Duncan, hailed by Obama as a reformer, said he would like to take the lessons he learned in Chicago with him when he moves to Washington. “I'm also eager to apply some of the lessons we have learned here in Chicago to help school districts all across our country," Duncan said after Obama formally named him to the job in Chicago.
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Story Of Chanukah
Chanukah, the Festival of Lights begins this Saturday night. Several of the members of Joshua's Army have requested some background on the story of Chanukah. Here goes...
Chanukah celebrates one of the important miracles in Jewish history and reminds us of the triumph of faith. It takes place every year in mid to late December. While its date varies if you go by the western calendar, in the Hebrew calendar Chanukah always falls on the 25th day of Kislev.
Chanukah celebrates the Jewish war for independence in the second century B.C. E. The story is told in the First Book of Maccabees, and retold in the Second Book of Maccabees. A contemporary military history of the war can be found in Battles of the Bible, coauthored by Chaim Herzog and Mordechai Gichon.
After his death, Alexander the Great's empire broke into several parts, and Israel was under the control of the Seleucid empire, based in Syria. Israel had lived peacefully under the Persian Empire and under the Ptolemic empire (of Egypt), both which tolerated Judaism; but the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus Epiphanes was an arrogant, bigoted Hellenizer, who attempted to force the Jews to abandon their religion and to adopt Greek customs and worship.
There were those Jews who considered themselves `modern' and `assimilated' who were willing to go along with this, even to the extent of having surgical operations to reverse circumcision.
Others did not, and they were prosecuted vigorously and brutalized by the Greeks.
The start of the Maccabean Revolt sprang from a single spontaneous act of resistance. In the foothills village of Modiin in 167BCE, a Greek army unit set up an altar, and ordered the local Jewish rabbi, Mattathias, to sacrifice a pig and eat it. He refused, as did his five sons. When a Jewish collaborator came forward to offer the sacrifice, a furious Mattathias "ran and killed him on the spot, killed the king's officer who was forcing them to sacrifice, and tore down the altar" (1 Mac. 2:15-25).
Mattathias, his sons and their followers then headed for the Judean hills, to launch a guerilla war. They were farmers who had no military training, fighting a professional army. There had not been a Jewish army since Babylon had destroyed the Judean kingdom four centuries before. Their only weapons were farming tools and whatever simple weapons they could construct, such as maces, bows and arrows and slings. During this first year, Mattathias died, and his middle son Judah took over command as his successor.
Nicknamed "the hammer" ("Maccabee," in Hebrew), Judah constructed a guerilla army that staged daring nighttime raids on the Greek outposts, then melted back into the countryside. His successes attracted more supporters, and the revolt spread.The war went on for 25 years, one of the most singular wars for independence in history. The miracle, perhaps is that it was fought at all, let alone won.
The Seleucids and Antiochus sent huge, well equipped armies into Israel to subdue the Jews. They were all defeated, at odds that seem miraculous even today. Judah Maccabee turned out to be a tactical genius, using unheard of tactics, leading the Greek phalanxes into the hills where they could not maneuver and destroying them.
In 164 BCE, the Jews defeated a force comanded by the Viceroy Lysias that outnumbered them two to one. That battle took place six miles north of Hebron, near the Jewish fortress of Beth-zur. The victory allowed Judah and his army to retake Jerusalem.
When they entered Jerusalem, Judah and his followers entered the Holy Temple on the Temple Mount. The Temple had been wrecked and horribly desecrated, with profanities scrawled on the walls and the Ark by the Seleucids.
The Maccabees built a new altar. When the time came to light the N'er Tamid, the Eternal Light of the Temple, the Jews could find only one sanctified jar of oil marked with the seal of the High Priest. It was only enough to last one evening. On the 25th of Kislev, in the year 164 BCE,the lamp was lit with this small jar of oil and, miraculously, stayed lit for eight days, until more oil suitable for the temple was made. The eight days of Hanukkah celebrate that miracle, as well as the divine intervention that had led the Jews to amazing victories over well-equipped professional armies far superior in numbers. "Therefore, carrying ivy-wreathed wants and beautiful branches and also fronds of palm, they offered hymns of thanksgiving to him who had given success to the purifying of his own holy place" (2 Mac. 10:7).
The war itself continued. In 160 BCE, near modern-day Ramallah, Judah was killed, but Judah's brother Jonathan, and then his brother Simon took command of the Jewish army, finally winning complete independence in 142 BCE. At last, "All the people sat under their own vines and fig trees, and there was none to make them afraid" (1 Mac. 14:12.).
Towards the end of the war, Antiochus and the Seleucids became so obsessed with defeating the Jews that they sacked their own cities and sold their own citizens into slavery to get money to pursue the war against the Jews.
The War of the Maccabees was the first war ever fought for religious freedom. Somehow, a group of farmers with no military training who refused to bow to their oppressors defeated a mighty empire and its immense standing armies. There seems to be no plausible explanation for the victory of the Jews except that it was a miracle.
Chanukah reminds us that with G-d's help, victory over evil is assured and no miracle is impossible. Modern Israel and the survival of the Jewish people against all odds are proof of that.
Symbols in Chanukah
Aside from the Hanukkiah (candlesticks), the other great symbol of Chanukah are those small spinning tops known as dreidels.
The four letters which appear on the four corners of a dreidel allude to the miracle of Chanukah. They spell out: Nes (N-miracle), Gadol (G-great), Haya (H-happened) and Sham (S-there, meaning in Israel). Or, `a great miracle happened there.'
Indeed it did.
Chag Sameach! Happy Chanukah!Watcher's Council Results, 12/19/08
The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.
Among the Council members, the winner this week was Bookworm Room for Selfish is as selfish does
In second place we had Mere Rhetoric with Obama: Since We All Know That Engagement With Iran Won’t Work, How About A US Nuclear Umbrella For Israel?
Also getting votes was The Glittering Eye for The Ministry of Silly Suggestions, Soccer Dad for Falk - moonbattery a feature not a bug , and Joshuapundit for Newsweak Shills For Same Sex Marriage - In It’s Religion Section!
Among the non-Council entries, the winner was the always interesting Fjordman in The Brussels Journal for On Deconstructing the Majority: Nothing To Do With Islam? Really?
In second place was my nominee, Council Alumnus ShrinkWrapped withSome Disparate Dots
As usual, congratulations not only to the winners, but to all the participants.
', '
', 'Climate Crisis = Logic Crisis
Blogpal Larrey Anderson over at American Thinker has a unique take on the global warming catfight that brings things very much into focus, especially when the country is experiencing record low temps...Al Gore is right! Sort of. The current debate over climate change is over. At least, it is over in terms of a logical and unbiased inquiry.
The debate over "climate change" is no longer a matter of science. In the past forty years, the proponents of "climate change" have written and rewritten their hypotheses to fit the empirical facts. In logic this is sometimes called "The fallacy of saving the hypothesis." There is no honest discussion when the topic of a debate is constantly controlled, and occasionally altered, by the proponents of one side of the argument. Climate change proponents have been doing this for years.
I distinctly remember the first time I had an argument with someone about "climate change." It was a warm spring day in April of 1975. I was walking across the campus at Harvard headed for lunch. A fellow classmate (we were both juniors) ran up to me. He was really excited. He hollered out:
"Have you heard? The ice age is coming. They've proven it with computer studies at MIT."
"How did they prove that there is an ice age coming with computers?" I asked my friend.
"The planet is getting colder. They have the data. And it is going to keep getting colder. They have these computer models --"
I stopped him right there. I knew enough about computers to understand that they were not up to accurately predicting short-term weather patterns -- let alone an ice age.
"No way. Computers aren't that powerful. "
"But they have the data and they have computers!"
"I know they do. But computers spit out whatever they are programmed to spit out. Load a computer with the data that the world has been getting colder; ask it what the weather will be tomorrow, and what do you think the computer is going to tell you? The world is getting hotter? If it does you'd better get a better computer. You hungry?" I replied and I continued on my way to lunch.
Read it all here...Thursday, December 18, 2008
Obama's New Secretary of Education - Chicago Rools
Barack Obama named Arne Duncan as his pick for Secretary of Education today.Duncan's headed the Chicago School District since 2001.
His record, of couse, speaks for itself :
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report for 2007, Chicago public schools have consistently performed below the national average during Duncan’s tenure.
The report measures students at the fourth and eighth grade levels in the subjects of reading, math, science, and writing, and ranks them at below basic, basic, proficient, or advanced levels.
Students in eighth grade are those most likely to have been in the Chicago system for a majority of Duncan’s tenure. CNSNews.com used the scores for these students to best determine the results of Duncan’s administration.
By 2007, only 17 percent of Chicago eighth graders were at or above grade level in reading. Thirteen percent scored at or above grade level in math. Twenty-three percent scored at or above grade level in writing.
By 2005, the only year Chicago participated in the NEAP assessment program, 16 percent of eighth grade students were at or above grade level in science.
In 2007, 29 percent of eighth grade students scored at or above grade-level in reading, 31 percent in math, and 31 percent in writing. In 2005, 27 percent of eighth grade students were at or above grade level in science.
Students in eighth grade are those most likely to have been in the Chicago system for a majority of Duncan’s tenure. CNSNews.com used the scores for these students to best determine the results of Duncan’s administration.
By 2007, only 17 percent of Chicago eighth graders were at or above grade level in reading. Thirteen percent scored at or above grade level in math. Twenty-three percent scored at or above grade level in writing.
By 2005, the only year Chicago participated in the NEAP assessment program, 16 percent of eighth grade students were at or above grade level in science.
That's some record of reform, Bubba!
Chicago has the third largest school district in the US, and they're well funded,with a budget for 2007-2008 was $4.6 billion. They're also near the top in money spent per pupil, at $10,555 per.
Incidentally, the school district that spends the most per pupil is Washington DC...who also have the lowest test scores in the country.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that Obama would name someone like Duncan to do to the nation's schools what he did so well in Chicago.
Not that the Obamas are going to be personally affected by any of that. Their kids went to exclusive private schools in Chicago, just as they will in DC.For that matter so do the vast majority of public school teachers and administrators do.For that matter,it's what I've done with my own children.
Of course,anyone truly interested in reforming education would provide vouchers so that working parents could abandon dysfunctional schools and take advantage of superior schools like the Obamas do. But we can't have that now,can we?
As long as the teacher's unions are appeased, that's all that matters..and if that means that the little buggers get an inferior education, tough tamales.
Simply shameless.
', 'Throwing Stones - Rick Warren And The Inauguration
As you can imagine, that announcement infuriated homosexual lobby groups throughout the country, who strongly supported the Chosen one during the campaign an dare now wailing about feeling abandoned:“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote to Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination. {...}
“It’s a huge mistake,” said California gay rights activist Rick Jacobs, who chairs {California's} Courage Campaign. “He’s really the wrong person to lead the president into office.
Can you imagine if he had a man of God doing the invocation who had deliberately said that Jews are not going to be saved and therefore should be excluded from what’s going on in America? People would be up in arms,” he said.
(Having heard how evil the Jooos were from Reverend Wright for twenty years, Obama probably has had his fill of that particular message by now...ff)
The editor of the Washington Blade, Kevin Naff, called the choice “Obama’s first big mistake.”
“His presence on the inauguration stand is a slap in the faces of the millions of GLBT voters who so enthusiastically supported him,” Naff wrote, referring to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. “This tone-deafness to our concerns must not be tolerated. We have just endured eight years of endless assaults on our dignity and equality from a president beholden to bigoted conservative Christians. The election was supposed to have ended that era. It appears otherwise.”
Even more interesting to me was the opposition by a number of conservatives, some of whom felt it was hypocritical for a pro-Life Pastor to appear at the inauguration of a pro-abortion politician.
Given that Obama's stance on this issue is essentially infanticide on demand even if the kid manages to survive the attempt, I can certainly see their side of things.
HOWEVER....let's take a breath and calm down, shall we?
Obama made a commendable political decision to appear to reach out to Evangelicals. Notice I said 'appear to' as I doubt the Obama administration will actually do anything or pass any legislation along those lines...but it's nice that he decided to try a little fencemending. This may be a message to the gay lobby that a great many people don't hate you but are not at all happy with your agenda and endless self-victimization. Perhaps a little less stridency and a bit more listening might be beneficial.
And for the Right here's something .The inaugural invocation is a prayer for the well-being of the country and the success of the incoming president. For various reasons, I have very little respect for Obama the man, but a great deal of respect for Obama as president..and seriously, is there any one of you who doesn't hope he surprises all of us and does superbly well as president?
As they say in the military, you salute the uniform, not the man.
Take the inauguration for what it is... our four-year ritual that celebrates that once again in America, we have managed to survive as a democracy. That's all it is, so let Obama ask whomever he wants to his particular party.
The more important stuff will come afterwards.
', 'Joe The Plumber's Ohio Government Snoopstress Resigns
Helen Jones-Kelley, Ohio's Director of Department of Job and Family Services, has quit, along with two others in her department who were involved in digging through Joe the Plumber's confidential information during the election.
I assume this was a resignation in lieu of termination...Helen Jones-Kelley, the state official placed on unpaid leave for improperly accessing confidential information from state databases on “Joe the Plumber,” has resigned.
Two senior managers at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services who were involved in the incident also are being ousted, The Dispatch has learned.
In a four-paragraph statement, she said, "it is with sadness and clarity that I have decided to resign...This decision comes after having a time of pause, in which I realize that I continue to be used as a political postscript, providing a distraction from urgent state priorities.
"My professional career, and the legacy of service I have established, has been, and continues to be, far too important for me to allow my reputation and my commitment as a servant leader to be disparaged. I also remain concerned for the safety of my family and myself."
Always the victim, right? Too bad Jones-Kelly didn't show the same consideration or concern for Joe the Plumber's privacy and reputation.
I wouldn't be surprised one bit to see her wind up working in the Obama administration somewhere, loyal soldier that she is.Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Bush , Condi And The UN Combine To Screw Israel One More Time
Not content with almost the entire Middle East being a Jew-free zone, the UN, with the connivance of the US and Russia have come out with a resolution designed to try to kick the Jews out of what's left.
The UN Security Council approved a resolution Tuesday that essentially endorsed the Saudi 'peace' ultimatum, called for a second Arab Palestinian state and attempted to cement that stance in stone. The vote was 14 to 0, with Libya abstaining because the resolution insufficiently condemned Israel.
Resolution 1850 notes positively the Annapolis gang rape of Israel, embraces the 'land for peace' formula and calls for 'irreversible progress' towards it goal where `two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognized borders.'
Of course, no one at the UN would ever dare suggest that the Arabs give up so much as a square dunam of the vast lands they possess for a Palestinian state...even though they caused the refugee situation in the first place by attacking Israel in 1948, in violation of the UN charter.
It further calls for "that lasting peace can only be based on an enduring commitment to mutual recognition, freedom from violence, incitement, and terror, and the two-State solution, building upon previous agreements and obligations..."
Let's translate this from NewSpeak into plain English.
As far as violence, incitement and terrorist attacks go, the Palestinianshave never stopped them since Oslo, and aren't going to stop them now. As recently as a month ago, Arafat II Abbas was saying that if thePalestinians didn't get absolutely everything they want, he was going toorder a new jihad on Israel's civilians, with all those US arms Israeli Prime minister Olmert allowed the Bush Administration to supply Fatah with. And it's hardly the first time.
And for the Palestinian's attitude on incitement, all one needs to do is look at those famous Fatah summer camps that teach young children to hate and kill Jews, listen to the Fatah run media or look at what's being taught in Fatah's classrooms, with their maps of 'Palestine' that omit Israel. They have absolutely no intention of accepting Israel as a Jewish state, and they've made that crystal clear, ever since Arafat went on Jordanian TV after signing Oslo and famously said that either the Jews would push them into the sea or they would push the Jews into the sea.
In fact the Palestinians,like the other Arab states have made it clear that unless they get absolutely everything they want, there's no deal.
What they want is this, and it's not subject to negotiation; the Israelis give up all of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), including land legally purchased from the Arabs via the Jewish National Fund. The Israelis also give up half of Jerusalem, which means that Jews will be denied access to their holiest sites and will have to watch their religious shrines desecrated by the triumphant Arabs, just as they were prior to 1967.
Then, having made thousands of their own citizens homeless, given up half of their capitol and having retreated to indefensible borders, Israel allows itself to be flooded by thousands of genocidal Arab `refugees' and their descendants.In exchange for committing what amounts to national suicide, the Jews of Israel get nothing but an ill-defined guarantee of `recognition' and peace from the Arabs.
That 'recognition' will last for as long as a truncated weakenedIsrael manages to survive, and the `peace' will be the peace of the cemetery.That's the choice the Arabs are giving Israel, and that's what the UN just endorsed, with the willing help of George W. Bush and CondiRice.
And, I might add, the willing help of Israeli quislings Ehud Olmert andTzipi Livni, both of whom welcomed the resolution.
In truth, there's not a whole lot they could have done practically anyway once Condi and Russian foreign minister Serge Lavrov got together in a back room and cooked this up. Like the Roadmap, the current Resolution was concocted with a great deal of Arab participation, but without any input from a Jew or an Israeli. Israel is the only UN member prohibited from being on the Security Council, even in one of the rotating seats.
But to welcome it?
The only saving grace of this foul sellout is that it's not a binding resolution, so a new Israeli government can toss this in the garbage where it belongs. But the message is quite clear. Israel is expendable, and they had better look for some new friends.
The question is...once the West accedes to giving the Arabs the Jews, who will be next?
', 'US Nuclear Mole Who Stole Secrets For Iran Sentenced
Apparently Alawi was planning to relocate permanently in Iran, where he's invested substantial money in an Iranian company and owns a house. And in Iran, that's a substantial investment, since the conceot of mortgages as we know them doesn't exist. He returned to the US to be with his wife who had just given birth, and according to the feds, this unemployed engineer deposited $98,000 into a U.S. bank account upon his return.
The good news is that he was caught. The bad, almost mind bogling news?He wasn't charged with espionage.
No, Alawi was convicted of violating the US/Iran trade embargo, which prohibits Americans from exporting goods and services to Iran. His sentences? Two terms of fifteen months each, which the judge is nice enough to let him serve concurrently.
No deportation, no long term incarceration, not even a fine to deprive him of the wealth he sold his adopted country for. He'll be out in a year with good behavior. And would you like to bet that he'll either run back to Iran or find new employment in America's nuclear industry?
Un-freaking-believable.
Saturday, 20 December 2008
President-elect Barack Obama's choice for the inaugural invocation is none other than Saddleback Church's Pastor Rick Warren, an evangelical who is pro-life and opposes gay marriage.')" onmouseout="addthis_close()" onclick="return addthis_to()" class="snap_noshots" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 204); ">
Some of you may recall an article I wrote in 2007 about the arrest ofMohammed Reza Alavi, a naturalized US citizen from Iran who was a former engineer at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. He illegally took software codes, downloaded details of control rooms, reactors and designs of the nation's biggest nuclear plant on his personal laptop. Then he suddenly 'resigned' from his job at Palo Verde, returned to Iran and sold them to the Iranian government.
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