Buy My Booklet - The Debate,Hearing Aid and UNWRA

 

Dick Berkowitz, has written a booklet entitled:"A Conservative Capitalist Offers: Eleven Lessons and a Bonus Lesson for Raising America's Youth Born and Yet To Be Born" Half The Proceeds Go To "The Wounded Warrior Project!" 

By Dick Berkowitz - Non Expert

Dick wrote this booklet because he believes a strong country must rest on a solid family unit and that Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" has morphed into "A Confused, Dependent and Compromised Generation."

He  hopes this booklet will provide a guide to alter this trend.

You can now order a .pdf version from www.brokerberko.com/book that you can download and read on your computer, or print out if you want. Cost is $5.99

In several weeks the book will be available in soft cover format at a cost of $10.99. 

Booklet illustrations were by his oldest granddaughter, Emma Darvick, who lives and works in New York.

Testimonials:

Dick, I read your book this weekend.  I hardly know where to start.  You did an excellent job of putting into one short book a compendium of the virtues which only a relatively short time ago all Americans believed.  It’s a measure of how far we have fallen that many Americans, perhaps a majority of Americans, no longer believe in what we once considered truisms.  I think your father would have agreed with every word, but the party he supported no longer has such beliefs.

  

I would like to buy multiple copies of your booklet..

You did a great job.  I know your parents would have been proud and that your family today is proud.

Mike

You wrote a great book.  The brevity is one of its strong points and I know it was hard to include that in and still keep it brief.  Your father in haste once wrote an overly long letter to our client, then said in the last sentence, “I’m sorry I wrote such a long letter, but I didn’t have time to write a short one.”

"Dick, I indeed marvel at how much wisdom you have been able to share with so few words.  Not too unlike the experience in reading the Bible. I feel that with each read of "A Conservative Capitalist Offers:…." one will gain additional knowledge and new insights…

Regards, Larry"

Dick , 
Your book is outstanding! Due to illness, I've been unable to read it in entirety until today .Your background is often very similar to mine (e.g. Halliburton's influence was very important in my life), and your thoughts reflect very closely the the teachings that I received from my parents and granddad. I will write a more detailed statement in the near future!
All the best,  Bob

Regarding your booklet, I have begun to read it and look forward to finishing it this weekend.  Congrats on getting it published and

on the great reviews.  I know how much this booklet means to you and how important getting this message out to the public is.

P------

Dick attended Georgia Military Academy, in Atlanta, graduating in 1950. He attended The Wharton School of Commerce graduating in 1954, served both a stint in the Marine Corps Active reserves and The Army Finance Corps.  

Upon completing his tour of service he enrolled in The University of Miami Law School (was an associate editor of The Law Review)  graduated in 1960, moved to Atlanta and began his Wall Street career as a stock broker with Courts and Company and became a general partner in 1967.  When Courts merged he opened an Atlanta Office for Burnham and Company in 1970 and when Drexel Burnham demised, in 1990, he took the institutional department , he created, to Oppenheimer going into semi-retirement in 2006 (he still manages money for some clients.).  

Dick resides with his wife of 40 years - Lynn Rudikoff, At The Landings on Skidaway Island near Savannah.

He has three daughters from a former marriage, a son and daughter with Lynn and 7 grandchildren.

During his working career, Dick was a member of The Board of St John's College for nine years (The Great Books School) served on The President's Commission on White House Fellowships during the elder Bush's Administration, and served on the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Board among many other public activities.

After moving to Savannah in 2003, Dick, began The JEA Speaker Series, continues to serve on the Board of The State of Georgia's Museum (GMOA) located on the campus at Athens, is on the advisory board of Spine and Sport and The Skidaway Island Republican Club.  Dick also serves on the investment committee board of the Savannah Jewish Federation.

He recently underwent a knee replacement in the hope that he can continue playing tennis.  

Dick also posts to a web page (dick-meom.blogspot.com) on a daily basis focusing on The Middle East, politics and economics.

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Ill winds getting ready to blow away more dollars?  (See 1 below.)
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For those who actually read what I write, they know I am not a single issue person but there are exceptions to every belief and in this regard I agree with Adelson.  (See 2 below.)
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Why Jews should vote for Obama.

Even if I agreed, which I do not, I would not vote for Obama because of his terrible foreign policy accomplishments, leading from behind and appeasing philosophy which has not worked, will not work and is dangerous. Just look around and how do you explain what is happening as positive? (See 3 below.)
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A quick take on America's major  newspapers. (See 4 below.)
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My assessment of the debate, for what it is worth:

Biden: Did what he was sent to do.  Effective if you accept bluster for facts in most instances but scored some pints vis a vis Afghanistan.

His repetition of what Romney and Ryan have not said suggests he may need a hearing aid.

Biden's demeanor, interruptions, rudeness undercut whatever substance he was seeking to establish.

Ryan:  Perhaps not aggressive enough in allowing Biden to enter his space with smirks and rudeness but overall was effective and factually speaking scored.

I was particularly impressed with his grasp of the foreign issues.

Conclusion: Biden may have put the train back on the tracks but did not move it a great deal down those tracks and Ryan certainly did not do damage to Romney's momentum and may have helped a little.
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Last night, in reviewing the meeting I attended where Daniel Pipes spoke, I failed to mention one of his analysts' projects.  It involves putting into perspective the cost of UNWRA in terms of the actual number involved vis a vis their legitimate  'right of return' argument.  The population  is not what is thought but is around 10,000 based on age.

Pipe's analyst is not trying to get the $1 billion spent each year by UNWRA reduced.  Rather he is seeking to build a case that UNRWA is serving a far smaller base who are entitled to 'right of return' and on a per capita basis the spending in unconscionable.
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Dick
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1)-Salazar approves massive Wyoming wind farm project

By Mead Gruver

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday authorized what he described as potentially the largest wind energy project in the United States, if not the world: A Wyoming wind farm with up to 1,000 turbines that would provide electricity to some 1 million homes.

Roadwork and groundwork could begin next year for the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project. After that, turbines could go up over a three-year period within an area covering 350 square miles of the hilly sagebrush country south of Rawlins in south-central Wyoming.

Most of that area is among the 245 million acres nationwide overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management — hence Salazar's role. Salazar highlighted the project as an example of President Barack Obama's "all of the above" strategy for renewable energy development and fossil fuel extraction onBLM and other public lands.

"Our strategy is getting us within grasp of energy independence in the United States," Salazar said.

The project is one of seven renewable energy projects Interior announced in August that it would expedite for review. Others include the 100-megawatt Quartzsite concentrating solar energy plant in Arizona, the 750-megawatt McCoy photovoltaic project in California, and the 350-megawatt Silver State South solar energy generation plant in Nevada.

"These are going to be landmarks in America. They are going to be what people think about when they think about the American West. And they are going to completely change the way that we think about energy production," said Neil Kornze, acting deputy director of the BLM.

The Chokecherry/Sierra Madre wind project is owned by the Power Company of Wyoming LLC, a wholly owned affiliate of Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz's The Anschutz Corp.

The project is expected to generate up to 3,000 megawatts when completed, bringing to 10,000 megawatts the amount of public-land renewable power that the Interior Department has authorized under Obama, Salazar said. That's enough energy to power more than 3 million homes.

Salazar signed a record of decision for the plan and spoke at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne. The school offers technical training for jobs in wind power, and Salazar's audience in a cavernous wind energy lab included about 40 students.

The project will create an estimated 1,000 construction jobs at its peak and 114 new, permanent operations and maintenance jobs, according to the BLM.

"One reason to be here is to celebrate jobs that are coming from wind energy throughout the United States. We know there are tens of thousands of jobs now being created by wind energy," Salazar said.

Salazar's signature means the BLM now can begin site-specific environmental analysis to help plot specific layout of the project's turbines, roads and power lines.

Roadwork at the site could begin in 2013, followed by installation of some turbines in 2014, said Bill Miller, president and chief executive of Power Company of Wyoming.

The project "won't be 1,000 at once" but more like 300 to 400 wind turbines installed each year over a three-year period, he said.

"We can accelerate that to some degree, or we could slow it up to some degree, depending on what the requirements are at any given point," Miller said.

Remaining permits still needed include one from the state Industrial Siting Council. The council reviews plans for major industrial projects proposed in Wyoming.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2)Don’t risk Israel’s security on Obama’s words

SHELDON G. ADELSON/JNS.ORG

“Americans who support Israel should take the president at his word,” wrote Haim Saban recently in the New York Times, claiming President Barack Obama is fully committed to the Jewish state.

But is that true? Should we take him at his word?

No, not when Israel confronts the threat of nuclear annihilation by Iran.

Time and again President Obama has signaled a lack of sympathy—or even outright hostility—toward Israel. Not long ago he was caught on an open microphone agreeing with French President Sarkozy’s slurring of the Israeli prime minister. And then there was his public snubbing of the Israeli leader’s request to discuss Iran during a recent U.S. visit, a measure Reuters termed “a highly unusual rebuff to a close ally.”

Even more worrying, last month former U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley, who attended several of Obama’s meetings with Netanyahu, admitted “there are serious differences between our interests and Israel’s own security interests.”

All this certainly raises questions about Obama’s sincerity when he publicly says he’ll “always have Israel’s back.” 

Nor are these the only times the president has left American voters wondering where he really stands on foreign relations.

Remember, earlier this year, when he was inadvertently recorded asking former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for “space” until his reelection, when he’d have more “flexibility” on missile defense? What did he mean? Obama was clearly not being forthright with the American people.

What else hasn’t he told us?

Think about Obama’s anti-Israel friends and mentors—radicals like Rashid Khalidi, Frank Marshall Davis, Jeremiah Wright, or the late Edward Said, the virulently anti-Israel professor under whom Obama studied. Has he made anti-Israel promises to them? Is Obama’s campaign rhetoric in support of Israel only creating “space” till after the election?

These questions cause genuine worry in Israel.

Even some liberals now complain the president has lost so much Israeli trust that, in the words of Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, “there is almost no chance of progress [for peace] if Obama wins re-election.”

Given that Obama’s public expressions are not something Israelis can rely upon, we need to take seriously the question: What are his second term plans when he no longer needs the Jewish vote?

Obama’s supporters tell us there’s nothing to worry about. He can be trusted, they say, because of his record of military aid to Israel and his support for sanctions against Iran.

But the aid was committed in programs that began decades before his presidency under previous administrations. He cannot rightly take credit for this aid in the sense of initiating it, just as he cannot take credit for merely signing pro-Israel legislation that had bipartisan congressional support.

Moreover, Obama’s campaign never mentions that in the past few years his budgets have proposed significant cuts in US-Israel missile defense funds—from $121.7mil to $99.8mil, a substantial slash. And just ask Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak or Poland’s Lech Walesa about Obama’s reliability because of past military aid.

Even worse, the Iranian sanctions contain loopholes that, in the words of the Wall Street Journal, “you could drive a warhead through.” All 20 of Iran’s major trading partners enjoy sanction exemptions. They won’t stop Iran’s nuclear program.

Let’s also not forget, when Obama took office, he admitted his administration sought to put “daylight” between America and Israel. He lectured that the Jewish state needed “to engage in serious self-reflection” about peace—as if tiny Israel has not spent decades pursuing peace with its belligerent neighbors. And unbelievably, in his 2009 address to the Muslim world, he implied a moral equivalence between the Holocaust and Palestinian dislocation.

With a second term the president won’t have fears of electoral accountability and will act upon his true feelings toward Israel.

This is worrying—especially at a time when the Jewish state as well as Americans sorely need a president whose words and policies they can rely on.

Not since 1967 has Israel’s safety been more precarious. Iran is now racing for a nuclear bomb while bragging they only need “24 hours and an excuse” to destroy the Jewish state. Egypt is lost to the Muslim Brotherhood. Hezbollah is armed to the teeth in Lebanon. Turkey’s government is more foe than friend. The Gulf States use enormous petroleum wealth to fund global anti-Israel propaganda. The “Arab Spring” continues to usher extremists into power. And Hamas rules Gaza.

All the while, the United Nations never misses a chance to denounce the Jewish state; Western universities support boycotts of Israel; and a sizable portion of the Democratic Party protests the inclusion of Jerusalem in their party platform. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, can’t even name Israel’s capital.

In these times of unrest and violence, it is necessary to elect a commander-in-chief whose words we can trust. Mitt Romney, to my mind, is a much safer choice. Unlike Obama, he not only understands Israel’s predicament, he actually likes the country.

To be sure, no one should argue that Jews must support Romney just because he is more reliable on Israel. But neither should they dismiss him because they don’t agree with his every position. When the Jewish homeland is at stake, we must not let ourselves be fooled by Obama’s oration skills. Nor can we afford to ignore his troubling track record on Israel

Those who support Obama are asking the rest of us to trust a president who has yet to recognize Israel’s ancient capital, a promise he made in the last election.

So keep in mind Obama’s open microphone comments next time someone says you must take the president at his word. And ask yourself: Should we risk Israel’s security on his campaign rhetoric?

For Obama, the issue is only political; for Israel, it’s existential—a matter of survival. 

Mr. Sheldon G. Adelson is an internationally renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the world’s leading private donor to Jewish education, the Birthright Israel program, and Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. In June, he gave the pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC $10 million.     

Editor’s note: Sheldon Adelson owns Israel Hayom, the largest-circulation daily newspaper in Israel. JNS.org is the U.S. distributor for Israel Hayom’s English-language content. This op-ed was written exclusively for JNS.org.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3) Florida Jewish Journal

                                 

                                  Move a Chicagoan to San Diego and soon

                                  he'll forget the wind, sleet and

                                  snow and start complaining when the

                                  temperature drops below 60 degrees.

                                  Relations between Israel and the

                                  United States are warmer under

                                  President Obama than under previous

                                  administrations,

                                  yet we hear that the President has a

                                  "Jewish problem." The

                                  problem is not Obama, but us: In

                                  only three years, we've lost historic

                                  perspective. We're criticizing Obama

                                  for what would have gone unnoticed in

                                  other administrations.

                                  Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger

                                  threatened to "reassess" America's

                                  relationship with Israel. Obama has

                                  declared that America's bond with

                                  Israel is "unbreakable," and

                                  Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak

                                  credited Obama for the strongest

                                  relationship between the two

                                  countries ever.

                                  Ronald Reagan suspended arms

                                  shipments to

                                  Israel and supported a UN resolution

                                  criticizing Israel for bombing

                                  Iraq's nuclear reactor. Obama

                                  secretly sold Israel the bunker

                                  busting bombs it requested

                                  during the Bush administration and

                                  cast the only UN veto of his

                                  administration against the one-sided

                                  anti-Israel UN Security Council

                                  resolution on settlements.

                                  George W. Bush pressured Israel to

                                  allow Hamas to participate in Gaza

                                  elections and made little progress

                                  in stopping Iran's march toward

                                  nuclear weapons. Obama has not

                                  negotiated with Hamas. He has mobilized

                                  the international community to

                                  impose the toughest sanctions ever

                                  against Iran and flat-out declared

                                  that that he will not allow Iran to

                                  acquire nuclear weapons, saying no

                                  options are off the table.

                                  Obama's pro-Israel accomplishments

                                  compare favorably with any

                                  Republican president. Yet we keep

                                  complaining.

                                  We say he hasn't visited Israel as

                                  president, forgetting that Jimmy

                                  Carter and Bill Clinton are the only

                                  two presidents who

                                  visited Israel during their first

                                  terms in office. George W. Bush did not

                                  visit Israel until his seventh year

                                  as president. Ronald Reagan never

                                  visited in his entire life. Obama

                                  went to Israel as recently as 2006 and

                                  2008.

                                  We complain that the Obama

                                  administration

                                  criticizes Israel's settlement

                                  policy, forgetting that every

                                  administration

                                  since 1967 has criticized Israel's

                                  settlement policy. But unlike George

                                  H.W. Bush, Obama never threatened to

                                  withhold U.S. aid to Israel because

                                  of settlement activity; instead,

                                  Obama has taken U.S. financial

                                  assistance to Israel to record levels.

                                  We complain about imagined slights to

                                  Prime Minister Netanyahu, forgetting

                                  that when the chips were down, Obama

                                  came through for Israel and

                                  Netanyahu. When Israel asked for

                                  help fighting

                                  the Carmel forest fires, President

                                  Obama's response was "get Israel

                                  whatever it needs. Now."

                                  In September 2011, when the late-night

                                  call came from Israel to Obama

                                  asking for help in rescuing the Israelis

                                  trapped in the Egyptian embassy,

                                  Netanyahu himself called it a

                                  "decisive and fateful moment,"

                                  recalling that Obama "said 'I

                                  will do everything I can.' And he did."

                                  The list goes on and on. Obama opposed

                                  the Goldstone Report, stood with

                                  Israel against the Gaza flotilla,

                                  boycotted Durban II and Durban III,

                                  and successfully derailed Palestinian

                                  attempts to unilaterally declare

                                  statehood at the UN. He's done more than

                                  any president to thwart Iran's

                                  nuclear ambitions.

                                  Yet despite the facts, despite the

                                  historic perspective, it's almost as

                                  if some of us want Obama to be

                                  anti-Israel because that would

                                  validate our worst fears. Attacking

                                  Obama on

                                  Israel is like attacking John Kerry

                                  on his personal military record. The

                                  Swift Boat campaign worked because

                                  Kerry and his supporters were too slow

                                  to take it seriously and fight

                                  fiction with facts. The result was

                                  four more

                                  years of George W. Bush.

                                  Maybe it's our nature to complain. But

                                  President Obama's words and deeds

                                  prove that he is not only a strong

                                  friend

                                  of Israel, but that he is willing to

                                  stand up for Israel publicly and

                                  behind the scenes. That's what

                                  matters, and that's why most Jews

                                  will vote for Obama in 2012.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4)

A Guide To The NewspapersAn easy guide to keeping political news in
perspective ...

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people
who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who
think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who
think they should run the country, and who
are very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they
ought to run the country but don't really
understand The New York Times. They do,
however, like their statistics shown in pie
charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who
wouldn't mind running the country, if they could
find the time -- and if they didn't have to leave
Southern California to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose
parents used to run the country and did a
poor job of it, thank you very much.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people
who aren't too sure who's running the country
and don't really care as long as they can get
a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who
don't care who is running the country as long
as they do something really scandalous,
preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Miami Herald is read by people who are
running another country, but need the baseball
scores.

10. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people
who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone
is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they
stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the
leaders are handicapped, minority, feminist,
atheist dwarfs who also happen to be illegal
aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided
of course, that they are not Republicans.

11. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped
in line at the grocery store.

12. The Seattle Times is read by people who have
recently caught a fish and need something to
wrap it in.

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