21st Century Social Critic

7/25/2014

Tikun Olam = Mend the World

Quote:

“One of the most dynamic developments in the current Gaza war is the massive system of tunnels dug by Hamas militants in the past three years. The tunnels honeycomb the Strip and allow access for fighters not just to the battlefield within Gaza, but to the Israeli border itself, where there was a successful attack that killed two IDF officers. The tunnels, like those dug by Hezbollah in Lebanon, allowed Palestinian fighters to engage with the IDF when it was to their advantage and to disappear when it wasn’t. Unlike Operation Cast Lead, when Hamas largely evaporated and gave the IDF the run of Gaza, this time Hamas has stood and fought. Ten soldiers were killed in the 2009 war and 33 have been killed in this one.”

The quote above is from the Tikum Olam website, written by Richard Silverstein.

Tikum Olam Home Webpage

Israeli tanks near Gaza (from BBC.com)

Richard is a liberal or progressive American Jew who describes himself as pro-Israel but is also highly critical of the Israeli government and the Israel Lobby.

I think I need to be really clear about this: Richard criticizes the Israeli government, and I tend to agree with him. For many years I´ve noted Israeli government behavior to be borderline criminal. And in some cases they have gone way over that threshold.

Palestinian girl crying on a Gaza Beach

(from richardsilverstein.com)

I´m not Jewish, but as I wrote in a previous post when I moved from Spain to the USA in the 1960´s I moved into a Jewish neighborhood, and most of my friends were Jewish. To be honest, in those early days I developed a pretty warped idea about US society, and came to believe most Americans were Jewish, with a sprinkle of Italians, Puerto Ricans, and Africans. I thought Americans with Anglo and Saxon sounding names were either TV and movie characters, or the few Manhattan super rich who ran the empire from Wall Street. So when the Six Day War broke out in 1967 I went downtown with some friends to see if I could sign up to fight with the IDF (sure, I was brainwashed, I already admitted it).

However, the same way my Jewish New York friends convinced me it was a good idea to go defend Israel and kill Arabs, other Jews I met over the years have convinced me things just ain´t what they seem.

Avigdor Lieberman(*) poses with pet anthropoid

(from veOOZ.com)

And this puts me at odds with quite a few of my old Jewish friends. At the same time, I don´t really mesh very well with my new Jewish friends because most of them happen to be a bunch of communists. So what can I say? It seems left wing Jews are the only ones willing to criticize Netanyahu and his Darth Vader clones.

In this life we find ourselves taking sides with people we don´t necessarily agree with on everything. But I can´t sit here, stare at reality, and leave Richard trying to do it all by himself. If you have the guts go on and read his blog, and meet Richard and his reality.

Richard (photo from the Seattle Times)

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(*) Avigdor Lieberman is a really interesting character. Here´s a quote from The Forward about him:

Lieberman’s reputation as a politician on the extreme fringe came in part from his proposal to strip hundreds of thousands of Israeli Arab citizens of Israel of their citizenship as part of any future agreement with the Palestinians. Under his proposal, the geographic areas of Israel in which these Israeli citizens were concentrated would be transferred to a new Palestinian state. In exchange, the envisaged Palestinian state would agree to cede territory on which Israeli Jewish settlements sit in the currently occupied West Bank. Such a mass transfer of citizenship would violate international law without the consent of those affected. Lieberman initially made no provision for consulting Israeli Arabs about this but later changed his proposal to “transfer by consent.”

Lieberman’s domestic positions also provoke charges that he threatens Israeli democracy. Yisrael Beiteinu’s slogan in the previous elections was “no loyalty, no citizenship,” an allusion to the party’s proposed requirement that all citizens sign a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish state or face a loss of their right to vote. Many of Israel’s Arab citizens — almost 20% of the population — are seen as unlikely to make such a pledge."

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/165275/avigdor-liebermans-new-role-raises-worries/?p=all#ixzz38UeyItYY

7/24/2014

Meeting Celebrities

Many years ago I found myself sitting in first class right next to a famous actor. To be honest, at first I was tempted to give him the usual bull about how I admired his work, ask him for his autograph and have my photograph taken with him using my old Polaroid.

But you know, I figured people like that must be incredibly sick of being treated like zoo animals. So I decided to be cool, and ignored him for the whole flight. And I suppose my attitude and my size served as a barrier for the other passengers, who decided they had better not risk going over me to to get to him. I think we were flying from Chicago to New York, or something like that, and that was one of the quietest flights I ever had.

Anyway, when we got off the plane and we were on the gangway on the way to the terminal he turned around, grinned, and said "Thank you", I grinned back and answered "You are welcome", and that was the last time I saw him.

Famous actor with famous actress

When I tell people the characters I met in my life by accident they think I´m full of shit. But this is for real: I met Fidel Castro when I was about seven years old. I was introduced to the guy, we shook hands, he asked me about my grades, and he turned around after I said two words. The thing that impressed me the most about Fidel was his cigar and how bad it smelled.

Famous dictator with stinky cigar

So I´ve spent years wondering what would have happened if I had put a poisoned thumb tack in the palm of my hand...hell, I could have been a national hero, with my own statue right there next to Jose Marti´s and everything.

7/23/2014

The Human Manual

Congratulations! You are the proud new owner of a human being, and with this manual we want to give you a quick overview of how to train it properly. You will enjoy your new possession a lot if you follow these simple steps…

Meeting your new human

But first, a warning. The material in this booklet is top secret. You should read it and immediately put it in your mouth, chew, and swallow to leave no trace of evidence that we dogs know how to read and write.

The content of this booklet is divided into two parts:

1. How to train your human

2. Tips on how to keep humans healthy.

Now we continue with the study of this fascinating breed.

How to train your human

Introduction. Your human is very smart, almost as much as you. This breed is known for its extreme loyalty, and submissive nature. But first we must understand that not all humans are equal, and that some are slow, lazy, or have flaws like not knowing how to whistle or throw a stick at a distance. This is the reason why dogs are patient.

First, your toilet needs: The priority is to train your human to take you out to pee and defecate when you want. This is critical because if you don´t you will have to pee on cement, tile, or something (current technology doesn´t yet allow us to grow indoor grass of the proper quality, and modern humans don´t survive living in the open).

Your human must understand that when you bark at the door, it has to stop whatever it is doing, put on its shoes, and run with you to a place where you can comfortably do your thing.

You can train your human to leave home at all hours, in the rain, in the cold, and wind, always with a plastic bag and glove to pick up your feces. The other dogs are not going to treat you socially if your human is not trained to collect you shit.

Second: You can´t live with a cat. It is obvious that you are a dog who hates cats. Living with a cat is horrible and should be avoided at all costs. Therefore it is important that when you take a walk and see a cat, bark ferociously, and if you can chase it and bite into its buttocks (CAUTION: cats have sharp claws which hurt horribly if the cat can turn around and hit you on the nose).

If it´s not feasible for you to prove you really hate cats, you will have to buy a cartoon DVD with a good fight of dogs and cats and leave it on the table so your human can learn the realities of life.

Let´s be honest, some humans are pretty dense, and you might have to repeat these steps several times. The earlier in the human training, the better. If in the worst case your man brings home a kitten, eat it. Don´t let it grow, or it will become a nightmare on four legs.

Third: The food. To eat well, you have to learn to vomit. Humans suffer a lot of stress when you vomit (later we will talk more about stress in humans in the health section of the human being). Your human is human. This means that at first it may not understand clearly that your happiness is paramount and should be their primary concern.

Sometimes your human will buy cheap food. Some humans dare buy food in giant bags containing an abominable product. If you can, pee on the bag when you see it. If you give it enough time, your human will put some of this food on a plate. This will hit you hard: eat it, but don´t show much emotion, then go to an appropriate place (a fancy carpet or the human´s bed), and VOMIT EVERYTHING. If vomiting at will isn´t possible, you will have to have some hidden grass, the grass is a good dog purgative.

This process should be repeated until the human being gives you something good to eat. Some dogs have managed to train their human to feed them rib bones with meat, chicken thighs, and other goodies. So work hard at it, and your effort will be rewarded.

Humans are easy to train with positive feedback. When your human does something you want, show your satisfaction. For example, place your front legs straight and rigid, and jump a little, barking and wagging your tail at the same time. Your human will be happy when it sees you perform this way. It is important to show your man that you are a sweet dog. A good method is to lick its hands and arms, or else its face, but tenderly, and very gently (as if you were licking your own genitals).

Positive feedback example

The human may have a host of training problems, and this prospectus doesn´t have them included, however it is important to remember this: be very patient and you will be the head of the household.

Human health perspectives

Humans have delicate feet, when you want to go for a walk it is important not to push your human so hard it will leave home barefoot. You must also make sure it keeps warm in the winter and when it rains. Human skin is naked, and they don´t endure the cold or moisture very well. Your human can become seriously ill, and this will cause a huge mess. Don´t let it happen.

As mentioned above, the human can suffer from something called stress. For example, when you participate in a howling concert with colleagues in the neighborhood, chances are your human will become stressed out because it thinks all the dogs in the area are noisy and/or sad. A human won´t understand that you like to howl. Therefore howling concerts should not exceed 30 minutes. If you see your human touching its face and crying, the 30 minutes are up.

If your human is suffering from stress (for example, if you chew up its father´s pants when it comes to visit, and your human sees it and then grunts and turns beet red), then it is possible that you have to lick it until it calms down. Don´t let it kick. If your human misbehaves then you must bark and show you're the boss.

7/21/2014

Through the solar power looking glass

As we all know, media reports and the blogosphere tend to confuse us, some just lie or lay out bullshit propaganda. Things are so bad we can´t really trust most of what we read and see.

Solar powered kitchen

To give you an example, I´ve picked off a few comments about solar power in the media showing how one can take exactly the same data and use it in diametrically opposed opinions.

To make sure the reader isn´t confused about the actual data, I copied this chart from the Spain´s “Red Electrica de España 2013”. This is the Spanish electric grid 2013 summary. It shows the actual power generated by different sources in an electric power association (unfortunately it does exclude the UK, Sweden, and other large nations).

Electric Power Generated in 2013 in European nations (from REE)
(CLICK TO ENLARGE SO YOU CAN READ IT)

As you can see, the solar power contribution was fairly puny. Now I´ll move on to some quotes from the media, to see how they reflect what´s going on:

From the Guardian, a British newspaper

UNITED KINGDOM

“UK set a record for solar power on June 9, with 3.9 % of the total electricity generated¨

GERMANY

“Germany, with 1.4m PV systems, generated a peak of 23.1GW hours at lunchtime on Monday 9 June, equivalent to 50.6% of its total electricity need. According to government development agency Germany trade and invest (GTAI), solar power grew 34% in the first five months of 2014 compared to last year”

From Forbes Magazine

GERMANY

“Germany’s residential electricity cost is about $0.34/kWh, one of the highest rates in the world. About $0.07/kWh goes directly to subsidizing renewables, which is actually higher than the wholesale electricity price in Europe.”

SPAIN

“In April, renewable energy accounted for a record-setting 54% of the electricity generated in Spain, nearly tripling its share of the pie from just 19% in 2006. The associated economics are something akin to the apocalypse…..In May, the tariff deficit reached a whopping $34 billion.

Overly generous renewable energy subsidies are at least partially to blame. In 2007, Spain paid a premium of $556 per megawatt-hour for electricity that rooftop solar panels supplied to the electric grid, compared with an average $52 paid to competing coal- or gas-fired power plants. By 2012, a whopping $10.6 billion in subsidies were paid out to the renewable energy industry, rising by about 20% from the previous year, and covering more than one third of all electricity generated in Spain.”

SWEDEN

“Sweden consumes a substantial amount of electricity per capita (15,000 kWh per person/year). Few countries consume more energy, yet Swedish carbon emissions are low compared with those of other countries. The average Swede releases 5.1 tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere, compared with the EU average of 7.9 tons and the US average of 19.1 tons.

The reason for this low emission rate is that about 78 per cent of electricity in Sweden comes from nuclear power and hydroelectric power, neither of which generates carbon emissions. Cogeneration from combined heat and power (CHP plants), accounts for somewhat above 10 per cent of the electricity output in Sweden, and these are mainly powered by biofuels. About 8 per cent of the electricity is imported, and the remainder, about 4 per cent, comes from wind power.”

From PHYSORG

“The EU's statistics agency Eurostat found that while emissions were cut across the 28-member bloc by an average of 2.5 percent in 2013, they actually went up in six countries, including Germany.

Denmark registered a 6.8 percent increase in CO2 emissions, in Estonia it was up by 4.4 percent, followed by Portugal (+3.6 percent), France (+0.6 percent) and Poland (+0.3 percent).

The strongest cuts in CO2, which account for 80 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming, came from Cyprus, where emissions went down by 14.7 percent, followed by Romania (-14.6 percent) and Spain (-12.6 percent).”

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-05-germany-eu-worst-polluter-co2.html#jCp

My conclusions? We can´t trust anything we read. It takes a lot of digging to get down to the truth. Everybody slants the data.

Now I want to show you a map of the solar insolation in Europe. This is is the average amount of sunlight European nations receive.

Sunlight in Europe, average for the year

(dark or brick colored means more

sunlight, the greens and blues are dimmer)

As you can see putting up solar panels in northern Europe and the UK doesn´t make any sense. If their citizens want to cut back emissions they should finance solar power in sunny climates and receive credits for being such nice environmentalists. And if they want to get extremely smart about how they reduce worldwide emissions then they should finance hydropower plants in third world countries. Look at this reference for hydropower potential in the world