Monday, August 31, 2015

"Your Basic Schmear"

It's what Obama says he likes on his bagel, but it could also describe the technique he employs to lure recalcitrant Jews into backing his heinous Iran deal.


Obama Sez, "There's Not a Smidgen of Evidence Suggesting I'm Anti-Semitic"

Quite true. In fact, some of his best friends/closest advisors are Semites. That said, there is ample evidence that he is anti-Israel, as are far too many of his political/ideological persuasion.

Manic Pixie Nightmare Girl

She's the opposite of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl--which just made it into the Oxford Dictionary--and her name is Mylie Cyrus.

The OHRC's "Cis"-stemic Silliness

The problem with some "human rights" edicts is that they seem to exist in order to make ordinary, majority behavior seem freakish. Hence this, from the Ontario Human Rights Commission's new policy on "trans" rights:
4.3 Cisnormativity “Cisnormativity” (“cis” meaning “the same as”) refers to the commonplace assumption that all people are “cisgender” (not trans). In other words, their gender identity is in line with or “matches” the sex they were assigned at birth, and everyone accepts this as “the norm.”  The term is used to describe stereotypes, negative attitudes and prejudice towards trans people that are more widespread or systemic in society and its institutions. This form of prejudice may even be unintentional and unrecognized by the person or organization responsible, making it all the more entrenched and difficult to address. 
Got that? The OHRC thinks that heterosexuals are ipso facto "prejudiced" because they are hetero. I think that that is both false and insulting, and that it's time for us heteros to fight back and insist that our "human rights" commissars put a stop to this nonsense.

In other words, that they cease and de-"cis"t.

Iran's Laranji Crows About Ayatollahville's Power/Success at UN-Sponsored Gathering in NYC

More proof--not that it's needed--that Iran knows it got the better of the credulous infidels, including those arrogant fools, Obama and Kerry:
The speaker of Iran's parliament (Majlis) Ali Larijani says the Islamic Republic has proven to the world that the weapon of force and bullying is no longer effective.
Larijani made the remarks in his address to the Fourth World Conference of Parliament Speakers, convened by the Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in cooperation with the United Nations, at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

Some big powers tried to bring the Iranian nation to its knees, but the great Iranian nation stood against force by choosing the course of resistance and steadfastness and emerged victorious, he said. 
By so doing, the Iranian nation showed that the weapon of force and bullying is old and ineffective and has lost its effectiveness and power of influence, the official noted. 
Larijani was referring to Iran’s recent agreement with the P5+1, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, which ended a 12-year Western standoff with Iran over the country's nuclear program...
What he's really saying is that an Obama-helmed America has lost its effectiveness and power of influence. And you know something? He's right.

Bad Optics

In puzzling move, 'showers' set up at Auschwitz to cool down visitors

Sunday, August 30, 2015

PC Run Amuck: Columbia U.'s Stalinistic Approach to Instilling "Sexual Respect"

From the September issue of Commentary:
In February 2015, Columbia University—currently ranked the fourth most distinguished academic institution in the United States by U.S. News and World Report—announced that all its students, undergraduate and graduate alike, would be obliged to take part in a “Sexual Respect and Community Citizenship Initiative.” This “new, required programming,” the Columbia bureaucracy explained, was designed to explore “the relationship between sexual respect and community membership.” 
Columbia’s students were given a menu of “participation options.” They could watch a minimum of two preselected videos about “rape culture” and gender identity and write a “reflection” about what they had learned. They could attend film screenings about sexual assault and masculinity and engage in a monitored discussion afterwards. They could create a “work of art” about the “relationship between sexual respect and University community membership.” Or, if they “identif[ied] as survivors, co-survivors, allies, or individuals who have experienced forms of secondary trauma,” they could attend workshops on “Finding Keys to Resiliency.” 
Options in the “Finding Keys to Resiliency” module included a “mindfulness workshop” on “cultivating nonjudgmental awareness and being more present for their experience.” If attending the book launch for SLUT: A Play and Guidebook for Combating Sexism got one too agitated about female oppression, one could unwind at a “Yoga class for women” or a “knitting circle.” 
To help students organize their required “reflections” on the videos, Columbia provided a set of questions suggestive of a New Age encounter session: “Kalin [a speaker in a video] shares his ‘why’ for passion around prevention education. What is his why? If you have a passion for prevention, ‘what is your why’?” 
Another prompt suggested: “Reflect on the idea of manhood as discussed in this talk. What is the interaction of the constructs of manhood and power dynamics?”
It sounds ghastly. But surely they don't send you to the gulag should you resist, right?:
Students who failed to log the requisite sexual-respect hours and complete the requisite sexual-respect assignments could be blocked from registering for academic coursework—or from graduating.
Okay, it's not an actual, physical gulag, but it is a gulag of sorts.

Update: More campus madness--UNC’s ‘Literature of 9/11’ course sympathizes with terrorists, paints U.S. as imperialistic

Hillary Claims Her "The GOP Wants to Put Immigrants in Boxcars" Remark Was Not a Reference to the Holocaust

I believe her. She must have been referring to "boxcars" in some other context--say, like a country & western one?

Fermez La Bouche!: The Proposed Quebec Anti-"Hate Speech" Law That's Shariah-Friendly

Read about it here.

Liberal M.P. Irwing Cotler Twists Himself Into a Veritable Pretzel As He Tries to Account For--and Dismiss--P.M. Harper's Staunch Support for Israel

These days it's tough to be a Jewish leftist and a strong supporter of Israel; leftist ideology pretty much requires one to cast aspersions on the Jewish State because it supposedly represents everything leftists supposedly despise (which is to say that it's supposedly "colonialist," "imperialist," an "occupier," a follower of "apartheid," etc.). And then there's the fact that, when it comes to Israel, leftist idol Barack Hussein Obama is an untrustworthy putz while the hated Stephen Harper is anything but.

Here's Liberal M.P. Irwin Cotler trying--and failing miserably--to wrap his big brain around it all:
What is distinguishable about Harper, says Cotler – a member of the Canadian Parliament since 1999, who served as Justice Minister and Attorney General from 2003 until the Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost the 2006 election to Harper – “is not his support for Israel, but his mainstreaming of that support as a Canadian foreign-policy principle. So he is seen as more pro-Israel.” 
Cotler takes issue with what he considers Harper’s attempt to make this a wedge issue. 
“Part of Harper’s campaign is to assert that anyone who cares about Israel should vote for him. But both the liberal and conservative parties support Israel. In fact, while [Liberal Party leader Justin] Trudeau has publicly backed Harper’s position on Israel, Harper claims to head the ‘pro-Israel’ party.”
Cotler agrees that this situation in particular, and the Canadian zeitgeist in general, is different from that of the U.S., where he said it was the left-leaning Democrats who were turning Israel into a partisan issue. 
This, coupled with the U.S.-led nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic, is a source of disappointment to Cotler, who was initially pleased with the election of President Barack Obama. ...
No, Irwin, what distinguishes Harper is his vocal and consistent support for Israel, something the Liberals never could or would muster (because they are Liberals). That's a big problem for Libs like Cotler, who, though strong supporters of Israel, cannot bring themselves to praise this prime minister for taking this stand because they know it is not to their political advantage to do so. Thus, they play the "wedge" card (the reddest of red herrings) and damn Harper with the faintest of praise--"so he is seen as more pro-Israel"--even as they purvey falsehoods/fictions about what their own leader and party stand for. And when you look at his background and who his closest advisors are, there is no doubt that Justin Trudeau is nowhere near as pro-Israel as Harper is. It is also clear that what Trudeau stands for is what the Liberals have long stood for--being an "honest broker"/fence-sitter who salutes almost every nutty, malevolent anti-Israel resolution the U.N. runs up the flagpole. Just as bad, Justin is hot for Obama's "brilliant" idea of reaching out to Iran--the worst and potentially the most deadly policy decision of our time.

Should he somehow prevail and be elected to the top job, Trudeau is bound to be every bit as much a disappointment as Obama has shown himself to be--and then some. And Cotler? As a good little Liberal soldier, he has to toe the party line, both out loud and to himself, even if it's full of holes and a load of crapola. If he doesn't, he'll be a party pariah and may even be forced to admit to himself that, in terms of ideology and worldview, he and his beloved party are fundamentally and, yes, even fatally, flawed.

Not a good look, Irwin.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

"Not Fully Myelinated"

An--perhaps the--explanation for why teenagers do really stupid things. (Could it also be the reason why they are so easily indoctrinated?)

Obama Tries to Woo the Jooos By Using the Old "Visceral" V. "Rational" Argument

In a webcast broadcast to U.S. Jewish leadership yesterday, a delusional and hypocritical Obama tried to persuade his audience that, Israel's purportedly overly emotional griping aside, his crappy nuke deal is eminently reasonable. Commentary's Jonathan S. Tobin begs to differ--big time:
Obama adopted a different tone about Iran’s future with a Jewish audience than he usually does. But even though he claimed to have no illusions about Iran, he repeated his dismissal of Iran’s Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “just a politician,” rather than a tyrannical, anti-Semitic theocrat whose threats at the West and Israel deserve to be taken seriously. While he says he understands Iran, it’s clear his belief in détente with the regime is the key to understanding his acceptance of a weak deal that will let it do as it likes when it expires.
Just as offensive was his attempt to demonstrate understanding of his critics. He called Israeli worries about Iranian threats “visceral” to be contrasted his supposedly purely rational arguments. Though he claimed to want reconciliation, the only thing that came through clearly in this webcast was his arrogance and unwillingness to demonstrate respect for opposing views. It is that quality that caused him never to question his policies even as he made concession after concession to Iran. 
This is a president whose policies have shown that he is obsessed with downgrading the alliance with Israel while reaching out to its most vicious foes...
Viscerally and rationally, it is clear that this deal does heavy lifting for the greatest evil of our time, and Obama is crazy if he can't see that.

Update: Obama’s ‘friends and family’ webcast to Jews falls short of reunion

Really? Seems to me plenty of U.S. Jews still adore him.

Whassup With Margaret Atwood in the Nation Post--Again?

Has she become a permanent fixture, a shrill voice excoriating big and small "c" conservatives? (Although in today's piece, rather than saying silly things about Stephen Harper's hair, she has kind words for Preston Manning, who has morphed into her sort of right-winger, which is to say one who is not terribly right anymore and who embraces the likes of David Suzuki.)

All I can say is that I hope she's "hair" today, gone tomorrow.

Cloudy With a Chance of Mush-Brains

Justin Trudeau Montreal Rally Interrupted By Climate Change Activists

Friday, August 28, 2015

Switzerland 'Regrets' Actions of It's Ambassor to Iran Who Showed Iranians a 'Toon of Doves Crapping All Over Netanyahu

Here's how it went down:
Giulio Haas showed the image during a speech to hundreds of Swiss and Iranian business people at a conference in Zurich on Thursday, in which he also described Iran as a “pole of stability” in the Middle East.  
The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) called the cartoon “questionable,” and in a statement that it “regrets the use of this cartoon and considers it tasteless,” Reuters reported. 
“Ambassador Haas did not intend to insult anybody with the cartoon,” the FDFA statement said. “If that is the case, however, he regrets it and seeks the pardon of everyone who could have felt insulted.”
Ambassador Haas sounds like a chap who knows that money makes the world go around, and that Iran has tons of it.

A "Radical" New Way to See Hitler?

I found it in the Afterword to the Updated Edition of Ron Rosenbaum's Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origin of His Evil. In the Afterword, Rosenbaum mentions an essay by Sir Richard Evans about Hitler's war aims that appeared in the December 2013 issue of The New York Review of Books. The essay contended that, for Hitler, WW2 "was a racial war in which the extermination of six million European Jews...was a paramount war aim." Rosenbaum comments:
"A racial war": In other words, what the late Lucy Dawidowicz called "the war against the Jews" (in her book of that title) was of greater importance to Hitler than the war against the Allies. That was "what the war was really about." And that, according to Evans, more than anything was why Germany lost the war.
But did he really? Lose the war, I mean? Says Rosenbaum:
There is one respect in which I would take Evans's characterization further. A point that Lucy Dawidowicz makes...: Hitler didn't lose the war. Not the war Evans, I'd say persuasively, argues was the most important to him: the racial war. He won that war. Six million to one. Yes, he committed suicide at the end. (And, yes, 50 million others lost their lives so he could win the part of the war he cared about most. Collateral damage.)
What follows it the part where Rosenbaum suggests a "radical" new approach to viewing Hitler:
Thinking about that suicide now, in light of 9/11 and the subsequent exaltations of suicide bombing on messianic, theological grounds, does in fact offer a radical new way to think of Hitler. In retrospect at least, it's tempting to argue that Hitler was, if not the first, then by far history's greatest single suicide bomber. He blew up Europe to kill the Jews in it, even if it meant killing himself and tens of millions of others in the end.
Yes, that does sound "radical." Until, that is, you recall that Hitler laid it all out in a book called Mein Kampf, which, in Arabic translates as My Jihad.



Update: There's no need to see the Grandiose Ayatollah in a "radical" new way. He's laid his cards (and his "Kampf") on the table for all to see.

Ay Caramba!: Idiot Obama Is Trying to Do Away With the America as the World's "Big Enchilada"

The "Big Enchilada," according to Andrew Bacevitch, a professor at Boston University, is the idea of the U.S.A. being, well,  the big enchilada. David M. Weinberg writes that Obama is doing to utmost to ensure that the nation will become a lesser foodstuff--a baby burrito or a tiny taco, say--and that his nuke deal with Iran is part and parcel of his twisted scheming 'n' dreaming:
Obama rejects this notion [of America as the "Big Enchilada], since he essentially views America's preponderance in world affairs as arrogant and sinful. He feels that American "bullying" has brought about disastrous results.  
Most telling was Obama's infamous lament in 2010 about America as "a dominant military superpower, whether we like it or not." In other words, he really doesn't like it at all. No statement could be more revealing of Obama's disgust for American global leadership. 
In the context of the current deal with Iran, Obama has been equally clear as to how he expects this play out. If successfully implemented, the agreement that slows Iran's nuclear program will also end Iran's isolation. This will allow Tehran, over time, to become a "legitimate" and "extremely successful regional power" and a "powerhouse in the region." These are Obama's own words.  
All this leads, of course, to American retreat -- blessed retreat from Obama's perspective -- from the projection of power in the region. Replacing America will be a revanchist, greatly emboldened, anti-Semitic and genocidal (toward Israel), Islamic Republic of Iran. Poof goes the Big Enchilada.
Poof goes the Big Enchilada, to be replaced almost immediately by the Big Kebab.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Why ISIS Kills: It's the Islam, Stupid

In a must-read piece, Paul Berman explains practically everything one ever needs to know about these jihadi savages:
...why do they slaughter people? The Islamic State in particular, with its Baatho-Islamist cadre—what is its motive? On this point, too, there is no mystery. The Islamic State has been eager to reveal its own thinking. The Islamic State slaughters for religious reasons—which is to say, for reasons that are bound to seem incomprehensible to us. It is piety that requires the efficiently organized jihadis to slaughter the poor unoffending Yazidi minority in Iraq; and to slaughter the Shia, which they have been doing for many years now, one suicide bombing after another; and to slaughter Christians; and would surely require them to slaughter the Jews, if only the Israeli Defense Force would do them the kindness of getting out of the way. Given the opportunity, the Islamic State would slaughter most of the world, if I understand the takfiri doctrine correctly. Slavery, too, is piety, in these people’s eyes. They pray before raping. 
And they have prospered! Their successes bear out political theory on a few points, but mostly they are a rebuke to political theory. They are the enemy and conqueror of every doctrine that has ever supposed human behavior to be predictable. This is the bafflement. Anonymous is right. They have scored a triumph over every theory of human progress that has ever been proposed. They are not the first people to score such a victory. We have needed their reminder, though. In recent decades we have liked to tell ourselves that, after the Nazis, mankind has learned its lesson. But mankind is not a lesson-learning entity. Civilizations can learn lessons. But civilizations come and go. Impassive mankind remains uninstructable and stupid, such that, if once upon a time the barbarities of the 7th century thrilled and inspired a substantial portion of mankind, we can be confident that 7th-century barbarities will remain forevermore a viable possibility.
And 7th-century barbarians who employ state-of-the art technology--in which category I'd include the Grandiose Ayatollah and his barbaric nuclear crew--could prove to be unbeatable.

Hamas Priorities Clear for All to See

Propaganda Video Shows Hamas Investing in Weapons, Tunnels as Gaza Reconstruction Lags

"The Artist Has Decided to Cover His Work to Protest Being Exhibited Alongside Artists From Israel"

What a loser!

What I Saw At the Aga Khan Museum

Along with the items in the museum's permanent collection (located on the main floor), I, accompanied by my son, took in the art assembled for Home Ground: Contemporary Art From the Barjeel Art Foundation, the work of 12 Arab artists, displayed on the second floor.

I guess we shouldn't have been surprised that, given the artists' provenance, this work would be imbued with a political message. For instance, there was the concrete volley ball, described in an article from a UAE newspaper linked to on the Barjeel Facebook page as
a sculpture of a sports ball made from reconstituted concrete from the Apartheid Wall in Palestine. It offers a poetic response to conversations held with Palestinian children playing by a section of the wall near Ramallah.
As well, we saw
the images from Larissa Sansour’s series Nation Estate, which offers a fantastical and futuristic response to the Palestinian situation. She imagines a skyscraper within which each floor represents a different city or area in the occupied land.
The artist was born in Jerusalem, but in a film that's part of the display she cannot leave the elevator on the Jerusalem floor, which, when the doors open, shows the gold-domed mosque; in another image, one of the series' photographs displayed on the wall, the mosque and its surroundings are seen through shattered glass. The implicit message: she, a Palestinian, is barred from a broken Jerusalem because of those awful rhymes with you-know-whos.
 
We also saw a small bronze sculpture encased in glass. "Oh, look," said my son. "That's the thing on the BDS logo."
 
And, indeed, it was.

Update: The CBC called the artwork "edgy." Good word, since much of it is double-edged.

Update: Shout out to the woman I saw in the permanent gallery wearing an "I Heart Jesus" T-shirt.

EU NGOs Wage an Animalistic Jihad on Israel

It galls 'em that Israel is a success and that the Holocaust occurred on their continent. Because they can't wreak their revenge via overt anti-Semitism (that's simply not done in polite circles these days) they try to disguise their lupine revulsion for the Jewish Enterprise by dressing it up in the sheep's clothing of "social justice" and "human rights." At the same time, they shed copious crocodile tears for the Palestinians, the victim group of "helpless" lambs they cherish above all others in distress. Here's part of a Gatestone piece on the animalistic hijinks:
There is a European "jihad" against Israel. A significant number of activist groups -- presenting themselves as international humanitarian aid and charitable projects designed to benefit the Palestinian people -- are actually "directly or indirectly active in Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns, lawfare, delegitimization and lobbying against Israel," according to a detailed report by NGO Monitor
Every year, European governments send hundreds of millions of dollars for humanitarian aid projects in Palestinian territories. Ostensibly, the money is intended for projects such as improving medical care, alleviating poverty, improving schools, or enhancing infrastructure. 
But beneath the surface lurk more venomous political advocacy agendas apparently designed to undermine Israel as a nation-state. 
Some of these European governments give money directly to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Others funnel it through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that are present themselves as charitable groups. 
These governments and European-funded NGOs, however, often seem more dedicated to propaganda, political activism and undermining Israel, and less aimed at helping the Palestinians. Between 2012 -2014, for instance, more than $27 million in foreign funds have flowed into the bank accounts of radical left-wing NGOs in Israel, all in some way involved in anti-Israel advocacy activities...

Tikkun the SpongeBob

It's a Jimmy Kimmel "social experiment":

The 'Shanda'* of a Jewish Traitor

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim confirms talks for Tehran concert


*Shanda: a Yiddish word meaning shame/disgrace.

For Dennis Prager, Accounting For Why So Many American Jews Support the Odious Nuke Deal Is as Easy as 1, 2, 3

Prager explains it like this. They support the nuke deal:
Because they 1) are loyal to President Obama, 2) have an intense dislike of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 3) have an intense dislike of Republicans. 
Similarly, here in Canada many Jews support Justin Trudeau, whose party "welcomes the deal," because they 1) are loyal to the Liberal Party, 2) have an intense dislike of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and 3) have an intense dislike of Conservatives.



Update: On the other hand, not every Jewish Democrat is willing to be cowed by the Bully-In-Chief.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

And Speaking of the Holocaust, Here's How Abu Mazen 'Splains It

I found this unabashed Zionhass on the Palestinian Media Watch site (my bolds):
The following is from Mahmoud Abbas book "The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism." The book was recently translated into Hebrew by Eddy Cohen:
"We find that Zionists believe in the purity of the Jewish race, as Hitler believed in the purity of the Aryan race. Zionism calls to find a fundamental final solution to the Jewish question in Europe by immigration to Palestine. Hitler also called for this and implemented it... Antisemitism is persecution and oppression, and this is definitely something desirable to the Zionist movement. The conclusion from these ideas is that a green light was given [by the Zionist leaders] to every racist in the world, first and foremost Hitler and Nazism, to do as they wish to the Jews, as long as it guarantees individual immigration to Palestine. And it was not enough for the Zionist movement to give a green light - rather it even asked for more victims, in order to be comparable to the victims of other peoples in the war. This was because it [the Zionist leaders] thought that raising the number of victims would increase its rights at the end of the war, when the bounty is divided."  
Nice of Abbas to blame the Holocaust on the Jews, don't you think?

Update: Did someone say "Hitler" ?

Natalie Portman Says Jews Are "Fear-Mongering" Re a New Holocaust. Is She Right?

In a word, nope. What her words are really all about: she's upset that some members of her tribe have dared to criticize the leftist messiah and his nuke deal.

What a Revoltin' Development This Is

Lorne Gunter weighs in on Quebec plans to vastly expand the powers of its official "human rights" racket such that it will be able to tamp down on free expression.

CBC Radio Is "Getting Creative With Genitalia"

Because it has nothing better to do, apparently.

McDonald's CEO Politely Rebuffs a McWhopper of an Offer

Also-ran burger chain Burger King is reaching out to rival McDonald's for the sake of "world peace." In full page ads running today in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, BK invites McD's to join it in creating a joint "McWhopper" for one day in one U.S. city (Atlanta), with proceeds going to Peace One Day.

The CEO of McDonald's, though, is savvy enough to see through this publicity stunt/attempt to endear Burger King with the "social justice" crowd. He responded to the overture with this letter (my bolds):
Dear Burger King, 
Inspiration for a good cause… great idea. 
We love the intention but think our two brands could do something bigger to make a difference. 
We commit to raise awareness worldwide, perhaps you’ll join us in a meaningful global effort?
And every day, let’s acknowledge that between us there is simply a friendly business competition and certainly not the unequaled circumstances of the real pain and suffering of war.
We’ll be in touch.
-Steve, McDonald’s CEO 
Nice one, Steve.

ESPN Pulls Curt Schilling for Making a Valid Observation

The former major league pitcher, who was offering analysis on the Little League championship for the sports broadcaster, was pulled for retweeting this:
"Only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?"
As we know, it didn't go so well. But you're not allowed to point it out because that somehow amounts to comparing all "Muslims to Nazi-era Germans," and that simply won't do. (The fact that that's not what the tweet is claiming is beside the point, of course.)

A Song for the Silly Election Season

You can blame this one on Mark Steyn:

Anchor baby, slip a passport under the tree
For me.
Then you'll be doin' your job.
Anchor baby, just wait 'til you're born in the U.S.

Anchor baby, seems CNN's upset by the phrase
For days.
It's "racist" and really mean.
Anchor baby, just 'til you're born in the U.S.

Think of life in Mexico;
Think the U.S.A.'s the only place to go.
Any, hey, a border's just a line.
Your folks'll slip across it and be doin' fine.

Anchor baby, there's just one more thing to note--
Your vote.
No doubt you'll opt Democrat.
Anchor baby, so wait 'til you're born in the U.S. ...

The Truth Re the Brits' Claim That Iran Said It Will Adopt a "More Nuanced Approach to Israel"

The truth is that that's a simmering pile of rotting offal.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Go Get On Google: A Guide for Mystified Readers of Go Set a Watchman

(Cross-posted at The Megaphone.)

A good friend bought me Go Set a Watchman for my birthday, and I've been making my way through it - slowly. The reason for the less-than-brisk pace: it isn't so that I can savour the quality of the prose and the turns of phrase: frankly, the prose is no more than serviceable and the turns of phrase are often clichés.

It's just that, this being the first draft of the book which many, many drafts later became To Kill a Mockingbird, and having been written in the mid-‘50s, it contains references to then-current events and examples of then-popular culture which, all these years later, have receded into the mists of time. Quite often, while making my way through the book, I have been stopped dead by a reference to something that was probably clear as day (an example of the sort of cliché Harper Lee uses here) back in 1955 but which in 2015 is entirely cryptic, necessitating a quick trip to Google for clarification.

Thus the most shocking fact about this book is not that it made a sudden reappearance after being hidden away in a drawer lo these many decades. It is that it was released to an unsuspecting, Harper Lee-mad public without any explanatory notes. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, and as a service to readers who come after me, I have taken it upon myself to elucidate a few of the author's mystifying references:

Page 12: Jean Louise declines Henry Clinton's impromptu marriage proposal, telling him:
"I want to be like Dr. Schweitzer and play until I'm thirty."
"He played all right," said Henry grimly.
Explanation:  Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote books and composed music until he was 30. At that age he
answered the call of "The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris" which was looking for a medical doctor. However, the committee of this French Missionary Society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect".[39] He could easily have obtained a place in a German Evangelical mission, but wished to follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned his post and re-entered the University as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of a Doctorate in Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude. He planned to spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labor of healing, rather than through the verbal process of preaching, and believed that this service should be acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching.
I'm not sure why Henry answers in this way. Clearly, Henry's no fan of Schweitzer's "playing"--or of the man himself - but it is not at all clear why this would be so. I assume it has something to do with reasons political and/or religious.

Pages 17-18: When Jean Louise arrives home for a visit - she is now living in New York City - a book called The Strange Case of Alger Hiss is on a music stand in front of his chair. Regarding the book, Atticus comments to his sister Alexandra, who lives with him:
"I don't understand how a man like this can have the brass to give us his views on the Hiss case. It's like Fenimore Cooper writin' the Waverley Novels." 
"Why dear?"   
"He has a childlike faith in the integrity of civil servants and he seems to think Congress corresponds to their aristocracy. No understanding of American politics a-tall."
Explanation: The Strange Case of Alger Hiss, a 1953 book defending the then-alleged Soviet spy and attacking Hiss's accuser, Whittaker Chambers, was written by William Allen Jowitt. Jowitt "was a British Labour politician and lawyer, who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain under Clement Attlee from 1945 to 1951." He was later raised to the peerage, and served in the House of Lords.

James Fenimore Cooper was the American who wrote such distinctly American novels as The Last of the Mohicans. The Waverley novels, a series of books set in Scotland, were written by Sir Walter Scott who was, yes, a Scotsman.

Atticus is making the point that there's no way a foreigner, a member of the British House of Lords, could understand the nuances of the American Hiss episode.

Pages 19-20: Jean Louise's face changes when she makes a sassy comment to her aunt:
...one corner of her mouth was raised dangerously.
When she looked thus, only God and Robert Browning knew what she was likely to say.
Explanation: "Only God and Robert Browning" refers to a line in The Barretts of Wimpole Street, a play that was popular in Watchman times but that is little-performed today.

Page 24: This exchange occurs between Atticus and Jean Louise
"Certainly, Jean Louise, he said suddenly, "how  much of what's going on down here gets into the newspapers?" 
"You mean politics? Well, every time the Governor's indiscreet it hits the tabloids, but beyond that, nothing." 
"I mean the Supreme Court's bid for immortality."...
Explanation: In 1955, the governor of Alabama, where Watchmen, (like Mockingbird) is set, was Jim (a.k.a "Big Jim") Folsom. His "indiscretion:" he got a waitress pregnant and was slapped with a paternity suit, the event that "hit the tabloids."

The "Supreme Court's bid for immorality" was its ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education," which, as it turned out, became very famous, indeed.

Pages 35-36: Jean Louise doesn't like something judgmental her aunt says and this ensues:
Jean Louise saw the glint of gold-rimmed spectacles slung across a sour face looking out from under a crooked wig, the twitter of a bony finger. She said: 
“The question, gentlemen - is one of liquor;
You ask for guidance - this is my reply;
He says, when tipsy, he would thrash and kick her,
Let's make his tipsy, gentlemen, and try!"    
Explanation: Jean Louise is pretending to be the be-wigged judge who sings these lines in Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial By Jury. (I find it hard to believe that, back in 1955, many of Lee's readers would have known their provenance. As for me, I have a glancing acquaintance with G&S, and know a smattering of lines from their more popular works - for example, "I am the very model of a modern major general" - but until I looked it up, I had no idea of Lee's source for this bit of doggerel.)
 
And the "twittering" finger? Unless that, too, is from the operetta, it should have be red penciled by an editor (because, I don't know about you, but I have never heard a finger make such a sound).

Ploughshares (As In "They Shall Beat Their Swords Into Ploughshares"): The Risibly-Named Big Money Outfit Behind the Iran Nuke Deal

Read all about it here.

JPost Article: The Connection Between ISIS and Improved Air Quality in the Middle East

Apparently, there is one. And it's the only good thing you can say about ISIS's otherwise entirely execrable existence.

Not So Much as Another Shekel, Farthing or Plugged Nickel for These Rascals

The UN's nuclear watchpuppy says it needs more moolah--and lots of it--if it is to do a proper job "inspecting" Iran's nuclear sites.

Since this racket is morally bankrupt and utterly worthless, it should receive exactly what I've outlined above.

Monday, August 24, 2015

"The Iranian Threat"

The reason it's in scare quotes is because Noam Chomsky, the author of the HuffPo piece with that title, thinks that America is a far greater threat to world peace than is an Iran empowered with/by nukes.

The Power of Jewish Indignation

Caroline Glick makes an excellent point--when Jews in sufficient numbers stand up to the bullies, the bullies back down.

New York Post Editorial: How Obama Misplays US Sanctions On Iran

Declining to suspend disbelief re Obama's nuke deal claims, the editorial insists that sanctions could still be effective:
US-only financial sanctions carry enough weight by themselves. Half the world’s capital flows through American banks; next to nothing through Iran’s. Tell a German banker — or a Chinese one — that he can do business with only one of the two nations, and he doesn’t really have much choice at all.

Maybe so, but in a bid to build his legacy, Obama has sabotaged the sanctions--permanently.

Or, as songstress Carole King, puts it...

Indefensible: UNRWA's Revolting Jew-Hatred

How can the UN justify one of its agencies generating the following image, an instance of obvious and classic Jew-hate--and in a school for Arab youngsters, yet?

A question that likely will never be dignified with an answer by the nitwit Ban Ki-Moon (link via Honest Reporting).

Screen Shot 2015-08-24 at 12.35.29 AM

Jewish Rapper Tries to Redefine Meaning of "Jihad"

Best o' luck with that one, pal.

Report: Oprah Gives Stalinesque BDSers the Cold Shoulder

If true, good on her for that. Now, if only she'd get a clue re the Palestinian "narrative":
According to the media watchdog CAMERA, in 2005, Winfrey broadcast a TV documentary, “Oprah Takes You Around the World,” which included a short segment about the Arab-Israeli conflict consisting of one image after another of Israelis carrying weapons against unarmed Palestinians, with no reference to terrorism. That same year, Palestinian victimization at the hands of Israel was alleged in the June issue of “O,” in a 10-page feature entitled “Love and Terror” by David France, the last article of a five-part series on “rescuing the world’s girls.” The article focused on Palestinian grievances against Israel, with no mention of the Israeli victims of Palestinian terror attacks.
That was ten years ago, though. Maybe her push-back against the BDSers indicates that she has smartened up some.

Hardly a "Concentration Camp," Is It?

Gaza Strip’s middle class enjoys spin classes, fine dining, private beaches

Update: Speaking about spin, here's some.

ISIS Pulverizes Ancient Temple in Palmyra

The structure had withstood the vicissitudes of 2,000 years before the jihadi wack jobs got their hands on it.

Burma Shaved

The Obama administration's one and only foreign policy success--Burma--is no more. Obama had used the Burma model in making overtures to Iran and Cuba. As Michael Rubin points out, however,
Alas, Burma’s openness has not lasted. Indeed, had the Obama administration waited to see the success of its formula in Burma, it might have been less enthusiastic to lift sanctions and rush blindly into engagement absent leverage with both Iran and Cuba.
It might have been more hesitant to pursue a relationship with Iran and Cuba--but I think Obama would have barreled ahead with those plans no matter what.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Invited Back to Music Festival in Spain, A Defiant Matisyahu Sings a Song About Jerusalem to the Hostile Horde

This, I suggest, is the definition of courage--a breezy in-you-face defiance when confronted by a sea of hate (h/t: MW):
Far from boycotting the reggae artist’s gig, the “hate Israel” crowd showed up en masse. And they came bearing flags, immense Palestinian flags, which they waved with gusto from every corner of the 20,000-strong crowd. 
As Matisyahu took the mike and looked out to the audience, he was presented with an unmistakably hostile message. It was clear that those who sought to have him banished stood before him in protest. Then the catcalls started, with some chanting, “out, out.” It might easily have been unnerving, disorienting. 
But then he began to sing about Jerusalem. 
“Jerusalem, if I forget you, fire not gonna come from me tongue. Jerusalem, if I forget you, let my right hand forget what it’s supposed to do.” 
And then, as he bounced and twirled around the stage, the most defiant lyrics of all: “3, 000 years with no place to be, and they want me to give up my milk and honey.” 
“Tonight was difficult but special,” he later posted on Facebook, along with a clip of the performance.
Even more special than you think, Matisyahu.

Is North Korea Helping Iran With Its Nukes, and Is Obama Keeping Mum About It?

Claudia Rosett doesn't know for sure, but she thinks there's a definite possibility that the answer to both could be "yes."

Wanna Know Why The Moroccan Train Terrorist Was Able to Move Around Europe So Easily?

He benefited from the EU's Schengen treaty, an agreement which did away with border security and passport checks.

To employ the appropriate Yiddish word, the Schengen treaty has turned Europeans into a bunch of schmegeggies.



Update: Terror attack on train puts spotlight on Schengen

CNN's Revises History in Doc Exploring Terrorism in The Seventies

Yesterday, I started watching this CNN doc on terrorism in the 1970s, part of CNN's Tom Hanks-produced series The Seventies. I had to stop, though, when the "explanation" (apologia, really) re why Palestinians hijacked airplanes in that decade made me want to hurl.

According to the doc (which was first broadcast last month, but which I watched using my cable TV "Demand" feature), Palestinians had little recourse but to act in this way because no one was paying attention to their "cause"--how they'd been "occupied" for so long by Israel.

The doc's revisionist takeaway: boo, Israel, for bringing this terrorism upon itself via its own "unjust" policies--and let's give those "oppressed" Palestinians a pass.

Israel's Former Defense Minister Ehud Barak Blabs About Scuppered Plans to Attack Iran

Can't keep your big mouth shut, can you, Ehud?

Latest Euphemism for the Global Jihad

It's a "broader framework."

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Looking At the Iran Nuke Deal Through Anne Frank's Eyes

I have to admit it never occurred to me to do so, but then, unlike Roger L. Simon, I don't happen to be in Amsterdam visiting Anne's House (a shrine often visited by people who despise Israel but who are quite prepared to shed copious crocodile tears for a dead Jewish teenager). Being on the scene inspired Simon to write this:
I wondered what Anne would have thought of this, seventy years out from her death in 1945, all those tourists waiting to weep over her short life, while in today’s world Barack Obama, John Kerry and Wendy Sherman acquiesce to what could become a second Holocaust, and a more immediate one at that. 
The irony that two of these people have Jewish roots would not be lost on her.  Sherman is the daughter of a prominent Jewish family in upstate New York, a former social worker and a graduate of Smith.  She is also the “negotiating genius” behind the nuclear weapons deal with North Korea that left the NORKs armed to the atomic teeth.  You would think that with such a “success” they would have chosen someone different.  But perhaps it was always intended to be this way.
Kerry is, of course, that great “Zionist” who suddenly discovered his Jewish roots when they were exposed to him by a Boston newspaper while he was running for the Senate.  Until then, I guess you could call him Yale’s least curious graduate.   
Is it too extreme to say that Ann knew these types from Auschwitz, where she was transported in 1944, the sonderkommandos and kapos that cooperated with the Nazis in the extermination of their fellow Jews?  I’m sure Sherman and Kerry would recoil at the thought. But not the Ayatollah Khamenei to whose benefit all of their so-called negotiations accrued. 
As for Barack Obama, the less said the better.  This man thinks he knows what’s best for all of us under any conditions.  But those of us who grew up in the Jewish tradition, almost no matter how secular, should recognize Haman when we see him.
Sadly, most American Jews are too invested in their leftist Messiah to recognize the pure evil in his heart.

Snoresville: Revered, Unread Bore Margaret Atwood Whinges About Hair and "Duffygate" in the NatPo

Atwood's, er, observations, which take the Conservatives to task for pointing out how shiny and bouncy Justin Trudeau's hair is, tries (and fails) to gin up the story into some sort of Watergate clone. Moreover, her hyperventilations bear all the classic signs not only of Harper Derangement Syndrome but of an even broader and longer-lasting ailment--Tory Derangement Syndrome. Hence, this wacky commentary:
Will the Conservatives now lay off the personal-appearance attack stuff? Doubtful: they've got a thing for it. Jean Chretien's paralyzed face, laugh a minute! Trudeau's hair, woo-woo! Who's next? "Nice tits," Elizabeth?"
I must say, compared to most of Atwood's prose, that bit is at least somewhat lively (although I wouldn't submit it for consideration to the Nobel literary prize people).

Update: Oh look--Atwood's do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do piece (she criticizes the Conservatives for mentioning Justin's hair and then goes on to make fun of Stephen Harper's mane) has occasioned a spot of bother in hyperspace. What fun! (And BTW, Margaret, your 'fro has got to go.)

Iranian Official Spills the Beans Re Iran's Plans for "Israelis": It Wants to Get Rid of 'Em All

That makes Iran's form of Jew-hate Nazi to the max in that it is both eliminationist and redemptive (the latter being historian Saul Friedlander's way of describing Hitler's idea that his killing all the Jews would "redeem" the planet from their awful, all-powerful clutches). (Hat tip: MW.)

Friday, August 21, 2015

Funny, He Doesn't Look Jewish

The movie Shaun the Sheep "charmingly wrestles with one of Jewish theology's thorniest questions."

Just Shoot Me

Jews still leaning Democrat

Netanyahu: "The States Rushing to Embrace Iran Should Know Than an Iranian Commander Gave the Cell Orders to Fire at Israel"

He's talking to you, David Cameron.

Bloviating Local Khomeinist Zafar Bangash 'Splains the Implications of That Nuke Deal

Zion-despising Zafar thinks it's aces (which should give everyone pause for thought):
Beyond the hitches, what the agreement signifies is that the world has been forced to recognize Islamic Iran as a regional power. Its rights to enrich uranium and to carry out research are included in the agreement. Even the American Secretary of State John Kerry admitted that sanctions had little effect on Iran’s economy and that its nuclear program had advanced much further despite them. Any visitor to Tehran would also have confirmed that far from being cowed by sanctions, Islamic Iran has made major strides in virtually all fields. It has not been brought to its knees as were countries like Libya and Iraq.

So the question we must ask is: how has Islamic Iran withstood these pressures when others buckled? The first and foremost point is that Iran has muttaqi leadership that is not seeking personal or group interest but follows the pristine principles of Islam. Second, the overwhelming majority of masses have been solidly supportive of the Islamic Revolution. When the masses are with the Islamic system, no power can subvert it. By entering into this agreement with Iran, the P5+1 group of countries as well as the European Union have admitted this reality.

The leadership of the Islamic Republic must guard against the greedy powers undermining Iran’s indigenous industries developed under difficult circumstances during sanctions. Local products must be protected even as the Islamic Republic welcomes foreign investment and goods. The greatest danger is in the cultural field: the West’s hedonistic culture must not be allowed to undermine Islamic values in the only Islamic state in the world today, “O you who have made a firm commitment to Allah! If you help [the cause of Allah], He will help you and will make firm your steps…” (47:07).
If Bangash is so concerned about the West's hedonistic culture, what's he doing living here, just north of Toronto? I am sure there are more who'd be willing to take up a collection to buy him a plane ticket so he could leave this wicked place and take up permanent residency in Iran.

FYI, Bangash's thoughts are decorated with this, ahem, artwork:
implications-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal-5054-articles.html      
Notice who's pulling the strings. (Funny, but I think that's a clear-cut case of hate speech--though not, of course, the sort that would ever be prosecuted.)

The obvious question: if the Jooos were pulling the strings, why didn't they arrange it so their puppets got a better deal?