00

This is so ridiculous I almost can't comment on it... Iran photoshopped an extra missile into it's press photo of the test missile launch this week. Worse... the "swallow and puke" media outlets published it... DOH!

Thanks to TIA Daily and LittelGreenFootballs for the tip.

From Ed Cline:

2008-07-09T07:00:00.002-10:00

My latest is up on Rule of Reason at this link:

"Parade Magazine, the slick insert found in most metropolitan Sunday newspapers, on July 6 carried a feature, “What is Patriotism?” to mark the July 4th weekend. In it presidential candidates Senators Barack Obama and John McCain shared “their thoughts about our country.”

Share them they did, and, quite predictably, they stressed a mutual theme: sacrifice, “giving back,” and a “unity” that would make the first two actions palatable. Obama’s piece was titled, “Sacrifice For The Common Good,” McCain’s, “A Cause Greater Than Self-Interest.”

Obama’s essay was a regurgitation of his boyhood experiences and a thinly disguised appeal to contribute to the “common cause.” It was intended to counter claims that Obama is unpatriotic and that he secretly despises his country..."

http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-mccain-pseudo-maverick-i.htm

Ed Cline

Oil spoilers... why are we paying through the nose?

2008-07-06T09:02:00.005-10:00

Finally some answers as to how we can address the problem with oil prices... write your congressman. Read this excellent article by Alex Epstein of the Ayn Rand Institute:

Investigate Big Congress, Not Big Oil
By Alex Epstein (Bucks County Courier Times, May 29, 2008; FrontPage Magazine, May 30, 2008)

With gasoline prices exceeding $4 a gallon in some states, politicians are responding as usual: Blame Big Oil First. Several prominent senators have once again summoned industry leaders to Capitol Hill, subjecting them to yet another barrage of rhetorical questions, interruptions, accusations, and sermons. The lawmakers' goal, claims Sen. Patrick Leahy, is to identify "causes of the rising price of oil on which Congress can act." But the foregone conclusion is that "price gouging," "collusion," and "market manipulation" by Big Oil, or speculation by financiers, is responsible.

The simple fact that such Congressional investigations are designed to obscure is that the prices of oil and gasoline are determined by supply and demand--which neither private oil companies nor speculators have any power to dictate in their favor. If they had such market mastery, then why didn't they use it in the 1990s, when gasoline was selling at a barely profitable $1 a gallon? To be sure, speculators can bid up prices--but they only do so when they believe that oil will become even more expensive in the future, and only make money when they are right...

Full article here

Trip to D.C.

2008-06-12T18:00:00.006-10:00

Took a trip to Washington D.C. on Wednesday. First time for me! I really enjoyed seeing some of the sights, but there was a ton of stuff I did not get to see and much more I would have liked to spend more time exploring... something for another day I suppose.

This first one is, of course, the Washington Monument...

Next we have a shot from Arlington Cemetery...

And some trees on The Mall...

And last: The Lincoln Memorial! Abe looks awesome!

All photos copyright Joe Kane 2008

Schub on Playbill!

2008-06-09T17:24:00.008-10:00

Casting Complete for West Coast Premiere of Weinraub's The Accomplices

The Fountain Theatre will present the West Coast premiere of Bernard Weinraub's Drama Desk-nominated play, The Accomplices.

Deborah LaVine will direct the production, which begins previews at the Los Angeles venue July 3 with an official opening scheduled for July 12. The limited engagement will play through Aug. 24.

Based on the true story of Jewish activist Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson), the cast will feature Steven Schub as Peter Bergson, William Dennis Hurley as fellow Zionist Samuel Merlin, James Harper as FDR, Brian Carpenter as Breckinridge Long, Gregory G. Giles as FDR advisor Sam Rosenman, Dennis Gersten as playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht and Peter Henry Schroeder as Rabbi Wise with Cheryl Dooley, Kirsten Kollender, Stephen Marshall and Donne McRae.

In 1940, press notes state, "Hillel Kook arrived in the U.S. fresh from the underground resistance in Palestine. Changing his name to Peter Bergson, he sought aid for the rescue of European Jews from the Nazis. Shocked to find himself blocked by both the Roosevelt administration and the Jewish establishment, Bergson spearheaded an extraordinary campaign of public rallies, hard-hitting newspaper advertisements and lobbying in Congress that forced America to confront the Holocaust. Figuring prominently in the play are such historical figures as FDR; U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long, who had jurisdiction over immigration and refugee problems during World War II; and American Jewish leader Rabbi Stephen Wise who found himself torn between nationalism and cultural/religious identity. The result is a blistering account of Bergson's fight to save millions - and of the conspiracy of silence and inaction that continues to haunt us to this day."

In a statement director LaVine said, "In today's culture, many people don't believe the individual has a voice. Bergson's story shows that the individual can make a difference. The backdrop is the fight to save the Jews during World War II, but it's a story about one man pitting himself against the machinations of the power elite."

The Accomplices will feature set design by Travis Gale Lewis, lighting design by Ken Booth, costume design by Shon LeBlanc and sound design David B. Marling. Props are by Erin Treanor; dialect coach is JB Blanc; and the production stage manager is Jeremy A. Levin. Simon Levy and Deborah Lawlor produce.

Show times are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 2 PM.

The Fountain Theatre is located at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie) in Los Angeles, CA. For tickets call (323) 663-1525 or visit www.FountainTheatre.com.

I finally meet Ed Cline!

2008-06-08T04:58:00.004-10:00

Yesterday I took a drive down to Colonial Williamsburg to meet Ed Cline, author of several of my favorite books, including the very excellent Sparrowhawk series. We met up at the Williamsburg visitor's center which has a wonderful book store packed full of interesting books - alas, too many books, too little time. Ed holds regular book-signing sessions there and has a whole shelf right up front featuring his books - very impressive.

It was great to finally meet Ed, and he signed my copy of book 6, "War" and also gave me a copy of his new book, the companion to the Sparrowhawk series! Thanks Ed! I can't wait for your next book to come out!

You also can check out Ed's latest article at the Rule of Reason website. It's titled "The Year of the Long Knives: Part 1" and I have not had a chance to read it yet but will today sometime.

Cheers,
Joe

(Photo by Dan Sanford) Thanks Dan. :o)

Informative video on Islamic extremism in the UK...

2008-06-01T16:46:00.003-10:00

This is the first of a six-part series on youtube.

The rest can be found here.

http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_query=dispatches+undercover+mosque

Schub at the Fountain Theater...

2008-05-30T07:36:00.002-10:00

From Steve Schub of Fenwick fame:

"Shalom Y'all!
Your freedom-wuvin' Fenwick, Schubieshake hither. Hope this email finds you smiling! So dig dis: after 140 years of playing Crack-pots, Crack-heads, Killers and Kooks, I finally have the chance to play a certifiable Hero. How's this for Fenwick-ian felicity? Just 48 hours ago I'm in Jerusalem at my twin nephews twin Bar-Mitzvahs, when I find out via email that I've been offered the role of "Peter Bergson" (aka Hillel Kook) in the West Coast Premiere of the play "The Accomplices" at the Fountain Theater (see details below). "The Accomplices" was nominated for the 2007 New York Drama Desk Award for Best New Play, and it tells the story of "Peter Bergson", the real-life hero of the Jewish Underground who brought the world's attention to the Holocaust. What's even more serendipitous and surreal, is that whilst still in Israel, I was able to track down this guy's widow and daughter and spent the day at their house in Tel-Aviv yesterday- right before hopping on a plane and jumping into rehearsal today.
Can't quite make sense of it all myself.
Jet-laggedly yours,
On the barricades, and in dubious battle,
Shake!

--------------------------
THE ACCOMPLICES
Rehearsals: May 27 - July 2, 2008
Previews: July 3 - July 11, 2008
Opens: July 12 - August 24, 2008
Additional Personnel & Production Info: Producer, Simon Levy
Author, Bernard Weinraub
Director, Deborah LaVine
Production Company, The Fountain Theatre
Box Office: (323) 663-1525 Low Priced Group Sales (323) 663-1365 http://www.fountaintheatre.com

West Coast Premiere. Nominated for the 2007 New York Drama Desk Award for Best New Play. The true story of Hillel Kook (aka Peter Bergson) who, during World War II, spearheaded an extraordinary campaign of public rallies, hard-hitting newspaper advertisements, and lobbying in Congress to get America to save the Jews. Veteran New York Times reporter Bernard Weinraub writes a blistering account of the fight to save millions and the conspiracy of silence and inaction in the U.S. State Department.

The director, Deborah LaVine, is best known for her productions of A Shayna Maidel and Kindertransport, and is considered one of Los Angeles’ finest directors.

[ PETER BERGSON ]
(mid 30s) – LEAD ROLE – male - firebrand Zionist activist; charismatic, tough, attractive, he arrives from Palestine, by way of Europe, to convince America to save the Jews."

Ed Cline on Heroism...

2008-05-27T07:29:00.000-10:00

From Rule of Reason:

"...a man of “towering strength of character” would not root his “longings” on the approval of others. He would be utterly devoid of any consciousness of the value others might place on his actions, and so would not crave other-oriented rewards; those longings would not be present in him to be “suppressed.”

Compare Manchester’s description of a hero to Aristotle’s:

“The beauty of the soul shines out when a man bears with composure one heavy mischance after another, not because he does not feel them, but because he is a man of high and heroic temper.”

That is a finer, more precise description of heroism. It describes Ayn Rand’s fictional Howard Roark, John Galt, and Francisco d’Anconia. It describes Cyrano de Bergerac and many lesser heroes, lesser because the obstacles their creators put in the path of their heroes were not as daunting and insurmountable as Cyrano’s. It describes the real life heroes who have advanced virtually every realm of human knowledge and happiness in science, medicine, technology, industry and, too infrequently, and much to our detriment, in philosophy and politics. It also describes those few men faced with the terrible task of war.

Their heroism was always deliberate, and never mindless."

Full article here: "Heroism: A Memorial Day Comment" by Ed Cline

Honorary Chief...

2008-05-21T09:43:00.000-10:00

From Aaron A. Shipley
Sailor and Command Master Chief
Commander, Patrol and Reconnaissance GROUP:

My fellow Chiefs,

I wanted to share with you this picture as well as a short synopsis of how it came about.

AO1 David Eberhart (pictured) is terminally ill with cancer. I was his Chief for his first tour on the USS INDEPENDENCE and even then his goal in the Navy was to be a Chief Petty Officer. His career, though very successful, has been interrupted with cancer treatment, periods of remission and finally with the news of being terminal.

He is currently assigned to MALS-24 at Kbay. A few months ago he requested to see the MCPON. MCPON Campa happened to be on the island visiting and went to the hospital to see AO1. It was explained to him [MCPON] how badly
AO1 wanted to be a Chief and that he even took the Chief's exam from the hospital during a three day period -- he didn't have the strength for more than an hour at a time. On his good days he would put on his uniform and make his way to work though the time there took a severe toll on him physically.

He did not make board as he was six-points shy. It was requested by PACFLT Chiefs that AO1 be made an Honorary Chief Petty Officer. We talked about it in Newport and MCPON was in concurrence. The intent was for MCPON himself to make the presentation.

News came this week that AO1 may not make it through the weekend as his health is rapidly declining. FLTCM Tom Howard along with a ton of Chiefs (including CMDCM Don Krampert from CPRW-2) from the area banded together to make this happen as quickly as possible. On Thursday, AO1 David Eberhart was designated an Honorary Chief Petty Officer.

I personally called and talked to Chief David Eberhart following his promotion Thursday and the excitement in his voice came with a strength and commitment that cannot be explained in words. He remembered well our time on the INDY but his short term memory is fading quickly.

Chief Eberhart's terminal prognosis remains listed in days. He is married with two children.

I tell you this story to remind you of the importance placed on us as Chief Petty Officers and the so many Sailors in our great Navy who look up to us and have the unwavering determination to be just like us. We have the responsibility to live up to that, to be the example, to walk the walk and talk the talk. It is truly an honor to be a United States Navy Chief Petty Officer and I am honored to call each of you - and Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer David Eberhart -- shipmates.

Thank you for all you do.

V/r Aaron

Navy Photographer shoots down suicide bomber...

2008-04-23T08:05:00.001-10:00

MC2 James D. Hamill
Written by Bagram Media Center
Monday, 24 March 2008

Petty Officer Hamill was present at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the opening of the Khost Provincial Hopspital. During the ceremony, a suicide bomber disguised as a doctor penetrated security intent on assassinating dignitaries gathered at the event. Petty Officer Hamill stood his ground between the assailant and the ceremony attendees and engaged the assailant at close range with his 9mm pistol, preventing the bomber from inflicting catastrophic casualties.

Petty Officer Hamill’s gallant actions, taken without regard for his own safety, allowed the provincial governor and bystanders to escape without injury and represent the finest traditions of heroic actions in combat.

AbleKane Photography Web site...

2008-04-06T09:16:00.004-10:00

How long has my wife been telling me to set up a site for my photography.... hmm, more than a little while. Anyway, that day has finally come. If you want to check it out go to: http://web.mac.com/ablekane/Site/Welcome.html

Ideas, comments, feedback are welcome... also customers are welcome. If you need a photographer, give me a shout.

Cheers!

What really happened?

2008-04-06T00:31:00.003-10:00

Here is a link to a really great summary of the history of Israel in the Middle East. It's amazing how none of this is ever talked about in the media. Moral outrage against the anti-semitic Arabs is not in fashion I guess. Meanwhile Israel has been living with terrorist attacks against them for more than 60 years and everyone seems to be bending over backward to accommodate Arab demands instead of seeking justice for the true victims.

Hopefully this link will enlighten some of you: http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/

Atlas Online...

2008-04-04T06:42:00.002-10:00

“Whoever you are, you who are hearing me now, I am speaking to whatever living remnant is left uncorrupted within you, to the remnant of the human, to your mind, and I say: There is a morality of reason, a morality proper to man, and Man’s Life is its standard of value.” -- Ayn Rand

http://www.AtlasShrugged.com/

Update from Steve Schub...

2008-03-18T10:36:00.000-10:00

Schubieshake here!
Dig dis Comrades!... Mother of God & Father of Zeus! Our little pip-
squeak 99 Seat/99 Cent, Elephant Theater Company just won LA Drama
Critic's Circle Award for Best Production of 2007 last night!
(Details below from our own Lindsay Albaugh)...
Under-ground Under-Dogs Uber Alles!
xoxo,
Shake!
----------------

Hello Friends of the Elephant!

Elephant Theatre Company was nominated for four LA Drama Critic's
Circle Awards last night (Best Set Design, Best Light Design, Best
Writing, and Best Production) all for last season's production of IN
ARABIA WE'D ALL BE KINGS. I am proud to announce that we took home
all four awards! We were nominted with other outstanding theatre
companies in Los Angeles such as Center Theatre Group, Boston Court,
The Geffen Playhouse, and The Colony Theatre. In the Category of
Best Production- two awards were given, one to us, and one to Center
Theatre Group's production of the musical '13'. It was honor to
stand alongside the largest theatre in the nation.

It was a special evening, and our Artistic Director David Fofi gave a
humble and heartfelt acceptance speech. Many people in the theatre
community stopped us last night and congratulated us and told us
again how much they loved our production of IN ARABIA WE'D BE KINGS.

Navy Combat Cameraman gets Purple Heart Medal

2008-03-03T04:41:00.003-10:00

Here's one of the Combat Camera guys with me here in Iraq, Todd Frantom. Back in early February he and his crew were in a firefight with insurgents up near Mosul, Iraq and was hit by a fragmentation grenade. The result was a borken bone in his hand and multiple lacerations. They killed the bad guy and he was able to continue taking photos.

He's doing great now and we will be heading home soon so all in all a happy ending!

Hopefully we will get the full story onto Navy News Stand soon.

Photo by Joe Kane. (Oh, by the way, Todd is an awesome photographer and actually did the photoshop trick on this photo to isolate the purple of the medal while making the background black and white.) Very nice!

Dreaming of Davey Crockett...

2008-02-21T05:12:00.003-10:00

Remarks by Davey Crockett, backwoodsman, mighty hunter, skilled scout, brave soldier, expert rifleman, able judge, heroic defender of the Alamo and member of the 20th 21st and 23rd congress from Tennessee. From "The Life of Colonel David Crockett," by Edward Sylvester Ellis.

One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:

"Mr Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.

We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I ever heard that the government was in arrears to him.

"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the emblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation. Read the rest here.

http://johnshadegg.house.gov/UploadedFiles/Davey%20Crockett%20-%20Not%20Yours%20To%20Give.doc

Our elected umpires... fouled out

2008-02-15T01:53:00.001-10:00

I don’t understand why Congress is wasting its time having hearings on baseball players and whether or not they used performance enhancing drugs. And so far no one is taking the time to explain it to me. As far as I can tell members of Congress must have nothing better to do than to find more ways of interfering with the freedom of others.

The answer to the question of whether or not to allow drugs in baseball, or any other sport is a simple one that requires no special knowledge or government body to solve. I’ll provide an answer right here: Let baseball team owners decide what substances are acceptable. The teams belong to them. They write the contracts with the players. They can test them as much and as often as they like. The players either agree to play under those rules or not. If the owners get too crazy the players are free to create their own league. The only role of government in this situation is if there is some dispute over whether or not a contract has been violated.

Wasn’t that easy? Problem solved. How come I can do that in about two minutes and it has been dragging on in Congress for months? I’ll answer that one for you as well. Philosophy.

For details see Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged.”

To my Valentine...

2008-02-13T14:17:00.000-10:00

"Until..."
By Joe Kane

Can it be that our lives have come so far together
The being apart only means “until?”
Until I am back in the warmth of your smile
And the circle of your arms
And the heat of your eyes
And the scent of your skin beneath blankets
And darkness and silence and the weight
Of miles that have fallen away
And time that has melted to mist
And tears that have wet your lips
And the first gasp of air I hold onto
When I once again see your face
And I finally begin to breathe without pain
From prolonged longing and hope and desire
And our bodies come together again
To continue the life that we created
So long ago when we first joined hands
And pledged to remain so “until…”

Musings on the toughest easiest job I’ve ever had...

2008-02-13T14:16:00.000-10:00

This is a fine war. A war without fighting. A war where I have an endless supply of books sent from back home, and thousands of movies and TV shows available on my computer. A war where people send me packages filled with things I don’t really need but appreciate all the same and open with an excitement that rivals a child’s at Christmas. A war in which I have not fired a single bullet that wasn’t intended for a target at the range. A war I trained for that looks nothing like I expected. A war where I’m getting fatter than I was when I got here – that’s not a spare tire around my waist, that’s a KBR puppy.

I’m busy every day and bored all day long. I’m excited to be here where the action is and wondering where the hell the action is. I email or talk to my wife on video-chat nearly every day and instead of making it easier it makes it harder to take the distance. Some days it makes it easier. Other days I think that if I see her on my screen again – flat, lukewarm and plastic -- without touching her, I may lose my mind.

My first tour here I was outside the wire very often. I talked with Iraqis and worked with them and ate their food. I learned they were happy we chased out Sadaam and that they wanted the war to end… how they wanted us to leave and at the same time dreaded us leaving. I heard the daily rumors from the street. How we were making a difference, building a country, winning the hearts and minds… or not. And I remember the look of complete disbelief when I spoke about my home in Hawaii – it could have been Mars I was describing. We learned about each other and from each other. There were good guys and bad guys. The bad guys were always trying to kill us whether we were inside or outside the wire. Body armor was second skin and a weapon was an extra appendage.

Back then the sound of small arms fire was almost comforting to me. Small arms fire meant that the good guys were engaging the enemy – and that fight was almost inevitably going to end up with dead bad guys. I became afraid of mortars after a while but seldom ran to the bunkers… The mortars and rocket attacks were daily, but so random. By the time I could get to a bunker the attack was usually over. But there were those times when three or four rounds would come in and I’d think it was over… then 5 more would come and I’d think how stupid it would be to be caught out of the bunker when I had had so much time to get there. Sometimes they’d wake me up, my bed shaking violently, with my mind still trying to register what that sound was. Other times they’d keep me awake as I thought about the people I’d seen that day in the hospital with missing limbs and melted off skin and quiet moaning. On nights like that they sometimes got close enough to make me think about writing that last letter and leaving it on the desktop of my computer labeled, “If I am dead.”

Car bombs and IEDs were a constant threat when I was traveling in a convoy, though I never got hit by one or even came close. The closest I came to the car bombs was when they blew up at Assassin’s Gate, about a block from where my office was or on the road just outside the Green Zone… the other side of the wall. “Close enough” was a relative phrase.

This time around, part of me wants to get close – as ridiculous as that sounds. Here on this air base it is so quiet that it is almost like the war is over. That’s a good thing, but I know that it is not over and that people are still being shot at and killed… I’m just further from it. My men are out there in it. My job is to wait and worry and write awards for them. Where is the glory behind a desk – even in a war zone? I want to be challenged so that I can stand up and fight. I want to shoot back. I want to defend myself and defeat the evil so I can go home. This is one of the toughest easiest jobs I’ve ever had. And I love it.

I love doing the hard time… even when that hard time is easy. That must be confusing to some people but that is what it feels like. Staying motivated, working hard every day to ask, “What can I do today to make a difference?” is sometimes more difficult when you feel so disconnected from things. I am here to support and back up my team… and I am so proud of them – even though I am envious of them being out there doing what I want to do. My fingers are in everything and yet I feel no sensation. I guess I’ve learned a lot in the past 5 months about leadership, communication, perspective, and organization. At the root of all that is the lives of the men I’m in charge of and what I will do for them – and I don’t mean to sound as if I’m talking about altruism in any sense – I’m certainly not an altruist. I suppose I’m just really gaining a respect for what those in positions of real responsibility do.

I used to wonder why the “leaders” were so highly respected and given so many perks… after all it was those of us on the bottom doing all the work. But I think I get it now. I spend more time doing “nothing” now and getting a lot more done. It’s a difference between mind work and muscle work. Not everyone is capable of doing the mind work whereas virtually anyone can do the muscle work. And the mind work is critical to the success of any mission or job. Remove one person loading a truck and the job goes slowly… remove the guy who made the contacts, hired the driver and planned the route and delivery and you blow the whole job. Simple really and I know I’ve always known it at some level but am now gaining a real appreciation for it.

Ayn Ran Institute donates 1 Million books to schools...

2008-02-07T20:43:00.000-10:00

From the Ayn Rand Institute:

With a shipment of 80,000 books in January, the Ayn Rand Institute
(ARI) has placed more than 1 million copies of Ayn Rand's novels
in the hands of high school teachers and their students across North
America.

This astounding number of books has been provided for free by
ARI, over the last six years, to high school teachers in the United
States and Canada, as part of its mission to promote Ayn Rand's
ideas in today's culture.

According to Marilee Dragsdahl, ARI's education manager, "Since
we began this program in 2002, we sent teachers about 600,000
copies of Anthem, 400,000 copies of The Fountainhead and 50,000
copies of Atlas Shrugged. To date, 20,000 teachers have received
and are using in their classrooms the Ayn Rand novels we sent
them."

Each school year ARI distributes promotional flyers that offer free
classroom sets of Ayn Rand's novels to English and language arts
teachers, department heads and principals, as well as selected
counselors and high school administrators. "This offer," said Mrs.
Dragsdahl, "is available to both public and private high schools
throughout the United States. Through this program, which I have
been running since its inception, we estimate that almost 2 million
students have read and studied Ayn Rand's novels."

"Each teacher who requests these books," explained Mrs.
Dragsdahl, "receives a classroom set of the novels, along with a
teacher's guide, lesson plans and information about ARI's annual
Anthem, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged essay contests,
which may well be the largest in the United States. We also offer
phone and e-mail support to teachers to facilitate their teaching of
the books in their classes. The response has been excellent."

Here is what some of the teachers who received free books from
ARI and taught them in their classrooms had to say:

"Students were excited about the novels. They appreciated having
their own copy and not having to share with other students. Overall
positive experience for everyone involved. . . . Your providing a
complimentary classroom set of books was a great offer, as budget
constraints are a real issue in our district." (San Diego, CA)

"Our school could not have been more thrilled to receive all those
free texts, and our students are gaining so much from them!"
(Esparto, CA)

"In an age when we battle a multitude of distractions and apathy,
these books have helped ignite a new spark in the classroom."
(Victoria, TX)

"[My students] absolutely LOVED The Fountainhead. Over half of
the students who read the novel cite major changes in the way they
perceive their roles in their own lives. Many students feel that the
novel has a life-changing impact, and several students convince
friends in other classes to read the novel, as well." (Carlsbad, CA)

"Students responded [to Anthem] with thoughtful reflection. They
were honors 9th graders, and it was the first time they really had a
book that presented them with so much to think about." (Covina,
CA)

"I love Anthem and The Fountainhead. I have been recommending
them to other teachers and students throughout my 20-year career."
(Sierra Vista, AZ)

Fenwicks... and various other "F" words...

2008-02-06T21:46:00.000-10:00

Steve Schub of the Fenwicks says:
Fresh Fenwicks Music! Video! Photos! Press! Funky, freaky, furry & FREE!

From our 2007 Human Rights Foundation "Fenwicks For Freedom" Tour
with Big D and The Kids Table:

-Fresh Fenwick Video & Music. New uncensored audio and visuals, hither:
http://www.thefenwicks.com/music.shtml

-Fresh Fenwick Photos. 40 of 'em!:
http://www.thefenwicks.com/gallery/
(Special thanks to the great Yeram Rachel Reyes!)

-And finally, fresh Fenwick Press! We didn't say, they did. (Silly,
feeble-minded "They". Oh how we love you)....
"The story of this band is legend... America's only Afro-Celtic
Yiddish Ska band is like Oingo Boingo on steroids... shifting
seamlessly from circus music to booty shaking third wave ska at it's
best. With an insane, hysterical, vaudevillian stage show, deranged
lyrics and a frenzied assault on everything sacred, The Fenwicks will
not disappoint".
-Skratch Magazine

"Bold and powerful. Blew my mind. I have never heard anything like
this before".
-Southern Ska Magazine

"How can you not like this band? A band that swings and rocks at the
same time.... A lead singer, who is at heart a showman... the best
live band I have heard".
-Silly Little Trouser Monkey Magazine

"What is this?! The Fenwicks are not a normal band. Blending punk,
ska, pop and klezmer, they sound like something you'd hear at a
mutant cross-cultural wedding. They are a band with a message: enjoy
one's life! The songs ask you to live with integrity, love with
sincerity, and act to make your life better. The Fenwicks promote joy
both in theory and in practice- they sing and perform with the joy
they preach".
-G. Murray Thomas
The Independent

"Diverse and electrifying. These guys make you want to cavort with
wild spasms of joy, ruthlessly kicking your legs up with reckless
abandon. Their infectious grooves leave you begging for more. Spin
this disc at your next big party, and it will not soon be forgotten"
- Glass Eye Magazine

-p.s. This just in! The Los Angeles Theater Company I, yer very own
Schubieshake, am a humbly proud member of, & our production of "In
Arabia, We'd All Be Kings"- which I spent half of 2007 as the crack-
head "Skank" in, has just been nominated by the LA Drama Critics
Circle for multiple nominations- including Best Production of 2007!
Man-o-Manishevitz! What the ?!?!

For more info on us Elephants, dig: http://www.elephantstageworks.com/

Osprey at night...

2008-02-05T05:41:00.001-10:00

Here is a photo I shot of a V22 Osprey refueling in Balad before flying to Fallujah. Awesome!

I guess some other people liked it as well. It was the lead photo on Navy Newsstand today and I see it has been posted on the following

sites as well:

Shoe-Fly Pie - http://shoe-fly-pie.blogspot.com/2008/02/osprey-in-night.html

US Navy Images of the Day - http://www.navy.mil/

Air-Attack.com - Latest Images - http://www.air-attack.com/

DailyAviator - http://www.DailyAviator.com

Photos from panzerwaffen43 - http://www.flickr.com/photos/84665930@N00/

Zombie Hunter Spring Fashions. (Circa 2008)...

2008-01-28T07:49:00.000-10:00

From Steve Schub:

"Surrounded by death- (or something that smells a hell of a lot like
it)- on the set of "Dozers".
Please note the utterly gratuitous & entirely self-serving (Fenwick)
product placements on the bottom of that there board...
Shameless.
xo,
Shake!"

Fenwicks and Zombies...

2008-01-12T09:36:00.000-10:00

From Steve Schub and the Fenwicks:

A (Belated) Slap-Happy New Year to all Fen-heads/'Wick-heads & Freedom-'Wuvers World-Wide!

-Here's a heavenly & horrific heads-up! Your favorite, freaky, furry Fenwick, your very own friendly neighborhood Schub-erMensch, has been cast as the lead Zombie Hunter- "Buddy Budjinksi" in writer/directors Don Adams & Harry James Picardi's latest mega-horror/comedy/romance-epic "Dozers". Hence I will be off-the-grid, out-of-commission, beyond-the-pale, above-the-fray, and for all intents and purposes, essentially unreachable until Monday February 4th. (We shoot here & in Wisconsin. Brrrr. Mommy, I'm cold!)..... Subsequently- for all Fenwick related inquiries until then, please email my better 1/2, Jimmie Corrieri at: jimc@empireentertainment.com

-Now as a kinda post-Christmas/post-Solstice bonus, (as we've been so delinquent in updating our website- bad Fenwicks!)- please enjoy, if you will, a brand spankin' new, recently discovered live clip from our just wrapped Human Rights Foundation "Fenwicks For Freedom" tour! Our cover version of The Special AKA's 1984 ska classic "Free Nelson Mandela" (with the lyrics newly re-modified, tweaked and updated for 2008). Shot at the Knitting Factory NYC and at Fuel in Jacksonville Florida. Nuthin' even remotely fancy, but it kinda captures the fun. Enjoy it here, and only here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ8yrZVcI2E

Bonus video: A video demo for our song "No One Is Coming", apparently now destined to be on the "Dozers" soundtrack. A very merry, musical case for Secular Humanism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPtPZPF9Eak

-Finally, as some of you may know, our guitar player Jimmie Corrieri has a baby brother, Daniel. In addition to being just an all-round great guy (and recently engaged), the man has become an amazing chef! He now has his very own cooking website- Culinary Seductions! http://www.culinaryseductions.com

Here's how Daniel himself describes it:
"CulinarySeductions.com is an online magazine and community based on the idea that food inspires passion. The site entertains and instructs on how to create sensational dishes, as well as the perfect atmosphere, bound to win over that special someone."
So dig it! Just in time for Valentine's Day, no? Yup!
http://www.culinaryseductions.com

-So... My bestest to you all Comrades! May the new year bring us all, nothing but everything!
Manically and spastically,
Yer Schubieshake!

Book review by Hirsi Ali: "The Suicide of Reason"

2008-01-10T22:20:00.000-10:00

Hirso Ali is a true heroine in the fight against Islamic fanaticism. Her review of a new book titled, "The Suicide of Reason" give us a glimpse into the mind of an extraordinary woman.

From http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/review/Ali-t.html?ex=1357275600&en=0a58401d26a1da67&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

"Harris does not regard Islamic fanaticism as a deviancy or a madness that affects a few Muslims and terrifies many. Instead he argues that fanaticism is the basic principle in Islam. “The Muslims are, from an early age, indoctrinated into a shaming code that demands a fanatical rejection of anything that threatens to subvert the supremacy of Islam,” he writes. During the years that this shaming code is instilled into children, the collective is emphasized above the individual and his freedoms. A good Muslim must forsake all: his property, family, children, even life for the sake of Islam. Boys in particular are taught to be dominating and merciless, which has the effect of creating a society of holy warriors.

By contrast, the West has cultivated an ethos of individualism, reason and tolerance, and an elaborate system in which every actor, from the individual to the nation-state, seeks to resolve conflict through words. The entire system is built on the idea of self-interest. This ethos rejects fanaticism. The alpha male is pacified and groomed to study hard, find a good job and plan prudently for retirement: “While we in America are drugging our alpha boys with Ritalin,” Harris writes, “the Muslims are doing everything in their power to encourage their alpha boys to be tough, aggressive and ruthless.”"

Full review at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/books/review/Ali-t.html?ex=1357275600&en=0a58401d26a1da67&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

Maj. Andrew Olmsted's "Last Post"...

2008-01-10T22:15:00.000-10:00

Here is an amazing post by a Soldier killed in Iraq Jan. 3, 2008. It shows the soul of a true thinking man who was doing what he believed was right. Heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.

Goto this link to read it: http://andrewolmsted.com/
To all those who knew and loved Andy and all those who only know of him now that he is gone,

Just want to let you know that what Andy fought for and stood for continues in the hearts, minds and actions of those of us still here in Iraq. Although I never met Andy I know from his last post that he is a kindred spirit, a good man and a professional U.S. Soldier - which is one of the greatest compliments I can think of.

Thanks for leaving behind something of value to us all.

Sincerely,
Joe Kane
Balad, Iraq

Kant be right... attack ads come to philosophy

2007-12-17T11:05:00.000-10:00

Why We're Winning in Iraq ...

2007-12-15T03:26:00.000-10:00

This is from The Intellectual Activist Daily newsletter. Great analysis of the situation here in Iraq:

"Part of the success achieved by the "surge" in Iraq has been the suppression of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia run by Muqtada al-Sadr. The Mahdi Army has laid low and not challenged the surge. Why?

Maybe it's because Muqtada al-Sadr has been too busy studying. The Los Angeles Times reports that Sadr is feverishly trying to complete a course of seminary study that will allow him to claim the title of "ayatollah." Ominously, "the main focus of al-Sadr's studies has been the Shiite doctrine known in Arabic as 'wilayet al-faqeeh,' which supports the right of clerical rule. The concept was adopted Iran's Khomeini, but carries little support among Iraq's Shiite religious hierarchy."

The Christian Science Monitor claims that the Mahdi Army is just lying low so that it can rebuild and reform itself, coming back even stronger once US troops begin to leave. I'm not entirely buying this. Regrouping and coming back stronger is certainly the Mahdi Army's intention—but I doubt they can manage it.

The Washington Post has a long but fascinating article about the role of the Mahdi Army militia in Iraqi society. This article probably deserves its own link, which I may give it tomorrow, but it shows that the Mahdi Army, having lost men in battles with US and Iraqi troops, is having to recruit younger and younger teenage thugs as its enforcers, and this Mahdi Army mafia is alienating the population and fueling local interest in an Anbar-style "awakening"—a rebellion by local tribes against terrorist groups.

Another really good link, an interview with Stephen Biddle of the Council on Foreign Relations, also notes that "a significant number of Shiite combatant groups are also in active negotiation [with the coalition] and a significant number of them have left the fighting field." Interestingly, Biddle describes America's success in large measure as a reward for the virtue of persistence:

A third major factor is an apparent change in Iraqis' perception of how long we're going to be there. I've heard a number of people in Iraq suggest that, partially as a result of General [David] Petraeus' testimony before congressional committees last September, but also as a result of the changing tenor of the discussion in the United States, many Iraqi factions have gone from an expectation that we're short timers and we're leaving soon, and hence they need to prepare the battlefield for the big version of the civil war to come when we leave, to a view that the United States is apparently going to be sticking around for years.

That perception changes their ability to take risks. Previously, the last thing they were interested in doing was anything that might have strengthened their internal opponents, even slightly. Now, on the other hand, they seem to be willing to try it out. For example the Shiite national government is much more willing to tolerate the idea of its former semi-enemies being set up as local territorial police, because they're more confident that the United States is going to be around to keep these people honest.

Last but not least is the effect of the "surge." That works together with this change in Iraqi perception of how long we're sticking around. It's substantially safer for both the government and Sunni insurgents to experience some reconciliation if they think that there's somebody around to provide a safety net.

A lot of people have raised concerns about the strategy of forging alliances with local tribal leaders, but I think this is precisely what we need, for three reasons. First, tribal leaders are inherently local, tied to a town or district in which they are well-known and enjoy support—and therefore they are less likely to act as agents of Iranian influence.

Second, they are secular—not in the sense of being non-religious personally, but in the sense that the source of their power and legitimacy is secular. They are a form of existing social organization and authority that is grounded not in religion but in traditional family ties, which often cross over sectarian divisions. This makes them a good counterweight to Islamists like al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Army.

This potential virtue of the tribal-led "awakening" is indicated in the report below, which discusses the plans of one of the movement's leaders to turn it into a non-sectarian political party that could change the direction of Iraqi politics.

"A Powerful Awakening Shakes Iraqi Politics," Trudy Rubin, source RealClearPolitics.com, December 13

Six months ago Sheikh Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman al-Dulaimi predicted that tribal leaders would defeat al-Qaeda in Anbar province, the Sunni tribal heartland. Now the young prince of the Dulaim, one of Iraq's largest tribes, exults that al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been driven out of Anbar by tribal fighters aided by American troops….
[T]ribal sheikhs all over Iraq are constantly calling him for information about the movement in Anbar, sometimes called the Awakening (sahwa in Arabic). "People I've never heard of before want relations with the sahwa," says Ali Hatem. "The sahwa is not just an awakening of force but an awakening of heart and spirit, an awakening from sectarian hatred."…

He would like to see it spread to the north, where there are still AQI elements hiding out in cities like Mosul. More dramatic, he says fed-up Shiite sheikhs from the south of Iraq, where existing Shiite religious parties are squabbling viciously over power, want information on how to form sahwa movements of their own….

Ali Hatem—and other sheikhs with whom I spoke—are looking at an awakening that goes beyond groups of fighters. They talk of forming a new political party—nonsectarian—built on a tribal base that includes Sunnis, Shiites and others….

Such a development may have to wait until Iraq holds provincial elections. But the ferment aroused by the sahwa movement is already shaking up Iraq's political scene."

To subscribe to TIA click here.

Review - "Rescue Dawn" DVD

2007-12-14T13:39:00.000-10:00

Rescue Dawn (PG-13)

I was recently offered the chance to preview the DVD of the movie “Rescue Dawn”. In exchange for a free copy of the DVD all I had to do was talk about it on my blog. Cool!

From the liner notes:
“In 1965, an American pilot on a top secret bombing mission was shot down over Laos and taken to a hellish prison camp deep in the impenetrable jungle of Vietnam. What followed was one of the most remarkable and harrowing experiences of the entire Vietnam War. Inspired by the true story of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) and written and directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog, “Rescue Dawn” is an uncanny tale of camaraderie and betrayal, courage in the face of despair, and triumph over tragedy. It stands as a true statement to the impossible boundaries of the human condition and the invincibility of the American spirit.”

So, after having watched the movie twice and everything else there is to see on the DVD I must say I am impressed! This is a fantastic movie with performances by Christian Bale, Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies that quite frankly were more than just believable – in part because of the incredible condition of starvation they had to achieve for this film one never doubts that they ARE the characters they portray.

Although the story takes place at the beginning of the Vietnam War it isn’t really about the war and politics is not mentioned at all. It isn’t even about being in prison per se… that is the real achievement of the film – it transcends all of these things and becomes instead a look into the spirit of Dieter Dengler and how his self reliance, intelligence and benevolent sense of life allows him to not only survive the privations and torture of a prison camp but to improve the conditions for all of the prisoners in the camp and eventually to help them all to escape.

One of the things that struck me was that there was very little graphic torture that has become almost expected in prison films of this type. Nevertheless you know that the prisoners are suffering and the tension is palpable – without focusing on violence gratuitously. Another thing is that the director, Werner Herzog says he want the audience to trust their eyes – meaning there are no tricks, computer affects, etc… unless absolutely necessary as in the scene of the plane crash. Everything else you see is REAL. It does make a difference when you watch it.

This is a truly amazing piece of cinematography and I encourage all to see it. Not just because of the excellent story, but for the uplifting view of man the intelligent and moral being. Herzog and company have achieved a real film of value in “Rescue Dawn.”

Yer Festive and Festivus Fenwicks

2007-12-12T01:39:00.000-10:00

Latest from the Fenwicks!

3 New Songs and 33 New Photos- Guaranteed to Spin Your Dreidel!
Posted Now On Our MySpace Page:
http://www.myspace.com/thefenwicks
And for some odd reason, some people received the little post-tour update below and some did not...
If you got it? Ignore it. If ya didn't? Dig it! (See Below)....
Merry Christmas, Chappy Chanukkah, Rockin' Ramadan, Kwazy Kwanza and a Salacious Solstice to You And All Your Own!
xxx and ooo,
Yer Festive and Festivus Fenwicks
----------------------
Subject: Live Fenwick Video (Just How Evil are The Fenwicks?) & Kooky Kuhrazy Press!
Shalom, Ola & Aloha Comrades!
So us 'Wix made it home (semi-) alive! Punch-drunk, sleep-deprived, cross-eyed and delirious, but super slap-happy! Truly mad-cap shows from NYC to Miami and hence- welp, all sorts of assorted sordid stories to share- in due time. For now, however dig on 'dis! A chunk of live video some 'Wick-headed kid in Miami took on his cell-phone camera of a bit of our cover song of The Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela" (now "Free Venezuela") and pretty hilarious article/interview with a certain schmuck you know and (maybe) love about our Human Rights Tour with Big D and The Kids Table!
Manically & Maniacally,
Herr Schuber-Mensch & Yer Freedom-Wuvin' Fenwicks!

YouTube Clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dj3fmn8Q3Rw

More Fenwicks on YouTube:
Just How Evil are The Fenwicks?
-What the kids today will do for a free Fenwicks CD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xVgWFFW8sI

-And what this here Fenwick will do to his very own keyboard player, Jon Marshal Smith, and his iBook- (live onstage at the Knitting Factory NYC):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLOgdoKqxGQ

-From "Entertaining U" Magazine:
"ska that unites jews and arabs"
http://www.eujacksonville.com/pages/10-25-07/thefenwicks.htm

Recue Dawn movie on DVD...

2007-12-11T06:21:00.000-10:00

A few weeks ago I was sent an offer to review the movie Rescue Dawn, just out now on DVD. I just got the DVD a couple days ago and watched it - very good movie!. I will be reviewing it here very soon so stay tuned!

FIRE in Florida...

2007-12-11T03:29:00.000-10:00

From FIRE:

Victory for Free Speech at the University of Florida
Student Groups Allowed to Promote Controversial ‘Obsession’ Film
December 10, 2007

FIRE Press Release

GAINESVILLE, Fla., December 10, 2007—Student groups at the University of Florida (UF) will be allowed to freely promote the controversial film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” following a controversy with the school’s administration. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) intervened after a university official e-mailed the student body demanding an apology from the student groups sponsoring the film.

“The University of Florida chilled expression on campus when it publicly demanded an apology from student groups simply for promoting a film,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “Now, all students have been assured that UF will support their right to freely express themselves without fear of reprisal from the university.”

Several student groups—including UF’s Law School Republicans, College Republicans, Jewish Student Union, and Jewish Law Students Association—had posted fliers to advertise a November 13, 2007, screening of the film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.” The fliers used the headline, “RADICAL ISLAM WANTS YOU DEAD.”

On November 26, Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Telles-Irvin e-mailed all students at UF a letter entitled “Official Response to a recent advertisement for the movie ‘Obsession.’” In her letter, Telles-Irvin stated that “the groups that posted [the fliers] owe the campus, and particularly campus members of the Islamic faith, an apology and a clarification.”

FIRE wrote to Telles-Irvin on November 29, reminding her that although the flier might have offended some on campus, it was unquestionably protected expression under the First Amendment. FIRE warned that the administration’s message created a “chilling effect” because students could reasonably fear punishment for hosting similar events in the future.

On December 6, Telles-Irvin again wrote all UF students, assuring them of their right “to freely express themselves on any issue” and making clear that there would be no disciplinary action against the students who promoted the film.

“Although we were concerned by the university’s initial response, FIRE is pleased that UF has reaffirmed its commitment to free expression and will allow its students to promote and view ‘Obsession’ and openly discuss the ideas it presents,” Lukianoff said. “For the marketplace of ideas to thrive universities must not shy away from dissenting or provocative points of view. In fact, universities should welcome these opportunities for more serious, rigorous, and challenging debate and discussion.”

FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.

CONTACT:
Greg Lukianoff, President, FIRE: 215-717-3473; greg_lukianoff@thefire.org
Patricia Telles-Irvin, Vice President for Student Affairs, University of Florida: 352-392-1265; tellesirvin@ufl.edu

Original post

A nice thank you!

2007-12-07T13:39:00.000-10:00

A few days ago I received, here in Iraq, a LARGE box of natural beauty products from Kayla of Wholesale Essentials. As I mentioned to her in my thank you note it is really amazing how that type of thing positively effects the morale of the troops over here in Iraq. Anyway, she wrote me this lovely email in response and I just thought I would share it along with her company info. BUY HER STUFF! I've had the benefit of trying it for free, and have enjoyed it very much, so if you want a product that is battlefield tested... go to Essential Wholesale! The troops love it.

Joe,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful note. I especially enjoyed
hearing about what is happening in Iraq from someone there. We deeply
appreciate your service and what you sacrifice to be there for us. I
grew up on military bases and got my news from The Stars and Stripes,
which taught me that the media here has no idea what our soldiers do for
America. My Dad worked for AAFES and we traveled the world on Army and
Air Force bases. My husband served in the Marines before and during
Desert Storm. I am proud the American military men and women who serve
us all over the world. Your family must be very proud of you and deeply
blessed to support your efforts.

Come home safe,
Kayla Fioravanti, R.A.
Chief Formulator, Registered Aromatherapist & Founder
www.EssentialWholesale.com
www.EssentialLabs.com

About Essential Wholesale:
"Essential Wholesale has one of the largest selections of natural and organic unscented Cosmetic Bases in the world with over 1,000 stock formulations and custom formulation services too. Compare our ingredients to any competitor and you will see a significant difference in the ingredient quality as well as the active levels. We specialize in natural and organic alternatives for custom formulations, contract packaging and private labeling for all size businesses with the lowest minimums in the industry."

At the range...

2007-11-29T14:22:00.000-10:00

Shooting the Gatling "minigun" is quite a thrill. It throws so much metal downrange so quickly you almost need a shovel just to keep on top of the shell casings. Awesome. Photo by Todd Frantom
:o)

Deep Six Law of the Sea treaty...

2007-11-20T09:42:00.000-10:00

From the Wall Street Journal

By Thomas A. Bowden

The Law of the Sea Treaty, which awaits a ratification vote in the U.S. Senate, declares most of the earth's vast ocean floor to be "the common heritage of mankind" and places it under United Nations ownership "for the benefit of mankind as a whole."

This treaty has been bobbing in the legislative ocean for the past 25 years. After President Ronald Reagan refused to sign it in 1982, repeated attempts at ratification have failed. Last month, however, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 17-4 to send it to the full Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to ratify.

Great play... Monna Vanna...

2007-11-17T09:17:00.000-10:00

From Quent Cordair Fine Art:

Monna Vanna

November 29 thru December 16, 2007 at the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles. And January 12, 2008 aboard the QCFA Arts Cruise.

For more information visit www.monna-vanna.com. For regular updates and podcasts, visit the Monna Vanna blog.

"...one of the greatest plays in all world literature," Ayn Rand.

Flag...

2007-11-15T03:44:00.000-10:00

No words needed really.

Photo by Joe Kane

Ska that unites jews and arabs... The Fenwicks!

2007-11-14T12:07:00.000-10:00

Shalom, Ola & Aloha Comrades!
So us 'Wix made it home (semi-) alive! Punch-drunk, sleep-deprived, cross-eyed and delirious, but super slap-happy! Truly mad-cap shows from NYC to Miami and hence- welp, all sorts of assorted sordid stories to share- in due time. For now, however dig on 'dis! A chunk of live video some 'Wick-headed kid in Miami took on his cell-phone camera of a bit of our cover song of The Specials' "Free Nelson Mandela" (now "Free Venezuela") and pretty hilarious article/interview with a certain schmuck you know and (maybe) love about our Human Rights Tour with Big D and The Kids Table!
Manically & Maniacally,
Schubieshake & Yer Freedom-Wuvin' Fenwicks!

YouTube Clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dj3fmn8Q3Rw

p.s. More Fenwicks on YouTube:
Just How Evil are The Fenwicks?
-What the kids today will do for a free Fenwicks CD:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xVgWFFW8sI

-What this here Fenwick will do to his own keyboard player, Jon Marshal Smith, and his iBook- (live onstage at the Knitting Factory NYC):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLOgdoKqxGQ

-From Entertaining U Magazine:
http://www.eujacksonville.com/pages/10-25-07/thefenwicks.htm

Yikes.
xo,
(and beware)...
Schubieshake & Duh 'Wix
------------------------
ska that unites jews and arabs
interview with the fenwicks
by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com

WHO: The Fenwicks with Big D and the Kids Table
WHERE: Fuel in 5 Points
WHEN: Thursday, November 1st

Back in the late 80s Steve Schub was taking a year off of his studies at NYU
and playing in a punk band called Jew2 when he was “discovered” by Skynyrd drummer
Artimus Pyle.
“Eventually the band name was changed to Traif, which doesn’t mean anything
unless you speak Yiddish. But it means un-kosher. You can imagine playing in Jerusalem
Israel in a band called Traif. We offended everyone. We united Arabs, Jews and Christians.
We are owed a peace prize, I think, because we united that country for the first
time in 5,000 years because everyone hated our band. We brought everyone together.”
He would go on stage in an Israeli army uniform and an Arab headdress, or
a burqa with Mickey Mouse gloves. He was 21 years old and one of the competing bands
was called China Black. Chris Pyle was the drummer for that band and Artimus was
judging the battle of the bands. They hit it off, but Steve went back to New York,
finished his degree and played as The Fenwicks, which was just an acoustic duo consisting
of Schub and his songwriting partner Jimmie Corrieri at the time. He was working
at the Omni Park Central Hotel when the Lynyrd Skynyrd tour bus pulled in. They
had just made a video with Bennett Miller, the director of Capote (Steve and Jimmie
were also roommates with Phillip Seymour Hoffman), and he handed the video to Artimus.
Two weeks later Artimus had quit Skynyrd and he flew The Fenwicks down to Jacksonville
to put a band together and record an album. Their first gig was at Metro park opening
for Foreigner and Billy Squier in front of 15,000 people.
“Which was especially ironic because we used to play ‘Double Vision’ as a
joke at coffeehouses in Greenwich Village.”
According to Steve, in 48 hours The Fenwicks went from an acoustic duo to
a “17-piece afro-Celtic Yiddish ska band with three full drum sets.”
“I think of the Fenwicks now as a lifelong metaphysical performance art project.”
Steve’s family has a long history of Yiddish theater and he’s a fan of schtick,
but he also takes pride in the depth of their lyrics.
“The deepest most profound message that anyone can make is that life should
be fun. The giddiness and wackiness, especially in this day and age when everything
is nihilistic and post-modern and sarcastic…I think that is the most profound statement
we could make. From the theater of the absurd, it’s all one thing. The stage schtick,
the banter between the songs, the costumes, the regalia, the hyperactive music,
it is all part and parcel of the same thing. It is a vaudevillian, burlesque philosophical
joyride.”
But the balance between depth and frivolity is one that The Fenwicks take
seriously.
“The real battle on this planet is between reason and unreason. Between the
rational and the irrational.”
Which is why their sponsor on this short tour is The Human Rights Foundation
(humanrightsfoundation.org), which is an organization that “has a classical understanding
of human rights, which is that every person, as long as they’re not violating someone
else’s human rights, should be left alone.” Steve also offers up their gratitude
to Big D and the Kids Table, the Boston ska band that Steve says is “the best ska
band still skankin’.”
So is their music all just about Ayn Randian philosophies and the evils of
Hugo Chavez’s regime? Hardly!
“We have a song about an avenging, senile Jewish werewolf, we have a song
about eminent domain abuse, we have a song about disemboweling the undead and decapitating
zombies.”
There will be costumes and “full battle regalia,” so he recommends that you
wear something either waterproof or flammable and be prepared to “sweat and giggle.”
“The actual quote we couldn’t use in the press kit because it’s too grotesque,
but I think it’s more accurate. I think it’s ‘If Madness had been violently molested
by the Marx Brothers, The Fenwicks would be the naughty musical afterbirth.’”
There are up to 17 Fenwicks at any given time “depending on the weather and
the barometric pressure.” Jon Marshall Smith from the Mosquitos is the newest member
to the Fenwicks family, he joined them just before their 2005 Warped Tour appearances.
He also produced their last two records. Because they live in five different time
zones, it is difficult and expensive for them to tour, so this may be your only
chance to see them before Haley’s Comet circles earth again, although Steve hopes
that he and I will be conducting a similar interview when he’s 90. He also claims
to be “literally a thousand years old.”
“We have a horn section now. Before we were posing as a ska band, but now
we got our certificate in the mail. We are officially sanctioned now that we have
horns as opposed to just me playing kazoo out of my sphincter.”
Go to thefenwicks.com for free stuff and to learn more about the band. Go
to Fuel Coffeehouse on Thursday, November 1st, and make sure to get there early
since they are going on at 7 pm sharp and their set will likely be done before it’s
even dark outside.

On Balad...

2007-11-14T09:59:00.000-10:00

A member of Balad's base self defense force.
Photo by Joe Kane

Honor Killing East and West...

2007-11-14T09:50:00.000-10:00

Check out the latest excellent article by Ed Cline at the Rule of Reason blog.

Ed is also the author of the fantastic historical series "Sparrowhawk."

What We Owe Our Soldiers

2007-11-14T09:39:00.000-10:00

From Ayn Rand Institute Media

"To send soldiers into war without a clear self-defense purpose, and without providing them every possible protection, is a betrayal of their valor and a violation of their rights.

This Veterans Day, we must call for a stop to the sacrifice of our soldiers and condemn all those who demand it. It is only by doing so that we can truly honor not only our dead, but also our living: American soldiers who have the courage to defend their freedom and ours."

Full post
Alex Epstein is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand—author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Don’t Say Grace, Say Justice

2007-11-14T09:24:00.000-10:00

Op-ed from The Objective Standard

By Craig Biddle

The religious tradition of saying grace before meals becomes especially popular around the holidays, when we all are reminded of how fortunate we are to have an abundance of life-sustaining goods and services at our disposal. But there is a grave injustice involved in this tradition. It is the injustice of thanking an alleged “God” for the productive accomplishments of actual men.

Where do the ideas, principles, constitutions, governments, and laws that protect our rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness come from? What is the source of the meals, medicines, homes, automobiles, and fighter jets that keep us alive and enable us to flourish? Who is responsible for our freedom, prosperity, and well-being?

Is freedom a gift from God? It is not. Freedom, the absence of physical coercion, is a political condition resulting from the rational, principled thought and action of men—men such as Aristotle, John Locke, the Founding Fathers, Frederick Douglass, and American soldiers.

Did God make the ambrosia that melts in your mouth, or the asthma medicine that keeps your child alive, or the plush recliner in which you relax, or the big-screen TV on which you watch your favorite show? Did God create the jetliners that bring friends and family from afar, or the stealth bombers that keep the barbarians at bay, or the music that warms your heart and fuels your soul?

Since God is responsible for none of the goods on which human life and happiness depend, why thank him for any such goods? More to the point: Why not thank those who actually are responsible for them? What would a just man do?

Justice is the virtue of judging people rationally—according to what they say, do, and produce—and treating them accordingly, granting to each man that which he deserves. If someone spends the day preparing a wonderful meal, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for doing so. If someone provides his family with a warm, safe, comfortable home, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked for providing it. If a policeman or fireman or doctor saves someone’s life, justice demands that he, not God, be thanked. If a loving spouse or child or parent or friend provides you with great joy, justice demands that he, not God, be acknowledged accordingly. If a philosopher discovers the principles on which freedom depends—and if others put those principles into practice—justice demands that they, not God, be given credit.

To say grace is to give credit where none is due—and, worse, it is to withhold credit where it is due. To say grace is to commit an act of injustice.

Rational, productive people—whether philosophers, scientists, inventors, artists, businessmen, military strategists, friends, family, or yourself—are who deserve to be thanked for the goods on which your life, liberty, and happiness depend. This holiday season—and from now on—don’t say grace; say justice. Thank or acknowledge the people who actually provide the goods. Some of them may be sitting right there at the table with you. And if you find yourself at a table where people insist on saying grace, politely insist on saying justice when they’re through. It’s the right thing to do.

Craig Biddle is the editor and publisher of The Objective Standard and the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It. He can be contacted at cbiddle@theobjectivestandard.com.

We encourage you to forward this op-ed to anyone who you think might be interested. If you wish to be removed from the list for TOS mailings, enter your email address here and click “remove.”

Copyright © 2007 by The Objective Standard. All rights reserved.

Ayn Rand in Iraq...

2007-11-13T02:00:00.000-10:00

I got the books!

As many of my readers know the real solution to the conflict in the middle east, or anywhere for that matter, is to improve the ideas in the culture. Philosophy determines history, so the only way to get the cultural trend going in a more positive direction is to continue to expose people to better ideas. To this end it is my great pleasure to have received a box of books from the Ayn Rand Institute via Ed Thompson.

I am now in the process of putting some contact info inside each book and distributing them here in Iraq. It is my intent that these books will provide a bit of enlightenment in those fighting the war here. Of course I am also hoping to be able to talk personaly with those who read these books.

The two books are Atlas Shrugged, and The Virtue of Selfishness. The first of course is the complete philosophy of Objectivism in the form of a fantastic novel. The second contains a series of essays related to ethics and helped me to become more clear on some fo the more specific aspects af AR's ideas.

Thanks Ed, and ARI for the books!

The Ayn Rand Lexicon... online!

2007-10-29T04:02:00.000-10:00

Harry Binswanger's very useful book, "The Ayn Rand Lexicon" is now available in searchable form FOR FREE!!! This is an amazing resource for anyone interested in having a handy reference on AR's ideas... and in her own words. I've used the copy I have so much that the book is looking a little ragged, so this new online version is going to be added to my favorites menu.

Check it out at: http://aynrandlexicon.com/

"Victory Is Within Reach"

2007-10-26T10:38:00.000-10:00

"Victory Is Within Reach," Michael Ledeen, Wall Street Journal, October 20

Almost exactly 13 months ago, the top Marine intelligence officer in Iraq wrote that the grim situation in Anbar province would continue to deteriorate unless an additional division was sent in, along with substantial economic aid. Today, Marine leaders are musing openly about clearing out of Anbar, not because it is a lost cause, but because we have defeated al Qaeda there.
In Fallujah, enlisted marines have complained to an officer of my acquaintance: "There's nobody to shoot here, sir. If it's just going to be building schools and hospitals, that's what the Army is for, isn't it?" Throughout the area, Sunni sheikhs have joined the Marines to drive out al Qaeda, and this template has spread to Diyala Province, and even to many neighborhoods in Baghdad itself, where Shiites are fighting their erstwhile heroes in the Mahdi Army….

How is one to explain this turn of events? While our canny military leaders have been careful to give the lion's share of the credit to terrorist excesses and locals' courage, the most logical explanation comes from the late David Galula, the French colonel who fought in Algeria and then wrote "Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice" in the 1960s. He argued that insurgencies are revolutionary wars whose outcome is determined by control of, and support from, the population….

In the early phases of the conflict, the people remain as neutral as they can, simply trying to stay alive. As the war escalates, they are eventually forced to make a choice, to place a bet, and that bet becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The people have the winning piece on the board: intelligence. Once the Iraqis decided that we were going to win, they provided us with information about the terrorists: who they were, where they were, what they were planning, where their weapons were stashed, and so forth….

As Galula elegantly observed, "which side gives the best protection, which one threatens the most, which one is likely to win, these are the criteria governing the population's stand…."

Herschel Smith, of the blog Captain's Journal, puts it neatly in describing the events in Anbar: "There is no point in fighting forces (US Marines) who will not be beaten and who will not go away." We were the stronger horse, and the Iraqis recognized it….

Not a day goes by without one of our commanders shouting to the four winds that the Iranians are operating all over Iraq, and that virtually all the suicide terrorists are foreigners, sent in from Syria. We have done great damage to their forces on the battlefield, but they can always escalate, and we still have no policy to direct against the terror masters in Damascus and Tehran. That problem is not going to be resolved by sound counterinsurgency strategy alone, no matter how brilliantly executed.

Logo for our crew...

2007-10-23T04:39:00.000-10:00

Our new logo. Vote cool, or not cool in the comments section.
:o)

Cry Havoc! Cry Freedom! Cry Fenwick!

2007-10-23T04:30:00.000-10:00

The "Fenwicks For Freedom" Tour officially begins this coming Sunday evening in New York City, then on to Virginia, through North Carolina and on down to Florida. (See below for dates, times and venues)...
Please be advised, take note, and be forewarned. 4 final key and critical, salient and non-negotiable, points of fact:

1) Early Showtimes: These are indeed all "All Ages" shows. Meaning what? Meaning they start unbelievably early. And we go on first- the first of three opening acts.

2) Short Set List: As the first of three opening acts, we are relegated to a relatively short set-list. (Approximately one half-hour, depending on the barometric pressure and such). Meaning what? Meaning come late, and there is the very real possibility that you'll miss us completely. And worse than that, we'd miss you- and then we'd be sad. Let's not be sad!

3) Show Will Sell-Out. Please Buy Your Tickets In Advance: The band we are opening for "Big D and The Kids Table" is the single best ska-punk band still skanking and punking. Meaning what? Meaning they have a rabid fan base in their own right, and there is the very real possibility these shows will sell-out. Please purchase your tickets in advance, here:
http://www.bigdandthekidstable.com/pages/tours.php

4) No Guest List: All apologies, but as merely one of 3 opening acts on this tour, we have little leverage, and zero pull. Meaning what? Meaning there is NO Guest List, there are NO "Backstage Passes", and there is NO "V.I.P. List" (whatever that means)... So what CAN we offer you? Just pontoons of passion, kayaks of conviction, and a set-list sure to set your soul on fire! (And a guarantee to make ya giggle and sweat.)

'Nuff said! Onwards, upwards 'Wick-Heads! Excelsior!
Slap-happily,
From an Undisclosed Location in a Remote Himalayan Stronghold,
Your unprecedentedly demented Schub-er Mensch, and The Noumenally and Phenomenally, Freedom-wuvin' Fenwicks!
------------
p.s. Dates, Cities, Venues are as Follows:
New York City
Sunday October 28th
The Knitting Factory
74 Leonard Street
New York City, New York 10013
Phone: (212) 219-3132
Doors Open: 6pm Actual Showtime: 6:30 pm Sharp!
----------------
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Tuesday October 30th
Please Note: This is a Venue Change!
The Jewish Mother
3108 Pacific Avenue
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451
Phone: (757) 422-6373
Doors Open: 7pm Actual Showtime: 7:30 pm Sharp!
--------------------
Charlotte, North Carolina
Wednesday October 31st- Our Halloween/Ska-lloween Fiesta Supreme
The Casbah @Tremont Music Hall
400 West Tremont Avenue
Charlotte, North Carolina 28203
Phone: (704) 343-9494
Doors Open: 6:30pm Actual Showtime: 7:30 pm Sharp!
----------------------
Jacksonville, Florida
Thursday November 1st
Fuel Coffee House
1037 Park Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32204
Phone: (904) 425-3835
Doors Open: 6:30pm Actual Showtime: 7:00 pm Sharp!
-------------------------
Miami, Florida
Friday November 2nd
Studio A
60 NE 11th Street
Downtown Miami, Florida 33132
Phone: (305) 358-7625
Doors Open: 6pm Actual Showtime: 6:30 pm Sharp!
----------------------------
To purchase tickets and for all other gig info go to: http://www.bigdandthekidstable.com/pages/tours.php and/or: http://www.thefenwicks.com/tour.shtml

-p.p.s. To read all about our benefactors & Patron Saints- the Human Rights Foundation, and the vital work they do promoting and defending Individual Rights in the Americas, please go to:
http://www.humanrightsfoundation.org/

-p.p.p.s. On your very own Fenwicks Hitting a "Jewish Mother". This just in to The Virginia Pilot:
http://events.hamptonroads.com/event_details.cfm?e=68181

-p.p.p.p.s. The Fenwicks Infiltrate Saddam's (former) Palace. Literally. Irrefutable, undoctored, Weapons Inspector-Proof, photographic evidence here:
http://ablekaneadventures.blogspot.com/2004_10_01_ablekaneadventures_archive.html

THE FENWICKS FOR FREEDOM!

2007-10-18T03:25:00.000-10:00

THE FENWICKS FOR FREEDOM!
10-PIECE "AFRO-CELTIC YIDDISH SKA" BAND RE-UNITES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.
THE FENWICKS TO OPEN ON BIG D AND THE KIDS TABLE'S EAST COAST "STEADY RIOT" FALL TOUR.

October 15th, 2007- (Virginia Beach, VA)--The Fenwicks, a notoriously political Third Wave ska band, has joined forces with New York-based Human Rights Foundation (HRF) to draw attention to the political persecution currently affecting Latin America. The band is reuniting as one of the opening acts on Boston based ska band Big D and the Kids Table "Steady Riot" Fall Tour. This will be the 10-piece "Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska" band's first East Coast shows since the Vans Warped Tour in 2005. The Fenwicks will perform on Tuesday October 30th at The Jewish Mother 3108 Pacific Ave. Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451. Doors Open at 7PM. Showtime is 7:30PM. All Ages. Tickets are $12.00 and can purchased online at www.inticketing.com or by calling (757) 422-6373.

Once one of the East Coast's most beloved and most popular live acts, critics have described The Fenwicks as a "manic cross between Madness and The Marx Brothers". Yet it was the band's outspoken, openly philosophical lyrics on it's critically acclaimed CDs Member of No Tribe, eudaimonia, and Truth & Memory that garnered attention among Human Rights advocates.“It is inspiring that a group of artists is willing to donate so much of their time and energy to educate and highlight the forgotten victims of political persecution in Latin America. We support and applaud their efforts, and are most excited about The Fenwicks' ability to reach out to hundreds young people.” said Thor Halvorssen, president of HRF.

Now widely regarded as one of the instigators and progenitors of "3rd Wave" ska, The Fenwicks were originally formed when Lynyrd Skynyrd's drummer Artimus Pyle discovered frontman Steven Schub singing for a punk band called "Jew2" in Jerusalem Israel. Mr. Pyle decided to fly Schub and his songwriting partner, guitarist Jimmie Corrieri to Jacksonville Florida, and within 72 hours (and with a mere 3 rehearsals) The Fenwicks played their now legendary first show as a 10-piece "Afro-Celtic Yiddish Ska" band, opening for Foreigner and Billy Squier in front of 15,000 very confused, classic rock fans. With their hilarious, nearly vaudevillian stage show, and their infectious mix of ska, klezmer, funk and punk, a Fenwicks Show became a "right-of-passage" for college students up and down the Eastern Seaboard. Famous for the dance-party atmosphere and unpredictable stage antics, ten years of constant touring earned The Fenwicks the fanatical fan-base that has stuck with the group through it's various hiatuses caused by Schub's burgeoning film career.

Schub is a Lifetime Member of the Actors Studio and has starred and Guest Starred in over 20 films and TV shows including, NYPD Blue, Sesame Street, and the Sony Pictures Classics critically acclaimed film Caught directed by Robert M. Young in which Schub played Edward James Olmos and Maria Conchita Alonso's homicidal comedian son (a performance Entertainment Weekly called "an electrifying debut"). But it was Schub's role as a Recurring Guest Star Jihadi terrorist who helps vaporize a chunk of California, on last year's Season Premiere of the hit show 24, that led to the current alliance between The Fenwicks and the Human Rights Foundation. Schub explains: "I read about the work HRF was doing, most especially on behalf of political prisoners being held by the Chavez government in Venezuela—prisoners like Francisco Uson who is in jail simply for exercising his freedom of speech. I took a chance and sent an email to Thor Halvorssen, who was a fan of the TV show 24, and well, happily for us, he's also now a fan of The Fenwicks--because we are deeply committed to doing whatever we can to bring attention to the issue of individual rights and the work of HRF. We are honored and thrilled.”

It is not the first time The Fenwicks have lent their support to a political and/or philosophical cause. In 2003 The Fenwicks performed at the Ayn Rand Institute's Student Philosophy Conference on the campus of USC, they played at Town Hall on Broadway in New York City, alongside Jon Stewart for the Toyota Comedy Festival's Gerry Red Wilson Benefit, and their anti-Eminent Domain song "Preeminent Domain", (written in response to the Supreme Court's controversial Kelo v. New London decision) has become something of an anthem for the Property Rights movement nation-wide. But politics aside, Schub is quick to point out: "The Fenwicks are first and foremost a ska band, and so our most important job is quite simply making people dance, giggle and sweat".

Finally, The Fenwicks involvement with the Big D and The Kids Table "Steady Riot" tour, also flows from a kind of "auspicious coincidence". The Fenwicks met the band while on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour, a slot they landed after a random meeting between Schub and Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman at a Los Angeles Music Conference. "Big D" was by far Schub's favorite band on the tour. "Look, there's very few bands that are as freaky, as spastic, and as committed to ska as we are, and Big D is one of 'em. We love everything about those cats. And best of all, I think I can safely say, Big D and The Fenwicks share the same basic view of life. That it should be an adventure. Believe me, this tour will be one". # # #

For press materials, interview requests and/or more information on THE FENWICKS call Jonathan Boyer at JB Management (310) 205-0488. Email: shake@thefenwicks.com or log on to www.thefenwicks.com