In Solidarity with Angela Davis – 3 – Life Long Trade Union Organizer Mike Wilzoch Weighs In…
Fania and Angela Davis…sisters in struggle and in life
Mike Wilzoch has been involved in pretty much every major labor, human rights struggle in Colorado over the past forty years. He started his social justice activity very young and never looked back. I only know bits and pieces of his story – working with the United Farm Workers of America in the 1970s, organizing for different unions over the years. He started his union work with the Service Employees International Union as a Janitors For Justice organizer, later was the president of SEIU Local 105 till 2000. In San Diego from 2000-2009 he was SEIU’s Justice for Janitors Director while doing immigrant rights work, and then an organizer for SEIU’s San Diego Health Care Unit.” Mike sent his statement to the Birmingham Jewish Federation protesting their interfering with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s giving a human rights award to Angela Davis. The email he sent, like the one Larry Grimm tried to send, was rejected. He has granted me permission to publish it in full just below.
Good Day,
During the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s, many members of the Jewish community across the country were reliable allies in the campaigns for equality and justice for African-Americans. This makes your role behind the scenes to withdraw the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute’s award for Angela Davis all the more tragic and despicable. Ms. Davis is a daughter of Birmingham, who is celebrated across the world for her powerful advocacy for the oppressed. She knew Fred Shuttlesworth, in whose name the award was to be presented, has ties to the BCRI going back to its founding, and a history of working with Jewish groups to promote fairness and resolve conflict.
It is a reflection of your lack of integrity that rather than publicly oppose the BCRI’s decision, and state your reasons openly, you took action in secret to disrespect her and, more importantly, what she has stood for all of her life. Advocacy against Israel’s medieval treatment of the Palestinians, and taking any action to advance their cause is deemed to be a threat to be silenced by organizations like yours. You react reflexively toward any criticism of Israel, no matter how much they dishonor a cornerstone of the Hebrew faith—the relentless pursuit of justice. In fact, many Jewish organizations and members of the faith are in leadership roles opposing the worst of the Israeli government’s policies, practices, and actions—and organizing relentlessly to promote peace and a Palestinian homeland.
As you are aware, your unethical actions have caused a tsunami of reaction to the BCRI’s decision to fail their organization’s mission, and cave to your backdoor pressure: unvarnished condemnation by the Mayor and City Council; a movement among Birmingham’s citizenry to condemn the decision, begin organizing an alternative event to honor Ms. Davis; and a call for a change in the organization’s leadership—which has been successful as the top 3 Officers have resigned.
Be advised that there are millions of us here, and around the world, who have been moved to action opposing both the illegal and inhumane treatment of the Palestinians by Israel and our own government. We take very seriously the accelerating attempts to restrict our 1st Amendment rights to speech and actions to only those you approve of. We will not accept our rights being violated, especially by whisper campaigns and character assassination. Part of our mission is to expose this unethical, dangerous, and un-American conduct. Consider yourself dragged into the sunlight, and your efforts otherwise being quite appropriately catastrophic for your credibility, position and practice.
Mike Wilzoch
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Rob Prince Further Reflections
Fania and Angela Davis…sisters in struggle and in life
(Note. I don’t remember when it was that I first met Larry Grimm, sometime in the mid 1990s but I am not even certain of that. What I do remember well is the way we worked together to help put together the founding conference of “Friends of Sabeel” in Colorado some years ago. Friends of Sabeel continues – a solid human rights organization concerned with the fate of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. A number of its key members here in Colorado are Christians who have served their different denominations in the Palestinian Territories. They know the score.
Larry and I have decided to share our letters to the Birmingham Jewish Federation protesting the pressure they exerted on the Birmingham Civil Rights Organization to rescind a human rights award to Angela Davis. Larry tried to email his but the communication was rejected. Not sure if the Birmingham Jewish Federation’s site has been taken down or if they simply use a filter to discriminate or censor emails. Whatever. I suggest that Larry and others inclined to do so to simply put their communications to BJF in the mail.
Here is Larry’s statement…)
The Rev. Dr. Larry A. Grimm
January 9, 2019
Birmingham Jewish Federation
3966 Montclair Rd., Mountain Brook
Birmingham, AL 35213
Perhaps the Federation, locally and Internationally, may learn from the response to their sabotage of the City’s move to honor Angela Davis. The world has changed its view of the Israeli Military Occupation of Palestine.
So often we fail in empathy. For years the Palestinian people have suffered under the Manifest Destiny of Zionism called Greater Israel. Most Americans have shrugged their shoulders when the topic comes up and most government officials, their conscience having been purchased by pro-Zionist lobbies, have declined debate of the issues, ignoring the facts of oppression inherent in colonial movements.
Your action against this American Icon for Justice has brought home to many that military occupation can be virtual as well as actual. As has the anti-BDS legislation, the actions of the Federation are infringements upon everyone’s freedom of speech and assembly in America. We have the best Congress that money can buy and though Zionists of diverse religious affiliations have bought votes regarding Israeli Occupation and Oppression, perceptions are growing that this is Jewish money. Does that not concern the Federation? Especially when the President thinks there are “good people” on both sides?
For the safety and well being of Jewish Americans and their service for Justice and peacemaking, you must apologize for your actions in Birmingham. Rescind the action taken to sabotage her reward. Open up to the possibility that you may be wrong. Of course, to do so, you much also consider that uncritical support of Zionism is also wrong. I have taught that uncritical support of the USA is wrong and dangerous. You must see that is so for Greater Israel.
Tikkun. The name of Judaism needs restoration. Lead the pack. Take advantage of this mistake to open the way for American Judaism to dissociate from Greater Israel and seek real justice.
B’shalom,
Larry
Larry Grimm
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Rob Prince – Further Reflections
In Solidarity With Angela Davis
Fania and Angela Davis…sisters in struggle and in life
The following letter will be mailed in the morning to the Birmingham Jewish Federation, one of the main organizations pressuring the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to rescind a human rights award to Angela Davis. I urge others to do likewise.
Birmingham Jewish Federation
3966 Montclair Rd, Mountain Brook
Birmingham, AL 35213
January 9, 2019
Dear BJF:
I have been reading about how it was your organization that pressured the Birmingham Civil Rights Organization to rescind a human rights award to Angela Davis, the Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, issued by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
What a cowardly, underhanded action on your part!
Despite all the political influence the Jewish Community has won nationally through organizations like the Anti Defamation League and the American-Israel-Public Affairs Committee, your blind support of Israel and failure to acknowledge and work against what is a process of incremental genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people will be your undoing. Ultimately all American Jews, myself included, will pay the price for your outright bigotry against the Palestinian people in particular and Arabs in general.
Are you blind to what the Palestinians are suffering in Gaza? How land expropriation of Palestinian property continues unabated in the West Bank as do arrests, shootings of Palestinians in the West Bank, especially but not uniquely in Area C controlled by the Israeli Defense Force? Do you still cling to the worn-out accusation that Hamas represents a threat to Israel’s existence? Are you silent about the growing cooperation between pro-Israeli Jewish groups in this country and openly fascist elements like John Hagee’s Christians United for Israel? While the world condemns Israel for the longest illegal and cruel military occupation of modern history, organizations like yours live in a Zionist bubble that denies reality. Of course you cannot do otherwise; to do so would force you to deal with Israel’s untenable actions.
Eaglefest at Windsor Lake…
If you look carefully – one of the young eagles – they are two, one year old juveniles on the left – is trying to catch a duck, who has the presence of mind to dive under the water just in time to save himself. The eagles made several attempts; came up short
This is the third or forth time I’ve been to Windsor Lake looking for eagles. Have spotted them there in the past. There is a lone tall tree at the northeast end of the lake where several years running I’ve seen a pair of bald eagles high up in the branches. Not unusual to see eagles high up in a tree, taking in the view for miles around. As eagles, like humans, are pretty much creatures of habit, I figured it was as good a place to start looking as any. From the parking lot a good quarter mile away, across the lake, there is an unobstructed view of the tree. After one gets in the habit of spotting eagles with a pair of good binoculars, which Nancy happens to have, from the parking lot I can already tell if the eagles are there. The upper branches of the tree provide a fine overview of the entire lake area, some 2.25 miles in circumference.
A quick look through the binoculars. No luck this time. No eagles in the said tree. But before I could get
A Canadian geese convention, one of two, on Windsor Lake. There was an even larger formation off to the left of this photo. Such a concentration of geese and ducks attracts all kinds of predators – eagles, coyotes, foxes, raccoons. (R. Prince photo)
too disappointed, one flew no more than a couple of hundred feet above me, heading north on to the lake. I lost track of him temporarily but would catch up with him further on. And so, binoculars round my neck, my camera in a pack on my back, I started the lake walk. Most of the lake is frozen but there are two large pockets where the ice has melted and there, in both, are not hundreds but thousands of water birds, mostly Canadian geese, however among them easily spotted were also groups of golden eyes and like yesterday, common mergansers. Read more…
Lowell Blvd. Bald Eagle. (R. Rrince photo)
Had hoped to go north today in the area around Windsor and Greeley to look for eagles who are plentiful this time of year around the juncture of the Poudre and South Platte Rivers. An annual trek. But a forecast of high winds – up to 50, 60 miles an hour on the high plains, and 90 miles an hour in the mountains held me back. Instead I ventured up Lowell Blvd. to Clear Creek Valley Park to hike around Jim Baker Reservoir just to the north and search for a bald eagle we had seen on our way to the movies yesterday (Bohemian Rhapsody).
I didn’t expect to see much of an interest today – just a gazillion Canadian geese perhaps. This time of year, there are birds, but they tend to be rather scarce, the ducks that I like to watch and photograph off further south most of the winter. A few days ago, on a similar hike with Molly, didn’t see much, but then got a fine view of an American kestrel, the continent’s smallest falcon which more than made up for not seeing anything else. Today again, not a great deal, but what there was, was genuinely pleasing – a soaring bald eagle (above) early on and then making the 1.3 mile walk around Jim Baker Reservoir, a bevy of common mergansers (just below) amidst the Canadian geese. Read more…
Don Griffis Passes On To The Great Beyond…Where He Will Continue Organizing Veterans Nursing Homes
Don Griffis, at “his office” at Paneras – the last meeting. December 20, 2018
Eleven days prior to his death, a friend and former Fitz employee, and I met with Colorado State Veterans’ Home at Fitzsimons resident, Don Griffis, at “his office” – Panera’s, on East Colfax across the street from the Anschutz Medical Campus where the veterans’ nursing home is located. Shortly thereafter, either late in the night of the last day of 2018, or early on New Year’s Day, 2019, Griffis died. That morning when a nurse came to wake him he had already passed over to the great beyond.
From the time that Griffis entered the facility he shortly thereafter came into his own as a perceptive, patient and quite frankly, sophisticated advocate of residents’ rights. Although lately his contribution is acknowledged by all, it wasn’t all that long ago that certain Human Services administrators tried to have him expelled from the facility for his activism on behalf of residents. He fought back, won his case and continued, like the Everready bunny, to keep going and going. Until the end, he did what he could to improve the lot of residents. And “what he could” was a great deal.
As some one who had written about the situation at “Fitz” which seems in one way or another to be mired in one crisis or another, I had gotten a call about a “new issue” and wanted Griffis’ take on the situation, called him and asked for a meeting. He obliged. “The word” – coming from a number former Fitz employees that the bills of as a many as forty residents that should have been paid by the institution, had gone to collection and that residents themselves were getting collection notices and calls, many of these people having now to deal with unnecessary financial pressures on top of the heaps of medical problems that beset them.
Turns out that Griffis was one of them and that he had, in his inimitable way tried to get another Fitz mess – the kind that never should have happened in the first place – cleared up. When I asked him how it was going, he replied, typically, “I’m working on it.” And when Griffis said he was “working on it” you can be sure that he wasn’t exaggerating. It was, as usual, a fruitful exchange.
He was in good spirits, enjoyed showing his pictures taken with outgoing Governor John Hickenlooper, some of the higher-ups at the Colorado Division of Human Services that oversees Fitz operations – or should – and several people on related governing boards. They all knew Griffis as did pretty much all the state legislators whose district covered the veterans’ nursing home facility.
I will be writing much more about Don Griffis in the days to come. The former professional flautist and Metro State University music history teacher was an unlikely, articulate and intrepid organizer for resident rights. Already his death is being felt throughout the state system.
Good bye Don…You set a brisk pace. We’ll try to keep up with you.
Jacquie Anderson, Colorado Wins Executive Board Member, Don Griffis and Lynne Winchell, former Business officer mgr at Fitz. at the December, 2018 Governor’s Ball
Kurdish Troops Withdraw from Manbij – Rob Prince on RT-USA
Kurdish Troops take over Manbij, Syria – in tandem with the Syrian National Army as the U.S. military withdraws some of its forces.
So…RT – USA (Russian news site) is blasted as simply low-level Moscow propaganda. There is some of
that to be sure, but generally speaking one learns a lot more about what is actually happening in the Middle East – or elsewhere – from RT than from other news sources, certainly from reading the NY Times or tuning in to CBS, etc.
And keep this in mind – if inside the US of A – where it is savaged pretty much daily, out there in “the real world” it has somewhere in the area of 700,000,000 (that is seven hundred million) listeners a day. Whatever the number – it is a sizable chunk of the human species. And.. as it challenges what could be considered the “main stream narrative” of events in the Middle East and elsewhere it represents a threat to the powers that be in this fair land. Don’t want to undermine the main stream narrative, do we?
In much of the Third World it has replaced first the BBC whose credibility has dropped precipitously (other than its history programs), once popular CNN, long discredited for its reporting on the 2003 US led invasion of Iraq , and then more recently as the stock of Al Jazeera (stock meaning audience size) has declined, it is RT that has emerged a source considered more reliable than the two above. RT claims that 2.5 billion (that is 2,500,000,000) people have checked in at their YouTube site. Dunno if that is accurate…but whatever the figure is, I have little doubt that more people around the world are watching and listening to RT than the BBC, CNN or Al Jazeera..
Despite what some friends might think, RT-USA has given a more sober and accurate account of the developments in Syria certainly more than any other news outlet in the USA (TomDispatch and a few other sites excluded). Anyhow, somehow they got my name – dunno how – and read a recent blog entry and what do you know – yesterday my five minutes of passing fame on RT-USA. About the US withdrawal from Syria
So…Rob Prince on RT-USA – Kurdish troops begin withdrawal from Manbij
The Five Names of Beatrice Kaye…(Part Three): Cave Art and the Sixth Name That Wasn’t To Be…
Ceiling at Altamira Cave, northern Spain
“After Altamira, all is decadence”…a quote attributed to Pablo Picasso after leaving the cave in northern Spain with its wondrous cave paintings…
1. Finding Altamira
Last night looking for something to watch on tv we stumbled upon a film “Finding Altamira,starring Antonio Banderas. Altamira, I knew the name of that place in northern Spain. It was where, in the late 19th century, in 1879, Maria, daughter of one Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola, looked up at the ceiling of a cave on the Sautuola property and noticed a series of paintings. Her father was a skilled amateur archeologist and deeply committed secularist. A decent film, it portrayed the history of the discovery of the Altamira cave art accurately enough. The film triggered long ago memories.
Although I’ve not been to Altamira, in 1960 on a family trip to Europe, I visited to another famous cave with prehistoric paintings, Lascaux. It had been discovered a couple of decades after the Altamira cave paintings and helped legitimize the former, which had been declared a modern forgery. Decades later, discussions of cave art, based on Altamira and Lascaux, was a recurring theme in my teaching over half a century. Long after I visited Lascaux – I came to an understanding of its profound implications for what it means to be human. It also gives insights into the projectory of human evolution, that “we,” humanity, have had the same mental, spiritual potential for probably 50,000 years or more; these so-called “cave men” were our equals intellectually and physically. There is no artificial division between “them” – Cromagnon, the paleolithic cave artists – and “us” – modern humanity. “We” are one and the same, even if some 19th century archeologists failed to appreciate the fact, blinded as they were by their own prejudices of the day. When one speaks of the “psychic unity” (or any other kind) of humanity…it goes back to Altamira and Lascaux and somewhat beyond. Read more…
Kurdish female fighters helping to flush ISIS, al Nusra and the like out of Aleppo.
Powerpoint Presentation on the pro-Israel Lobby
I noticed that some people are reading this old entry… I republish it with a brief introduction…
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog
Commentary added December 28, 2018.
Note: This powerpoint was written about ten years ago, probably for a presentation that I gave at the time. That said, I agree with most of what I wrote a decade ago…
Of course this is prior to the Arab Spring and the U.S.-led and orchestrated wars to overthrow the Khadaffi government in Libya and the now failed effort to overthrow the Assad government in Syria and partition that country. Nor is there anything here about Saudi Arabia – which is a vital part of what Noam Chomsky referred to in his very valuable book “The Fateful Triangle” (consisting of the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia).
Washington’s Iran policy has zigzagged all over the place, but as is well known, is currently misguided, reactionary and self defeating.
For all that, even though it is a sketch, it is pretty accurate especially where it concerns the…
View original post 21 more words
Symbolic move or something more serious on the part of the Assad government? Where are all those voices whining about “humanitarian intervention” now that it is the Syrian government intervening to protect its own people?
US Military Pullout from Syria: Declaring Victory To Hide Near Total Defeat – 2 – Changing Balance of Forces in Syria Has the U.S., Turkey Scurrying …
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This is a response to an old friend and companero, Jay Jurie, now living in Florida but from Pueblo, Colorado, concerned about the fate of the Kurds in Syria given the US withdrawal of troops from the eastern region of that country. Almost a half century ago, we were arrested together for our anti-Vietnam War activities at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus. Jurie went on to get his phd and has spent a career teaching at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He’s still there teaching. I’ve learned more about Florida politics from reading his occasional commentaries than from the mainstream media.
In response to Jay’s questions concerning the difficult situation the Kurds find themselves in northeastern Syria, I first posted an article by Indian diplomat M. K. Bhadrakumar; below are detailed my personal impressions.
Finally I would add that this whole subject will be dealt with in considerable detail in the next KGNU Hemispheres “Middle East Dialogues” hosted by Jim Nelson on January 22, 2019 for an hour by which time some of the current mysteries will have become clearer.
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Jay Jurie – secondly, my personal impressions…
Jay, once again, the situation is moving very quickly and is fluid, so fluid that it is difficult to follow and make sense of the process. So to the main points…the U.S. pull out of its troops from Syria is a positive step, nothing less,..although it appears that US bombing will continue and there is now talk of the possible entry of Blackwater type mercenaries in Afghanistan (and also possibly Syria) as well as the US sending Saudi troops (whom by the way historically aren’t worth a sh-t) to replace them. But for Syria, the reduction in the US presence in the eastern third of the country has got to be viewed as a positive development, and not just for Syria, but for regional and even world peace… it greatly reduces what looked like was shaping up – a U.S.- Russian military confrontation there.
By withdrawing the troops, Trump has reduced that eerie possibility (although it has been argued it is a tactical retreat so that the U.S. can concentrate its energies on pressuring Russia, centering on the Ukraine, which is what I think). In Washington’s case it is always useful to reshape the old dictum “the road to hell is paved with good intentions” with “the road to hell is paved with insidious, imperialist intentions”…For Washington the removal of troops from Syria is a tactical withdrawal, an admission of defeat in its plans to partition the country…combined with an attempt to refocus its imperialist ambitions elsewhere – directing its energies more directly against Russia and China. Read more…
Up on the roof at 325 Ocean Ave, Brooklyn NY. Surrounding Grandma Sarah Magazine is my mother, her sister, Aunt Mal, sisters-in-law, Pearl, Thelma and Rae. Seated on the right, late cousin Joel Magazine. I am there too, sort of, as my mother (on the far left) is pregnant with me. Note the hairdos, stylish for the time.
1. Dybbuks (pronounced dubbicks)
A flashback. Early 1990s.
I am not sure of the year, but believe it was 1992, 1993. “Uncle Sam,” Samuel Stone, Aunt Mal’s husband has just died. (There will be more on Uncle Sam in a later segment). We, the family, are at Aunt Mal’s one bedroom, rent control, apartment in Elmhurst, Queens not far from where the Long Island Expressway intersects with Queens Blvd. Many of the other tenants in the building are Ecuadorian and Venezuelan. They treated Aunt Mal, then in her mid 80s with respect and warmth.
The woman who collects the rent for the property management company, and has done so for thirty years, is Aunt Mal’s friend. She is also Henry Kissinger’s sister. “How could such a nice woman have such a son-of-a-bitch as a brother?” she wonders. I don’t know; suppose it is one of life’s great mysteries. A life-long Democrat who lived to be a shade shy of 100, Aunt Mal rarely curses but when she does she says the term “son of a bitch” with great feeling, her teeth grit. I have only heard her refer to two others in such a manner, both presidents of the United States – Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. One of my great private joys was to hear her curse them out. It pleased me immensely.
Anyhow Uncle Sam is dead. Read more…
This photo, of Syrian supporters of the Assad government is two years old, from 2016. I was looking for one from a a few days ago when nearly half a million demonstrated in support of the government in Damascus. Curiously, couldn’t find one from Goggle images.
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All Donald Trump is doing by his announcement to pull U.S. troops from the country east of the Euphrates River is bowing to the reality of the situation and doing what amounts to damage control, rather than digging the hole Washington finds itself in that much deeper. Trump’s announcement of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Syria – characteristically in a tweet – is a prudent decision, admittedly one of the few positive foreign or domestic decisions he’s made in his presidency.
As such, it is, in a world where global tensions are increasing dramatically, a step in the right direction.
Now let’s see if it happens.
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Donald Trump’s announcement that as president of the United States he plans a total pullout of U.S. troops from Eastern Syria has caught many in Washington – both Democrats and Republicans – by surprise. Many Republican senators and representatives are already howling. No doubt, if former C.I.A. director John Brennan is any indication, many mainstream Dems will join them. Ron Paul has come out on the Republican side as a lone voice supporting the pull out. I am hopeful that some of the new more dynamic congress people, mostly women, will support such a pull out although I haven’t yet seen their statements.
Let me state clearly and unequivocally, that I support such a pull-out of U.S. military from Syria 100%. Maybe even 110%. Read more…
Protesters demonstrate against environmental pollution caused by Mohammad al Amoudi owned MIRDOC Lega Dembi mine in Shakisco, Ethiopia. Critics of Midroc’s mine allege the company dumped chemicals from its operations near Shakiso into rivers used by residents and livestock for drinking water, resulting in birth deformities and animal deaths. The protests forced the Ethiopian government to close the mine and withdraw MIRDOC’s permit recently.
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Along with a number of other Salman misadventures – the Saudi-UAE genocidal war against Yemen, the attempted – and largely failed – blockade of Qatar, the support for the Bahraini dictatorship and the colossal failure of the U.S.-Saudi (and others) war against the Assad government in Syria, most of all the Saudi failure to isolate Iran and bring down the Teheran government – Saudi influence in the Middle East and Horn of Africa is shrinking with the Kashoggi murder being something a kind to “the icing on the cake” or the straw that broke Salman’s back.” Further all this has led to a re-evaluation in Washington as to Salman’s reliability as a U.S. ally and regional proxy with a deepening split between Trump’s support of Salman (encouraged by Israel) on the one hand and increasingly worried U.S. intelligence community – and their voices in the U.S. Congress – that have concluded that the young Saudi autocrat, like Ben Ali, Mubarek before him, has outlived his usefulness.
Enter into the picture the unresolved fate of those Saudi billionaires incarcerated in November 2017 and essentially shaken down big time for most of what they are worth. A year later, some remain inprisoned, among them Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed al Amoudi.
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Recently, the fate of Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire, Mohammed al Amoudi has been the subject of several articles appearing in mainstream press outlets. In the aftermath of the Kashoggi murder, worldwide attention has focused on those Saudi billionaires still incarcerated in Riyadh as a part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s anti-corruption campaign.
One of those arrested in November, 2017 and still incarcerated is Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire, Mohammed al Amoudi. As al Amoudi is the largest private investor in Ethiopia – his investments there estimated at anywhere from $1.5-$3 billion depending on the source – Addis Ababa is concerned about his fate, and the possible changes in ownership of his Ethiopian enterprises. The longer that Mohammed al Amoudi is not seen in public or his continued existence otherwise verified, the rumors that he has been killed only intensify. Read more…
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 