I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.
-Winston Churchill in his submission to the Palestine Commission 1937
My understanding of the problems plaguing today's news media outlets is as follows: The majority of American news consumers are not interested in unbiased, objective reporting no matter how good it is. They would much prefer to listen to someone who is going to cater to their ignorance, and tell them what they already believe to be true. Hence, the popularity of personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. There is no commercial market for something like NPR so it relies on public funding and corporate sponsors. That it no way reflects on the product; simply the realities of the marketplace. Just because something is popular and profitable does not mean it has any inherent value, other then as a commodity. Right-wing media, as a rule, dispenses with any pretense of objectivity or even civility. That formula will always win out over reasoned and dispassionate discourse. We desperately need a new approach because the current one is not working...
Politicians like Sarah Palin, and the Tea Party movement she represents, are a desperate rear-guard action against demographic and cultural changes that they refuse to accept. On the fringes of this movement are the white supremacists, neo-Nazis, etc. who are at least honest about who and what they hate. The mainstream of the movement will vehemently deny that their opposition to Obama, and what he represents, is in any way motivated by his skin color. That claim is quickly demolished by even a cursory examination of their preferred means of attacking the president. The continuing "controversy" about Obama's birth certificate strikes at his very legitimacy as an American citizen. The message is unmistakable: "He is not one of us.". Can anyone imagine a white president being treated in such a fashion? It is simply inconceivable. The nonsense about Obama's father and grandfather and Kenyan Mau Mau rebels fighting the British is an even more blatant use of race. What on earth could any of that have to do with anything? Unless it's a not-so-subtle way of attempting to link Obama with some very scary-sounding Africans, who probably slaughtered a lot of white people.
Facebook has this new feature called "Notes" that allows users to write far beyond the 160 character limit that applies to status posts. So, instead of writing a blog post and linking to it through facebook, I decided to do the opposite. Here it is...
We can only speculate on what Cuba would look like today had the Revolution not taken place. Would it have become the Mob-controlled City-State envisioned, and largely realized, by American organized crime figures such as Meyer Lansky? Impossible to say with any degree of certainty, but is surely a provocative question. In the bookHavana Nocturne by the author T.J. English, the full extent of the Mob's control of Havana's decadent entertainment industry is revealed. And, with the "benevolent" Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista as their partner, the sky really did seem to be the limit.
T.J. English manages to accomplish the remarkable feat of making this reader feel nostalgic for the world that Castro obliterated when he came down from the mountains. Havana Nocturne brings that world to vivid, colorful life and what a story it is. The protagonist of the book is clearly the Jewish-American mobster Meyer Lansky, who is the driving force behind the Mob's colonization of Cuba. Lansky stood at the pinnacle of success in 1958 having achieved his dreams of creating an off-shore criminal empire that was beyond the reach of American law enforcement. In 1958 Havana a perfect nexus of crime, show business, and politics existed to a degree impossible to realize in the United States.
The book is chock-full of fascinating characters and events. I never knew that when Desi Arnez would cry out "Babalu" as he was banging on his bongo drum, he was actually invoking the Santeria God of percussion. The wildly popular 1950's sitcom I Love Lucy, which featured the Cuban-American musician Arnez and his wife actress Lucille Ball, exposed American television audiences to Cuban music and dance culture.
In today's wired and digital world, a book need not be a stand-alone experience. A taste of the sights and sounds of 1950's Havana was as close as a youtube search. This video I'm embedding serves as a splendid companion to a book which I highly recommend...
