Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

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Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,781 Comments »

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50 Comments / 7781 Comments

  1. Edgar, you liar, maligner and fool.

    Yes, I have read a considerable amount — mostly from Torah, but from other sources as well — usually by first-hand informants. Is this “Errorman” a first-hand informant? He must be very, very old!

    Sebastien said your book concerned the Apostle Paul’s sanity. The eyewitness account reads thus:

    [21] For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me.
    [22] Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
    [23] That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.
    [24] And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.
    [25] But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and soberness.
    [26] For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.
    [27] King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.
    [28] Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
    [29] And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.
    [30] And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them:
    [31] And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
    [32] Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar.

    — Acts 26

  2. Arcivescovo Carlo Maria Viganò
    @CarloMVigano
    (art. 2 SST; can. 1364 CIC)

    The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has informed me, with a simple email, of the initiation of an extrajudicial penal trial against me, with the accusation of having committed the crime of schism and charging me of having denied the legitimacy of “Pope Francis” of having broken communion “with Him” and of having rejected the Second Vatican Council. I have been summoned to the Palace of the Holy Office on June 20, in person or represented by a canon lawyer. I assume that the sentence has already been prepared, given that it is an extrajudicial process.

    I regard the accusations against me as an honor. I believe that the very wording of the charges confirms the theses that I have repeatedly defended in my various addresses. It is no coincidence that the accusation against me concerns the questioning of the legitimacy of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and the rejection of Vatican II: the Council represents the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the Bergoglian “synodal church” is the necessary metastasis.

    Complete text of the announcement:
    https://exsurgedomine.it/240620-attendi

    I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t been impeached, imprisoned or excommunicated.

  3. Michael,

    Has it caught up with you, a reading disability???? I thought you would appreciate being guided to that book I mentioned since you are obsessed with religiosity.

    It explains clearly just how the New Testament was formed-and mostly forged.
    After all it’s your specialty…..??

    But, as I originally said, you might be afraid to read it. Do you read ANY books at all???

  4. Edgar, I don’t think you’re seriously trying to start a “Book of the Month Club”. If you have something to say, then say it! Don’t hide behind authors and books I have no interest in.

    BTW, this from the real world:

    Breaking News – Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has been summoned to the Vatican to be Excommunicated by Red Pope Francis.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/exclusive-archbishop-carlo-maria-vigano-summoned-vatican-be/

    Carlo’s a good man.

  5. Michael It’ll likely take a couple of days to read, maybe more. It’s full of very relevant references, thoroughly researched showing astonishing scholarship, that the writer deprecates, nevertheless the massive amount of references he must have delved into, contradict this.

    The one thing I didn’t mention, and meant to, was that the differences in Paul’s reputed letters may have been from his weird and unstable mind, especially say, after an epileptic fit, and not from forgeries.

    So far, and I may be about half through the book, the writer may mention this, but so far, not a ward.

  6. MICHAEL-

    DO I HAVE A BOOK FOR YOU………. Double-double. I think you’ll be afraid to read it, but if you do, I’ appreciate your impressions.

    Key in ” Read any book” and in the slot write “Bart D. Ehrman”. He wrote many books, a convinced Evangelical Christian-originally. He is a famous Biblical scholar.

    The name of first book to read is “FORGED” .

    With your well arranged scientific mind, you will easily be able to categorise an conclude.

    Good Reading….!!

  7. SEB

    Yes Of course Ha’Aretz.

    Who else could I have meant in responding you your comment about the IDF raping Arab women

  8. EDGAR Not sure what you are referring to, Haaretz? They publish frequently and the IDF should outlaw them. They definitely stink to high heaven, however. 😀

  9. SEB
    Also due to the fact that they smell, don’t often wash, and besides, the IDF has specific rules against it. If any does, the incidence is very low.

  10. Serge Klarsfeld, the famous Nazi hunter, has announced that he will vote for Le Pen’s party in the coming snap election in France, stating that

    “The only victory over anti-Semitism, which is a disease, is that extreme parties right in Europe have renounced anti-Semitism and understood that the Jews are a factor of progress, of development, unlike the 1930s when these parties considered the Jews as harmful. Today, after a long evolution, they consider them as positive. .”

  11. “I’m a Jew and no amount of money in the world will tempt me to go against Israel” ~

    Actress Scarlett Johansson who has refused to sign a big contract with a company that asked her to boycott Israel.

  12. Biden’s stolen classified documents scandal is way worse than we thought.

    Mark Zwonitzer told the special counsel’s office that Joe Biden knowingly shared highly classified information with him and took him to his Wilmington garage where classified materials were stored in boxes.

    MAJOR COURT WIN

    Late last night we forced Garland’s DOJ to cough up the transcript of Special Counsel Hur’s interview with Biden ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer

    We are reviewing now but wanted the American People to have it as soon as possible

    Link below pic.twitter.com/XuMpeD8nj7

    — Oversight Project (@OversightPR) June 13, 2024

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/06/transcript-special-counsel-hur-interview-biden-ghostwriter-mark/

    Sebastien, I don’t like how Biden is running his dogs.

  13. @Michael

    Reagan’s joke.
    Two men, an American and a Russian were arguing. One said,

    “in my country I can go to the white house walk to the president’s office and pound the desk and say “Mr president! I don’t like how you’re running things in this country!”

    “I can do that too!”

    “Really?”

    “Yes! I can go to the Kremlin, walk into the general secretary’s office and pound the desk and say, Mr. secretary, I don’t like how Reagan is running his country!”

    😀

  14. Smotrich transferred a large sum of money to the victims of terrorism. This money was according to the USA supposed to got to the PA. Since they use the money to encourage terrorism Smotrich thought it was much more warranted that the money go to the victims!

  15. @Peloni the Federal Election Commission is NOT in charge of the CNN debate so at this point it is only Trump versus Biden. Biden ala Hillary is planning on spending 10 days prepping for the debate at Camp David.

    Trump will be campaigning instead of over prepping for a debate.

  16. Fellows first “Bear” is the correct spelling not “Ber”

    I got you guys only believe the Russian line and not even conservative media. Fair enough you can not argue the facts because it is clear Russian kidnapped Ukrainian children and they will never confirm how many they kidnapped, so you will not believe it because RT or the Kremlim not confirm it.

  17. @Ber
    From the article you cited below:

    Ukrainian officials say…

    as is indicated here, the MSM is taking their marching orders from their favorite news source, the Ukrainian propaganda machine. You seem very sure of your sources, particularly as this is the same group which had the Ukrainian devotees swooning over the Ghost of Kiev as he leapt onto Snake Island…

    Very much as I initially noted below.

  18. Peloni, you wrote

    @Laura

    Everything about what you write demonstrates a deep obsession with Russia.

    The only one here with an obvious “deep obsession” — with Russia, in fact, is you! You are projecting your own problems on Laura, who, as far as I can see, has two “deep obsessions”, namely, the Jewish people and the US of A.

    Nachon?

    Are you an American, Peloni? I think I asked you before, but I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten the answer. You’re Jewish, of course, first and foremost; that’s a given. But why do you continually dump on Laura’s and my country — and at that, all the while praising the people who hate America, AND Israel AND the Jews! Something is deeply disturbing here.

  19. @Ted, also check FT and numerous other sources. Russians kidnapped Ukrainian children.

    Hit piece by Washington Examiner not all just one of many reporting on this subject.

    I guess kidnapping children and then selling them via adoption sites is okay with you. Not me!!

  20. @Laura

    Everything about what you write demonstrates a deep obsession with Russia.

    Apparently however you accept Russian “reporting” at face value.

    I don’t read Russian reporting, though it could hardly prove less viable than the vaccine advocate, tyranny abiding, election-fraud supporting, Pal championing fake news which passes for news in the West.

    I despise Russians and muslims, the worst peoples on earth.

    I see these two peoples as very different from eachother.

    I’m certain that the putin regime sent those terrorist muslim Russian nationals over here. It’s no coincidence that happened a day before Russian warships made themselves visible off the coast of Cuba.

    Yet you dispute the American coup which was confirmed by those in the US govt who planned it? Well, I would argue that you have a specifically selective spidey sense.

    I would argue that your confessed dislike of Russians has led you to invite them into every topic at hand. Perhaps you or Bear should explain why I should believe the likely propaganda reports of Russian human trafficking is more serious than all the years of Ukrainian trafficking of the past, which we are to believe has been ended with the beginning of the war?

    Nota bene: I find the ‘American reports’ not credible, and likely Ukrainian propaganda, but in any event, where was your sensibilities about the human trafficking before it benefited your hatred of Russia? No, I am not swayed by claims of atrocities by either side. Such things take place in most wars, as war is the purposeful breakdown of society. This is why it should be avoided at every possible cost which is practicable, and why a negotiated settlement should have been struck before hostilities began or soon thereafter. Also, I am not so trapped as others in the memory wars over this border dispute in Eastern Europe, even as it is in fact simply a ruse for the Neocon (failing) attempt to regime change Russia.

  21. @Ber
    Regarding your comment about 380 children. I am having trouble with it because you are quoting a hit piece. I read the Washingon Examiner article you gave in support. it is a total hit piece and not fair reporting. Propaganda in other words.

    The Washigton Examiner, quotes no credible source. For instance, were the alleged 380 children from territory Russian has now claimed as its own.

    This is what Russia has admitted,

    “From April to October 2022, Russian foster families in 19 regions of the country adopted 380 orphaned children and children left without parents’ care,”

    What’s wrong with that?

    This is what you claimed.

    “380 Ukrainian childredn have been verified kidnapped by Russia and put up for Adoption in Russia”

    Rujssia did not admit to kidnapping so your comment is very misleading and not true

  22. @Bear

    Do you hate the Ukrainians and/or American’s so much

    So, hate is not a word which I would use to describe either the Ukrainians nor the Americans.

    There is a great distinction between the Ukrainians and the Americans. In fact, IMO, the Ukrainians as Europeans, specifically eastern Europeans, are given to accepting their plight and managing as best they might while in the grip of tyranny, til a point beyond which they will crack and revolt. Notably, the eastern Ukrainians have not hit this mark as of yet, even as it is clear that they have wanted to undo the trauma which was begun with the 2014 coup, as is made evident by their overwhelming choice of choosing two peace makers in two elections, even as they both turned out to unfortunately be war mongers.

    Meanwhile, Americans are a distilled fraction of Europeans, a group which is known for its pluck, its spirit, and its sense of fairness and its demand of liberty. They have no tolerance for the tyranny which has overtaken them, and I credit their resistance to the tyrants which have oppressed them, while I scorn the eastern Ukrainians’ pathetic acquiescence to accepting the American overlordship which has overlorded over them for the past decade now. Yet, I am most impressed with the ethnic Russians, as they refused to accept the American plot which was leveraged against their nation, and their willingness to demand their rights which were struck from them during the 2014 coup.

    Additionally, while you ignore the role of Ukraine as a well documented human trafficking state, you raise the question about Russia in the same role. This is because it suits your preferred narrative, but I would argue that Ukraine has been too clever by half in plying its fake news as certain fact. Indeed, should we believe the story of trafficking crimes with regards to Russia, crimes which Ukraine has been too well known to have committed in years past, to raise our judgement that Russia is the greater culprit? Is that really the point you are trying to make?

    As I noted before, truth is hard to come by in any war, but in this war it is specifically a rarity. So I will stick with what I wrote in my previous comment on this topic.

  23. There is such irony in the fact that you lost me when using the words “United States” and “Peloni” in the same post.

  24. Apparently however you accept Russian “reporting” at face value. I despise Russians and muslims, the worst peoples on earth. I’m certain that the putin regime sent those terrorist muslim Russian nationals over here. It’s no coincidence that happened a day before Russian warships made themselves visible off the coast of Cuba.

    There is such irony in the fact that you lost me when using the words “United States” and “credible reports” in the same sentence.

  25. @Peloni nothing justifies kidnapping Ukrainian children and putting them up for sale by the Russians, no matter how much one dislikes Ukrainian’s nor USA.

    FT – Did an investigation and has verified that Ukranian children kidnapped by Russians in 2022 were put up for adoption.

    Do you hate the Ukrainians and/or American’s so much (except for Trump) that you are looking sideways, excusing, dismissing or forgiving the kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia in 2022.

  26. Bear

    The United States is aware of what it said were credible reports

    There is such irony in the fact that you lost me when using the words “United States” and “credible reports” in the same sentence.

    Do you know what country was the number one nation of human trafficking in the world before 2022? It was Ukraine. The Trump administration pressed Zel’s govt to crack down on the trafficking rings which were tied across Europe, but with little gain to show for their efforts.

    Of course, this was before the current war between the US proxy force in Ukraine and Russia, in which the worst casualty is the truth. So, perhaps the story below is just another Ghost of Kiev fairy tale, and perhaps it is true. But what ever happened to the crackdown on and concerns about Ukrainian human trafficking which failed to be reformed before the war began?

  27. New information about my mother’s grandfather, the one in the story, who she grew up with in a two family house in Crown Heights. His book is now available online. A commentator from last year – another great grand child apparently – posted the link. Never knew he once lived in Brownsville or that he was a rabbi much less a rav sent to America by the Netziv to regulate Kashrut. I knew that he was a Shochet and that he had been ordained in Volozhin, as well as that he had founded and led the Kosher slaughterers Union and wrote this book in 1948 in Hebrew which is an authoritative history of Kashrut in America still used as a reference in scholarly articles. He was already retired when my Mom was a kid. She told me what she knew. She passed away on the last day of Shavuot – May 28 (her heart actually stopped on May 27th but they brought her heartbeat back, though unconscious, and tried to revive her until the wee hours of the next morning) – last year, 2 months before her 99th birthday. Seems to run in the family. Her great grandfather was 98, I think her brother, who was a famous sociologist, was, too. Nope, 95.
    “All theories have been exploded” – “NIght Song” (1947) dir. John Cromwell, Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, Hoagie Carmichel, Ethel Barrymore, Arthur Rubinstein, Eugene Ormandy, NY Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall. Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. My Mom was a pianist too, with a Bachelor of Music in Piano from Bennington, class of 1945, though she had also done voluntary agricultural work for the War effort, as well, on the side, as well as working part time, first as a waitress and then as a pianist and singer of French songs in Cabarets. She would later win an opera Fulbright to Italy and was on Broadway.

    https://kevarim.com/rabbi-avraham-yaakov-koplowitz/

  28. re rock guitarists and lead sheets, not to memntion sleeping under all those
    rocks which reminds me of a couple of ideas for tee shirts I came up with which could be adapted for the IDF, and indeed for all Israelis, for all Jews, for matter for all civilized human beings who understand that Israeli Jews are the proverbial canaries in the
    coal mine, on the off chance the war is to be concluded without victory. Again.

    https://pinchinat.wordpress.com/2014/04/24/a-tale-of-two-tee-shirts/

  29. Michael,

    Re: Yes, very nice.

    My late mother related this story from her childhood to me when I was a boy.

    Now, her father, like his father, was a devoutly literal-minded man like his father who, also like his father, liked to say, “I always say what I mean and I always mean what I say” but with a deadpan sense of humor.

    One evening – this would have been in the ’30s of the last century – my grandmother – the worrying type, she was a Virgo – asked him, “How’s the soup, dear?”

    To which he replied solemnly

    – it had always been his ambition to be a judge, he was a lawyer, though he had worked first as an English teacher and then a high school principle in the New York Public School system after graduating from Columbia College in 1910 and then Columbia law school class of 1913 – he had been born in Vilna in 1887 but came here when he was a year old and grew up in different parts of New York – he lived on a farm across the street from Columbia University when he was 13 in 1900! – but he believed that never had happened or would happen because he was too honest – this was after the Seabury trials –

    “Not bad.”

    “What do you mean? What’s wrong with it?” she anxiously queried.

    “Why nothing, dear.” He said slowly and deliberately with a deadpan expression but a twinkle in his eye.

    “I said it was ” Not/Bad.”

    😀

    Incidentally, re “the lead tablets…” I don’t recall the documentary – I’ve seen others on this subject, as well – saying the tablets were made of lead. Might explain why Moses was so grouchy hauling them around not to mention rock guitarists playing from and doubtless sleeping under lead sheets.

    You know this scene also marked the birth of modern medicine when God said to Moses, “Take two tablets and call on me in the morning.”

    I had a girlfriend who hated the word, “nice.”
    Needless to say, she wasn’t very nice. 😀

  30. Laura

    Kremlin-induced spin

    Loved that turn of phrase so I was inspired to google: Russian dreidel. And some stunning images showed up.
    Be sure and click on “more images” for expanded view.
    https://www.google.com/search?q=russian+dreidel&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS790US791&oq=russian+dreidel&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTINCAEQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAIQABiGAxiABBiKBTIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRigATIHCAcQIRigATIHCAgQIRifBTIHCAkQIRifBdIBCDc2MDZqMGo3qAIKsAIB&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

  31. Michael

    Technically, Moses was the first person with a tablet
    downloading data from the cloud

    5https://jr.co.il/humor/pass144.htm

  32. Napoleon was attacked (and defeated) by a horde of rabbits.

    Not a joke.

    https://historyfacts.com/famous-figures/fact/napoleon-was-attacked-and-defeated-by-a-horde-of-rabbits/

    Joke

    https://www.google.com/search?q=monty+python+killer+rabbits&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS790US791&oq=monty+python+killer+rabbits&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyBwgBEC4YgAQyCAgCEAAYFhgeMggIAxAAGBYYHjIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB4yCAgIEAAYFhgeMggICRAAGBYYHtIBCTEwMDY5ajBqNKgCCbACAQ&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#wptab=si:ACC90nxAHrInVEcjasiFOJd3T0BSx1l8-3GnIvMMlxgboSkRXYUj_xmmcF96IMM2KBR6tgXBT_cpQ8DjcRWMNM3DnG7FvVX5d94Xucv-0rPgnmla6mzB8KH7gaE5dqcQ0JiyoSqetI8pb

    Even more interesting

    “What is the Rabbit of Caerbannog a reference to?
    The idea of the rabbit in the Monty Python movie was inspired by the façade of Notre Dame de Paris, which depicts the weakness of cowardice with a knight fleeing from a rabbit.
    https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › R…
    Rabbit of Caerbannog – Wikipedia”

  33. Hi, Sebastien.

    re “Yes, very nice”, I got a little time to look closely at the lead tablets. The discoverer and publisher gives further elucidation of them, from one year later. I had trouble making out the writing earlier, and for good reason: It was written in a PROTO-alphabetic script from approx. 1400 BCE. What’s more, the tablets were written on the inside and outside, and scanned with tomagraphy. The most important elements were:

    1. the word “YHV” (Roman transliteration), which indicates that the scribes were Hebrews,
    2. the various evidences that the date of writing was circa 1400-1200 BCE,
    3. finding the tablets in the siftings taken from the altar, a plaister-on-rough stone altar, as described in the Bible, where
    4. only bones of kosher animals were found.

    Also mentioned in this video, were two small silver tablets retrieved from an intact grave in the Valley of Hinnom. They were of the Aaronic blessing (Deut. 6), and found in the oldest section of the family tomb, and dated from the First Temple period.

    These and other very recent archaeological finds all add proof of Jewish Hebrew occupation of Jerusalem and Samaria, centuries before the Muslim occupation.

    https://youtu.be/_15tYO4hqJA