David Brooks, "Men on the Threshold": "There but for the Grace of God, Go I"

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Men on the Threshold" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/opinion/brooks-men-on-the-threshold.html), David Brooks notes a steady decline in male labor force participation. Brooks writes:

"In 1954, 96 percent of American men between 25 and 54 years old worked. Today, 80 percent do. One-fifth of men in their prime working ages are out of the labor force.

. . . .

The definitive explanation for this catastrophe has yet to be written. Some of the problem clearly has to do with changes in family structure. Work by David Autor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that men raised in fatherless homes, without as many immediate masculine role models, do worse in the labor force. Some of the problem probably has to do with a mismatch between boy culture and school culture, especially in the early years.

But, surely, there has been some ineffable shift in the definition of dignity. Many men were raised with a certain image of male dignity, which emphasized autonomy, reticence, ruggedness, invulnerability and the competitive virtues. Now, thanks to a communications economy, they find themselves in a world that values expressiveness, interpersonal ease, vulnerability and the cooperative virtues.

Surely, part of the situation is that many men simply do not want to put themselves in positions they find humiliating. A high school student doesn’t want to persist in a school where he feels looked down on. A guy in his 50s doesn’t want to find work in a place where he’ll be told what to do by savvy young things."

Is it truly because of fear of humiliation that older men are unable to find work?

Without computer skills today, you are illiterate. I am in my late 50s, and many years ago, when I was in high school, there were no computer courses. When in college, I remember taking organic chemistry tests using a . . . slide rule.

Change is coming ever faster to a workplace which is shrinking because properly programmed computers are making jobs obsolete. And if you're not among the best at communicating with those computers, you could have a problem on your hands.

Male dignity? Me? I want to be humiliated. When meeting for the first time with employees of a company, I want to be overwhelmed by the intellect of the youngsters in charge.

I recently participated in a two-hour meeting at a hi-tech company. Maybe I understood ten percent of what was being said, but I left the session immensely satisfied, knowing that this company was at the pinnacle of its field.

What can I still bring to the table? Simple: Human skills that enable a company to communicate its ideas to other people, e.g., potential investors, not just computers.

Am I also on my way to becoming a dinosaur? Quite possibly. And yet there are still moments of immense satisfaction (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/07/compugen-announces-us-patent-allowance.html).

Charles Blow, "The Whole System Failed": "Extraordinary Inequality in the Presumption of Innocence"?

Do you remember the scene in the 1997 science fiction action film "Men in Black" in which James Darrell Edwards III (Will Smith), a New York City police officer, is tested for a position in a secret agency responsible for extraterrestrial visitors on earth?

Of course, the details concerning the tragic death of Trayvon Martin are anything but amusing. However, in this short scene from "Men in Black," we learn of the potential disastrous consequences of racial profiling - in the case of MIB, intergalactic profiling - of which most of us are guilty.

Now, consider what Geraldo Rivera had to say concerning Trayvon Martin's dress on the night of the incident in a Huffington Post article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/20/geraldo-rivera-trayvon-martin-thug-wear_n_1530811.html):

"Geraldo Rivera came down on Trayvon Martin's clothing again on Friday, arguing that the teenager's 'thug wear' led George Zimmerman to suspect that he was a criminal.

Bill O'Reilly hosted Rivera to discuss new developments in the case, including the discovery of low levels of marijuana in Martin's autopsy. Rivera argued that the marijuana is 'less powerful' than the convenience store surveillance tape, which showed what Martin was wearing.

'I think what's far more significant is what Trayvon Martin looked like on that night, Bill,' he said. 'Aside from the fact that he's dressed in that thug wear — look at the size of him, he’s not a little kid.'

'If this young man was a stranger to George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin looks just like the people who had been burglarizing and victimizing that neighborhood for the last six months,' Rivera continued.

When O'Reilly said that Rivera was 'profiling' Martin, Rivera claimed that the assumption was 'based on a reasonable comparison.'

Rivera made similar comments about Martin's clothing in March, when he insisted that the slain teenager's hoodie was partially responsible for his death."

Were Zimmerman's actions indeed "based on a reasonable comparison"? Did Martin's clothing provide Zimmerman with a reasonable basis to stop Martin? Was this an instance of racial profiling? But bear in mind that Zimmerman was not charged with "racial profiling."

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Whole System Failed" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/opinion/the-whole-system-failed.html?_r=0), Charles Blow writes:

"This case is not about an extraordinary death of an extraordinary person. Unfortunately, in America, people are lost to gun violence every day. Many of them look like Martin and have parents who presumably grieve for them. This case is about extraordinary inequality in the presumption of innocence and the application of justice: why was Martin deemed suspicious and why was his killer allowed to go home?

. . . .

The idea of universal suspicion without individual evidence is what Americans find abhorrent and what black men in America must constantly fight. It is pervasive in policing policies — like stop-and-frisk, and in this case neighborhood watch — regardless of the collateral damage done to the majority of innocents. It’s like burning down a house to rid it of mice.

As a parent, particularly a parent of black teenage boys, I am left with the question, 'Now, what do I tell my boys?'"

Do racism and racial profiling exist in America? Absolutely, and regrettably I don't have answers for Blow's sons. Martin's death was an unspeakable tragedy. On the other hand, was the jury's decision incorrect? As stated by CNN (http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/13/justice/zimmerman-trial):

"The jury had three choices: to find Zimmerman guilty of second-degree murder; to find him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter; or to find him not guilty.

For second-degree murder, the jurors would have had to believe that Martin's unlawful killing was "done from ill will, hatred, spite or an evil intent" and would be 'of such a nature that the act itself indicates an indifference to human life.'

To convict Zimmerman of manslaughter, the jurors would have had to believe he 'intentionally committed an act or acts that caused the death of Trayvon Martin.'"

Remember that in the US there is a presumption of innocence, and that "beyond reasonable doubt" is the standard of evidence required for a criminal conviction. Zimmerman claims that he was pinned on his back. His nose was broken, and the back of his head was lacerated. Was he acting out of fear, or, was he capable of the "intention" needed for conviction? Was there reasonable doubt?

Again, there is racism in America, and perhaps Zimmerman should never have stopped Martin, but did an "imperfect" American jury system reach the wrong verdict, or did the prosecution fail to meet its immensely difficult burden of proof? Did the prosecution "overreach" when deciding which charges to bring against Zimmerman?

The agony of Martin's family is very real - I cannot begin to fathom the pain of losing a child.

But for Charles Blow to "trash" the American jury system for reaching this verdict? This system makes mistakes - I thought O.J. Simpson's 1995 acquittal was wrong - but where do you find a better system in an imperfect world? You don't.

Compugen Announces US Patent Allowance for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Drug Candidate Recently Presented at 2013 American Thoracic Society Meeting

Sometimes "good things" also happen in this world (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/compugen-announces-us-patent-allowance-110000411.html):

"Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ: CGEN) announced today that the company has received an Issue Notification from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a patent application covering the company's drug candidate CGEN-25009. CGEN-25009 is intended for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a devastating disease with no current effective treatment. This novel peptide agonist of the relaxin receptor was the subject of a recent presentation by Dr. Daniel Kass, from the University of Pittsburgh (“Pitt”), at the 2013 American Thoracic Society Conference.

In his presentation, Dr. Kass, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Pitt and Assistant Director for Novel Therapeutics and Translational Research at The Dorothy P. and Richard P. Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Disease at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, presented experimental data demonstrating that CGEN-25009 protects mice from bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. In this model, CGEN-25009 treatment reduced lung fibrosis as determined by collagen deposition in both preventive and therapeutic administration regimens."

My involvement in this project? As noted in an October 2011 blog entry (http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2011/10/idiopathic-pulmonary-fibrosis-and.html):

"Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a devastating disease characterized by scarring of the lungs, leading to respiratory failure. Despite an improved understanding of IPF's molecular mechanisms, the prognosis is poor, with a median survival of some three years from the onset of symptoms. Other than lung transplantation, there is no known effective treatment.

Estimated to affect five million people worldwide and 128,000 persons in the US, IPF has no known cause. These numbers are small relative to the 200,000 persons diagnosed with lung cancer in the US each year, but this is of little comfort if you contract IPF. Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, died of IPF in 2006. A member of my family also died from the disease.

Several years ago, I read about a tiny Israeli biotech company named Compugen, which models disease processes at the molecular level and aims to predict drug candidates in silico, i.e. by computer. Although larger entities have failed at what Compugen is attempting, Compugen has persisted in its lonely efforts and believes it is well along the road to success.

In February 2007, Compugen, created a platform for the predictive discovery of novel G-protein coupled receptors ("GPCRs"), and in the initial run of this platform, eight novel GPCR ligands were found. Given that some 40% of all drugs modulate GPCRs and the relative high probability of newly discovered GPCR peptide ligands ultimately becoming drugs, Compugen's announcement elicited significant recognition from the scientific community.

In March 2009, Compugen announced that one of these newly discovered ligands, CGEN-25009, was able to activate the Relaxin receptor, and studies conducted by Professor Daniele Bani, an expert in the field of relaxin and fibrotic diseases from the University of Florence, demonstrated that administration of CGEN-25009 led to robust reduction of the fibrotic tissue in the lungs of mice induced with IPF.

. . . .

In 2009, I wanted to do something that mattered. Specifically, I wanted to move CGEN-25009 ahead. I called Compugen, and was fortunate enough to be hired as an external consultant.

Next, a cold call to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation in Chicago, which was sufficiently intrigued to consult, inter alia, with the University of Pittsburgh's Simmons Center for Interstitial Lung Diseases.

Last week it was announced in a press release that the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation will provide a grant to the Simmons Center to further establish the anti-fibrotic properties of CGEN-25009 in multiple animal models of fibrosis, to elucidate the mechanism of CGEN-25009's anti-fibrotic effects, and to prioritize potential biomarkers for the study of CGEN-25009 in patients with IPF (see: http://www.cgen.com/Content.aspx?Page=press_releases&NewsId=569)."

Needless to say, I am extremely pleased by today's press release, and I pray that CGEN-25009 will ultimately emerge as an effective treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and alleviate the suffering of millions of persons around the globe.

[As noted in prior blog entries, I am a Compugen shareholder, this blog entry is not a recommendation to buy or sell Compugen shares, and in September 2009 I began work as a part-time external consultant to Compugen. The opinions expressed herein are mine and are based on publicly available information. This blog entry has not been authorized, approved or reviewed prior to posting by Compugen.]

Iran: Obama Is Bluffing, Netanyahu Is Not

In March 2012, President Obama told Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/obama-to-iran-and-israel-as-president-of-the-united-states-i-dont-bluff/253875/):

"In the most extensive interview he has given about the looming Iran crisis, Obama told me earlier this week that both Iran and Israel should take seriously the possibility of American action against Iran's nuclear facilities. 'I think that the Israeli government recognizes that, as president of the United States, I don't bluff.' He went on, 'I also don't, as a matter of sound policy, go around advertising exactly what our intentions are. But I think both the Iranian and the Israeli governments recognize that when the United States says it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we mean what we say.'"

Well, given Obama's behavior after declaring "red lines" and "game changers" involving Assad's use of chemical weapons against the rebels in Syria, it is fairly obvious that Obama does indeed bluff.

In contrast, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is not bluffing. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation on Sunday, Netanyahu declared (http://freebeacon.com/netanyahu-new-iranian-presidents-strategy-smile-and-build-a-bomb/):

"I think we’ve spoken many times, President Obama and I about the need to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. I know that is the U.S. policy. What is important important to convey to them, especially after the elections, that that policy will not change and that it will be backed up by increasingly forceful sanctions and military action. In my view, there is a new president in Iran. He believes — he’s criticizing his predecessor for being a wolf in wolf’s clothing. His strategy is be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Smile and build a bomb. He brags about the fact that he talked to the Europeans while completing a nuclear conversion plan. I think they can’t be allowed to get away with it. They’re getting closer and closer to the bomb, and they have to be told in no uncertain terms that will not be allowed to happen. I think it’s important to understand that we cannot allow it to happen. You know, our clocks are ticking at a different pace. We’re closer than the United States. We’re more vulnerable and therefore we’ll have to address this question of how to stop Iran, perhaps before the United States does. But as the Prime Minister of Israel, I’m determined to do whatever is necessary to defend my country, the one and only Jewish state from the regime that threatens us with renewed annihilation."

How do we know that Netanyahu is not bluffing? Simple: Netanyahu has been schooled in the philosophy that if someone says they intend to kill you, you had best believe them.

When the time comes, Netanyahu will not hesitate to act.

Meanwhile, however, August draws near, and the West prepares to go on vacation.

New York Times Editorial, "Trayvon Martin’s Legacy": "Zimmerman’s Conviction Might Have Provided an Emotional Catharsis"

In an editorial entitled "Trayvon Martin’s Legacy" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/opinion/trayvon-martins-legacy.html), The New York Times goes on record as saying:

"It may not be possible to consider the case of George Zimmerman, who was acquitted Saturday of all charges in the killing of Trayvon Martin, as anything but a sad commentary on the state of race relations and the battle over gun rights in America today.

Certainly it is about race — ask any black man, up to and including President Obama, and he will tell you at least a few stories that sound eerily like what happened that rainy winter night in Sanford, Fla.

While Mr. Zimmerman’s conviction might have provided an emotional catharsis, we would still be a country plagued by racism, which persists in ever more insidious forms despite the Supreme Court’s sanguine assessment that 'things have changed dramatically,' as it said in last month’s ruling striking down the heart of the Voting Rights Act."

An "emotional catharsis"? Excuse me, but the purpose of criminal trials is not to provide "emotional catharsis." Rather, criminal trials in the US are intended to determine whether the prosecution bore the burden of proving a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

I have not closely followed the George Zimmerman case and have not read the trial transcripts. Trayvon Martin's death was an avoidable tragedy, and the horror of losing a child would drive me insane. But not having read the trial transcripts, I am hardly in a position to argue with the jury verdict, which was strictly intended to address the question of reasonable doubt as regards the charges pressed by the prosecution against Zimmerman.

I would only mention that there was another recent murder of a black child, which is not receiving the attention provided to the Zimmerman case. As reported by Ben Shapiro of Breitbart (http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/14/17-year-old-Darryl-Green):

"On Thursday, July 11, police discovered the rotting body of 17-year-old Darryl Green, a black child from the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. Green’s body was found behind a boarded-up house in the 6500-block of South Damen, face down on basement stairs. The body was so badly decomposed that originally, local news reports suggested that he had died of blunt force trauma. On Friday, an autopsy showed he had been shot to death. Relatives reported that Green had refused to join a gang at school."

Green's murder does not also deserve the outrage of the media? Why are there no demonstrations over Green's death?

Go figure.

Maureen Dowd, "The Tortured Mechanics of Eroticism": Why Maureen's Knickers Are Not in a Knot

"This morning when I put on my underwear I could hear the fruit-of-the-loom guys laughing at me."

- Rodney Dangerfield

When Maureen Dowd travels overseas, you never know what to expect. But if you're hoping to find here a picture of Maureen in her undies, look elsewhere! For goodness sake, the Queen of Snark is already 61 years old! Let's respect her for her mind! Hey, I'm trying to be serious! Really! Don't you believe me?

And now back to business. First, a little history . . .

In a March 2010 Times op-ed entitled "Loosey Goosey Saudi" (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/opinion/03dowd.html), Dowd declared from the Desert Kingdom that Saudi women were seeing better days:

"But after spending 10 days here, I can confirm that, at their own galactically glacial pace, they are chipping away at gender apartheid and cultural repression."

At the time, Dowd ignored an abomination involving the Saudi legal system pursuant to which a Saudi woman, who had been gang raped, was sentenced to a one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2010/03/shame-on-maureen-dowd.html). Unusual in the Desert Kingdom? Not at all.

Similarly, Dowd remained silent concerning the issue of "honor killings" in her host country. Had she dared write on this issue, her Saudi friends would have put an abrupt end to her pleasure tour.

More recently, I wonder what what Maureen would say about the Saudi princess just charged with human trafficking in California. As reported yesterday by The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/12/saudi-princess-human-trafficking-california):

"A Saudi princess charged in California with human trafficking has been freed after posting $5m (£3.3m) bail, but authorities imposed strict travel requirements and a GPS tag. Meshael Alayban, 42, who prosecutors said is one of the six wives of Prince Abdulrahman bin Nasser bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, was released a day after her arrest.

. . . .

Alayban was arrested after a Kenyan woman who worked for her as a maid alleged she was held against her will and forced to work long hours for meagre pay. The maid led police to a building in Irvine where Alayban's family was staying, authorities said.

The district attorney Tony Rackauckas said after court on Thursday that the woman had been subjected to 'forced labour,' and likened Alayban to a slave owner.

'It's been 150 years since the emancipation proclamation, and slavery has been unlawful in the United States, and certainly in California, all this time, and it's disappointing to see it in use here,' said Rackauckas, who had requested that Alayban's bail be set at $20m."

Yup, Maureen, those Saudis are sure as heck making a lot of progress moving their country into the twenty-first century.

And so, perhaps we should consider ourselves lucky that this year Dowd is visiting Paris, where today she has chosen to illuminate us concerning the evolution of female underwear. In her latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Tortured Mechanics of Eroticism" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/opinion/sunday/dowd-the-tortured-mechanics-of-eroticism.html?_r=0), Dowd writes:

"THE French may feel shaky about the underpinnings of the economy. But about the underpinnings for the body, they are as rock solid as the Arc de Triomphe.

During a summer when the French are drooping, the best uplift can be found in the Louvre complex at the Museum of Decorative Arts, which has mounted a dazzling exhibition on undergarments and embellishments dating from the 14th century on: corsets and bustles, hoops and push-up bras, crinolines and codpieces. The exhibit, titled 'Behind the Seams, the Mechanics of Underwear: An Indiscreet History of the Silhouette,' provides a fascinating contrast between the industrial-seeming tools used to shape the body and the sexiness that results."

How arousing! I wonder if Andrew Rosenthal needed to wipe the steam from his eyeglasses.

So how does Saudi Arabia tie into Dowd's latest opinion piece? It doesn't, but Maureen nevertheless explains:

"It was only two years ago that Saudi Arabia, hypocritical home to many racy lingerie stores, compelled them all to employ women instead of men."

Fascinating. My understanding of lingerie is now complete.

Me? I'm sure you will all be delighted to know that I am also in my underpants as I pen this blog entry, sipping vodka and wilting in the heat. A trip to Paris to visit this "dazzling exhibition"? Not in the cards.

On the whole, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.

Egypt's Coptic Christian Minority Under Attack: Where is the Outrage in the US?

Yesterday, in a Financial Times article entitled "Attacks increase against Egypt’s Coptic Christians" (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/281e19b6-eaf2-11e2-bfdb-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2YtrKSSUD), Borzou Daragahi observed:

"In recent weeks, at least nine Christians have been killed nationwide, including at least one priest. More than a dozen churches have been attacked and damaged. Coptic-owned businesses have been tagged with graffiti and threatening fliers have been distributed. Rights advocates and community leaders say the wave of persecution has been inflamed by the rhetoric of Islamists angry over the toppling of their leader."

In fact, Muslim Brotherhood violence against Egypt's Christian minority, comprising some 10 percent of the country's population of 85 million, is nothing new. As reported in April by Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/04/28/new-video-shows-egyptian-police-allowing-attack-on-coptic-cathedral/), long before the army coup which dislodged Mohamed Morsi's government, Egypt's Copts were under siege by the Brotherhood:

"Newly-emerged video appears to show Egyptian police standing idly by - and even helping attackers during a deadly assault earlier this month on a Coptic cathedral where Christians were mourning five men killed in an earlier clash with Muslims.

The video shot April 7 and first obtained by MidEast Christian News, shows a men shooting guns, wielding machetes and hurling stones and possibly Molotov cocktails as mourners carry caskets out of St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the Abbassia District of Cairo as uniformed police watch, unmoving. At one point, a police officer appears to help a gunman take aim at a courtyard full of mourners who had spilled out of the church. The attack left two Copts dead and another 84 people injured, including 11 police officers.

When it was over, the only arrests made were of four Copts. Christians, who were already outraged over a three-day attack that began April 4 attack in Khosous which saw the four men killed and homes, a nursery and a church burned."

Remarkably, on exactly the same day that St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral came under attack in Cairo, Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News, was spreading lies about Israel's security barrier at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Canaan, Connecticut.

As reported by Dexter Van Zile (http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2013/4/9/cbs-news-needs-to-come-clean-about-60-minutes-palestinian-christians-segment):

"Invited to speak at the church by his pastor Rev. Peter Walsh, Fager showed an audience of more than 200 of his fellow parishioners a segment about Palestinian Christians that aired on the CBS '60 Minutes' program in April 2012.

During the segment, correspondent Bob Simon stated that the security fence 'completely surrounds Bethlehem, turning the ‘little town' where Christ was born into what its residents call ‘an open air prison.’'

The fence does not completely surround Bethlehem, as Simon reported. The security fence is located to the north and west of Bethlehem and leaves the rest of the city’s perimeter open to the West Bank.

. . . .

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), pointed out the '60 Minutes' error in an article on its website soon after the segment aired and in a half-page ad that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Aug. 14, 2012.

Nevertheless, the CBS show has not issued a correction to this day.

After showing his fellow parishioners the '60 Minutes' segment, Fager complained about the angry response the show elicited. In particular, he condemned the Wall Street Journal’s decision to run CAMERA’s ad, which he said was intended to create havoc on the CBS show’s reporting.

Fager then told his audience that CAMERA got it wrong about the security fence in its ad and that 'Bethlehem is surrounded by a wall.'

. . . .

During the question and answer period, I raised my hand, stated I worked for CAMERA, the organization responsible for the ad in question, and then issued a simple and direct challenge: If Jeff Fager could prove that the security fence completely surrounds Bethlehem like he said a few moments before, I would donate $5,000 to a charity of his choosing.

His response was a simple 'Okay.'

After the event concluded and the people in attendance started to leave for the church’s Sunday services, I gave him my business card. So far, no response."

As can be seen on any map, the Israeli security barrier does not surround Bethlehem (see, for example: http://www.btselem.org/download/separation_barrier_map_eng.pdf), but this did not prevent Fager from disseminating lies at his church, even at a time when Christians were under attack in Egypt.

I sent an e-mail to Reverend Peter Walsh of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Canaan, who had told his congregation that Fager is “a man of extraordinary integrity and character," asking that Fager's "falsehood, intended to foster enmity, be addressed and rectified in your House of God" (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2013/05/cbs-news-chairman-jeff-fagers-lie.html).

Reverend Walsh never responded to me.

Sad.