Palestine’s choice
Sixty-five years ago, the United Nations voted by a clear majority to create a Jewish Palestine and an Arab Palestine. The Jews accepted the deal and Israel was born. The Arabs rejected the deal and chose war to annihilate the Jewish presence from the very land where we have lived for 3,000 years. And Arab nations, Hamas, Hizbollah, El Aqsa, and the PLO have been fighting ever since.
On Nov. 29, Palestine was voted into the U.N. General Assembly as a nonmember observer state. How sad. Sixty-five years later and the best it can get is nonmember. It could have been a recognized state. Israel has been ready to accept a Palestinian state for 65 years, even with the missiles that continually rain in from Gaza and the bus bombings that Arab terrorists celebrate.
And when Israel tries to protect its citizens, there are people who claim Israel is unjustified or acting immorally. What other country in the world has to justify defending its people, especially children? Israel is protecting all its citizens that the missiles target: Arab and Jew alike.
It’s reported that 1 in 5 children in Gaza suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragic. Two in 5 children in Israel suffer from PTSD. Is that not doubly tragic?
Not according to some — it’s Israel’s fault.
There are things we have control over and things we don’t. When the Palestinians accept Israel and stop using terror, peace can be achieved. The world has been waiting for 65 years.
MARK STRAUSS-COHN
RABBI, TEMPLE EMANUEL
Winston-Salem
Beautiful landmark ruined
Condolences to my friends and their neighbors living around Hanes Park. It is a travesty that this beautiful landmark will be ruined by having a stadium built next to it, much to the dismay of the Hanes family who donated the land, that will stand empty a majority of the year (“School board approves stadium,” Nov. 28). How did that get ram-rodded through?
Those who are for the Reynolds stadium don’t live around the park; per usual, it would be built “not in my neighborhood.” My wish is that a similar structure will be built beside the home of whoever thought up this idea and in the backyards of those who support it and pushed it through the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education and city council.
For those, like me, who grew up in Winston-Salem, went to Reynolds High School, and have enjoyed walking and jogging through the park, it will be a very sad day when the stadium becomes reality.
AMY GARLAND
Winston-Salem
Change in celebration
We can make a difference.
This year’s change from observing Thanksgiving as a true national holiday to another shopping day, having stores open and Christmas sales begin, is something that we can stop, if we want.
Did anyone shop on Thanksgiving Day who could not have found another time to buy this or that? I seriously doubt it. Yet countless families were not able to celebrate together because members were required to work in retail. Countless health-care workers, police, military and others have always had to work on holidays for our community safety and health, and families have long juggled these schedules, but to add all the cashiers, salespeople and other retail workers to the list of Americans unable to observe this holiday of great meaning and purpose is totally unnecessary.
Let us agree together to do two things:
Speak with store managers as high up the store chain as possible to express displeasure with this national trend, and
Just don’t do it! Next Thanksgiving avoid all shopping on Thanksgiving Day and urge our family and friends to do the same.
How long would Staples, Kmart, Sears or Target stay open on days with zero customers? Not long at all.
WILLIAM HOYLE
Clemmons
Sum It Up
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was: Now that Harvey Davis is out, will the city of Winston-Salem succeed in transforming his garage into a transportation hub?
No. Because the city of Winston-Salem cannot run anything without losing money (examples: Joel Coliseum, Bowman Gray Stadium). The only thing the city can do successfully is raise taxes and lose money.
JAMES P. SELIGMAN
Transforming his garage into a transportation hub? Not in the next 50 or 60 years; perhaps not even in this century. The local population of stick-in-the-mud conservatives will never give any moral, physical and certainly not financial support to any kind of modern transportation system that might include high-speed rail.
Shudder. This isn't Europe. What the local yokels really want is 32 cents a gallon gasoline.
KENNETH B. SCALF
You left out “high-speed rail service,” which is the amusing part, but my answer is: I guess I need to start packing my bags as well, because I own property in Ardmore with a creek running through it. The city will probably need it for a hub, and a high-speed “ferry service.” Good luck Mr. Davis, best wishes.
BARRETT MCLEOD
Hub, yes, we need more empty buses and the return of the “light-rail loons.”
DON WOLFE
Family Health Insurance Premiums Drop for the First Time in Seven Years, According to eHealth's 2012 Report on the Cost and Benefits of Individual & Family Health Insurance
ReplyDeleteReport Shows a Relative Flattening in Cost Curve for Individual Health Insurance Plans While Average Premiums for Family Coverage Decrease in Twenty States
From the WSJ http://www.marketwatch.com/story/family-health-insurance-premiums-drop-for-the-first-time-in-seven-years-according-to-ehealths-2012-report-on-the-cost-and-benefits-of-individual-family-health-insurance-2012-11-28
Interesting that DeMint who stated that health care reform would be Obama's Waterloo, is going to head the Heritage Foundation, the very institution which first proposed the individual mandate.
DeleteYes, if health care reform is Obama's Waterloo, then the President must be Wellington.
DeleteI like it! Stealing for Facebook.
DeleteFrom Politico's Playbook today:
DeleteTHE JUICE -- "What Jim DeMint tells us about Washington power," Manu Raju and Scott Wong: "South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint accomplished very little in the Senate in the traditional sense: He wasn't a legislator, has no signature laws to his name and has never been part of any major bipartisan negotiations. But the fact that DeMint leaves the chamber as one of its best-known conservative senators shows how a message man relying on the outside P.R. game can become a powerhouse in his party - often with more influence than the Senate's old bulls and their laundry list of accomplishments. ... And it underscores how both parties have seen their respective caucuses grow younger and more partisan, overtaking the consensus-minded senior senators who are more inclined to compromise. ...
"DeMint's sudden announcement Thursday that he'd quit his seat in January to head the conservative Heritage Foundation shows where he thinks the real power center in his party resides. 'I honestly think I can do a lot more on the outside than I can on the inside,' DeMint said after delivering a speech to an enthusiastic crowd at The Heritage Foundation. It's a striking acknowledgment for a man who was poised to ascend to the top Republican spot on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in the next Congress. If he were to stay, DeMint would have a major hand rewriting the nation's highway policy and overseeing the country's aviation, passenger rail and telecommunications laws. But given his emphasis on messaging over legislating, the 61-year-old's move to one of Washington's most influential conservative think tanks after a 14-year congressional career appears to be a natural choice. ... DeMint had long promised to quit after his second term, which is up in January 2017. But virtually no one knew he would resign his seat this soon. ...
"Just as he has during his eight-year career in the Senate, DeMint relied on the outside conservative voices to communicate the news to his colleagues. He gave an exclusive interview to a writer for The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page and conducted an interview with Rush Limbaugh before telling most of his colleagues his decision. .... [H]is critics say it was DeMint's hard-line brand of conservatism that has narrowed the party's tent and appeal to important voting blocs, such as Hispanics." http://politi.co/VNO019
Thank you Wordly...an excellent analysis.
DeleteCongressman Paul Ryan is another good example. In over a dozen years in Congress, he has managed to introduce and pass just two bills, one renaming a Post Office, the other changing the way in which arrows are taxed.
Yet he is suddenly the intellectual leader of the Republican Party? Part of that shows how intellectually bankrupt the party is. But give some credit to the President, who a couple of years ago recognized Ryan for the moron that he is and began subtly promoting him to give the President something concrete to run against in 2012. I'm sure that Obama was astonished that his efforts helped put Ryan on the GOP ticket.
But this is not a new phenomenon...easily the two best known Republican Senators of the past half century have been Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond, partisan ideologs who never accomplished anything despite spending many years on Capitol Hill. They set the tone for today's fools.
Just when you think Republicans can't get any more absurd, Senator Mitch McConnell filibusters his own proposal.
ReplyDeleteI think Mitch could well serve this nation by following Senator Demint's lead or at least hearken back to a former Kentucky Senator, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, Henry Clay, The Great Compromiser.
DeleteHow about Harry Reid? He didn't want Obama's 'fiscal cliff' budget proposal to come up for a vote.
DeleteWhat a bunch of Democratic morons!
lol, so?? The President's Budget Proposals are always a start for negotiations. Duh!! At least Harry Reid didn't filibuster his own plan. HAHAHA. As student body President at Southwest Jr. High, if we needed $250 for a Dance, I always asked the Principal for $500 and would settle for the $250-300 he would offer. Geez. It's so simple. But I never filibustered my own proposals.
Delete“Stop, I say stop it boy, you’re doin’ alot of choppin’ but no chips are flyin’"
DeleteOh, I'm hittin 'wood'. Trust me.
DeleteMore of Buckboy's imaginary life. He actually believes that his crude and ignorant posts "win" arguments.
Delete1941: Honolulu Star Bulletin deems a Pearl Harbor account too graphic. Published today for the first time
ReplyDelete“NBC saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so to set about the myth that George Zimmerman was a racist and predatory villain,” states the civil complaint in its opening salvo against NBC.
ReplyDelete__________
Sounds a little bit like the WS Journal's reporting of the Hunt/Smith cases and their relationships to the WS Police Department.
There are two types of stupid opinions:
Delete1. Those generated by a mistake in information or thinking. Everyone has held one of these at one time or another, but this type of stupidity is correctable.
2. Those generated by ignorance and superstition. These are not correctable because the person holding them is genuinely stupid.
The above comment is clearly a #2.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Israel has the right to defend itself, but to say it has been this perfect angel who has treated the non-Jews within its occupied territories with absolute dignity is being hopelessly naive. A little surprised the level of PTSD noted in the children of Gaza and Israel isn't even higher.
LTE 2: I also feel sorry for the people who live around there. Cars parked everywhere, the noise level...fortunately it will ony be for 5 Fridays or so a year.
LTE 3: There were some employees, notably Wal-Mart, who tried to go on strike to protest the opening on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is supposed to be a day set aside to give thanks to one's God, but it's pretty obvious that money is and has long been America's God. Opening on Thanksgiving just makes it official.
Sum it up: I'm sure the city will be able to successfully convert the site into a hub, but the question remains as to the type of transportational hub it will become. Mr. Seligman points out the inability of two venues to generate a profit, but that's not the purpose of govt. Government provides services. Profits are irrelevant. That's why it's a non-profit organization. Most responders seem to be thinking in terms of high speed rail, but I'm still skeptical that the demand in W-S exists to warrant providing this service unless it is part of an interstate.
Yesterday, I noted that the Demented one migh be replaced by the Nuttiest one. Well, Forsyth County had a similar situation where Debra Conrad's seat which was vacated when Conrad was elected to the state legislature was up for grabs. The Forsyth County R's had a choice between a mayor of Clemmons, a paranoid gun nut who only cared about being able to carry guns into the battlefields known as parks, the most fundamental fundamentalist theocrat around, and a last second entry. One would think the Clemmons mayor would be by far the most logical and most competent choice. But nooooooooo. They had to go for the most fundamental fundamentalist theocrat around because he was the most conservative. (Well, no effing joke! The guy makes the rulers of Saudi Arabia look like progressive liberals). Doesn't anybody in this county realize that it's 2012, soon to be 2013?? Do they really think young, up and coming professionals with high earnings potential want to live in a repressive theocracy where anything designated as fun is to be banned? Do they really think that not spending a single extra dime to support education and infrastructure is going to attract businesses? Lordy have mercy, the people around here have gone off the deep end.
ReplyDeleteActually, the outcome was predictable.
DeleteThere were five Republicans on the County Commissioners board:
1. Two loony toons christians, Whisenhunt and Conrad, who are trying their best to make Forsyth County a theocracy.
2. One loony toons-in-general, Bill Whiteheart. Blame Ted Kaplan for this one.
3. One decent and reasonable man, Richard Linville, who is subject to be swayed by the loonys, especially Whisenhunt and Conrad.
4. One decent and intelligent man, Dave Plyler, who for years has been all that is standing between us and "Nearer My God To Thee."
Detroit prepares for bankruptcy
ReplyDeletehttp://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121207/OPINION03/212070365/State-laying-groundwork-managed-bankruptcy-Detroit?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
________
Hee Hee......you gotta love these Democratically controlled cities. They spend and spend and spend, and then when things go wrong, they wonder what happened.
I once worked with a guy from Detroit over in Greensboro. He said he liked living in Greensboro pretty good. I asked 'how's that'? He said, 'you know what I like about it, is, I like the fact that if you park your car on a city street and leave and go somewhere, you've got a pretty good chance that your car will be there when you get back'.
DeleteMore from Buckboy's fantasy life, this time fueled by a scene in "St. Louis" in "National Lampoons Vacation". In fact, most of Buckboy's "life" is drawn from movies, TV, and crackpot websites.
DeleteThe incidence of auto theft has been falling since 1998, overall by almost 40%, in Detroit, about 60%. The most stolen brands are Hondas. The most stolen types are American made pickup trucks. The number one reason for auto theft is dumb owners:
1. One third of victims left their car running at home and at convenience stores.
2. 40% left valuables lying in plain view.
3. 47% parked in poorly lit areas.
In North Carolina, and most other states, few cars are stolen in urban areas. Most are stolen at malls and shopping centers and suburban areas, where crime in general is higher than in downtown areas.
Top Ten Cities
1. Fresno
2. Modesto
3. Bakersfield-Delano
4. Spokane
5. Yakima
6. San Francisco
7. Stockton
8. Anderson, SC
9. Vallejo-Fairfield
10. Visalia-Porterville
Top 19 States:
1. California
2. Texas
3. Florida
4. Georgia
5. Illinois
6. Michigan
7. Washington
8. Arizona
9. Ohio
10. New York
11. North Carolina
12. Maryland
13. Pennsylvania
14. Missouri
15. New Jersey
16. Tennessee
17. South Carolina
18. Indiana
19. Colorado
___National Insurance Crime Bureau, 2012
You see where it say rib tips?
DeleteRib tips, yeah.
Well fuck that, you don't wanna go that way.
Supreme Court to take up Prop. 8, DOMA
ReplyDelete______
It's going to be wild night in L.A. TOOOOO NIGHT!
Yes Becky, Supreme Court to decide if the government still needs to check your genitals before you get married.
DeleteThe San Francisco-based appeals court said the state could not take away the same-sex marriage right that had been granted by California's Supreme Court.
Delete_______
You never know. The Supreme Court might start passing out some butt plugs.
Ha, ha...Becky will say anything to get a rise, especially his own...he mentioned that he was "hitting wood" above.
DeleteNo doubt that he would love to have his nose in the same spot as the "bp" area mentioned above.
"BPs" are used far more often by heterosexuals than homosexuals as a part of bondage and discipline play.
More from Playbook:
ReplyDeleteMORNING MINDREAD: A "Behind the Curtain" extra, by Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei:
--WHAT SPEAKER BOEHNER would like to tell President Obama : You gotta give me something to work with here. My leadership knows they're going to have to eat it - it's just a question of how and when. But I need something to push off of if I'm going to sell my rank-and-file guys on higher top rates: BIG concessions on entitlements and spending cuts. I see now that I probably shouldn't have drawn such a red line on rates. But I can't move, and don't want to move, from my position on taxes unless you move on entitlements and spending. $800 billion in revenue is ALREADY a compromise. House budget equals zero, you want $1.6 trillion. 800 is in the middle, and it's all the Senate can pass. I would need a very specific plan for next year, with real triggers to force entitlement and spending cuts. If we're going to bite it on rates, you're going to have to bite it on spending.
As many as 80 percent of my guys are worried about being primaried if they cave too soon. And very few of them are worried about winning their generals, so the incentive is to resist. That's why I'm increasingly pessimistic about getting this done by Christmas. We're on track for December 28ish, because it can't look like I'm caving preemptively or precipitously.
You KILLED me with that Geithner thing - REALLY got my guys' backs up. My guys wanted to pull out of the talks after the saw it. The "offer" was a joke, and you know it. Going out on the campaign trail isn't helping, either. Another huge problem that's dragging this out, Mr. President: I can't be totally frank, because I'm afraid it would leak. If I signaled flexibility on rates at this point and it got out, I'd be in big internal political trouble. I'd just have to deny it. I can't have the whole conservative movement against me. And it wouldn't go anywhere, but Tom Price might challenge me for Speaker. I know: It's crazy! But welcome to my life.
--WHAT PRESIDENT OBAMA would like to tell Speaker Boehner: If you want concessions, you need to man up and ask for 'em, which you haven't done. I want to do something big and I am willing compromise, but I have real leverage and I am not giving away the store. There is an easy deal here, but you have to give on rates and stop painting yourself into corners to get through the news cycle. When you are in a hole, stop digging. We know you need something to move on rates, so you have to say what it is. I won't negotiate with myself. Rates are going up one way or the other, so let's do this the easy way.
And don't think for one second the debt ceiling is worth anything, because I won't trade a single thing for it. Trying to play August all over again wouldn't be your dumbest move to date -- business will leave you in a second. You have to lead your caucus out of this mess and I want to help you. You just have to be willing to be helped. And don't be greedy, or particularly optimistic: Your team lost. We ran on these issues and won. Welcome to MY life.
--WHAT BOEHNER THINKS but won't tell Obama: We can't ultimately be against a middle-class tax cut that Dems are for. We get it! But nothing for debt ceiling? You can't play hardball twice and win. The second debate will sting a lot if you just walk with rates on the first. Either that, or you're comfortable with walking to the edge of the abyss.
--WHAT OBAMA THINKS but won't tell Boehner: Your win can be a cut in entitlements, but you don't consider that a win because you know Republicans can't boast they cut Medicare.
Delete--WHAT LEADER McCONNELL would like to tell POTUS: You may win rates, but you won't win rates and get a debt ceiling for free. That's the overreach you may well want to take inventory of before you get too far out over your skis, sir. You can negotiate it all. But you can't force rates and then think you're going to get what you want on debt ceiling. If rates are off the table in the context of the debt ceiling, then revenue is no longer the price of admission.
--WHAT CEOs ARE TELLING BOTH: Are you guys nuts? The country is on the verge of an economic turnaround, provided you throw together a sane deal before Christmas. If so, the future is bright. Blow this, regardless of who is right or wrong, and you're both in for a terrible ride for the next two years. That inaugural celebration and State of the Union will be quite a drag with markets sinking. So get 'er done.
--PLAYBOOK FACTS OF LIFE: The debt ceiling thing is spin - the President will give something. He doesn't think Boehner is stupid enough to trip up our debt rating again. But he knows his party is, and that scares him.
--THE FINE PRINT: This is informed speculation, based on conversations with the few people who actually know. But these are not actual quotes. (Yet.)
Thanks Wordly...missed that. An excellent "speculation", but far too subtle for the likes of you-know-who.
Delete