Growing old ain’t much fun but there are certain benefits. 

I don’t have to shave every day. 

I don’t have to sit through faculty meetings, an exquisite torture. 

I no longer bother to shine my shoes. 

I don’t feel required to sit through boring “scholarly lectures.” 

​I seldom need to put on a tie. 

I don’t feel obligated to change my own oil and take care of my own yard.  I don’t worry about weeds in the yard or raking leaves. 

I can answer the many enquiries and requests for help only from those scholars and students I know deserve it. 

When I read internet articles I no longer feel obligated to read  the Comments which with rare exceptions are ignorant and abusive statements made by clueless, obsessed people who never actually do anything but complain. 

​I can enjoy the blessing of adult children and fantastic grandsons. ​

It does not do to be too sympathetic to Muslims. They fight among themselves, seldom help their co-religionists, and (like Americans) are often betrayed by their own leaders. They harbour strong elements of murderous jihad and abominable sharia.

Yet there are many millions of them, they occupy a large swath of the earth’s surface, and their tainted religion does encourage decent behaviour and peace among a lot of otherwise primitive people.

In normal times, they would be U.S. friendly (as they used to be) and happily sell us their oil, without bothering us much. But for more than a half century they have been the victims of serious injury by the U.S. establishment. In Palestine they have been invaded and occupied by foreigners, had their land ruthlessly stolen, been herded into camps, and become second-class inhabitants in a land that has been theirs for centuries. And the invader has harmed the ancient community of Palestinian Christians as badly as the Muslims.

“Terrorism,” though ugly war against the innocent, is a natural response of the weak facing overwhelming power. An overwhelming Israeli power massively subsidized by the U.S. state which for decades has provided Israel with more support than all other countries put together, including the best weapons.

In that circumstance, Hamas takes on the character of the resistance of an occupied people. Now, in response to a military attack, the Palestinians are being driven from their homes and subjected to a massacre of women and children. Is this war, or simply war used as an excuse for something long desired by the ruling power?

Can any decent American doubt that this an evil thing for which we ought to expect the wages of sin? Can any decent American fail to condemn the suffering on the innocent? A few lonely American voices who have questioned our position have been quickly silenced. Our establishment is callously, and sometimes in a celebratory mode, cheering on this evil. What ever happened to what so many thought of as our benevolent national character and sympathy for the underdog?

The Republicans are the worst of all. They complain about Palestinians protesting on our own soil, although they have abetted mass immigration for decades. The newly-elected Republican leader in the House of Representatives says that he is supporting Israel because he is a Christian. Intelligent people who want to can cause a lot of evil. But we should remember that stupid people are capable of terrible evil also without even knowing what they are doing.

Mr. Lovett has provided us with useful commentary on this site on the situation, including suggestions for reading. I can add that there in fact quite a few movies sympathetic to the occupied Palestinians, usually made by Europeans.

I’ll suggest two that have moved me. They came out around 2008 before the current troubles. Neither is the least shrill or militant. They are quiet and gentle in portraying the life of occupied Palestinians.

Laila’s Birthday might be called “A Day in the Life of a Palestinian.” A taxi driver, struggling for a living in an occupation well below his educational level, is trying to find a gift and a cake for his daughter’s birthday. In addition to the normal problems of daily life, he faces the normal abnormal realities of explosions, checkpoints, and routine humiliation. His experience is almost a classic odyssey.

The Lemon Tree, based on a real event, is a poignant account of the tribulations of a Palestinian woman. Her lemon tree, her only inheritance and living, is targeted for destruction by the Israeli army, who declare it a threat to “state security” because it blocks a short section of their view. The victimised lead character is a Palestinian lady. She has a maturely beautiful and subtly expressive face such as we associate with great actresses. No civilised human can fail to be moved.

With the recent court decision in New York, the U.S. has entered a new era on its downward path to destruction.

Trump’s sentencing on absurd technical “crimes” that harmed nobody is scheduled just before the meeting of the Republican presidential nominating convention. Nobody with “two grains of sense to rub together” (as Grandmother used to say) thinks that is unplanned.

The Republican elite may very well use Trump’s “felonies” as an excuse to repudiate their most popular candidate and their voters and give the country a “respectable” ticket - one of them. We are hearing of Nikki Haley as a Vice-President - a ridiculous opportunist who has never done one constructive thing but who is a darling of the Republican wing of the Dark State.

Assuming Trump is allowed to run, it is possible that with multiple candidates the decision will be thrown into the House of Representatives. This will give the Republican elite another opportunity to collaborate with the Left and block Trump. That is what they always do. It m atters not to them that they trash their most popular candidate. He is not one of their posed “respectable,” moderates.

Meanwhile, the Republican leaders in the Senate and House declare giving money to the corrupt Ukrainian government is America’s greatest challenge at the moment. It is hard to tell whether they are that stupid, blinded inside the D.C. bubble, or whether they are merely lying to keep their “respectability.”

People are always complaining that the Dark State gets away with everything it wants. Why? The answer is simple. There is no opposition. The Republicans are not a political party but merely an electoral machine for those who benefit from it. They are certainlynot an Opposition party. Any one of a hundred top Democrats could be prosecuted for crimes greater than Trump’s. But the Republican leadership has no interest in doing right. Their concern is to keep their moderate and respectable stance. Perhaps they are now badly miscalculating the situation.

The most positive thing that can come out of the pending debacle will be the collapse and destruction of the Republican party in its present form - perhaps allowing the emergence of a genuine Opposition party.

I have never been enthusiastic about Trump, but have given him the benefit of the doubt as the only game in town. His moral transgressions are more publicised but probably behind him and less than most politicians and rich men. A wise man once told me that you can evaluate a politician by looking at his children. Trump scores high on that measure, compared with Biden or any other national figure I can think of.

He is a genuine American type, not one I admire, but at least he is the real thing, and unlike any other national figure, capable of good, old-fashioned straight talk. Every attempt to stop him results in an increase in his support and donations. I have to admit that my level of enthusiasm has been declining lately.

​I am disappointed in some of his possible appointees that are mentioned, but that may just be empty speculation. I am even more disappointed in his callous support of Israeli genocide. I would like to think that he has learned something since his last term and stolen re-election and will actually be able to make some progress in draining the Swamp. But that is just a hope, not a certainty.