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Andy Borowitz: Pardoned White House Turkey Slays Nine

2009-11-26T20:34:41Z

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) - In a potentially embarrassing situation for the Obama White House, a turkey pardoned by President Obama early this week went on a three-state killing spree on Thanksgiving Day, killing nine.

While authorities were still piecing together the motivation behind the recidivist fowl's homicidal rampage, a chorus of Republican critics complained that pardoning the feathered killer was symptomatic of the Obama administration's misguided policies.

"First they close down Guantanamo, then they let killer turkeys run free," said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH). "Next thing you know they'll put this turkey on trial in New York."

Elsewhere, a person believed to be a party-crasher who attended this week's state dinner and acted inappropriately turned out to be Vice President Joe Biden. More here.

Don Tapscott: The Dubai Summit on Redesigning Global Cooperation and Problem Solving

2009-11-26T20:26:14Z

I just returned from an extraordinary meeting of 900 academics, civil society leaders, business people and other innovative thinkers, held by the World Economic Forum in Dubai. Called the Global Agenda Summit, 80 Councils composed of a dozen members each, discussed how to redesign our systems for global cooperation for the 21st century.

Klaus Schwab the Founder of the Forum was unable to attend due to a last minute illness, but in an interview shared his thoughts. "Our existing global institutions require extensive rewiring, and a fundamental shift in values and political culture is vital if we are to foster the global cooperation necessary to confront contemporary challenges in an effective, inclusive and sustainable way." To address this historic challenge Professor Schwab and the Forum have launched an unprecedented global multi-stakeholder and multimedia dialogue to develop a 21st century vision of global cooperation.

This initiative is an important one. The world is organized around nation states based on national economies and that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. The idea of national sovereignty was initiated hundreds of years ago with the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 and persists today. After the second world was there were many bold initiatives to create better systems of global cooperation, including Breton Woods, The United Nations, The General Agreement of Trades and Tariffs (GAAT), The Geneva Conventions, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and later the World Trade Organization and now the G8 and G20.

But, as evidenced by the impending failure of the December UN Climate change Conference in Copenhagen, these structures are becoming increasing inept at fixing what ails the world.

However today there are strong regional economies like Europe and the financial crisis and global recession of 2009-10 has awakened many government leaders to a new compelling fact. We now have a truly global economy and as the expression says: "everything is connected to everything else." But our international systems for cooperation are failing in achieving world goals of economic growth, climate protection, poverty eradication, conflict avoidance, human security and promotion of shared values.

An initial report from the Forum's "Global Redesign Initiative" process explains why existing instruments of global governance - principally multilateral institutions - have been so weak in mustering an effective response to the economic crisis. It notes that today there is a power shift from North to South, from West to East. It is also a young world, with a majority of the population below the age of 25.

"The major shifts in relative economic weight among countries that have occurred in recent decades have naturally led emerging players to seek a more consequential role in decision-making than is reflected in the governance of institutions organized for the most part following WWII. Countries with a vested interest in the current structures have often been reluctant to agree to changes that would dilute their influence."

The report notes how the digital world has brought about integration as well. "Decades of economic development, integration of product and service markets, cross-border travel and new technologies enabling virtual interaction have created a world that is much more complex and bottom-up than top-down." The result is that the world has become not only more economically, politically and environmentally interdependent. "People around the globe increasingly perceive their interdependence and seek ways to express it outside of formal national political structures." The upshot is that the world's citizens "have become more aware that global problems require global trusteeship and that efforts to solve problems solely through traditional negotiating processes, characterized by the defense of national interests, are inadequate in the face of critical global challenges."

At the Dubai summit many innovative proposals came forward. I personally found it very exhilarating. One group of law experts argued that we need to completely redesign the global legal system - the set of rules that enables the world to function. Another argued for a new global system to measure success, based on a universal graphic language and visualization tools. Another argued for a global vaccine protocol and another still for a global intellectual property system and another presented a plan on how a global risk management system could be build.

However, just about everyone agreed that what we don't need is some kind of global government or a new set of international bureaucracies piled on the existing ones.

This view is very different from other approaches that have sought to strengthen existing institutions of global governance like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund. "Such would just create ever bigger more unmanageable bureaucracies," says Professor Schwab. Rather, the Initiative is taking a Wikinomics approach -- embracing more agile, networked structures enabled by global networks for new kinds of collaboration. Here, Nation States continue to play a central role but can overcome their silo thinking and behavior by sharing information better, cooperate real-time on networks and "anchoring the preparation and implementation of their decisions more deeply in the processes of interaction with interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder networks of relevant experts and actors."

But how would this new, networked system of global cooperation work? There are many tough issues. How would these vast multi-stakeholder networks achieve legitimacy? How could they be held accountable? How would they interact with existing structures? How would participation be achieved? What should existing governments and other institutions do to embrace global networked cooperation and problem solving?

In fact stronger global governance could create a new problem. As we attempt to achieve new models of global cooperation, citizens of the world could become one or more steps removed from their governments and relegated to passive consumers. Further, the capability of the world and its citizens will not be brought to bear on solving the world's problems. If this is not fixed there can be no legitimate, accountable and trusted global cooperation, problem solving and governance.

To address this challenge one Council in which I participated (on the Future of Governments) put forward a proposal called The Global Citizen Engagement Initiative. They argued that governments, in collaboration with other stakeholders, need to launch a new paradigm to involve the citizens of the world to co-innovate the 21st century and transformation society through mass collaboration. This is enabled by a new medium of communications; appropriate for a new generation of young people who have shown that they want to be engaged in the world; and necessary for the demands of the global economy and society.

These include ideation tools like digital brainstorms and town hall meetings: decision-making initiatives like citizen juries and deliberative polling; execution tools like policy wikis and social networks within government; and evaluation programs through mass collaboration monitoring systems to enable citizens to keep governments accountable and evaluate government performance.

The goal is not to replace existing institutions. This proposal will help them. It is not supplanting representative governance it enhances it. But additionally it enables existing institutions to unleash public value, catalyzing initiatives and unleashing human capital in the world. However leaders of current institutions will need to change their whole operating model to interact with their citizens.

This was one of literally hundred of innovative ideas that came forward. For sure this process is one to be watched carefully and the Forum in inviting thoughts from anyone. Next check point will be the Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos at the end of January. To me the stakes are very high.

Don Tapscott is the author or co-author of 13 books on new technology in society, most recently Grown Up Digital and Wikinomics. He is Chairman of the think tank nGenera Insight and an Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. His upcoming book (Spring 2010) is co-authored with Anthony D. Williams and is entitled "Rebuilding the World."

Kevin Grandia: An easy, very quick summary of the Copenhagen climate treaty

2009-11-26T19:31:42Z

Cartoon courtesy of David Horsey at Hearst Newspapers. Via The Daily Beast.

John Marshall: A Brief History of Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T19:17:43Z

This year's hottest new Macy's balloon

The Pilgrims came to this country so they could practice religious freedom, and also so they could wear big hats made out of black construction paper. They invented Thanksgiving, which consists of sitting down and having a nice meal with people you can't stand the rest of the year. A transcript from the first Thanksgiving in 1621, featuring the Pilgrims and the Indians, has been handed down to us and is reprinted here by arrangement with Samuel French.

Captain John Smith: It is good of your people to eat with us.

Chief Littlefeather: There would have been more of us, but you shot them this morning.

Smith: Well, the important thing is that we come together in a spirit of peace.

Littlefeather: How long you think that shit will last?

Smith: We have much to learn from each other. For example, we'd like to grow maize.

Littlefeather: Why not just steal it? You stole everything else.

Smith: Anyway, it is good to eat with you. Would you pass the salt?

Littlefeather: Get it your own damn self. I ain't passin' no goddamn salt.

That first Thanksgiving consisted of a hearty repast of turkey, corn, potatoes, yams and smallpox. It lasted for three days, giving rise to the now-accepted custom of guests coming over and not leaving for three days.

Established in Plymouth, Massachusetts (now DaimlerChrysler, Massachusetts), Thanksgiving moved on to Colonial Williamsburg, where the menu included new items such as cornbread and chocolate coins from the gift shop.

Soon all the colonies observed Thanksgiving. As time went on, Indians were replaced by relatives, so that hostilities could break out during the meal rather than after it.

Thanksgiving also caught on in Canada, where it is exactly the same except the government pays for your turkey.

On October 3, 1789, President George Washington created the first Thanksgiving Day by agreement with both houses of Congress. It was the last time both houses agreed on anything without arguing. Historians speculate that if Joe Lieberman had been in office in 1789, they would still be filibustering Thanksgiving now.

From Lincoln on, Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday of November. FDR moved it up to the third Thursday to give merchants a longer period to sell goods before Christmas. This caused great confusion, which meant that some people had two Thanksgivings and had to suffer through two sets of family gatherings.

A transcript from a Depression-era Thanksgiving has been handed down to us. Here is an excerpt:

Soup Kitchen Server: It is good of you to eat with us. How many are in your party?
Boxcar Willie: 1,654. What are you serving?
Soup Kitchen Server: Roast bite of turkey with all the trimming.
Boxcar Willie: What trimming is that?
Soup Kitchen Server: You have a choice of scrap or morsel.
Boxcar Willie: Oh, good. Could we get a crumb as well?
Soup Kitchen Server: No. You want a drop to drink? I can give you a drop.
Boxcar Willie: Got any Diet Sterno?

Today Thanksgiving is celebrated by a new tradition, giant balloons in Macy's Chapter 11 Parade. Each year a new balloon is unveiled. This year's new balloon is Balloon Boy, and is the only balloon that is allowed to escape from the parade route and fly around until it is brought down by the military and its owner gets a reality show.

If the Pilgrims were around today, they'd be amazed by the changes to their holiday. Also, they'd be 423 years old.

John Marshall has won the big part of the wishbone 14 out of 37 times.

More on Thanksgiving

Aaron E. Carroll: Turkey Doesn't Make You Sleepy. It Really Doesn't!

2009-11-26T18:34:51Z

In honor of Thanksgiving, I'm going to take a break from health care reform - much like Congress. Instead, please enjoy this chapter from my book:

Myth: Eating Turkey Makes You Sleepy

While not everyone stoops to the level of Seinfeld’s Jerry and George, who used tryptophan in turkey to lull a girl asleep so that they could play with her toys, the supposed sleep-inducing effects of tryptophan in turkey are commonly recounted at American Thanksgiving feasts and in the popular media around the holidays.

Scientific evidence does support a connection between tryptophan and sleep. L-tryptophan has been marketed as a dietary supplement to aid with sleep. Tryptophan also may have an effect on the immune system, with possible benefits for autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis.

The truth is, turkey is not to blame for your sleepiness. Chicken and ground beef contain almost the same amount of tryptophan as turkey -- about 350 milligrams per 4 ounce serving. While you might have heard someone claim that turkey made them drowsy, you have probably never heard someone say that chicken, ground beef, or any other meat made them sleepy. Swiss cheese and pork actually contain more tryptophan per gram than turkey, and yet the American classic, a ham and cheese sandwich, somehow escapes blame.

The amount of tryptophan in a single 4 ounce serving of turkey (350 milligrams) is also lower than the amount typically used to induce sleep. The recommendations for tryptophan supplements to help you sleep are 500 to 1000 milligrams. Many scientists also think the limited amount of tryptophan in turkey would be offset by the fact that it is generally eaten in combination with other foods and not on an empty stomach. While one clinical trial found comparable results for tryptophan from a food protein-source and pharmaceutical grade tryptophan, this study also used an extremely rich source of tryptophan, deoiled gourd seeds, which have twice the tryptophan content of turkey. In this trial, and in general use of supplements, tryptophan is taken on an empty stomach to aid absorption. Although we did not locate any experimental evidence to support this claim, many believe that the presence of other proteins and food in the stomach during the feasts generally associated with turkey consumption would limit the absorption of the tryptophan in the turkey.

There are other elements of the holiday feasts that can induce drowsiness. Large meals have been shown to cause sleepiness regardless of what is eaten because the body increases blood flow to the stomach, and decreases blood flow and oxygenation to the brain. Meals both high in proteins or in carbohydrates may cause drowsiness. And don’t forget about the booze. One or two glasses of wine, especially for people who only drink occasionally, can increase drowsiness.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Stop blaming the turkey for your sleepiness.

More on Thanksgiving

Steve Clemons: Thankful That Obama Has Helped Make Dissent And Debate Patriotic And Safe Again

2009-11-26T18:29:45Z

Arianna Huffington asked me (and a sizable gaggle of her other pals) to write something up for Thanksgiving. What am I thankful for? What moves me on Thanksgiving?

My significant other lets me know regularly how lucky we are to have our health, a couple of nice homes, jobs that pay reasonably well, friends and dogs who love us, family that we seem closer to each year, and causes that we are passionate about.

But he tells me this because I'm not often thinking about how great or not things are close to home. I know that there are many on the jobless rolls right now -- and I think about them a lot. I know there are folks losing their homes and it really frustrates me to read in contrast about Wall Street's recent huge rebound. I know there are lonely people -- with no connections to their communities, families, and without friends. I know a lot of sick people with marginal or no health care.

I can't stop thinking about these down trends from the American good life -- and I worry about the macro challenges facing the country, our political system, and our new and fascinating President.

I am grateful that we have Barack Obama in the White House -- because he has changed the face of the nation - and altered forever the horizon of what is possible for Americans who don't have the Anglo-Saxon cosmetic veneer that every U.S. president before Barack Obama possessed.

I also am grateful for Obama's invitation for debate and fair-minded criticism. His decision to bring in policy practitioners who have divergent views from one another, his embrace of heterodoxy, and the manner in which these conflicts come right up to his desk reflect a profound self-confidence in our young president.

Obama's embrace of debate and political diversity can be both strength and weakness -- but in the long run, it's better to have debate than not in a time when the world is at a major punctuation point in history and when things tomorrow will be quite different than they were yesterday.

There are many things I'm not happy about.

I'm not happy about the policy choices of Obama's economic team that have produced a Wall street bailout while banks still dither in their loans and small businesses still find an economic noose around their necks as they try to secure financing. I don't like how the administration has underperformed on job creation. I'm not happy that the tens of thousands of gay and lesbian soldiers in the Armed Forces and National Reserve still have to live a lie as they put themselves on the line for the security and welfare of all Americans of every brand and stripe. The failure of the administration to secure a strategic leap out of the mess the Bush administration left in the Middle East and with Iran, Israel/Palestine, and Afghanistan is very worrisome.

But what a change in a few years.

It's "safe" again to pose uncomfortable questions to the president of the United States and his team. It is actually "patriotic". Barack Obama embraces this patriotism of those who challenge him and dissent from his core policy positions and decisions. This is a stunning difference with the political world America has left behind.

Former Senator Chuck Hagel, who has become the co-chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and who was awarded two Purple Hearts for his service in Vietnam, is someone who during the George W. Bush administration had his patriotism questioned. Vice President Cheney blasted Hagel for asking key questions about the solvency of thinking about the Iraq War and challenged his loyalty to President Bush, the Republican Party, and the nation.

This was outrageous -- and indicated how deeply a climate of fear and vindictiveness had taken hold in and poisoned Washington as legislators on all sides of an issue fought over the course of public policy.

That is over. There are ferocious debates today over health care, climate change, education policy, the budget and America's long term fiscal position, over Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Iran, China, and economic policy.

But these debates are raging in a climate in which it is OK and safe to engage in civil debate.

In the Bush years, the efforts at thought control were so severe that spear-carriers like Tom DeLay sought to get those of a different political make-up fired from private sector jobs. Former Oklahoma Congressman Dave McCurdy, now head of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, was one of DeLay's targets. Funders cut off think tanks that opposed the Iraq War. Hate mail campaigns were launched against those who expressed views independent of the Bush/Cheney machine.

I have a lot of criticism that I direct at the Obama White House -- but I try to be civil and fair-minded, inspired by the President and how his team mostly operates (the Greg Craig situation being a major and disappointing exception).

But this White House embraces differences, rivals, and debate. This is extraordinarily important, and of all things this Thanksgiving -- I'm thankful that challenging the government's course and trying to put better ideas on the table are unabashedly patriotic again.

Have a good, old fashioned policy debate with someone you don't necessarily see eye to eye with this weekend -- and feel good about it. Shake hands when it's over, and agree to disagree if things end up that way.

That is what we have back again -- and that's something to celebrate.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note'

Richard Grenell: Our Problematic Syria Policy

2009-11-26T18:13:33Z

I am currently in Israel, in an area called the Golan Heights, which rests alongside the Syrian border. The following is a video blog that highlights the problematic policy the United States has with regards to Syria, and its larger role in the region.

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Dana Frank: No Fair Election In Honduras Under Military Occupation

2009-11-26T18:04:39Z

As the Honduran election approaches this Sunday, let's be clear about the conditions under which it is taking place. Human rights abuses are rampant, freedom of speech is under attack, and the election process is in the hands of the very people who perpetrated the coup. Clearly, no free and fair election is possible under the repressive thumb of the military coup that has been in place for five months.

While the 23 nations of the Rio Group from Latin America and the Caribbean have condemned the election and announced they will not recognize its outcome, the Obama administration still insists it will recognize the results -- once again isolating the United States from those who are upholding democracy in the hemisphere.

President Obama should join the rest of the world and immediately declare the elections fraudulent and demand the immediate restoration of President Manuel Zelaya, the withdrawal of the Honduran military, and a delay of the election until three months after Zelaya has been full reinstated.

Imagine a "free and fair election" under the conditions in Honduras today (and imagine if this were taking place in the United States):

The same Honduran military,which perpetrated the June 28 coup forcing President Manuel Zelaya out of the country, and which has brutally occupied the country for five months, physically controls the ballots, the ballot boxes, the computers that tabulate the results, and the dissemination of the outcome.

The legitimate President of the country is being held captive in the Brazilian Embassy under draconian circumstances, and has denounced the elections as fraudulent.

The leading opposition candidate, the independent Carlos H. Reyes--who has a real chance of winning a free and fair election--has withdrawn his name from the ballot in protest. Throughout the country, hundreds of candidates for congress and municipal office, including those from the mainstream parties, have announced they are withdrawing from the election. They include the mayor of San Pedro Sula, the nation's second largest city.

All three trade union federations, the leading human rights organization, women's groups, organizations of indigenous and African-descent peoples, the gay and lesbian movement, and the campesino movement--united in the National Front Against the Coup d'Etat--have denounced the election as fraudulent.

The coup government has made it illegal to advocate not voting.

Peaceful demonstrations are routinely teargassed. As the Committee of Families of the Disappeared (COFADEH) has documented, dozens of people have been killed, over 600 beaten, and over 3,500 illegally detained, including lawyers who have shown up to secure the release of detainees. Opponents of the coup continue be threatened, illegally arrested, and beaten in their homes.

The military has recently instructed all mayors in the country to compile a list of persons in their jurisdiction who oppose the coup.

The two presidential candidates remaining in the election from the traditional parties of the oligarchy, Elvin Santos from the right wing of the Liberal Party, and Porfirio Lobo Sosa from the National Party, both initially supported the coup.

No free and fair election can take place under these circumstances. Only when the legitimate President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has been fully restored to office for three months, only when the military has been pushed back into its barracks, and only when civil liberties are completely restored can an orderly transfer of power to a new administration take place. By persuading coup leader Roberto Micheletti to briefly step aside in the week before the election, the U.S. State Department has tried to whitewash the election at the last minute. But that doesn't change the fact that the Honduran military and the oligarchs, who perpetrated the coup and who have dictated the nation's politics for decades, are still brutally repressing the people of Honduras.

The vast majority of Hondurans aren't fooled. After five months of military repression, they know the difference between a fraudulent cover for the continuation of the coup regime, and a truly free and fair election under the rule of law. So does the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the Rio Group. They understand well the dangerous precedent the Honduran coup represents.

President Obama should refuse to recognize the results of the election and bring an end to the embarrassing isolation of the United States from the rest of the world.

Jim Kennedy: Webcam Of Shame

2009-11-26T17:50:37Z

The subject line on the email from the charity CARE was nothing if not eye-catching: "25,000 will die this Thanksgiving."

So I did what they wanted -- I clicked the message open and learned that the figure refers to how many men, women and children perish from malnutrition and hunger-related causes every single day. The statistic reminded me of the news from the World Food Program earlier this month that the number of people suffering from hunger now exceeds 1 billion (and to think at the beginning of the 19th century there weren't even that many humans in existence on the planet).

Close to home, the news is not much better, with the US Department of Agriculture disclosing that nearly 50 million Americans are "food insecure," and Feeding America saying food banks have experienced a 30 percent jump in demand this year alone.

The CARE solicitation, the World Food Program's "Billion4Billion" campaign, Feeding America's "Feast for 9 Million" program and The Hunger Project's "Epicenter Strategy" all do their part to match giving hearts with empty stomachs, but the demand for help seems to keep outpacing the supply of hope.

What's a supposedly caring civilization to do? Maybe it's time for a game-changer, something radical to shake things up and wag the long charitable tail of the 5,799,356,509 people who don't wake up or go to sleep hungry every day. After all, hunger is one of those crises, like preventable disease, that we have the capacity to solve virtually overnight; all that is lacking is sufficient will.

So that Thy will be done, here's one small but provocative idea: set up global webcams that transmit graphic, live images of people quite literally dying of hunger and related diseases to shame the world into action by confronting us with the sheer horror of our neglect.

In 1960, Edward R. Murrow's broadcast, "Harvest of Shame," shined a bright light on the hidden plight of migrant farm workers. It stirred many to action. However, in the Internet age, a single television documentary (not that they produce them anymore) isn't enough to move the masses to act against the ravages of poverty and preventable disease. But if confronted with real-time video of real people at death's door - people who don't need a miracle; just a helping hand -- many would be inspired to act.

This Webcam of Shame project would require charities, NGO's, technology companies and high traffic websites to join together and install and operate a sustainable network of webcams in hospitals, urgent care centers, villages and other places where people are suffering from a lack of food or water or preventable diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

With the cameras focusing directly on those who are in the process of dying, the streaming video feed would be made visible to millions of people via some of the world's most popular websites, positioned just like an advertisement for a car or a politician. A button on the webcam "ad" would allow viewers to quickly make contributions to charities that can bring relief directly to the people and communities depicted on the webcam streams. The more people who click-through, the more aid can flow to where it's needed most.

Other links on the chain of webcams could help unite people in a powerful, global movement to put pressure on governments to take more action against such "crimes of humanity," flooding the corridors of power with vast social networks of outrage about the devastation unfolding so disturbingly before everyone's eyes ("click here to send an email to your member of Congress to demand action NOW!").

The fact that 25,000 people a day die of hunger and related illnesses makes us all guilty of neglect. The Webcam of Shame (or "I Am My Brother's Keeper-Cam" or "The Eyes Of God-Cam") would bring the terrible reality of 21st century poverty and disease right into our homes and workplaces. If we turn to our laptop and are confronted by the sight of another human being dying right before our eyes, right this very second, fading away ... who among us would not act?

We know intellectually what's happening; but we're not feeling it emotionally enough to act strongly or consistently enough (I know how short I've fallen in my own response to this crisis). By shaming those of us who have so much we can give hope to those who have too little.

Sure, there would be lots of questions to answer to get a guilt-trip like this off the ground: who funds the operation of the webcam network; who installs and maintains the equipment; which charities should get the money; how do you channel citizen support for more governmental action; how do we deal with local and national government opposition; and how do we convince high traffic websites to carry the webcams (who wants their ad for a Cancun vacation running alongside an image of a dying child?). But I see these as hurdles to be crossed, not roadblocks to stop the implementation of this plan. Heck, let's just start with one webcam in one hospital focused on one dying person linked to one popular web page, and see what happens.

Of course, some will say that displaying such intrusive images violates the privacy of the suffering. But I believe that most of those who are, quite literally, dying from neglect won't neglect an opportunity to remind all of us of our own responsibility to act, and to act now.

Truly, the only real question about the Webcam of Shame is whether we are too ashamed to make it happen. In World War II, my father was in the U.S. Army's Rainbow Division, which helped liberate Dachau, and when I was young he told me the story of how they made the citizens of the town of Dachau come through the "Arbeit Macht Frei" gates and into the camp, and forced them to walk by all the emaciated bodies of the last victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

Surely those neighbors must have suspected what horrors were happening in their midst, year after year, just yards from their homes. Yet they failed to act, choosing to claim "we didn't know." Sometimes I imagine that Purgatory is a place where the angels of God, like the Rainbow Division soldiers, force-march our souls past the bodies of all the people who suffered and died in our midst throughout the course of our lives.

We suspect what is happening in the world around us, thanks to emails from groups like CARE and the good, hard work of so many charitable people and organizations. But we don't ever seem to bring ourselves to the level of action required to put a stop to the madness of hunger all around us.

At the least, a Webcam of Shame would ensure that none of us could get away with saying "we didn't know."

[p.s. if you think this idea sucks, but at least have been shamed into doing something, just click through to these or other hunger charities and give now: World Food Program (http://www.wfp.org/), Feeding America (http://feedingamerica.org/), CARE (http://www.care.org/) and The Hunger Project (http://www.thp.org/).

Jim Kennedy has worked in media relations in the government, non-profit and private sectors.

David Berri: The Brilliant Mr. Jennings

2009-11-26T17:44:20Z

Upon graduating high school in 2008 Brandon Jennings made an unusual move. Although he had a scholarship to the University of Arizona, Jennings decided to skip college and sign a contract to play professional basketball in Italy. Skeptics derided the move when it was announced. And after 43 games of European basketball, it looked like the skeptics were right. According to Draft Express, Jennings averaged less than seven points per game in Italy and his shooting efficiency was well below average.

Despite this performance, the Milwaukee Bucks invested the 10th pick in the 2009 NBA draft in Jennings. Again, there was skepticism. How could a player who couldn't excel in Italy make a significant contribution to an NBA team?

Well, it looks the skeptics were wrong. Earlier this month Brandon Jennings scored 55 points in a game, setting an NBA record for youngest player to ever pass the 50 point mark in a game. And this was not the only game where Jennings excelled. After 15 games, Jennings is averaging 23.4 points per game; and both his shooting efficiency and rebounding are above average.

So how good is Brandon Jennings? About 18 months ago Jennings was in high school. Now at 20 years of age - before the age he can start drinking - he's averaging 34 minutes a night for the Milwaukee Bucks. Since 1977-78, there have only been 24 guards to average more than 20 minutes per game before he reached his 21st birthday. So the playing time Jennings is getting is fairly unusual.

His productivity, though, is even more unique. NBA fans (and coaches and sports writers) tend to focus on scoring in evaluating NBA player. A player's contribution to wins, though, goes beyond scoring. Wins in the NBA are about shooting efficiently, getting rebounds, generating steals, and avoiding turnovers. Yes, blocked shots and assists impact outcomes. But efficient scoring and factors associated with getting and maintaining possession of the ball are the most important.

When we think about a player's production of wins - or Wins Produced - we see that what Jennings is doing is truly amazing. After 15 games Jennings has produced 0.181 Wins per 48 minutes [WP48]. An average player - as often noted at The Wages of Wins Journal -- will post a WP48 of 0.100; so Jennings is well above average.

Now let's put this in perspective. Here is a list of guards who - like Jennings -- have seen significant court time before the age of 21: Isiah Thomas, Mike Bibby, Stephon Marbury, Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and Eric Gordon. What do all these players have in common? Although all of these players got to play at the age of 20, none managed to be above average performers. Yes, at 20 years of age, Jennings is doing more than Kobe, Isiah, and last year's Rookie of the Year, Derrick Rose.

Across the past three decades, only three players have been as productive at Jennings at this age. In 1979-80, Magic Johnson posted a 0.353 WP48 and produced 20.6 wins (yes, Magic was very good). Chris Paul - in 2005-06 - produced 17.9 wins with a 0.305 WP48 (yes, CP3 is also very good). And the next season, Rajon Rondo - playing only 23.5 minutes per game - produced 7.0 wins and posted a 0.184 WP48. If Jennings keeps playing 34 minutes per game - and he maintains the level of production we are currently seeing - he will finish the season with 10.6 Wins Produced.

Yes it's early. But it looks like the skeptics were wrong. Jennings may not be Magic or CP3. And we can't change the fact he didn't do much in Italy. But in the NBA, Mr. Jennings looks like he can play.

Roger I. Abrams: Football or Education?

2009-11-26T17:28:52Z

For the last ten years, I have begun my Sports Law course at Northeastern University School of Law with an imagined email from the University president. He would ask for my advice as to whether the institution should make the investment to place Northeastern football on a par with Boston College, the only school in the Boston area which commands national attention. Northeastern would, of course, have to build a new on-campus stadium and devote millions of dollars to the project. It could be done, as the University of Connecticut has shown recently.
Although a majority of the students in my Sports Law class had played college athletics, some at the Bowl Championship Series level, most advised against the move to the "Big Time." This, of course, was not a random survey. The students were, for the most part, big fans of everything "sport." They were also personally familiar with the physical and educational sacrifices involved in playing sports at the pre-professional level.
We would talk about the benefits of the Big Time game - the recognition it could bring to what used to be a large commuter school on Huntington Avenue, but had become a major academic player in recent years -- what high school advisors term a "hot school." Northeastern had other sports, in particular hockey and basketball. To my surprise, my students seemed cool to the idea of making the school into a football factory. They understood that the costs outweighed the potential benefits.
After 35 years as an academic, I still have trouble understanding what football is doing at colleges. It certainly has nothing to do with the educational program. If anything, it detracts from that program and drains limited financial resources. It is certainly fun to go to a college football game, and I rarely missed one at Cornell during my undergraduate years in Ithaca. For many people in this country, public and large private universities have become the setting for football and basketball entertainment.
An active sports program at college is a valuable adjunct to a rigorous educational program. A successful athletic program in a major sport boosts student morale. Students proudly wear their college paraphernalia. They will remember their alma maters fondly for years to come. Even if they never saw football players in class, they can identify with their successes on the field. That is valuable asset in a college and alumni community.
Yet for every school that benefits in this way, there are many more that are disappointed by the Big Time game. For every marginally successful team, there is a marginally unsuccessful one. A school put on NCAA probation for rule violations can be a gloomy place, and virtually every school experiences that disaster at one time or another. The thrill of victory is always followed by the agony of defeat.
Notwithstanding my mythical annual advice to the president that Northeastern should not move up to BC level, it came as a shock this week to receive the news that the University has decided to abolish its football program after more than seven decades. Football was costing the University three million dollars a year. During a time of austerity across higher education, no institution can afford this type of financial drain. Northeastern had done well in this difficult economy by careful planning and pruning. The football decision seems like the next best step. (It is fortunate that Boston University, a crosstown academic and hockey rival, had abolished its football program more than a decade ago, thus providing a local precedent for the move.) The public response to the University's announcement has been underwhelming. No one seemed to care.
If a football powerhouse decided to eliminate its football program, the public and political outcry would be deafening. Try to think of Ohio State, LSU, or Florida without football. These are terrific public universities, but public support for their academic programs is a direct product of their pigskin commitment. In 1939, the University of Chicago - a founding school of the Big Ten Conference, a perennial national football power and the home of Amos Alonzo Stagg - abolished the sport four years after UC senior Jay Berwanger won the first Heisman Trophy. The school's president, Robert Hutchins, responded to angry questions from alumni about what could possibly take the place of football with a single word: "education."
It is true that some truly distinguished private schools, like Stanford University, are able to achieve both academic and athletic success, but in a time of shrinking endowments some difficult decisions may have to be made. Northeastern has done that, and it will continue to prosper as a result.

Charles Karel Bouley: Thanksgiving On The Island Of Misfit Toys

2009-11-26T17:25:02Z

It happens every year in homes all across America. While millions sit down to watch parades and football and prepare to feast on roast beast surrounded by loved ones and others laugh and dance in the kitchen while reciting lines from "All About Eve." Holidays are a time for gatherings and family. To most of American that means in-laws they never see, relatives they wish they didn't have to see and the perennial argument, "But we went to your mother's house last year, this year we have to go to..." However, it is also time for unconventional gatherings, the Islands of Misfit Toys, the gays and lesbians who throw down a spread or any group that forms an "extended" family -- a unit of people drawn together not out of blood but out of love and the need to "be" someplace on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Now as the elder statesmen of gay couples, my partner Andrew and I were that island. Each and every year Andrew would create a sumptuous feast and the open invitation went out to our friends. Each year dinner for ten or more was served. Many showed up early in the day others came just for pie or dessert as a way to escape the traditional family hell they've been in the rest of the day.

The gatherings became a regular event, and it gave those people that attended a sense of belonging, a place to be. In fact, when one of our dear friends moved to Hawaii, we video taped our gatherings all day long -- just let the camera run -- and sent the hours of tape to her so she could still spend the day; thank goodness video chat came along.

There were those whose family lived far away and they couldn't afford to travel that year. There were others who had no wish to be with their real family on Thanksgiving or Christmas because their partners weren't welcomed or they would have to hide their relationship. Some came because we were their family, not by blood, but by the unbreakable bond of friendships forged through years of good and bad times.

It gave Andrew and I such a great sense of family and love. Preparation was often hectic, changing the menu each year (hint: never try eggplant with Gruyere Cheese Sauce), getting the right party favors, music, games, videos, adding to the guest list right up until dinner. The mix was always vibrant -- from my senior mother to our circuit boy friends -- from those that had to rush off to do drag shows to those that were betting on the various games. It was a group one might never find together any place else but at the dinner table on Thanksgiving or on the patio on Christmas afternoon.

Something miraculous happened over those years of hosting holiday misfits. Soon, there were no misfits, there was a family. New members were brought in as some changed lovers or gained new ones; some seats were left empty for those that had been lost during the previous year. And the day seemed normal. Yes, normal. Just like a regular Christmas or Thanksgiving. Andrew would be madly cooking; I would be assisting along with other friends in the kitchen. A group would be outside, listening to music, having cocktails, lighting joints, whatever moved them to holiday cheer. Some were glued to the TV arguing over whether to watch the Lucy or Twilight Zone marathons. Fights erupted and were quelled, and by the end of the day everyone sat full, happy and having that glow that only spending the day with family can give.

Now, this year, I am the misfit toy. Andrew has now been gone an astounding eight years. Everyone expected the island to sink. But the beauty of it is, it couldn't. You see, the bonds we, and you, forge on those days don't go away. The extended family that gathers in the homes of those who have been made to feel outside the realm of normal family the rest of the year stays in place, even when one of the matriarchs fall. Because that's what we became. You all have a couple in your lives as well. The two lesbians that always invite you over. The two gay men who insist on hosting holiday events: The family that hosts the annual Christmas party at their house; the usual Thanksgiving potluck. These days, I host the event, with a little more help from friends and the same amount of love around the room.

To those that question our family values as a community, I say to them attend just one of these gatherings this year. You'll see they are as precious than any "real" family gathering. To those that deny same sex marriage, go see how it's love that what brings us together... the need to belong. The need to share. It's not blood, not obligation, not some warped sense of yearly duty that makes us sit at a table with those we would not normally see. And to those economic misfits this year, spending their first holiday jobless, homeless, whatever-less as Less seems to be the more these days ... well, misfits one and all, welcome!

To those that have shared our gatherings over the years, my heartfelt thanks. To those that will join in future, welcome. And to those of you that find yourself host to the misfit toys of the world know that you are doing something that forever touches and changes the lives of those that attend, even in such a small way.

Holidays are for families. I am so proud to be a member of a community that acknowledges that by creating families from the most unlikely of people in the most unusual of ways. Happy Holidays, be you misfit or matriarch. And Andrew, we'll still be setting a place for you here at Park Howard.

Lisa Earle McLeod: When Bad Relatives Happen to Good People

2009-11-26T17:22:40Z

It's the late-night, whispered conversation between you and your spouse when you're finally alone in the bedroom after an exhausting day of dealing with family holiday drama.

"You've got to talk to her," hisses the wife, who has been counting the days until the "holiday" is over.

"She's just trying to be helpful," says the conflict-avoider husband, who by this point in the visit has started to measure his time in minutes.

"How is criticizing everything I do helpful?" the wife seethes.

"I swear, if she makes one more comment, I will strangle her. You mark my words, get me in front of a jury, and when I tell them everything that woman has done to me over the years, there's not a court in the land that will convict me."

There's nothing like the dysfunctions of others to bring out the beast in us, especially when they're family.

Whether it's the critical in-laws or mooching cousin Eddie, the holidays mean family together time, and for many, it's torture at best.

A recent study from the authors of the New York Times best-seller Crucial Conversations revealed that four out of five people have attended a "miserable" party with family members. (And you thought it was just your relatives.)

However, the study also revealed that it's not so much the nutty relatives that make you dread the holidays; it's how much confidence you have in your ability to deal with them.

Joseph Grenny, one of the Crucial Conversations authors, says, "There are two kinds of people. The people who are dreading having the family members come, and the people who have equally quirky family members, but who are not dreading them."

The difference lies in your ability to have what Grenny refers to as, fittingly, a crucial conversation.

A crucial conversation is one where the opinions vary, the stakes are high and emotions run strong. You know, like that time you tried to talk to your in-laws about spending the holidays at your house instead of making the all-night drive to Oklahoma and cramming your entire family into their musty basement.

For many, it's hard to envision a conversation about an emotional topic that is anything but awful. So we resign ourselves to the either/or choice of igniting an emotional fire pit or silently gritting our teeth in an effort to keep the peace.

However, Grenny calls is "The Sucker's Choice." "Choosing to say nothing or lashing out poorly only fuels the fires of family dysfunction," he says.

Instead, he suggests, we need to search for the elusive AND.

That is, imagine ourselves addressing the hot topic AND maintaining the relationship. You don't need to blast your in-laws with an unfiltered version of "all the awful things you've done to me over the last decade."

If you want them to quit criticizing your child-rearing choices, you can address it in a calm way. Grenny reccomends suspending your own judgments (she's a witch who hates me) and thinking about what you really want (I'd like them to be more supportive of my parenting).

Again, it's not an either/or choice between fighting or ignoring. With a little planning (and some deep breaths) you can have a calm conversation.

I address either/or family dramas in my new book The Triangle of Truth.

But here's the bottom line: you're right; your family is flawed, AND they probably also have some fabulous qualities.

The faster you can accept the flaws and search for the fabulous, the happier your holidays will be.

Lisa Earle McLeod is an author, syndicated columnist, business consultant and popular keynote speaker. Her newest book The Triangle of Truth: The Surpisingly Simple Secret to Resolving Conflicts Large and Small hits bookstores January 5.

Frances Moore Lappe: A Thanksgiving Hymn For 2009

2009-11-26T17:09:26Z

For a world of unprecedented hunger where more than one in seven of us now go without the food we need...

As we come together to offer Thanksgiving for all of the plenty we share here today, our hearts seek the courage to end the growing hunger that kills so many millions and makes us all poor.

We know how to do it, for hunger is needless. Our world harvests plenty for all to eat well. Together let's now use our common human caring to take the thrilling risks to be champions for life.

To the tune of "We Gather Together," a common Thanksgiving hymn based on a 16th century Dutch song; with new words by Richard Rowe and Frances Moore Lappe

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Bruce Feiler: Thanksgiving Code: Five Hidden Symbols Of America's Holiday

2009-11-26T17:00:46Z

The real story of Thanksgiving reads like a Dan Brown novel. It involves a little-known web of secret societies, biblical imagery, presidential power, and lost books. A few years ago, I set out on a 10,000-mile journey through the hidden symbols of American life that became the basis for my new book, America's Prophet: Moses and the American Story. One afternoon I was invited to join the all-male, secret society based in Plymouth, Massachusetts that is the keeper of the Thanksgiving flame. Thanksgiving begins in America's hometown when these men make their annual sail across Plymouth Harbor to the off-limits island where the pilgrims spent their first Sabbath. What I learned on this trip would forever change how viewed America's holiday.

Here are Five Secrets of Thanksgiving.

1. The secret society that invented Thanksgiving.

The Old Colony club is the "oldest gentleman's club" in America. It was founded in 1769 to avoid the "many disadvantages and inconveniences" of intermixing at local taverns. On December 11 that year the club started celebrated the pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock. Since the term pilgrims was not in use at the time, members referred to their celebration as "Old Colony Day," later "Forefathers' Day." They ate baked whortleberry pudding, clams, codfish, venison, eel, and cranberry tarts. It is the first recorded celebration of the pilgrims' landing and introduced the tradition of future Thanksgivings.

2. The little known connection between Thanksgiving and the Bible

The first national day of Thanksgiving came about in 1789, long before Thomas Jefferson described a "wall of separation" between church and state in America. The idea came from Elias Boudinot of New Jersey, who helped design the Great Seal and was the founder of the American Bible Society. Boudinot introduced a measure into the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate a "day of public thanksgiving and prayer" to acknowledge the "many signal favors of Almighty God." When his colleagues objected, he cited biblical precedent. Congress eventually passed a resolution and George Washington issued a proclamation on October 3, saying, it is "the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor."

3. How a manuscript lost for two centuries led to modern-day Thanksgiving.

The fullest account of the Mayflower passage comes from the memoir Of Plymouth Plantation, written by Plymouth governor William Bradford between 1620 and 1647. The manuscript remained in Bradford's family for a century, unread by the public at large, before being left in the tower of the Old South Meeting House in Boston. When the British occupied the tower, the manuscript was lost for the next century. It appeared in London in the 1850's and was finally published in 1856, kicking off a revival in the popularity of the small band of pilgrims who landed in Plymouth in 1620.

4. Why the pilgrims preferred Thanksgiving to Christmas.

The pilgrims were deeply focused on the Old Testament narrative of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. William Bradford called King James the pharaoh. On the Mayflower the pilgrims said their journey was as important as that of Moses. And the first thing they did upon reaching Cape Cod was get down on their knees and thank God for allowing them to cross their own Red Sea. Even the Bibles they carried on the Mayflower were emblazoned with an image of Moses on their title pages. As the Rev. Peter Gomes told me, "The pilgrims weren't trying to recreate the biblical narrative. They were trying to fulfill it." Their biblical literalism was so pronounced they refused to celebrate any holiday not mentioned in the Bible -- including Christmas. In their first year in Plymouth, the pilgrims worked on Jesus' birthday.

5. The connection between the Statue of Liberty and Thanksgiving

In the 1860's, America lovers in France decided to the American journey of freedom by building a Statue of Liberty. Sculptor Frederic Bartholdi chose the Roman goddess of liberty as his model, but he imported two icons from Moses to bring her to life. First, the rays of sun around her head and second, the tablet in her arms, both of which come from the moment Moses descends Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments. Two-hundred fifty years after the pilgrims likened their journey to Plymouth Harbor to Moses, the Statue of Liberty welcomed millions of immigrants to New York harbor with the exact pose of Moses at the climax of the Five Books. On the statue's centennial, Ronald Reagan harkened back to the pilgrims' arrival in America.

"Call it mysticism if you will, I have always believed there was some divine providence that placed this great land here between the two great oceans, to be found by a special kind of people from every corner of the world, who had a special love for freedom and a special courage that enabled them to leave their own land, leave their friends and their countrymen, and come to this new and strange land to build a New World of peace and freedom and hope."

Since its inception, Thanksgiving has always been about the sacred relationship among God, the people, and America, the news Promised Land. At its heart is the biblical figure of Moses.

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