Photo, above:  When Nelson Mandela turned 95 he also marked 15 years of marriage to Graça Machel.

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During the last six weeks Machel kept a near round-the-clock vigil at her husband's hospital bedside, leaving to attend Mandela's charity events or visit their Johannesburg home. But then the Mozambican-born Machel, 27 years younger, has already been by Mandela's side for 15 years of marriage.  "We make sure we spend time with each other because we were so lonely before. You only live once," she remarked before the ravages of time tightened their grip on her husband.

Machel married Mandela in 1998, twelve years after her first husband, Mozambique's former president Samora Machel, died in a mysterious plane crash. At that time Mandela had been divorced from his second wife Winnie for two years, but estranged by time and prison for three decades. "When I am alone, I am very weak," South Africa's first black president said when discussing Machel in 2007. On the cusp of their anniversary, Mandela's close friend and lawyer George Bizos described them as "a loving couple."  "They are very happy together," he told AFP, adding Machel "is dedicated to the well being of her husband Nelson. It's commonly known that she spends a long time at his bedside."

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Co-hosts: Mary Kissel, WSJ.  Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents.

Hour One

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block A: Max Boot, author, in re: Don't Distort the Meaning of Mandela  Nelson Mandela's example is more proof that individuals and personal choices are the decisive factors in history.  Nelson showed almost superhuman magnanimity and generosity once in power. He spent 27 years in a desperate prison and yet emerged advocating peace and progress.  Early on he was a Marxist, but at the end of his career advocated not only political and financial transparency but also a suitably South African  free-market economy.  It can be said that ideologies are time-bound, whereas Nelson was not.  Humans go out and shape events, thereby radically reworking history. Of these, Mandela, with his sterling and upright character, was among the most elegant and powerful. Individuals do matter in history.

Photo, left:  Mandela weds on his 80th birthday - Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel: a happy couple   South African President Nelson Mandela has married his long-term companion, 52-year-old Graça Machel on his 80th birthday.                     

The marriage took place at Mr Mandela's Johannesburg home on Saturday afternoon. People on the streets of Johannesburg wish the couple well The marriage took place inside President Nelson Mandela's private home in Johannesburg. It was a multi-denominational service in the presence of friends, relatives and senior government ministers. The ceremony was conducted by a Methodist minister Well-wishers gathered outside singing wedding songs as they tried to get a glimpse of the newly-wedded couple - the bride in a long white dress and the president wearing a floral shirt.  A BBC correspondent outside Mr Mandela's says the official order of service for the marriage showed a Methodist minister officiated, while Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave a blessing.                       

It is Nelson Mandela's third marriage. His new wife is the former First Lady of Mozambique and an international stateswoman in her own right. Her former husband, Samora Machel, died in a plane crash in 1986 while he was president of Mozambique. Graça Machel is known to have resisted marriage up until now as she felt it would have been wrong to marry President Mandela while he was still head of state in South Africa.                      

The editor of South African Sunday Independent, John Battersby, wrote: The wedding has been a dream of Mr Mandela's. President Mandela is known to have been keen to marry and his withdrawal from political life over the past six months could be a sign that he came to a compromise.  He says he will retire from the presidency at next year's election to spend the rest of his life with the woman he loves.

Photo, right: Nelson and Graça

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block B:  Edward W Hayes, criminal defense attorney par excellence, in re: Bill Bratton becomes New York City police chief again.  Mayor de Blasio has hired Bill Bratton as police commissioner; Bratton's wife worked with Ed Hayes on television. Now 66, Bratton held up the book he first saw when he was 9 in Boston. He placed particular emphasis on the pronoun when he spoke the title aloud. “Your Police.”

Bratton’s challenge is for every kid in every neighborhood in New York to feel that a police officer really is their friend and protector.

Today's NYPD is better educated than at any time in the past. Bratton handled Boston and LA, will do fine in New York.  "I had dinner with him when he first moved to New York, with Tom Wolfe and others; it was a time of obnoxious squeegee guys on the street shaking drivers down for dollars. 'Bill – what can be done?' 'Don't worry – two days after I'm police commissioner they'll all be gone.' " And they were.  By the way, Mr Bratton is also kind and loyal, and no one will mind that he's a Red Sox fan.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: James Paterson, IPA (Institute of Public Affairs), in Melbourne, in re: The federal government is apparently encountering  difficulty  reducing the size of the public service. Here's a handy starting point. (You'll probably never again hear the IPA say that all regulators should be like the ATO. But . . . ) In the UN, Francis Gurry, career dip and Australian national, runs the World Intellectual Property Organization.   Last year he transferred a great deal of eqpt and technology to North Korea in contravention of law. Very oddly, the Abbott govt is supporting Gurry and wants him to serve another six years. Story not yet on Australian media radar, although James Paterson and the IPA will correct that now.    . . . The most optimistic front concerns climate: a more constructive position in intl negotiation; Australia refused to sign a bunch of bad proposals, as did Canada and others. 

The Abbott govt promised that Australia would be open for business again, yet one of his first acts is to reject investment from the US (Archer Daniels Midland*).  Australian teachers's unions agitate for higher wages yet the quality of instruction has not risen.  . ..   Former Labour govt abandoned support of Israel, but Australia has now returned to voting with allies.

    [*  Archer Daniels Midland — its eye on a hungry Asia and Middle East — wants to make the largest acquisition in its history: a $3.3 billion takeover of GrainCorp, the last big Australian agribusiness not owned by foreigners.  If successful, Archer Daniels Midland will extend its influence over the global food chain to the world’s fourth-biggest wheat crop.]

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 1, Block D: Salena Zito, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review & Pirates fan, in re: Obama Rated Lower on the Major Issues   The Fix: "So why is Obama's approval on the issues lower than his overall approval rating? We've got two theories."

"One is that, despite his fall from grace, the president retains some of the likability that once kept his favorable rating -- a personal feeling towards the president -- above his approval rating -- an evaluation of his job performance."

"Another is that Obama's leadership ability has taken a hit. Polls have shown a significant decrease in the number of Americans who view Obama as a strong leader -- a decrease that suggests even some supporters don't have faith that Obama can execute on issues like immigration."

Is the President's approval rating a beauty contest or a policy predictor?  is Heatlhcare.gov failure about Obama or about 2014 midterm?  

Hour Two

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block A:  Eric Trager, Washington Institute, in re: new Egyptian elections will empower the old tribal networks: 220 districts, each with two members, usually controlled by strong families and tribes within the district. The 2011revolution created larger districts with the Islamists' emerging and winning a lot of elections. Al Sisi is working to restore (to some degree) the old power structure.  The new constitution. Shariah continues to be a source of law, but no Article 219, as  under Morsi.   . . .  US needs to protect its strategic interests in Egypt.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Yadlin, former IDF chief of Defense Intelligence, in re: Geneva deal, Israel’s options.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Michael Doran, senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, in re: Hidden costs of the deal with Iran.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Michael Singh, managing director of The Washington Institute and former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council; in re: Iran, Congressional testimony, Geneva. 

Hour Three

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Sen Robert Menendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in re: Iran, Congressional sanctions bill.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Malcolm Hoenlein, Conference of Presidents, in re: Shimon Peres addressed Gulf Security Council; other breaking news.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Edward Jay Epstein, author (most recently of The Annals of Unsolved Crime), in re: . . . There are no doubt other ways in which Yasser Arafat's quarters could have been tainted by polonium. But however the contamination might have happened, there is no reason to conclude that it was the result of a murder plot. The news on Tuesday threw more cold water on an already implausible theory.

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Robert Zimmerman, behindtheblack.com, in re: The planetary science community is in an uproar over the Obama administration’s proposed restructuring and possible budget cuts to NASA’s planetary research program.

Though the Obama administration has been consistently hostile to the planetary program, attempting to cut it severely several years in a row, and though generally these particular cuts look short-sighted, in this case the article is not very clear about the cuts NASA is proposing. It appears they're going to eliminate for one year the general research fund. There's probably waste in this budget, but I also suspect that this is a meat cleaver approach that has not been thought out well, as suggested in the article.

One quote from the article reinforces the foolishness of these management decisions: Next year, a high-level NASA review is likely to have to decide between shutting down either the Mars Curiosity rover or the Cassini mission to Saturn. Both are successful missions that cost around $60 million a year, a level that Green has said the division simply cannot afford for the long term.

Talk about penny-wise, pound-foolish. The cost to get these probes to their destination was in the billion-dollar range, each. To shut them down when they're working and cost relatively so little now is beyond stupid.

We have a big federal deficit. We need to cut, and NASA’s budget can be cut. It just makes no sense to cut planetary research, when there are other portions of that budget that are accomplishing little and cost far more.

Hour Four

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: Daniel Henninger, WSJ WONDER LAND, in re:  Obama's Red-Line Presidency

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: Kori Schake, Hoover Shadow Government (Foreign Policy), in re: Desperate for a Nuclear Deal with Iran

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re:   The Classical Liberal Constitution (1 of 2)

Thursday  5 December  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: Richard A Epstein, Hoover Institution, Chicago Law, in re:   The Classical Liberal Constitution (2 of 2)

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Music

Hour 1:  Hotel Rwanda. Sin City.  Mad Max. Inside Man.

Hour 2:  The Road.  Season of the Witch.

Hour 3:  The Passion of the Christ.  Munich.

Hour 4:

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