Israel and Palestine redux

         Jews and Palestinians and their ancestors have been struggling for control of a small strip of land on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea for thousands of years.  One side or the other has held the upper hand, sometimes for centuries.   Christians have also participated in this tragedy via the Crusades and later through the British Empire's Palestinian mandate.

      Jewish Zionists have been dreaming of a homeland for the Jews since 1897.   In the waning years of the Ottoman Empire, Zionists began  settling within the historic boundaries of Israel.  This process culminated in 1948 with the formation of the present state in a reaction to the Holocaust.  The Palestinians in many cases were dispossessed by an influx of Jewish settlers.  Crammed into the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, generations of these refugees have seethed with resentment as the Israelis built a modern, prosperous state.  

      All the ingredients for the present conflict have been in place for more than 70 years.  Unless and until the two sides come to an understanding, the conflict will continue.  Oh, and did I mention Christian prophecies of the end times which feature a war starting in the Middle east?   Stay tuned...

Old, but not yet cold

        The passing of my mother last month, along with a lengthening list of infirmities i am in the process of accumulating has led to contemplations of mortality.   When you start thinking you may not be around when the Social Security trust fund is exhausted in the early 2030s, it is time to take stock.  Like many in the Boomer generation, music is one of the ways I have marked significant milestones.  Coming of age during the late 60s during the heyday of Dylan, the Beatles and the Stones, there were plenty of songs more or less apropo to my circumstances.   However, one singer/songwriter more than any other expressed the melancholy of aging in a way that appealed to my teenage and later, my adult sensibilities.

      Paul Simon is almost exactly 10 years older than me and has consistently explored the themes of aging in a youth oriented society.   From "A Hazy Shade of Winter" to "Old Friends" and finally to "Old", Simon is alternately stridently opposed to aging to coming to terms with it ("How terribly strange to be 70")  to finally playful in Old (" God is old, we're not old").  I guess it's not very original to say the term, old, is extremely relative.  Not sure where this is going, but it's meant to be a short meditation on the process of aging, not a depressing rant on a Monday morning.

Prices and public stupidity

         My daughter called her fuel oil company the other day and was quoted $4.09/gallon for a fill up of her tank in preparation for winter.   Millions of other Northeast homeowners will be getting similar bad news in coming months and many of them will hold Joe Biden and Democrats responsible for the increase.    

        As has been pointed out ad nauseum, neither political party can control the price of petroleum and many people would say high prices will lead to less use of oil and therefore less dependence on a key driver of climate change.  But each consumer only feels the pinch in their own budget and will want to hold someone accountable for their woes.  According to a recent gallup poll, voters trust the GOP more than Democrats when it comes to the economy.  

      Watching the antics of the Republican majority in the House, I think I would trust the inmates of the monkey house at the Bronx Zoo more than the members of Kevin McCarthy's party with my hard earned dollars.   However, driven by tribalism, Republican voters and a few independents will vote for virtually any idiot with an R in front of their name, ensuring continued chaos instead of problem solving.s 

Playing it straight

        The recent indictment of NJ senator Bob Menendez has had the inadvertent effect of shining a light on cable news generally and MSNBC specifically.   The latter network employs Menendez' daughter, Alicia, as a news anchor.   The fact is there are hundreds if not thousands of men and women who could do that job.  There is no reason for the network to feature the senator's daughter except for the implication her relationship provides access to a powerful political figure.

      Likewise, the network's hiring of former White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, is another deliberate move to imply Psaki's insider status will somehow generate good reporting on the Biden presidency.  Psaki is no more a journalist than Menendez and the network should make that clear.  Only by hiring truly independent men and women and allowing them to pursue the truth without fear or favor will cable news truly become a member of the fourth estate.

The boys of summer

        In one of the more useless gestures of my moderately long life, i watched most of the last game of the Yankees' season of futility.  As if to put  a final nail in the coffin, Aaron Boone played most of the team's youth movement in a 5-2 loss at the hands of the Kansas City Royals, a reliable punching bag that punched back and took the season ending series, two games to one.

      As a young fan in the 50s and 60s, I watched the end of the Mickey Mantle-Whitey Ford dynasty and the start of a decade and a half of mediocrity.   That ended in the late 70s with the Bronx Zoo teams led by Catfish Hunter and Thurman Munson.   After them there was another decade in the wilderness, followed by the Derek Jeter- Mariano Rivera dynasty.

     It has been 14 years since the team hoisted the World Series trophy and it's time to do it again, but I have serious doubts the Yankees will right the ship with an aging Gerrit Cole and Aaron Judge.  Without a solid supporting cast, it might be another 10 years of mediocre baseball in the Bronx.  Unlike the 20 something I was in the 70s, I don't know if I can wait patiently for baseball lightning to strike again.