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The War of Ideas in the Middle East
Larry David is exposing the secrets Jews have been accused for centuries of harboring. Phil also does it in his own way. Every group, but especially oppressed minorities, hide many of their thoughts from the dominant culture. It's a matter of survival. But the Jews as a whole can no longer be considered oppressed, creating a tension between those who want to maintain the illusion of oppression in order to increase their power and those who find such views to be archaic and dangerous to society in general and the individuals of that group.
Change ain't easy. It's not just Larry David who is challenging the taboos of his culture but artists from every ethnicity and culture. First the walls created by the dominant culture were attacked and now the walls created as a protective barrier by the minority are being torn down from the inside. Tearing down these ramparts is a necessary step for changing from a world held back by ethnic conflict to a more humane, universal strategy, which hopefully doesn't come too late to save us from our current destructive course.
If you compare a graph that shows how compound interest grows with a graph of how an economy grows, you will see compound interest grows at a steady rate with no dips, actually steepens, and economies grow in a s-curve, with dips and highs. An economy which is funded on compound interest will always fail because an economy grows slower than interest owed. You end up broke. When that happens you have two choices, either sell off the public commons at a fire sale or nationalize the economy.
Understanding the dangers of usury predates Christianity.
I haven't watched his show recently but Larry David mocks everybody. I've seen him make fun of holocaust survivors and saw him wrestle with Joseph, a member of a living Nativity. Seinfeld was about a group of people who completely lacked empathy for others and was un-p.c.--making out at Schinlder's List. At best he's hilarious and sometimes he's annoying--the bickering is at times over-the-top.
mrw
Breivik does claim to be a Christian but isn't happy his church isn't conservative enough. From his posts at document.no:
"I myself am a Protestant and baptized / confirmed to me by my own free will when I was 15But today's Protestant church is a joke. Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churchesthat look like the minimalist shopping centers. I am a supporter of an indirect collectiveconversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic. In the meantime, I vote for the mostconservative candidates in church elections.The only thing that can save the Protestant church is to go back to basics."
I haven't read his manifest. He was all over the place from the what I could tell from his other writings, i.e. I've heard much of his manifesto was lifted from the Unibomber's manifesto.
I can't verify the veracity of the following web-report that says Breiviks facebook page was manipulated minutes after he was identified as the shooter. Prison Planet has some good info and much junk on it. After reading Breivik's notes from websites he posted on, I never heard him claim to be Christian or any religion. He definitely is anti-Muslim and pro-Zionist.
He reminds me of Charlie Manson who thought he could start race riots by murdering Whites and having it blamed on radical Blacks. Breivik hopes to use his trial as a stage for starting an anti-Muslim crusade. Insane like Charlie.
link to doctorbulldog.wordpress.com
Thank you.
Jeffrey
Are there podcasts of your program? Send me a link if there are. I would like to hear some.
I don't call the monopolized press' refusal to air the opinions and facts of the anti-war side freedom of the press. That's self-censorship. The problem with most people is they don't dig deeper than the MSM to get the real facts or contrary opinions. The ownership of the MSM in a few, self-serving hands directs the flow of propaganda.
I know people have their heads buried in the sand. I talk to a lot of people and most aren't interested in discussing politics inteligently. If I bring up Israel, their eyes glaze over. I had one woman tell me I was depressing her by talking about current events. This from someone who is the most boring storyteller I've ever heard. Most people just say there is nothing they can do about it.
Maybe Plato's Philosopher King is the only way out our political, financial and environmental mess, but I'll go down voting. And it won't be for a Republican or Obama. I've come to the conclusion Obama is a conman. He's thrown everybody that helped him politically off the boat when push comes to shove--that includes the progressives, dems and indies who voted for him.
Why should I trust your judgement? or the government's? or the Priests' or Rabbis' or Immans'? the scholar, the rich, the working class or the poor? or someone else's god? Who, Jeffery, judges for you?
Burning films, books or men and women with subversive ideas is a place I will not go."Show with restrictions." I'm sure your motives are pure and noble and you only want to help create a world that reflects your goodness. It has been tried many times before and these monsters knew they were right.
I'm sure you are a good person (this time I"m not being ironic) but censorship as a tactic of public control is based on the assumption of the infallibility of the censor. I can admire your morals and at the same time disagree with your tactics.
I'm not telling you what to think. I just don't believe in burning films or books I consider dangerous. If I did I would destroy 50% of the current television, film and art. I have a theory that many people would support an authoritarian, even totalitarian, government if they agreed with its ideology.
I also think it's emotionally comforting to get worked up about past wrongs, like slavery and Jim Crow, than confront the present debt-slavery the financial system is imposing on America and the world, the sex-slaves imported from the third world or the various forms of present day slavery. It's important to understand history but you must live in the present. That you don't trust people to make their own judgements concerning "Birth of a Nation", tells me more about you than the people whose minds you believe you must control.
You don't think portraying Hitler and his party as the savior of the German people influenced them and the trajectory of history? Then why was it so popular with the German public? I can't say one way or the other what course Germany would have taken if the film had never been made, but neither can you. The two main tools of an authoritarian government has of controling a people are fear and propaganda, and "Triumph of the Will" is still one of the most successful pieces of propaganda ever made.
You've seen "Birth of a Nation" several times but want to restrict others from seeing it. What gives you the right to deny others the ability to judge for themselves? Nazi Germany was a highly censored society that did not allow dissension of anti-semetic or pro-Nazi propaganda. The White Rose was an underground group of German activists that distributed anti-Nazi pamphlets. They were hunted down, imprisoned and killed. To the contrary, in the US a Black film industry was able to produce films that countered White racism and, though those films were seen mostly by Blacks, today they survive on television and other venues while "Birth of a Nation" is relegated to mostly to the technical analysis of film historians.
Today we allow the Nazi Party to organize marches in our cities. Have you ever seen videos of their attempts to recreate Hitler's Nuremburg rallies? The Nazi's get maybe 50 troopers from around the nation to march and thousands of protesters line the streets shouting down, spitting on and throwing eggs at the uniformed marchers.
The power of the Nazi Party in Germany did not stem from freedom of speech but from censorship.
Hitler had already showed his hand by the time Triumph of the Will was filmed. Night of the Long Knives, dispersal of the Reichstag and elimination of all rival political parties had already happened. I don't buy your whitewash of Riefenstahl because Germany had by this time become a fascist state. Promoting the Nazi Party contributed to more deaths than Birth of a Nation.
We can argue art vs. morality but my bottom line is I don't need some Grand Inquisitor censoring the world for me.
Polanski is brilliant. He liked drugs and young girls at one time--fairly common for Hollywood.
I first studied "Triumph of the Will" in film school because it is still considered one of the best propaganda films ever made, in fact Leni Riefenstahl perfected the psychological grammar of film. Without her we might not have had "Citizen Kane" or modern cinema. That is hyperbole, someone else would have understood the psychology of camera angles but she was the first to use them for such strong effect. Leni Riefenstahl was either an evil genius or completely amoral and willing to work for whoever had the power. "Birth of a Nation" is another breakthrough film using innovative film technique, older and more primitive, but still important to the evolution of film.
D. W. Griffith and Leni Riefenstahl made films which glorified racism and fascism but their technical contributions to film narrative are invaluable. As such I condemn their content. The documentary about Riefenstahl Dickerson mentions above shows her to be dictitorial: she tries to take control of the crew filming the documentary.
I can judge a persons art apart from his personal life or political ideology. Some of my favorite movies are:
Lonely are the Brave
Ace in the Hole
Paths of Glory
What Woody Allen did to Mia Farrow and her family was disgusting but Midnight in Paris is brilliant.
George Carlin answered my questions in the video. He's talking about the US but it applies to Israel and all other countries run by Club Mafia.
link to dailybail.com
I love dogs. A few need to be kept on short leashes to protect people and other dogs. I've been bitten by dogs but still love the species. Most often an unsocialized dog is the fault of the owner, who isn't well adjusted. Who owns the rabidly nationalistic Israelis? or the dead-ender evanjellycals (their fat bodies shake like jelly not jam)? or our congressional zionist?
If the US occupied Newfoundland, I wouldn't blame Canada for lobbing missiles at us.
I should add those transcripts were US intercept and not the official IDF version.
Saratogos launch and recovery was from 1602 to 1613. No American fighters were in the air for 2 hours. They weren't that far away. Be more specific which carrier launched at 1405. Recovery time is important.
Col. Lang and others who read the original transcripts of Israeli fighters that attacked Liberty confirm that after the lead pilot identified the Liberty as US ship, he was told to proceed with mission.
The US wasn't Irael's ally. We didn't fight for you but were neutral. In fact, we aren't an ally today; we have no treaty with Israel that I know of that says an attack on Israel is an attack on the US.
You have the planes flying from the 6th fleet for almost 2 hours without reaching the USS Liberty before being recalled. This is from a speech by Capt. Tully, Commander of the Saratoga:
"A check with the navigation officer (now Rear Admiral Max K. Morris, USN,retired), revealed that we were only 15 to 20 minutes flight time distance
from USS Liberty and could be of immediate assistance."
Where do you get your facts? IDF?
Perry and Bachmann are so of-the -charts right they not only draw the Republican Party rightward but, out of fear, the Democratic Party also. It's calculated and working; someday Democrats will be pushing privatization of SSI, Medicare, National Parks, the whole shebang. Globalization is a commercial enterprise taught as an elective to MBAs.
If the video doesn't work, click youtbe and watch it there.
For some reason I thought this was worth sharing. It's short.
link to happyplace.com
It shows how slick some politicians are--and yes he happens to be Jewish.
What do the sacred texts of Judaism say about forgiveness?
The Spanish Inquisition was a combination of religious fanaticism and rabid nationalism. Thanks, Lightbringer, that's a good analogy for a teeny-weeny state in the ME that says their biggy-wiggy God gave it to them. A country that has spawned a thousand mini-Torquemadas arresting, torturing and murdering those who aren't ethnically and religiously pure. Bachman, Hagee and the like are emissaries for this state and, as such, are destructive to my country and are apostates, just like their Jewish comrades.
Apostate is the correct term for someone who has abandoned Christian principles. In fact, Torquemada would be an apostate for abandoning Christ's teachings.
Citizen, I don't consider Bachman, Hagee and the other Zionist-Christians to be Christians. They are stuck in the Old Testament and can't get out.
Citizen,
Yes, we need to kick the moneychangers out of our democracy, where they sacrifice our constitutional protections and well being on the alter of greed for their personal glory.
Martin Luther broke the law using non-violence. The American rebels broke the law of the land and used violence to break away from England. Jews broke the law and used violence to establish Israel. The Palestinians break the law using both peaceful and violent means. It's up to each person to decide when a natural law supercedes a man made one. I think it's hypocritical for an Israel supporter to condemn members of the flotilla for putting humanitarian concerns above man made laws. Man can only flourish by breaking and destroying unjust laws.
Thought crimes are a sign Israel has progressed from an authoritarian state to a totalitarian one. As Israel goes, the US follows.
I'm more of a Johnny Rotten, Joey Ramone fan. "God save the Queen, we mean it, man."
I don't just ridicule such superstitions but condemn them because the belief in bodily possession by evil spirits, witchcraft and such can, and does, lead to atrocities. I don't ridicule religious practices which harm no one or animal--I extend my condemnation to animal sacrafice. But in art and some media it is acceptable to ridicule Christian and Muslim religions but not Judaism. If Judaism is ridiculed I haven't seen it. On the other hand, I don't condemn religions for old atrocities, when superstition reigned and science was either unknown or in its infancy. I do believe in the evolution of consciousness and we are only responsible for the world today, learning from the past and planning for the future.
The humane thing to do with a stray dog is rescue it. I've rescued many, two little cuties last week. They spent the night in my bed and reunited with their greatly relieved owners the next day.
Elliot,
Both are guilty of dangerous voodoo premised on myth-based propaganda. One does not cancel the other. The myths are, respectively, the premise that God is a male (anthropomorphism) and the idea of American exceptionalism (nationalism.) Both concepts have hit the wall. Someday we will have to begin cleaning up the debris.
It is not trivial in that there is a direct correlation between how a society treats their women and how they treat their pets. The Orthodox Jews make their women ride in the back of the bus and the man must consent to a divorce are two examples. The fundamentalist Muslim is no better in either case.
What I find interesting is how superstitious they are, thinking a cursed human has returned to haunt them in the form of a dog. I understand the Israeli government pays these voodoo practitioners, and because the US subsidizes Israel, I think it's important for Americans to know where their money goes. Too much of what happens in Israel is hidden from the American public and it is a good thing when it is exposed, no matter how insignificant it may seem. And, if the truth be told, Americans love their dogs more than they love Muslims. My point of view is dogs are more loyal than Israel.
Eyes looking at a cruel oppressor, like those in a movie I saw last night, "A Film Unfinished," nazi propaganda filmed in the Warsaw Ghetto three months before most were transferred to Treblinka. I'm sure someone will bring up the fact that conditions were much worse in the WG, but Israel is pushing the Palestinians down the same road.
Wonder how much their going in debt?
Seafoid, I just noticed your reply and read the essay "Are Black People Cooler Than White People?", but it appears it was written by Donnell Alexander. Thank you, it was thought provoking.
It made me think about cool and how it has changed, for me, from the youthful need of peer acceptance to living according to my given nature, instead of someone elses idea of who I should be. I believe in limitations but philosophically they are formed by Taoism, and I see life as a river with its course determined by its banks and bottoms grade. And that is the context within which I think of Anatole Broyard, who wrote "Kafka Was the Rage." A book I enjoyed but a writer that was condemned by many for passing as white. A light-skinned black man who grew up in New Orleans, moved to New York, and couldn't relate to the blacks there because he was steeped in literature and modern art. Everyone thought he was white and when he died and people discovered he was black, there was an uproar. To me it's absurd to dis someone that doesn't follow his or her racial, gender, class or intellectual stereotype. Broyard, like Alexander, followed his own path and that is the most diificult thing for a society to accept--any society.
Seafoid, Your comments, like those of many here, teach me much.
Seafoid,
My apologies to Phil. The reason I brought up the Leo Frank lynching is that the incident is brought up perennially (I've seen it covered indepth more than any other one lynching) as an indicator Americans have always been on the verge of instigating a holocaust. Lynching was used to terrorize Blacks but not Jews as a group--the numbers don't add up.
Just to be clear I'm WASP and Irish--WASPish--and I'm sure many of my ancestors escaped the hellhole of a perpetually warring, aristocratic Europe for a better life in America. And it makes me angry to see America perpetually at war and an elite successfully establishing an inherited aristocracy.
I just read Red Sox's peice on Weiss' Jew counting. When WASPs were the dominant group (I know they're still there, just not so high a percentage) it was ok to count them in positions of power: in Congress, SCOTUS, CEOs, media, Boy Scouts, bankers, wherever there was a whiff of power. But pointing out the number of Jews in power today is considered anti-Semetic. It is just a frigging fact. That's the problem with being ultra-p.c.--you cannot mention certain facts because of past injustice: pogroms, lynchings, burnings, massacres, humiliations, beatings, confiscations, crucifixions. People, especially the colorless white goy, are always on the verge of returning to their feral state. But not being able to have on honest dialogue based on the facts allows the present power structure to march us peons into slavery and Armag-get-done.
Phil is not blaming the Jews for all the world's problems but to not notice the ethnic influences of the elite in Israel and America is like trying to follow a crooked path through the forest with a blindfold on. My main concern is with my country--the U.S.--and to understand our dysfunctional relationship with Israel.
If I can acknowledge Jewish genius--Heifetz, Bellow, I have an anti-Semetic brain block on the painter's name, Billy Wilder, Sammy Davis, Jr.--why can't I mention the ones who are screwing up my country like Greenspan, Leiberman, Harman, blah, blah? Hell, even Phil brought up the ONE Jew who was lynched in the South in the 30s or 20s, when thousands of Blacks (over 80% after the CW) and Whites (over 90% before the CW) were lynched. But Phil can't help himself--he's Jewish, and I can't help myself--I'm a goy.
I should give Red Sox kudos for his activism in support of dogs, especially the misunderstood and much abused Pit Bull. I'm a dog lover and some of my good friends are from the Bully breeds.
It's because Americans are so blinded by the spectacle they don't notice the oligarchs plotting their demise. Aristotle figured that out over two thousand years ago.
Americans also need to remember our revolution was a class war.
The dumpster next to the Wailing Wall is shown by the bottom photo on this page (p.6)
link to gamesradar.com
Is this how rumors get started?
I would back that up at least a decade to the extremely "bad luck" of JFK's assassination, when the US government was overthrown by a mafia-type shadow oligarchy. Conspiracy theory? Yes, but the tea leaves are are there to be read. Start with the fact that Jack Ruby's Mafia connections were much stronger and, in fact, his phone calls to high-level crime bosses increased in frequency up to the day of his shooting Oswald than the Warren Comission acknowledged.
Cod Pink? Is that a reference to the feminization of the male? Of course the reverse is true for the female because the Tao maintains its balance despite our efforts to influence power structures. this natural law also applies to ethnic warfare--no one tribe can win.
I hope the Rapture is tomorrow so Hagee and his followers will ascend to their boring little heaven and leave the rest of us in peace.
i've heard bernie sanders on thom hartman's radio program and like what he says about u.s. domestic policy but have never heard his position on our governments relationship with israel. can anybody enlighten me on that?
reuven,
ever notice where ever we spread democracy pornography and beer flourish as the first manifistations of liberty? i don't care what is approved or banned in another country, only that no other country exert undo influence on the u.s., and that includes israel, saudia arabia, china and cuban exciles. and it also includes u.s. meddling in other countries through force or neoliberal economic policies.
it's a virtual form of ethnic integration and a good thing.
woody allen transposing zelig into the nazi elite sitting behind hitler as he speaks is classic, diminishing evil by exposing its absurdity, is different. anytime ideology trumps humanity life is objectified and thereby endangered. what is appealing about larry david is his iconoclasm. sometimes his childish contentiousness is boorish.
the sound of one hand typing.
These attacks on Israel harm the Palestinian cause. First, they will never win a shooting war with Israel and the only reason for the bombings is provocation. Second, world opinion has been coalescing behind the Palestinians as long as Israel is seen as the bully. This damages Palestinian PR. Nonviolence is the only way they'll win.
Of course, nobody knows who did the bus bombing but most assume it's Hamas. The number of rockets from Gaza point to Hamas. It's self-defeating. But then again I don't know if I have the strength of character to join a non-violent demonstration against a state trying to steal my land instead of seeking revenge.
Taxi,
A ciruitous route to fortune, wheel like. My Internet cable made me an offer I can't refuse--basic tv. for ten bucks more and thewy will never raise the rate, ever, a lifer. Just have to make sure I don't have to sign up for a life sentence. Now, I get 2 channels: Telemundo and the Jewish station where I occasionally watch Seinfeld and Larry David.
Walter Tevis wrote in his book Mockingbird, "Television is for cretins."
To the island I will sail.
I mixed up Maher with Dennis Miller, a guy who truely went rabid after 9/11. Maher did say the terrorists who flew ther planes into the Towers weren't cowards, but those flying drones 2000 miles away were. I think that got his show cancelled even though it's true.
I need to watch more tv.
It's good to hear everybody's opinion on Maher. I remember when he was considered an iconoclast but then rabidly supported W's War on Terror and haven't watched him since.
Did Maher mock or denigrate Judaism with Oren or in Religosity or whatever the movie was? If he did I would have to develop a modicum of respect for Maher.
mrw,
I'm guilty as charged. I put the disclaimer in there out of an automatic response to head off being called antisemetic and, like most white Americans, do so when commenting on the negative actions of most minorities. It's also true many Americans paint Arabs with a broad brush of racist comments without fear of reprisal. It's done in the media all the time. Pointing out the FACT the Jews are the largest single group controlling the media is verboten. Only in an authoritarian society are facts and truth considered secrets. And secrets are power. It's the Grand Inquisitor that never dies.
Fuster,
Omar Sharif shoots the man off his horse. I need to watch Lawrence of Arabia again. It's a movie worth rewatching every few years.
A few years ago there was a case were a US jury sent a man to prison for stabbing and killing his ex-girlfriend's pet fish. To many this sounds absurd but the prosecutor proved that there is a correlation between killing a pet and subsequent murder of the victim. Killing the pet is a threat that preceeds the killing of the victim.
I see the killing of the horse by the settlers as a threat which will most likely escalate to the murder of a human. This in no way means all Jews or Israelis are murderers or animal abusers. I'm sure Israel has animal abuse laws but the fact they will not investigate this abuse is just more proof that the state does not offer equal rights to Palestinians by allowing the settlers to terrorize them.
jewishgoyim,
Watch Al Jazeera to find out what is happening in Libya and ME in general.
Also the Japanese news has an English translation and BBC is pretty good. USnew on the whole is either useless or outright propaganda.
Some of the remarks remind me of an old National Lampoon album song of a Joan Baez imitator singing: "Pull the treegro Negro/I'm with you all the way/just across the bay." You back revolution, cheer it on in fact, Qathaafi kills demonstrators and they fight back. The revolutionaries ask for help and a when we give it to them, you say it's wrong. You have right to your opinion. But some people are going to die, one way or the other, and I'd rather see Qadaafi die than the revolutionaries.
You say Britain, France and US have predatory motives. If that was strictly the case they would have stuck with Qathaafi for he has been a good boy since 2004 and who knows what a future government may be like. The French government didn't give our revolutionaries money and military aid out of a love of freedom--some of the individuals did, the French being romantics--instead they supported us because Great Britain was an enemy. The fact their motives weren't pure bothers most of not all. If there is a people who are pure of heart let me know where they are so I can avoid them. It would be like a perpetual Grateful Dead concert.
Because we haven't done the right thing for other countries before, we shouldn't be doing the right thing now. Besides not making sense, it's hard to form a coalition and I don't mind going along with Britain and France in Libya as long as we don't put boots on the ground, except Special Forces for training, or occupy.
The IraqWar was insane but destroying al Qaeda had to be done. They had declared war on us, bombed the Cole and our embassies and possibly performed 9/11. Toppling the Taliban and nation building were costly mistakes for the Afphgani and US. Neocon hubris.
roha,
In school we learned Neanderthals were too stupid to make it. What role did humans have in the extinction of the other intelligent hominids? Food for thought?
Phillip K. Dick had an interesting take on Cro-Magnon in a book entitled something like " A Tear in Time" or "..... Space."
Seafoid,
I was going to mention the Neanderthals but forgot. I could have some of their blood and wonder if I'm elgible for reparations?
Also there is archeological evidence of ethnic warfare in pre-Columbian SW. It's heartwarming to know some traditions never die.
Taxi,
I didn't say they were smart. Native Americans use to hunt buffalo by getting them to run off a cliff. It's the herd instinct unaware of the danger ahead in order to escape the danger behind. You might call it an instinctual glitch. Humans have this same glitch and the elites are adept at using the propaganda of fear to motivate people to run off the cliff. Think of the neocons persuading the american people that invading Iraq was in their best interest when in reality it has destroyed our economy and killed over 100,000 innocent people. The self-perception of a people that they are the avatars of good and have the duty to destroy those they label evil is a human construct. Joseph Campbell said genocide started with the Old Testament. Unfortunately it didn't end there. What makes the human leader unstable is his decisions are consciously made and place ideology above survival of the group. Most other species will not follow a leader they instinctively feel endangers the group but follow the leader off a cliff because they don't know what's ahead. In fact wolf packs have been known to kill an unstable leader. In this sense the rebels in Libya are doing the right thing, or trying to.
Human consciousness lags behind technological advances, and as a result the earth has taken some big hits from humans this year. First the gulf and now the nuclear melt down. In some ways we are an homicidal species but now we have the technical means to destroy the whole earth. If people can't get past their tribal consciousness, we are doomed.
Humans are the only animal that will follow an unstable leader.
The kid did throw a rock. So what, I wouldn't blame him if he'd thrown a bomb. People have the right to violently resist oppression--some say a duty. People are resisting with force, if not violence, in much of the world to the ruling elite. It started in Europe, spread to the ME and is even beginning in the U.S. Notice how it's starting in the heartland and not on the coasts.
The Israeli police are a modern Gestapo and the Israeli people are a cruel and fearfull people. My country is criminal for supporting them and the other ME authoritarians.
Theo, It's a good thing the Swiss didn't listen to you when they wrote their Constitution in 1848, some of it based on ours--their Parliament is a two body configuration similiar to our Congress--and also the French Revolution. What I find superior to our Constitution is they can't send foriegn troops abroad (they can under the U.N.), strong Cantons and weaker central government and they can re-write their entire Constitution and vote on it, instead of just amending it ,nd any law passed by Parliament can be challenged by 100,000 voters signing a petition to bring the law to a national vote. Our 1787 Contitution increased the power of the central government. The anti-Federalist (a misnomer) arguement is most interesting. One being that a strong central government will desire to become a great nation and will need a large military to do so. An example of one problem with a weak central government is that women's suffrage did not become national law until 1990 in Switzerland because voting rights were determined by the individual Cantons. But IMHO the Swiss balance of self-rule and central government is better than ours and we as a nation are moving in the wrong direction.
My problem with rabid American nationalists and rabid anti-Americans is both are hopelessly romantic. The first wants to return to what he considers the perfect past of our founders. That last believe it is possible to design a perfect world and must destroy all that comes before to create it. Visionaries--you can't live with them and you can't live without them.
Full disclosure. Though a typical American Euro-mutt, the largest part of my ethnic makeup is Swiss. Something I, for irrational reasons, find comforting. Also, I believe in a Land Value Tax (Georgeism), am interested in Distributism and "More cowbell. You can never have too much cowbell." This romantic side of mine is a vision I realize will never become reality.
A democracy can devolve into oppressive authoritarianism without a written constitution protecting the rights of minorities. The tyranny of the majority is still a tyranny. Israel's problem is it has no constitution. Our problem is the government, all three branches, are shredding the Constitution.
How about Cleveland? It could use 3 billion ayear from our taxes.
Leander,
The book is called "The Strange world of Human Sacrifice" and is on googlebooks. Start on pg 98.
link to books.google.com
Early Christians were accused of ritual child sacrifice into the third century. Some writings from that time say the accusations came from the Jews. When they gained power they turned those same accusations at Pagans and then Jews later on. Don't know when when the term "blood libel" was first used.
Hannah,
I like the universal voice you wrap deep feelings around.
Keep up the good life.
How many here think "Taxi Driver" should be banned for influencing Hinkley to Shoot Reagan?
PG, Thanks for the correction. I thought Roll was Jewish.
I'm afraid this shooting will be used to restrict the freedoms of all Americans and members of congress will become more unaccesible to the people they represent.
Why use the mentally deranged to create laws affecting all of us? Wouldn't it be better to protect the rest of us from the mentally ill who are dangerous?
I went to the American Renaissance website where they say they don't know who Loughner is, never heard of him. It is a white supremecist site that thinks Blacks and Brown colored folks are destroying America. A cursory examination of the site shows no mention of Jews, but I'm not otherwise familiar with the site. According to them Dees of the SPL says the group is not anti-Semetic.
Loughner's youtube site shows the disjointed rantings of a mentally disturbed individual but I didn't see any racist material.
DHLS doesn't say what the shooter's connection to AR is but he may have visited the site. I don't know.
An alleged high school mate of Loughner says he changed dramatically at the age of 16 when he suffered alcohol poisoning. A community college instructer had him removed from his class because he was disruptive.
One report said Loughner wore a beanie when he went on his rampage but haven't had that confirmed by another source. That's the only Jewish connection I've heard besides the fact Gifford and Roll are Jewish. Also the Safeway where the shooting took place was close to Loughner's house, which makes it seem like a crime of opportunity by a deranged individual.
Donald, Here's is a direct quote: "Actually, it is a reason for the US not to exist as a country that confines Native Americans to reservations."
Past tense would have been clearer.
Someone said Native Americans are confined to reservations. Not true, they can live where ever they please.
Two cultures cannot exist in the same space. The Palestinians saw what was coming.
link to digitalgallery.nypl.org
Obviously the Paestinians are mentally healthier than the Israeli Jews.
eee, you bring up a good point. I've always resented the fact that the U.S. gives aid to a country with universal healthcare while we taxpayers pay out the nose for an inferior product.
Marcel Janco painting, Ein Hod.
link to artnet.com
Jung would say this Rabbi is projecting his own thoughts onto those of his enemy. It would then read:
“Our way of life is different than that of Gentiles,” the letter stated. “Among [the Jews] are those who are bitter and hateful toward you and who meddle into your lives to the point where we are a danger.”
Stop ethnic warfare today! That goes for everybody.
He is just practicing prana yoga.
Forgot to add that Mel Brooks was not making fun of Native Americans but of Hollywood using people of other ethnic groups to portray them. I never thought I would have to say this but I guess you need a certain level of intellectual sophistication to understand "Blazing Saddles." If I followed your logic, I would be offended at the way Brooks portrayed the gentile, which I also found hilarious.
Hu Bris,
Maybe I should have asked for your permission. It's not my concern whether anybody else finds Mel Brooks funny or not. I renounce authoritainism wherever I find it, and I reject your censorship. Expressing your own opinion is fine but making yourself the voice of a whole people is arrogant, IMHO.
Mel Brooks did a fine job as a Jew playing a Native American in "Blazing Saddles."
Israel has never returned the documents Pollard stole from the U.S. This special relationship is dysfunctional: beneficial for Israel and harmfull for the U.S.. As for a preemptive release of an Israeli spy, it has already happened with Rosen. Rosen says he has proof that AIPAC has consistently passed classified information to Israel and the FBI is not investigating. I'm sure many agents would like to look into it but their bosses won't let them.
About the airport scanners, Chertov works for Rapiscan, the company profiting from selling their scanners to us.
The Holy Land is the nexus of spiritual and material greed. Has been forever it seems. Holy warriors from all three religions would destroy the world for a rock.
I voted for Ralph and don't regret it. Gore, Leiberman, no way, same with Bush.
The demonstration made two main points.
1. Some Israelis are against the occupation.
2. White people can't dance.
It's tribute paid to a criminal elite from the future earnings of American's earnings. Israel is just part of a much greater transfer of wealth from the middle-class. For the true believer it is a winning investment in their self-fulfilling eschatology.
This is from the article about Kucinich linked to above:
"Kucinich's stances, however, have not hurt his congressional re-election efforts to date. He has support from many Arab-Americans in his district, which does not have a big Jewish community."
In the sixties the largest Jewish community was in Cleveland Heights but is now in Beechwood, Ohio.
An Episcopalian school admits Jews but does a Jewish shool admit gentiles? I really don't know. The following is from a website that promotes Jewish schools.
"A growing number of parents choose Jewish day schools for their children. They find that:
- the schools provide a warm and caring Jewish environment
children receive a firm grounding in Jewish knowledge and practice, together with a love of Israel
- the schools have nationally recognised high standards in secular education and all maintained schools teach the entire National Curriculum
- children have a full Jewish social life within a secure atmosphere
- the schools have wonderful modern facilities, providing outstanding surroundings and the best possible opportunities for learning."
link to privateschool.about.com
"Hey, maybe NYT brass also visit Mafia offices! Why not?"
The NYT covers the White House, Congress and Supreme Court don't they. The answer is they already do.
As an American willing to talk to anybody nominally coherent, when it comes to Israel or foriegn policy in general, about 70% don't know sh** and don't want to know. The most common refrain is "why bother, there's nothing I can do." In a way they're right: it's a big stinking mess. But they're wrong in thinking nothing can by changed through knowledge and effort.
Glad to see the Pope is a Christian but this won't influence the evangelicals.
Isn't the current impasse with Israel Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Wouldn't accepting that definition as a Jewish state relegate all non-Jews to a self-imposed second class of citizenship? The U.S. has a group that thinks of us as a Christian nation, but it isn't law, and many of us would fight against the re-imposition of Puritanism. Personally, I admire the Puritans (un-PC), but their time has come and gone, and there's no going back. The same goes for Greater Israel.
A minor correction to an earlier thread--people from Cleveland do not have an accent. The rest of the country, yes.
Art by committee is usually ugly.
Didn't Germany also give us Wilhelm Reich? The girl in the Chaos video appears to by doing Reichian Therapy or one of its off-shoots like Primal Scream or Gestalt. Devo was right, we are going backwards.
That is a heart breaking video. Americans do not see the cruelty of the Israeli land grab. This video should be on the 6 o'clock news. To those who made it, keep up the good work.
My ancient homeland is Cleveland. I have fond memories of breathing the noxious fumes spouting from the smokestacks of the steel mills in the Flats and swimming in the raw sewage pumped into Lake Erie. I would return but the machinery that made Cleveland "the best location in the nation" was packed up and sold as scrap to China. We retain our unique identity during our diaspora by by congregating in bars across the country during football season to watch the Browns. Sure, they always lose but some day we will return and the Browns will win the Super Bowl. Until then we will have to be satisfied with the moral victory of being a city within a city.
eljay,
I was just trying to prove how smart I am by acknowledging my stupidity.
Didn't work, huh?
sideways happy face.
eljay,
Sorry, I wasn't sure if you were being ironic. I thought for a moment you were John Hagee.
eljay,
Your statement "No one but Jews can understand the horrors of Auschwitz, since no one but Jews suffered at Auschwitz" is not true. Jews were by far the majority of sufferers at Aushwitz but Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners also suffered there. And probably some other ethnicities who also aren't as adept at marketing their suffering as the Jews have been.
sherbrsi,
I think democracy in the U.S. has been continualy subverted for some time. If people aren't convinced that our country is no longer sovereign because of our dysfunctional relationship with Israel, they can tell by who's calling the shots in the BP oil gusher. The people want our government to take control, close the hole, clean it up and charge BP. That's the way a leader of the people would do it. I'm tired of Obama's jive talk.
lareineblanche,
It's boilerplate. They're the Stepford congressmen.
Here is AIPAC's list of U.S. congressmen and their statements supporting Israel's raid on the flotilla. The largest group from any one state is Democrats from N.Y.:
link to aipac.org
Why has the world forgotten the 6 million non-Jews killed in the Nazi concentration camp? This is sad.