As any regular reader of this blog knows, the best post I've done in a while is the one about Anti-semites being on my side of these issues and what should I do about it. There have been a lot of comments, I've just started reading them. There's a lot of beauty and compassion and smarts in them. I'm humbled and grateful. I love MRW's story about Rumi and CS Lewis and his mother having a drink with the yoga teacher and his knowledge that he's an anti-Zionist, I love Leila Abu-Saba's wrestling with her anger and the friend that digs Daniel Pipes. Don't know if I could keep the friend. I've just gotten started reading, I'll have lots to say in days to come. But thanks. And yes, thanks Richard Witty. When I say more spiritually-evolved, I mean that you have a religious practice. It's been a serious area of exploration for you for most all your life. Not me. I think you probably hate politics. But politics is always with us, and you can't stop me talking about neocons and wanting an accounting. Look at Georgia. There is scurrilous murderous mischief afoot in our little world.
I'll get to more comments later. Some days I feel really lucky to have gotten this blog and found a community of sorts. The internet has blessed us in many ways. It's changing the world as radically as the printing press destroyed the tyranny of the Papacy. I know, convulsive, the NYT in the Waring blender. Institutional destruction. (I have faith; I'm a humanist, when I'm not a misanthrope.) I'm trying to get money to do this blog, or I'm going to quit it. But if I get money, I want to redesign the sucker so that There are just headlines on the page and then you click and get the whole post, and the comments. So the post is not privileged over the comments as much as it is now. I love Drudge's look, and Huffpo is like that too. (I need help on that stuff, design.) Now go for a walk.
Your commenters are great! Not that I agree with all. You can always keep your domain, ( your URL internet address) and migrate to a different blogging platform, if Typepad will not allow you to separate the headlines and posts as you have suggested, although I would guess typepad allow it. LiveJournal and/or wordpress are 2 ideas. Oh and yes, your posts are great too.
Let me know if you need help with the design. If I were you I would switch to WordPress instead of Typepad, and use the Cutline theme, which looks a little like Huffpo..
link to cutline.tubetorial.com
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all of this stuff is free
ps. Put up a payal donate button.
"I have faith; I'm a humanist, when I'm not a misanthrope."
How can anyone not like this man?
I'm not sure exactly how this fits in, but since we are talking about Phil and his anti-semite fans, I will just go with my own flow:
I think it's true that Zionism was originally the Jewish aspect of socio-political Darwinism. Why wouldn't some Jews back then grab onto Zionism as a way of understanding the world, especially apropos Dreyfus? The French tried to say, apropos The Enlightenment, that you could be an individual French citizen, or not–France was first. The USA does not demand such allegiance–
NAZI Germany also grasped onto socio-political Dawinism.
Eventually Germany was defeated. Israel took over the reins–and it had even truer reason than Germany had after WW1–but
Israel has pushed the zero-sum envelope too far.
If you look at the Torah, there is some likely trajectory.
Vive le Web! Proof against the selective cherry-picking of the traditional media.
Vive le Web! Proof against the selective cherry-picking of the traditional media.
1. Please do not drop the blog. It's great. Marriage-blogging included. Do it once a week if necessary for cash reasons, but don't quit.
2. Please do not move to a titles-only format. It would add a lot more clicks to catch up with Mondoweiss. The posts/comments split is there for a reason – it works.
Re: moneymaking… well you could always add those pesky Amazon associate links. It's rinky-dink stuff in my case, and I feel guilty supporting Amazon. But since my hubby won't stop ordering from there, I've commanded him (please?) to use my site whenever he needs to get something. If he clicks on an Amazon-linked book on my site, then buys something completely different, I get a cut.
My best earning month was when some anonymous person bought a riding lawn mower after clicking through my site. Hah! Usually I get enough sales to buy a single, paperback book every quarter. CHump change. I'm not sure blogging is really a business – it's more of a "platform" or a vanity press or a way to keep in touch with likeminded folk.
For writers it seems to be a public seedbed for column ideas. Academics use it to publish course syllabi and muse on their latest interests (see Brad DeLong).
I'm still not convinced of the economic model. But then I never thought anybody would make much money off the internet. And my husband, a software architect, says he's worried about Google, since all their profit comes from selling ads. We are conservatives when it comes to entrepreneurship and we don't always see the next big thing. But then we don't lose our shirts, either.
Good luck earning some $. We'll miss you if you sign off!
I hate politics because I know that I don't know to a certainty to be willing to fight with others about particular conclusions.
And, I know that others that are fighting vehemently, often seem to know less than I.
Politics, war, etc. affects too many to be left to speculation and prejudice.
To me, that is the greatest lesson of the Iraq period. NOT the neo-con involvement, but the republican conservative conspiracy to stifle and distract debate prior.
This is the place to debate prior. ….And from Mondo's other post ….'Interesting how the leftwing blogosphere [...] has gotten religion. I have!' …….I w o n d e r what that means? ! Hope they don't mind you blogging …
"And, I know that others that are fighting vehemently, often seem to know less than I."
Who is fighting vehemently against you?
Oh, no. No, no. no, no, no, you can't go. I am educating countless ex-New Yorkers like myself, all non-Jews, about what they went along with to have multo-holidays between September and Jan 1. THey went along with the hard-boiled over-65 Bronx view of Judaism….just because.
I love that cutline theme/wordpress suggestion above. Whoever offered to help you: TAKE HIM OR HER UP ON IT.
Mr. Weiss, you are doing a valuable service. Fix the visuals and get more ad thingeys, and a donation link and I will support you.
"But politics is always with us, and you can't stop me talking about neocons and wanting an accounting."
You shouldn't stop. Its an injustice that full accountability wasn't metted out, and it would be a tragedy if, somehow, a full account didn't become part of the public conscious.
I also find that this concern over anti-semites (as have many others) has been a perennial explanation given to curb debate. This iteration is more of the same genre. Its primarily a guilt by association fallacy with a dash of argument of adverse consequences. Please continue, Weiss, between you, Greenwald, Lobe, Klein, and a few others there have been some good questions raised. The importance of this debate does much to remove the myth of conflating a "pro-Israel" position to the Israeli right, deconstructing the larger neoconservative struggle in Washington, and exposing them to the public amongst other issues.
Sometimes the feeling of exposing "Jewish Power" seems to stir fear within the community, yet, theres a point where you note that its publicized and it hasn't caused what some like to associate to Wiemar Germany. For example,, after Vanity Fair posts, as the Jerusalem Post describes as:
—–
"It's a list of "the world's most powerful people," 100 of the bankers and media moguls, publishers and image makers who shape the lives of billions. It's an exclusive, insular club, one whose influence stretches around the globe but is concentrated strategically in the highest corridors of power.
More than half its members, at least by one count, are Jewish.
It's a list, in other words, that would have made earlier generations of Jews jump out of their skins, calling attention, as it does, to their disproportionate influence in finance and the media. Making matters worse, in the eyes of many, would no doubt be the identity of the group behind the list – not a pack of fringe anti-Semites but one of the most mainstream, glamorous publications on the newsstands.
Yet the list doesn't appear to have generated concern so far, instead drawing expressions of satisfaction and pride from the lone Jewish commentator who's responded in writing."
—–
and the Pew survey this year that, as the Jerusalem Post describes as
—–
Jews are the highest-earning religious group in the United States, with 46 percent of the working population earning a six-digit figure every year, according to a study released this week.
In terms of annual earnings, the only other group to even come close to the average Jewish income was the Hindus, with 43 percent earning over $100,000.
No other group reached even the 30 percent mark, and the overall US average was only 18 percent earning six-figure digits annually.
—-
…everything has continued on like normal. Imagine that. If concerns of wealth and power are that big of a concern, there's always the option of giving it away. I'm sure someone else wouldn't mind taking it. Otherwise, its our duty as Americans to cover events as they are, in entirety. One of the points that should come out is the breaking of this myth that the Israeli right represents Jewish international interests. This is both a blow to neoconservatives and antisemites. Moreover, if neoconservatives would like to break some of the fuel for antisemitism, they might want to drop that self-serving myth themselves, rather than use it as a bludgeon.
More . . . about that "hard-boiled over-65 Bronx view of Judaism." My ex-New Yorker friends, whom I am educating, have no clue about the gradations of the discussion vis-a-vis the religion vs. the nation vs. the diaspora concerns… and then Zionism and neoconservatism. As I mentioned elsewhere, I get David Shasha's wonderful newsletter about the Sephardim. I forward chucks of that when I am compelled to.
The point is: If any Jews feel disenfanchised, if they feel there is nowhere to hear of the likeminded, then mondoweiss plugs the hole.
There was TonyKaron, but he is sleeping …
Phil's heart is largely with his tribe, and his intent seems to be to steer debate in a way that will soften the landing of what he calls the meritocracy. I'm not familiar with many of his sources, but my experiences lead me to believe that Joachim is more straightforward.
The average American is managed to death, and faces real consequences for countless actions ranging from senseless traffic laws designed solely to generate revenue for the authorites, to unintentional violations of the tax code. At the same time, fraud and corruption are off the charts, and American soldiers are around the globe serving, or fighting for interests that often conflict with their own interests.
Whatever group is responsible for guiding, and changing, the nation against the will and interests of the vast majority of Americans through immigration and multiculturalism, massive financial corruption, and wasting the lives of soldiers to fight ill-conceived wars, possibly in the interest of other nations, should be punished severely. It doesn't matter if those people turn out to be largely Jewish.
Phil, revolutionaries can only be at the forefront of the move.
your community here in the states will all benefit from the perspective from which you view this issue…there is too much disinformation out there and your community is very distrustful of anyone who is non jewish who tries to present the other side of israel/zionism, the truth is hard to confront but you present it with a very humanistic slant.
we dont know how the empire will strike back but be sure they will. the zionist movement has too many fellow travellers from the secular and christian side of the isle, it is huge, and there is too much money backing it for it to fizzle away without a major offensive.
i hope to see you leading from the front and not going under cover.
its only money, consider it philanthropy, its your way of giving back to the reeducation of zionist jews in america, god knows they have been lied to enough.
the truth will set them free.
your mission if you choose to accept it is clear to you.
PS on my friend who likes Daniel Pipes – she just doesn't know any better. She suggested I go to a talk of his one day… I really think she has no clue who he is, what his attitudes really are, or why they are toxic. She has acquired a hearts-n-flowers vision of Judaism that includes the old kibbutz Utopia myth; she is from the West Coast, she's only half-Jewish and she's overcompensating by trying to be as Jewish as possible, on her Berkeley terms.
She's a kind and generous person who has reached out to me so often; we have many longstanding ties. I won't ditch her. I'm just not as close to her as I would have been. I don't reciprocate the warmth in the same measure. I just can't… and I feel guilty about it! But she just doesn't get it and I don't want to try to explain.
The internet has blessed us in many ways.
Yeah. So why cling to an old-school profit-journalism model?
You're in a unique position to carry out your work without constant need for funding, aren't you?–Why not exploit this?
You could seek grants from organizations and publications to do investigative work when it entails greater expenses and commitment.
There is something off-putting about this courageous, indomitable journalistic spirit bearing his very soul right next to the propaganda "Live and Work in Israel!"
And FWIW I find Drudge's format unreadable, and HuffPo better, but only so-so. I don't think Mondoweiss' current formating need be changed much at all. What would really kick ass though is an updated comment feed right on the frontpage, for instance like Rowan Berkeley's blog has. (That way PAZ-JEW can speak directly to his monkeysciples in real time.)
Thanks for all the effort, Phil.
I agree the Monoweiss format need not be changed much at all.
Those google ads must simply key into certain words or phrases sans context, hence the absurdity of them sitting aside Phil's semi-pointed meanderings.
"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.” –Mark Twain
Fidel would have never sold out the revolution for some capital.
patria o muerte venceremos.
Sunshine patriots–how can we even address this SOP in the wake of the neocons' (dirth of) service in Nam, and service to themselves extended ever after? That's our government, plain n simple.
On the other side, there's a small clue with the IDF refusenicks.
Phil,
I concur with the poster above who suggested that you install a PayPal button.
you are making a contribution of incalculable value. Your blog is an oasis for me and i'm sure for many others. More importantly, it is helping to change the conversation about Israel, Palestine etc.
Please keep this blog going!
(even if you have to decrease the frequency of your posts)
' you are making a contribution of incalculable value. Your blog is an oasis for me and i'm sure for many others'
It's in the eye of the storm, and changing the weather.
A paypal button on a blog, in which Phil then becomes dependant on his livelihood depending on whether some ideological fool likes his comments or not.
A stupid idea that will destroy the career asset of a journalist of INDEPENDANCE.
Oh but ideological fools are easy to trick, Rich. Just look at what Obama said in front of AIPAC.
I'm sure every once in a while Phil could do likewise, tossing out a few lines of relativism and praise for zionism's better intentions, and keep you and your crowd happy and donating for ages.
When his audience controls his income so directly, his independance is shattered in fact, and worse, the appearance is that it is shattered.
Isn't it enough that soldiers are mercenaries, that public relations are mercenaries, that accounting firms are paid by the clients that they are auditing, that elections are by dollar votes?
You wan't intellectuals and journalists to be under the same system?
At least, when a third party publishes an article or a book, there is an intermediary that knows that they are in a business.
Phil is a teacher in the truest sense of the word, and as such, propagates his value many times over.
I am grateful to have come across his site and to be able to participate in these most important discussions.
"I'm trying to get money to do this blog, or I'm going to quit it."
Don't be an asshole.
Do fund drives – don't expect to get rich or get exposure off of this.
Now, if you had a blog about how things were going great in Iraq and was all ra-ra about bombing Iran – why, with your journalism past and book out (about sex, oh my!) I gah-rah-tee it that you would be a REGULAR on FOX and friends.
"I'm trying to get money to do this blog, or I'm going to quit it."
Don't be an asshole.
Do fund drives – don't expect to get rich or get exposure off of this.
Now, if you had a blog about how things were going great in Iraq and was all ra-ra about bombing Iran – why, with your journalism past and book out (about sex, oh my!) I gah-rah-tee it that you would be a REGULAR on FOX and friends.