Lite Beer

Ever since it was first introduced, the intensity and volume of TV advertising of "Lite Beer" has been monotonically increasing. It can now properly be characterized as a public nuisance. The motivation for this obsession by the brewers is probably two-fold. Firstly, it may be cheaper to produce than beer. Secondly, it is an appeal to the increasingly large intersection of the class of beer drinkers with that of the weight conscious.


For the person who drinks occasionally and then only a bottle or two, the caloric difference between lite and regular is trivial. This difference may be important for people who drink too much at a sitting, but, these deserve what they are getting.

The fundamental problem with lite beer is that is that it does not have a decent taste. It has no body; it is thin and usually bitter. It simply is not beer. It should be poured back into the horse.

Predator Drones

In the New York Times of December 4th, there is a long report on the use of predator drones to track down and slay members of the Taliban an al Qaeda. The use of such weaponry was very disturbing to Tom Parker, policy director for counterterrorism at Amnesty International. He is reported as saying, “Anything that dehumanizes the process makes it easier to pull the trigger.” It is not clear precisely what disturbs Mr. Parker. Killing in any form has been a common human activity since Cain became annoyed with Abel.


Mr. Parker implies that anything that emotionally detaches the shooter from the shootee is objectionably dehumanizing. High-level aerial bombardment or cannonade by long-range artillery would fit his criteria for emotional detachment. Low level strafing of troops, a sniper blowing a man’s head to pieces, or a suicide bomber on a bus full of people, is the proper way to kill.

Sometime, somewhere, someone must have observed that mankind’s supreme stupidity is the practice of war. The Geneva Convention attempts to delimit both the extent of the stupidity and (if this may be forgiven) its inhumanness.



What doesn’t Mr. Parker understand about waging war? Von Clausewitz stated it succinctly, “War is the continuation of policy by other means.” History tells us that ‘other means’ entails killing. It is not a chess game in which one acknowledges defeat by resigning. The entire point in pulling the trigger of a rifle, the lanyard of a fieldpiece, or pressing a bomb release is to kill someone. The ultimate governing principle is the (apocryphal) address by General Patton to his troops, “It is not your duty to die for your country; it is your duty to make the enemy die for his.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The New York Times, December 3, 2009,  reports that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated $50 million to be spent in China over a 5 year period to combat a variety of sexually transmitted diseases. The aim of the program is certainly laudable but is it really necessary for an American based foundation to be supporting a health program in China which has foreign currency reserves estimated to include as much as $1 trillion?  Would that money not be better spent to create jobs in Pontiac, Michigan where the unemployment rate is 33% ?

What is it that we are not seeing?

Public Editor -The New York Times

In the Sunday, December 10, 2008 issue of the New York Times, Clark Hoyt, the Public Editor agonizes over "... what to call people who pursue political, religious, territorial, or unidentifiable goals through violence on civilians." There does exist a well-established rule for deciding. It comes from Hoyle's rules for poker. Simply put, it says that cards "speak for themselves". A player may not call two-pair a full-house. By analogy, these individuals should be called what they are, homicidal sociopaths.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Several days ago I received a communication from my college alumni association (City College of New York) concerning the 70th reunion of the class  of 1940.  Some personal data was requested.  I referred to the graduation yearbook and found something that brought back very sour memories.  The yearbook bore the dedication, "To the fight to keep America out of the war."  It was prepared during the months leading up to June 1940.  This period was was squarely in the middle of the era of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.  It lasted from August 24, 1939 till June 22, 1941, the date on which Germany launched its attack on the Soviet Union.   The pact established spheres of influence in Eastern Europe that led inter alia to the divison of Poland between them.

Up till the signing of the pact, Nazi Germany was anethema on campus.  The day following the announcement of the pact, communist students and their adherents had an epiphany.  The Nazis immediately became enlightened nationalists and the Jews in Germany were troublemakers and deserving of all the trouble they were having.  There was also the chant, "To hell with England; let God save the King."  The campus was plastered with posters bearing the same legend.    On June 22, 1941, there was a new epiphany. Germany reverted to its previous status of vileness and and England became noble and worthy of total support.

The comunnist cohort of students had much more influence on campus they should have.  They were vocal and well organized. There was, however,  one goup of students beyond their influence or control: The members of the ROTC.  In the class yearbook, Microcosm, the graduating seniors were grouped in separate sections according to their School: Liberal Arts, Engineering, etc.  The communists had their revenge by segregating the ROTC graduates into a separate ROTC section.

The ROTC no longer exists at City.  When it did, it was the largest voluntary ROTC in the country. 

Purity of the Doctrine

A "Committee for the Preservation Of the Purity of the Doctrine" has been established by the Republican Party. An Executive Sub-Committee comprising

Ann Coulter
Glen Beck
Rush Limbaugh
Sarah Palin
Tim Pawlenty

has ben appointed. TV Channel Fox 5, in the New York tri-state area is the sanctioned media outlet for authorized pronouncements.

The first order of business of the Committee is consideration of a proposal that when the Republican Party retakes control of the Congress, an Auto-de-Fa will be held on the mall for the purification of deviant members of the Party of Lincoln.

Rembrandts in the Hermitage

Portraits by Rembrandt In the Hermitage July 30, 1996

Rhea and I like to travel and, after many excursions through Western Europe, Russia became very attractive. St. Petersburg is an obvious item on a Russian itinerary and in due course, we arrived there. There is much to enjoy and we quickly found the Hermitage. We were enthralled and overwhelmed by the huge collection of first-rate art. It was so enjoyable that we returned, primarily to spend time at the Hermitage.

The Hermitage, is one of the worlds greatest fine arts museums. It contains the priceless of Imperial Russia. The splendor of its collections is superbly comple­mented by their presentation in what is unquestionably the finest setting for fine arts in the world - the Winter Palace on the River Neva that Catherine the Great called her Hermitage.

Peter the Great was the initial collector. His observations of princely establish­ments during his peregrinations in Western Europe persuaded him that the embellishment of a royal palace required lavish application of the fine arts. Paintings were a necessary part of the decor. But, he was hampered by not being a connoisseur so his earliest instruc­tions to his agents were to "buy only good stuff". They did and in so doing laid the foundation for the present collection.

His daughter Elizabeth, after several intervening rulers, became Czarina in 1741. She commissioned the building of a palace on the Neva River to be her winter residence. This was a sumptuous structure and became the nucleus of what in the hands of Catherine the Great became the Winter Palace that she called her "Hermitage". Catherine was a connoisseur and she actively collected the best of western art her agents could find. And find, they did.

Among the present day holdings is the second largest number of Rembrandts of any museum in the world even after the sale of ten Rembrandts during the 19th century. Only the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam today has more. Jay Richard Judson in his Encyclopedia Britannica (15th Edition) article on Rembrandt includes six of those in the Hermitage in his list of "major works". That portion of the list dealing with paintings has three categories: Portraits, Religious, and Allegories and the first contains only one entry, Portrait of Saskia as Flora. It is one of Rembrandt's early mature works and represents his wife as the Goddess of Flowers. It is a splendid work and I would be disinclined to say it should not be on the list.

At his best a critic (of the fine arts in this instance) is an educator. He places the object under consideration in perspective with respect to others of its kind. He points out its essential features and how they fuse to create the whole that in any great work of art is more than the sum of its parts. Palladian villas are much more than their fenestration. But, that student is neglectful who suppres­ses his own judgment. If the teacher is never questioned a substantial portion of the education will be lost. It is in this spirit that I would respectfully question Mr. Judson, whose illuminating article added much to my education.

In the Hermitage collection are three oils of overwhelming power. One is the Sacrifice of Abraham that is included in the religious category and two portraits that are not. It is their omission that I would question. They are titled Portrait of an Old Man in Red and Portrait of an Old Jew. Surely, these two must be among the finest portraits Rembrandt ever painted. Both are products of his later years, fairly large and like many of his later works these have the typical deep chiaroscuro. Except for the face and hands, which glow in a soft light, the paintings are thick with shadows.

The Sacrifice of Abraham was painted the year after the portrait of Saskia as Flora and has the raw power of youth. It has the impact of a blow, literally. Isaac lies on the ground, arms bound. Abraham holds Isaac's head back with his hand fully covering his face. The knife is held aloft ready to fulfil the command of the Lord. It is just barely stayed by the angel. The unwavering brutality of the manner in which Abraham forces Isaac's head back while hiding his face is central to the concept of the painting and is awesome. Unless the artist has left notes one can never know with certainty precisely what he had in mind. Perhaps what Rembrandt meant to portray was the steadfastness of Abraham's adherence to the mandate of the Lord yet trying to avoid looking at the face of the son he was about to sacrifice. Whatever the intent the emotional impact is naked and direct.

Of a different order entirely are the Portrait of an Old Man in Red and Portrait of an Old Jew. The impact is not as immediate; if one is distracted one might easily walk by. If one stops, however, one is seized - transfixed. The impact then builds like a tide and becomes overwhelming. One has no choice but to remain.

Over the course of his lifetime Rembrandt painted many self-portraits and as he grew older the face he depicted evolved from that of a confidant, vigorous individual fully in control of his destiny to one who has suffered the injuries that life can inflict. A certain weariness, sadness, and, above all, resignation becme more and more pronounced. It is precisely these charac­teristics that are the poignant, central aspects of these two portraits. One can only conclude that both are self-por­traits. The first is obviously a psychological self-portrait and the second, the Portrait of an Old Jew, is the same with the added burden of the Eternal Outcast.

Because Mr. Judson's article was simultaneously so impressive and pleasurable to read, I found that the disparity of judgment of these two portraits by Mr. Judson and myself puzzling. It would seem to reside in an essential limitation of the critical art.. The impression these portraits made on me was clearly very particular and private. They had a lesser impact on Mr. Judson. Anyone experien­cing a work of art is constrained by a personal and private template. No two templates can be alike. Each is constructed by one's life experience to that instant. If, for instance, it is a painting that is being viewed, every painting he has ever seen and everything relevant he has ever read or heard or seen have preconditioned the viewer. He judges, evaluates, measures, likes, or dislikes within the confines of this back­ground. The personal template varies dramatically as one ages. A teenager, not possessed of musical talent will probably be seriously bored by one of Bach's suites for unaccom­panied cello and some years later, suitably conditioned, might sit entranced through its complete performance.

OED

Asshole December 21, 1996


My word processor has a dictionary which I use regularly
to compensate for a less than perfect memory. I'd prefer
to have something more extensive than the one provided.
The OED would seem to be overdoing it, but it would be
nice to have something more elaborate than the one
I have. This lack impressed itself while I was writing a
letter to a friend of some 40 years or more. One is not
formal with such old friends so it was that while discussing
the current brouhaha about the young man at Cornell
who had infected virtually every computer connected to
ARPANET, the noun "asshole" suggested itself most
strongly. Later, when checking the letter for spelling,
the dictionary informed me that it was ignorant of the
word and offered me inter alia the option of adding it to
its store of knowledge if not wisdom.

I reflected on the sorry state of the world. I thought about
such matters as the Kosovo-Serbia fratricide, the Chinese
brutalization of Tibet, the conversion of the White House
into a big business lobby, the occasional police officer who
seems to be part of the problem rather than a piece of the
solution, cheap-shot cornerbacks in the National Football
League, and soon came to the conclusion that the dictionary
would be less than useful if it were not included.