The War in Gaza II

Pro-Hamas protestors are causing havoc on college campuses at mostly so-called elite college campuses.

The protests are asking the US to stop arming Israel, demanding a ceasefire and generally supporting the Palestinian cause. They're often also breaking laws which has gotten some reactions from police and campus officials.

There is more than a touch of anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism and youthful stupidity among the protestors.

On the one hand I sympathize with calls for ceasefire; war is never a good thing. On the other hand I wonder at the naivete being displayed.

Hamas still holds 100 hostages. They need to be returned either before, or as part of, any ceasefire agreement. That is the bare minimum. Then the shooting can stop and humanitarian supplies can flow into Gaza.

Before the ceasefire can be permanent I suspect Israel will want some way of insuring that this doesn't happen again in the future. This is the part that worries me.

I doubt these kids, or even the teachers that appeared to have brainwashed them, have any clue as to the actual history of the conflict. Most of the protestors don't even remember 9/11. They are supporting the same sort of terrorists that attacked the twin towers and have set off bombs in Europe and in Israel.

These are not good people and do not deserve your support.

Of course the response will be that they're not supporting terrorists but peace and providing the innocent, peaceful Palestinian people a land of their own. Or even restoring the country "back" to the Palestinians which is what "from the river to the sea" means.

Well, the Palestinians never "had" the land so they can't get it "back." The last owners were the Ottoman Empire if we ignore the British during Mandatory Palestine.

They are supporting terrorists. This artificial line between Hamas and the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza is nonsense. Hamas crossed the border in an unprovoked attack and murdered, kidnapped and raped innocent people.

This led to a declaration of war. Waging war in reprisal for an attack is not genocide. Is Israel breaking international law and committing war crimes by attacking civilian targets? That might be a valid charge but I don't know for certain. I know with certainty that Hamas violated the Geneva Convention but two wrongs generally don't make a right.

 The question of Israel breaking international law is, unfortunately, a lot more complicated than most people think and simply making accusations doesn't make it so. There are lots of exceptions in the Geneva Convention because combatants, especially in urban warfare, have a bad habit of being in civilian targets.

So it would take a while to sort this out assuming anyone ever bothers.

To my mind you can't attack someone, commit a bunch of atrocities, and then whine that the people you attacked aren't being nice to you.

Lung Issues - April 30, 2024

I got my biopsy results today and I do not have cancer. That's a good thing.

I didn't even get a chance to celebrate before Dr. Shapiro said but there's some inflammation in the lung, which explains everything we saw, but you might have a slight infection somewhere. So, I want you to see an infectious disease doctor.

WTF man? Another doctor? I get to see Shapiro again in six months.

He gave me a reference but when I called their office the doctor wasn't there and they said they couldn't make an appointment without talking to her. So I'm waiting for a return call.

Then I started thinking about this. The practice is called "Ridgewood Infectious Diseases." What kind of infectious diseases? Contagious infectious diseases? I'd rather not catch something when I go to their office.

 

A Wealth Tax

 I've see a number of progresses recently trying to resurrect the idea of a wealth tax.

The number of current OECD members that have collected revenue from net wealth taxes grew from eight in 1965 to a peak of 12 in 1996 to just five in 2020. In France the tax has been cut back to only real estate and in Spain if you live in Madrid you're exempt (I think I see a way of getting around it in Spain). 

Switzerland does the best with this sort of tax and it accounts for 5.12% of revenues. Among the five countries which have some sort of wealth tax revenues from the tax amount to only 1.5% of revenues.

The US generated $4.4 trillion in revenue in 2023. So if we did as well as Switzerland, and we probably won't, that would net about $225 billion. That's a nice chunk of change but only about 13% of the current budget deficit.

Then comes the question of Constitutionality. An honest appraisal of whether the Constitution would allow a wealth tax would probably revolve around whether it is a "direct" tax.

Article 1 Section 9 Clause 4 provides: “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”

However, Article I Section 8 Clause 1 provides Congress’s general taxing power: “The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence [sic] and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States.”

The "uniform" requirement in Section 8 seems to conflict with the apportionment requirement in Section 9. 

But there is a difference between theory and practicality.

I see no way to get a wealth tax past this SCOTUS. We'd be much better off reforming the income tax tables and closing loopholes to shift the tax burden from the working class to the wealthy. We know with absolute certainly that would be Constitutional. Or at least I think we know that. With this SCOTUS you never know for sure.

Forty Plus Years of Inflation

Do young folks have it harder today? There is a lot of argument about that on the internet so I decided to let the numbers do the talking.

The median home price in Q2 1980 was $64,000. In Q2 2024 it was $414,500. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $247,741. 

The average tuition cost for public universities in 1980 was $804. In 2022 it was $9,750. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $2,840. 

The average tuition cost for private universities in 1980 was $3,617. In 2022 it was $35,248. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $12,780. 

The median household income in 1980 was $26,430. In 2023 it was $80,610. Based upon inflation we would expect it to be $96,843. 

So home prices and tuition have outpaced inflation and median income has fallen short.

Those are the numbers. Life is DEFINITELY harder today.

Let's be honest, in addition the minefield was certainly less dense. I graduated college in 1969 from the City University of New York. It was tuition free and I lived with my parents and commuted until I graduated so no student debt. 

I had a $300 1961 Mercury Comet that my dad gave me so no car loan. He replaced the Comet with a $150 Ford Fairlane. 

There were no charge cards so no charge card debt. There was no internet, cable TV or cell phones so these expenses just didn't exist. 

Air fares were regulated so no one but the rich could afford to fly with any regularity so vacations were pretty much limited to where you could get to by car. With no internet there was no online shopping with all the potential pitfalls that come with that. 

Plus, every decent company provided good health insurance AND a real life pension.

So my question is, WTF happened? I thought technology was supposed to make things cheaper and better? 

Damnit - I Caught My Daughters Cold

OK, this is more than a little annoying. I have a low grade fever and I'm still choking up some congealed blood.

Lung Issues - April 23, 2024

Well, the biopsy is done.

Things didn't start out well. We pressed the 1R button in the elevator and we got an angry noise. OK, on to the steps. Two nice young guys held open the gate and the door for me. I never felt so old in my life.

I signed in at the desk and they sent up down one floor and along this looong hallway with the history of Valley Hospital along the wall to Diagnostic Imaging.

I made my presence known and, luckily, since I had already logged in online I had nothing to do but sit down. They had nice chairs, sturdy and wide. I could have gotten two of me in each of those chairs.

The took me inside about 15 minutes late, after I had dragged my sorry read end out of bed at 6:30 too, and put me in what looked like an Emergency Room room. 

I had to strip to the waist and lie down on the stretcher while they hooked me up to the monitors. Then the nurse says she's going to hook up an IV. I asked what was in the IV and she said nothing. It was just in case I passed out and had to medicate me.

THAT didn't do much for me but I decided to just let it go. My wife got a little chair in the corner which she swore wasn't nearly as comfortable, or sturdy, as the ones in the waiting area.

A few minutes later a doctor came in and gave me a summary of what he was going to do.

A few minutes after that they rolled me to the CT Scanner.

So the way things worked was they were taking pictures with the CT Scanner; I had my arms up over my head and the doctor was lining up his needle jab in the corner of my chest but not quite under my arm. They gave me a little local anesthetic and then the doctor did his thing. He asked me if I wanted something to relax me but I said no. He said that he didn't think I would but he had to ask. I suppose that's why they didn't want me to drive just in case I had taken the stuff.

It took about 20 minutes all told and I heard four clicks which, if I remember, means he took four samples.

After it was done he asked me if I felt like I needed to clear my throat and warned me there might be some blood when I did.

Holy shit was there blood. I never saw so much red. They gave me paper towels and a spit bag to deposit them it. Shit, there was a lot of blood. The doctor laughed and said, eh, I've seen worse."

That actually made me feel better. I am glad my wife didn't see this. It started to let up after a couple of minutes and they wheeled me back to the room. I spit up a bit more but very little once back in the room.

I got to lay there for about an hour and then they wheeled me down the hallway for a chest X-Ray.  A half hour after that they let me go.

They said six to seven days until the results are in which could be a minor problem since my office visit with Dr. Shapiro is in exactly a week.

If the results turn out to be not good, things will get ugly. But, there's nothing I can do about that now,

Lung Issues - April 22, 2024

The biopsy is tomorrow. The idea of dragging my rear end out of bed at 6:45 in order to get to the hospital by 7:45 or so really doesn't thrill me but you do but you have to do.

We went last Thursday to check out where the entrance to the new hospital building was and I never saw so many confused people. There's a parking garage attached and you go to 1R o get to the entrance,

Not the most obvious way to go but now we know. I assume people will get used to it as time goes by. Any new thing can be confusing I suppose but on the way out there were two poor woman that couldn't find their cars.

They could also really use some speed bumps in the garage. People were speeding through the place.

Anyway, I'm going to hit the sack early tonight and we shall see what we shall see.

Some Notes on Slavery

It's hard for us looking back to understand how complicated people found the issue of slavery. Even many that conceded the evil of the institution didn't think that an immediate across the board emancipation was going to work. 

Many were convinced that the freed slaves would have to be "expatriated" somewhere. 

Abraham Lincoln proposed shipping the ex-slaves to Central America, the Caribbean or Africa. On August 14, 1862, Lincoln met at the White House delegation of black leaders and proposed voluntary emigration of African Americans to countries outside the U.S. “Your race suffer from living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated.” 

Stephen Douglas essentially told him he was nuts but Lincoln tried to establish a colony on the island of Île à Vache in Haiti anyway. 

It was an unmitigated disaster and Lincoln accepted that the freed slaves would have to be assimilated into white society.

When Was America Great?

I'm no fan of Trump and his followers. People have taken to asking his MAGA supporters, since they want to make America great AGAIN, when they think America was great?

I'd like to answer that question.

America was great when we looked to the future rather than living in the past. Slavery is over and 600,000 men paid in blood before it ended. 

 Jim Crow is over. Enough people put their heads together and did something about it. 

The past is the past. How about we recognize the problems of the present and try to address them? How about we worry about the drugs and the crime and the unwed mothers and the lack of affordable healthcare and the absent fathers and that children can't read and that people can't live on their salaries?

How are those for facts? 

I heard a black woman on the radio recently refer to the five little girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963. Yes, that was a tragedy but what about the 1,300 teens and 276 children killed last year? 

We can't do anything about the past but we can do something about the current problems and the future. 

I'm 75 years old and I'm going to tell you that I've never seen a bigger group of fools than exists today. Every day I watch the rich and the media drive wedges between people to insure that we can't get together and make things better.

Iran Launches Strikes Against Israel

In retaliation for an Israeli air strike on Iran's consular offices in Syria Iran has launched 100-200 missile and drones at Israel.

Iran telegraphed the attack and launched mostly slow moving assets. Virtually all of the missiles and drones appear to have been shot down by Israeli, US and Jordanian forces.

The question is what happens next?

There are reports that an Iranian spokesman has said the the "matter can be considered concluded" unless there is more violence.

So far Iranian proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and militias in the West Bank don't appear to have participated in the attack. Hamas, in Gaza, is pretty much in tatters already.

The ball may be in Israel's court. Hopefully they'll let the matter drop but I somehow doubt it.

What is a Woman?

The question "what is a woman" is tossed around by mostly right wing pundits as a sort of gotcha question.

The question "what is a woman" looks for a simple answer to what can be a complex situation. 

Let's start by asking if someone is talking about sex or gender when they ask the question? Sex and gender, despite many people using the terms interchangeably, are actually two different things. Sex is based upon physical characteristics such as chromosomes and genitalia. Gender defines the behavior and attitudes that society associates with a given sex.

The thing with gender is that it can vary from society to society and over time in any given society. Neither my mother nor my mother-in-law ever learned how to drive because that wasn't something that women did in their generation.

When people deviate from gender expectations we call that "gender non-conformity." Gender is something of a spectrum with man on one end, woman on the other end, and varying degrees of gender non-conformity in between. I suppose a "woman" on the gender spectrum would be someone who mostly exhibits behaviors and attitudes that society associates with the female sex.

A good example would be the fictional character Albert Goldman played by Nathan Hale in the movie "The Birdcage." Albert is a physical male but acts like the caricature of a female.

If the question refers to sex and not gender then I would say that it perhaps should be phrased as "what is a female" instead but let's go with "what is a woman" in reference to sex.

I can give an example. My wife is a woman but not every woman is my wife. I could say that a woman is someone with no Y chromosome but then where do people with Swyer Syndrome fit in?

Someone with Swyer syndrome has XY chromosomes but underdeveloped female sex organs. They don't produce ova but, if the uterus is reasonably developed, some can become pregnant with a donated egg or embryo and give birth.

I could say that a woman is someone with female genitalia but there are females with ambiguous or abnormal genitalia but they're still women. Some can even possibly become pregnant and give birth with donated eggs or embryos like those with Swyer Syndrome can.

You can't say that a woman is someone who can get pregnant and give birth because many women, due to age or physical issues, can't do that.

The problem really becomes that for any definition exceptions can be found. So the question doesn't have a simple answer.

Lung Issues - April 10, 2024

I had a collapsed lung in November of 2021 which stubbornly wouldn't reinflate. So they called in a thoracic surgeon to repair the lung. He saw a spot on the lung which he didn't like and took it out while he was in there.

The spot turned out to be cancerous and I've been going for regular CT Scans to monitor the situation. Yesterday I went to hear the surgeon's latest interpretation of the scan.

He's not happy with how one nodule, right near the one he removed two years ago, is acting and is sending me for a biopsy.

I have to get blood drawn tomorrow and then go for the biopsy on the 23rd. I see the surgeon again on the 30th to get the results.

It sounds like this biopsy is a bit of a big deal. I need to be at the brand new Valley Hospital at 8 AM. The instructions say they will give me a local anesthetic and then use a CT Scanner to stick a needle into the area of my lung in question. That should be fun.

The thing that really concerns me is they say there is a reasonable chance that the lung could collapse slightly, or not so slightly, and I really don't need to go through that again. Then I get monitored for a couple of hours I suppose just in case the lung collapses.

I'm not allowed to drive afterwards and I wonder why that's the case? So my wife has to go with me. I suppose we shall see what we shall see.

The War in Gaza

The war in Gaza continues and casualties are mounting especially among the Palestinian civilian population.

The Gaza Health Ministry claims 30,000 Palestinians have been killed but doesn't differentiate between combatants and civilians. Hamas admits to 6,000 fighters killed while the IDF claims 12,000. Either way, assuming the Health Ministry numbers are correct, which is a big if, then something like 18,000-24,000 civilians have died. The media always adds "mostly women and children." Given normal demographics I would it's mostly children. Funny how feminism isn't a thing when it comes to war.

War sucks and urban warfare really sucks when one side is embedded in buildings without any regard for possible civilian casualties. The strategy here is clear. Hamas crosses the border, commits a bunch of atrocities and then cries when the Israelis respond. Hamas are terrorists, murderers and rapists and the Palestinians in Gaza have been supporting them for 20 years.

Which is not to say they deserve what's going on. No one deserves this kind of stuff. Unfortunately it happens in a war. That's why war is to be avoided.

A lot of people are calling for a ceasefire including the UN Security Council. But they're not asking for the return of the remaining hostages at the same time. I suspect that's a non-starter. How many hostages are still alive? I've seen an estimate of about 100 but who knows? About 100 were returned during a previous ceasefire and I believe 30 or so have been declared as killed.

It's unclear to me what the Israeli end game is here beyond the return of the remaining hostages. I'm not sure they have one and that could be a real problem.