Monday, March 09, 2009
Hey, It's Purim!!
And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword....And the Lord said unto Moses, "Write this for a memorial in the book and tell it unto the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven..the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."- Exodus 17:14
That's the way the Big Boys talked in the old days,when conversations with the Lord were commonplace and Amalek and his pals were freely labeled as the rabid dogs they were for picking off stragglers and attacking and killing Jews out of hand just for the pure sport and profit of it as the Jews moved through the desert after leaving Pharaoh's Egypt. No illusions there...you have to defeat evil, not negotiate with it. G-d said so,and He most likely knew what He was talking about.In any event He'd been right enough times so that Moses, Aaron and Joshua weren't about to argue the point.They defeated Amalek and then proceeded on their way in peace.
Nowadays, the UN would be thumping for a state for Amalek and shrugging off the murder of Jewish women and children as 'resistance'. For that matter,the curren toccupant of the White House and his secretary of state would be leading the charge for an Amalek-stan, and giving them millions in foreign aid while warning the Jews against a 'disproportionate response.'
Note another thing about the above passage...it says there will be war with Amalek from generation to generation,and gives the Jews the responsibility of fighting in that war to defeat evil wherever it rears its ugly head.
The Jews commemorate one victory over a latter day manifestation of Amalek tonight when they celebrate Purim, the victory of Queen Esther and Mordecai over the evil Haman, who tried to manipulate the King of Persia into signing on to the murder, enslavement and plunder of every Jew in Persia.
The Megillah, which is read in every synagogue in the world at Purim relates how Queen Esther,wife of the king could have reacted the way a great many people would have, by simply pretending that what was going on didn't concern her,and rationalizing it. Instead, she realized that a threat to her people was a threat to her, even as high up and removed as the King's palace. She took the commandment to battle Amalek to heart and risked her life and position to defeat Haman and his evil allies and, along with her brother Mordecai, lead her people to victory.
Purim is preceeded by a fast in honor of Esther, and then, it's party time.Many Jews observe the custom of sending a special basket of goodies to friends and family, the megillah reading is a noisy and joyous affair especially loved by children, celebrations and costumes abound, and even a bit of liquid libation is quite common..
Think of it a sort of like the Jewish equivalent of carnival.
As far as I'm concerned, Purim may have special meaning for the Jews, but it ought to belong to the whole world. It'a a joyous fete celebrating the triumph over evil.
And I'll let my pal Yakov at Dry Bones let you in on a little something, the hidden joke of the whole holiday:
Purim Sameach!What's The Going Price for An Idiotic, Self-Hating Quisling These Days?
And of course, I mean to ask the question of none other than the New York Time's Roger Cohen.
Last week's brilliance from Cohen concerned how good them Jooos have it in Iran a column that anyone with any actual knowledge and experience with this subject let him know that was absolute horse manure.It reallydoesn't take much intelligence to figure out that a New York Times columnist going to a dictatorship like Iran and meeting some of the locals under government supervision is not exactly going to get the real story, does it?
This week, he surpasses even that idiocy. Looking at the UK's overtures towards Hezbollah, he likes the idea of the west interacting with genocidal terrorists and says that the US should follow this lead and deal directly with Hamas and Hezbollah...and never mind about those nasty little sticking points of call for the extermination of Israel, or in the case of Hamas, of Jews worldwide:The 1988 Hamas Charter is vile, but I think it’s wrong to get hung up on the prior recognition of Israel issue. Perhaps Hamas is sincere in its calls for Israel’s disappearance — although it has offered a decades-long truce — but then it’s also possible that Israel in reality has no desire to see a Palestinian state.
One view of Israel’s continued expansion of settlements, Gaza blockade, West Bank walling-in and wanton recourse to high-tech force would be that it’s designed precisely to bludgeon, undermine and humiliate the Palestinian people until their dreams of statehood and dignity evaporate.
The argument over recognition is in the end a form of evasion designed to perpetuate the conflict.
It's hard to read this garbage with anything like a serious intent- 'perhapsHamas is sincere in it's call for Israel's disappearance'? Whatever would have made this idiot think they weren't? And it's not just Israel by the way, Roger ol' chum - it's all Jews worldwide. Curiously apropos for today's Purim celebration... like Mordecai told Queen Esther, don't think that if the Jews are destroyed that you're somehow going to miss the barbecue.
And that decades long truce - it was a temporary ceasefire, and oneHamas never adhered to in the slightest. And just why would you believe people with genocide in mind would bother over a little thing like keeping their word to a bunch of non-believers? Why would he expect 'negotiations' to succeed when one side doesn't even recognize the others' right to exist?
The bit about blaming the the so-called settlements for the lack of peace is especially ludicrous. I suppose the war Arafat launched against Israel's civilians had nothing to do with it? Does Cohen actually think the blockade of Gaza would exist if Hamas wasn't a bunch of genocidal maniacs and they weren't launching rockets at Israel? And as far as the Jewish communities that exist in land the Palestinians claim they want as a state...why does it matter which side of a border Jews live on unless thePalestinian's intention really are genocidal? If the Palestinians are serious about peace why would Jews in 'Palestine' be in any more danger than the Arabs who live in Israel? And if the Arabs are unable to live next to Jews peacefully are why should Israel give them another dunam of land or a single concession?
I won't bother with the rest of Cohen's crap..it's just too stupid and betrays a total ignorance of the Middle East and it's history. Unfortunately, his viewpoint likely coincides with that of the Obama Administration.
So we return to my original question...exactly where did they find Roger Cohen? Did they run a classified for a suicidal anti-Israel jihad friendly Jew? Or was he already someone they knew would fit their requirements?
I'm guessing the latter. In any case, it amazes me what you can buy for a little money and recognition these days.
', '
Are You A Socialist, Obama? Well A-Hum-Ah, Uh.. No...
"It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question," he told reporters, who had interviewed the president aboard Air Force One on Friday.
Opening the unusual presidential call to reporters by saying that there was "just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter," he said it wasn't he who started the federal government's intervention into the nation's financial system.
"I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement -– the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding. And so I think it’s important just to note when you start hearing folks throw these words around that we’ve actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word 'socialist' around can’t say the same."
The New York Times asked, "So whose watch are we talking about here?" but Obama wouldn't name names.
"Well, I just think it’s clear by the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The fact that we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis."
He concluded the brief call by saying, "I think that covers it."
The phone call came after the president was asked aboard his plane: "Are you a socialist as some people have suggested?"
He was clear in his first answer: "You know, let’s take a look at the budget – the answer would be no."
"Is there anything wrong with saying, 'Yes'?" a Times reporter pressed.
"Let’s just take a look at what we’ve done," Obama said, ticking off efforts his administration has made to stabilize the economy. But he acknowledged that, as he told Joe the Plumber, he plans to try to spread the wealth around.
As you listen to the audio, it's obvious the Chosen One is winging this one without his teleprompter, which gives him a distinct air of...disbelivability, just slinging it out there in hopes it will fly. And you'll note that he didn't provide any specifics on why he wouldn't be regarded as a socialist.
And when the question that was asked 'who's watch is it' he ducked it.
Can't blame Bush forever, Mister President. The chickens gotta come home to roost sometime.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Our president apparently found time in his busy schedule to call a bunch of reporters to obsess about a question that was asked of him by the New York Times, no less.Are you a socialist?:
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