Mazel Tov Laos

Whatever they're doing in Vientiane to combat antisemitism, the rest of the world needs to take notice.

According to a poll just released by the Anti-Defamation League, 26% of the world's adults harbor some form of anti-semitic attitude. From the article:

The highest concentration of anti-Semitic attitudes was found in the Middle East and North Africa, the survey showed, led by the West Bank and Gaza, where 93 percent of respondents held such views, followed by Iraq at 92 percent, Yemen at 88 percent and Algeria at 87 percent. The areas where anti-Semitic attitudes were least prevalent were Oceania, the Americas and Asia.

I can't say that I'm surprised by the findings or the fact that most of the hatred seems to come from areas where there are conflicts between Jews and other populations. But then comes this:

In Laos, less than 1 percent of the population held such views, the lowest anywhere, the survey said.

What is the Laotian secret? Is it that they remember the horrors of the Vietnam War and the Cambodian genocide that followed and are making sure that ethnic hatred is banished from the country? Do they have an especially tolerant attitude towards their Jewish population (I couldn't find the Laotian Jewish population, but approximately 300 Jews live in neighboring Vietnam)? What programs are they teaching in schools that are so effective that only 0.02% of the population is anti-semitic? We need to find out and copy it immediatley.


In the meantime, thank you Laos for being a beacon of openness.

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We Need A War On War

If the Greatest Generation fought and won World War II and created a new world where a war like that one was far less thinkable, then the Baby Boomers must be the Double Secret Greatest Generation for fighting multiple wars on multiple fronts.

We fought the War on Poverty. Haven't won that one yet. We're currently fighting the War on Terrorism, the War on Women, the Climate War, the War on Christmas (how will we know if we've won that one?) and other, lesser wars on education, entitlements, health care, obesity (seem to be winning this one), the minimum wage, voter ID laws, sabermetrics and a few others that I'm sure others believe us to be waging.

What we really need, though, is a War on War. That one would be worth fighting, albeit delicately. Because obviously we couldn't' be fighting an actual war while fighting a war to end wars. So don't look for the United States to enter Syria, Iran, North Korea or even Nigeria with a force ready to end hostilities or to slap some people in the face, grab them by the shoulders and yell, "What the heck are you thinking?" (I would volunteer for this kind of duty. I do outrage really well.)

The War on War has to start with every individual and every media outlet in the country. It requires a sustained effort on the part of every citizen and we need to teach it to our youth. It would be an idealistic campaign, but sometimes those are the most successful ones. Besides, we can't afford to lose this one.

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New Jersey and Mississippi: Perfect Together

There can be no more damning a statistic than the one in today's Star-Ledger and on nj.com. This article lays out in stark detail why Chris Christie will not be elected president, and why he should not have been reelected this past November. His economic record is terrible and New Jersey is tied with Mississippi, and just above New Mexico, as the state with the most anemic private sector job increases in the country.

Mississippi at least has some excuses for its place on the list, owing to its history, relatively poor population and the destruction of its industrial base over the past 40 years. New Jersey should be doing better. After all, this is the home state of the major pharmaceutical industries and one with a terrific public school system (unless Christie has his way with it) and a college-educated work force willing to put up with serious infrastructure problems ('nother train tunnel anyone? Anyone?) and terrible roads/trains/buses. And that's before we even get to work.

The governor will surely blame his troubles on the Democrats who run the legislature and who won't approve his business-friendly judges or cut the income tax so he can starve the public sector unions that contribute so much to the state's bottom line. He'd much rather make the unions pay even more for their pensions and benefits, simultaneously taking more money out of the economy and destroying the middle class, while blocking the even small revenue boost that would come from asking the wealthy to pay more. And he won't even make the pension payment he promised.

The Governor wants to run on his economic record. The problem is that he doesn't have one that the rest of the country would benefit from. He still also opposes marriage equality and ran against an immediate minimum wage increase of $1. It passed because the people of New Jersey voted for it, but nobody's getting rich on it.

Further complicating Christie's future plans is the entry of Jeb Bush into the national Republican conversation. Now donors might have to choose the Bush that even his mother preferred to be president with a governor who's still defending himself over a traffic jam. Right now, Christie is losing that race too. It really has gone from bad to worse. He won reelection with over 65% of the vote. Now he might not even compete with the family whose last son presided over the destruction of the economy and fought two wars on credit cards.

I'll say it again: Chris Christie won in 2013. That will prove to be his final general election win.

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