Indecision 2010

Yesterday, Wednesday October 27, President Obama appeared on John Stewart's The Daily Show.

Over the nearly 30-minute show, Obama seemed uncomfortable with even the mild criticism that Stewart offered. More significant still, throughout the entire show, Obama was on the defensive. Rarely, did he say anything that sounded path-breaking or new. "Yes we can, but..." was Obama's new and not very impressive slogan.

Obama's arguments - mostly excuses - were pretty weak. For example, he stated that the rising unemployment figures over the last two years took place mainly in the first few months after he came into office. "Most of the jobs that we lost were lost before the economic policies that we put into place had any effect." Looking at the unemployment graph provided by the United States Labor Department, that statement is not very convincing. Rather, it seems that Obama's economic policies have had little or no success in stemming rising unemployment.

Despite being on the defensive - or maybe because of it - Obama came off sounding very arrogant. "We have made a lot of progress over the last 18 months that, from a historical perspective, ranks up there with any legislative session we've seen in history." But, as with his excuses, the boasts fell short of convincing.

The word I heard most often from Obama was "fair"... "in fairness", "to be fair", "here's what I think is fair", and so on. In my experience, one of the most insightful lines from Shakespeare is: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." On last night's The Daily Show, I think the President did protest too much. I think that whenever he  used the word "fair", it meant two things: (1) that most of what he had just been saying was unfair (2) that what he was about to say would be very unfair.

Good News

We don't often see such good news on the world front. The 33 miners trapped underground for more than two months deep underground have all been rescued.

I am very happy for the miners, for the people of Chile, and for all the concerned people of the world. Today a great victory was achieved.

Do Nations Have A Conscience?

The French Senate is set to vote on banning the wearing of burqas... but not crucifixes. The Iranian Government released from prison an ailing American hiker... at a hefty "bail" price. And the Israeli Government is deporting children under 5 who were born in the country to resident mothers on valid work visas... in order to "preserve the Jewish identity of the State".

Buddha and the Gestalt Therapist

A man goes to the Buddha and insults him. The Buddha remains unaffected.

The man gets confused. He asks the Buddha: "Don't you realize that I just insulted you."

The Buddha says: "If you give me an apple but I don't accept it, where does the apple go?"

The man replies: "Naturally, the apple remains with me."

The Buddha then says: "I did not accept your insult."

That's a story most of us have probably heard many times. The story probably inspired us also. But how do you suppose a Gestalt therapist would interpret it?

If a Gestalt therapist had observed this exchange - or if the Gestalt therapist had been the man giving the insult - then my guess is that the therapist would recommend lengthy treatment for the Buddha. And the Buddha would just smile, thereby confirming what both believe.

Hawking on God and Gravity

London, England (CNN) -- Religious leaders in Britain on Friday hit back at claims by leading physicist Stephen Hawking that God had no role in the creation of the universe.

In his new book The Grand Design, Britain's most famous scientist says that given the existence of gravity, " universe can and will create itself from nothing," according to an excerpt published in The Times of London.

"Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," he wrote.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going."

Hawking's understanding of cause and effect is as primitive as that of Western religicos. He recognizes only efficient cause and not the even more significant material cause. In this universe, something does not come from nothing. Nothing comes from nothing, and something comes from something. Gravity is not God. It is just one expression of the natural law of attraction.

Iran Sanctions - Irrational And Immoral

I don't expect the new sanctions to accomplish anything good. Even if Iranians were not a proud people and Ahmadinejad not a raving fanatic, still sanctions would be a poor strategy.

Economic sanctions have become a bulwark of United States foreign policy. Some estimate that about 200 nations - and almost half the population of the world - are currently under economic sanction by the USA.

Do economic sanctions work? In other words, do they achieve the stated objectives? That is hard to quantify. Even when the stated objectives take place and economic sanctions are already in place, it does not mean that the two events are causally connected. But the concurrence of these two events is rare. It has happened in only 20-25% of the cases.

What we do know about sanctions is that they tend to hurt not only the ordinary people of the targeted nation but also the ordinary people of the sanctioning nation. About the only people that sanctions rarely inconvenience are the politicians in both nations. Both sets of politicians generally make quick and easy capital out of sanctions.

Israeli Attack On Aid Flotilla

Israel's unbalanced action is yet another painful reminder of the defective notions of "national sovereignty" and "united nations". Such fictions inexorably lead us toward another global war. World government is the only solution.