October, Again

A.D. Freudenheim, The Editor

Back in January, I theorized that a significant danger to Senator Barack Obama’s election hopes would be an “October surprise”: a terrorist attack on the United States that would serve up an unhealthy dose of fear, and scare Americans into voting for the Republican candidate. Several weeks after that, it all popped up again, with subtle leaks of a new Al Qaeda plan. At the time, I wrote: “A slow news trickle about a renewed capability to attack the United States on the part of our Public Enemy #1 – now, as the presidential race takes on a different shape with a presumptive nominee for the Republicans – fits this pattern. It serves a valuable purpose for the tail end of the Bush administration, shifting focus away from the reeling economy and back towards the fear that provokes bad decision-making on the part of both voters and our Congress.”

And five months later, the issue is back – and this time, it is not just me theorizing about it.

In an upcoming issue of Fortune magazine due out July 7^th, but available online earlier), Charles Black, an advisor to Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that a terrorist attack on the U.S. would help his candidate – as was seemingly shown by the murder of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. David Whitford, the article’s author, wrote: “‘The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December was an “unfortunate event,”’ says Black. ‘But his knowledge and ability to talk about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us.’ As would, Black concedes with startling candor after we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. ‘Certainly it would be a big advantage to him,’ says Black.”

Does anyone still doubt the likely GOP strategy for trying to win the November election?

Needless to say, the McCain campaign has been trying to backpedal. A bit. Sort of. On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Senator McCain “disavowed” Charlie Black’s comments, although if you read McCain’s quote as reported, it is not so much a disavowal of Black’s point, rather just an assertion that McCain doesn’t like terrorism: “I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true. I've worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear.” Working “tirelessly” to fight terrorism and believing that an attack would help your odds are two different things, Senator McCain.

(As if understanding this point intuitively, but unable to spell it out directly, the AP article noted: “The GOP also questioned the Democrats' record on national security in 2002, with White House political adviser Karl Rove saying Republicans should not shy away from citing terrorism concerns as a reason to vote for their party.”)

Anyway, having Black say it is merely part of the strategy, too: fear needs little proof to be effective. The Obama campaign (rightly) went to town on this. The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz picked up the issue. In today’s New York Times, Frank Rich nailed it. Even the conservative Wall Street Journal had a little trouble swallowing this one, though it did quote an expert who agreed that an attack would help McCain. (Favorites? The Tehran Times, calling it “Black’s faux pas” and helpfully defining “faux pas,” and Al Jazeera, which wrote “US election diary: The mask slips.”) Many more news outlets wrote, too, if you want more reading.

We have not heard the last of this issue. Best case scenario: it remains an election issue in words only. The worst case scenario? I would prefer not to think about it, and it remains too easy to imagine.

Spatial Influences

A.D. Freudenheim, The Editor

I like history, and as I wrote about Berlin a couple of years ago (or about New York, for that matter), I am particularly intrigued by the overlapping elements of history and our physical environment. One of the best experiential components of a visit to any “foreign” place is simply in taking the time to look around, to absorb the things that are otherwise all too easy to ignore or miss. So much of the beauty of life comes in the form of its details.

My experience in Budapest more than met the test for a visual and intellectual extravaganza. It was a busy three days on the ground, and it has taken me as many days since to sift through both my memories and my photos. If the trip was a whirlwind, my recollections here will be similar, a (nearly) stream of consciousness review of a range of visual experiences. The photos included here generally reflect the shifts in the text.

Clearly it isn’t possible to write about Budapest and not recognize its Iron Curtain history, and this was the first thing I noticed driving in from the airport. One sees the wide range of buildings representing the city’s many phases: from the heights of the Austro-Hungarian empire, to the un-fixed damage from (one assumes) the Second World War, to the mediocrity of buildings that were fixed, to structures that look like they were Bauhaus designs, and then to those that were so clearly Soviet chic. At the top of Buda Castle, high on a hill in Buda (and overlooking Pest), it all starts to come together, in a heavy, stone building that still shows the bullet holes from the 1956 revolution, and in the castle building itself: well-restored on the outside, but with a terrible 1970s retro-fitting on the inside.

Up to that point, my sense was that I was in a typical central European city (if there is such a thing). But walking around the walled edge of the castle was a shock because of the mini-minarets. Minarets! Cupolas with wood-and-iron “plugs” closing off their upper levels, surrounding more traditional-looking statuary, and looking out over the city, a massive church, and more. Across the river, things shift quickly to the Art Nouveau period, from the glass ceiling of the “Gresham Palace” (now the Four Seasons Hotel), to the Bedo Haz, a lovely apartment building with a green decorative theme that carries through from the facade, to the chandelier hanging in the café downstairs, to the ear-shaped stained glass windows in the interior courtyard. And yet, just as quickly, the cityscape changes back to the period of empire, with ornate decoration (such as a beautiful, placid face) on the outside of the Liszt Academy of Music, or the layers of grand buildings like the Gellert Hotel and baths.

A steel-frame market building – built by Gustave Eiffel! – is a treat in its own right, with stall after stall of fresh groceries, meats, and pastries. The strudel we sampled – cabbage, cheese, and sour cherry and poppy seed – could not have been any more fresh or of the place, and I think I could have spent several hours just exploring the market and examining both the building and the shops.

The airiness of the market, which felt as open as a classic European train station and just as grand, was a theme unto itself. One of the most astonishing spaces I saw was the Páva Synagogue at the Holocaust Memorial Center: a lovely restoration reveals a sanctuary that could only have been a joy to pray in, with an open, white space accented with light blue and gold. (The Center has some architectural- and exhibition-driven similarities to the Eisenman-designed Berliner Mahnmal, but the exhibition is well done.) If one’s frame of reference for houses of worship are structures that achieve an awe-inspiring feel from their heaviness, then this one challenges those preconceptions head-on.

And in some ways, the synagogue also reflects the mixed design sensibilities that I mentioned at the beginning, with a feeling that is both Mitteleuropa traditional and the remnants of the fantastical architectural elements brought by the many, many invaders over the years. The Museum of Applied Arts, with its Zsolnay-designed cupola tiles, is of a piece with this history too; it looks perfectly at home and yet, in some way, quite alien. Somehow, it all fits together, beautifully, and I look forward to a (longer) return visit.

Buda & Pest

Is where I am right now. Actual thoughts about it coming soon...

Foxman in Sheep’s Clothing

A.D. Freudenheim, The Editor

Anyone following the Pastor Wars – in which bloggers, and occasionally the “mainstream media,” dig up the most outré remarks made by men-of-faith who have endorsed a presidential candidate – will have heard that McCain “repudiated” comments made by the Reverend John Hagee. Back in 1999, Hagee expressed the belief that god caused the Holocaust in order to nudge along the creation of the state of Israel, which would in turn nudge along the second coming of Christ – because one of the alleged signs of such is the gathering of Jews in the holy land. Indeed, the phenomenon of Christian devotion to Israel is predicated on this point, rather than any true philo-Semitism.

(This is one reason why I maintain that the U.S.-Israel friendship remains so untested: there has been no war in which the U.S. has had to leap to Israel’s defense, or that has challenged devout Christians to fight for Israel. Whether the U.S. would do as it promises is a legitimate question, which in turn raises all sorts of other questions about the American relationship to Israel, the strength and power of the American-Jewish community, and its perhaps-misplaced priorities. But I digress.)

The New York Times’ blog “The Caucus” reported on Reverend Hagee’s comments again on Friday, this time in order to note that Hagee has apologized to the Jewish people by directing an apology to Abraham Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League. The blog post, reported by Laurie Goodstein, also noted that many Jews may not feel Foxman is empowered to accept such an apology on their behalf. I will certainly second that perspective: Foxman does not represent my perspective or my issues.

The most interesting element of the Times’ story is their inclusion of the text of Foxman’s apology acceptance, in which his perspective is once again distilled to its very essence – as if we didn’t know what that essence was already! Part of Foxman’s statement reads:

“Pastor Hagee has devoted his life to combating anti-Semitism and supporting the State of Israel. We are grateful for his efforts to eradicate anti-Semitism and to rally so many in the Christian community to stand with Israel.”

In other words: it’s all hunky-dory because, when push comes to shove, Reverend Hagee loves and supports Israel! (For support read: donates $$$.) Well, I’ll be! I guess as long as someone loves Israel, they can be assured that Abe Foxman will be a paper tiger, just full of hot, anti-defamation air.

No word on whether Reverend Hagee’s support also extends to a donation to the Anti-Defamation League. Would anyone like to make a friendly wager? Sorry, that’s not a bet I’m willing to take.

Travel Comfort

Actually, that’s: the travel of our comforter.

Taking advantage of a pre-Father’s Day sale at Macy’s, with an offer for free shipping, we ordered a new comforter from Macys.com, along with some clothes for the baby. Early yesterday morning, I received an e-mail alerting me that the first part of my order had shipped, and then today got a note that the remainder was on its way. This was not an urgent delivery; it was idle curiosity on my part, but I decided to click on the link to track the shipment.

Boy, did I get a surprise!

As the picture above – the package tracking information from UPS – shows, the comforter started its journey in Nashville, Tennessee. From there it went to ... Knoxville. And then Roanoke, Virgina. And then Laurel, Maryland. And then Secaucus, New Jersey, followed by Maspeth, New York. From Maspeth it made it into Manhattan, where it was finally delivered.

At a time when oil prices are sky-high, and the cost of jet fuel in particular is staggering, I cannot understand why UPS would consciously choose to ship my comforter to five different locations between here and Nashville, scanning the box (if not necessarily unloading and reloading it) at each location. This from a company that constantly touts its strength providing supply chain services that it pegs to helping companies “Synchronize the Movement of Goods, Funds, and Information.” I think UPS might want to deploy its own consulting team on matters like this, and save itself and its shareholders a little money – and the environment a little CO2 exhaust – before offering to help anyone else. If nothing else, the trek from Secaucus to Maspeth was totally gratuitous: the two locations are basically opposite each other, with Manhattan in the middle, which means UPS trucked the comforter within 4 miles of my home without delivering it – instead taking it an extra 12+ miles (round trip) out of the way to Maspeth.

There’s a great, ironic kicker to this story, too. We opened up the box and on top, amidst the packing information, was a small postcard-sized slip from Macy’s.

It says: “Packed a new way to protect our environment.”