By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jul 22, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET  Click here to purchase Musings in paperback!!
Anyone interested in a softcover copy of my book “Musings From the Middle” ….well, you can be the very first to make a purchase.
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From the Author
We decided…OK, I decided…that we needed (OK, I needed) to have a paperback edition. First off, I’m 50 years old and don’t really get the whole digital book thing. It’s my fault. No big deal. But figured there were others like me who didn’t feel like they were reading a book unless there were pages to turn. Second, a lot of people buy books with the intention of reading them but they eventually end up as coasters on a coffee table. That doesn’t happen with eBooks but does with paperback books. And…if you look closely there is even a stain as part of the book cover art showing a good place for a cup of coffee.
From the Inside Flap
It’s pretty much white with nothing else on it. It’s good for doodling and quick notes when you can’t find your notepad. Otherwise, not much to write about this part of the book. Some, I should disclose, found this blank page preferable to many of the pages with black type on it. If enough testimonials about the positive feedback about this blank inside flap page are reprieved, we’ll post those testimonials.
From the Back Cover
“Musings from the Middle” came about by happenstance. My good friend Jonathan Miller was launching a blog titled “The Recovering Politician” and needed regular contributors. I wrote a column for the inaugural week and then promised a follow up column every week – and then after missing my first deadline – every two weeks. After missing my new deadline several times, I confided in Jonathan that I felt like I had let him down but had too much going on to meet a regular writing deadline on serious policy matters–and I added I wasn’t in the frame of mind at this point in my life to write about political issues. I wanted a break. Jonathan graciously understood but, always the creative entrepreneur, a few days later had a new idea. “You know those random posts you put on Facebook every day?” Jonathan asked. “Yes,” I said. “What if I used them? You don’t have to write on public policy or politics and can write whatever you want about anything you want. Just keep posting on Facebook and at the end of every week I’ll pull down my favorites and post on the Recovering Politician blog the next week. I was stuck. What could I say except yes? So I said yes. And am forever grateful I did. At first we did one post a week and then three and then five. Jonathan dubbed it “Musings from the Middle.” And that was some 400 posts and 400 pages ago. So he suggested this book. Who am I to argue with this guy? Hope you have a fraction of the fun I have had in writing this!!
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 OK. I just bought one (a copy of Musings in the Middle) a few minutes ago.
And then about five minutes later bought another one!
This is great! Two sales in just 5 minutes!
At this pace….over the next two hours, I will own 24 paperback copies!! Exciting!!
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A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is 376 pages long.
Why is that important. Because Musings from the Middle by me is 366 pages long—almost identical to Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities.
Granted Moby Dick is 576 pages long but it’s about a whale and frankly I never got past the first few pages. Herman Mellville was really, really in to that whale story and probably made it as long as he did to impress people. And so it would be much longer than Charles Dickens books, who was kind of a competitor. (footnote–David Copperfield was actually longer than Moby Dick. Even though it wasn’t about whale stuff, it was pretty boring and probably Dickens trying to one-up Herman for making Moby Dick so much longer than his other novels).
Anyway, I say all that to make the point that Musings from the Middle (the paperback edition) has got a lot of pages in it. Just like Charles Dickens and Herman Melville’s better books that weren’t written just to show off.
So, if you are about to buy Tale of Two Cities or Moby Dick, you may want to think twice about that and consider Musings from the Middle instead. (It is shorter and easier to read. And doesn’t dwell on whales.)
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Breaking!! “Musings from the Middle projected to hit 1 million in sales!!”
At this rate, 3 sales (admittedly I bought all three myself but my mom is “thinking about buying one as I type this,” but let’s stick with just the numbers for now), that is 6 per hour. And 144 per every 24 hours. That’s 52,560 in the first year! Unless this is a leap year and then it’s even more! And over 20 years…..it’s over 1 Million sales!!! Pretty cool, eh?
Wow!! I can’t believe I did it!!!
Always believe in yourself!!
And always use poetic license with sales projections!!
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Here for fun…is my “Author’s update” I just gave to Amazon and will be my official plug. (This is not another plug. I swear. Not at all. Just a post about a plug. So don’t confuse them and decide to buy a book. That would not be understanding the point of this point. Buying because of the previous post is OK because that was a plug. But not ok to buy because of this one.
Also, I found out last night that to date I have earned $5.11 from all sales. I am using conservative estimates to project a “total net revenue” of about $26.74. After subtracting that from the costs of the book, about $200, that is a net profit of negative $173.26.
Not bad. Not bad at all!
From the Author
I am supposed to tell you why you should buy this book. Really, there are three reasons that come to mind. (Actually four because I thought of another one while I was writing and just stuck it in. It’s not numbered like the other three but it’s there and if you read closely enough you may be able to find it)
First off, I’m 50 years old and don’t really get the whole digital book thing. It’s my fault. No big deal. But figured there were others like me who didn’t feel like they were reading a book unless there were pages to turn. This paperback edition has pages to turn and I like that and some of you may too.
Second, a lot of people buy books with the intention of reading them but they eventually end up merely serving as coasters on a coffee table. That doesn’t happen with eBooks but does with paperback books. And…if you look closely at the cover of my book there is even a stain where a coffee cup was placed as part of the book cover art —showing a good place to put a cup of coffee when you use the book as a coaster. You don’t get that with most paperback books. But you do with mine.
Now we get to the meaty and most esoteric part of my pitch. Third, Musings from the Middle seems to have the makings of a literary classic in some ways. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is 376 pages long. Why is that important? Because Musings from the Middle by me is 366 pages long—almost identical in length to Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities.
Now, I’m not getting into the whole quality versus quantity argument. We’ve all got our opinions on which one is most important but for my purposes here I’m going to leave that issue off the table. Let’s just all agree that both quantity and quality are pretty important and just call it a toss up for now and leave it at that.
Now back to the subject at hand. Literary classics. Moby Dick is another literary classic–and it is 576 pages long— but almost all of it is about a whale. Seriously! I like Herman Melville’s short stories but never got very far into Moby Dick because it went on and on about mostly whale stuff. He probably made it as long as he did to try to impress people. And maybe so it would be longer than Charles Dickens books—who I think was kind of a competitor at the time with Melville. Authorwise.
Charles Dickens had written David Copperfield about the same time and it has even more pages than Moby Dick AND Musings from the Middle combined–and more boring than both, if you ask me.
Frankly, when Dickens wrote David Copperfield he was probably trying to one-up Herman Melville for making Moby Dick so much longer than Dickens other novels. I don’t know this for a fact, I just know if I had been in Melville’s shoes I would have made Moby Dick that long for that very reason—just to spite Charles Dickens and let him know what he was up against if he wanted to write on and on about not much of anything at all. I can do that about as well as anyone I ever met –write on and on and not much of anything at all, that is. I really can. I swear it. Just buy my book and see for yourself. You won’t be disappointed. I promise. Heck, I’m kinda proving that point right here and right now as part of my pitch to get you to buy the book. But hold on. Don’t stop reading. I’m not finished with my sales pitch yet.
Oh, and before we go any further I want to make sure no one is confusing the book David Copperfield with David Copperfield the magician who does magic tricks on television. They are two totally different people. The magician named David Copperfield came much later in history–by over a hundred years. And is American not British. I don’t even think the two David Copperfields are related. In fact, the newer and real David Copperfield is probably a little more interesting than the older made up one. And for all I know he may even have a thin book written about him– but if he does, I can’t really recommend it. After you’ve seen his a few tricks making something big disappear. Kind of a one trick pony, if you know what mean.
Anyway, sorry for digressing but I’m a stickler when it comes to literature and history and just calling it like I seem it. Let me sum it up this way. The point is that we’ve been talking a lot here about the pros and cons of Moby Dick, David Copperfield and Musings from the Middle (the paperback edition). All three books have things to recommend them. No doubt about it. And arguments about quality aside (which we agreed to leave out in the sixth paragraph above), we can all agree that Musings from the Middle, written in 2013, has got a lot of pages in it –so you get a lot of bang for your buck, so to speak. A lot of pages for the money –about 3 cents a page, in fact. (I did the math.) Granted, you get more to read for 3 cents a page with Moby Dick and David Copperfield, but as I have said I can’t recommend either book and I think Dickens and Melville wrote them mostly just to show off and one-up each other. And that’s not a good enough reason to buy any book in my opinion.
I wasn’t trying to one-up anyone or show off with Musings from the Middle. I take that last part back. I probably was showing off a little bit when I wrote a lot of the posts in it. I’ll admit that. But still…. if you are about to buy a Tale of Two Cities or Moby Dick, you may want to think twice about it and consider buying Musings from the Middle instead. I did and have no regrets. (Full disclosure: a got a discount on mine I couldn’t get for the other two.)
I don’t think you’ll regret it either. Even without the discount. Musings from the isn’t about whales and old Englandly stuff. It’s about everyday stuff you can relate to. Like losing your car keys and funny family stories and how to get through the day without worrying about your weight and still eat an apple fritter that morning. And how if you just look honestly at the things in life that bug and worry and embarrass you the most they actually become funny instead of something you fear. And you may even start posting about them on Facebook and make your own book. And how listening to the Grateful Dead when nothing else makes sense in the world can make things a little bit better. The world still doesn’t make sense, of course, but at least there’s a nice beat in the background. And much more. I’m not telling you the whole book here. You’ll have to just buy it and read it for yourself.
And one more thing. (Here is the fourth reason I said at the top that I thought of while I was writing and that I stuck in at the end without numbering. I decided to number it anyway so it wouldn’t drive you crazy.)
Here’s the fourth reason to buy this edition. Don’t discount the fact that you’ll meet a lot of people in this world who claim they’ve read David Copperfield and Moby Dick but really haven’t. Anybody can do that. It is a moment of truth for you. A defining moment. Are you a follower or a leader? If you buy my book instead, I’d say you were a leader. Why? If you buy my book you can be one of only several dozen people in the world who can claim to have read it even though they didn’t!! Don’t just pretend to read what everyone else does from the past. Pretend to read new and modern books that no one has ever heard of or will read. Like Musings from the Middle. Think about it that way and buying this book kinda makes sense.
I will stop now. I’m just trying to help you think through this purchase in a rational and sensible way so you are ready when you have to explain to your spouse or friend why you have a brand new paperback book you are using as a coaster for your coffee cup.
Now you have a ready answer.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jul 19, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Got faith?
Not unless you also have doubt.
Watching Life of Pi with family.
Beautiful truth –truths–about beauty of faith.
Never fear doubt. Without doubt there can be no genuine faith or development of genuine faith.
We should hope that the God we believe in isn’t afraid of questions or doubting. That God is more powerful than that.
We should consider doubt as not only necessary for faith—but faith’s most integral partner.
Doubt is the oxygen that allows our faith to breath and to grow. And without it, causes our faith to become stagnant and die.
Here’s hoping our faith continues to grow and deepen. Fearlessly.
By Jeff Smith, on Fri Jul 19, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET  Q. I work as a body man for an elected official who recently told me that I am in his “circle of trust,” which was, he said, why he decided to place me in such a sensitive job. A few days later he directed me to call the scheduler to cancel a midday appearance, and instead had me drive him to an apartment building. He disappeared for an hour and then came back. The next week he did it again. Yesterday he asked me to do it for a third time despite the fact that he would be missing a big event we’d discussed in staff meetings. Before calling HQ, I said, “Yes, sir, but isn’t this a pretty important event?” He replied, “Last time I checked, you were my driver, not my campaign manager.” So far we’ve been able to reschedule some things, but the point is, I am feeling pretty uncomfortable, especially since he is married. What is your advice?
—No name, no location, please
This is a tough predicament, and I’m sorry you’re dealing with it. You have three choices, as I see it.
- Explain to the campaign manager what is happening, without any editorializing or speculation. It may be that he/she is already aware of the issue, but you could probably shed some more light.
- Tell the principal you are concerned about his behavior. Don’t accuse him of infidelity, but say that people on staff are starting to ask questions about the frequent cancellations and suggest that they should stop.
- Quit.
According to Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s Game Change, John Edwards’ body guy tried Option #2, but when that didn’t change Edwards’ behavior, went to Option #1, which resulted in something like Option #3: He was summarily fired by an angry Edwards, who accused him of tattling.
Really, the point here isn’t that he’s cheating on his wife (although that’s troubling and could hurt the campaign); the point is that he’s cheating on the campaign. What he does in his personal life is no one’s business, but wasting a staffer’s time and using campaign time to get off when he should be getting votes or money? That’s unforgivable.
My overall thought: This won’t end well. With his “last time I checked” comment, the principal indicated his probable reaction if confronted, so that approach is unlikely to work. Going to the campaign manager might change the principal’s behavior but may cost you your job—at least your job as body guy—and your chances for upward mobility in this organization. So unless you are absolutely convinced that the principal is going to change the world as a public servant and that outweighs your discomfort, I’d suggest you start looking for other gigs. If you do decide to address the issue directly with the principal before making a final decision to quit, remember that doing so could make it impossible to use him (or other staff ) as a reference.
Q. I worked for a congressman who had a rule not to eat at events so he could talk and shake hands. Not wanting to be rude, he made me grab a plate in his place. So at every event I had a plate of food that I enthusiastically praised and enjoyed. After four events per day not only was I full but I was getting incredibly fat. How did you balance your campaign and your eating habits?
—C.W., Silver Spring, Md.
I may not be the best person to ask here: When my congressional campaign ended, I weighed 107 lbs. (at 5’6’’). But yes, you gotta eat something at events, especially in ethnic communities. The symbolism is powerful. However, that doesn’t mean you have to eat an entire plate. Remember when you were 5 and you tried to spread veggies across your plate to make it look as if you ate more than you actually did? If you are adroit on the front end, you can look as if you are helping yourself to a healthy portion. And no one ever said you couldn’t discreetly deposit your plate on a table before leaving. Just don’t throw it out—someone might see that. Also, work out. Given the stress and terrible food of campaigns, campaign aides should work out daily both for your physical and mental health, even if it’s just push-ups or pull-ups at lunch.
Read the rest of…
Jeff Smith: Do As I Say — A Political Advice Column
By RP Staff, on Thu Jul 18, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET From Fox4 Kansas City:
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Self-proclaimed ‘sockpreneurs’ from Kansas City launched a line of socks that they say look good and don’t break the bank.
Sock 101 debuted during the Kauffman Foundation’s Entrepreneurship Week. Since then, the company sent former president George H.W. Bush a pair of Texas A&M-colored socks, and he responded with a letter detailing his love for the maroon and white pair.
The socks all cost $7 and can be purchased on the Sock 101 website. Each color-combination of socks comes with its own name, including the ‘KC sock’ — a Royal blue-and-white horizontal stripe design.
Watch the newscast here.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Jul 18, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET I love people watching. And engaging in subtle people interaction.
On the streets of NYC, there are lots of confident accomplished people. They just look they are someone important. They know it and we do too. They may even be celebrities. Of course, only a tiny percentage can be real public celebrities, whatever that is. But we tend to look for celebrities and famous people instinctively. And many on the workaday streets of NYC are happy to invite speculation that they are, indeed, a little more special than others walking to either side of them.
Today alone walking on the streets of NYC for several hours I saw –or thought I saw– George Clooney, Jamie Foxx (twice), Kurt Vonnegut (even though he died a few years back, but not his visage in NYC), George Peppard, George Ross (the elder general counsel and senior adviser to Donald Trump on the Apprentice), Kelly Rupa (3 times) and possibly Elliot Spitzer (although I’m pretty sure he was in Albany today), and finally at least three business execs who looked like no celebrity in particular but carried themselves like they had been (or should have been) featured on this month’s cover of Fortune Magazine. Or GQ. Sometimes it’s hard to tell those two types apart.
I’ve made up a sort of game I’m enjoying playing. When I see one of the “special looking” people of the streets of NYC—-the ones with a certain sheen and air about them who look like they are ready at that moment to be snapped by paparazzi— I make eye contact with them in a knowing and ingratiating way as if to say, “Oh my gosh. I know who you are!”
People really like it. Even though they know they aren’t the real celebrity I am confusing them with, they feel, deep down, like they could be. And maybe should be. And may even suspect they have a few things on their celebrity look alike but just didn’t get the same breaks.
It’s endearing and believable for us both. And leaves us both feeling a bit better. One of us is being admired and the other is thrilled to see someone special.
But today I began throwing in a new twist.
I look them in the eye again– a bit more seriously and solemnly as if to say, “You do remember me, don’t you?”
This all happens in just a few seconds. But it’s an amazing back and forth of communication and information. All expressed in the eyes and a few subtle facial gestures.
Sometimes the person being thought a celebrity will play along as if we somehow really do know each other in some tangential way and sort of tips his or her hat as if to say, “G’day.” Others are a little confused and withdraw. Or disengage. Still others play into the whole game either knowingly or unknowingly. But are happy to be engaged –either as a game or fantasy.
This new twist adds an extra layer of positive reinforcement. Now both individuals have been suspected of being someone special and having a special sort of bond to the other. And even having had a pleasant exchange.
Which made me wonder: Is it a game I am playing? Is it a fantasy? Does it have to be either one? Maybe….and I’m being serious here….we should look at all people in this way. As special and having a connection in some way to us and having a pleasant, albeit perfunctory, exchange.
Why not?
Why not?
By Artur Davis, on Thu Jul 18, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET Thomas Edsall’s column on the South’s racially polarized politics is so many clichés—the notion that thinly disguised bigots are astride the region’s Republican Party, that they have meanly pushed black state legislators to the margins, that they are presiding over some modern reign of terror on the black and poor, and that the Supreme Court has just made it fundamentally worse by setting aside a major provision of the Voting Rights Act.
But he is not wrong about a premise that lurks throughout his argument: more than any place in America today, the South is a zone where ideology and party do correlate almost entirely with racial identity. Measured against the backdrop of a national electorate where Barack Obama actually exceeded four of the last five Democratic presidential performances with whites, the South’s “white equals Republican” reality is jarring. To a disconcerting degree, routine ideological debate over spending priorities, education, and voting requirements turn into a perpetual argument over whether the intent of every policy is to disadvantage minorities. It’s a stultifying kind of environment.
At the risk of repetition, I’ll mention one more time that liberal critics like Edsall miss the perverse contributions that racially gerrymandered districts have made to the marginalization of black political interests: by guaranteeing that black voters are cordoned off into their own singular political communities and have only a marginal presence elsewhere, courts have ensured that those interests will never really be elevated outside black voting precincts. And the meme that it is malicious Republicans who have driven those gerrymandering trends ignores altogether the extent to which African-American Democrats and federal courts have sanctioned, actually demanded, those district lines.
It’s also worth reiterating another observation I have made in these pages. The Democrats whose fortunes have declined so precipitously in the region since 2008 are still only recently out of power in the Deep South, at least at the legislative level, and have a mixed to poor record of alleviating a range of sins Edsall and most liberals complain about, from tax systems that over-burden the working class, to bargain basement Medicaid programs, to thin levels of social services, to weak environmental protections.
 To be sure, southern Republicans can go depressingly tone deaf in their choice of priorities, from North Carolina’s rollback of criminal procedure protections in a state where weak employment is surely something more voters are fixated on, to Alabama’s meat-ax approach to illegal immigration, to the lack of GOP support in most of these states for the kind comprehensive education reform that might boost the region’s abysmal rankings in data that measure the quality of life for children. And yes, the South certainly lacks its share of imaginative, Mitch Daniel type Republicans who see entrenched poverty as the kind of dilemma conservative ought to be engaged in addressing.
But to the extent that minority southerners are, in Edsall’s terms, “hindered from shaping the policies that determine social and economic mobility and the overall quality of life”, the reasons are more complex than the cause effect that Edsall suggests. The solutions have as much to do with ending a bipartisan accommodation to special interests that are averse to cutting edged innovations as they do with taking Republicans to task. Of course, had Democrats not squandered capital on expanding casinos, and soft-pedaling clear-cut evidence of corruption within their own ranks, they might well have found a high ground that stanched their bleeding with at least suburban, educated whites who might be receptive to a progressive platform. And if the all too recent Democratic rule over southern legislatures had really produced the “New South” that Edsall and others are claiming is under siege, he might have a moral point rather than a partisan political one.
By Jeff Smith, on Wed Jul 17, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET Acclaimed hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones said women become less effective at the office once they become mothers. But with all of the distractions in life, are moms really any worse than non-mothers, men or fathers?
Originally aired on July 15, 2013
Hosted by: Abby Huntsman
Guests:
Dr. Gloria Mark (Cleveland , OH) Professor at University of California Irvine
Dr. Jeff Smith @JeffSmithMO (Glen Ridge, NJ) Professor of Politics & Advocacy at The New School
Karen Firestone @FirestoneKaren (Boston, MA) CEO of Aureus Asset Management
Kristin Iversen @kmiversen (New York, NY) Managing Editor of Brooklyn Magazine
By Jason Atkinson, on Wed Jul 17, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Jul 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET When I am trying to explain something and don’t understand it well I will end my explanation with the phrases “as it were” or “if you will.”
I don’t really know what these phrases mean and they add nothing to my explanation but they are smart sounding and may trick the listener into believing I know more than I do about the topic I am explaining.
This morning is off to a slow start. I couldn’t …read a simple note without my cheaters and then waved hello and spoke to someone in line for coffee this morning who I know but can’t remember from where or what his name is.
It feels like it’s going to be one of those days I’ll be using phrases like “as it were” and “if you will” a lot, as it were….if you will.
I need all the help and tricks I can use.
By RP Staff, on Wed Jul 17, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET Today, we are introducing a new contributing RP to The Recovering Politician, former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
OK, maybe Bobby Kennedy is not a new contributor. Although his daughter, Kathleen, occasionally writes for this site.
But we are proud to post articles that were published in the Boston Post after Kennedy’s March 1948 visit to the Middle East, with thanks to Isra.li.
Jews Have a Fine Fighting Force
Make Up for Lack of Arms with Undying Spirit,
Unparalleld Courage — Impress the World
By Robert Kennedy, June 4, 1948
The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect.
Malca and her family to me are the personification of that determination. She is a young girl of the age of 23 and her husband and four brothers are members of the Haganah. She herself is with the intelligence corps and worked on the average of 15 hours a day, which evidently was not unusual. She had seen and felt much horror and told me the story of a case she had just handled.
A Jewish girl in her teens was picked up by some members of the Haganah on the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and, as she was injured, she was taken to the Hebrew Hospital in Jerusalem. They believed that she had somehow been separated from a Jewish convoy which had just gone through and which had had a scrap with the Arabs.
She was particularly noticed because of the strange people who were her visitors and by the fact that she insisted on being moved to the English hospital. Malca was sent to question her. She was turned away gruffly by the girl after the girl admitted that she had in reality been in a British tank with a boy friend and wanted nothing to do with the Jews.
The Jewish Agency offered to send the girl out on a farm in order to let her regain her health and give her a new start, but she just demanded her release which they were forced to give her. She continued consorting with the British police despite warnings from the Stern gang.
Brother Shoots Sister
One night the Stern gang followed the tactics of the underground forces in the last war. They shaved all the hair off the girl’s head. Two days after Malca told me the story the sequel took place. The girl’s brother returned for leave from duty with the Haganah up in Galilee and, finding her in such a state, shot her.
Malca’s youngest brother is only 13, but every night he takes up his post as a sentry with the Haganah at a small place outside of Jerusalem.
His mother and father wait up every night until midnight for him and his older brother, 15, to return home. The other two brothers, both younger than Malca, give full time duty with combat troops.
An understanding of the institutions it contains, and of the persons that run these institutions, is most important if one would make up one’s mind as to the worth of this “de facto” Jewish state.
I visited and inspected a community farm through the kindness of a Jew who 40 years ago was in Boston making speeches for my grandfather, John F. Fitzgerald, when he was a candidate for congress. A third of the agricultural population live in such community farms which were set up originally to help newly-arrived refugees who had no money or prospects.
They are in reality self-sustaining States with a State and all the people in common undergo arduous toll and labor and make great sacrifices in order that their children might become heir to a home. An example of this is that when a child is one year old he is placed in a common nursery, with the result that all but the sick and infirm are able to devote their talents to the common cause. They get paid nothing for they need no money. Everything is financed by a group of elected overseers who get their money by selling what the farms produce. In our country we shrink from such tactics but in that country their very lives depend upon them.
Read the rest of…
Robert Kennedy on Israel
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