Barry L. Ritholtz wrote:

It turns out that for the past 3 decades, we’ve had a George Costanza Energy policy — every decision we have made as a country has worked to drive energy prices higher. Had we made the opposite decisions, Crude Oil prices would be much lower than they are today ($130.17 as I type this).

What follows is a list of energy-related policies of the United States. On many of these, I have no opinion — but I wanted to list as many as I could to demonstrate why Oil is where it is

0913 Why I Love America

Huw Cordey wrote:

His children – and this includes those of adult age – do anything their father asks, not out of coercion but because they genuinely want to please.

Forget the Waltons, the Johns are the real McCoy: one happy family.

While talking to Jean Pierre, I find myself wondering whether he is the most contented person I have ever met.

But he is keen to know whether I am having a good time on his island too. Every day he asks me if I am happy. When I tell him things are great, his eyes light up and he replies in pidgin, “Oh, tenkyu tumas.”

Whether happiness can truly be measured is a debatable point, but there is no doubt that Metoma – or indeed Vanuatu as a whole – has the ingredients to encourage a greater sense of happiness.

The twin pillars of a classically happy life – strong family ties and a general absence of materialism – are common throughout this island nation.

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning gas pump rant I present: From My Dad.

Found in my electronic chapbook.

When other”s obsessions are not ours, we are sad for them, and we talk of how empty their lives will be if they don”t achieve their empty goal: the gymnastic prize, the firm partnership. But there is a monomania in which it is the focus, the sense of transport, that is the real pleasure. The kind of compulsive reading in which you lose yourself, which brings no medals or talk-show appearances, is one example of that. p. 177

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the United States it was horrible that our government reacted so slowly to the suffering. It is unconscionable that the military dictatorship of Myanmar continues to actively block the efforts of those who are in place and prepared to help. Why do we so poorly wage humanity and peace?

From the Associated Press:

Peering out from under the hood of his raincoat, the boat skipper squinted as he tried to steer his small wooden boat through the narrow, twisting channel leading to a village deep in Myanmar’s cyclone-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.

Pyinmagon’s location is typical of the delta, and cause of the region’s still unfolding tragedy: The rice-farming village can only be reached by boat, a trip of up to two hours, depending on the tide, from the nearest town of Bogalay.

Most of the journey requires slow maneuvering in shallow waters known to be inhabited by crocodiles. So, a month after Cyclone Nargis struck, Pyinmagon’s 801 survivors have been left to basically fend for themselves. Continue Reading »

Eve Fairbanks wrote:

It’s easy to sink into despair here. Standing and watching all these Democrats chat up Sinclair–who’s retained Montgomery Blair Sibley as his lawyer and says the Republican National Committee has also been in touch with him–makes me want to fall to my knees, rend my garments, and start insanely screaming, “Wake up! Wake up! You’ll hate a President John McCain!”

But the rhetoric from the top has imparted its poison below, and the bitterest criticisms of Obama gain traction as they circulate through the virulently-pro-Hillary echo chamber. “Would you rather have a president who had an affair [Bill Clinton] or one who was a murderer [Obama]?” Jeannie, the Greensboro Democrat, asks a fellow in a floppy Tilley hat and Hillary buttons. “That’s a good point,” he replies.

I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Quo Vadis, Israel?

I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning gas pump rant I present: From My Dad.

Tim Russo wrote:

I can think of only one way that Tim Ryan gets hurt politically by confirming what I am writing about his campaign. To cover it up first. To go around, shutting people up, lying to bloggers, lying to newspapers, having his staff do the same, and then having to be forced to admit it. That”ll hurt. Real bad.

0813 When is good enough good enough?

No. Really. Why is this?

Found in my electronic chapbook.

At a more abstract level, readers what a narrative that makes the world seem to make sense, and they sometimes choose stories that fit their worldview rather than the stories that fit the facts. [Is this the secret of Dan Brown”s The Da Vinci Code? JH] p. 176

From The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer”s Block and the Creative Brain by Alice W. Flaherty.

Here the poor victims of hurricanes get poison-laden trailers to live in. In Myanmar the victims of Cyclone Nargis are getting bamboo poles and tarpaulins to shelter under after they’re kicked out of government-run emergency camps. Have the generals no shame? Is there no image, no deprivation to make them turn in disgust from their own reflections?

From the BBC:

A senior UN official has said that any coercion of Burmese cyclone victims to return home is completely unacceptable.

Terje Skavdal’s remarks follow reports that Burma’s military government had begun to evict homeless families from some government-run emergency camps.

It has given them bamboo poles and tarpaulins and told them to go and rebuild their lives, say reports.

An estimated 2.4m people remain homeless and hungry following Cyclone Nargis, which struck on 2 May. Continue Reading »

2000 In case you are wondering…
1035 Chardon Graduation: It”s About Comforming… The Military Teaches That

From Jspot:

The Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (aka “the Law Committee”) this morning passed a teshuvah, written by yours truly, on the responsibilities of Jewish employers toward their workers. In practice, this teshuvah applies to Conservative Institutions (synagogues, Camp Ramah, Schechter schools, etc.) as well as members of such institutions. The teshuvah, which passed by an overwhelming margin (13-2-2, with 8 members not present) concludes:

1) The halakhic system supports a controlled free-market wage system when the market produces wages on which one can fulfill one’s family with basic needs including food, housing, and health care. In order for the halakhah relating to workers and employers to function as intended, we must do what we can to restore a system in which people who work full-time are able to provide for their families’ basic needs.

2) Jewish employers are obligated to treat their workers with dignity and respect. This obligation should include, but should not be limited to, prohibitions against publicly yelling at, mocking, or otherwise embarrassing workers; forbidding employees from speaking their native languages at work; banning all bathroom breaks; changing work hours or adding shifts without advance notice; or making improper sexual comments or advances toward workers.

There’s more, and it’s all good, but I don’t see anything here that I haven’t always understood to be part of living a life guided by the mitzvot.

I think this really comes down to Jews who do live so will nod their heads and continue on their way. Sadly, those Jews who don’t won’t bother to read the document or, if they have it thrust in front of them, ask: So, who is this fancy shmancy committee anyway?

I really think that such unenforceable pronouncements do little good and can be fuel for those who wish us ill.

One commenter had this to say:

According to the JTA posting of May 29, you “softened the language” as follows: “Jewish employers should strive to pay workers a living wage…[E]mployers also should strive to hire unioinized workers when possible.”

But the Forward article of April 24 states: “The opinion, which will be voted on by Conservatve Judaism’s halachic policy body in late May, argues that rabbinic law obligates Jewish employers to pay their workers a wage sufficient to support themselves.”

What does that mean, “should strive?” Synagogues, Schechter schools, Ramah — they all, on one hand, strive to pay people well, in accordance with their skills, to keep employees happy (that is, not to quit). But on the other hand, they all strive to keep costs down, so as to keep dues and tuition down so more families can afford a Jewish education. When push comes to shove, “should strive” will mean nothing.

So after what appears to be two years of effort, two turns at the law committee, during a time when everyone is thinking about the situation in Iowa, you walked away with the weakest of possible wordings.

According to JTA, other recommendations of the teshuva do use the wording “obligation.” So in other words, your teshuva might as well say: “Jewish employers are not obligated to pay workers a living wage or hire union workers.”

Perhaps this is not a great victory; according the the Forward, this was your last chance with this issue.

Amein.

From Jspot:

The Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards (aka “the Law Committee”) this morning passed a teshuvah, written by yours truly, on the responsibilities of Jewish employers toward their workers. In practice, this teshuvah applies to Conservative Institutions (synagogues, Camp Ramah, Schechter schools, etc.) as well as members of such institutions. The teshuvah, which passed by an overwhelming margin (13-2-2, with 8 members not present) concludes:

1) The halakhic system supports a controlled free-market wage system when the market produces wages on which one can fulfill one’s family with basic needs including food, housing, and health care. In order for the halakhah relating to workers and employers to function as intended, we must do what we can to restore a system in which people who work full-time are able to provide for their families’ basic needs.

2) Jewish employers are obligated to treat their workers with dignity and respect. This obligation should include, but should not be limited to, prohibitions against publicly yelling at, mocking, or otherwise embarrassing workers; forbidding employees from speaking their native languages at work; banning all bathroom breaks; changing work hours or adding shifts without advance notice; or making improper sexual comments or advances toward workers.

What I don’t get is that I see nothing here that I haven’t always understood to be central to living a life guided by the mitzvot.

Jews who live such a life will find nothing new in the document. Jews who don’t, won’t bother to read it, or, if it’s brought to their attention, will shrug their shoulders and ask, so, who does this fancy shmancy committee think it is anyway?

Rice rejects Iceland’s criticism of Guantanamo Bay… enlists in Kiss Army fan club.