EclectEcon

Pre-1967? Post-1967?

Many of us, in the name of seeking a lasting middle eastern peace treaty, have long wondered whether Israel could negotiate such a peace by agreeing to give up all the land they have occupied since their decisive victory in the war of 1967. They offered to give up that land then, in exchange for peace and recognition by their Arab neighbours of Israel's right to exist, but their offer was rejected.



Those who think Israel can "buy" peace by giving up those territories should read this.

...[I]n 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan again attacked Israel, again with the repeated announcement that the objective was its "annihilation." Israel turned the tables and won the war. Soon after that victory, Israel offered the Arabs to hand them all the territory it had regained, in return for peace. At a conference in Khartoum the unanimous Arab reply was: No negotiations. No peace. No recognition....



It was shortly afterward that the movement of Jewish settlers was launched. It is noteworthy that the last defining document that underwrites the legality was the Geneva Convention of 1949. It dealt with occupied territories. Its second clause, stating its scope, makes it clear that it does not apply to the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria - because Jordan was not a sovereign possessor but an illegal invader, and similarly was Egypt an illegal invader of Gaza. Israel liberated both areas, restoring them to the territory of the Palestine Mandate of 1922.



From the point of view of international law these settlers are as legal as any resident of Manhattan or of Shreveport, Louisiana.

[h/t to BenS]

Rape by Israeli Soldiers:Damned If They Do, and Now Damned If They Don't!

How does NOT raping women de-humanize them? Or how does it mean that the women are already de-humanized in the eyes of the soldiers? Beats me. From Israel National News [h/t to Acad Ronin]:

A research paper that won a Hebrew University teachers' committee prize finds that the lack of IDF rapes of Palestinian women is designed to serve a political purpose.



..."In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it can be seen that the lack of military rape merely strengthens the ethnic boundaries and clarifies the inter-ethnic differences - just as organized military rape would have done."



The paper further theorizes that Arab women in Judea and Samaria are not raped by IDF soldiers because the women are de-humanized in the soldiers' eyes.

A better explanation might be that the soldiers recognize that rape is wrong. It might also point out that Israeli soldiers know very well there would be negative repercussions for their entire country if they were to rape Arab women.

Hoar Frost on Boxing Day

We were fogged in on Christmas night, but the temperatures were so cold that the fog settled as frost in the early morning. And then the sun shone. Boxing Day in Clinton was absolutely gorgeous. The frost was so strong that it attached to MADD ribbons and even stayed adhered to radio antennas of vehicles driven to Tim Horton's

Don't Shop Locally!!

I keep hearing politicians, mediots*, and local shop-keepers telling us we should shop locally and keep our money in the community. It makes me want to drive to Detroit to shop.



Suppose I shop locally when I could get something for a lower price by shopping on the internet. I'd be better off, and I would have some money left over. If I paid the higher price to the local merchant they'd have the extra money instead of me. But they'd be shipping a bunch of the money outside the community, too, to pay for the merchandise they sold and to buy other things for themselves. I don't see much difference except they'd be richer and I'd be poorer.



And don't tell me about the jobs they create. We're almost surely below the natural unemployment rate in Canada -- job creation doesn't mean a blessed thing when there are so many jobs that employers are struggling to fill.



When I hear the ads, I think to myself, "hmmm. I wonder if I can get it cheaper on the internet..."



*mediot: a redundant term for idiot members of the media. First used on rec.sport.baseball in the late 1990s.

Another Unusual Canadian Tire Sale

Regular price: $32.99



Sale price: $32.99

It could have just been an employee error. But maybe not.



What do you think was purportedly on sale?



I have a possible, though perhaps far-fetched, explanation for the answer. I'll post it in a week or so.

Delivering Coke in Cold Weather

When I was in Edmonton earlier this month, the temperatures were often down below minus 20° C. (remember, C stands for Canadian, F stands for Foreign). Here is a photo of the thermometer in our rental car at 9 o'clock one morning:

It occurred to me as I walked to our car and passed a Coca-Cola delivery truck, that they must have to heat those trucks in the cold winter weather to keep the Coke from freezing. I asked the driver about it, and he pointed out that the heater on his truck had not been adequate for such cold temperatures:







It was so cold that our hosts put their dogs in thermal jackets with hoods:

Preposition or Noun?

One danger of ending with a preposition: it might be mistaken for a noun.

Taken during a recent visit to Edmonton

Christmas Libel

Melanie Phillips has a recent item by this same title. Here are some excerpts, dealing with the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem:

... the only reason the Palestinians are suffering from the security barrier is that it was erected solely to stop them from murdering any more Israelis. If they abandoned their terrorism, the barrier would immediately come down.



Such moral blindness apart, it is truly remarkable that these mindless bigots never pause to ask themselves the obvious question. If it really is Israel that is driving out Bethlehem’s Christians, then why isn’t it equally driving out Bethlehem’s Muslims? Same Israeli ‘occupying’ forces; same separation barrier; same hardship, brutality, economic sanctions etc. Are we to assume, perhaps, that Israel has a particular problem with Christians, rather than the Muslims or Arabs in general, that the rest of the world has somehow missed?



(In which case, might they not also scratch their heads at the fact that Israel is the only country in the Middle East where Christians have thrived and multiplied, rising in number from 34,000 in 1948 to nearly 130,000 in 2005?) Might there not be the teensiest, weensiest morsel of a clue in the fact that, whereas a few years ago Bethlehem was mainly Christian, now it is 80 per cent Muslim? Might the fact that such a dramatic change occurred simultaneously with Bethlehem coming under Muslim control after Oslo (thus making all those responsible for that satirically named 'peace process' accessories to the persecution of Bethlehem's Christians) just possibly have something to do with it?

The Ugliest Campuses in Canada

After having seen this article about ugly campuses in the US [h/t Newmark's Door], I began to ponder what might be the ugliest campuses in Canada. As of now, my ranking would be

1. York University for its concrete sameness, followed by
2. Concordia University for its lack of any remotely resembling attractiveness.

Both of these would beat any on the top 20 list from the US.

Papal Humour

From The Times (UK):

When he was once asked how many people worked in the Vatican, Pope John XXIII (1958-63) is said to have replied: “About half, I think.”

From an article about the implementation of merit pay at The Vatican. The article notes the difficulty of assessing the marginal product (physical or revenue??) of the employees of The Vatican.



[h/t to The New Virginia Church Man]

Eric Idle Sings about Cosmology

1920s style song by Eric Idle about the expanding universe. According to some reviews, the numbers are tolerably close to correct.



Yes, the same Eric Idle from the original Monty Python group.

The Number One Song in Britain this Christmas?

'Hava Nagila' enters race for Christmas No. 1 in Britain


By Sara Miller, Haaretz Correspondent

British singer Lauren Rose has released a modern version of traditional Jewish song "Hava Nagila," and gambling pundits have even given odds on the song to take the top spot in the U.K. Christmas pop charts.

According the British newspaper The Sun, bookmaker William Hill has given 17-year-old Lauren Rose a 16-1 shot at having Britain's best-selling song on December 25.

The Sun also reports that Lauren's father, Mark Goldberg, has quit his job as boss of Bromley Football Club to manage his daughter's music career.

Lauren's version of "Hava Nagila" is not the first by contemporary acts from both the pop and classical worlds. The list of musicians to perform the song includes Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, Harry Belafonte, Julie Andrews, Ben Folds and violinist and conductor Andre Rieu.

The song, whose title translates as "Let Us Rejoice," is de rigueur at Jewish celebrations, and is widely attributed to Abraham Zvi Idelsohn, who is believed to have penned the song at the close of World War One.



[h/t to Judith, no link available]

"Al Gore Has Been Following Me for Three Days..."

Carol Hughes is very funny, especially for us old farts more senior members of the community.



Watch this five-minute clip, Mrs. Hughes' Skewed Views to see if you agree. You won't regret it.



The title of this posting is a line from her description of going through menopause.

Did You Vacuum Your Pet Today?

It turns out that vacuums kill fleas pretty effectively. From the Globe & Mail,

WASHINGTON — Vacuum cleaners kill fleas just as well as any poison, surprised U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.



They said a standard vacuum cleaner abuses the fleas so much it kills 96 per cent of adult fleas and 100 per cent of younger fleas.



So no need to worry that a vacuum cleaner bag may turn into a fleabag breeding ground for the pesky, biting creatures, said Glen Needham, associate professor of entomology at Ohio State University.

Now to convince our cats that the vacuum is their friend.

Science-Math Nerd"Uber-Cool, Lightweight Nerd" or "Cool Science Geek"?

I needed a test to show this?

And, in a robustness test (with some alternative answers a day later), here are my second results (note that there are no questions about how many parenthetical expressions you use, nor any questions about how many times you take on-line quizzes "to test for robustness"):









Looks more like "academic-nerd" to me.



[h/t to Phil Miller]

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph:homelessness in Palestine?

From Mark Steyn (h/t to Eva):

This is the time of year, as Hillary Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate “the birth of a homeless child” — or, in Al Gore’s words, “a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child.”



Just for the record, Jesus wasn’t “homeless.” He had a perfectly nice home back in Nazareth. But he happened to be born in Bethlehem. It was census time and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth. Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic over-regulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare it’s surely only a matter of time before Massachusetts or California reintroduce it.

Differences in Lending and Borrowing Rates

I've been following the conversation between Mike Moffat and Arnold Kling with interest (argh: no pun intended). Mike says it's a good idea (especially if you live where there is mortgage interest deductibility) to run up your mortgage and invest in the stock market. Arnold says it isn't.



I may be missing something, but it looks as if the source of their disagreement is different assumptions about the interest rate at which people can borrow. Mike says, in essence, that if I want to borrow to leverage my stock holdings, I should use low-interest mortgage loans. Arnold says it doesn't matter how you borrow if interest rates are the same (the crux of the Modigliani-Miller Theorem).



I'm sure there's more to it than that, but if that's the heart of the matter, they're both right.

What Proportion Can I Fail?

Do you think students who have completed a finance course should be able to calculate (or, worse, identify in a multiple-choice question) the effective annual interest rate on their credit card account, given the monthly rate? Me, too.



Do you think students who have completed a finance course should know what is meant by "double taxation"? Me, too.



Do you think students who have completed a finance course should know that when the opportunity cost of investing in financial capital goes down, the prices on other assets will be bid up? Me, too.



Do you think a prof whose students cannot do the above should be fired? Me, too.



And those were the gimme questions on the exam, designed to keep the class average from slipping too far.



I would feel like a horrible failure if I thought the students had done much work for the course. Nevertheless, I still feel like a failure.

What It Means to be a Canadian

[source unknown; via Ms. Eclectic.]
If you don't recognize what the penguins are carrying,
click on the photo to enlarge it.

An Annual Tradition

Wassail, snowsqualls, and a rude Christmas card from EclectEcon.

What a High!Just Call Me Maestro, #3

Yesterday I conducted the Blyth Festival Orchestra in a joint concert with the Blyth Festival Singers. By ourselves, the orchestra did Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico, Op3 No4 (RV550), which is one of my favourites, and Purcell's King Arthur Suite. I also conducted the choir and congregation in a couple of Christmas carols, including a knock-'em-dead version of The First Nowell (sic). Sean Kim, the regular conductor of the orchestra, couldn't be there, but he had re-arranged the Vivaldi piece, giving some of the solo sections to the flute and to the clarinet, providing a nice blend and balance.



Sean is leaving at the end of this month to resume his full-time studies (PhD in composition), and I have been asked by several people if I would consider becoming their conductor again (I did it for nearly two years 5-6 years ago). I'd love to. But the damned day job gets in the way.



But that one concert sure was fun! As I said, "What a high!"



Next fantasy: to get The Blyth Festival Orchestra to combine with ThatOtherChoir to do Handel's Messiah at Easter some year. Theologically the piece belongs at Easter, not Christmas, and the blend of the two groups would be ideal.