Israel at 61

Israel has reached another birthday and each one is as exciting as the one before. It is amazing to see Israel so vibrant and dynamic as a democracy. Its people energetic and ambitious. Its technology highly developed and exported to the entire world. And yet, it maintains its old world charm: the cobblestones of Jerusalem or Safed. The infinite landscape where biblical figures roamed and the names of places that resonate from that time. Israel has something for everyone and it continues to grow.

One must wonder what draws people to settle in a land nestled in the belly of the pressure cooker that is the Middle East. Each day, Israel could potentially face a threat to its existence and yet, life appears to be everlasting in this country. There is a sense of calm as you roam the streets and the beaches as the tide rolls in.

They come because Israel is a haven as ironic as that sounds. When you watch the news, you think that Israel is such a danger zone. When you come there, you feel that it is the safest place on Earth. At least I do.

This year, the national independence day ceremony focused on the centennial birthday of Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv was founded in 1909 as the first modern hebrew city and since then, has grown to be the "a city that never stops." It is a city that has a great cosmopolitan feel to it with great coffee shops, bars and nightclubs. It is also proof that Israel didn't pop up overnight. There was a base that began just after the inquisition and peaked after 1945. The most amazing thought about Israel is that it was created out of 2000 years of hope of Jews to return to a land where their ancestors ruled.

Every part of Israel is quite different from the other. Haifa is so much different than Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Despite the land being so small, there is so much to explore and you will not know all there is to know about Israel even in the span of 30 years. I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to explore this dynamic country that if it was human, wouldn't be old enough to collect social security!

Here's to you Israel for being so amazing despite all that you face. Happy 61!

Lift the embargo?

I must admit I am torn on the whole concept of the Cuban embargo. I used to work with a Cuban guy who was adament that the embargo stay in place. He kept telling me how murderous Fidel Castro is, how the people live as prisoners in their own homeland and how lifting the embargo will not help. But on the other hand, maybe it will?

For America, the need for the embargo, I believe, ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba was no longer a satellite for Russia as it was during the Cold War. The only reason I could see for the embargo is an ideological one since the only threat Cuba poses to the US now is an influx of cigars.

The most vocal group in the US in favor of the embargo is the small Cuban-American exile community in Miami (Little Havana). They claim that lifting the embargo will only help the Castros and not help the people much. Again, it's interesting how the most vocal proponents of the status quo are people who lived under Castro.

Nevertheless, an argument can be made that if Cuba is opened up to millions of Americans, that things will have to change. After all, it was underground western culture that led to the fall of the iron curtain in Eastern Europe and China has become more capitalist.

I say that if done right and the proper concessions can be made such that Cuba makes a transition to greater economic freedom for its citizens, then by all means talk. The US can be a catalyst for liberalizing and modernizing Cuba. Certainly no other country will do so. Every other country seems content with letting Cuba be (including sadly, Canada) and sending tourists to Cuba. Nobody speaks out about their human rights violations.

Will Obama be the guy who gets the ball rolling on a democratic Cuba? I will believe it when I see it. Cuba wants to talk to him from a position of equals. Capitalism shouldn't be treated as equal with socialism. It is far superior to it. Hopefully Obama believes the same.

What Susan Boyle teaches us

By now if you haven't heard of Susan Boyle, you have been living under a rock. The 47-year old Scot who has unfortunately not been blessed in the looks department, has been handsomely compensated otherwise with a voice that puts a lump in your throat everytime you hear her sing.

When she stepped on to the stage of Britain's Got Talent, everybody in the audience wrote her off. There is a shot in the Youtube video of a young female audience member rolling her eyes probably thinking "she is ugly so she must suck at singing." It appears the judges felt the same.

And then she let her voice out and we all received a wakeup call. Each and every one of us who has been programmed to think that only good looking people are talented. Certainly that is how the entertainment mags make it seem. And face it, we love watching good looking people in our movies and television.

But in doing so, we close ourselves off from the Susan Boyles of the world. We deny ourselves the joy of hearing heavenly voices simply for our superficial tendencies. We're all guilty of it or at least a huge majority of us.

Susan Boyle has put the emphasis back on raw talent. The show has the word talent in it. I don't see the word beauty anywhere.

On Freedom and Taxes

In one of the Tax Day Tea Parties in the United States, a CNN reporter annoyingly asked a participant what taxes had to do with freedom. In a word: everything.

Taxes determine how much of our hard-earned dollars we get to keep. They are a cap on our spending and our progress. Taxes are anti-freedom. They place a limit on how much you can save/spend. And judging by the tax rates, you do not keep a whole lot of what you make regardless of how much you earn. Even a $40,000 salary could mean that after different levels of government have reached their hands into it, you come out with around $22,000. And that is hard to live on.

So what does the government do? Throw you a bunch of little crumbs like a child tax credit or a tax credit on your bus pass. This alters your behavior pattern all because you are programmed to get the small tax refund that should belong to you in the first place. Oh and when they cut your taxes, it amounts to little more than $300 a year. Gee thanks!

And where do your tax dollars go? To keep the poor perpetually poor by throwing them crumbs. It's called redistribution of wealth and we've been told that this helps society. No it doesn't. It chains the taxpayers and the welfare recipients in a viscious circle.

I once was told that socialism creates equality: everyone equally poor. It couldn't be further than the truth. That's what our redistribution system does.

Still not convinced that freedom and taxes go hand in hand? Ask yourself what led to the American and French Revolutions? Taxes! The people revolted because their property was being seized by unfair taxation. Well did the people really have a say when it came to income taxes? Income taxes were meant to be merely for the two World Wars. But they stayed on because the money was too enticing. By then, nobody had the appetite to stand up to it.

Don't get me wrong. Governments need to be a certain size in order to protect people and their properties from others. Governments maintain police and the army. They build roads and enforce ports of entry among many other things. But governments have a moral duty not to overtax and overspend. It is outside of their mandate. And also, governments do not have the moral authority to take from one and give to the other. That does not create prosperity or grow the pie.

I should not say that they take a dollar from one and give to the other. They take a dollar from Joe taxpayer, keep 80 cents to themselves (bureaucratic salaries) and give 20 cents to Jim the welfare recipient. That is redistribution and theft. I have a better idea. Have Joe spend that dollar and many other Joes so Jim can get a job and get 40 cents on that dollar. It's just crazy enough to work.

We need the Lockean approach. If a tax dollar isn't allocated to the preservation of liberty and property, then it ought to be returned to the taxpayers. It should never be spent frivolously. And no government dollar should be spent unless it is universally applied (read no earmarks).

Anything else is a restriction of freedom and ought to be opposed with vigor.

Azmi Bishara - A Palestinian when it suits him

There is a video floating around Youtube of Azmi Bishara, a man wanted in Israel for treason and espionage on behalf of Hizballah, professing that there never was a Palestinian nation.

The video can be viewed here.

In the video, Bishara appears to shock the Israeli co-panelists and the host himself by his words. For those who don't understand hebrew, it goes to the effect of:

"The Palestinian nation is a colonial invention. When were there Palestinians? There never was such a nation.

I think there is an Arab Nation, I never turned to be a Palestinian Nationalist, despite of my decisive struggle against the Occupation.

I think that until the end of the 19TH century, Palestine was the South of Great Syria."


If a Jewish person were to say that, they'd be labelled extremists or dillusional. As for Azmi Bishara, he just tried to sweep this under the rug.

Here is how he opened a column in the LA Times on May 3, 2007

"I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament."

But wait a second.. I thought you said Palestinian was a colonial invention. Are you willing to accept a colonial term Mr. Bishara?

It's funny when words come back to bite.

Time to open the border

At a time when the United States is advocating making it more difficult to cross the Canada/US border, I feel it is high time that we become a eurozone. Some fierce Canadian and/or American nationalists resent this idea, but it is an idea whose time has come.

Canadians and Americans are essentially cousins. Our history has been quite mutual. The time for keeping a border has come and gone. Trade should flow much more easily than it is under NAFTA. People should come and go across the border as they will with strict inspections at continental ports of entry (airports, seaports).

I am not advocating one country although this will be argued to be a slope towards it. Those who value the healthcare and social programs up here will stay here. Those who want more net pay and less services from government will come down to the States. It will be interesting to see who goes where.

Speaking of that, one of the theories I have on why the Left hates this idea is that they fear many will opt to go to the US under a eurozone arrangement and that this will erode government services. They also allege that the US will put restrictive covenants on what the Canadian government could spend on, thereby eroding Canada as a country. I don't that will necessarily happen. I'm simply for an open border where people can move to where they want to be.

They will scare-monger too, saying an open border will mean an inflow of guns from down south. Ridiculous notions. Those who want to get a gun up here have done so already. And it's not like Canadians can't own guns. They can.

A lot of talent on either side is not situated where it needs to be due to the fact that immigration is restrictive and costly. An open border will solve that.

The key question is: what about 9/11? What about Canadian sleeper cells? Well that is a tough one to deal with but it is worth addressing for the greater benefit of an open border.

Of course, it will be a tough sell here. A lot of inefficient companies and social programs exist on not allowing American efficiency to flow through. Things will have to be ironed out. However, globalization has made accessibility much greater anyway. It's time to smell the java and move towards it, not away from it. Ultimately, Canada can be richer and better off. Open borders mean open markets where the efficient will truly shine. It's odd for instance that a Canadian company manufacturing stair railings can't cross the border with tools.

There may need to be a common dollar and a common central bank. But it's time to move towards the open border and not away from it.

Kumar goes to Washington

Actor Kal Penn better known to many as Kumar of the Harold and Kumar franchise and most recently, the House series, is being hired by Barack Obama.

"His role will be to connect Obama with the Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities, as well as arts groups."

The Pacific Islander one is odd to me. Didn't Obama come from Hawaii? What trouble will he have with them?

"The White House did not reveal what Penn would be paid. Aides with similar titles earned between $41,000 and $91,000 last year."

He's an actor. Either he's getting paid more (lots more) or he's doing it for the "honor." I doubt he'll take much of a pay cut.

It's nice to know that the Obama White House is campaigning on the people's dime. Expect a lot more from these guys.

While our soldiers die in Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai, our supposed ally is defining half is population as mere sex objects for their husbands.

In a law that never saw the light of day in parliament, Hamid Karzai authorized husbands in Afghanistan to force sex upon their wives whenever they please. Such a ruling is appalling as
it takes away the free choice that sex ought to be. It is demeaning and forces women to be submissive to their husbands. It reduces them to "baby machines" and "sex objects."

Until this ruling came down, I was convinced that we were doing a truly noble mission in Afghanistan. We were weeding out the bad guys and helping out the good guys. Well turns out the good guys are only a lighter version of the bad guys. They are capable of being as repressive as the Taliban while they rely on NATO's protection.

While a return of the Taliban to power will be a bad thing and al Qaeda still needs to be rooted out, I am not convinced that the people we are helping in Afghanistan are agents of virtue themselves.

This ruling stinks. I am disgusted. Marriage is an equal institution. But clearly not in Afghanistan or a lot of other muslim countries.