“Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.”

(Heinrich Heine)
In the 1940s Heine was proven right and the Nazis burnt many millions of people, including 6 millions Jews.
This year a church leader in Florida thinks it will be a good idea to burn Korans on 9/11. I believe there are better ways to remember the tragic loss of lives in that horrible day nine years ago, especially when the method proposed here is not significantly different from the one used by the terrorists, namely: hatred.
In addition, the commander of American forces in Afghanistan said it will risk American soldiers in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
I know the First Amendment gives anyone, including evil and stupid people, the right to express their views in whatever way they find appropriate, but isn't that the same amendment that also gives Muslims in New York to build their own community center? Seriously, the Bill of Rights is not a "choose what you like" store. If the American people thinks they have the right to meddle with other peoples' affairs, take down leaders and put new ones on, all in the name of Democracy and Human Rights, then this right is based on one thing, and one thing only, exercising the Bill of Rights without racism or bigotry.
Let's hope this time people will stop this insanity earlier.

Coffee Name

Americans are unable to say foreign names. They don't even try to think outside of the box / strict pronunciation rules they were brought up with. For example, the whole world calls the country Iraq (pronounced Ee-rak) while the Americans pronounce it Ay-Raq. The same goes to Iran (Ay-Ran), or even Italians (Ay-Talians). Israel (Ee-sra-el) is pronounced (Eez-Real), which kind of fits, because it is a surprise that it "is real".

So it is no surprise that they can't pronounce my totally complicated and impossible Israeli name, Elad. They pronounce it Ee-Lad. It should be El-Ad, literally God Forever, well what can I say, my parents had high expectations of me. :-)

So, to make it easier for Starbucks / Panera Bread / whoever needs to call me by name to get my order, I give a fake American name. Sometimes I am Josh (a pet name my sister gave me), sometimes Kyle (as in Kyle McLachlan). Surprisingly, I am not the only one. Many foreigners do it, but also many Americans. You can hear all about it on NPR's All Things Considered at this link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128828538

The invisible yet empty hand

A while ago I had a conversation with a guy at work, whom I consider to be pretty open minded and intelligent. We started off talking about the World Cup and ended up talking about the free market and should the government interfere with it. I claimed that the free market is definitely a better model than a totalitarian centrally controlled market, as in the Soviet Union, but it is not necessarily the best way to run an economy. I used several examples.

The first one was the health care industry, which in most countries in the world is centrally run by the government with a much greater success than the free market American model - the one that successfully leads both the people and the US to bankruptcy while being mediocre at best (ranked 37 in the world!). He wasn't convinced that this was indeed the case, although he agreed with me that the money people pay for health insurance can be considered as part of "non-tax" - money missing from your available funds, but is not taxed by the government.

The second one I used was the availability of broadband internet - both wired and wireless. As Israelis, we are accustomed to think of the US as the epitome of technological achievements. Living here we have quickly learned that the case is far from being so. In fact, even after two years here in Cincinnati, I still wonder whether or not there is a reliable and widespread 3G cellular network in this city. I know there is none in the nation. Cincinnati Bell, a local provider that doesn't have coverage beyond the greater Cincinnati-Dayton area, claims to have the best regional network. That says a lot about how the national providers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile) see the importance of a national network. Don't misunderstand me, all of them claim to have a perfectly good data network in the Cincinnati area. So far, none of them convinced me that it is really so. And it could have been pretty easy to convince me - just give me what I had been used to by Israel's Orange network in 2008. The main reason not to implement a fast data infrastructure is simple - the economic gain is directly proportional to the population density. The more dense the area is, the higher revenue the network will generate, and Cincinnati is not populated densely enough.

On the other hand, the free market should be able to rectify this situation by offering an incentive in the form of higher margins in places where there is a lack of competition. Free market enthusiasts tell us that the invisible hand is supposed to draw people into such places to increase the supply and meet the demand. However, in some cases this doesn't work. In some places, probably the less populated or poorer areas, market forces do not accumulate enough to produce this invisible hand. The FCC has recently come up with a report that claims exactly that. About 24 million Americans have no access to broadband internet. That's roughly 8% of the population. Before the health care reform by President Obama, it was estimated that 50 million Americans do not have access to any health insurance. That's on top of the other millions that are covered through government plans like Medicare and Medicaid. In other words, only 2 out of every 3 Americans got their service from the "free market".

As in any problem, the first step to solving it is recognizing that it exists and that it is indeed a problem. If you ask Glenn Beck for example, he will tell you that America has the best health care system in the world. One can only hope that the current administration sees through this smoke screen and will at least be able to convince some Americans that not everything in this great country is indeed the greatest in the world. Media will certainly play a major role in this - both for the good and for the bad. Here is another example from an NPR (hardly a conservative right-wing station) host being taken by surprise when hearing the fact that Americans pay more for less broadband (skip to 21:15 and on).

However, even if the problem is recognized, the solution may not be clear immediately. This is especially true when people mix solution strategies with political views, i.e. when the political views cloud the thinking process and prevent it from going in the direction of central intervention in the market. In Israel I was known to be the most libertarian anti-socialist person in any room I walked into. I believe I have not changed my views at all and that I still believe in the power of the market in controlling complex systems. If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't choose the PHD topic I have chosen.

Central intervention can come in all sorts of ways, ranging from creating incentives for companies to invest in not-so-lucrative investments to playing a major role or even being the sole participant in the market. The level of central intervention should depend on how badly the market produces what we want it to produce. If the market works relatively well, as most do, government should facilitate the existence of the market, e.g. by creating a currency to be used in deals, but otherwise step aside and let the market work its way. But what if the market is left alone and does not yield the desired results? Well, that depends on how big the gap is.

If the market leaves a few people behind, as in the broadband market, the government should create the incentives for companies to go back and pick these people up. The fact that a child was born in North Dakota does not mean they should not be able to bridge the digital divide and be left behind for the rest of the 21st century. A recent study showed that a child born to poverty is likely to stay poor for the rest of his childhood and we know that a poor child left behind is a grown up and family we will have to support for the rest of his life. So even from the libertarian-reduce-my-taxes point of view I would rather spend small dimes on getting these kids connected than spend many more dollars for supporting them during the rest of their lives. That, of course, assuming that we're not going to leave them to die of starvation.

If the situation is even worse, as in the health care market, then simply using incentives cannot and will not rectify it. This has already been established because we see that even greater government interventions do not help the health care industry change its ways. A complete overhaul is in dire need. In fact, the main criticism I have about the Obama Administration in this case is that they "chickened out" and that the new overhaul is nothing compared to what should have been done. In fact, in the health care business I believe that the basics should be given by the government for the people and not the private sector. The reason is simple: the private sector, as it should be, tries to maximize revenue to their share holders. The only way to maximize revenue is by generating more income and reducing costs. In the health care industry generating more income means taking more money from the insured people and reducing costs come mainly from cutting the coverage they get. In other words, from the company point of view, the best revenue would be generated if from every dollar a person spends, 100 cents of it go to revenue and the rest is spent on coverage. The only reason why this is not a complete scam is that the companies - at least theoretically - must make the coverage sound good enough for one to spend one's dollar on a certain insurance and not the other. So, the coverage offerings are designed to lure one in, but once in - who cares? Leave the market to run wild long enough and you'll get exactly to where the market is right now in the US - people spend more and more money and get less and less while companies' revenues are in the billions. These billions of dollars can come from only one source and on exactly one expense -coverage. There is only one solution that will prevent these companies from reaching even deeper into our pockets - a government run national plan. This way the market is ruined, but everyone gets covered and pay roughly the same amount that they will take by the end of their lives. This is obviously the other side of the government - private sector spectrum.

One may argue that this will make the US a socialist country (God forbid!) and will consequently lead to its demise. My response is - yes, some things are better run in a central (maybe socialist) way. This doesn't mean that everything becomes socialist or that the country as a whole will become socialist. Why is the military run by the government and not private companies? Why is the police controlled by governments (on federal, state and city level)? Why was the Interstate Highway System initiated and has been funded since by the government and not the private sector? The reasons behind all the above examples are - because the public needs it, because their services have to be accessible to all people and companies without bias, and because it is too important for the people as a whole to become a revenue generator. Can you consider a police run by its share holders? They will not go into poor neighborhoods, deal with major crimes, or investigate corporates because it's either too dangerous or counter-productive for the share holders. So why do we still allow health insurance companies to do exactly these things - not to be available for poor people and not deal with major illnesses (on the grounds of "preexisting conditions" or other nonsense)? As Forest Gump's momma used to say - "stupid is as stupid does".

Independence?

Birthdays and new year days are usually good times to consider one's achievements. Well, it's not my birthday, but it is Israel's 62nd. So, happy birthday Israel, let's see how you're doing.
Lately I complained about the way the Obama Administration meddles with Israeli policy, and puts its democratically elected government at awkward positions, sometimes demanding things that contradict the very ticket they had used to get elected. At this point I would like to tackle the other side and answer the following questions: why does the administration think it's a legitimate move, and how can Israel escape this dire situation.
Israel has relied on one superpower or another during all its existence. Starting with France, that supported Israel in its first 20 years of existence, including providing it with weapons, and following the French embargo in 1967, the Americans. There is no doubt that the Americans get their reward out of it, otherwise why would they bother? The question is: should Israel continue with it and at what price?
From the economic point of view, the American aid is currently $2.5B, mostly for defense expenditures. Undoubtedly, this helps Israel buy advanced American aircrafts and equipment, but not the most advanced, e.g. the F-22 Raptor was not sold to Israel. But, more importantly, more than 2/3 of the money is required, by the treaty between the countries, to be spent on military equipment. So, basically, this is money that helps the federal government in generating jobs for the American people. It also allows the US to control what Israel buys, not only in military contexts, but also, for example, which airliners will El-Al use. At least on one occasion, El-Al had to cancel a better deal with Airbus and buy from Boeing under heavy American pressure. And finally, and most disturbingly, it allows the US to pressure and in many case cancel weapons sales from Israel to India and China. Independence? Hardly.
Let's assume that Israel refuses to take any more American aid. Sure, it will have to cover this gap in its national budget. Let's see if it is possible. The Israeli budget is about $80B, so $2.5B are about 3% of this budget. However, since at least $2B out of the $2.5B are not spent domestically, Israel can just buy aircrafts at a lower rate, or simply not buy them at all. In the last F-16 deal with the US Israel bought 102 F-16s worth $70M each. That's about $7B. Assuming it was paid for in a decade, the cost per year is $700M, which could be saved entirely, or reduced to a more manageable value. In short, at least $0.5B-$1B a year can be saved by cutting down on military expenditures.
Another part is spending the money domestically. Israeli defense forces started buying fatigues, uniforms, and other equipment from American sources because it was "cheaper" as it came from the American aid and not in Israeli shekels. But this came with a price: many textile and low-tech industries, which relied on these purchases, had to close down, because they could not compete for contracts that excluded them from participating in them. If you take all the unemployment money paid to former employees of these industries and instead of spending it on unemployment, the same money can be spent to buy necessary equipment from these factories. Doing so would boost the entire economy and will actually reduce government spending. I don't have the figures, but I would guess that at least $0.2B are spent each year on these types of equipment. If spent domestically, the workers hired to meet this demand will also buy more, pay taxes, and in general contribute to the Israeli economy and budget, so the benefit can be even higher.
Now, assuming the $1B-$1.5B can be saved or "won back" without the American aid, it seems that the other $1-$1.5B (1.5%-2% of the budget) can be saved as well, either by cutting on defense budget or simply by making better deals, which will be easier if Israeli is no longer restricted to buying just from American companies. As a last resort: raise taxes or increase the deficit.
It seems that the price Israel and its democracy pay for the American aid is too great. If the US wants to turn Israel into a state in the union, let it be clearly stated so, let the Israelis and Americans vote on it, and I am quite sure it will cost more than $2.5B a year (Israel's population is about 7.5 million, which ranks it 12-13 between Washington and Virginia. I doubt if they get less money from the federal budget spent in their area). If, on the other hand, Israel wants to retain (or gain, depending on who you ask) its independence, it should free itself from the American aid money.

On Politics and Friendships

The Israeli, and partly also the American, media are discussing lately the issue of the Obama administration's reaction to the Israeli government's decision to build 1600 housing units in East Jerusalem. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times had some spare thoughts to share, which the Wall Street Journal repudiated. In light of this discussion, I will share my 2 cents. I know I am not exactly a publicist or a renowned blogger, but still there is one thing that bothers me about the way the administration is pressing the Israeli government. But before that, a word of warning: I am what Israelis might call "left-wing"; I fully support the right of the Palestinians to have a state alongside Israel, I support the so called "Two States Solution", I supported the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip and I object to building in the Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Now that this is out of our way, let's take a deep breath and see how the Obama administration, with senior Jewish officials (Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod), is acting in their worst interests, instead of the required, assuming that the administration indeed wants to get the peace process working.

It is often said that special relations between Israel and the USA are founded on the premises of joint values, democracy being one of such main values. Israel is, in fact, the only openly democratic republic in the Middle East. It is so democratic, in fact, that in the last fifteen (15) years since 1996 there were six (6) elections. This democratic instability is caused by many factors, which are not the scope of this post. However, the main things to mention are that Israel is a democracy, an unpredicted one at that, and that the fragmented political map in Israel makes it impossible for a government to complete its four years' term. One may ask, what does it have to do with the Obama administration? Well, in short, everything. Since the Obama administration wants democracy to proliferate in the world, it should also show some respect to its, occasionally, undesired side effects, namely that an undesired political side gets into power. Undoubtedly, having a right-wing Israeli government, in which Avigdor Lieberman is Foreign Minister, is hardly a desired partner in American eyes. Nonetheless, it is still the elected government. The last campaign was unique in the way that one side, the Israeli right in this case, decidedly won the elections. And, being the right wing that they are, the ticket that got them there was expanding the settlement in Judea and Samaria, which, according to their voters, is, has been, and shall always be, part of the Jewish Holy Land. I might argue with that, but as the side that lost the elections, I respect their views and hope for the best in the next elections.

In my view, this is where the Obama officials show their infuriating combination of hypocrisy and inexperience. Hypocrisy because they do not accept the vote of the Israeli people, and force Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept their terms, which are contradictory to the ticket he was elected with. Not only that, by doing so the administration is deliberately trying to undermine Prime Minister Netanyahu's government by alienating his coalition partners. The inexperience part comes from the lack of understanding in Israeli politics. If they knew better, the administration would know that what they are doing will cause the Israeli public, including left wing people like myself, to rally in support of their government. I may not like the government's decisions, but I am definitely against foreign countries' meddling in our decision making.

And, yes, it is, in lack of better term, meddling with Israeli internal affairs. This is hardly the first time American administration did it to Israel, or to other countries. However, this time the administration has crossed the line between mild meddling and acting forcibly to destabilize the elected Israeli government. To make it clearer to American eyes, this would be parallel to a foreign superpower (China perhaps) forcing the administration to stop its healthcare reform, claiming it to be too expensive (China is after all America's largest creditor) by destabilizing Obama's administration using international and internal pressure on decision makers. I am certain that if this was the case, the Obama administration would not accept it silently, and certainly would not apologize for not doing so, as Netanyahu did. If anything, the administration reaction would be to denounce this act of meddling in American internal affairs and the American people would not accept it either. So, it is of great wonder to me that the administration expects the Israeli government and people to accept this breach of Israeli sovereignty.

Instant coffee - how do you do that?

This how-to is brought to all Americans, who are kind enough to have me in their country, but don't know how to make coffee (at all, and in particular out of instant coffee). Lately, D and I have encountered several people that looked at instant coffee and were at a loss with regards to how to make coffee of it. The time required to prepare instant coffee is almost equal to the time required to heat water to boiling conditions, which is 2-3 minutes for cup or two of water in a kettle.

Ingredients:

• Instant coffee - that's coffee made to be in a powder or granulated, and kept in a jar, e.g. Jacobs. Other brands are sold in American markets, but they are not as good as this one, which is sold only in international food shops. If you have to, buy Taster's Choice. Don't touch any other brand of instant coffee in US supermarkets. Although Starbucks' Via is instant coffee, it is absolutely disgusting and do not drink it.
  
• Water - heated to boiling conditions. Water heated in microwave is not hot enough, so is not good enough. You can use hot water from your office water dispenser.
• A spoon
• A cup
• Optional: sugar or sweetener, and cream or milk.

Instructions:

• Take an empty cup. Put a spoonful of instant coffee in the empty cup.
• If you like your coffee sweet, add the sugar or sweetener now.
  
• Add boiling water to the cup and stir well until the coffee is fully dissolved in the water.
• If you like your coffee with milk or cream, add them only after the previous step.
• Sip and enjoy. Caution: contents may be hot.

After you get used to the taste of what the rest of the world considers as coffee, you will never drink that disgusting brownish liquid you used to call coffee until now.

End of month summary

Comment: this post contains many links. You're advised to follow them.

We are now exactly one month in Cincinnati. In this month we managed to do quite a lot, despite the power outage, the lethargy of service people in Cincinnati, and our own lapses into gloomy mood. First, however, the last week deserves a summary, before we can discuss the whole month.

When it comes to working hard, this week was no different than the other ones. We literally slaved ourselves today, from 9:00 am till now (it was 10:00 pm when I started writing this very line, and now it's 11:00), and there is still work to do today. D is doing her homework, reading material to the coming school week, and preparing herself to a midterm in DB modeling and design. What can I tell you? She's as geek as I am. I checked the 40 papers I had received from one assignment, prepared the two midterm tests I give this week, plus formula sheet, two lessons for tomorrow, and the entire assignment I gave my students due tomorrow. I also solved the test I had prepared, and since it took me half the time they will have, I'll have to delete a few questions.

One reason why we had to work so hard today is that yesterday we went on another shopping spree. If the American economy is still hanging by threads before falling into the abyss of depression, it's only because we single-handedly (or rather, single bank-accountedly) jump start it. Yesterday we bought a suit for D, an all-in-one printer, food at Costco Warehouse, and a car. Since the most interesting thing is the car I'll start with Costco. Costco is an enormous, IKEA-size, warehouse for groceries. Imagine the size of IKEA, with IKEA sized packages (although not necessarily flat), only of food and things for house keeping. And everything is so cheap, relatively to the other grocery shops because of that. For example, you can't get a single pasta box; they sell them in a 7-pack. Or one bar of Dove soap, which are sold by the 10. We also bought about two gallons of liquid hand soap, which will last, according to our rough calculations, between 9 months and a year.

But enough with this Costco thing. We bought a dark green 2000 Nissan Altima, 2.4 liter, with 88000 miles and a sunroof for around $8500 including taxes. It's considered as a compact sedan here. As anything else here, it only took about 4 hours at the dealership, three of which passed after we had told the dealer we wanted the car. Nonetheless, I'm quite excited about it, since it is the first time that I am the owner of my own vehicle. Until now the car I drove was either my parents', an army vehicle, or a company leasing car. Now I know what it's like to pay for car insurance. We'll need to buy license plates (they go with the person, not the vehicle in the US). One good thing about the economy crisis is that the price of a gallon of gas has plunged from 4 dollars to less than 3 in the past month we have been here.

By the way, the Americans need to stop using this stupid American unit system and progress to the SI system as the rest of the world did. Even the British don't measure temperature in Farenheit anymore, or length in miles, feet and yards. The only thing they measure in the old system is, quite understandably and logically, a Pint of beer, which by the way the Americans has reduced by about 20%. In my class I have to use both systems interchangeably, so now I know how much is the gravity acceleration in feet per second squared (32.2) or what the hell is a slug (besides a dude that is being sluggish).

Another set of good news is the fact that yes, after almost a month, the university system finally acknowledges my existence. It hasn't perforated to all the university systems yet, but at least now I have my university ID (usually known as the Bearcat card) card, which also allowed me to purchase a monthly parking pass, and to get my keys. And in keys I mean that finally I don't have to ask people to let me into my own room. On Friday I finally moved to Kelly's old office, which he vacated while moving to a better office, previously owned by a professor that retired (I think). More on systems and the American life in the next paragraphs. Anyway, I still haven't received any paycheck, nor have I been able to use the university's information systems (except for my email) to contact my students. With all the shopping we have been doing here lately we start to feel a great shortage in liquid assets. And, as you know, credit is a profanity nowadays in America.

Weekly short summary:

• Car
• UC ID
• Office
• Parking card
• Work, work, work
• Money shortage
• Mood-o-meter: 70s.

Now for a short monthly analysis. The most important thing I can say after this month is that the Americans are so ready for totalitarianism that it's scary (well, at least when I'm at the bottom of the food-chain). First of all, they are so submissive by nature; they tend to receive anything so docilely, whether it is waiting for the power to return for a week, or waiting to take the left-turn at the stop light, or simply waiting for someone to do something. I don't know if this combination of lethargy and malleability is the cause for their obesity, or is it the other way around, but they simply are. In addition, they behave in a herdlike manner, as you can see in their recent stock markets plunges. They also seem to be living under a constant fear of or rules and of change, especially one that might keep them away from their food and entertainment. For example, when I was supposed to receive my keys to Kelly's old office, I simply thought I can take them from him. Little did I know. It appears that the "system" does not allow for shortcuts. I had to wait three more days for my keys because this "system" cannot be changed, modified or bypassed in any way. Moreover, they have been living under the Bush administration for the past 8 years, and there have to be some implications to that. Finally, with this economic crisis and based on all the aforementioned premises about them, you can see why it's not hard to foresee a "strong man" stepping into the Oval Office, and changing the world as we know it. God help us against that, because we, Jews, have a rather bad experience with the kind of those. Speaking of Hitler, please go to this link.

Another interesting observation I can make about Americans is that they are going in an endless spiral of stupidity -> simplicity -> lowered requirements -> numbing stupidity. I'm talking about the vast majority of Americans. It all starts with most of them being, how to say it mildly, slow. As a result of that, and as a result of the constant pursuit of blissful ignorance, they expect - and receive - things simplified to the max. That's why you can see installation kits that require no reading at all, only drawings. Another example is the dreadful operating system for Verizon phones I told you about last week. Americans also don't expect any intelligence from the surrounding ones, and since most of them have never been outside the borders of the contiguous USA and Canada, or even own a passport, they imagine that all the other people are at least as stupid as them. Probably more; Americans think that since they rule the world, the other peoples are at least less intelligent than they are. So they have no expectations from one another or from the world in general. Thus, they don't require much from themselves, leading to another plunge in their general intelligence. It's no wonder that the average graduate student in America is either Indian or Chinese. The empire is rotting. It may take a short violent economic decline with totalitarianism, or it may take a long, painful, decline, while the Chinese and the Indians rise to power. In any case, the sun, my friends, will rise in the East. Go catch the Nitsan Horwitz show in channel 10.

You can't imagine how I envy you for having this wonderful holiday season. It seems that you hardly ever work, while we had no time off at all. We will get you back, and get back to you, in mid December. Save us a spot in the calendar.

Monthly summary:

• Americans are slow.
• Americans might endorse totalitarianism.
• China and India are the rising sun.
  
• It's oh-so-bleak.
• Missing vacations.
• Missing home.