The Trebach Report

For many years I have pleaded with my old friends at my old university to treat Professor Jeffrey Schaler with the respect he deserved. My repeated pleas were ignored and, as far as I can tell, university leaders seem intent on firing him. This is a tragedy for Dr. Schaler but also for the university and for those academic leaders, for some of whom I have great respect and affection. While they are putting up more buildings and raising millions in grants, they seem to be in the process of losing their souls in this bizarre abuse of one of their great professors.

Along with some of those academic leaders at AU, I count Jeff as a good friend. I also view him as a great teacher and a superb scholar. On the basis of extensive experience serving on the responsible academic committees, I can offer the expert opinion that he is as qualified to be granted tenure as any other tenured professor in his department. Yet despite his persistent requests to be considered for tenure during his several decades at the university, those requests to be even considered have been denied by the university, which is located in Washington, D.C. He has been forced to work on the basis of a contract that was limited in terms of years and, yes, in terms of pay, far below that of colleagues who were teaching fewer courses. As I wrote to university officials some years ago, the abuse of Jeff Schaler seems to constitute a clear case of employment discrimination.

I have looked back in my extensive files on Jeff and was reminded of the fact that in late February 2007 he was informed by the chair of his department that he had been dropped from the list of candidates to be interviewed for a tenured position while at the same time she had nominated him for the college outstanding teacher award. As I recently wrote to Phyllis Peres, the dean of academic affairs, “Such absurd injustices dominate his many years of loyal teaching and service at the university.”

Why has this occurred? It is not clear but there is a suspicion that his unorthodox views have adversely affected the attitude of university colleagues and officials to his status. For example, as a disciple of Thomas Szasz he doubts that mental illness is a disease. One of his popular books is entitled Addiction is a Choice. As it happens I do not agree with some of his theories on these issues but I do agree with some aspects of his arguments and most importantly I respect his gracious scholarly manner in presenting such arguments.

Until a short while ago I did not appreciate the extent to which dozens of students also valued Professor Schaler’s work as a teacher and a scholar. I just discovered that students at American University have created a website entitled “Reappointment of Professor Jeffrey Schaler.” On that site there are now 121 signatures along with many favorable comments on the high value these students place on that professor’s contribution to their education. Here is a link to that website. Some of the student comments are truly extraordinary. Read them.

While it pains me to say it, it now appears to me that American university owes Jeff Schaler an abject apology and a lot of money.

In the future I intend to post on this site copies of other messages that I have sent to university officials over the years in opposition to the absurd injustices imposed on Jeff Schaler.

Thought provoking article by Charles Krauthammer about Obama's slide downhill in the last six months.

Warren Buffet has an idea for the Congressional Reform Act of 2013 and he wants to share it with all Americans so please pass this on.

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 12/31/13. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

Seventy-two year old singer Neil Diamond shows up at Fenway Park and proves to the beleaguered people of Boston that he can still lift their spirits.

Ahmed Daqamseh murdered seven Israeli school girls and wounded six others during a peace program in 1997. He expressed pride in this heinous act but was spared the death penalty, despite the fact that Jordan executes large numbers of criminals for relatively trivial offenses. Now a large majority of Jordanian parliamentarians support his release and regard him as a hero. Daqamseh says his only regret is that the gun jammed so he could not kill more. Imagine if Adam Lanza could now speak and he said the same thing. Alan Dershowitz views the Jordanian attitude towards Ahmed Daqamseh as troubling and observes “Jordan is ripe for yet another Arab Spring turned winter. All that stands between the current monarchy and an Islamic upheaval is massive American financial and military support for its charming king. So next time you see the smiling face of King Abdullah on television speaking about peace, remember that many of his subjects regard the cold-blooded mass murderer of Jewish children as an Islamic hero”.

When Lady Margaret Thatcher died the Jewish people and the world lost one of their truest friends.

The sad case of Cameron Douglas the son of Michael Douglas provides a good illustration of how counterproductive our nation’s war on drugs is. After his arrest for cocaine and methamphetamine dealing in 2009 pleas from former teachers, friends and supporters of the sometime-actor and disc jockey said Douglas had finally "bottomed out" and would work to overcome his addiction convinced U.S. District Judge Richard Berman to give a five-year sentence, well under the recommended range. Two weeks after the trial Douglas relapsed and the court tacked another 4 1/2 years to the sentence, more than twice the term prosecutors sought. Despite the support of groups that oppose the mass incarceration of drug addicts. The New York Society of Addiction Medicine, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry, California Society of Addiction Medicine and Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights the appeal of this harsh sentence failed. A three-judge panel from the 2nd Circuit urged Congress to rethink its policies of sending drug addicts to jail rather than treatment.

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is on trial for slaughter but one is hard pressed to see any mention of this fact in our nation’s news media. He is in this predicament, charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, because he regularly performed late-term abortions that really crossed the line into infanticide. An unlicensed medical school graduate who worked in the clinic where these crimes were performed “described how he snipped the spinal cords of babies, calling it, ‘literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body.’ He testified that at times, when women were given medicine to speed up their deliveries, ‘it would rain fetuses. Fetuses and blood all over the place.” Roger L. Simon argues on PJ Media that “the trial of Dr. Gosnell is a potential time bomb exploding in the conventional liberal narrative on abortion itself. This is about the A-word.” Perhaps that is why such a sensational story usually kind of tale the press loves to dwell on is receiving scant media attention.

Five years ago a text on how to raise one’s children as proper Muslims that included virulently anti-Semitic passages, based on Muslim holy texts, was in circulation was in Holland. Now a Turkish-Dutch researcher has publicized systematic anti-Semitism among other Muslims in the Netherlands which contains a dramatic video that showed teenage boys calling for genocide and praising Hitler. The result, Mehmet Sahin, had to go into hiding after being accused by others of being a Jew and a Zionist. Social trends show that the mass media and Universities are generally becoming not just critical but viciously so of Israel and periodically Jews generally. This growing anti-Semitic sector consists of two parts Muslim immigrants and their offspring, and the far left that is so often dominant in the Netherlands. Barry Rubin argues that “the issue, then, is not just coming from Middle Eastern politics but also the tensions within Dutch society and how Muslim immigrants and their children interpret their problems. Endlessly told that the Jews are their enemy and that they control society in some way, it is easy to conclude that the Jews might also be behind the harassment or discrimination Muslims face, absurd as this is on a factual level and in countries where the Jewish population is tiny.”

The Israeli Prime Minister apologized to Turkey for his government’s actions during the Mavi Marmara incident. At first Daniel Pipes was appalled by this action but on second thought he now notes that “Turkish gloating has been so conspicuous and extended that it may have prompted to a healthy sense of reality.” He concludes arguing that “perhaps after all the apology was a good thing. For a relatively inexpensive price – some words – Israelis and others have gained a better insight into the Turkish leadership’s mentality. It’s not that they suffer from hurt pride but that they are Islamist ideologues with an ambitious agenda. If the misguided apology makes this evident to more observers, it has its compensations and possibly could turn out to be a net plus.”

Democrats seek to avoid their wretched racist past by promoting the false myth that Richard Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” for the GOP is the root of all racism in America today. And that racists who had been the backbone of their party for the better part of a century suddenly switched en masse to the GOP sometime around 1968, with the happy result that now all the racists are on the right. Kevin Williamson who addressed this subject brilliantly last year pointed out that “if the parties had in some meaningful way flipped on civil rights, one would expect that to show up in the electoral results in the years following the Democrats’ 1964 about-face on the issue. Nothing of the sort happened: Of the 21 Democratic senators who opposed the 1964 act, only one would ever change parties. Nor did the segregationist constituencies that elected these Democrats throw them out in favor of Republicans: The remaining 20 continued to be elected as Democrats or were replaced by Democrats. It was, on average, nearly a quarter of a century before those seats went Republican. If southern rednecks ditched the Democrats because of a civil-rights law passed in 1964, it is strange that they waited until the late 1980s and early 1990s to do so.” Despite the facts this myth persists but a close examination of electoral maps shows it to be very false.

Economists Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore looked at the new Census Bureau data and found that people are moving to the South and the Sunbelt regions and moving away from the Northeast and Midwest, areas where the Democrat’s strategy for improved economic health predominate. Raleigh, Austin, Las Vegas, Orlando, Charlotte, Phoenix, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas were the fastest growing metro areas all in low-tax, business-friendly states while areas such as Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Providence and Rochester in states with the opposite viewpoint all lost population. The policies of raising taxes on businesses and the wealthy to fund government "investments" and increasing the union’s power drive people away but on the other hand the policies of reducing tax rates and easing regulations attract people.

There are a number of sources that reinforce the very negative echo J. Christian Adams calculation about what is in fact a department of injustice under Obama.The American Spectator has posted an article which cites a number of sources which agree with Adam’s evaluation of the inspector general’s report. This piece concludes that “no matter how the IG tries to excuse the Obamites’ motives, the facts speak for themselves. If numerous people in the Civil Rights Division express hostility against race-neutral enforcement of laws, and then a top political appointee in the division says on two occasions that she is not interested in enforcing parts of the law or enforcing the laws against non-white perpetrators, and if the Attorney General himself says that his team has other enforcement “priorities,” and then if the actual record shows that the division did indeed fail to enforce those specific parts of the law despite repeated staff advisories to do so backed by copious evidence in support of doing so… well, then, this obviously amounts to selective non-enforcement of the law, and considering all the other partisan, racial and ideological viciousness detailed by the IG, it is silly to conclude anything other than that partisan, racial and ideological motives drove the non-enforcers in their non-enforcement decisions .This is lawlessness. It ought to be punishable.”

The new nominee for Labor Secretary, Tom Perez, was in charge of the DOJ Civil Rights Division and the inspector general of that department has just released a report assessing and describing his performance while there.J Christian Adams does us the favor of summing up it’s conclusions by asserting that the “250-page report offers an inside glimpse of systemic racialist dysfunction inside one of the most powerful federal government agencies.”

The effects of the November 2012 Israeli airstrikes on Gaza were perhaps best made known to the world through the story of the death of an eleven month old child supposedly a victim of this bombing and broadcast by the BBC. However, in fact a UN Human Rights Council report on the conflict tells us now that a woman, her 11-month-old infant, and an 18-year-old adult in Al-Zaitoun were killed by what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel. HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams argues that “yet again the reflexive anti-Israel attitude of the foreign media has led to false accusations against Israel. That the media is unwilling to correct the error or to hold Hamas publicly responsible is not only a slap in the face for Israel but also to the readers and viewers who are entitled to proper standards of accuracy from the media. Those media that published a falsehood should hold up their hands and print a retraction immediately.”

The recent speech by renowned black pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Carson created a firestorm of criticism from the allies of Barack Obama. Amity Shales the author of his recent biography The Great Refrainer argues that the recent obscurity bestowed upon Coolidge by the historical profession stems from the fact that he spoke a different economic language from ours. Instead of talking about the money supply, the private sector, private property or savings he spoke of a need for “more intellectual power, we need more moral power. We do not need more knowledge, we need more character. We do not need more government, we need more culture. We do not need more law, we need more religion. We do not need more the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are not seen.”

The New York Times review of Shales book called Coolidge “an extraordinarily blinkered and foolish and complacent leader” while the real historical record reveals that he inherited a national debt of $28 billion and reduced it to less than $18 billion; he cut the top income tax rate to 25% while balancing the budget and producing surpluses each year; and unemployment was reduced from 5.7 million at the beginning of the decade to 1.8 million when he left office. The economy became popularly known as the ‘Coolidge prosperity’” Compare that to the record compiled the last four years by our present leader you can see that the animosity towards the good doctor comes not from the fact that he sounds too much like modern day Republicans but instead too much like Calvin Coolidge.

Radical Islam has once again succeeded in the partial muzzling one of its opponents to their destructive political and cultural agenda. Lars Hedegaard, the Danish journalist and outspoken critic recently had to phone in a television interview because he is in hiding due to threats on his life. Earlier this month he narrowly escaped death from a bullet fired by an Arab or Pakistani immigrant or the descent of such immigrants. The attempt to kill Hedegaard who serves as president of the International Free Press Society and of Denmark’s Free Press Society has received scant attention from the American mainstream media.

His problem only received any real press two days ago when The Wall Street Journal published an outstanding editorial by him titled The Assassin at the Door. In it he discusses the motive for the attack reminding us that he and his Swedish colleague Ingrid Carlqvist have just launched a Swedish-language weekly newspaper called Dispatch International to the great dissatisfaction of the Swedish mainstream media, which are probably the most politically correct in the Western world. They have been castigated as racists and he asserts “we are not. We simply insist on our right to defend freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and individual and sexual equality. We also insist on our right to criticize religious fanatics of every stripe who try to impose theocratic laws and customs on free societies.”

President Obama is now arguing that if the Republicans do not raise taxes in return for more federal government spending then the world will end. Despite the fact that the coming catastrophe means only a seven percent cut in military and five percent in domestic spending our leader believes ordinary people, not people the people who work for government should feel should have the pain inflicted on them. The Wall Street Journal opinion page asserts that “he won't demand that agencies cut the lowest priority spending as any half-competent middle manager would”.

The Fort Hood police sergeant and her partner who stopped the infamous deadly shooting were made a promise by President Obama at that year’s state of the union address that the victims would be well taken care of. Now three years later sergeant Kimberly Munley is saying that they were betrayed by the White House. She argues that “not to the least little bit have the victims been taken care of. In fact they've been neglected.” Despite the creditable evidence that Hasan was in communication with al Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, who has since been killed by our government because he was an enemy combatant, prior to the attack, the military has denied the victims a Purple Heart and is treating the incident as "workplace violence" instead of "combat related" or terrorism.

Classifying the incident as workplace violence rather than terrorism means that the Fort Hood victims are receiving lower priority access to medical care as veterans, and a loss of financial benefits available to those who injuries are labeled as "combat related". The Fort Hood victims have filed a lawsuit seeking proper and just treatment from the Obama Administration. Shawn Manning who was shot six times that day at Fort Hood asserts that “it was no different than an insurgent in Iraq or Afghanistan trying to kill us”

Whether Barack Obama is truly a Christian or a Muslim is the question and no one can argue that his real relationship with God is not his own business. However it is clear that he has soft spot in his heart for Islam. He has described the call to evening prayer which he first as a child living in Indonesia as a most beautiful of sounds and he is entitled to feel that way but a tender place in his heart is quite a different thing than a soft spot in his head for the religion. That in fact is all of our business. No President is entitled to that and Wesley Pruden argues that is exactly where the weakness is located. He observes that when the president hears “the sweetest music this side of heaven” (apologies to Guy Lombardo), his heart goes all googly at the sight of the crescent moon. He wants acolytes who can share the googly.

Because the Republican Party opposed the reelection of Barack Obama some people such as Sam Tannenhaus of the New Republic argue that the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people. For those who wish to ignore the much more racist history and many of the present day actions of the Democratic Party and buy into that partisan nonsense they should listen to this stirring speech given by Dr. Benjamin Carson before the National Press Club in front of President Obama.

Barack Obama’s choice to draw attention to on our nation’s commitment to fighting global warming during his inauguration speech on such a cold day seemed inappropriate. Ben Stein observes “he focused on climate change, a subject dear to the hearts of his fans — and more power to them. But since we don’t know for sure what causes climate change, nor how much climate change there has been, nor how to cut down on CO2 emissions on a worldwide basis, I am not sure what he has in mind. We just don’t know what’s going on and until we do, I hate to give up our freedoms over it.” He also notes that real concrete problems such our country’s enormous debt and the continued threat of terrorism found no place in his speech.

The elevation of John Kerry to Secretary of State, John Brennan to head the CIA, and Chuck Hagel to lead the Defense Department shows that the Obama Administration intends to pursue a very anti-Israeli course of action. Daniel Pipes argues that the approval of advanced weapons — 20 F-16 fighter jets and 200 M1A1 Abrams tanks — to the Islamist government in Egypt despite the fact that its president, Mohamed Morsi, has become increasingly despotic and in 2010 labeled Jews “blood-suckers . . . warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs.” is further evidence of our President’s true state of mind. He is also ignoring the fact that Cairo is importing Scud missile parts from North Korea. He is in fact repeating a thirty-five year old tactic by those in this country who hold animus towards the Jewish people by condemning Israeli policies while pretending to be concerned for the country’s welfare.

We can expect Barack Obama to be more aggressive in his second term. This process began during the campaign where he battled Republicans and he challenged the more conservative members of the Democratic party. The nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, a red flag to neo-conservatives, along with movement on the gun control and immigration issues are evidence of a new approach to his politics.

The president sees a changed America electorate which has reached a critical tipping point where he no longer needs to worry about a dependence on conservative white voters? Their backlash which led to the solid Republican majority controlling both house of Congress in 1994 is not likely to occur again. It is more than the second term syndrome, the knowing that he will never have to face the voters again, but rather the creation of a new democratic coalition of minorities, the Millennial generation, and college-educated white women which promises to predominate for some time.

Our president desires to have his second term in office thought of as transformative and this goal is certain to provoke justifiable rage in many quarters. The first event likely to provoke such a reaction is the campaign to confirm Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense and Obama’s decision aided by his allies in the news media to play and continue playing the race card in furtherance of that outcome. When it is suggested that no nominee was ever questioned so closely before the implication, as it has been many times before, is that the situation is now different because of the leader’s race. Wesley Pruden reminds us that “nobody gets through a turn in Washington without hearing a recital of his faults, usually at high decibel. If you want a friend in Washington, as Harry Truman famously said, get a dog. That goes double for presidents.”

The American Spectator is running a column The Obama Watch and my article for it Despair Inside the Beltway has been published. Here it is as follows:

The second inauguration of our sitting president will take place this coming weekend as this is being written. It is a time of great happiness for most of my neighbors and friends inside the beltway, indeed for most people in the country.

But I find myself in despair for our beloved country. It is quite likely that a large minority of the nation’s citizens agree with my pessimistic mood. The reasons for that despair are not difficult to discern.

Our beloved country is in terrible condition. The awful evidence is easily seen everywhere, for those willing to look. Our economic situation is unsustainable. Yes, the government of the richest country in the history of the world is, by all reliable measures, broke. Our national government cannot pay its bills and every day sinks deeper in debt because it is addicted to spending at extravagant rates. We are on our way to becoming the sad equivalent of Greece or another failed state.

There is plenty of blame to pass around for this condition and it should be shared by Democrats and Republicans, by George Bush and by Barack Obama, but the major part of the blame must be placed squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Obama and his administration. He has been in power for four years and he promised that he would deal with all of our major problems. He has not done so.

To put fine point on the matter, our president terrifies me, even though during most of my life I have been a liberal Democrat and voted for him in his first election.

If viewed honestly his first term has been an unmitigated disaster. The national debt is at an historic high. So is unemployment. Despite these sad, undeniable facts, he was elected to another term. That of course is typical of his history for much of his life. He is a master politician of the Chicago school and yet a disaster as a manager and practical leader.

His political skills helped him get selected as the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. Yet he proved a failure as the leader of that publication. There is no evidence that he authored one written comment or publication during his entire tenure.

His political skills also led to his election in 1996 to the Illinois State Senate where his work there was without any sign of major distinction. Often, he voted “present” rather than show the guts to fight for significant new laws.

Despite this lackluster record in Illinois, his political savvy led to his election to the United States Senate in 2004. His record in the Senate was equally without distinction in part because he spent most of his time there running for president. Yet, he was elected president in 2008 and, as I said, I voted for him. Like many millions of citizens, I managed to overcome my disgust at his association with his bigoted, racist, anti-Semitic pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Mr. Obama now is seeking to take the lead in getting the country beyond the so-called fiscal cliff. In my view, had he been a proper leader, the country would have avoided the fiscal cliff months ago. His failures of leadership were the main causes of the horrors around the fiscal cliff.

Yet, again his political mastery has again produced a situation in which he is given credit for being a good leader and the press and the public are placing the lion’s share of the blame for our dire economic situation on Congress and the Republicans.

If history is to be repeated, which is likely, somehow the country will move beyond the fiscal cliff and Barack Obama will move forward with governing the country while basking in the warm glow of press and public applause.

And again if history prevails, he will be a disaster in his second term as he was in the first. Race relations will continue to get worse under his leadership; so will black crime. The nation’s status in foreign affairs will also continue to deteriorate. Israel will continue to be treated as the major problem in the Middle East rather than our most trusted and valuable ally in the region and the world. The master politician will continue to be a failure as a leader and manager — and all the while he will be applauded as a great chief executive bythe slavish major media and by a majority of the public.

When the country finally collapses in a sea of debt and red ink, or even in a race war, neither he nor his Democratic Party will be blamed. It is likely that another Democrat will be elected to the White House in 2016.

Those in brief are the reasons why I am in despair and why we all should despair for our wonderful country as the inauguration day approaches.

I pray that my pessimistic forecasts do not prove to be true in the near future, but I fear that the forces of history do not allow for much hope in this regard — except in one way. If millions of good Americans agree with these awful forecasts then perhaps — just perhaps — there will be a groundswell of popular demand that drastic measures must be taken very soon to change the disastrous direction of the precious American nation.

Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez held a closed door meeting to talk about the increasingly likely demise of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which allows federal oversight of southern elections. He wanted to tell those present how the political appointees, including Eric Holder, intend to handle intend to handle a loss in the action brought by Shelby County, Alabama, challenging Section 5 federal control. Perez assured Justice Department attorneys and analysts responsible for enforcing Section 5 that he intends to pivot the duties and responsibilities of the analysts from Section 5 review to Section 2 enforcement litigation. This shifts the burden of proof to states and local jurisdictions who must now act as the plaintiffs alleging discrimination. The ironically, the Obama administration has so far had a dismal record when it comes to upholding section two.

The war on drugs has been public policy for almost all of the 20th century and the beginning of this one, receiving a major boost in activity and destructiveness during Richard Nixon’s time in office. It continues until today with Barack Obama doing not nearly enough to correct the brutal expensive mistake of those who came before him. The Wall Street Journal has presented a very thorough and cogent article explaining why our politicians need to stop pursuing this totally misguided and harmful course.

The direct monetary costs to the American taxpayer for this disastrous insanity is at present over 40 billion dollars per year. When Nixon began his attack on people who do not use drugs which make money for the pharmaceutical companies it was expected and promised that the drug trafficking in the U.S. could be greatly reduced in a short time through federal policing—and yet the war on drugs continues to this day. The cost of this war includes many other effects that are more difficult to quantify but we do know the price has been very large in terms of the well-being of many Americans, especially the poor and less educated. The gains from this battle have been very modest at best. For example over the past 40 years the fraction of students who have dropped out of American high schools has remained at about 25%. They are not high for middle-class white children, but they are very high for black and Hispanic children living in poor neighborhoods. Poor schools and weak family support are important factors but another cause is that because of the drug war strategy in inner-city neighborhoods there is the temptation to drop out of school in order to profit from the the drug trade.

Also, the total number people incarcerated in state and federal prisons has grown from 330,000 in 1960 to 1.6 million today and much of the increase in this population is directly due to the war on drugs and the severe punishment for persons convicted of drug trafficking. It affects not only just those locked up but their families and friends too. The purpose of this ill-advised endeavor is to push the price of illegal drugs up. While higher prices may discourage use, although that is not always clearly the case, but the higher prices sellers get for drugs help compensate traffickers for the risks of being apprehended and allows them to make a greal deal of money above what their product is actually worth. In addition a more aggressive war on drugs leads dealers to respond with higher levels of violence and corruption, an increase in enforcement can exacerbate the costs imposed on society.

Lastly, the war on drugs discourages people from seeking help in overcoming any addiction they are burdened with. After giving many and varied reasons why this is the right thing to do the article concludes “the decriminalization of both drug use and the drug market won't be attained easily, as there is powerful opposition to each of them. The disastrous effects of the American war on drugs are becoming more apparent, however, not only in the U.S. but beyond its borders. Former Mexican President Felipe Calderon has suggested ‘market solutions’ as one alternative to the problem. Perhaps the combined efforts of leaders in different countries can succeed in making a big enough push toward finally ending this long, enormously destructive policy experiment.”

A human rights group has investigated the Palestinian Authority and found it responsible for a great deal of inhumane abuse directed at fellow countrymen. From 2007 – 2011 the PA detained 13,271 people and tortured 86 % of them. The primary blame was placed on on PA President Mahmoud Abbas and it called on the UN, Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation to take urgent action.

The voters in Colorado and in Washington State, the leaders of many Latin American nations, and myself for many years now want the American federal government to follow a different more humane, more effective, and less costly approach to drug control policy. This video documentary Breaking the Taboo makes an excellent case for change.

2012 FRONT PAGE ARCHIVES

2011 FRONT PAGE ARCHIVES

2010 FRONT PAGE ARCHIVES

As the debate over decriminalizing marijuana advances new reasons to support the change in policy will surely continue to surface. In his story about the effort in California for the San Francisco Chronicle Joe Garofoli gives an example of this as he informs us that the “suburban ‘soccer moms’ who are likely voters have told pollsters that the measure, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 or older, would provide a safer way for their adult children to buy pot.”

Ever since the unsuccessful attempt to blow up an airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas day, supposedly conceived of in Yemen, many commentators have been calling for increased participation in that nation’s affairs by the United States and Great Britain. In his analysis of this prospect, drawn from personal experience with that country, Eric Margolis uses the analogy of kicking over a hornet’s nest. He points to some facts that should give us pause. He writes that a “military dictator, Ali Saleh, has held power since 1978. Saleh's U.S.-backed regime is accused of extensive human rights violations and deep corruption.” Margolis also tells us that poverty stricken “Yemen has three civil wars going on and bitter fighting between Sunni and various Shia sects. Yemen's warlike tribes hate any outside authority, starting with their own government.”

We are once again reminded that some Muslims believe it ethical to promote their religion through violence. Recently a Somali man attempted to murder Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard who has been under threat of death ever since a drawing of his depicting the Prophet Muhammad was published. However, we should also be aware that a group of moderate Muslims stated that the“Danish Muslim Union strongly distances itself from the attack and any kind of extremism that leads to such acts," If we are to win the war on terror their interpretation of Islam must be supported in every way possible.

Her courage tells all who will listen about the horror of Islamic rules and the need for reform -- for Muslims and for the rest of us. See here.

All credit goes to SSDP - the American University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy -- and to AU Professor Jeff Schaler who will moderate or MC the event. The students and Jeff took the lead in making this appearance happen.

I will talk primarily about my latest book FATAL DISTRACTION: The War on Drugs in the Age of Islamic Terror. In addition, I will talk about my 35 years or so at the forefront of drug policy research and reform and my views on the failures and the future of the entire drug policy reform movement.

All three books in the Trebach Trilogy will also figure in the discussion and they will be there for autographing and purchase -- in the event there are hardy, wonderful souls who want to buy these amazing tomes.

My interest in drug policy started in the Ward Circle Building at AU while I was teaching basic administration of justice courses in the early Seventies. In part, because I was encouraged by my colleagues to research and write books and in part because writing was in my soul, I kept writing at AU. The Heroin Solution and The Great Drug War were completed while I was at AU. In each of the years when they were released the university gave me the award as the outstanding scholar of the year. Parts of the latest book were completed when I was still at AU but it was finished within the last year, long after I retired from the university and became a professor emeritus.

Thus, the existence of the Trebach Trilogy -- put out by Unlimited Publishing LLC of Bloomington, Indiana -- provides evidence that scholarship at AU does happen and is carried on by many professors and students alike. It rarely gets the recognition it deserves -- even though it resides at the core of the university mission.

THE TREBACH TRILOGY IS AVAILABLE NOW!

FATAL DISTRACTION: The War on Drugs in the Age of Islamic Terror

The Heroin Solution 2nd Edition

Debunks myths about heroin: A classic by a leading expert on drugs, their medical uses and abuse by addicts. Comparative history of narcotics control and treatment in Britain and America. Includes extensive citations, bibliography, index. "A blockbuster," says Publishers Weekly.

The Great Drug War
by Arnold S. Trebach

Formerly published by Macmillan; 2005 edition from UP includes new introduction and links to extensive source materials.

"At last! A professor, attorney, and writer who offers a reasonable and realistic approach to the drug problem in America."
-- Psychology Today

"This controversial study is likely to be widely discussed."
-- Publishers Weekly

"...Trebach's proposals are worthy of serious consideration... Highly recommended."
-- Library Journal

Former Representative Mark Foley, with his lustful eye for young male pages and his co-chairmanship of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, certainly embodies the most inappropriate committee appointment in Congressional history. A close second, though, may very well be Congressman Mark Souder as ranking Republican on the House subcommittee that oversees federal drug war policies.

Last week the MSNBC program hosted by Tucker Carlson wanted to talk about the refunding of the failed government sponsored program airing anti-marijuana radio and television ads. They scheduled as a guest Bill Piper of the Drug Policy Alliance but at the last minute bumped him in favor of Congressman Souder. As a result viewers were treated to an amazing display of ignorance concerning marijuana. As Piper puts it, “I never thought I would say this, but I’m glad I got bumped. Souder made a total fool of himself.” Also, we must give credit to Carlson who helped with the process by refusing to accept at face value many of Souder’s blatant falsehoods.

It is the same old story. Another impressive scientific research study documents the value of marijuana in medicine -- and ho hum, the White House says the strudy is flawed and is not persuasive and will not change policy. Science makes no difference in the making of American drug policy. This is a continuing embarrassment of the same type I have been documenting for about 35 years. How sad and what a waste of time. An important story appeared yesterday in the Washinton Post on this matter. Here.

These events -- the Mexican legalization law and that awful police decapitation story -- come at a time when I have just finished work on three books covering much of my career in drug reform. The newest and most comprehensive is in the process of being released to the public. Because of these events, I have decided that the time has come to post more information on my web site about that book.

Why? Those events showed just how horrible the impact of the drug war can be and they also showed the dramatic reforms that are starting to take place. I have worked for drug legalization for decades precisely because of the harm it causes. The book lays out the rationale for full legalization and the Mexican government has just gone further down that road than any government of my knowledge. My hope is that Mexican officials use the arguments in my book to keep going even further.

The book is being published by Unlimited Publishing LLC, a relatively new and pioneering company. While the book is not available in bookstores as yet, advance pre-publication copies may be secured by the electronic and print media for review and comment purposes, as explained below.

A preliminary copy of the first press release from Unlimited Publishing follows.

"In 1996, Arnold Trebach, a legendary opponent of drug prohibition, gave a speech noting that 'all of us would be infinitely safer if the courageous efforts of anti-drug agents in the U.S. … and other countries were focused on terrorists aimed at blowing up airlines and skyscrapers [rather] than drug traffickers seeking to sell the passengers and office dwellers cocaine and marijuana.' We will never know what would have happened had the FBI taken Mr. Trebach's advice. But we do know what happened when the FBI continued to fight the futile war on drugs." These cogent thoughts appeared in an editorial of the Ottawa Citizen several years ago.

The media spread those words around the world after 9/11, leading some observers to marvel at the fact that Trebach had predicted the assault. Of course, he had done nothing of the kind, but he had stated the obvious though ignored truth that we all need protection from bombs not from bongs, from Osama not marijuana. In this book, Trebach, who over the years has been hired to provide advice to many federal agencies -- including the White House, the Justice Department, and the CIA -- puts that advice in a must-read narrative for all who care about our common future. In the process, this seasoned Washington veteran pulls together the lessons of his extensive experience and personal travails on the front lines of drug policy reform. His convincing core argument: in this age of Islamic terrorism, the war on drugs is indeed a fatal distraction from much more serious business.

Trebach argues that the war on drugs can only be ended if drugs are finally, at long exhausting last, legalized. His advice is that this be done quickly, without any more soul-searching or navel gazing. We cannot continue to waste precious human and monetary resources when our very survival is on the line.

We ignore his advice at our peril. As Trebach states in the opening words of this book: "It is remarkable that while Islamic terrorism threatens the very existence of all free societies and while the war on drugs interferes with the war on terror, the war on drugs continues nevertheless. History may well record that this distraction was fatal and that it was part of a series of other deadly mistakes and diversions which, taken together, were instrumental in dooming modern democratic civilization to the dustbin of that history."

Almost every day the lead news stories provide heightening support for his main thesis and that alarming prediction. The forces of extreme Islamic terror seem to push the West further and further back. The United States is in a state of internal conflict over its global strategy, with some leading officials decrying any diversion of resources from the failed war on drugs. In early April, for example, the normally sensible Congressman Henry Hyde complained that the Bush administration has no plans to replace damaged coca-spraying aircraft stationed in Colombia because resources are needed for conflicts in the Middle East. Such views document the confusion of our leaders as to how to survive this time of extreme peril in the nation's history.

In this book Trebach lays out the basis for new thinking and new strategies that would show that America and it allies take seriously the need for bold and urgent action. One small but significant signal would be the immediate disbanding of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the assignment of its thousands of dedicated, armed agents to the front lines of the war on terror. Their new marching orders, in Trebach's view, would be: Ignore pot; ignore meth; inform our citizens they must show personal responsibility regarding their drug consumption; focus on corralling the jihadists hiding at home and those abroad plotting to murder our people simply because we are infidels who believe in freedom and equality for all human beings regardless of their gender or religion or sexual orientation.

We at Unlimited Publishing hope that you find Fatal Distraction enlightening and helpful. If you publish a review or make a comment about it, we would like to receive a copy of the review or a transcript of the comment.

To purchase advance copies: For a limited time only, advance release copies of this new book are available exclusively from lulu.com at a substantial discount. Broad public availability to order in paperback and hardback at full retail price is expected later this year from all major booksellers.

In the midst of all of the other horrors taking place in the world, it is embarrassing to see that the American war on drugs continues to divert precious enforcement and enforcement resources from the war on terror. Our drug war also continues to imprison seriously ill patients who have had the gall to use illegal drugs that helped their conditions. Kris Hermes of Safe Access has just sent around circular letter asking decent people to help prevent these heartless drug-war incarcerations from becoming death sentences, which they have for several patients. He is now asking for help in getting proper care for Steve Kubby, a convicted medial marijuana patient. His appeal can be found here. Your letters and appeals may help lessen the frequency of these home-made horrors.

After several decades of working for decent treatment of American drug-war prisoners, the persistence of cases like these helped moved me to the position of complete abolition. In my view, it is not possible for Americans to run a humane drug war any more than it was possible to make slavery humane. Abolition made sense in the 1860's regarding slavery and it makes sense now regarding prohibition and the war on drugs. Legalization is the only rational, moderate, and sensible option This thesis is laid out more fully in my forthcoming book, Fatal Distraction.

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THE TREBACH TRILOGY IS AVAILABLE NOW!

FATAL DISTRACTION: The War on Drugs in the Age of Islamic Terror

The Heroin Solution 2nd Edition

The Great Drug War 2nd Edition

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Bloomington, Indiana 47402

www.unlimitedpublishing.com

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