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Your points are well taken, and I would add that the revelation at Sinai also included a kind of sexual revolution: in contrast to all the cultures of antiquity, with their pederasty and sacred prostitutes and lecherous gods, the ancient Hebrews were instructed to restrict sexual activity to marriage with the purpose of procreation. It is under-appreciated how radically different the Torah was to the ambient cultures. Orthodox Jews are permitted some forms of contraception but only in the context of a family oriented towards children (and we still have a high fertility rate.

This article wasn’t the place to argue the case, but to the extent I can speak of philosophy of mind as a non-professional, I sympathize with St. Augustine’s “Divine Illumination” theory. That is, what Kant calls synthetic a priori reason — our ability to understand certain things intuitively and synthesize a concept out of disparate elements — is made possible by participation in the mind of God. Kantian and neo-Kantian epistemology has roots in Augustine, but excises God from the picture.

The point of the essay was this sentence:

“The tragedy is that Jews have stopped being Jews because America has stopped being America.”

Israel isn’t isolated, either; it’s got the United States. During the first stages of the war (1624) it was Holland that got a subsidy from France (for which it sold out the Huguenots at La Rochelle — the Dutch played dirty when they had to). But the German Protestants were crushed by 1625, and the Swedes were crushed by 1634 after Nordlingen. It was the Mantuan War in 1628 that diverted Spanish resource sufficiently for Maurice to invade the Catholic Netherlands. Nonetheless, the Dutch beat the Spanish in Flanders with their own land army, and on the sea with their own navy.

The permanent oversupply of unskilled labor bothers me, especially after the British riots. The proliferation of “flash mobs” in the US is frightening.
Now, I hate government spending as much as the next hard-core conservative, but...suppose we set up a National Infrastructure Corps and hired people for $15 an hour to do jobs that government unions are doing for $40 an hour?

Here’s a (non-rhetorical) question: Does anyone out there think Romney has a chance? Wouldn’t be my first (or fifth) choice, but friends are asking.

I live not too far from the Hunter College School, a free K-through-12 prep school run by Hunter College (part of the CUNY system)—one of the top schools in NY. So many apply that they throw out all but the top 1% test scores and then start interviewing. Some times I see a class trooping off towards Central Park for sports — more than 90% Asian.

Okie,

I have a lot of regard for Sarah Palin but I don’t think she’s electable. It was a shame that she was pushed into the VP slot too early. She should have spent a few years as a Senator learning the ropes. Her instincts are good, and I certainly agree with her about most things. But she’s too inexperienced and it shows, and I can’t imagine her getting nominated, let alone elected.

My experience with entrepreneurs is very first hand. Remember, I ran a number of investment bank research departments. As for the capability of Asian entrepreneurs: the nerdy number-cruncher of the stereotype is not the competition you have to worry about. There are 35 million Chinese studying classical piano. That’s not counting the string players. Kids who study math and science AND play classical music aren’t robots. They’re likely to be smart and inventive. I sit on the board of a music conservatory in New York; we have an orchestra that at its best is hard to distinguish from the NY Philharmonic, and two-thirds of the players are Asian. Classical music is the most unique and characteristic Western art form and Asians are starting to dominate it.
You have a tsunami of competition coming straight at you.

Most Asian college grads, by the way, are diploma-mill dross. The doctorates are pretty good. I hired tons of them on Wall Street.

It’s sadly true that many liberal Jews promote neo-paganism, along with their liberal Christian co-irreligionists, if that’s the right word. Some problems liquidate themselves. Among Americans, the lowest fertility rates are found among Reform and secular Jews (around 1.1 or 1.2), and mainline liberal Protestants (1.3 for Episcopalians and Presbyterians—granted that all Episcopalians and Presbyterians aren’t liberal). Meanwhile the Modern Orthodox Jews are having 3 or 4 children, and the ultra-Orthodox are having 7 or 8. In fifty years, please God, we will have roughly the same number of Jews, but most of us will be observant.

All,
Thank for the comments and the kind words. I had emails today from three senior Reagan/Bush national security officials telling me that they are utterly aghast at the shambles of American policy. You don’t need a conspiracy theory to conclude that Obama hates America (I give no credence to the “Obama is a Muslim,” “Obama isn’t a US citizen,” etc. rumor mill). He identifies with the “victims” of globalization against the supposed Evil Empire, a/k/a USA.
The best thing that can happen is that the Republican-controlled House holds hearings to batter the Obama administration. My friend Lee Smith today rightly characterizes the Wikileaks cables as “the Pentagon Papers of the Right.” See www.tabletmag.com

The three claims that Islam is 1) a pagan religion, 2) a Christian heresy, and 3) a totalitarian political ideology are not mutually exclusive. But it is hard to argue that most Muslims do not experience Islam as a religion. An integralist religion that demands control over every aspect of life certainly has a totalitarian dimension, although there are Muslim countries (for example Indonesia) that certainly are not totalitarian. One can say that any Muslim country (country where Islam is the state religion) is in danger of becoming totalitarian.

There is a German convert to Islam at University of Muenster who two years ago published a paper arguing that Islam revives the old Gnostic heresy that Christianity had expunged centuries earlier. I wrote about it here:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JK18Aa01.html

First, I am not Catholic but Jewish. First Things is not Catholic (although its founder was Catholic) but ecumenical.
Second, I support Just War doctrine. I supported the invasion of Iraq but thought it stupid to take responsibility for nation-building in Iraq. We should have put in our own strongman and withdrawn most of our forces.
Third, Petraeus solved Bush’s problem in Iraq brilliantly, but at the cost of creating an effective Sunni armed force, which will create trouble in the future.

A Spengler tattoo? Cool. Being Jewish, I’m not allowed to have tattoos, but that doesn’t prevent other people from having them.

You might consider:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/images/spengler-forum-image-2.gif

and as a motto:

“It’s not the end of the world.
It’s just the end of you.”

Many thanks for all the encouragement. This is a great forum and I stop by from time to time to pick up news and ideas.

Late 50s.

You have to work on your sense of humor.

I am not anti-American. I am pro-American. I supported the invasion of Iraq (but not the nation-building disaster). I have argued for a pre-emptive strike against Iran. However, when America shoots itself in the foot, I will say so. As for ethanol, drought, and rice: there is very little substitution between rice and other grains. To the extent that the weak dollar pushes up oil prices, that will also affect the price of ethanol and hence corn, etc. There is no rice shortage. Thailand, the largest producer, had a record crop, and (as I said) world price production is at a record. Thailand, the US, and other producers easily can augment production. Thai farmers can if needed produce three crops a year; the state of Louisiana alone probably could feed the world. That is what makes this situation so alarming. It is the first global food shortage in the midst of plenty.

I do not believe that anyone can make Islam out to be whatever what they want, but that the sophmoric method of pasting quotations into one’s copy-book is insufficient. I despite Karen Armstrong with a passion, and rather like Robert Spencer, but this is not personal: it is about the right and wrong way to go about a dangerous and sensitive and critical task. What he does is well intended, but it simply isn’t good enough.

Muslims do not check off a list of precepts, good or ill; they are Muslims for existential reasons. I made the same point at greater length here:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa03.html

Islam is a religion, that is, a spiritual act, not a set of doctrines that one agrees to or not. One has to get inside spiritual experience of the religion to understand the motives of its adherents. Among the leading living theologians only Benedict XVI has touched on the issues, albeit with great caution. Among the leading 20th century theologians only Franz Rosenzweig offered a thorough treatment of Islam’s problems. There are resources available for analysis of Islam, and they are ignored at our great peril.

I do not believe that anyone can make Islam out to be whatever what they want, but that the sophmoric method of pasting quotations into one’s copy-book is insufficient. I despite Karen Armstrong with a passion, and rather like Robert Spencer, but this is not personal: it is about the right and wrong way to go about a dangerous and sensitive and critical task. What he does is well intended, but it simply isn’t good enough.

Muslims do not check off a list of precepts, good or ill; they are Muslims for existential reasons. I made the same point at greater length here:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HJ03Aa03.html

Islam is a religion, that is, a spiritual act, not a set of doctrines that one agrees to or not. One has to get inside spiritual experience of the religion to understand the motives of its adherents. Among the leading living theologians only Benedict XVI has touched on the issues, albeit with great caution. Among the leading 20th century theologians only Franz Rosenzweig offered a thorough treatment of Islam’s problems. There are resources available for analysis of Islam, and they are ignored at our great peril.