Kill The Buddha
Reacting to the new blog Guruphiliac, which criticizes cult groups and false gurus, Douglas Rushkoff offers a treatise on anti-Tzaddikism.
Filed under
Fiscal Fascists
Some Republican fat cats are trying to prevent billionaire Jewish philanthropist George Soros from purchasing the Washington National’s baseball team because of his liberal politics.
Sounds like a free market to me.
So uh, how you likin’ galut these days?
Filed under
Captivating Leadership
An AP photograph from 1979 reveals the startling identity of Iran’s new president.
***
In related news, AFP reports,
Perplexed by the vitriol of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s attacks on Iran, one lawmaker believes he has uncovered the secret of her enmity — that she was spurned by an Iranian boyfriend at college.“The reason that the US secretary of state attacks Iran is because she had her heart broken by a young man from Qazvin while they were students,” a confident Shokrollah Attarzadeh was quoted by the ISNA agency as saying.
Filed under
Hitler: Sex Doll Pioneer
Ynet reports,
The Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler ordered, in 1941, a Danish doctor named Olen Hannussen, to develop the world’s first inflatable sex doll, the Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera’ reported on Monday.The doll was went meant to serve the sexual needs of the German fighting man, who might otherwise go to brothels and contract a sexual transmitted disease – or worse, have sex with non-Aryan women and thus pollute the race.
Filed under
IDF Raids Gaza Hotel
Looks like the party’s over for the Kachniks squatting the Palm Beach Hotel. The IDF raided the place about an hour ago, and the Strip has now been officially closed off to non-residents.
Filed under
Atheist Summer Camp
Very amusing Times article about Camp Quest, a place for the children of atheist, agnostic and secular families who, “face more than their share of bigotry.” Is that true? Are irreligious people discriminated against and actually need to organize their own gig to get a piece of mind? Anyway, what I kept thinking about was this: can atheism as an organized educational movement really be non-dogmatic, like it should be? You start off with kiddie skits about evolution, next thing you know you’re holding hands and chanting something new agey about Darwin, maybe throw in a ritual or two, etc.etc. But the most ironic thing is that it seems like the subject of god (albeit in questioning) is broached there waaay more than at certain shabbat dinners I’ve been to.
Oh, and of course, half of the people mentioned in the article (campers, organizers) happened to have Jewish last names.
Personally, I’m planning to open a Chassidish Nihilist daycare, if anybody is game, let me know.
Filed under
Filed under
Trading Places
Kachnik settler converts to Islam. Palestinian from Gaza converts to Judaism, joins IDF. I see a blockbuster comedy waiting to happen.
So, um, Dave, about that last remark…
Filed under
Filed under
Jewish Social Action Month
KolDor conference plans Cheshvan “Jewish Social Action Month” and several other important and valuable initiatives such as global jewish radio and the Babylon project. Full Story.
Filed under
Spread The Love: Support Jewish Unity
Israel’s upcoming withdrawl from the Gaza strip is doing a great deal to gouge deeper rifts between Jewish people. Both the left and the right are at each other’s throats, be it online in forums like Jewschool, or on the streets of places like Jerusalem.
Whether you’re in favor of the disengagement or against it, there’s no reason for folks to cross boundaries into the vicious areas where their rhetoric and behavior tend to roam. Regardless of whether we agree on the subject of biblical claims to Eretz Yisrael, the value of settlements, the security risk posed by the withdrawl, or any other issue pertaining to the disengagement, we are still one people, obligated by Torah to love each other — particularly in contradiction of our “natural” proclivities.
Rav Kook taught that only ahavat khinam (unconditional love) would end gault (exile) and bring the Jewish people’s redemption. Thus I urge us all to rise above our anger, our frustration, and our sadness, and seek out the compassion, forgiveness, and love in our hearts, and extend these feelings to our fellow Jews. The next several months will be an incredibly trying experience for our people, and it is important that we recognize each other’s humanity, understand each other’s feelings, and respect each other’s differences, as we work through these difficult times.
If you support this sentiment, I invite you to please add the graphic below to your own website and to link back to this post. The blue represents the chosen color of the pro-disengagement movement and the orange the color of the anti-disengagement movement. The text reads “v’ahavta l’rekha kamokha” — “love your brother as yourself.” This is a time like no other in which we need to grapple with this concept, and integrate it into our individual worldviews.
Please, search out your heart, and spread the love.
[Update] I’m apparently not the first to have this idea.
Filed under
Jew Go Where Eye Go
Gotham Pixel’s Chris Walker shares the following snapshots from two recent NYC parades.
Mermaid Parade: “I came across the freestyle rapping Jew in the staging and setup area of the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade on Saturday, June 25th. He was extremely out of place considering you had to pay to be in this area and everyone was busy preparing to march in the parade.”
***
Gay Pride: “Across the street form St. Patrick’s Cathedral I found these two specifically quarantined off and surrounded by at least 6 police offers. Watching the faces of the jovial parade goers as the signs caught their attention was heartbreaking. My belief in ‘freedom of speech’ had never been tested to such an extreme. I wanted to throw my camera at their heads.”
[Update] The identity of this hateful wretch is revealed here.
Filed under
A’nold Teaches Dershowitz a Lesson In Civil Libertarianism
Dershowitz, the “champion” of freedom of speech, is once again exposed as a hypocrite:
What do you do when somebody wants to publish a book that says you’re completely wrong? If you’re Alan Dershowitz, the prominent Harvard law professor, and the book is Norman Finkelstein’s Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History, you write the governor of California and suggest that he intervene with the publisher–because the publisher is the University of California Press, which conceivably might be subject to the power of the governor.Schwarzenegger, showing unusual wisdom, declined to act. The governor’s legal affairs secretary wrote Dershowitz, “You have asked for the Governor’s assistance in preventing the publication of this book,” but “he is not inclined to otherwise exert influence in this case because of the clear, academic freedom issue it presents.” In a phone interview Dershowitz denied writing to the Governor, declaring, “My letter to the Governor doesn’t exist.” But when pressed on the issue, he said, “It was not a letter. It was a polite note.”
You can read more about the quarrel between Dershowitz and Finkelstein here.
Filed under
Franken Mulls Senate Bid
The Jewish Week reports,
Now that Al Franken is making noises about a run for the U.S. Senate from the very blue state of Minnesota, the question is: Are the excruciatingly nice people of the Land of 10,000 Lakes ready for Jewish shtick?True, they put up with a professional wrestler in the governor’s mansion for four years, but Jewish humor about the mostly white-bread, pork-eating Midwest?
And a race in 2008 that would pit two Jewish transplants — Franken, the New York comedian, vs. the Brooklyn-reared Norm Coleman, a leading Jewish defender of the Bush administration who is known for his rather stiff manner? This in a state with a Jewish population that’s a whopping nine-tenths of 1 percent.
Filed under
Right-Wing Blogger: Jews Dumber Than Dogs
Max Blumenthal reports, “Early on the morning of June 20, award-winning blogger and well-heeled Claremont Institute fellow Scott Johnson posted the following on the Powerline blog:
THE WISDOM OF DOGSIf I recall correctly, in book 1 of the Republic, Socrates jokingly observes that dogs are philosophers, because they determine who their friends are based on knowledge. If American Jews were as canny as dogs — at least if they knew who their friends are — somewhat less than 70 percent of them would still be voting Democratic. One would think that the presence of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Cynthia McKinney, John Conyers, Jimmy Carter and their ilk among the honored members of the party, or Michael Moore as the party’s intellectual lodestar, would prompt some serious second thoughts…
“After receiving a deluge of complaints, Johnson scrubbed his suggestion that ‘American Jews’ are dumber than dogs because they generally vote Democratic. Without noting what exactly the deleted line said, Johnson added a half-hearted apology to his post (which preceded his mockery of Dick Durbin’s apology for far less poisonous remarks) then claimed he is Jewish.”
More on this issue here. Also check out the top ad on Johnson’s site for “Conservative T-Shirts.” Just so we’re clear, it’s okay to objectify women and call Jews “dumber than dogs”, as long as you’re not a Democrat. (c/o SNAFU)
In related news, Democratic National Commitee chairman Howard Dean had a coronary over the distribution of pamhplets at a DNC event charging Jews with responsibility for the Iraq war. Dean issued a statement which included the following remarks:
As Americans we believe in the right to free speech, and as Democrats we open our doors to a variety of opinions and perspectives from our fellow Americans. Unlike the current administration, we do not believe that closed hearings, restricted audiences, and carefully scripted meetings are good for our democracy. But anti-Semitism and bigotry are unacceptable and un-American, and they have no place in civil political discourse. As for any inferences that the United States went to war so Israel could ‘dominate’ the Middle East or that Israel was in any way behind the horrific September 11th attacks on America, let me say unequivocally that such statements are nothing but vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric. The inferences are destructive and counter productive, and have taken away from the true purpose of the Judiciary Committee Members’ meeting. The entire Democratic Party remains committed to fighting against such bigotry.
Dumber than dogs, eh? Rather we should be Conservatives? (c/o NormBlog)
Filed under
A Tiki Among Men
The NY Giant’s official website reports,
Tiki Barber – one of the metropolitan area’s most popular athletes and a nationally-known star - is going global. This offseason, Barber spent time relaxing in Barbados and recently spent two days in Prague taping a commercial for PowerBar. On Monday, he leaves for a week-long trip to Israel.But this is no ordinary junket. Barber is visiting the Holy Land at the invitation of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli Prime Minister who shared the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. In addition to visiting religious shrines and cultural attractions, Barber will make an appearance on behalf of the Peres Center for Peace, which seeks to build an infrastructure of peace in the Middle East while advancing cooperation and understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. One of the many ways the center advances this goal is through sports, by having Israeli and Palestinian children play together on sports teams. Barber is going to speak to young athletes – male and female – at the Twinned Peace Sports Schools.
“There isn’t really a mission (on the trip)” Barber said. “It is part vacation. It is part a cultural experience. And I guess a historical experience. But then in a small part it is to be an encourager of cooperation through sports.”
The irony of this man being named for an object of avodah zarah is not lost on me. (c/o Shred)
Filed under
Viva Brasil
THE BRAZILIAN GIRLS
By David Kelsey
Didi Gutman refuses to disclose why his band is called Brazilian Girls when there is only one woman in the band and none of the members originates from Brazil. “We all came up with it – but we have this pact – I can’t tell you.” The Brazilian Girls self-produced limited ep, “Its Huge”, came into the hands of an executive at Verve Records, who promptly bootlegged fifty copies of it, placing them within earshot of other Verve executives. Eventually a deal was closed, an initial ep “Lazy Lover” was released, followed by the eponymous full length CD “Brazilian Girls”, which continues to gain momentum. Gutman, the keyboardist and the main composer of the band credits Nublu for the providing a space for live bands such as his, as “it is difficult for musicians to find work. The DJ’s have taken over.”
Gutman enjoys the different styles of music that influence the Brazilian Girls music, who personally cites Jazz greats such as Gershwin and Jobim, classical composers such as Bach, Debussy and Ravel among his influences, and even Yiddish songs his grandmother would sing, which he loved because they are “melancholy.” On top of these more impressionist influences are percussive “ambiance” sounds, layered with “sounds from the street,” particularly striking on Me Gusta Cuando Callas, which Didi, a former sound engineer and producer for others, declined to give the precise source he sampled. This song also has an anthem quality with its refrain of “Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh”, a linguistic relief for an audience generally less than fluent in at least some of the five languages the Brazilian Girls sing in.
Gutman and Sciubba, the beautiful lead singer whose performance antics seem something out of the cabaret scene of the Weimer Republic, are lovers, and this may be responsible for some of the more sexualized tracks on the CD, such as “Don’t Stop”, “Lazy Lover”, and perhaps a bit over the top, “Pussy”, with its universal refrain of “Pussy, pussy, pussy, marijuana.”. “Don’t take us for granted,” admonished Gutman when asked to explain this specific choice of lyrics. “Maybe we don’t always want to be sophisticated. It can coexist. You can be silly and sophisticated too.”
A 
Exclusive
Filed under
L. Ron Hubbard: Nazi Hunter
The Smoking Gun has published portions of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s FBI file. Included is a letter from the sci-fi author cum cult leader alleging that the manager of the Knickerbocker Hotel was a Nazi. Read it here.
Filed under
