Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 7,784 Comments »

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  1. Here’s something I think about.

    I celebrate Chanuka as if it marked the coming to life of the mashiach.

    I never even acknowledge Purim as a Jewish festival.

    I think Purim celebrates little more than a sexy-looking Jewish girl who, finding herself set up as as some sort of servant girl in the royal court of the Persian emperor, had occasion to shake her ass in his face, and thereafter was treated as his consort, queen, royal whore, or whatever. Because of her connection to the Persian emperor, she was able to arrange for Haman the Jew-hater to get hanged by the neck until dead, along with all his sons. For reasons I can’t fathom, she never arranged for her lover to execute Haman’s wife, who had served as the agent provocateur to cause her husband to plot against the numerous Jews resident at that time around the Persian empire.

    Now, compare all that droll farce with Chanuka, where a bunch of loyal Jews — the Maccabees — took up arms to fight the Seleucid Greeks who were making serious efforts to force the Jews of their part of the empire of Alexander the Great to give up their religion and replace it with that of the Greeks of that era.

    National independence is more important to me than just about anything else I can think of in regard to authentic Judaism. That is precisely what Chanuka is all about, whereas the business with Hadassa, Mordechai, Haman and the Persian emperor represents to me as nothing more than a tawdry tale of using a woman to engineer the take-down of an enemy of our Jewish nation.

    Arnold Harris, Outspeaker

  2. @ ArnoldHarris:

    I just came across this so please excuse the late post. I do believe that in the reign of Josiah, on the occasion of the discovery of a complete Torah which had been hidden in the walls (I belive), They all mourned because they had been so irreligious, and prostrated themselves, and Josiah decreed a Pesach Shani. There have been many debates in Talmud times as to whetehr it was meant as a permanent second Pesach or a one-time event only.

  3. This isn’t exactly “chit[-chat” , because I want to wish everybody on this site, from which I derive much information, a Very Happy, Prosperous and Healthy Shana Tova, and a sincere, repentant, and reciprocated Yom Kipur.

    And for Ted, especially, in his ongoing endeavours, all success,

    Edgar G.

  4. Spoke with Dennis Praeger Shabbat and he says that a letter is being circulated among Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative Rabbis urging that the topic for the Rosh HaShonnah sermon be about Women at the Wall and Bibi’s betrayal in not bringing about an accommodation. This will be highly divisive of the American Jewish community if it comes to pass.

  5. On Reactionary peoples and Governments:
    Many people like to blame governments for everything; but sometimes its the government that sucks not the people; and sometimes it’s just the other way around.

    An ironical justiposition this week:

    “Polish Government Condemns Attack on Israeli Soccer Team”

    By Reuters August 3, 2017 18:33

    http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Polish-government-condemns-attack-on-Israeli-soccer-team-501542
    —–
    “Iran condemns its soccer players for match with Israeli team”

    By AP August 4, 2017, 6:28 pm 4

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-condemns-its-soccer-players-for-match-with-israeli-team/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=e305134531-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-e305134531-55032977

    Humorous allegory

    “The People are Revolting”
    (from “History of the World Part I” Mel Brooks

    https://youtu.be/h0iAcQVIokg

  6. @ Bear Klein:
    I switched from independent to Republican when I read this headline.

    Huckabee: Israel’s claim to Judea and Samaria stronger than US tie to Manhattan. Presidential hopeful on Jerusalem visit says Israel didn’t steal the land and needs settlements for defensible borders; meets Netanyahu, vows to ‘undo’ Iran deal if elected. BY RAPHAEL AHREN August 19, 2015, 6:16 pm

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/huckabee-israels-claim-to-judea-and-samaria-stronger-than-us-tie-to-manhattan/

  7. @ Bear Klein:
    Who knows? But if we don’t support those who stand for what we stand for in the primary season and instead engage in betting on the least bad or the toughest of the apparently likely prospects, the best we will wind up with is Trump and the worst we will wind up with is Sharon.

    At a minimum, if he gets a big minority block of support, he will be able to build his own political machine and have a say in appointments and party platforms like Sarah Palin or Bernie Sanders. And, “personnel is policy.” As we have seen.

    He is Yesha’s only candidate.

  8. If it continues like this, I am going to switch my registration back to independent until such time as it becomes possible to vote for Mike Huckabee again for President. He was the only candidate, you may recall, who said that Judea and Samaria are an inalienable part of Israel and that Jews have a right to live where ever we want without restriction. He was the only candidate who was unconditionally opposed to pressuring Israel to make concessions.

    And I remember the ultra-orthodox conservative Trump supporter who just chuckled at my naivete at the time. Well Trump/Sharon, he got what he voted for.

  9. ‘Humorous take on irrelevant news’- alert. Skip if all business.

    “Feminist MK’s rage was fabricated”
    “…Mirit Entabi charged that feminist MK’s planned from the start to break up Knesset debate on lowering the age in Tender Years Clause.

    ‘Wednesday’s debate was on changing the Tender Years Law, which states that children under the age of six automatically remain with their mother in the event of divorce. A proposed amendment of the law would bring the age down to two.

    ‘The debate quickly deteriorated into a screaming match, with Education and Culture Committee Chairman Yaakov Margi (Shas) ejecting everyone who who was not a Knesset member from the plenum, a move which Entabi criticized…”

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/232748

    I responded that maybe they should offer to cut the child in two to see which parent objects.

    I then tried to add the following but it wound up in the equivalent of “moderation”, “admin verification pending.” So for your amusement:

    “Kramer vs Kramer vs Godzilla”

    https://youtu.be/i0D2_nzuGyI

    and from 1980, Saturday Night Live, Bill Murray as the judge, “Kramer vs. Godzilla” transcript. No video apparently.

    http://snltranscripts.jt.org/79/79kgodzilla.phtml

  10. @ ArnoldHarris:
    Not that I’m knocking it. Making thread out of flax with a spinning wheel was fun to watch. I think they let me try it, but I may be mis-remembering, it seemed so real.

  11. @ ArnoldHarris:
    Yes, well we are on the same page here, as well. I have said in the past, but didn’t here because I didn’t want to confuse the issue with aesthetics or humor, that I disagree with Jabotinkskyi about the Gefilte fish. I love gefilte fish. A life long favorite. With or without horse radish. Red or white.

    Though, when I’ve gone to relatives’ houses for Pesach — Great Uncles or cousins once removed, we never celebrated it at home — they never served it.

    I learned from a seemingly learned Ashkenazic Ultra-Orthodox musician that fish and meat are not served together because there was one occasion hundreds of years ago where the particular circumstances made it unkosher, so they just carved it in stone and now it’s just not done. Tradition.

    I asked the same guy about legumes being kosher during Pesach for Sephardim (which I think really includes Mizrahim, right?) but not Ashkenazim. I said, what if members of the two groups marry, what do they eat?

    He said that whereas intermarriage between Jewish groups isn’t exactly encouraged, it’s not forbidden either. However, the couple has to choose one tradition or the other and then pass it down to the next generation. They are not supposed to mix and match like American Conservative Judaism just did with its vote allow legumes in the Ashkenazic diet.

    Interesting to me in a colonial Williamsburg sort of way. Nobody is going to tell me how, when or what to eat except a nutrionist and my conscience. I don’t eat meat. 40 years now.

  12. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Gefilte fish, simultaneously resplendent in appearance and tasty with just enough horseradish to threaten make my head feel as though an explosion there was incipient, is one of the key reasons I wish we could have 5-6 Pesach celebrations each year.

    But — alas — Tora mandated only a single Pesach per year.

    Arnold Harris, Outspeaker

  13. I have been working to make sure that comments do not go into moderation or trash in error. I thought I had a handle on the problem. But just today I checked spam and found over 36 legitimate comments there. I had no idea that was happening. I approved of about 10 of them from the last week.

  14. @ Abolish_public_education:
    But, that being said, there’s clearly “something rotten in the state of Denmark.”

    http://freebeacon.com/culture/new-york-school-instructs-kids-defend-hitlers-genocide-jews/

    We’re not just talking about a teacher here.

    “State lawmakers are now calling for the resignation of New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia, who initially defended the assignment in a public forum last week, describing it as an exercise in critical thinking.”

    Even before this, she was unanimously hired by the NY State Board of Regents to run the entire education system even though she had just been fired from Hillsborough because:

    “The Hillsborough school board voted 4 to 3 to fire her in January. One of the board members who voted to terminate the contract, Cindy Stuart, said in an interview on Tuesday that a number of incidents had eroded the board’s trust in Ms. Elia, including one in which the board did not learn for 10 months about a special education student who had a medical emergency on a school bus and later died.”

    “It was a broken relationship between board members and the superintendent that was beyond repair, in my opinion,” she said.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/nyregion/maryellen-elia-named-new-york-state-education-commissioner.html

    The NY State Board of Regents needs to be investigated and called before hearings. Who exactly are these people and what are their qualifications and affiliations?

  15. :
    Every few days the news ticker, along the right side of this website, headlines and links to a report about a ridiculous (often anti-Semitic) policy embraced by some government-funded skool system.

    The latest one, out of NY, is really pretty disgusting.

    When are most of you folks going to end your idolatrous worship of public education?

  16. @ Abolish_public_education:
    Well, they have protected population centers, as to areas that politicians value besides that, without further details, why should that be a problem? Are there no other areas that need protecting? You keep hinting at self-serving corruption but other than your own apparently ideological/doctrinal-based prejudices, I have not seen any evidence of that so far. And what country are you in? I am in the U.S. You sound as if you think you have been taken for a ride. For whom exactly are you speaking?

    From Israel in 2014:

    “…We’re writing this Tuesday morning with the Beatles song “Here, There, and Everywhere” playing on our iPhone – broadcast through the Israeli army Galgalatz radio station. At any moment, the love song may be interrupted by the quiet announcement of an alert; missiles have been fired at Israel from Gaza all day as Hamas rejected a proposed cease fire. Israel boasts that it has a 90 percent success rate for bringing down incoming rockets. More than one thousand rockets have been fired at Israeli cities, including Tel Aviv and Haifa; so far only one Israeli has died in the rocket attacks…”

    http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/grateful-for-iron-dome-there-and-here/

    I’m grateful, too.

    No doubt, you will say that the one Israeli who died despite one thousand rockets being fired… (wait for it)

    Should get a full tax refund!

  17. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Rockets headed towards areas which the politicians highly value (e.g. themselves but not necessarily population centers) will always be met with countermeasures or counterattacks.

    That’s just a political reality.

    But you go on thinking that one of those interceptors has your name on it, if it makes you feel better.

    By the way, after the PM assures you how he deeply respects your life and all that, tell him that you also want a taxpayer-funded security detail guarding your every move.

  18. @ Abolish_public_education:
    According to the articles I’ve read, there are so many missiles they can’t target all of them, so they go for the one’s headed for populated areas. It has had a high success rate. You have cited nothing. On what, exactly, is your opinion based?

  19. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Call the PM.

    Tell him that since you’ve helped paid for an Arrow, that you want one fired any time the Army’s computer projects that an incoming is headed your way; and you want a protective radius of at least one kilometer.

    Let us know what he tells you.

  20. Jabotinksky was wrong about one thing.

    “…Zionist Executive leader Chaim Weizmann colluded with the British government to set quotas on Jewish immigration to Palestine. For Weizmann, Zionism was about “the transformation of values” of the Jews, “converting into peasant farmers an urbanized people.” Such a transformation had to be done slowly. Jabotinsky responded with the creed of “Zionist monism,” the insistence on severing the cause of resettling the Jews from any other ideology, such as Bolshevism:

    [from famous letter Jabotinksy to Weizmann:] (SZ)

    ‘I can vouch for there being a type of Zionist who doesn’t care what kind of society our “state” will have; I’m that person. If I were to know that the only way to a state was via socialism, or even that this would hasten it by a generation, I’d welcome it. More than that: give me a religiously Orthodox state in which I would be forced to eat gefilte fish all day long (but only if there were no other way) and I’ll take it…'”

    http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/warrior-of-zion/

    Gefilte Fish is awesome! It’s the best, carbs notwithstanding; I could live on the stuff. The ultimate comfort food. Even alone, but is it possible he never tried it with red or white horse radish?

  21. @ Abolish_public_education:
    If you take government funding and oversight out of the schools, how do you stop the Islamofascists from moving into the vacuum? They are trying to re-educate the next generation of Americans from earliest childhood. Incidentally, you know that that is Bill Ayers specialty, as well? They have succeeded in infiltrating K through College, including Law and Graduate Schools. Both Public and Private. This is reverse colonialism. Sort of. Actually, Muslim Colonialism was the first one. Same for racism, genocide, gender apartheid, and slavery which we abolished but they still practice as always. Scary.

  22. @ honeybee:

    Texas Pre-School Muslim Teacher Removed From Classroom After Tweeting ‘Kill Some Jews’
    By Pamela Geller – on February 21, 2017
    ISLAMIC JEW HATRED

    http://pamelageller.com/2017/02/texas-pre-school-muslim-teacher-removed-classroom-twitter-calls-kill-jews-come-light.html/

    Texas public high school defends its Islamic prayer room after warning from state deputy attorney general
    By Pamela Geller – on March 25, 2017
    ISLAMIZATION OF WORKPLACE

    http://pamelageller.com/2017/03/muslim-prayer-rooms-texas-schools.html/

    “The Islamization of Texas Schools
    CSCOPE is an online K-12 educational curriculum that is used in 80% of the school districts in Texas. It is not a curriculum you would want used in your child’s school. Here are several reasons why…”

    https://www.facebook.com/jerusalemprayerteam/photos/a.10150308507814698.419438.292351509697/10151783766739698/?type=3&hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE

    http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/02/25/texas-yes-texas-students-forced-to-dress-in-burqas-then-taught-to-call-muslim-terrorists-freedom-fighters/

    http://www.barenakedislam.com/2011/02/08/texas-school-district-will-force-students-to-study-arabic-language-and-culture/

    https://thinkprogress.org/armed-protesters-converge-on-mosque-in-ahmed-mohameds-town-f5c1d0a3ab4e

    Plan to spread Islam through American Public Schools by Daniel Pipes

    http://www.science.co.il/Arab-Israeli-conflict/articles/Pipes-2004-11-24.php

    As you were saying?

    Oh, this one should get your blood boiling. Ha Ha.

    “Spanish Moor (Islamic) Influence on the Alamo”

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/almihrab/2010/10/islamic-influence-on-american-architecture-article/

    Funny Parody

    http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/how-islam-built-america-t14651.html

    And scroll down below the anti-fatigue ad to admire the inspiring words of the Ambassador to Texazistan.

  23. @ Abolish_public_education:
    Well, if you don’t say what you’re for, just saying you want to do away with all of the institutions around which our — and every post-hunter-gatherer — society has been organized just makes you sound unhinged.

  24. “CNN on Wednesday playfully fact-checked a joke by White House press secretary Sean Spicer about how desperate the media is to connect President Trump to Moscow.

    “If the President puts Russian salad dressing on his salad tonight, somehow that’s a Russia connection,” Spicer quipped on Tuesday while reacting to questions about possible connections between Trump associates and Russian officials during the 2016 campaign.

    A lighthearted CNN.com story was willing to play along: It looked into the history of Russian dressing and found that it isn’t Russian at all but actually was created in New Hampshire in 1924.”

    http://thehill.com/homenews/media/326556-cnn-fact-checks-spicer-russian-dressing-isnt-russian

    And became part of the Reuben Sandwich which was probably created by Russian Jews here.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reuben_sandwich

    BUT

    According to Wikipedia:

    It is unknown in authentic Russian cuisine, though it exists in modern Russian cuisine as ketchunez (rus. ????????, ketchu- part for ketchup (rus. ??????) and -nez part for mayonnaise (rus. ???????)).
    A variation is known as red Russian dressing, and is very much like Catalina or French dressing.[5]
    Contents [hide]”
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_dressing

    So, maybe the Russians should be having hearings on American tampering with their dressings! If it were bleu cheese I guess they could accuse us of violating their bleu laws.

    Or since there’s a variation called “Red” Russian dressing, I guess they could have a red scare. Maybe for April Fools Day coming up.

    Nice to see even the dems starting to make fun of themselves, I mean how long can they keep this stuff up with a straight face. Anybody taking bets?

  25. @ Edgar G.:
    There are other flavors of the scam, but they always come down to the old confidence game of “I’ll pay you back.”

  26. @ Abolish_public_education:

    Ha Ha. I guess we have a real dyed-in-the-wool contrarian here, going onto a pro-sovereignty site with this line. And your absolutely right! You only have conflict if you fight back. If you let them kill you, no conflict. It’s a win, win situation! Good luck with that. As for living under Arab rule. Why don’t you give it a shot and let us know how you fare? Don’t worry about not being able to write; if we don’t hear back from you, we’ll draw the appropriate and expected conclusions. Though the Iranians might let you visit if you join Neturei Karta.

    http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Neturei-Karta-sect-pays-visit-to-Iran

    http://www.haaretz.com/neturei-karta-delegate-to-iranian-holocaust-conference-i-pray-for-israel-s-destruction-in-peaceful-ways-1.209305

    https://crownheights.info/jewish-news/533850/neturei-karta-visit-iran-call-for-israels-destruction/

    Or maybe Jewish voice for peace if you don’t want to be obsessive compulsive but want to find ways of being accepted by those who would hurt, kill, humiliate and enslave your people.

    http://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos/jewish_voice_for_peace_jvp_/

    I always like to be helpful. Each to his own.

    I mean if you’re shopping around for just the right fit of treason. I like to be helpful.

    You’re in such good company:

    “…We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want that we will be able to live in an entirely different environment of relations with our enemies.”

    former PM Ehud Olmert

    http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/225841/ehud-olmert-symbol-peace-process-p-david-hornik

    Nighty Night, sleepy head. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.

    Numbers 33:55: “But if ye will not drive out the occupants of the land from before you, then shall those who ye let remain of them be as thorns in your eyes, and as they are in the mountains, and they shall harass you in the land wherein ye Dwell.”

    http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0433.htm

    Well, that one certainly resonates.

  27. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    Sovereignty is a four-letter word.

    It’s not worth fighting over. Indeed, it’s a *recipe* for endless conflict, overt or otherwise.

    Israeli-Jews would do better under Arab sovereignty. The same way that Arabs do better under Israelis.

  28. @ Sebastien Zorn:
    I know of no other American films, anyway. I know some Korean dramas such as:

    http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Goong_S

    and

    http://asianwiki.com/My_Princess

    Oh, right. There was the one with Anne Hathaway

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247638/

    and way back

    Prince and the Pauper* (1937) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029440/

    and

    If I were King (1938) Ronald Colman

    But, it’s a fertile genre over there.

    related:

    http://asianwiki.com/The_King_2hearts

    * Famous Violin Concerto based on the themes from this and the other movies Erich Wolfgang Korngold wrote the score for including Treasure Island, Anthony Adverse, Robin Hood with Erroll Flynn.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Concerto_(Korngold)

    Heifetz championed it despite snobbery about film music at that time and it is now standard repetoire.

    Heifetz
    https://youtu.be/52COEAtbgxU

  29. I’m new to this issue but could all of this:

    http://www.breitbart.com/tag/montenegro/

    be related to this?

    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-international-bank-opens-in-montenegro—george-soros-economic-development-foundation-among-main-investors—73396602.html

    In any case, this (contained in first link)

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/12/28/montenegro-hunts-serbs-russians-planned-election-day-attacks/

    reminded me of this wonderful Bob Hope film:

    “Where There’s Life” (1947)

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039982/

    Trailer:

    https://youtu.be/5P5S8GZR5bI

    Full movie for free: https://archive.org/details/WhereTheresLife1947BobHope

    which I think may have inspired the John Goodman film, King Ralph (1991), as well — without the cloak and dagger — since I know of no others in this genre.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102216/

  30. The De niro comment is funny because there must be many thousands of young people who go to college in order to become De niro, Yo Yo Ma, Tom Brady, a doctor, whatever.

    Keep in mind that virtually *all* the “professional level” (degree required), government jobs are actually non-jobs.

    By the way, the articles you’ve cited (especially the ones generated by government bureaucrats) are highly questionable. Also, that I am only acquainted with a small number of people (relative to the general population) might be anecdotal, but I could easily point out entire high-paying, economic sectors which must be dominated by non-degree-holders, such as construction trades, para-professionals, casino-floor workers, and so forth.

    Your “evidence” is just pap.