Bryant Park Catblogging

Do The Short Form

If the Bush gang had been paying handsomely for expertise, tens of thousands of Americans would be frantically studying Arabic in the hopes of cashing in on the big bonanza.

Do you see that happening? I didn't think so.

How The Trouble Began

It has become abundantly clear to me that the viability of the nation-state depends on attaining a size sufficient to maintain internal markets and deal with the world economy. This, of course, is exactly the opposite of our advice for foreigners, which since the Treaty of Versailles has been for them to fragment into ever-smaller statelets.

With this clue in hand you may now return to your regularly scheduled stately appreciation of history or anguished assessment of world events.

New Cat Mutu

A Really Big Mistake

A most appalling aspect of Israel's attack on Lebanon was the fundamental irrationality. One of the world's great trading peoples attacking one of the world's oldest entrepots- what's wrong with this picture?

What the Israelis needed to do, from the beginning, was to make Lebanon their best friend in the region. They needed to provide aid to raise the per capita income of the Lebanese to that of the Israelis, surely a modest enough goal. This would have provided a buffer state to the north, expanded the overall size of the Israeli market economy, and given them a much better card to play with Syria.

In a broader sense, the Israelis needed to tell the people of the region, "We have become one of you". Perceiving themselves as an island of western modernity in a sea of sub-standard peoples was, in retrospect a mistake.

It took no crystal ball to predict that the mid-east would face serious problems, internally, in integrating with an industrialized west- an integration that could not be evaded, due to the oil. If it was necessary to the establishment of Israel to dispossess the Palestinians, the first acts of the new state should have been directed to making that right for the Palestinians. A vigorous program of relocation payments and co-optation would have gone far to alleviate this now-bleeding sore.

Historically, the Jews have combined awesome commercial abilities with an inward-turning sociology of faith. They have secured many footholds in important markets that they subsequently lost. Let us hope this is not so for modern Israel.

A Mug's Game

When I reflect on my life with the telephone, it's been a loser. Most of my phone calls have been made trying to get something done, something which eventually only was done because I sent a letter or tracked down the malefactor personally.

As for what the phone does to your romantic life, the less said the better.

The hell with it. Don't call me, I'll call you.