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- After Kerry visit, Israeli and Palestinian leaders quietly re-open economic … 15
- Snowden shows up Obama on leadership 11
- Taking on Bill Clinton and the ‘bigshots’, Chris Matthews says … 15
- Judge who acquitted war criminals at Hague had ‘close and … 6
- Latest DC mantra: The two-state solution is dead, long live … 48
- ‘I wanted to make a film [on] the conflict between … 6
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- ‘Girls on Fire’ tell Alicia Keys — Don’t play Apartheid … 197
- The horror: ‘Breaking the Silence’ releases women’s frightful testimonies of … 134
- Meet the Israeli-linked firm that sold Big Brother machines to … 95
- An Israeli veteran comes forward to decry ‘how shitty we … 93
- House committee votes to give Israel another 1/2 billion in … 93
- Palestinian activist Abir Kopty: Oslo should go, the peace process … 87
- World Bank, the PA and Israel work together to confiscate … 83
- Looking for ‘a new devil,’ Israeli leaders and supporters left … 79
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- US and Israel are accused of manipulating Hague to acquit … 133
- The kids are back, and it’s not alright 132
- The horror: ‘Breaking the Silence’ releases women’s frightful testimonies of … 126
- Approaching 60, Norman Finkelstein reflects 116
- Palestinian activist Abir Kopty: Oslo should go, the peace process … 102
- The MSM tries to distinguish between Manning and Snowden. Don’t … 86
- I’ve got Mohammed Assaf fever 72
- Weiner should be ‘hounded’ for his support for apartheid 50
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- Judge who acquitted war criminals at Hague had ‘close and confidential relations’ with U.S. gov’t http://t.co/NE6Mqw8fjA, 23 mins ago
- The Latest from Mondoweiss for 06/19/2013 - http://t.co/Y4aV7OD402, 1 hour ago
- Israel & the West tries to neutralize Palestinian cause by transforming liberation struggle into humanitarian project http://t.co/W3g4ixkMWV, 3 hours ago
- ‘No consequences… ad finitum’ — Reporters reject State Dep’t explanation of US policy on settlements http://t.co/jaBiBY2pj1, 4 hours ago
- Sixteen-year-old Ali Shamlawi faces 25 counts of attempted murder for alleged stone throwing http://t.co/alOOCW8p1w, 4 hours ago
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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
I want as amicable a divorce as possible.
You know you're a Jewish-Redneck when your yamika is a '56 Chevy hubcap.
It looks like this movie was made by Evangelical Christians who, knowing how easy it is to inflame Muslim fundies, want to jump start the Apocolypse. Copts and the Jewish group that was connected to the making the anti-Islam movie "Obssesion", which came out in 2008, were also involved.
OR
it could be Carl Rove trying to make Obam look bad.
I don't understand why skinhydipping is equated with sex. Does that mean the kids in the Norman Rockwell paintings are perverts?
These trips to Israel are a good chance to set congressmen up for blackmail. I wonder how many microphones and video cameras are in their rooms? Politics have always worked this way.
According to yesterdays obit in Antiwar b;og by Justin Raimondo, Vidal called Podhoretz and his wife "Israeli fifth columnists." Thank you, Gore, for your laser perception and brilliant wit.
My google search found this:
I understand that in the UK putting the index finger up along with its neighbour (I don't know how you call it) is offensive.
I was wondering what's the origin of that, and hoping someone could confirm the story below.
I've been told that this is offensive because the english used to cut off these two fingers from french archers, and then show them their own, making fun of them.
I only know what I read, it wasn't shown here. The excuse I read from NBC was that the American audience wasn't interested in memorials, or some such tripe. As far as I'm concerned it was a deliberate snub. It doesn't make sense that American's wouldn't be interested because America loves memorials. Holocaust memorials, 9/11 memorials, white bike memorials, white crosses on the side of the road, memorials to memorials. The only reason NBC didn't show the money shot has to be ideological, and whose agenda is that? Speculation? You betcha.
Israel wanted the Olympic committee to include a memorial to the Israelis' killed in the '72 games. London wouldn't do it but did include a memorial to the victims of the 7/7 London attacks, which was preempted on NBC. I doth smell retribution
The ATF and DEA are comprised of employees who couldn't cut it in the FBI, CIA or Secret Service. Both should be disbanded; the DEA because the drug war is counter productive and the ATF because of Waco and Fast and Furious. Trusting your security to either agency is foolishness, especially when you don't turst your neighbor with a gun. Turn off the tv and talk to your neighbor, maybe then you won;t be controled by the latest atrocity. Bradbury was right: people will give up their rights and freedom voluntarily. Know any good books we can burn, after all ideas can be dangerous?
I said primitive, not uneducated. Dick Cheney and the neocons are motivated by the most primitive part of the brain--what some call the lizard brain. They are ruled by fear and use fear to control us.
link to nationmaster.com
Japan has a much lower overall crime rate than the U.S., except they lead us in software piracy.
In Federalist Paper no. 46, Madison writes that a federal tyranny is impossible because of two unique characteristics of the new country: 1. The people would not continue to reelect representatives that worked against their best interests. He didn't think the people were that stupid. (This has been proven wrong.) 2. An armed citzenry organized from the ground up into State militias would always be greater in size than a standing army and would be able the defeat any force the federal government could muster to enforce oppresive laws.
The 2nd amendment starts "A well regulated Militia,being necessary to the security of a free State..." does not mean the security of the U.S. government but of each individual State. There was some debate during the Constitutional convention whether every man between the ages of 18 and 55 should by law have to join a militia and own a gun, and if that would apply to Quakers. The Constitution gives Congress the power to fund the militia and call it up when needed but leaves its organization up to the States. Americans had great faith in the ability of an armed citizenry formed into local militias to protect themselves and feared a standing army as a necessary prelude to tyranny. But times do change: we have a standing army larger than any other the world has seen, a populace too dumb to vote for their own interests and too many too primitive to handle weapons.
The rostrum at white majority rallies are always festooned with pictures of Hilter, limiting their audience to those the average white wouldn't associate with unless incarcerated.
I'm glad to see Harvey Pekar recognized as an important artist here. His American Slendor explored how the mundane acts of living added up to make pinnacles of awareness--not an easy task in these days of super heroes and magical realism. His perception was deep. His early graphic novels were drawn by R. Crumb.
Can Israel keep John Hagee from seeing this picture? Losing his support could be devastating to the Zionist-Christian alliance.
This gay conservative billionaire, who made his money investing in PayPal and Facebook, has given 2.6 million to Ron Raul's super pac. Whatever you think about Theil's politics, he is not shilling for a foreign power and has no questionable business dealings. He has also never met Paul. Ron Pauls super pacs have the largest percentage of contributions uner 200 dollaRS.
In Texas v. Johnson SCOTUS ruled that burning the American flag is a right protected by the First Amendment. What does Israel's constitution say on the the rights of its citizens? Oh that's right, Israel doesn't have a constitution! How can you call a country which is afraid to guarantee the rights of all its citizens in a legal document a democracy?
And, yes, I am aware our rights are being eroded, and that concerns me more than the continued existence of some crappy little country.
Who will be the first to cry blood libel?
Here's another quote from Juan Cole's blog:
"It isn’t just recently that a completely implausible cooperation between al-Qaeda and Iran was alleged. Among the first books about al-Qaeda was that of Yosef Bodansky, an Israeli security studies specialist who served as Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives from 1988 to 2004. His 1999 book on Usama Bin Laden manages to blame al-Qaeda at some points on both Iran and Iraq (neither is actually implicated). It seems to me fairly obvious that Bodansky is an Israel-firster propagandist and that AIPAC circles managed to plant him in an extremely influential position in Congress from which he could spin his fantasies. He clearly worked for US wars on both Iraq and Iran by attempting to hang Bin Laden around their necks."
Hopefully the Israeli and neocon influence is waning in the Obama administration. So it seems. The problem is if Romney wins and allows himself to get sucked into another war. This time with Iran.
It's naive to think the US government values the lives of its own citizens let alone the lives of foreigners. This story about a guy picked up in a drug sweep by the DEA--a guy who was not arrested or was even going to be charged with a crime and was supposed to be released. He was placed in a holding cell for "several days" and forgotten. He had to drink his own urine to survive. People that think we can torture, mistakenly kill or abuse foreigners and remain safe from such abusive treatment because we are citizens of a constitutional republic are fooling themselves.
The US government and the world's financial institutions have become outright criminal enterprises that are turning us into "slave ships in shoes."
link to apnews.myway.com
I'm angry that my tax dollars are used to keep Dick Cheney alive. I think his first heaqrt attack made him afraid of death. Those who accept death, their own and others as a condition of life, become more empathic. Those who fear death become either ineffectually neurotic or sociopathic. The latter is Cheney's dark side.
There is an inverse relationship between talking big and actual bravery.
Ali is the exception to the rule, but he isn't an average man.
I have heard that the number of Jewish hate crimes reported is inflated because even if there is no hard evidence the crime is ethnically/religiously motivated is many times reported as such. Every broken window is due to goyish aggression. I don't know if the rumor is true or not, but stories like this tend to confirm the rumor's veracity.
The second half of the first line has become a cliche and comes from:
Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest: The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home, Rests and expatiates in a life to come.
– Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
The rest of Boner's poem is tripe. Hope and Despair are as interchangable as Mr. Rogers' cardigans. Pope sees Hope only in an afterlife, as if the soul cannot live comfortably in the body while on earth. A stranger in a strange body. Too many Christians do not accept Nature as being the manifestation of God. That's why I'm a Taoist/Deist.
John Wayne was convincing asGhengas Khan.
Having read the following article about an horrific hazing incedent, straight from the Sade playbook, at Alpha Epsilon Pi, BU, and then seeing a member of the same fraternity mentioned in this article being frightened by a mock evictions notice is synchronistic. I didn't realize at first it is a jewish fraternity.
link to boston.cbslocal.com
Better known as H.L. Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore.
It's absurd to say with certainty Grass's "or what" meant Jew. It sounds like a percieved slight more than an intended one.
I apologize to you, American. I misread.
I'm still against lynching.
Why did you lie? Stormfront does that all the time. You say WASP, they say Jew. What's the difference?
The FBI, Justice and state AG are on the case. What do want, the Hague, or a good old fashioned hanging?
Zimmerman is not a WASP despite the fact it would better fit the boilerplate of your narrative. I would say it's ironic who supports lynching now, considering the past. But it's not ironic since it is a natural law like the reversal of the magnetic poles.
I always thought Sleater-Kinney was a Portland band, only to now discover they gestated and were born in Olympia. Well, we still have Portlandia--on a station only beamed to Mars.
It wasn't the bomb that killed him, it was the shrapnel. It is an absurd position. But then again, true believers always end up preaching the absurd because the reality is too painful to consider.
Deceptive to say "she wasn't run over a bulldozer" and "not run over by the bulldozer itself." Congragulations, Fredblogs, you're the first person I've ever seen who contra-dicks himself by saying the same thing twice and then declaring they have two different meanings. It is as funny as a child hiding behind a pole thinking no one can see him because his eyes are closed.
Denis,
You never did say why you changed "some American's" to "whole country".
Oherwise, the rest of your interegation deserves an answer.
First,I believe the following from an essay currently making round on the right-wing-side of the internet to imply being anti-Bale is anti-american:
"What should really fall under scrutiny, then, as the facts of the Bales’ case come out, is the way certain media outlets undercut military morale in an underhanded way. It is one thing to condemn a soldier and lament an atrocity. That is understandable and worthy of public discussion. But what is not excusable is the slippery way the left tries to insinuate the actions of one soldier are in any way reflective of the entire armed services, the aims of the wars, or even the country itself."
In other words, Bales is not a product of American culture, of a war culture, and we are not responsible, and to question American exceptionalism as anything but a force for good (god even) is to be anti-American. But it is ok to to say the Muslims hate us for our freedoms and kill because they are a savage people with an evil religion. We are rational and they are not was also the the prevailing belief of many people(I don't know how many. You do the research: look at WWII posters, movies, any war time propaganda or talk to some really old folks), if not most, (that evil fudge word, full of lard and sugar, and rots the teeth, makes you fat and lazy like quite a few (shit, I'm sorry) Americanskis (that's anti-American) I see waddling (anti-penguin) down the street. (can't remember the name of the street.)
Here is the article:
link to conservativedailynews.com
This is an interesting site it looks like nobody visits, but I like the way Bales' wife (and I make no claims about the veracity of her quote) blames Obama for her husband's rampage. In other words, anti-Americanism made Sgt. Bales shoot a six year-old between the eyes. All my sympathy goes to the victims and zero to Bales.
link to ronbosoldier.blogspot.com
How can you misrepresent what I said by saying " don't project such statements onto the whole country." even after you copied my sentence with the qualifier "SOME" in it. I don't understand how you can be so illogically offended, and it is waste of time to even respond.
Justin Raimondo does blame American culture for producing the mass-murder Bales, a man who has run from personal responsibilty his whole life--the product of a narcissistic culture.
link to original.antiwar.com
Disclaimer: this does not mean every American is a narcissist, but it is a character flaw pervasive enough that it has a cultural momentum pushing us into unnecesary wars, where predominant concern is with the well-being of our soldiers and little thought or feeling is given to the people we terrorize and murder.
A good movie about civilians as victims of war is the 1952 French movie "Forbidden Games."
Thank you for your reporting on the living humanity of these innocent lives ended forever. It touches the heart with sadness. And it is the heart that connects all people that is the only way to peace. That they were alive, loved and loving, are facts the most jaded hasbarist cannot refute.
It's frustrating to see the media being used to make excuses for Sgt. Bales mass murder in Afghanistan, while ignoring the victims. Last night the news showed a picture of an adolescent Bales as the all-american kid in a baseball uniform. I'm sure it is his lawyer seeking public sympathy. But it comes across as racial and cultural arrogance in the absence of sympathy for the victims. All my sympathy goes to the Afghani victims, like the six year-old girl he shot between the eyes.
There are some who say being anti-Bales is anti-American. Strange. When did being American become synonymous with the mass murder of innocent victims. That shows how far America has traveled since its founding (Jefferson wanted it written into the Constitution that we would not have a standing army during peace time) to become a culture of war. The reason the US keeps fighting unnecessary wars is because we have this huge military our Commander-and-Chief usually finds too convenient a tool to "rid the world of evil." Clinton said that every great President is a War President, and what striving ego can resist inflating to the point of bursting. So go great nations too. Some here are trying to stop America and Israel from pursueing greatness through military actions before our beloved countries burst. And I commend thee.
Greg Smith hung his hat on the bronze medal he won in table tennis in Israel. I know how important that is to his future accomplishments in life--I came in second in the sixth grade bike rodeo and it has been easy sailing since with that on my resume.
I don't blame the Jews for a quota system that descriminates against Asians, in fact, I don't think about Jews or WASPs or whatever as isolated powerbrokers that much. The ethnic groups work pretty much together in the halls of power. The point of Phil's article is the Jews have taken over the position once held ber WASPs, while the point of the article I linked to is that Asians are the new Jews. Nobody else here, including yourself, asked or wondered who filled the Jews previous position of socially repressed minority. In other words, sydnestal, I'm trying to raise your consciousness and get you to think beyond your narcissistic ethnic world of all things Jewish.
The problems of this world go way beyond the Jews or any one ethnic group, and I come here because Mondo is about a country that creates an inordinate, in relation to its size, amount of the worlds problems and, unfortunately, has an outsized influence on my countries foreign policy.
Israel can do what it wants; I just want the US to stay out of the way. And I don't think the future belongs to the Jews or any other western tribe but to the Asains.
Sydnestel,
Some Asians do believe they are unfairly excluded from universitys.
"Applications by Asians and Asian-Americans to leading colleges have at least doubled in recent years. Asian applicants who have been turned down charge that members of other ethnic groups with lower grades or test scores are given preference." Quote from NYT's article:
link to nytimes.com
And Obama's reassurance the US will stay Israel.s arsenal.
"Netanyahu is hinting that in his Washington visit, he received Obama's tacit approval for an Israeli attack against Iran – under the guise of opposition."
This just means the US won't attack Israel for attacking Iran. It reminds me of the so-called secret deal Netanyahu made with Bush that supposedly Obama broke. Can't remember what it was.
We, the culture of cheap oil, in the US need to start planning for collapse.
The asymmetrical reporting in the Israeli and American press about their respective occupations of foreign lands sustains the illusion the deaths of civilians are insignificant mistakes and the soldiers died heroes. When a soldier is killed, the MSM invariably depicts him as a good student, loving family man, fighting to make the world better and frequently shows a picture of him alive and smiling, never his dead body--in other words, someone you can identify with. Palestinain, Afghani, Iraqi and Pakastani victims of colateral damage, besides the euphemism, are listed by sex and age, sometimes with pictures of their dead bodies, but never with a picture of when they were alive or any humanizing information.
Pictures of dead bodies don't work to change most peoples ideas about war because most people, Americans especially, are too afraid of death to identify with these victims. Better it would be to show pictures of the victims smiling and alive, with short discriptions, for the Sesame Street generation, of their lives--how they will be missed by family and friends. The only way to overcome our tribal competition is by connecting one life with another, and the only way to provide symmetry to the current propaganda the average person ingests is to make the civilian casualties of war personal.
I know how you feel, Phil. Being 60 and single is not an envious accomplishment. I was talking to an exotic looking woman at the dog park the other day, and the fact she didn't run away was a good sign. Well, being old but not yet dead, I fantasized how kissing her with the platinum plug in her lower lip would probably get hooked on my partial, and how that would be extremely awkward. Anyway, I enjoyed our talk and the female energy.
Is that Tinkerbell whispering magic incantations in McConnell's ear? "I will make you great. I will make you rich. You will be blessed in the eyes of the Lord?"
This link is to the next page on the PBS site Phil links to at the top and it explains to the War Refugee Board why bombing Auschwitz was not practicable:
link to pbs.org
Netanyahu's attempt to blame the US in part for the holocaust for not bombing the death camps has not been reported in hte MSM. When some Japanese official insinuated the US acted immorally by dropping the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the MSM became inflamed with self-rightous outrage at Japan even questioning our intentions, though targeting civilians had before WWII been considered an unjustified act of war. But not a peep about Bibi insulting the Greatest Generation with cherry picked evidence. To anyone aware of how propaganda works, it's just another signal as to who controls the MSM in our country.
Blackface would help.
Benjiman's father Benzion Netanyahu did not even fight in WWII even though he was going to school in the US. Quote from wiki at Benzion Netanyahu:
"During World War II, he was one of the Revisionist movement's leaders in the U.S. At the same time he pursued his PhD at Dropsie College in Philadelphia, writing his dissertation on Isaac Abrabanel."
Looks like Bennie is trying to make up for the fact his father was a chickenshit who sat out the war waiting for for the rest of the world to save his ethnic brothers and sisters.
If we had bombed Aushwitz, considering the inaccuracy of arial bombing in WWII, Netanyhu would today be accusing the allies of having intentionally murdered thousands of jews. The old guilt trip is wearing thin and displaying the corpses of your ancestors for personal empowerment is pathetic--neolithic, really. Winning the war stopped the holocaust but concentrating on ending the holocaust would not have shortened the war.
Anybody else notice the security guards are always black at aipac and other pro-Israel conferences people demonstrate at. In fact, the security guards are usually the only people of color at these events. Is this their idea of multiculturalism? Or Norman Podhoretz's payback for the humiliation he suffered as a child he describes in "My Negro Problem--and Ours."
Mooser wrote, "And there are enough desperate or desperately misinformed young people to fill the boots on the ground."
I can vouch for that. My neighbor's oldest son just joined the army, and a month ago I went over to their house for his going-away party. The kid is 21, has a GED, is smart but without direction, so he joined up because that is the only future he sees open to him. I drank whiskey with the father in the kitchen and he kept saying, "I'm so worried, I know we're going to war with Iran." I couldn't reassure him with an empty platitude. so I did did what any other adult would do--listened and got really drunk with him.
Netanyahu only cares about Jewish lives.
Wasn't Weener a PEP? I always liked Warren's economic analysis and solutions, but I'm beginning to think the US is a lost cause destroying itself for the benefit of a paranoid little country.
Free Bacon! Must be socialists and antisemites.
If an earthquake destroys Al-Aqsa, will that be considered an act of god by Israeli religious authorities and supreme permission to rebuild the temple?
In war you can not let the enemy make the rules. The Zionists have been waging a covert war against the security and wealth of the US for years, desguised as friendship or God's Will. By controling the media, they decide what is acceptable or forbidden to believe. Unfortunately, the average american uses this information/entertainment plasma drip as his main source of nourishment, not realizing it is killing him.
They angrier you make Zionists--all the criminal elite really(this goes beyond Israel)--the better. It makes them crazy foolish, swinging wildly, hitting those they previously sought as allies, exposing the Zionist/elite insanity, and turning friends against them. It worked for Mohammad Ali. Making nice and trying to change the minds of psychotic/true believers doesn't work. To them it is a sign weakness to be used against you. The only minds you can influence are those on the fringe but not the rotten core of fanatics.
Keep up the good work.
Israel Firster is a useful term because it p*sses off the people who would destroy the US to feed their religio-mythic beast.
Usefull maxim: Only respect those who respect you.
Brenda,
I didn't know about the debate. I'm sure it's on the sic semper website somewhere. Brenner is interesting, always like his comments and analysis. Pat Lang doesn't spell things out all time, making people think for themselves. Socratic.
brenda,
Maybe I should have put a smiley face after "...will be traumatic" to show it was tongue-in-cheek. But I can't get meyself to use emoticons. Mark Twain thought an exclamation mark was like laughing at your own joke.
Interservice rivalry is different from liberal/conservative rivalry in that it is based on mutual respect. You probably didn't like "Gran Tarino?"
Brenda,
Col. Lang is retired Army, a graduate of VMI. Do not call him a Marine , or the wrath you suffer will be traumatic. He was Specials Ops, liason with Israel and other high offices I can't remember. I visit his website every day. He's also a writer with a touch of bohemian.
It's like the Republicans accusing Democrats of class-warfare when they mention income descrepency as a destabilizing factor of American society. They can't refute the facts and can only define and limit the words of the discussion--ignore it and it will go away. Lizard brain mentality.
The man looked Jewish and not Indian , not subtle. That's one sick commercial.
The truth is no tribe is better or worse than humanity in toto. Pogo.
Thanks, Sean, maybe I'll give it a try.
The only blogs I comment on are moderated, otherwise it turns chaotic and enfeebled.
Sean,
Is friendfeed part of facebook? I'm leary of signing up for new sites.
Of course the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was important to bin Laden, but after rereading his initial 1996 "fatwa", his most important impetus was expelling the Americans from Saudi Arabia, the land of the two Holy Places, overthrowing the corrupt Saudi regime and restoring Islamic rule in its place. After that, restoring Islamic control to the rest of the Ummah, with of course Al-Aqsa Mosque being the third jewel to liberate.
This quote from bin Laden's declararion makes explicit what is most important: "The latest and the greatest of these aggressions, incurred by the Muslims since the death of the Prophet (ALLAH'S BLESSING AND SALUTATIONS ON HIM) is the occupation of the land of the two Holy Places -the foundation of the house of Islam, the place of the revelation, the source of the message and the place of the noble Ka'ba, the Qiblah of all Muslims- by the armies of the American Crusaders and their allies. "
1996 fatwa: link to pbs.org
Bin Laden gives moral support to the Palestinians but does not provide men and arms to fight the Palestinians but sends them to other places to fight as he states here: "The sons of the land of the two Holy Places had come out to fight against the Russian in Afghanistan, the Serb in Bosnia-Herzegovina and today they are fighting in Chechenia and -by the Permission of Allah- they have been made victorious over your partner, the Russians. By the command of Allah, they are also fighting in Tajakistan."
I am familiar with his 1998 fatwa and Letter to America where he places more importance on Israel as a reason to attack America but see this as an expansion of his following and cause due to the success of the Cole and African bombings. The religious integrity of the Ummah was always important to bin Laden but first and foremost IMHO was purifying his homeland, the land of the two Holy Places, of corrupting western influences.
What about moon landing deniers, Bigfoot sightings? Are they permissable?
Bin Laden's original fatwa entitled "Decleration of Jihad Against Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Sanctuaries" is self-explanitory as to the reason he first declared war on US. The next reason he gave was the death and humiliation of fellow Arabs from years of Iraq sanctions and last was Israel. Just saying Israel was not the main reason bin Laden declared war on the US, and if it was, why didn't he attack Israel?
Gingrich's bobble-head wife.
Randi Rhodes on her talk show the other day played a snippet of an interview with Adelson in which he said he wished he had never worn a US military uniform but had instead worn an IDF uniform, which he was proud to say his son wore. The very definition of and Israel-firster. His opponents are probably afraid they would be labeled antisemetic if they aired the clip.
Agree with radii that Adelson is mafia. Every ethnic group has a mafia that will work with other ethnic mafias if needed but only trust their own group completely. Also believe the mafia got control of US executive branch on 11/22/1963.
The US and Israel are to prisoners chained together, brothers in crime.
I can't watch the video. I don't care about Israel and what the US has become sickens me.
Looking forward to you going beyondo the advertising
campaign.
I don't care if taxi is a Hobbit, I don't like people putting words in my mouth. I did not pair Shakespeare and Aristotle with Larry David. I even said, "I’m not saying Larry David is a neo-Shakespeare, but who is–he was the “champ.”" Aristotle's analysis, especially his recognition of plot/character driven narrative vs. spectacle, is still relevant to understanding contemporary drama/ comedy.
I agree with seanmcbride's take on Larry David. I enjoy reasoned, even heated discussion, but taxi's arguements are over the line and too one-demensional to be of interest (moral outrage many times is cheap and easy), and I will avoid reading them in the future.
eljay
I forgot to comment on your "odd comment" comment. What I like about Larry David's character is he talks to everybody he meets, completely democratic. I think it's snobbish to disregard a person because they are holding a couple of tomatoes and go so far as to say the tomato can tell you much if you listen.
taxi
I know a tomato that could eat you alive.
eljay
You're comment makes me think. :?). And I must admit you are right. Listening to music is one of my greatest pleasures. Sometimes I think, sometimes I think not, I think, sometimes I groove to the beat, feel the heat, move my feet, sometimes see the band or go to movieland or get lost. What's also great is walking in the woods, no art is better than nature's,
with my dog and, as that slave-holder (we'erconstantly reminded) Thomas Jefferson suggests, with an empty mind.
Maybe the highest art makes us not think. I'll have to not think about that for a while.
"DOES NOT inspire me to think about my beliefs anymore than the man I buy my tomatoes from would."
You sound like a snob.
I know about Aristotle's Poetica from reading it, not wiki, and I think his idea that plot and character driven drama is superior to the cheap thrills of spectacle is still relevant today. I also like Robert Frost's idea that poetry, I include art, is an expression of one's beliefs. I can't tell what Larry David's beliefs are beyond his characterization of a man with an uncensored mouth offending everyone he comes in contact with. As a situational comedy it works at times for some people and not at all for others. But I will say it makes people, you included , Taxi, think about their own beliefs.
I did stop watching Woody Allen movies because I tired of what you mentioned. I did see his latest, Midnight in Paris, and loved it and think he has outgrown his neurosis.
I grant the difference between high and low art is real though subjective. The literati of Shakespeare's time considered him at times low and admonished him for knowing "little Latin and less Greek." Comedy is most often low and more concerned with entertainment than aesthetics but Larry David's (I haven't watched him in a while. I hate commercials.) show is more plot and character driven than spectacle, putting him, in Aristotle's Poetica, on a higher plane of theatre than most television shows or movies, which have devolved into homogenous plotlines and special effects paydays geared to the mindless.
Art, if not always beautiful, should make you think. Larry David has succeeded in that respect. I consider thinking an aesthetic value.
You can define terms anyway you want, but even Shakespeare wrote for the "groundlings." I'm not saying Larry David is a neo-Shakespeare, but who is--he was the "champ."
Yes, art can only conform to the lowest denominator.
The more I read some of the comments here, I'm glad I don't come from a rules heavy tradition. Overthrowing one set of restrictive rules with a new set of restrictive rules is the strategy of the discontented Pere Ubus.
"What about the goy?"
"Who cares about the goy?"