EclectEcon

Leon Ruskin's Message to BBC Correspondent, Jeremy Bowen

Why attack Israel when it is so clear that things have been and are so much worse in nearly(?) all the other countries in the Middle East?

[Introductory note from EE: I have looked for this via Google but haven't been able to find it. It was sent to me by Eva who received it from...from... from.... It has been around. I hope it is legitimate. I don't agree with all of it; just 98.3% of it.]:

Mr Bowen, in your reports on the BBC, you warned us, and the brilliant diplomats warned us. The think tanks warned us. Even the Arab dictators warned us. For decades now, you have all been warning us that if you want "peace in the Middle East," just fix the Palestinian problem.

A recent variation on this theme has been: Just get the Jews to stop building apartments in East Jerusalem and Efrat. Yes, if all those Jews in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would only "freeze" their construction, then, finally, Palestinian leaders might come to the table and peace might break out.

And what would happen if peace would break out between Jews and Palestinians? Would all those furious Arabs now demonstrating on streets across the Middle East feel any better?

What bloody nonsense.

Has there ever been a greater abuse of the English language in international diplomacy than calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the "Middle East peace process?" As if there were only two countries in the Middle East.

Even if you absolutely believe in the imperative of creating a Palestinian state, you can't tell me that the single-minded and global obsession with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the expense of the enormous ills in the rest of the Middle East hasn't been idiotic, if not criminally negligent.

While tens of millions of Arabs have been suffering for decades from brutal oppression, while gays have been tortured and writers jailed and women humiliated and dissidents killed, the world -- yes, the world – has obsessed with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

As if Palestinians -- the same coddled victims on whom the world has spent billions and who have rejected one peace offer after another -- were the only victims in the Middle East.

As if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has anything to do with the 1,000-year-old bloody conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, or the desire of brutal Arab dictators to stay in power, or the desire of Islamist radicals to bring back the Caliphate, or the economic despair of millions, or simply the absence of free speech or basic human rights throughout the Arab world.

While you and your fellow self-righteous Israel bashers have scrutinized every flaw in Israel's democracy --  waxing hysterical that the Jewish democratic experiment in the world's nastiest neighborhood had turned into an embarrassment -- you have kept your big mouths shut about the oppression of millions of Arabs throughout the Middle East. 

Oh yes, it is now opportune to suddenly villify President Mubarak, previously held up by you as a bastion of democracy, an thanked by President Obama previously " for his willingness to work with us on critical issues, and to help advance the interest of peace and prosperity around the world."

Mr Bowen, you  cried foul in your reports if Israeli Arabs -- who have infinitely more rights and freedoms than any Arabs in the Middle East – had their rights compromised in any way. But if a poet were jailed in Jordan or a gay man were tortured in Egypt or a woman were stoned in Syria, all we heard was screaming silence.  Now suddenly, it is self-serving to expose breaches of human rights in Egypt.

Think of the ridiculous amount of media ink and diplomatic attention and Jeremy Bowen reports that have been poured onto the Israel-Palestinian conflict over the years, while much of the Arab world was suffering and smouldering, and tell me this is not criminal negligence.

I do not ever recall seeing a UN resolution or an international conference in support of Middle Eastern Arabs not named Palestinians  Why?

Of course, now that the Arab volcano has finally erupted, you and all your chronic Israel bashers have suddenly discovered a new cause: Freedom for the poor oppressed Arabs of the Middle East!

Imagine if, instead of putting Israel under your critical and hypocritical microscope, you and your fraternal  world's Israel bashers had taken Israel's imperfect democratic experiment and said to the Arab world: Why don't you try to emulate the Jews? Why don't you give equal rights to your women and gays, just like Israel does? Why don't you give your people the same freedom of speech and freedom to vote that Israel does?

And offer them the economic opportunities they would get in Israel? Why don't you treat your Jewish and Christian citizens the same way Israel treats its Arab and Christian citizens? Why don't you study how Israel has struggled to balance religion with democracy -- a very difficult but not insurmountable task? Why don't you teach your people that Jews are not the sons of dogs but a noble, ancient people with a 3,000-year connection to the land of Israel?

Yes, imagine if you Israel bashers had spent a fraction of their energy fighting the lies of Arab dictators and defending the rights of millions of oppressed Arabs. Imagine if President Obama had taken one percent of the time he has harped on Jewish settlements to defend the democratic rights of Egyptian Arabs -- which he is suddenly doing now that the volcano has erupted.  Maybe it's just easier to beat up on a free and open society like Israel.

Well, now that the cesspool of human oppression in the Arab world has been opened for all to see, how bad, Mr Bowen, BBC Middle East Editor, is Israel's democracy looking? Don't you wish the Arab world had a modicum of Israel's civil society? Would you still be worrying about "stability in the Middle East?"

You can preach to me all you want about the great Jewish tradition of  self-criticism -- which I believe in -- but right now, when I see poor Arab souls being murdered for the simple act of protesting on the street, I've never felt more proud of being a supporter of the Jewish state.

I do hope that you will take the time to read this message as you shelter from bricks and molotov cocktails, and wonder why Israel alone in the area is able to change administrations without such civil unrest.

Leon Ruskin

Differential Treatments for Different Arab Leaders by Western Leaders

This column by Khaled Abu Toameh highlights what looks like quite different treatment of Arab leaders by the West. 

It took President Barack Obama nine days to condemn Col. Muammar Gaddafi's massacres in Libya as "outrageous" and "unacceptable."

It took the UN Security Council more than a week to hold a closed-door meeting and issue a tempered statement condemning the violence in Libya and calling for its immediate end and for those responsible to be held accountable.

This is the same Libya that was elected to UN Human Rights Council less than a year ago. To be honest, I know of no one who could justify that election. Toameh continues:

But both Obama and the Security Council stopped short of calling for Gaddafi's removal from power for perpetrating atrocities against his own people.

The Europeans have also been cautious in their response to the carnage in Libya. They too have refrained from calling for regime change in Libya.

One can understand why Americans and Europeans are worried about their economic interests in Libya, especially with regard to oil. It is also likely that the West is embarrassed about its relationship with the Libyan dictator who, despite his crimes, was welcomed back into the international community in 2003.

Then, Gaddafi was apparently forgiven for his role in the Lockerbie plane explosion and support for countless terror groups in the Arab and Islamic world. Gaddafi was forgiven because he had agreed to abandon his nuclear ambitions and promised to be good.

... Obama and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seem to be more troubled by the death of 300 Egyptians than the brutal massacring of thousands of Libyans. Obama and Clinton seem to be more worried about construction in Jewish settlements than war crimes and serious human rights violations in the Arab world.

The US Administration and the rest of the international community have once again sent a message to the Arabs that they do not really care about human rights and democracy and that they are ready to sacrifice thousands of Arabs to keep the oil prices as low as ever. Mubarak was unfortunate because his country does not have oil.

Now at least the Arab people know that they can no longer rely on Obama and Clinton to support any of their pro-democracy movements.

For more on the situation in Libya, see this (h/t JY). Now just imagine if, say, in 2003, the US had invaded Libya to "make it safe for democracy and to promote human rights." I doubt the rest of the world would have supported US (and ally) efforts back then.

Alternatively, imagine if the US had invaded Libya instead of Iraq. Do you think the US would have gotten away with doing so and had support from other countries? I doubt it. People would have said the US was after Libya's oil. In that respect, the US was damned if they did, damned if they didn't.

So even though Libya and Gadaffi have perpetrated massive human rights violations, it is perhaps unrealistic to put too much responsibility on the West. 

Peak Oil? More Like Peak Oil Distortions

For over five years I have been questioning the scare-writings of those who subscribe to "peak oil" hypotheses. Surely as world oil supplies dwindle, the supply curve will shift to the left and prices will be bid upward. The higher prices will reduce the quantity demanded. And surely, in anticipation of such price increases, people will step up exploration activities and and speculators will hold oil off the market now in anticipation of earning higher profits in the future. For example, see this for my earlier writing on the subject; also this. 

In today's NYTimes, Michael Lynch develops these same themes. It seems people continually need to be reminded about the importance of incentives, expectations, speculation, and the basics of supply and demand. Lynch writes,

 While peak-oil advocates have in the past ridiculed optimistic industry expectations, the evidence continues to confound them. Over recent decades, the consensus estimates of the amount of recoverable oil on the planet have roughly doubled. And recovery rates — the percentage of those reserves that we are technologically able to collect — have grown from 10 percent a century ago, to 25 percent a half-century ago, to an estimated 35 percent now. In some areas, like the North Sea, the figure is above 60 percent.

There are several other reasons to remain calm about Saudi reserves. Officials there have discovered approximately 70 major oil fields that they have left untapped over concerns that increased Saudi production would cause global oil prices to collapse.

He quite sensibly adds,

None of this is to say that importing Saudi oil — or any oil — is desirable in and of itself. Oil remains a political commodity, and price fluctuations can create economic havoc, so the more good choices we have for meeting our energy needs, the better. But we should not let a false panic over disappearing oil reserves lead to rushed government investments in “technologies of the future” that, all too often, end up only wasting taxpayer money.

A Quick Summary of the Protests in the Middle East

The NYTimes has a piece with short summaries about each of the countries with links to more.

While We're Talking about Discrimination against Palestinian Arabs...

Let's keep in mind that after 1947 and urging Israeli Arabs to leave Israel, Jordan didn't want them, Syria didn't want them, Egypt didn't want them and Libya actively discriminates against them [this is from last August]:

Libya has implemented a program of taxing all of its Palestinian Arab residents.

According to Al Jazeera (Arabic), Palestinian Arabs in Libya are now forced to pay an annual fee of up to $1550, and they have to endure a host of new humiliations as well.

PalArabs have been banned from working in various jobs, including education. Relatives cannot visit them. Those who own cars are being taxed for more money than their monthly salaries. Travel documents are expiring and not being renewed, yet the Arab League does not allow Palestinian Arabs from obtaining passports from the countries they have lived in all their lives.

Residents note bitterly that all this is happening while Libya made a big show of sending a ship of aid to Gaza.

All of this is in contradiction with Libyan Law #10 of 1998 which was supposed to grant somewhat equal rights to Palestinian Arabs in that country.

And here are two  [update: three] more posters with relevance for anti-apartheid week:

Posters for Israel Anti-Apartheid Week

These four posters are from the blog of the Elder of Ziyon [h/t cba]. They very effectively counter accusations of apartheid in Israel. During the days of apartheid in South Africa, one did NOT see blacks in these positions.

Israel Apartheid Week? Small-minded Hypocrisy

Once again some universities are holding "Israel Apartheid Week". This set of demonstrations and information sessions really perplexes me. It isn't that Israel is perfect in its human rights record. Rather, I just do not understand why people single out Israel when the human rights records of so many other countries are so horrible by comparison (e.g. China's treatment of Tibet, Iran, Sudan, etc.). Also, what about the treatment of Jews in so many arab countries? And, just to be clear, the treatment of muslims and arabs in Israel is a far cry from anything that came to be known as apartheid in South Africa. 

I just cannot understand why the people who organize and support these events single out Israel as a villain in the middle east when the Israelis have done so much to promote human rights in comparison with so many other countries.

Honda Uni-Wheel Segway-type Vehicle

These look REALLY fascinating. I might be interested in one once my knees give out for good.... or sooner.... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cuIJRsAuCHQ

 

The Long-Term Budget in the US: scary!

The OMB (office of the management of the budget) in the US has released budget projections for the next decade. What with social security, medicare/caid, and a host of other entitlements, the picture is not pretty [from Cato, h/t JAB]:

Importantly, this picture does not show the deficit or the debt. Rather, it shows the increasing size of gubmnt per se. The projection is that after a brief slight decline, the federal gubmnt is going to continue to use an increasing amount of the country's scarce resources. 

This is disheartening to those of us who contend that bureacrats and politicians are notoriously poor at allocating scarce resources. Look for even more wasteful rent-seeking (and lobbying). Look for even more wasteful queuing. I.e., the above graph doesn't even begin to show the true costs of increasing the size of gubmnt. 

Gubmnt failure, not market failure, is likely to have a more dampening impact on economic growth in the future.

 

Does Felix Salmon Have Myopic Expectations?

From his recent NYTimes column (h/t Kais),

The number of companies listed on the major domestic exchanges peaked in 1997 at more than 7,000, and it has been falling ever since. It’s now down to about 4,000 companies, and given its steep downward trend will surely continue to shrink.

I didn't realize that Salmon subscribes to momentum models. I didn't realize he believes extrapolation is a good way to predict market behaviour. He could very well be right. It just surprises me.

Windchills

I've been accused of winge-ing and wimping about the temperatures and windchills in Regina, where I'm living this year. Over the past month or so, temperatures here have often been in the -20s(C), and this winter we have had far too many days with lows in the -30s. Windchill measures have been even lower.

Prompted by a Facebook comment from Marilyn, I checked out the record low windchills in Chicago, compared with Regina.

While Regina consistently has lower winter air temperatures than Chicago, when it comes to windchill records, Chicago "wins" hands down: -64C in Chicago [1985] vs. only -59.2C in Regina [1962]. 

There's a reason they call Chicago "The Windy City"!

Commodity Prices: the long and the short of it

I attended a luncheon address today by John Murray, one of the Deputy Governors of the Bank of Canada. His talk was about commodity prices.

It was a straight-forward presentation of important facts, carefully hedged in many ways. And yet he seemed to address important issues, especially for the Saskatchewan and Canadian economies.

• An important item in his presentation was that after correcting for the rate of inflation, real commodity prices haven't risen much, if at all, in the long run. Unfortunately many of the data series he used to make this point ended over a year ago, and the recent run-up of commodities prices was excluded from consideration.
• He made the well-known but still very important point that growth in the emerging-market economies is having a big impact on the increasing demand for commodities. This growth in demand is likely to continue to put upward pressure on commodities prices (a projection which marks a deviation from the past as outlined in the previous point and which merited no comment from him).
• While Murray wouldn't go out on the limb and tell people that the wild swings in commodities prices are not due to speculators' actions, he did emphasize that in general speculation plays an important role in dampening price swings. He also noted that during the recent run-ups of commodities prices, inventories have dwindled, indicating that these price increases are the results of real economic forces. If they had been the result of speculative action, we should have seen inventory increases, not decreases!

His policy recommendations included increasing the transparency in financial markets. Notably, he also spoke strongly in favour of structure reforms that would increase the flexibility and the ability to adjust and adapt throughout the economy. He specifically mentioned reducing the importance of price controls and subsidies where they exist.

Overall, his points were solid.

Addendum: I'd like to thank Ken Rasmussen for making it possible for me to attend the event at no charge. Ken is the Director of the Johnson/Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy in Regina, which was a co-sponsor of the event.

Preston Manning on Freedom

Last evening I attended a talk by Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party in Canada and former leader of the opposition. He is a very engaging speaker.

While his talk was about grass-roots democracy in the prairies, I was delighted with the point he made both during his talk and in speaking with him afterward, namely that the essential elements of freedom (from his perspective) comprise freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. He does not include freedom of religion with these freedoms for the same reason that I don't: namely concern about the clashes of religious beliefs with the freedom of speech in theocracies. 

 Addendum: For those interested in a detailed summary, see the "dead blogging" done by John Klein here. He and I attended the event together, and he graciously took the above photo using my iPhone.

 

"Free" Biscuit Breakfast Sandwiches at McDonalds: mediocre, at best

In Canada (and possibly elsewhere?) McDonalds is having a huge promotion today and tomorrow (February 9-10, 2011) of their new Breakfast Buttermilk Biscuit Sandwiches..... "free", one to a customer, one per day.

Until the past several years, McDonalds was my very favourite restaurant. But beginning maybe five or so years ago, it seemed to me they were putting too much salt in their food, and the cheese on their Egg McMuffins seemed just plain weird. So I don't go there very much these days.

Nevertheless I couldn't resist trying one of these breakfast biscuit sandwiches. Here is my reaction:

To begin with, I'm not keen on breakfast sandwiches on biscuits. I've never liked them in the past attempts at McDonalds or Tim Horton's, so I know from the outset that I might have a negative bias. I absolutely love buttermilk biscuits with butter or with butter and jam, but put  bacon or sausage on them, and the texture and flavour clash for me. Keep this in mind when you read what else I have to say.

My standard for comparison is the classic McDonalds Egg McMuffin. There is no comparison. I much prefer the Egg McMuffin.

The biscuit sandwich had folded squares or sheets of scrambled eggs (which gave an appearance of being over-processed, whether they are or not); by comparison, the Egg McMuffin has a real poached egg.

The biscuit sandwich had some barely noticeable ultra-thin bacon strips (honestly, I think they were even thinner than the bacon on the Tim Hortons Bacon Bagel B.E.L.T. that Ms. Eclectic and I often share). There was no flavour and no substance to the bacon at all.

The cheese was also ultra-thin, so thin I couldn't even tell whether it was weird. Overall, even trying to correct for my biases, the buttermilk biscuit breakfast sandwich was a disappointment. I wouldn't go out of my way to pick one up, even though they are "free"*.

*Remember that for economists, "there's no such thing as a free lunch", and that applies equally to "free" biscuit breakfast sandwiches. The scarce resources used to produce those sandwiches have alternative uses, and hence involve an opportunity cost.

Digression: By giving these sandwiches away at zero price, shouldn't McDonalds be prosecuted for predatory pricing? After all they are "selling" them below cost, and their doing so will surely hurt the breakfast business at Tim Hortons, Smitty's, and elsewhere. 8-)

Wilders' Opening Remarks on the Importance of Freedom of Speech

In my mind, freedom of speech/press must trump freedom of religion. If my saying or publishing something controversial contravenes the tenets of any religion or organization, those tenets must give way to my freedom to express those views.

In my mind, that is what Geert Wilders is fighting about. Here are some excerpts from his opening remarks, defending himself for allegedly having engaged in hate crimes.

This trial is not about me. It is about something much greater. Freedom of speech is not the property of those who happen to belong to the elites of a country. It is an inalienable right, the birthright of our people. For centuries battles have been fought for it, and now it is being sacrificed to please a totalitarian ideology.

Future generations will look back at this trial and wonder who was right. Who defended freedom and who wanted to get rid of it.

The lights are going out all over Europe. Our freedom is being restricted everywhere, so I repeat what I said here last year:

It is not only the privilege, but also the duty of free people — and hence also my duty as a member of the Dutch Parliament — to speak out against any ideology that threatens freedom. ... I hope that freedom of speech will emerge triumphant from this trial. I hope not only that I shall be acquitted, but especially that freedom of speech will continue to exist in the Netherlands and in Europe.

Notice that by careful editing, I have removed any reference in these remarks to the nature of his alleged hate crime. I've done so because it doesn't matter whether he offended Jews, Catholics, Muslims, sociologists, or even graduates of York University. He's right.

Capital-Labour Substitution: An iApp for the Confessional

One would expect that as capital becomes relatively less expensive, all sorts of organizations, profit and non-profit alike, would find it reasonable to use more capital and less labour. It has even happened with confession in the Catholic church.

While there have been several apps for the iPhone or iPad developed dealing with confession, a recently developed and upgraded app has received the stamp of approval from the Vatican [via CBC News, h/t Ms. Eclectic]:

The app "is not intended to function as a replacement for confession" at church," [the developer] said in an email to CBC News.

Instead, it is supposed to help people prepare for confession and is designed to be used in the confessional, the booth in church where people sit while confessing to a priest, he said.

The app walks people through confession step by step, based on text developed in collaboration with Catholic pastor Dan Scheidt and U.S. Catholic official Thomas G. Weinandy.

It reminds users when their last confessions were and keeps track of sins they have previously confessed.

It also advertises features such as password protection to allow multiple users, a "custom examination of conscience" based on age, sex and marital status, the ability to add sins that aren't listed and a choice of seven different acts of contrition — prayers that express sorrow for sins.

However, absolution or release from the sin can still only come from a priest.

The app substitutes for labour only to some extent, namely in preparing people for the confessional. It thus both reduces the necessary time for the confession and improves the quality of the confession.

I briefly looked through the other iApps dealing with the Catholic confession, and it appears none of them offers a fully automated confessional service.

But why not? Why can't apps be written that ask enough questions and then behave as a priest hearing a confession might behave in making recommendations? Is there any reason (other than job protection?) that confession cannot be fully automated and free up priests to do other aspects of God's work with their extra time?

One thing for sure: if I were a Catholic and if I used this app, I would make sure it was extremely carefully password-protected!

What do Christina Aguilera and Robert Goulet Have in Common?

Both botched the US National Anthem at a major sports event.

Addendum: For other memorable "Star-Mangled Banner" moments, see this.

Glad to See I'm Not the Only One This Happens to....

But it sure is a dismal comment on higher education (a) that we sometimes do this and (b) so many students still provide incorrect and/or incomplete answers.

Sometimes I worry that my marginal physical product might be zero.

More on Storm Porn

Rick Mercer's rant (h/t Lars):

 

Open Challenge to The Weather Networkaka "the Storm-Porn Channel"

You were forecasting 30-40 cms of snow in this storm for the Southwestern Ontario corridor. And some of your announcers couldn't restrain themselves, saying (with drool running down their chins), ".... and it could be more in some areas." How much did those areas actually receive? 

I understand that you never, never want to be accused of under-forecasting the seriousness of a storm, but over-forecasting the seriousness of storms consistently means that people develop an immunity to your warnings. 

Can you at least start providing us with decent confidence intervals instead of only dire warnings? Please? Do you have any announcers who dare to say, "... but it might be quite a bit less, too..."?

Still More Support for Eliminating the Penny

Is there anyone anywhere who disagrees with getting rid of the penny? It is really hard to find any opposition to the idea. And yet, the Canadian mint keeps stamping them out (as in minting rather than eliminating). From the Star-Phoenix (h/t KarenL):

Polls suggest that only about 35 per cent of Canadians want to keep the penny. You’d find a similar percentage wanting to keep rotarydial telephones and eight-track tape players. If we listened to them, we’d still be using shinplasters as currency.

I really wonder what the gubmnt is afraid of, why they are reluctant to do this. Are they concerned that the opposition would use it as an election issue, as in,

We have all these problems in Canada [followed by list] and what does the party in power focus on? The triviality of whether to keep the penny! Elect us and we will deal with the real issues of the day.

Or something like that. Of course, I'd love it. This issue is clearly one that should be dealt with sooner rather than later, and the gubmnt should make its case.