Bush - Clinton - Bush - Clinton

UC podcast offers a lecture by Mark Halperin, political analyst of Time Magazine. The lecture was held at University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs in September. I am going to quote the editorial posted along the podcast.

Halperin engaged in a discussion with students and faculty from across campus on the current political landscape.

Mark Halperin was named editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME in April 2007.

Prior to joining TIME, Halperin worked at ABC News for nearly 20 years, where he covered five presidential elections and served as political director from November 1997 to April 2007. In that role, he was responsible for political reporting and planning for the network's television, radio and Internet political coverage. He also appeared regularly on ABC News TV and radio as a correspondent and analyst, contributing commentary and reporting during election night coverage, presidential inaugurations and State of the Union speeches.

At ABC, Halperin reported on every major American political story, including working as a full-time reporter covering the Clinton presidential campaign in 1992 and the Clinton White House. He also covered major non-political stories, such as the O.J. Simpson criminal trial and the Oklahoma City bombing.

Additionally, Halperin founded and edited the online publication The Note on abcnews.com, which has been characterized as the most influential daily tipsheet in American politics by publications including The New Yorker, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Vanity Fair.

He remains a political analyst for ABC News, and is the co-author of The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008 (Random House, 2006).

Halperin received his B.A. from Harvard University and resides in New York City with Karen Avrich.

Next I am going to give Halperin's claim: The Democrats are likely to win the election and among the Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton has the best chances. The elections are going to be close, last time surprises can make a difference, but right now, Ms. Clinton has the best prospects.

Parashat Vayera - KMTT

KMTT's Chanoch Waxman discusses by the end of the podcast episode about Parashat Vayera one of the most difficult stories of the Torah. The whole of his lecture builds up to the horribly difficult and contradicting test to Abraham's faith when he must sacrifice Isaac. This is called the 'Akedah' - I had to look this up in order to be sure that this was what Waxman was talking about.

I know a nineteenth century version of the story. A man whose responsibility it was to guard an railway interchange and direct the trains into the right tracks, one day saw his only son playing on the tracks. He then faced a dilemma. Either he should rush out and save his kid from being overrun by a train, but then he would not manage to reset the tracks in time and the incoming train would collide with the newly arrived train at the station. Or, he would set the tracks right, but then he would have no time to save his kid and it would be killed by the train. What should he do? What DID he do?

This is a choice between his duty and what is dear to him. Maybe not exactly like Abraham, who had to choose between blind obedience and what was dear to him. It was also a choice between obedience of the higher authority without question and following what to him must seem the most coherently right way (mind you, child sacrifice is absolutely forbidden in Judaism. AND God had promised Abraham offspring that would grow into a multitude).

Anyway, both Abraham and the signalman follow duty without question. The signalman prevents the collision on the train and just like Abraham he is saved from the terrible consequence of his decision. The story ends thus: it just so happened his wife was in the train at the station and she also saw the child and she had the time to save the child from the tracks. Abraham is saved in the knick of time by the authority that has sent and tested him. Listen to what Waxman has to say.

Werkloosheid in Vroomshoop (2)

De vermelding in het Guinness Book kwam er. In 1984 was zo'n 50% van de beroepsbevolking van Voormshoop werkloos en de vooruitzichten bleven slecht. De actie van de jonge werklozen had de aandacht op Vroomshoop gevestigd en VPRO's OVT vertelt hoe de handen uit de mouwen gestoken werden om Vroomshoop er bovenop te krijgen. De gene, het isolement en de impliciete, hardnekkige ontkenning en het niet onder ogen willen zien van de problemen werd doorbroken.

De interviews laten horen dat tot op de dag van vandaag velen niet blij waren dat de vuile was buiten gehangen werd. Men is toch liever trots op Vroomshoop en om een Vroomshoper te zijn. Schoorvoetend wordt toegegeven dat het toch wel erg was en dat een en ander nu wel verbeterd is. De analyse van toenmalig Burgemeester Van Overbeke (Nu de burgervader van Hellendoorn, of all places!), politiechef Lodder en hoofd van de lagere school Massink, laten een nog lelijker beeld dan de statistiek zien. Niet slechts 50% werkloosheid, maar ook een negatieve spiraal van criminaliteit en ander onmaatschappelijk gedrag. Goed dus, er werd aangepakt en de situatie verbeterde, mede dankzij de aantrekkende economie.

Pikant detail is dat een van de briefschrijvers uit 1984 na 15 jaar werken in de sfeer van werkloosheidsprojecten anno nu werkloos is. 'Als je 50 wordt, wordt het toch moeilijker om een baan te vinden.' Alles is beter. Als het niet zo is, laat het in godsnaam niet naar buiten komen. Liever trots op Vroomshoop dan de misere in het gezicht te kijken. 1984 is uitgewist. Probleemwijk Het Zwarte Gat is gerenoveerd tot Nieuwoord, zelfs de straatnamen zijn veranderd. En als Van Overbeke nog wel eens door Vroomshoop rijdt vindt hij: "Het ziet er toch netjes uit."

The Daily Whiplash (9)

Yesterday I went without pain killers altogether. This morning I only have a wincing tinge of a headache, which I'd rather ascribe to a common disposition of mine than to the whiplash. As a side note on that common disposition it needs to be said I haven't had heavy headaches in years. Israel has been good on me and even in the last years in Amsterdam the aches were a minor issue, but until 1994 I was prone to exhausting headaches, either in the form of ghastly attacks, or aggravating cling things. In the interview with Bert ter Schegget it is said that headaches and migraine are a typical ailment of the Dutch Protestants. Oy vey.

Back to the main subject, back to the whiplash, back to back and neck. After the accident I have head headaches, but they were the first to subside. Then went the lower back pain, then middle back, then the shoulders, then the shoulder blades and what is left is the neck and incidental at that. Bilhah, the expeditious physiotherapist, pulled and rubbed and stretched and strained my neck on Sunday and when I reported some pain during this treatment, called me the princess on the pea. In Hebrew she is even a princess on a lentil. I feebly protested that at least I was a prince, pea or lentil or whatever legume, and I heard her think: 'prince, yeah, but a sissy at that.' Anne, not much of a man.

Missing Link from Berlin

Elizabeth Green Musselman admits to have a great love for the city of Berlin as she issues the third episode of her podcast The Missing Link from this wonderful city. Wonderful, I say, because I can only agree. I love Berlin and have very fond memories, especially of Prenzlauer Berg. Another agreement we have is about Wim Wenders's film that takes place in Berlin and catches the melancholy atmosphere of the city: Wings of Desire. Wings of Desire? It took me a moment, but the description left no doubt, it is the same film, I just know it as Der Himmel über Berlin.

Elizabeth takes us on two tours, one to the Charité, where the sad fate of Berlin's dying came together with the foundations of pathology. After the musical break (music is prominently featured in this podcast) we find ourself in the Phonogram Archive, which is host to what today would be called World Music, but which set out to be a repository for the study of Musical Ethnography. How close ethonography grazes on racism and how close racism in Germany spells disaster everybody knows. Yet, the archive gives us a treasure trove of ethnic sounds, some of which are extinct. How skillfully Green Musselman captured the melancholy!

As a conclusion I want to recommend this podcast. It has only started and it will try to produce episodes once a month, which is not much by podcasting standards, but the quality is great from the get go. Exquisite listening, entertaining and educating at the same time.

Gil Fronsdal on speech

You do not have to be a Buddhist to appreciate Gil Fronsdal's Dharma teachings (zencast). Most of the time he doesn't even talk of Buddhism, or Buddhists. He talks of the Buddha and of the Buddhist way, but that can easily be taken generally as the Godly, Wise, Good and such abstract generic terms. Were it about Buddhists though, the exclusion kicks in that irritates me most when Evangelical Christians or Orthodox Jews engage in that kind of talk, because it boils down to nothing generic, but rather very specific: the us, who are of the exquisite faith and elated ways as opposed to the ignorant, misguided, backward, lowly rabble, that is, me.

As said, with Fronsdal you have none of that. So I was a bit surprised when in his last talk (about Speech) he threw in the sentence: 'and we will see why Buddhists are not always nice.' I liked the talk as usual and completely forgive Gil, but in my heart feel that the toy phrase, wherever used, was irrelevant. Buddhists are people, people are not always nice, hence Buddhists are not always nice - it goes without saying and added nothing to the point.

Was the Buddha not always nice? A prince once asked him whether he has ever said something unwelcome and painful to anyone. Fronsdal relates the answer to this trick question. The issue revolves around Right Speech, which he extends from speech to others to the monologue interior, the way we speak to ourselves. Also there we must say what is true, kind and helpful. So if the Buddha ever said anything unwelcome and painful to anyone it had to have been true, kind and helpful at the same time. Lastly, speech must be timely. If what we have to say, no matter how true, kind and helpful is not welcome and painful to ourselves or to the other, it must be said in the right time.

Fronsdal asks the audience to contemplate on the question how to deal with true, kind and helpful words and how to deliver them in a timely fashion to the one who finds those words not welcome and painful. The contributions from the audience are inspiring although a definitive answer is not given. If any at all, then it is, when in doubt it is better to err on the nice side. True for everybody, truly an struggle without end, whether Buddhists are nicer than others or not.