October 31, 2005

On Health Care

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The United States spends 15% of its GDP (gross domestic product) on health care. This percentage is culled from both public and private expenditures on insurance coverage and direct payment of medical bills by uninsured Americans. America spends more than any other nation on health care, even those with socialized or nationalized medicine. Yet, in spite of the astounding amount of actual dollars spent, we have at least 16% of our nation living without any health coverage at all. With fewer employers providing insurance, these numbers are sure to skyrocket as insurance rates climb even higher.

The GDP is defined as the total value of final goods and services produced within a territory during a specified period. The GDP for the United States is currently around $11,750,000,000,000, give or take a few million here and there. We multiply that amount by 15% and we get $1,762,500,000,000, which is a whole lot of money. Now, we divide that amount by the estimated number of Americans (approx. 300 million) and we get $5870.50.

Let’s compare these numbers with the closest nation percentage-wise to the United States. Switzerland’s GDP is $251,900,000,000 and they spend 11.5 % of this amount on health care which comes to $28,968,500,000. Switzerland’s health care system is fully nationalized and, last I checked, the Swiss were not in any hurry to ‘privatize’ their health care. With a population of 7,489,370 citizens, the expenditure per person is $3,880.00. That is about $2000.00 less than Americans spend, and everyone is fully covered. Noone is Switzerland goes without health coverage.

To be fair, the administrative costs are necessary, and a nation of 300,000,000 will take a little more managing power than a nation of 8 million. Remember, however, we are speaking of percentages and dollars per citizen, and not the overall amount spent. It is interesting that nations like Switzerland, with a GDP less than 3% of our own can find a way to insure each and every person within their borders. (They manage to educate them as well, which is another subject.)

Now whether you think this is too much or too little is irrelevant. It does show that we are already spending an astronomical amount for our health care, not just in percentage over other industrialized nations, but in terms of sheer dollars. Switzerland is doing something right, and perhaps, if our leaders in Washington really cared about the health of the nation they would be taking notes and planning a strategy to make sure we all have health care. If the Swiss can do it, and do it cheaper, then why can’t we? Aren’t we the great innovators of the world? The ‘can-do’ people of the world?

There are ways to cut our costs and use those cuts to spread those health care dollars around more evenly. To reduce the current rate of our expenditure would require cutting out the fat that goes to insurance vendors, negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for better prices, stamping out the fraud and graft within the system, and take the profit motive out of the health care industry. Millions and millions of dollars are spent each year to maintain a status quo that ensures them the power to dictate price and availability. Those are millions of dollars already in the system, paid by you and I as consumers, that could also be going to lower the overall health care costs well below the projected $6000.00 per year. The money from our premiums and payments is being used against us by the insurance lobbyists to maintain their already obscene profits margins.

In the not so distant past, insurance companies didn’t use premiums to make money. Premiums paid for the services and what was left over was invested in the market. With receding profit margins and greedier CEOs and shareholders, the health insurance companies could no longer rely on the risks that everyone else takes when investing, and decided to raise premiums in order to keep up their profit margins. They have done so by an average rate of 15% per year across the board, in spite of saddling consumers with higher co-pays, higher deductibles, and fewer services covered. It is estimated that 30-40% of your health care dollar goes directly to the middleman and has nothing to do with your actual health or well-being. Doctors, nurses, researchers, physical therapists, and psychologists heal people. Insurance companies don’t.

The single-payer plan sounds like a good compromise between the fully nationalized system and the mess we have now. Please check out this well-done presentation.

I was recently quoted a health policy for myself, a healthy non-smoking 40-something white guy, at around $3,300 per year. There were, of course, the usual co-pays, deductibles, etc., that would have to also be paid out of pocket, but to keep it simple we’ll stick with an even and easy to work with number. Remember this is $3,300 that I am paying directly to the insurance company for the promise that under certain conditions, they will make sure that my medical bills are paid. I’m sure there are people paying much higher premiums, especially if they have children or preexisting conditions. In any case, even before I get sick or injured, I have already paid $3,300 into health care. That plan comes with an overall $1,500 deductible, which is really another word for an additional premium by another name, so now I am forking over $4,800 dollars for my health insurance.

I know that lots of Americans don’t want socialized medicine because they don’t want to pay for someone else’s health care. Aside from being selfish assholes, they are also trying to live in a health care vacuum that doesn’t exist. The fact is, that when people without health insurance receive care and cannot pay for it, those of us who do carry insurance end up paying a little bit more to the insurance companies so those companies can meet their obligations to the providers. The doctors, nurses, therapists, billing specialists, and whoever else might be working at the hospital still has to be paid. We are already paying that cost in higher premiums, deductibles, or co-pays and, as the number of uninsured grows, so will our premiums.

I support fully nationalized health care. That’s no secret. I’m not blind to its problems either. It’s possible that the single-payer system is the best compromise, given our current situation. Something has to be done in that direction. We are Americans. There is no good reason we can’t do it, do it right, and do it now.

Kol Tuv

International Insanity

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Recently, the newly elected leader of Iran joined in the annual anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian protest, which coincides with the beginning of Ramadan. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remark on Wednesday that Israel should be “wiped off the map” sparked international condemnation. Was anyone really shocked by this remark? Ahmadinejad was simply saying aloud what has already been said aloud throughout the Moslem world for decades. In Iran, anti-Israeli diatribes are painted as murals along most highways and are heard regularly in Mosques. If I were to move to Iran and start up an effigy business, specializing only in American and Israel leaders, I could make a lot of money.

So why is anyone surprised by his comments? Why all the furor? Why all the conjecture over what his motives are or are not? The man is a fervent anti-Israel Jew hater! He always has been and always will be. There are no secrets in the Middle East when it comes to hating Israel. Israel need do little else than exist to be hated. If you are the least bit shocked by this President’s statement, you have been in a coma since 1948.

It is distressing that the reform movements, ironically enough led by clerics, in Iran have failed. The Iranian people chose, through their democratic process, an anti-Western anti-Israel hardliner to lead their nation. This is an important fact. He needs no fancy robes, title, or headdress to whip up the masses. He speaks from them and to them in his straightforward and unassuming manner. Ahmadinejad is a man of the people. He is one of them. That makes him all the more appealing the electorate. The Iranian voter no longer trusted the clerics and others they viewed as ‘out of touch elitists’, or internationalists, or apologists.

Why did Iranian voters divest themselves of possible reform? Why did they stop making efforts to widen cultural freedoms? Why did they embrace the hard-line so loudly and openly? The answer lies with the war in Iraq, and the insane American foreign policy that indiscriminately hurls threats and bombs at anything it labels as ‘terrorist.’ It brought out by the arrogance of an American leadership that thinks it alone should be the sole bearer of power and dictate policy around the globe. You cannot attack a Moslem nation and not have other Moslems get upset about it. If they war with each other, so be it. They consider that a family squabble to be settled amongst family members. Outsiders, however, are not liked. It becomes a matter of ‘entre nous’ and, in their minds, the West should mind its own damn business.

This is not an anti-Moslem tirade. Islam as a whole displays very much the same patterns and behaviors as have done (or still do) other large and diverse religious groups throughout history. That’s the whole point here. The Bush administration failed to consider the consequences of their meddling in Moslem affairs and invading Iraq. Places where Bin Laden supporters were many yet still somewhat closeted, have now become entire nations rallying behind those who wish to see America, Israel, and their allies destroyed. If they didn’t like us before, maybe because of our crooked business dealings in their countries, or maybe because of a clash of cultural and religious values, they sure as hell won’t start loving us when we drop bombs and/or make threats against them.

The Islamic world might not have been happy about us going after Bin Laden, but we had enough support universally to make the case for doing so. There were more than a few Islamic countries that didn’t really like him either. However, once we began to lose that focus, creating a subterfuge to topple a Moslem-led regime (secular as it was) that did not attack the United States, the Islamic world reacted with a backlash that, at least in the mind of this casual observer, was prophetically predictable.

I don’t imagine the Moslem to be different from me. If I hear of a Jew anywhere in the world being killed because he is a Jew, even if I have differences of opinion or religious background with that particular Jew, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. Why? Because he was, like it or not, my brother. Why would I expect the Moslem to feel any different about his co-religionists being subject to bombings, shootings, or anything else? The Bush administration should have seen it coming.

As Americans, we have two ways of taking stock of the Bush debacle, and neither is very encouraging. They are either insane, ignoring the obvious consequences of their policies, or totally incompetent and unable to fathom, plan, or strategize around cause and probable effect. I am not hopeful of a peaceful outcome. The combative ‘ends-justify-the-means’ mentality of the Bush administration has caused the same combative ‘ends-justify- the-means’ reaction in an Islamic world already pervaded with anti-American and anti-Israeli sentiment. Should Iran be any less indignant over the unjustified invasion of their neighbor, than we would be over the WTC attack?

Insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results. George Bush has decided to ‘stay the course’, which means that he is unwilling to accept that his policy thus far, disastrous from the beginning in my opinion, failing to bring about the desired results and yet, continuing in the same manner to ignore the obvious consequences. George Bush is not merely one who is conventionally insane. He is internationally insane.

I would like to thank the President of the United States and the President of Iran for being complete, total, fucking assholes. You are both fine examples of what world leaders should not be. Go back to your cages! George gets a banana and some Prozac, and Mahmoud a rawhide chew dipped in thorazine.

The loonies are running the asylum. Och und vay!

October 29, 2005

Political Valency?



A Little Science

Free radical: An atom or group of atoms with an unpaired valence electron. Most free radicals are highly reactive. Picture it as a bunch of people in a cluster where one of them sticks out a hand in an effort to grab onto the next person or cluster of people that comes by.

Valency: The combining power of an atom or radical. A valence electron is the electron that takes part in forming chemical bonds. It operates by the number of electrons in the outermost shell of the atoms of that element. These electrons are given up to other atoms or are received from other atoms to create bonds. The result is a compound with stable electronic configuration.

Parallels

Sometimes the parallels between ‘small’ science and human behavior are too strong to miss, and needs pointing out. As a political activist of sorts, being outspoken and somewhat fiery about my political and social ideals, I travel in circles that attract like-minded Americans; those pushed to the edge over what they view as a corrupt and detached system that no longer serves the interests of the people. We all seem to share the same goal; making America a better place for its citizens, be it through education, health care, corporate reform, environmental concerns, or global peace initiatives.

Many politically aware people feel impotent. We write letters, donate money, attend protests, blog, and support our favored PACs, but all the effort still doesn’t seem to make any positive changes. Nor it is very fulfilling emotionally when your candidate of choice, after courting your support, once in Washington, turns out to be the opposite of what he portrayed himself to be. We feel ‘suckered’ and betrayed, but few of us, like jilted lovers, are willing to give up on politics altogether and eventually begin ‘dating’ another ideal or candidate. We ALL want to be heard.

I meet many people who feel their voices have become redundant, leave one cause and head straight for another, sometimes leaping straight across the political spectrum to do so. We all want a sense of belonging and importance and politics, like religion, affords us the ability to bond with thousands of others at a time simply by agreement or acquiescence. Many only want to grab onto the ‘winners’ never wishing to be associated with minorities. Others, always skeptical of the mob mentality, deliberately side with underdogs no matter how weak the position may be. For many of these people, there are social and emotional needs to be fulfilled. I’m not saying they don’t have rational concerns, but their high ‘valency’ appears symptomatic of a personal issue. These are the ‘free radicals’ of politics.

What About Me?

Sometimes I wonder if all this rambling about others is nothing more than describing those character traits I’d like prefer not to see in myself. I suppose that’s always going to be true to some extent, since we are dealing with human nature and last I checked, I was just as human as the next fellow, if not a little more so at times. I am not, however, as social as others and I am definitely willing to point out the problems of my allies as forcefully as I would my opponents. Blind allegiances are not my thing. I have a low ‘valency’ in that respect. I do not require the approval of others when forming my opinions and, as fate would have it, I seldom get any.

Does that make me a man of high principles? No. I don’t really think in those terms anymore. The vigorous idealism of youth has been replaced with the practical pragmatism of working smarter and not harder. Shouting and marching has been replaced by diplomacy and mutual understanding (unless you spam this blog), compassion, and the appeal to the basic human needs that unify all of us. Slogans let the world know we are here, but good explanations and close fellowship allow people to hear our message, internalize the message, and come to understand the consequence of it. The message must be more than audible; it must become understood. Both are necessary.

My internal dialectic may remain constant, but the approach has thankfully softened. This electron has found a cluster and, for the fore-seeable future, is staying away from the outer shells and orbits. Come on in for a visit!

“A radical is man with two feet firmly planted…in the air.” (Franklin Delano Roosevelt, radio address 1939)

Liberals, Progressives, & Me

I have been asked dozens of times to explain the distinction between a ‘Liberal’ and a ‘Progressive’; I must admit that I, too, was at a loss to explain this difference. I had assumed, as did many that I queried, that the terms were synonymous and inter-changeable. It is true that some liberals are not progressives, and some progressives, it turns out, are not liberals. The fact that I am both is perhaps what led me, in my ignorance, to assume they were the same.

One rainy-grey Saturday afternoon, as I was routinely browsing through the dozens of political news and opinion blogs that I read daily, I came across an article concerned with this very topic. I would post the link if I could remember where it is. I believe the article was posted somewhere on http://www.commondreams.org which, if you haven’t seen it yet, is an awesome website for Liberal news and opinion. I highly recommend it.

The author defines ‘Liberal’ as one who advocates personal freedoms and a strong sense of civil liberty. This defines both the individual’s rights and the limits to which government can encroach upon those rights. The Fourth Amendment, for example, is a guarantor for such civil liberty in terms of privacy rights and restrains the government from overstepping certain well-defined boundaries. ‘Liberal’ also implies how those guaranteed freedoms are expressed and that those freedoms and privileges are extended to all citizens equally. The term ‘Liberal’ refers to how we view the individual in society. The ACLU is a good example of an organization dedicated to protecting and preserving individual liberties over the wants of government or the influence of the majority opinion.

‘Progressive’, on the other hand, refers to how we view the role of government in assisting, solving, and mediating societal or national problems. Education, health care, energy policy, the environment, corporate corruption and exploitation, and public safety are but a few of the national-level issues that ‘progressives’ believe are the role of government to implement and enforce. As in all things, the balance between personal freedoms and the desire to use government as a force for social betterment or change is fraught with obstacles that have to be carefully evaluated. Groups promoting nationalized health care, public education, and control of natural resources are examples of 'Progressive' organizations.

I am both a Liberal and Progressive. I believe that every citizen should have inalienable rights equal to the inalienable rights and privileges of each and every other citizen. I believe that government can be a force for positive and lasting social change, ensuring the freedom of individual expression and at the same time, creating an atmosphere of health, education, honest business dealings, clean air/water, friendliness around the globe, and safe/secure streets and borders.

I believe the union of Liberalism and Progressivism is, by far, the best way of achieving that balance between what are oft considered competing elements within society. There is fairness with strength, freedom with responsibility, prosperity with substance, and every citizen is afforded the opportunity to excel and thrive, but is never forced to do so. I have learned, though, that the two terms are not mutually inclusive, and it is often a harder distinction to make among people than it is to do on paper.

“New times demand new measures and new men;
The world advances, and in time outgrows
The laws which in our fathers’ day were

best.” (James Russell Lowell, 1843)

October 26, 2005

The Point of No Return

There is a period after Apikorsis begins where one still reacts like a frumme Yid to things going on in the world. I think that phase lasted a good ten years or so. I can remember thinking to myself as I was having sex with a shikza or eating a steaming bowl of clam chowder “Oh man! Is this ossur!” I recall thinking and then having to rethink something to adjust to my new way of life. Old habits were hard to break and even when my body was doing one thing, my psyche was stubbornly clinging to the shtetl-kopp. Treife was still treife and, even when eating it I would think, “Hey. This is treife!” Those days, one could say I was doing it bemayzid, beda’as, and also maybe lechachis.

It’s been well past that decade point now, and I think I am finally without any thought, remorse, or even tinge of Yiddishe reaction to what happens. I’m still a Jew. I still speak Yiddish on occasion. I still sit and learn when I am researching a topic for an article or when others ask me questions from the Gemara or halacha. I find myself, though, forgetting Divrei Torah I used to know clearly, and I’m absolutely certain that I have forgotten how to put on tefillin or tie tzitzis. The streets of Crown Heights and Williamburg don’t seem the same or even real at times, and I’m hard pressed to recall the faces of my old chaverim and mishpocho. The memories around the Yid I used to be are fading. It looks now like it was someone else’s life. Even my father o’h is a stranger to me.

I’m beginning to understand what having no religious identity at all is supposed to feel like. It’s rather unsettling. All this time I have been saying what I intend to be, but now I really feel that I found it. I imagine I am sitting atop the story of my life in this world and Spinoza is looking over my shoulder at this huge pile of discarded life laying at my feet. He speaks in his usual cool and logical manner saying, “I warned you, Shlomo Leib.” I answer back in my own defense “But Reb Baruch! I just had to know! I couldn’t help it!” I turn back to him and nod, shrugging my shoulders in that typically Jewish manner and a bittersweet smile crosses my face. One might say that smile seems peaceful, and others may interpret it as melancholy. I don’t feel anything strong enough about it to care. It is what it is. I am who I am.

I no longer think only as a Yid. I am a ben-galus self-exiled into a new and improved sort of tiffe-galus. I have assimilated into something that a decade ago I would not recognize as myself. Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur passed without mention, and I spent those days as I would any other, almost forgetting their existence completely were it not for the goyim around me wishing me a ‘Happy Jewish New Year.’ I don’t have the heart to tell them those days aren’t mine anymore, so I offer them a soft “thank you” and move on to other things. There is no longer any intent not to behave as a Jew. I just don’t even think about it anymore.

Among the various labels or definitions one could choose for me, only one is truly accurate and lasting. I am a ‘Jew who changed his mind’ and subsequently his way of living. There isn’t much more left to alter in either regard. Perhaps it is the absence of such endeavors that induces numbness, where only boredom remains from lack of interest. Maybe there is finally the realization that I am nothing and nobody, except unto and for myself within the small, busy world that I function. It sounds sad, but it’s been my goal all along. I guess I will have to cope with getting exactly what I wanted. This milestone is a point of absolute ‘no return.’

Spinoza was right. On the first page of the very first chapter, before I even began reading in earnest, he warned me about what would happen. Spinoza will always be remembered as ‘the Jew who changed his mind.’ Now I share that lonely and abject moniker. It is, at best, nothing more than a psychosocial limbo and, at its worst, perhaps a peaceful sort of hell. I will feel nothing while still wanting to feel something, and then realize my original purpose was to feel nothing at all; reminded by the world of something I’ve already forgotten.

Kol Tuv

Liars

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Well. Well. Well. What have we here? More lies to cover the old lies which were originally told to cover the first set of lies which were intended to deflect attention from the original lies that were offered to justify perhaps the most blatant misuse of power ever in our 230 year run as an independent nation. The lying is so profuse at this point that trying to unravel the tangled web of institutional deceit is almost futile. I suspect the liars themselves are aware of this fact; that confusion among the prosecutors, investigators, and the electorate offers them the needed time to formulate newer and bolder falsehoods, thus raising the junk-heap of self-serving nonsense to ever newer heights.

Will it ever end?

Most of us learned as children that lies are easily exposed. Remember trying to hide that piece of candy? Having your parent ask you to stick out your newly painted tongue, thus revealing your subterfuge? Remember having your exquisite logical explanations destroyed by parents or teachers employing a modicum of common sense and the old “I tried that, too, back in my time” , or the “If I had a nickel for every time that trick was tried on me I’d be rich” response? We learned that telling the truth, painful as that may be, always turns out to be less work than we tried to avoid by telling the lie in first place.

An ex-girl friend of mine put this wisdom well. “As long as I don’t lie, I don’t have to burn up brain cells trying to remember things.” How right she is. Keeping the lies straight is not easy work, especially when that lie turns into a conspiracy which, for those who don’t yet know, is a fancy word for a lie that is shared between two or more persons. The purpose of that lie is irrelevant.

The Bush Administration is the embodiment of blatant falsehood and hypocrisy. They claim to represent the military, but almost all of them avoided military service, and few have children serving in our active military. They claimed to be great business minds yet, before their sojourn in government and the access it afforded; their business dealings were somewhat less than impressive. They claim to represent the ‘culture of life’ and compassion, but at every turn they advocate war. They pat each other on the back for a ‘job well done’ while the rest of the nation wonders what ‘job’ they’re talking about. They pay the media moguls big bucks to spout their fascist propaganda while accusing that same media of being biased against them. And the list goes on and on.

The Republicans insist that evil has a face, and in spite of their indignant finger-pointing in every direction toward alleged terrorists, liberals, the media, pro-choicers, intellectuals, and those few nay-sayers among their own ranks, they have no further to search for this ‘evil’ other than their own vanity mirrors. Their 1984-Orwellian double-speak is not winning the hearts or minds of anyone with more than two brain cells to rub together. The best they can do is buy allies with whatever tax dollars might be left over from their imperialist follies.

Jonathon Alterman quoted Arthur Miller when saying “Never underestimate the power of audacity.” No one imagined that our ‘elected’ leaders would be so boldfaced as to start out telling colossal fibs. We let these first few slide because we couldn’t, like the experienced parent or teacher, ever imagine anyone trying to pass such nonsense off as reality.

This administration hasn’t learned the life-lessons ingrained in most humans by age five or six, which leaves one to wonder what sort of nasty children these scoundrels were.

“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.” (Adlai E. Stevenson Jr., 1900 - 1965, Speech during 1952 Presidential Campaign)

October 25, 2005

From Ali to Einstein: Boxing

Everyone who knows me knows that I’m an avid boxing fan. What some of you don’t know is that I have done a lot of sparring and training, so when I talk about boxing, I have some idea of what I’m talking about. Lacking any perceptible talent, I was never any good, but I did learn much about the ‘sweet science’ and have coached a little over the years. One can have a good ‘eye’ for the game even without being a master. I absolutely love the boxing regimen, and the only thing keeping me from working out as I would like is a bad knee and a healthy dose of “I’m too old for that shit now.” I fully understand, however, the reluctance on the part of seasoned professionals to retire, even when their time has passed. Boxing gets into your blood.

Training & Straining

Skipping rope is still my favorite part of the training. I could probably go all day if it didn’t get so boring past the twenty minute mark. I find myself inventing different steps to break up the monotony, and if there are some non-boxers or pretty girls around, I pass the time trying to impress them with my endurance and fancy footwork. Both are quite nice but overall meaningless once inside the ropes unless one has the skills and the pain tolerance to put them to good use. I enjoy the speed bag, heavy bag, and headache bag as well. The rhythmic beating of a well-handled speed bag is almost hypnotic.

Running, or as they call it ‘roadwork’ is my least favorite endeavor, yet probably one of the most important for overall boxing fitness. The African fighters like Henry Akinwande or Ike Ibeabeuchi, though both heavyweights, were renowned for running 12 miles a day during training, which explained their uncanny ability to have very high punch outputs during fights. I don’t care how good it is for the game. I still hate it.

(Ike Ibeabeuchi was, in my opinion, the most talented heavyweight in the last 20 years and, were it not for his anger management issues, he would have outclassed any and all of the last decade’s so-called ‘champions’. Henry Akinwande was recently sighted in Germany, sparring with Russian super-giant Nikolai Valuev. Akinwande’s career took a sharp nose-dive after a very disappointing performance against then-champion Lennox Lewis. No one told Henry that hugs were for after the fight.)

Sparring

Sparring is the first chance anyone interested in the sport has to test their skill in the ring. The idea behind sparring is for a fighter to learn to apply the proper footwork, hand coordination, and defensive style needed to box efficiently while not having to face an opponent intent on knocking his or her head off. It’s still painful, and there is no guarantee, in spite of the ‘rules’, that you won’t end up sparring with someone having a really bad day and wanting nothing more than to take it out on you in the ring. Many professional fighters do not hold back, even in sparring, and have a very hard time keeping sparring partners or have to pay them very high salaries to those who stay.

There is actually some sense to this. Bruce Lee once said that he never sparred because it dulled his reflexes and power, and he wouldn’t want to reflexively sparr when he needs to fight. Everything has to be ‘on’ all the time in martial arts, where your hesitation may be a life or death matter at that level of skill. This is true in the boxing gym to some extent as well. Many promising fighters, who perform well in the gym during sparring sessions, carry that laid back attitude with them into the ring. There is a long list of great sparring mates that once in serious competition only manage a lackluster performance. The gym and the ring are two different worlds.

Relativity

Someone once asked Albert Einstein to explain relativity in a nutshell. His words were “Two minutes with your hand on a hot stove is like an eternity. Two minutes with a pretty girl passes like the blink of an eye.” The last time I entered the ring with any intent of doing someone a bit of damage I learned about relativity first hand, but there were no pretty girls involved. I was working out as usual when a young fellow, probably about 21, asked if there was anyone willing to sparr with him for a few rounds. I accepted, laced up, put on the helmet, inserted a mouthpiece and climbed through the ropes. I had no idea who this kid was.

For the first couple of minutes we tapped around a bit and circled each other, throwing jabs, moving in and out, and getting a feel for each other and the ring. His jabs had some sting on them, so I learned early that I wasn’t going to be able to get inside without paying a hefty price. I don’t think I landed anything clean in that first round. I knew then that something was very wrong.

The second round is what I called the ‘relativity round’. Much like the fellow whose hand is pressed onto the hot electric coil of a stove, the next three minutes of sparring turned out to be the longest three minutes of my life up to that point. I was being toyed around with the sort of playful viciousness that a housecat displays on an already trapped field-mouse. That kid hit me with about six unanswered combinations, a few hooks to the body, and I can’t even tell you how many jabs I ate that night. I landed one or two good shots, but that only seemed to make him madder. Turns out, the nameless kid was a two-time Golden Glove champion from somewhere out west. After learning that bit of information, I wasn’t so disappointed over the beating I suffered. I deserved it for not asking who I was serving my head to that evening.

Recovery

Aging doesn’t automatically mean that you can’t box or train anymore. It does mean, however, that your recovery time is slower and more painful. We all remember the scrapes and bruises of childhood and adolescence that couldn’t stop us from trying to stop a locomotive, let alone lay us up for a week, require x-rays, and lots of Tylenol 3. Age slows you down, too. I try to stay fast, but speed leaves you faster than you can catch it. Einstein's thought experiment involving mirrors and light speed travel comes to mind.

I’m frustrated by my mid-40s urge to keep on training hard, but I’ll have to learn to work with what is and not, as some others insist I do, push mind over matter where the matter is not what it used to be. After all, I am not George Foreman.

I’d like to talk about individual fighters at some point, too, along with the many systemic problems facing the professional boxing world. I’ll just ramble for now.

Stop Spamming!

Due to the high incidences of spamming in the comment sections, I can no longer accept anonymous comments. I would have preferred to keep an open and anonymous dialogue, but alas, that freedom was bound to be spoiled by the capitalist pigs at some point.

I have sent out some really nasty e mails, and also have reported them to Google and Blogger. The two most flagrant violators can be reached at these e mail addresses:

support@normism.org


Please tell these assholes how you feel about their behavior. (Or ask them to kill themselves. I don't care which.)

Note: I removed one of the e mails I had originally posted. The owner of that e mail contacted me and assured me it was an error on somebody's part, and graciously promised to fix the problem. I appreciate his attention to this.

ROSA LOUISE PARKS, 1913-2005

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From the Detroit Free Press:

http://www.freep.com/news/metro/parksobit25e_20051025.htm

I don’t need to remind anyone who Rosa parks was, what she became famous for, or how much changed because of her reluctant heroism. She represented the straw that ‘broke the camel’s back’ of institutional racism in America. Her act of civil disobedience was not intended as such, but it did, nonetheless, change a nation for the better.

To change the world we don’t always have to intend to do so. We can simply be too tired to move, too sore to run, or too fed up to take it any longer. No grand purpose need be intended or sought out. A simple act, perhaps even a selfish one, at the right place and time, can be the key to opening society to new ideals and help break some old, nasty habits.

In activism we are told to “Think globally and act locally.” It’s a rather pragmatic and practical way of doing things. After all, ‘locally’ speaking is where you are, and it’s kind of hard to do anything where you are not. Rosa Parks acted in the most ‘local’ manner possible; not only from her own sense of right and wrong, but also from physical exhaustion and a pair of very sore feet. Not exactly what one might consider ‘global’ thinking, but certainly with lasting global effects.

Perhaps we can dub Mrs. Parks “The Reluctant Gandhi.”

Rest those tired feet in Peace, Rosa. Let us, with your blessings, do the marching now.

For The Love of Money

“Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil.” (Henry Fielding, 1707 - 1754)

Money is something I have never ‘grasped’ conceptually. Sure, I know it’s a medium of exchange and its value is based on a particular economic formula, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. This is about what it does to otherwise rational human beings.

My zeyde o’h used to say that “Blood may be thicker than water, but it’s never thicker than gold.” Oh, how right he was. I am no longer surprised the lengths that people will go to catch a dollar, or the morals and ethic they leave in the dust alongside the road on the way. Every time I pick up a Federal Reserve note, I wonder just how many people were screwed over along the way during its travels from pocket to pocket. I realize that there is someone, somewhere willing to shed his humanity, his common sense, and even murder another to obtain this prize. That someone looks just like you and I.

There is a story about a dream the Ba’al Shem Tov had. It’s well known that if one has a question about life, intellectual quandaries, or a spiritual problem, that one should pose the question right before going to sleep. Amazingly enough, the answers seem to be come in the morning by themselves. (I solved many Talmudic and halachic questions that way, sometimes without ever leaving the Beis Medrash!) The BeShT must have thinking about something right before bedtime.

The BeShT had been wondering why it was that people, in ancient times were so taken up with Avodah Zara (idol worship), that it seems no amount of Divine punishment or prophetic exhortation could stop the Jews from succumbing to its Muse. A Tana (sage of the Mishna) appeared to the BeShT and said “In our time, even you, as great and holy as you imagine yourself, would have run so fast to do Avodah Zara that you’d leave your pants behind in your frenzy to get there first.” The BeShT then asked “Where is this Avodah Zara today?” The Tana answered with tears in his eyes “It’s money.” The BeShT awoke then and remarked to himself, “ I don’t know which is worse!”

I understand it when people in desperate circumstances find it necessary to ‘stretch’ their truths or cut ethical corners to survive. In the face of biological demise, the morals and ethics that come easily under the influence of a full stomach tend to wane a bit when pushed to the limits of hunger and cold. I understand when large families with rising costs of living seek assistance from government programs, though they could, even without those subsidies, probably get by. Certain acts are understandable and even forgivable. Not that the ‘ends justify the means’ by any account, but when weighing biology and survival versus ethics, I think for most, biology wins out. It's more or less an issue of Pikuach Nefesh.

What really bothers me are the corporate crooks. If we add up all car theft, drug trade, traffic in stolen goods, burglary, and the damage caused by vandalism, it remains a drop in the bucket when compared to the billions of dollars stolen by white collar criminals, be they CEOs, CFOs, or extortionists masquerading as politicians. The question to ask is “Why do already wealthy people feel the need to steal?” It’s certainly not about survival as we understand survival. It’s about ‘corporate survival’ which manifests itself as power in the boardroom and at the ceiling of the corporate ‘good ole boys’ club. It is a mindset of addiction to power and admiration of others in power. They are addicted to money in the same way that a crackhead is addicted to ‘rock’. It’s not the drug one desires. It’s the ‘high’. This attitude creates sociopathic behavior, and like the crackheads, the criminal CEOs and politicians band together to get ‘high’.

When the poor man steals to feed himself, he does it because he is hungry. When the rich man steals he does it because ‘that’s how the game is played.’ The poor man doesn’t have a sophisticated economic theory (capitalism) or a major newspaper (Wall Street Journal) to justify his behavior and make him appear acceptable to society. The poor man doesn’t get to hobnob with politicians. The poor man goes to jail, and the wealthy criminal chimes the bell at the NYST. No one ever envies the poor man, and thus he remains what society fears most, when in fact, it should be the very opposite. The poor man reminds us of our own biological vulnerabilities and where we should focus our efforts, while the real criminal, in his Italian suit and leather briefcase, speaks only in terms of luxuries and externalities that most of us could only dream of.

A comedienne one said that if she is walking through the ‘projects’ and is accosted by a mugger, she doesn’t worry too much. The mugger is only going to take what she has with her right now. Corporate criminals, on the other hand, are preparing to take her future. Now, when she sees a white guy in a pinstripe suit with a briefcase and Wall Street Journal tucked under his arm, she crosses the street!

We justify wealth by all the good that can be done with it, without at first considering that the evils we are required to fix in this world might very well have come about because of it. I haven’t worked out all the details of Avodah Zara and what exactly was it’s persuasive power, but I can with absolute certainty echo the sentiments of the BeShT in saying “I don’t know which is worse!”

“He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.” (Benjamin Franklin, 1706 - 1790)

October 24, 2005

Update!

Update!

I would like to thank everyone who offered their best wishes and I hope that everyone had a Gmar Chasimah Tovah and a Chag Sameach. I apologize for not blogging much, but I’ve been mentally in a sort of limbo pending the outcomes of some legal/financial matters, not to mention a very busy work/chesed schedule. Thank you for your patience.

As of 10-25-05, I am no longer financially beholden to my ex-wife. It has been a long time coming. I want to thank my attorney, Sandy Melder for his support and professionalism. I also want to thank those special friends and family members who believed in me all along and helped me out when it counted most.

Thank you all so very much.

Fairness is fairness

Let debts be repaid

But to punish for sport is redemption delayed

To be freed of the yoke

Of a burden self-created

Through anger and pride, an ego inflated

Today I walk free

But not free of my flaws

Not free of myself, though free of the Law

There is more to be done

As more amends are pursued

In a life of repair, a life now renewed

Teshuvah in terms of the amends we make to others is not a cause to celebrate. I caused the very thing that required amends. Should I celebrate this as a victory? Have I restored some crucial imbalance in the Universe? Of course not. It’s never equalized or balanced out. Consequences are never fully erased. There is no way to calculate that anyhow. I bear the shame of being myself, and the comfort of some small redemption from my past mistakes. That’s all. Forgiveness I do not have, but I can now take the next step in that direction. I must always remember, however, not to attach myself to outcomes I can have no control over.

The simchah (joy) comes from the effects of such amends on those who witness it in progress. I am always deeply moved by people who can forgive wrongs committed or accept apologies gracefully. There is something in human friendship and kindness that stirs me to joyful tears whenever and wherever I encounter it. The art of performing a chessed or reforming a wrong is a powerful thing.

This is what moves us to be better people.