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 | 7,631 Comments »

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  1. @Edgar The point is that the reference to magi is evidence of the Zoroastrian presence throughout the region as a esult of it geint a major trafe and miltary hub thanks yo Alexander.

  3. @Ted Yes. You wrote a terrific article and I’ve shared it many times. It makes sense but so does this. Don’t know how to resolve or reconcile it. Did you read it?

  4. My recollection is that “3 wise men from the east’ appears mysteriously only in ONE gospel, which I have read in more than one gospel investigation, is a much later addition to Matthew, one of the Synoptic Gospels….and that the actual number of “3”, was assumed because there were three gifts. (there could have been 23-33 or 1)
    The way it was described in Matthew struck me as pure inventive nonsense to add to the “importance” of the occasion. The “star”, and all that…!!

    I think the Jesus Seminar discussed this also. Also several crackpot writers.
    I’ve read serious discussions on the path they would travel, since at that period there was no known viable road to “the east”; presumed to have been Tibet, one of the the most isolated countries in the world.

    S.G.F. Brandon (and a few others) also issued a small essay on the possibility and regarded it as a later accretion added by an unknown mystic.

    {I’ve always had a considerable respect for Brandon, a most “down to earth” kind of theologian, yet a deep researcher and excellent writer.}

    BUT…… I prefer “Curley Larry and Moe”.

  5. @Sebastien.
    When I wrote my essay on The Historical Jesus, I read “A Search for the Historical Jesus “ that makes the case for Jesus being a Buddhist… Recall that when Jesus was born he was visited by three wise men from the East.. Author suggests they were Buddhists looking for the next Buddha.,

  8. @Honeybee
    Thank you very much for sharing this. How distorted is it that a candidate running for re-election is prohibited from pursuing fraud in her re-election campaign, due to her facing prior charges which, in turn, prohibit her from contacting the govt agency which is responsible for protecting her rights as a candidate. It becomes even more ridiculous when it is revealed that the prior charges resulted from she, herself, exposing a similar fraud while leading the agency that she is now prohibited from contacting.

    In fact, the sinister calculation that was involved in staging this ruse of a contempt of court ruling does provide all the facts necessary to hold the court, itself, in a state of contempt of reason and legitimacy, just for tolerating and supporting these fallacies of justice.

    More State Show Trial Tactics.

  13. @Sebastian Zorn

    The US makes it easier to be an observant Jew than Israel does and this discourages aliya.

    Have you ever tried being an observant Jew in the US?

    Give it a try, see what happens when you have to find (or keep) regular employment.

    In the US, they will simply come up with a good excuse which has nothing to do with religion and go prove it.

    Israel discourages aliyah from the US by demanding a “proof of Judaism”, namely, a letter from an Orthodox rabbi who is not on the Chief Rabbinate secret black list that he knows that both you and your mother are Jewish (both attending his shul?) which discourages 90% of the American Jews but the people who CAN produce this “proof” do not wish to make aliyah to the “non-kosher” state.

  14. Hilarious:

    Segal also asked Shapiro whether he has ever wanted to run for politics and be a candidate for President or Vice President, to which Shapiro replied, “That sounds like hell.”

    “Running for office is a garbage business. You have to ask a bunch of people who you don’t care very much about for large sums of money, in order to run a campaign in which you have to fib about your core positions, and then if you win, you have to hang out in Washington, DC, with politicians. All of this sounds horrifying,” he added, noting he gets to say what he wants for a living and gets paid richly for doing so.

    “I’m 38 right now. I’ll stick with that at least until I’m of the average age of our presidents, so that gives me like seven or eight decades,” quipped Shapiro.

    https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/356868

  15. I misread that it referred to cab drivers but this is true across the board. Non-Shabbat observers can work those shifts and take off time during the week. They just need to ensure there is a balance when hiring. The first part of this post is in moderation so this addendum won’t make sense without it.

  16. @Reader The US makes it easier to be an observant Jew than Israel does and this discourages aliya. Here’s a glaring example:

    “Smotrich noted that the Airports Authority has launched an extensive campaign to immediately recruit employees in various positions to alleviate congestion and improve service. However, he added, “My office has recently received inquiries from traditional Jews whose applications were rejected due to their faith. The authority’s response explicitly states that as part of the work, the employee is required to work shifts on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.”’

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/smotrich-to-transport-minister-relieve-airport-crowding-stop-hiring-ban-on-shabbat-observers/2022/07/19/

    By contrast:

    “an employee needs accommodation of a religious belief that working on his Sabbath is prohibited.
    US Employment Equal Opportunity Commission

    https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should-know-workplace-religious-accommodation

    This policy

    1) Undermines the Jewish character of the state by reducing the potential observant population and ensuring that visitors traveling to from the airport and elsewhere will never see observant Jews in the driver seat of cabs. Drivers are also the face of the Jewish state.

    2) Violates the civil and religious rights of Jews.

    3) Exacerbates the labor shortage while creating fewer opportunities for new olim as driving a cab is a common entry level job for new immigrants. In New York City, they are mostly new immigrants.

    4) Makes it necessary to import foreign guest workers by discouraging the growth of the Jewish working class!

    5) exacerbates Jewish poverty.

  17. @Reader The US makes it easier to be an observant Jew than Israel does and this discourages aliya. Here’s a glaring example:

    “Smotrich noted that the Airports Authority has launched an extensive campaign to immediately recruit employees in various positions to alleviate congestion and improve service. However, he added, “My office has recently received inquiries from traditional Jews whose applications were rejected due to their faith. The authority’s response explicitly states that as part of the work, the employee is required to work shifts on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.”’

    https://www.jewishpress.com/news/israel/religious-secular-in-israel-israel/smotrich-to-transport-minister-relieve-airport-crowding-stop-hiring-ban-on-shabbat-observers/2022/07/19/

    By contrast:

    “an employee needs accommodation of a religious belief that working on his Sabbath is prohibited.

    US Employment Equal Opportunity Commission

    https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/what-you-should-know-workplace-religious-accommodation

  20. Press secretary reveals Biden’s favorite ice cream flavor
    Psaki, who worked in the Obama administration, could not confirm the existence of a freezer full of ice cream in the White House.

    Jan. 2021

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/press-secretary-reveals-bidens-favorite-ice-cream-flavor

    “Uproar Over Netanyahu’s Ice Cream Is Welcome in One Parlor”

    Feb. 2013

    “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands accused of dipping into state coffers for an ice cream budget of $2,700 a year.”

    I guess it depends on which side ylur chocoate is huttered

  23. @Sebastien
    He has exposed a great many things, including the border as you note which is why I think his show is an important outlet for the topics he does cover. Given the suggestion that he is looking to enter the political fray, however, there is a question that really does bite. As a champion of MAGA, why is it that he has failed to place a spotlight on the election fraud. The appearance that is being sold to the masses that no one cares about election reform, supported by the election(read as ‘selection’) of candidates that do not support election reform or election inquiry(see Colorado), is exactly the topic that should be seen as the most pivotal. As local election tallies, which should only increase as votes are counted, are seen to go up and down and not match the state tallies, Tucker is reporting on many topics of note, but not this one, which should be all that anyone is talking about.

    Indeed, the most important issue to MAGA has to remain the election theft, not Ukraine, not the border, not the economy – all important topics and there are many others, but the election theft has to top them all. If MAGA doesn’t have the ability to openly compete with the potential of actually having their candidates elected, as we can see has been clearly demonstrated is the case with the rigged elections in Colorado, Georgia and elsewhere, then the MAGA movement becomes nothing more than an echo-chamber from which the Reps can soak in fundraising from their malcontented supporters. In fact, the election theft is why the Dems hold the Senate and the House and the presidency. The election theft is also the root cause for all the stories that Tucker does cover in detail. Of course while he covers these stories in detail, he continues to ignore the pivotal topic of the election theft, even of those races that are currently being stolen. This does seem to be something of an oddity given the fact that Tucker himself will be faced with the unkind prospect of being selected against with a rigged election should he actually run… that is, of course, unless he is selected to win the rigged election.

  27. @Peloni While Carlson failed to acknowledge election fraud, he has exposed and opposed open borders policies.

  28. @Sebastien

    If that’s all there is, it’s not enough to make a political issue out of neighbors having dinner together.

    That is not all there is, not by a good bit. I really don’t care who someone might dine with. I can’t answer for the moral, political, ideological or legal indiscretions of the people whom I have dined with over the years, and would not hold such trivialities as the standard of guilt on others, though remarkably many will support doing exactly that, crazy as it seems to me.

    The greatest connection with the Bush wing is not thru Bush, but with the Koch brothers. They are big on open borders and opposed everything, nearly, that Trump did during his presidency. They aligned with Soros to oppose Trump in 2020. You can find their positions on any given topic easily enough, but I think Peg Tierney might have covered some of it in her piece I linked earlier. He worked for the Koch’s at their Cato Institute where he was a Senior Fellow advocating their policies. He later founded a media group, Daily Caller, by partnering with a Dick Cheney aid, Neil Patel. Daily caller has received over $500K in support from the Koch’s in the years upto 2015, but in 2016, the Koch’s donated over $900K to DC in that single year, comprising 84% of their revenue. In 2017, they donated just shy of a $1million to them(link). It begins to paint an interesting picture, no?

    He also severely reprimanded a reporter at the Daily Caller for attacking Fox News when they threw hard balls at Trump in the 2016 election debate due to meddling by Murdoch, and threw soft balls at Rubio – Rubio was the Fox pick for that election, but that is another story, but an interesting one. The reporter later quit because of the exchange with Carlson over the rebuke. Fox is run by the Murdoch’s one of whom is a noted close friend with Tucker, and the Murdoch’s are another bunch of open border advocates. They pay Tucker’s salary and allow Tucker to dominate their network with rhetoric that is only heard on Tucker’s show. Recall the pivotal role played on election night 2020 by Fox calling the election early, eerily predicting the election tally quite accurately, despite the fraud involved in that tally, ie their prediction accurately predicted the fraudulent value, 8 days before the fraudulent values were released. None of this is Tucker’s doing, but he is a major part of Fox, a close friend of Murdock’s, a former employee of the Koch’s, a former partner with a Cheney aid, and his major donor during and after the 2016 election was the Koches. That is a great deal more than just dining with the Bush’s which only speaks of his poor taste in social circles or neighbors.

    I don’t care to malign Tucker, falsely, but that is a lot of Rino baggage to bear to my eyes. Still, I only stopped watching his show because I stopped watching Fox after they played their role in triggering the election fraud with the AZ election call, but there are significant questions about his Rino connections, IMO, which he claims were only changed due to Trump’s advocacy in 2016. Whereas this has been true for many people, I wouldn’t support these cross-overs for high political office over the candidate that drew them to cross over and I would question why they would challenge the fellow who drew them to cross-over.

    Indeed, the fact that he is claiming there is no real candidate for 2024 and that he is entering that race, does present to me the greatest support to disbelieve his sincerity on this subject, and gives the Rino baggage he carries much more weight as a consequence. But again, that is just me.

  29. Sebastien

    Then why has he devoted so much airtime to Hunter Biden’s laptop and influence peddling to America’s enemies.

    It is a fair question. The honest answer is I do not know.

    Relationships mature over time, and not always for the better, so perhaps this is the reason. In business you form friendships with colleagues, but when it comes down to it, business is business and the best friendships are sometimes the casualties of choices made in business, so perhaps the answer to your question lies here. And then again, there is the favorite response of most MAGA proponents which is thrown about with greater generosity than alcohol at an irish wake, namely that he is controlled opposition, setup to appear as a MAGA proponent so to position him with an impeachable front from which to deal a lethal blow at the appropriate time.

    I know this latter point was the opinion of Laura, our former acquaintance who parted our company here on Israpundit a few months ago due to her objections over the open debate on Russia vs Ukraine. She was very outspoken on Tucker’s real motive when he ripped apart Ted Cruz about six months ago. I was well aware of the objections regarding Tucker, and there are more sources for these objections than those I shared, with the authors all claiming to have broken the story over the past year. In any event, as I told Laura during the Cruz escapade, I couldn’t care less what Tucker really thinks or who his real friends are, as he is a commentator reporting a story with a commentary that I find reasonable, relevant and with an entertaining manner. When he moves into being the candidate rather than talking about the candidate, it demands answers to questions which really were irrelevant to the facts he had been relating as a commentator.

    Hence, as a commentator, I believe Tucker is top notch, but as a political candidate, he has a great deal of baggage which really requires him to answer exactly the type of questions you raised here.

  30. @Peloni

    SPOTTED: GEORGE W. BUSH and TUCKER CARLSON having dinner at the private home of a neighbor on the exclusive Gasparilla Island, Fla., where they both have homes.

    https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2021/01/19/the-washington-trump-leaves-behind-491443

    If that’s all there is, it’s not enough to make a political issue out of neighbors having dinner together. Remember when prominent Dems and Republicans even got married despite differences?

    and remember this?:

    “When Hillary Clinton was secretary of state, she relied on Henry A. Kissinger’s counsel. He would send her “astute observations about foreign leaders” and “written reports on his travels.” She would joke with him that smartphones would have made his covert Cold War trip to Beijing impossible.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/02/12/hillary-clintons-ties-to-henry-kissinger-come-back-to-haunt-her/

  31. @Peloni

    He is also a friend of Hunter Biden,

    Then why has he devoted so much airtime to Hunter Biden’s laptop and influence peddling to America’s enemies.

    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-hunter-biden-business-dealings-china-joe-biden

    “…Whatever helps the Chinese government, Joe Biden has dutifully done. Whatever hurts America’s most important strategic interests, he has also done. But why is he done this? How did the Chinese government wind up with so much control over the United States president, over Joe Biden’s behavior?

    ‘We’ve been mulling that for more than a year and that’s why since October of 2020, we have been on the Hunter Biden laptop story because that seems like the key to this question: how the Chinese government got so much control over Joe Biden. Now the tech companies have tried to censor that story at every turn. They’re doing so again tonight and it’s not surprising why. They’re beholden to China as well, but we’ve continued to pull those threads; so has the Daily Mail….”

  32. @Sebastien
    Yes, Tucker is a great commentator, he is very direct, and doesn’t pull his punches and has a unique sense of humor that is all his own. That being stated, he is a known pal of the Bush wing of the GOP, and the Koch brothers more specifically – the truest never-Trumpers. He is also a friend of Hunter Biden, even having been contacted by Hunter to help squash a story in which Hunter claimed to be falsely attributed to him in late 2015, which was during the 2016 political season. Hunter also wrote a letter on behalf of Tucker’s son to help him in his attempts to be accepted to Georgetown Univ. in 2014.

    Peg Tierney wrote today and revisited Tucker’s Koch connection – wow, she really hates Tucker, like the plague:
    https://www.tierneyrealnewsnetwork.com/post/tierney-s-real-news-7-18-22

    Here is an article about Tucker that Tore Maras, the Kracken whistleblower, wrote some time back:
    https://toresays.com/2021/05/24/exclusive-dear-tucker-dont-be-ashamed-own-it/

    In any event, I think Tucker can do some damage to the party if he runs, particularly if he goes Libertarian, but he is not the MAGA advocate that he is perceived to be, IMO. I still like him for his witty commentaries and his brutal reporting style, but he is who he is, and I very much count him among the open border lot of Rinos despite the stories he covers and the truths he exposes, including those on his buddy Hunter Biden. Just my own opinion, though.

  33. @Peloni What a waste. Even if he had a chance of being anything but a spoiler candidate, he could never play as valuable a role in politics as he does as a journalist.

  44. THEY ALL LIED AND WE HAVE PROOF! Highly Sensitive DOJ Jan 6. Documents Leaked to The Gateway Pundit – FBI Confidential Human Source INFILTRATED Proud Boys, Ran FBI Operation on J-6, Reported They Were INNOCENT! — See Texts and Documents IN FULL!!

    As a related aside, there is a bit of a war among the Patriots (actually there are a great many wars among the patriots, not to digress) over whether Chris Wray, head of the FBI, is a member of the Deep State or if he is a White Hat (good guy).

  45. @SEB=

    I was inoculated against Phuns many years ago so am immune. I read and appreciate it, but rarely indulge. You are pretty good at it. Indications of an agile mind. (like Groucho)

  46. @Edgar

    You should have caught the “phunny” also, since you were in a (manic)…

    Get yourself back into a “manic” state (used to be called, creative or stream of consciousness now it’s all dismissed as Dad jokes) so you can explain the humor of “phunny”. Oh, You meant “punny”. Got it. The h threw me.

    By the way, I just watched a couple of James Bond films. On YouTube, there’s several compilations of Witticisms from the films. A couple are entitled, “License to Pun.” That’s why these films have endured.

  50. @SEBASTIEN-

    You should have caught the “phunny” also, since you were in a (manic) punning mood. That stuff slows you down.

    1